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Druidry Druid Druidic Treelore
Glossary Terminology
Ogham
A method of communication for
the Druids and for remembrance of lore, the Ogham characters were written on
wooden staves or inscribed on stones. Ogham consists of twenty five strokes
branching off a central line like the limbs of a tree. Each stroke corresponds
to an alphabetic letter. Although similar in purpose, Ogham, as a powerful
symbolic language, is distinctive from the Nordic Runes.
The Ogham glyph system is
similar to a grove of trees where each tree is a knowledge and power key that
corresponds to certain colors, numbers, human characteristics, stones, stars,
divine qualities, animals, birds, and animals. Like a forest of neural dendrites
recording the memories of knowledge and the wisdom of experience, the Ogham
serves as a connectivity timebridge for storytelling, song, and restoring
balance by honoring the circle of sacred traditions.
Otherworld
Druidic spiritual traditions
included deeply held beliefs in an afterlife, fairy mounds, immortality, magick,
nature spirits, and supernatural and mythical beings and monsters who made their
home in the Otherworld. The boundaries between this world and the Otherworld
were adaptable, fluidic, and malleable. All mortals had the ability or aptitude
to cross over the thresholds between lands and realms and to travel back and
forth between them. During Beltaine and Samhain the boundaries betwixt and
between worlds disappeared for a time, for a spell.
Ovates
The time travellers to the
realms of the ancestors and the starry shores of future isles for information
and inspiration to guide the clan or tribe, the specialty of the Ovates was
Ogham, tree lore. Utilizing plants, herbs and other healing modalities the Ovate
worked with the fires of transmutation, transformation, and regeneration.
The journey of the acorn to
the sapling to the oak tree to the sprouting spring leaves to the autumn falling
gold, intrigued and totally involved the Ovate in the spiral circle dance of
Creation. The Ovate studied the powerful mysteries underlying nature and the
stars to find formulas to restore equilibrium to mind, body, and spirit.
Power of Three (Triplication Theme)
A significant symbolic
pattern or design that recurred often in Druidry influenced Celtic art,
mythology, and religion is the theme of triplication or the power of a group of
three. There were the Three Kindreds (ancestors, fairies, goddesses and gods).
Druidic Storytellers told tales of goddesses and otherworld beings appearing at
critical life passage moments in groups of three.
Triple faced; triple headed
Celtic deities were venerated in various forms with the most popular being the
triplicity of the Mother Goddess energy. Sometimes the three Goddesses depicted
were identical; while, at other times their overall potency was heightened by
showing three different aspects of the maternal role.
Shapeshifting (Metamorphosis)
Many Druidic Celtic tales focus on the ability to shapeshift or to morph or phase from the shape of
a human into that of an animal, bird, or fish for purposes of knowledge,
initiation, training, travel, reconnaissance, or escape.
The Druids of the Celts believed that it was possible to shapeshift back and forth between the human and animal realms of existence. To them the ethers and dimensions were fluidic and malleable. If one could cognize the underlying matrix and reason for being of the hare, then one could become the hare at least for as long as one could hold the focus of "hareness".
Even if one did not want to experience being a
particular animal, acquiring some of the attributes of the animal might be
desirable such as the swiftness of the hare. The magickal transformation of the
caterpillar to the butterfly attests to both the possibility and probability of
the globally linked human being morphing into a cosmically resonant harmonic
Being...
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Read Druidry Treelore Articles
Druids as Celtic Shamans,
Glossary Terminology,
Hallowed Symbols and Holy Ground,
Megaliths and Sacred Mounds,
Ogham Storytelling and Oral Traditions,
Reverence for Natural World Animals and Birds,
Spiritual Beliefs of Druids,
Sacred Wheel of Seasons,
Sun Talismans and Holy Wells,
Threefold Path of Bards Ovates Druids,
Treelore and Sacred Groves
Visit other Beliefs Faiths Religions Traditions
Aboriginal Dreamtime,
Alchemy Alchemist,
Cosmos Astronomy,
Buddhism Buddhist,
Christianity Biblical,
Daoist Confucian,
Druidry Treelore,
Heathenry Ásatrú,
Hinduism Vedas,
Islam Sunnah,
Judaism Talmud,
Native American,
Paganism Wiccan,
Shamanism Shaman,
Shintoism Kami
Druidry Druid Druidic Treelore Copyright
© 2002-2008 Maureen Grace Burns, Blessings Cornucopia. All Rights Reserved.
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