The Celts were a group of people, of Indo-European origin, in the first millennium BC, spread to a large extent the European continent. Characterised from a socio-political structure of tribal, not ever gathered under a central authority, in addition to the various tribes shared the origins of language, and most of the body of religious, magical and spiritual. In those days Europe was covered by dense forests that stretch uninterrupted for hundreds of miles, even if one already developed and thriving agriculture, forests still meet most of the vital human needs, providing shelter, food, energy, building materials and medicines. The Celts lived, on the basis of their religious beliefs, and driven by the need to preserve this wealth of resources, a very close relationship, intimate and harmonious with nature, especially with the world of trees. These were in fact a central role in Celtic spirituality, were made sacred, made in totemic symbol in each village, without support of symbolism and mystical and magical associations. The keys to interpret the correspondence between the supernatural and nature, as well as knowledge of the symbolic value of individual trees, and their magical and spiritual significance, they were owned only by priests, called Druids in Ireland and Gaul. They, as well as priests who were also philosophers, scientists, judges, soothsayers, magicians, poets and musicians, also thoroughly familiar with the energy fields of various plant species, their medicinal properties and the power of their wood. Theirs was a kind of esoteric knowledge, kept strictly secret and transmitted only orally, and acquired after a long initiation course (lasting from twelve to twenty years). The Druids used a script written, secret or known only to initiates called Ogham . The first written about this language brings us back to Ireland from the fifth century AD, but it is very likely that its origin was older, and that it was common elsewhere. L ' Ogham consists of twenty letters, fifteen consonants and five vowels (according to other versions were eighteen letters, including thirteen consonants and five vowels). Each letter is associated with a graphic symbol, a tree, and one month of the year, why it is also known as the Calendar of the Trees, and called Beth Luis Nion, from the Gaelic names of tree species in the first three months of the year. The weather was marked by the phases of the moon, and then schedule included thirteen months of twenty-eight days, the remaining seven letters characterized few days of special symbolic value (equinoxes and solstices, December 23, and occurrence of Samhain, which fell on November 1 ). The letter symbols were similar to the Runic characters, and were sometimes engraved on tablets of stone or rate. There were also several other forms of Ogham , associating letters to the deities, colors, birds, body parts and hundreds of other categories. In this sense in ' Ogham was surrounded by a sort of compendium of universal knowledge, and as such became a mnemonic technique for learning initiation. The entire Celtic world is wrapped in a thick fog of mystery, made even more dense and impenetrable by the lack of any written tradition and the esoteric wisdom. So we know almost nothing about the symbolism of the objects in question, and the extent of their magical and spiritual associations. Even the use of ' Ogham we have only hypotheses, often mixed. It was certainly a coded language used by the Druids to communicate with each other without being understood by the rest of the population, was also common to exchange messages in the form of long threads on which the interleaved sheets of different kinds, according to their alphabetical correspondence. It was probably a system used to open the doors of the afterlife, and to enter into communication with the spirit world in order to receive knowledge that could benefit the lives of the tribe is believed then that he had a sacred use and Memorial, as well as magic and ritual. Tablets engraved with the letters were dropped and "read" to predict the future.
The Calendar of the Trees below is derived from research and studies by Robert Graves, published in 1946 work "The White Goddess."
| LETTER | TREE | month or day | |
| | Gaelic Name | Italian name | |
| | | | |
| B | Beth | Birch | December 24-January 20 |
| L | Luis | rowan | January 21 to February 17 |
| N | Nion | Ash | -February 18 March 17 |
| O | Onn | Gorse | Spring Equinox |
| F | Fearn | Alder | March 18-April 14 |
| S | Saille | Salice | April 15 to May 12 |
| H | Huath | Hawthorn | May 13-June 9 |
| D | Duir | Oak | June 10 to July 7 |
| U | Ura | Erica | Summer Solstice |
| T | Tinne | Holly | July 8 to August 4 |
| C | Coll | Stone | August 5 to September 1 |
| Q | Querto | Melo | September 2 to September 29 |
| E | Eadha | White Poplar | Fall Equinox |
| G | Gort | Ivy | September 30 to October 27 |
| Ng | Ngetal | Ginestra | October 28 to November 24 |
| Ss | Straif | Blackthorn | November 1 (Samhain) |
| R | Ruis | Elder | November 25 to December 22 |
| I | Idho | Rate | Winter Solstice |
| A | Ailm | Spruce | December 23 |
| Ph | Phagos | Beech | All year |
0 comments:
Post a Comment