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kimberlysteeleEach Ogham letter corresponds to a particular tree. Because the Ogham are a Celtic system, the trees of Northern Europe are commonly assigned to the 25 letters of the Ogham alphabet. After I began working with the Ogham, it quickly became apparent to me that I had to choose a set of trees and plants from my own particular area and ecosystem which happens to be the Great Lakes Midwest. I did not change all of the trees: for instance, Birch and Oak are as common in the Old Country as they are over here in the US, so Birch and Oak are exactly the same. I would recommend that anyone who learns Ogham go about the slow, meditative process of choosing your own trees and plants to assign to the Ogham letters.
Anyone who follows my readings knows the Ogham have plenty of personality, in fact, they seem to have a personality of their own that is completely separate from me. The Ogham decided they wanted to provide some life hacks for 2025 to the few willing to take their advice. Here is a small portion of their counseling, which if nothing else, should be your motivation to get outside this year in order to personally get to know some trees.
BEITH. Birch, Intention. Meditation: A pale birch stand on a riverbank. In the background is a sky stained pink with the sunrise.
This is your year to take some things off your plate so you can focus on the best and brightest aspects of your life. You cannot have it all and no sane person wants it all. For instance, if you have a casual friend or acquaintance and the relationship is not healthy, let it fall away, undramatically if possible. Hobbies that were always more aspirational than realistic need to go. Let things go so your present and future can truly shine.
LUIS. Maple, Protection Meditation: The shelter of a 200 year old maple tree arching over a field on a sunlit afternoon.
Taking an angel’s eye view of your own life: How can you acknowledge the negatives and sequester them? Once you’ve done that, how can you encourage yourself to build upon the best parts of your nature and your own good deeds?
NUIN. Gingko biloba, Communication. Meditation: a knowledgeable person gathering soft leaves for medicine while everyone else walks by, utterly clueless
Gingko is a strange tree: it is the only one of its kind, a strange survivor of the Permian extinction (the event killed off the dinosaurs) that has been pretty much the same since then. I consider it to be the autism tree, because to me it symbolizes the upsides of autism: attention to detail, unwavering obsession with a task until it is done right. It is also the tree of memes. Memes are created in that borderland between mental plane mastery and emotional sway. What memes will you make this year? Have you seen any of your memes spread mass influence, whether you wanted them to do this or not?
FEARN. Mulberry, Bridge. Meditation: A sheltered grove where cardinals, sparrows, chickadees, and goldfinches feast on red and black berries.
A so-called garbage tree, yet it should be revered as holy for its medicine and food value. It is all too easy to view the precious and the good in the negative and nihilistic worldview that is the curse of our era. The way forward is to work with what you have and recognize it for its value instead of going the accursed route of dismissal and ignorance.
SAILLE. Willow, Sensitivity. Meditation: A willow gently swaying, the moon visible above as owls stalk their prey through tall grass.
Willows are trees of great flexibility. Flexibility is their power. It is all too easy to exist in a state of spiritual leprosy, where your emotions are constantly bombarded and battered, but you haven’t the training to discern what has happened. Take up the Sphere of Protection or another daily magical banishing ritual. Listen when you pray instead of just making wishes. Your mind should be open, but not so open your brain falls out.
HUATH. American Sycamore, Obstacles. Meditation: A tree the size of a small skyscraper that grows in the middle of an old battlefield, the battle itself long-forgotten.
Just as it is considered a good way of hexing yourself to cut down a hawthorn tree, Native Americans said the same of cutting down sycamores. Don’t do it unless it is literally life or death. Pick your battles, always taking the approach of avoiding them if possible. Focus on your own strength, not tearing down the strength of others. If they do come to you with a fight, your amassed strength will make them sorry they backed you into a corner.
DUIR. Oak, Gifts. Meditation: The comforting power of the young oak tree. When you are gone, it will still stand tall and watch over the house where you once lived.
Isn’t it strange that the most generous people never truly lack for anything? Make this your year to observe how the parsimonious who hog niceties and privileges for themselves while worrying about every penny they spend are miserable in the same way drug addicts are miserable, obsessed with money and possessions as if they were alcohol or heroin. The ones who consistently give from the goodness of their hearts always have enough, even if they are as poor as church mice. It’s almost as if the divine were taking care of the latter and ignoring the former…
TINNE. Eastern Cedar, Defense. Meditation: A strange little woman digging up an evergreen seedling from where it has sprouted up in the corner of an industrial building while apparently talking to herself.
The prickly, fragrant, evergreen branches of the American false cedar grace many roadsides, yards, and forest preserves. You can find it growing everywhere here because it is hearty, tough, and fast growing. Where in your life can you apply the saying “Perfect is the enemy of done” for a humble yet thriving future? Embrace the humble, both inside and outside of yourself.
COLL. Burr Oak, Wisdom. Meditation: Deep in the forest, he is the king of trees, with a magnificent canopy of branches.
Every day, every moment, is an opportunity to choose who you are going to be via your actions and words. If what you are about to say does not help you or anyone else, if it is passive-aggressive, lazy, or just not all that well thought out, omit it like a ruthless editor. If you’d like to be thought of as smart, this is the surefire way.
QUERT. Apple, Delight. Meditation: The sensory glory of a well-tended apple orchard in autumn.
The world would not end if its little pleasures disappeared. Desserts, neighbors who say hello with genuine care, bouquets of flowers for the deceased, and mints on the pillow of a hotel room are not make or break where survival is concerned. Yet life would suck much more if it was not for the small delights. There is a reason why Athens outlived Sparta: Athenians knew how to have fun. This year, how can you show gratitude for the little things that make life sweeter?
MUIN. Tomato, Harvest. Meditation: The taste of a backyard tomato compared to its grocery store counterpart.
This is your year to ground it out and connect with the dirt that made you. You are nature and nature is you; you were never outside it. If you are alone, take the earbuds out and listen to your surroundings, even if those surroundings are what other people define as boring. Don’t park the car in the closest spot to the store. Don’t freak out if your kid runs around outside without his jacket. Gen X survived much worse.
GORT. Bindweed, Perseverance. Meditation: a dense mat of weeds emerging from an asphalt crack.
To bring yourself luck this year, clean your toilet every day and thank it for its help. This humble chore has worked wonders for me. I am in a far better financial state than I was when I began cleaning my toilet, and I believe this has more to do with the attitude cleaning one’s own toilet cultivates than the practice itself.
NGETAL. Monarda, Health. Meditation: Pollinators of all kinds drunk on the nectar of bee balm, busily gathering pollen from an endless sea of plants on the blooming prairie.
Take a multivitamin and 15mg-30mg of zinc with every meal. In this age of endemic etheric starvation, a good multi with extra zinc should be the bare minimum in what you do for yourself. Remember moderation in all things, and that means perfectionist teetotaling and avoiding “poison” altogether is just as bad as gorging and bingeing.
STRAIF. Honey Locust, Resilience. Meditation: The evolution of a huge seed pod and thorny trunks for megafauna that no longer exist.
True resilience comes from inside, not by amassing hoards of wealth or obsessing over what has yet to happen. Be willing to simplify and adapt. Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
RUIS. Black Walnut, Regret. Imbalanced regret can wreak havoc on your life either way: too much regret and you wallow in unproductive self-pity. Too little regret and you become an arrogant narcissist. Face your mea culpas with honesty and make a concrete decision not to do that anymore.
AILM. White Pine, Transcendence. Meditation: the isolation-room quiet of a snowy pine grove in the dead of winter.
American culture has a zeal for false transcendence. The worst lie is the one you convince yourself is the truth. Make it your year to be brutally honest with yourself, but don’t be foolish enough to make affirmations such as “I never…” or “I always…” You can admit you have a tendency, and this tendency should be brought into the light and dealt with.
ONN. Trillium, Community. Like you, the people around you — co-workers, friends, people on the road, those waiting on you in stores — are simply doing the best they can in an era of astral sepsis and economic hardship. How can you do unto others, not be too fast to judge, cut them some slack, and give them the benefit of the doubt this year?
UR. Goldenrod, Intimacy. Meditation: Birds chasing each other over a sea of blooming goldenrod.
To maintain and preserve your closest relationships, maintain a commitment to a careful curation of yourself. Yes, you will wear an adaptation — a mask — for each person or group. It will be worn out of love, not hatred. You will limit, edit, and customize everything you say in order for the situation to be as win-win as possible. Yes, only you will know your true secrets, and this is the way it should have always been. Your secrets will always be known between you and your Holy Guardian Angel and that is enough. This is your year to understand those secrets have always been inappropriate for those who are not you.
EADHA. Quaking Aspen, Limits. Meditation: The serene height of the quaking aspen, which seems to laugh in the breeze for joy.
Limits are power. Think about how nature contains itself and how direction of force is what makes that force potent. Master limits and you master more than just matter, you master the Universe. Find where your strengths are and prune away where you are not as strong or as good. Time is an illusion according to the ancient sources, but how we spend it here in Meatworld is the lesson.
IOHO. Yew, Grace. Meditation: A solitary evergreen, molded into a cone shape at the edge of a formal garden.
It takes a great deal of personal development to accept what is not meant for you and sacrifice it with the gods in mind. For me, the offering as of late has been my anger. It’s not so easy to leave judgement up to God. This is your year to figure out how to let go of what is over. Give up the chase of what was never going to be.
PHAGOS. Beech, Gnosis. Meditation: The snarled roots of the beech tree extending as far beneath the ground as the canopy is tall, its bark flaking off like leaves of note paper.
Not all subjects are worth pursuing. Think of your knowledge as a branch on the periphery of a vast tree. Should you let it grow or should you prune it so others may thrive? Plants love a haircut, what directions will you go if you keep it short and sweet? Also, keep in mind that gnosis isn’t just for academic subjects. Gnosis could be in the form of knowing how to work a room. It could be in talking to animals. There are all sorts of ways that branches grow on the great tree.
OÍR. Milkweed, Epiphany. Meditation: The fluffy seeds of milkweed traveling on their silken parachutes to distant locales.
Eureka moments usually aren’t pleasant, but they are always necessary. Face the truth of yourself and your world, then pull out the best parts and amplify them.
MÓR. Sea Change, Big Bluestem. Meditation: A colony of big bluestem fluttering like ocean waves in mid-Autumn.
The collective astral is like the weather: there isn’t much you can do about it. The Sphere of Protection is a raincoat, daily divination is a weather map, and discursive meditation is a field guide, and that is why my Ogham recommend all three!
UILLEAND. Trumpet Vine, Generosity. Meditation: A hummingbird flitting from flower to flower on a huge trumpet vine at the end of summer.
Every generous act from the bottom of your heart will bless your life by the power of seven. Try it and see. When you share your most precious food with someone you love, you’ll never go hungry. When you spend your last dollar on someone who needs it more than you, you will be exactly like Jesus and you will transcend worldly woes just as he did.
KOAD. Grove, Confluence. Meditation: Three trees with intertwining branches, all reaching the sky.
Between the two poles of extremes, there is always a third option of balance. When you look into your future and catastrophe seems to loom or you see the opposite scenario of hitting it big and never having to worry again, imagine a third option where you make the most of what you currently have. What happens when you thank and appreciate everyone around you, including your surroundings and the objects you use? What changes when you sweep your own floor, clean your own toilet, and never allow a good deed to escape without recognition and a hearty thank you?
May your year and all its characters and surroundings be blessed.
Thank you!
Date: 2024-12-28 09:35 pm (UTC)Also, wanted to say thank you for your last reading it was so helpful...I only wrote my thank you in buymeacoffee! booo! sorry!
Have a great rest of the holidays and all the best for the New Year
J
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2024-12-29 03:56 am (UTC)