My necklace was made before I even created my tumblr account. I wear it everyday, yet it never occurred to me that I could share it here.
This is an Ogham/Ogam protection charm I made by stripping a pine branch, carving a flat edge, and burning the word cosaint (Irish for protection/defense) into the wood. It’s created its own finish with the natural oils from my fingers, enhancing the color and shine of the wood.
The Ogham Tract also gives a variety of some 100 "scales" of variant or secret modes of writing ogham (92 in the Book of Ballymote), for example the "shield ogham" (ogam airenach, nr. 73). Even the Younger Futhark are introduced as "Viking ogham" (nrs. 91, 92). Some of these are word lists based on the alphabet, and some seem to involve a numerical system of tallying. Most however, are simply variations on ways of writing the alphabet. They are examined for their significance by Macalister (1937) and by McManus (§7.11, 1991).
The training of the Gaelic poet or file involved learning one hundred and fifty varieties of ogham – fifty in each of the first three years of study, and it is clear that most of these are the varieties given in the Ogham Tract (McManus § 7.13, 1991). Macalister sees them as evidence of ogham's cryptic nature, and as serious examples of how the alphabet was used for secret communication.
Words lists
Enogam/Bird-ogam
Dathogam/Colour-ogam
Ogam tirda/Agricultural ogam:
Ogam Uisceach/Water Ogam
Conogam/Dog Ogham:
Bo-ogam/Cow Ogham:
Danogam/Art-ogam
Miscellaneous alphabets
Macogam/Boy ogam: This is a technique for divining the sex of an unborn child.
Cossogam/Foot-ogam: This describes a way of signing ogham using the fingers against the leg.
Sronogam/Nose-ogam: This is the same as foot-ogam except the nose is used instead of the leg.
Basogam/palm of hand ogam: manus aliam percutit lignorum. i.e. 'palm of hand variously strikes wood'. No other detail is given.
Cend a muine/Head in Bush: This involves writing a letter to stand in for the whole letter name at the beginning of a word when possible e.g., to write simply CLE for certle or 'ball of thread'.
Cend fo muine/Head under bush: This is the opposite of the above, where the letter stands in for the name at the end of a word e.g. MAELR for Maelruis
Cryptic varieties
No. 1 Aradach Fionn/Fionn's Ladder: In this variety each letter has its own vertical stemline. This form of Ogham inspired the theory that Ogham was first invented as a means of musical notation.
No. 11 Runogam na fian/Secret ogam of warriors
No. 14 Ogam Bricrenn /Ogham of Bricrenn. This follows the principle of one dot for B . two dots for L .. three dots for F ... and so on right up to twenty dots for I. A short composition then appears in this rather laborious system. Macalister could make neither head nor tail of it, and declared it to be an ancient fragment of druidic lore. However, Meroney re-examined the verse and found it to be a ditty about a poet bemoaning his poor choice of affordable drink!
No. 17 Ogam adlenfid/Letter Rack Ogham:
No. 19 Crad Cride Ecis/ Anguish of a Poet's Heart:
No. 23 Foraicimib 7 Deachaib/ Extra Groups and Syllables: No. 32 Ogam Dedanach/ Final Ogham
No. 33. Cend ar Nuaill/ Head on Proscription:
No. 35 Ogam Buaidir Foranna/ Ogham of Uproar of Anger:
No. 40 Brec Mor/ Great Dotting:
No. 51 Ogam Dedad/Ogham of Dedu:
No. 63 Ogam Erimon/Ogham of Erimon:
No. 64 Ogam Snaithi Snimach/ Ogham of Interwoven Thread
No. 66 Nathair fria Fraech/ Snake through Heather:
No. 73 Ogam Airenach/ Shield Ogham:
No. 74 Rothogam Roigni Roscadhaig/Wheel Ogham of Roigne Roscadach:
No. 75 Fege Find/Fionn's Window:
No. 76 Traig Sruth Ferchertne/Strand Stream of Ferchertne:
No. 83 Traig Sruth Ferchertne /Strand Stream of Ferchertne:
For anyone who's interested in how the Og(h)am script works, the history and language of it, the team at the O(g)ham project have made a really high quality video featuring a breakdown of it and some of the techniques that some of the best in the field are using to study it.
Hi! I’m a witch trying to recover my irish identity, and I have been so drawn to ogham, and after reading your masterpost on it, I still have a couple questions if that’s ok.
1: in your opinion is it better to use ogham as runes/staves or almost as a sigil?
2: using ogham in spellwork; divination vs embedding power/energy (this is a lot like the first one tbh)
3: thoughts on writing in ogham?
4: any other resources you would recommend for quality education on the history, usage, and meaning of ogham?
I know a lot of this is basic, but my current understanding of ogham is very basic and minimal so I really do appreciate your thoughts and your masterpost! Thank you so much for your time and energy!
No worries! I love to help whenever I can!
1 - I use them, generally, as an Irish equivalent to Runes. This potential isn't the most accurate way to think about them, but honestly we have no solid evidence for their magical historical use either way so its basically up to each practioner to do what feels right for them and I've never really worked with sigils but I do work with Runes.
2 - I use them almost exclusively as divination tools, but again this is completely a personal choice. From the information we have about their uses in the myths its actually, I think, a little more likely that they were used as vehicles for specific energy manipulation when used in a magical capacity, but I have no great skill in that department personally, so I stick with what I know.
3 - OH BOY DO I HAVE THOUGHTS! So obviously we have clear and strong evidence that Ogam was used for general writting purposes. So using the Ogam to write a word or small message is a completely legitimate use. HOWEVER, Ogam are designed and used to represent specific sounds and these sounds were used in IRISH (most specific early and middle Irish) so trying to use Ogam to write something in English is idiotic at best and approprative at worse (I feel the same way about folks writting with Runes 🤦♀️)
4 - the best resources I've found are 'Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom' by Erynn Rowan Laurie and 'A Guide to Ogam Divination' by Marissa Hegarty but getting both would be a bit redundant (There is a VERY limited amount of information out there on Ogam so unless you break the mold and have your own theories on certain feda you pretty much see the same things said over and over). If you happen to find both and aren't sure which one would be better I will say that ERLs layout is more user friendly but she adds some very non-Irish/celtic ideas to her meanings while Hegarty sticks very much to Irish/Scottish information but tends to be a very dense read.
