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Hello everyone.
Just a musing on the Gaulish Coligny Calendar. As we approach May Day, according to some interpretations we are in the month of Aedrinios, which could be the “fire” month. This would be interesting seeing as the earth is warming up, the days are much longer and we are leading up to the fire festival. According to this interpretation, Cantlos would be May and thus the month of songs – something that especially people on the Bardic Course may find inspiring. Given that May Day celebrations, the “merry month of May” were traditionally marked with lots of fun, singing and dancing, this does speak to me. I hasten to add that there are different interpretations of this ancient Celtic religious calendar, but this one does make sense.
This year, owing to the pandemic, May Day celebrations won’t really be the same, but I think we should all celebrate in our own way anyway. I know I will.
Bennathow.
/|\This is very interesting, I am currently researching the Celtic tree calender as I said I would and mention has already been made of the Coligny calender. The results for my research so far do not look good for proving Robert Graves was right in his statements, apparently he was quite reckless, it is starting to look as if the Celts may not have had such a calender but I am still trawling through whatever writing I can find. I think the existence of the Coligny calender makes for a much more credible case here. I was wondering exactly how I was going to celebrate Beltane this year, it won’t be the same without meeting people face to face.
Hi there.
There is no recorded ancient Celtic tree calendar, even Ogham didn’t correspond only to trees, and Ogham itself may not be an ancient druid tradition anyway. Having said that, there’s nothing to stop anyone reworking, reinventing and coming up with new ideas either. Some of the Ogham tree work I have read and seen is extremely beautiful and intelligent. Something doesn’t have to be ancient to be valid either, but don’t waste your time looking for something that doesn’t exist.
Bennathow.
/|\Hi David.
I thought you might be interested in this seeing as your doing a lot of calendar work. Let’s take it back to the dawn of the Bronze Age! 😀
https://mythicalireland.com/ancient-sites/knowth-the-calendar-stone/
and Ogham itself may not be an ancient druid tradition anyway.
some uninformed people don’t understand how import the ogham alphabet is to the druids who use tree magic and who
use ogham for divination. Even the battle of the trees is about ogham. These uniformed people just can’t understand the magic
and beauty that is in druidism. Their uniformed minds are made of groups of neurons that are bound together with academic corporate
propaganda. never sparking when magic shimmers, and negativity sticks to them like Velcro.Something doesn’t have to be ancient to be valid either,
Ogma is very ancient and was used by the druids, and the symbols have magic powers, just like the runes. Ogma is also used by the faeries and the otherwolrd.
However, some uniformed people just don’t get the fact that there is an otherworld, And they get their druid ideas from Wikipedia
and little tweeting birds that want their mama because they have fallen out of the nest and don’t know how to use their wings to fly.
These uniformed people just can’t understand creative people, or sore with he egales, and positive druid thought just bounces off there teflon minds.and Ogham itself may not be an ancient druid tradition anyway.
some uninformed people don’t understand how import the ogham alphabet is to the druids who use tree magic and who
use ogham for divination. Even the battle of the trees is about ogham. These uniformed people just can’t understand the magic
and beauty that is in druidism. Their uniformed minds are made of groups of neurons that are bound together with academic corporate
propaganda. never sparking when magic shimmers, and negativity sticks to them like Velcro.Something doesn’t have to be ancient to be valid either,
Ogma is very ancient and was used by the druids, and the symbols have magic powers, just like the runes. Ogma is also used by the faeries and the otherwolrd.
However, some uniformed people just don’t get the fact that there is an otherworld, And they get their druid ideas from Wikipedia
and little tweeting birds that want their mama because they have fallen out of the nest and don’t know how to use their wings to fly.
These uniformed people just can’t understand creative people, or sore with the egales, and positive druid thought just bounces off there teflon minds.The problem with Ogham is that even the Irish texts are not in agreement as to its origin and there is, to my knowledge at least, no unequivocal reference to Ogham in the Welsh materials. Furthermore, the archaeological and linguistic evidence (the correspondences between letters and sounds) points to its being developed within the context of Primitive Irish, around the 4th century CE, so basically on the eve of the Christian period in Ireland and the twilight of Roman Britain. In terms of the history and geographical spread of Celtic-speaking cultures across Europe, Ogham is relatively limited and relatively late. Ogham stones don’t show up in earlier Gaulish, Celtiberian or Galatian contexts – all contexts in which druids and parallels with Insular Celtic culture and myth do; moreover, they don’t even show up in Brittany either.
The Ogham script is commonly called the Tree Alphabet, but in actual fact there are numerous different forms of Ogham, including Saint Ogham, Bird Ogham, Sow Ogham and even River Ogham. The tree interpretations seem to have “taken over” Ogham to the exclusion of a lot of the other material – especially the kennings. Furthermore, not all of the names of the letters in the tree listing even refer to trees anyway, for example, the sixth letter – úath, adding even more confusion. Finally, the idea that Cad Goddeu is about Ogham is largely down to The White Goddess, by Robert Graves, which, despite Graves’s unquestionable poetic talent, is not a text that anyone seriously interested in Celtic culture, myth and legend should rely on at all.
Bennathow.
/|\On the subject of calendars, you may be interested in my contemporary work.
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