Celtic Tree Alphabet Groves in the Pacific Northwest.
By Tom Ward, 5 MARCH 2008; Update July 24, 2013
The two references that influenced this discussion, both published in the twentieth century are The White Goddess by Robert Graves and Taliesin by John Matthews.
In the late 70’s I was familiar with only Graves when my editor, Gwion, asked me to go out into the Pacific Northwest forests and collect the wood twigs of nineteen or twenty of the sacred trees. He wanted to construct the “Boca” (also know as “Ogham”), the collections of bundles of twigs, each bundle rune marked, so that he could toss selected bundles and laying the four twigs out in the shape of the dolmen stones (two or more cap rocks on two pillars) he could read the four or five runes exposed by the toss in sequence as a set of alphabet trees. These recalled the poems or epics of each tree rune as answers to the question held in ceremony and in the choice of twig bundle. One chooses the tree bundle that best represents the question and reads the results from the roll out of the bundle onto the ceremonial cloth.
I was skeptical. “This is not Europe,” I complained. “Get out of here, I gave you an assignment,” he said. So I looked out and by goddess, there were close relatives, if not the same species, right here on the other side of the world. Yes, I did take some liberties by seeing ecological niche equivalents as substitutes, and actually, I found the original species in yards and parks. After all, I knew that the vast majority of plant species now found on the coasts of North America were from Europe. We of that descent also brought with us in the belly of ships with the livestock our very familiar weeds, many of which we know how to use medicinally.
Now, looking at the tree matrixes on record, especially the Irish layers of fines to be paid for damage done to the four ranks (see below) I began to think that maybe there was a set of ecological clues here. Perhaps the ranks represent guilds with fungal glue between their roots in the soil. The groups of trees could represent stages of forest succession.
Then, in the early 80’s, as I was leading plant walks at Country Faire near Eugene, Oregon, I took inventory and found that the flood plain fair grounds for this essential Ecotopian event were blessed with almost the whole compliment. Since then I believe the one or two missing archetypes have been insinuated.
Thus the implication of this adventure is that we never escaped our ancient inspiriting of the landscape by sailing away west. The northern forest is trans-boreal or circum-boreal. We might as well get use to this as HOME. Here we are and there are the clues as to how to live with the forest and how to take care of our medicine and our sources of epic poetry. The language we speak (English) is rooted in these trees. Our poetic metaphors have their origins in alphabet grove lore.
The epic “Battle of the Trees” is one of the fragment sources for relearning the feel of the alphabet carved rune staff. As we re-deepen our language we will have to re-elaborate these myths. Again, we have the woods-lore of utilitarian reputations to guide us. Alder as the tree of Bran the hero who bridged the English Channel is known to resist rot if kept under water (thus good for pilings). The myth follows the practical use. The original fairy tales (before the Christian collectors’ edits) were largely botanical teaching stories with practical knowledge to impute. The medicinal and material uses of plants and trees are hidden in the modern versions of these fragments. We might find it useful to resurrect identification with Nature via a poetic and glorious recapitulation to deep archetypes. That way the children learn to love place and meaning, to re-establish familiar relations with Nature.
So here is my localized vision of who the key trees and shrubs might be and how we can begin to remember their significance.
Natives of Oregon:
Goddess Garry Oak, Oregon Crab Apple, Red Alder, Spoon Willow, River Birch.
Fairy Quaking Aspen, Oregon Ash, Ponderosa Pine, Douglas Haw, Pacific Yew.
Witch Modoc Plum, Mt. Ash, Blue Elder, California Hazel, Oregon Bearberry.
Brownie Lacquer Bush, Fox Grape, Giant Reed, Deer Brush, Greenleaf Manzanita.
(Oregon Bearberry is Mahonia aquifolium and Lacquer Bush is Rhus diversilobum)
British Version:
Chieftan Oak, Apple, Alder, Willow, Birch.
Peasant Aspen, Ash, Pine, Hawthorne, Yew.
Shrub Blackthorn, Rowan, Elder, Hazel, Holly.
Bramble Ivy, Vine, Reed, Furze, Heather.
To make the rune sticks one carves short fat twigs of any one species into either three sided or four sides sticks. One rune is carved in each faces of the four siders and in each edge of the three siders. Thus it would take five four sided sticks to have twenty rune marks and it would take six three sided sticks to have eighteen runes. The alphabets, that we have records of, have various numbers of letters. You will notice that the matrixes above have twenty species listed.
I refer you the texts mentioned at the beginning of this discussion and to The Twenty One Lessons of Merlin by Douglas Monroe for suggested equivalencies between Tarot cards, Celtic gods and goddesses and proposed associated poetry fragments. We as newly arrived settlers have a lot to learn. As we take more and more of these inherited gifts to heart we will find the important characteristics and uses that would give a “sacred tree” its metaphors and references. Recently I read Leonard Shlain, The Alphabet and the Goddess. I am intrigued as to how we may do better with speech, symbols and icons to communicate with rather than the written word (such as this article). Languages that are ecologically based tend to be spoken in phrases and refer to a body of memorized traditional lore. Knowing our place and the symbolic meanings of nature helps us think more clearly. Paul Shepherd in Nature and Madness makes this point well. Our children might best be immersed in nature when 3 to 10 years old.
May the new/old epic re-emerge as we re-indiginate. Greenward, Ho!