Kimberly Steele

Each 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.  

Northern Illinois Prairie Ogham

1. Beith, Beginnings. This was Birch and stays Birch, but instead of Betula Alba or silver birch I have changed it to the North American native birch Betula papyrifera or Paper Birch. They are called paper birch because the bark at the trunk peels off like paper. This is a tree that I saw a great deal growing up, usually in front yards. It's not so popular these days but it is still around.

2. Luis, Protection. This was Rowan in the old system. I have changed it to Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) because of my many relationships with maple trees and the commonness of the tree in the Chicago area. I have two older maples on my parkway as well as one of their saplings in my front yard -- I pull up hundreds of maple saplings every year in my yard. The sugar maple is a glorious tree that can grow to astounding heights. They are beautiful in every way. Their fall color is a glorious gold. They are also a food tree (you tap their trunks for syrup) and I think they'll become much, much more important as food sources in future eras when petroleum isn't cheap and food cannot be shipped from great distances at low cost.

3. Nuin, Communication.  This was Ash in the old system.  I have changed it to the quirky yet graceful Ginkgo biloba.  The Gingko biloba or maidenhair tree is the only living tree in an extinct species of tree called Ginkgophyta.  This species has been around since the Jurassic era (200 million years ago).  Though it is a native tree of China, it is a tree that is widely cultivated in the Midwest.  I think of it as an autistic's tree -- I mean no insult as I am a high-functioning autist -- as it is an oddball among trees for its ancientness, for its smooth, fan-like leaves, and its medicinal properties.  Ginkgo helps improve mental concentration.   

4. Fearn, Guidance.   Though the Black Alder or Alnus glutinosa is considered an invasive non-native in my area, I am not changing it for the moment because it is an important tree for preventing shorelines from eroding (a big problem for anyone near Lake Michigan).  Alder is a colonizer tree that goes where other trees dare not go.  It loves wet, swampy conditions.

5. Saille, Sensitivity.  White Willow or Salix alba.  This is another "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" tree that I grew up with.  It's not native but it is common in my area.  Willows are great for taming bogs and swamps and they are one of nature's greatest medicinal plants.  I take white willow bark most nights to sleep through the night; it is a gentle sleep aid and painkiller.  Willow branches aren't just medicine -- a tea of them can help other plants to root.  Willow is very flexible (hence its attribution to perfect balances of sensitivity in my Ogham system) and one can make all sorts of cool things from baskets to chairs to fences from the branches.  

6. Huath, Barriers.  This was a tough one to decide.  I felt I had to change it because hawthorn trees (the original tree in the "regular" Celtic Ogham) just aren't common around the Chicago area.  I don't even see them in nurseries with any reliability.  So I decided to change it to the Sycamore tree or Platanus occidentalis.  Like the hawthorn, there are myths about sycamores that forbid them from being cut down.  In the case of the sycamore, an old Wyandotte Indian myth warns of a horrible death befalling a settler who dared cut down a sycamore tree.  

7. Duir, Gifts.  Though the White Oak (Quercus alba) is a European import, it is literally Illinois's state tree.  There are huge forests here dominated by white oak.  It is also my favorite tree in the world.  The native oak here is Quercus rubra or red oak.  One can tell the red oak from the white oak by its leaves.  The red oak has sharp-tipped leaves and the white oak has rounded leaves.  As a child, I learned that the tipped leaf was red like the American Indian's arrowhead and the rounded leaf was the shape of the white man's bullets.  

8. Tinne, Defense.  Holly trees and bushes aren't common in my part of the US.  The grassland here gets too hot and dry for them in the summertime.  I have nearly killed a large nursery holly tree in my yard -- pray for that poor guy, please, he needs it.  For this one, I have chosen the equally prickly Eastern cedar, Juniperus virginiana, which is actually not a true cedar but as the name belies a member of the juniper family.  Juniperus virginiana is reliably common in my area and can be seen along roadsides, in forest preserves, and in my yard.  Unlike holly in my area, Eastern cedar tolerates drought, extreme Midwestern cold, and high wind.

9. Coll, Wisdom.  The Red Oak or Quercus rubra, as previously mentioned, is native to the Midwestern US.  It's a bit faster growing than white oak and its acorns provide food for everyone from squirrels to deer to humans.  The oak is my favorite tree.  I also attribute Coll to another native Midwestern oak: the grand Burr Oak or Quercus macrocarpa.

10: Quiert, Delight.  This is the Apple or Crabapple tree of many varieties and hybrids.  I kept this one the same, considering Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman's efforts to propagate the Europe-imported Malus species not far south from here.  The first pie I learned how to make as a child was apple pie.  

11. Muin, Harvest.  For this, I felt compelled to change the vine of this Ogham from grape to tomato.  There is a family of plants that most of the world (especially people who aren't born in the Americas) take completely for granted: Solanaceae or Nightshades.  Solanaceae is a huge family that includes tomatoes, potatoes, and every kind of pepper except black peppercorns.  Imagine Szechwan, Indian, or Thai cuisine without hot peppers.  Italian food without tomatoes.  Imagine Ireland without potatoes.  Yep.  It never happened before the European discovery of the Americas. Nobody ever burned their mouth out on overzealously spicy Indian cuisine before 1500 or so.  All of the Solanaceae plant family is native to South and North America, period, full stop, end of sentence.   
 
12. Gort, Perseverance.  The Hedge Bindweed, an Illinois native, replaces Ivy.  Hedge Bindweed looks a great deal like Morning Glory or Ipomoea because it is also in the huge Convovulaceae family, but its Latin name is Calystegia sepium.  I battle to keep bindweed from throttling the young oak sapling in my yard.  It's a very pretty plant, with delicate, round white flowers and thin, trowel-shaped leaves.  

13. Ngetal, Hygiene.  Broom is the original attribution in the European Ogham.  Broom simply does not grow around here unless you buy it.  Instead of broom, I have chosen the similar looking Goldenrod, Latin name Solidago riddellii.  It is in the same family as sunflowers. Goldenrod is extremely common in the Illinois prairie and grows profusely along roadsides and fields.  Medicinally, it is a potent tonic and was used in Native medicine to cure infections, especially UTIs.  

14. Straif, Inevitability.  The thorny Honey Locust, Gleditsia triacanthos, replaces Blackthorn in this case.  Honey locust is another tree I grew up with.  It is native and so robust that it is considered an invasive species.  It sheds obnoxious black peapod-things every fall and has a distinct odor.  People have an affinity for the tree anyway.  For whatever reason, two of my neighbors growing up had honey locust trees, and one ended up with a bird impaled on its branch for enough time for the bird to completely rot away, right in the front yard in fancy pants suburbia.  They were strange neighbors.

15. Ruis, Regret. The native to Illinois Black Walnut replaces the Elder in this case, despite the fruit not being as easily edible to humans because of the extra hard husk of the nut which is under a thick ball of green fruit.  The black walnut, like the elder, is a formidable tree with legends swirling around it.  Like the elder, it is a tree of great medicinal value.  Black walnut was used by the American Indians for dye and by early settlers to cure parasitic worms and syphilis.

16. Ailm, Transcendence.  Ailm or Elm is another tree I did not have to modify, as the original attribution is either fir or elm.  I choose the Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila) in this case, as the American elm has been sadly devastated by Dutch elm disease and has become uncommon because of it.  Siberian elms are fast growing with tiny leaves that stick to clothes like cat or dog hair.  

17. Onn, Community.  Gorse is also not common in northern Illinois, so I have replaced it with the extremely common Wild Bergamot, also known as Monarda fistulosa or Bee Balm.  Like gorse, Monarda is a happy, tough plant beloved by pollinators.  Also like gorse, it is used medicinally.  Monarda is known as a throat soother and a fever reliever.  

18. Ur, Intimacy.  Heather is not a common plant in the Midwestern prairie, so I have replaced it with Big Bluestem, a native grass that is one of many that populate almost any patch of land that is allowed to be wild.  Big Bluestem is so abundant that it is Illinois's official prairie grass.

19. Eadha, Limits.  The Quaking Aspen stays for this tree designation, as it is a North American native tree and by that virtue not a tree of the ancient Druids in the first place. 

20. Ioho, Grace.  Yew also retains its position in my Prairie Ogham.  Yew is found commonly in cemeteries just as it is across Europe.  It's a hardy nursery evergreen.

21. Koad, Grove.  My particular area in the far western Chicago suburbs is wooded -- when wild spaces take over in the not too distant deindustrial future, they will be as much woods as grasslands.  My micro-niche in Aurora is dominated by maples and oaks.  The white oak is the most common tree in our local woods.  

22. Oír, Epiphany.  The old attribution for this position is the Spindle Tree.  I replace it with milkweed, which is crucial to monarch butterfly populations and native to my area.  

23. Phagos, Teaching. The mighty Beech tree stays put for this spot in the Ogham.  Beeches were once used as paper -- that's how I think beech ended up with this attribution, because Phagos is about immersing oneself in enough knowledge to be able to pass it on.

24. Mór, Change. There is no tree for this one that I know of, so I attribute it to the Typha, otherwise known as Cattail.  The Cattail is a native plant that loves wetlands and watersides.  

25. Uilleand, Generosity.  Uilleand was Honeysuckle, and though honeysuckle are not difficult to find in the Upper Midwest, I have altered it to Trumpet Vine.  Trumpet Vine is a similar plant to honeysuckle -- it's a climber, graciously offering its nectar to pollinators and hummingbirds, and its blooms are a cheery orange-yellow.

 What's the Ogham of your area?  What trees and plants in your area best suit the designations currently allotted to the traditional Celtic Ogham that I based my Ogham upon?