taught by Searles O'Dubhain
In February 2000, Searles O'Dubhain taught an eight-week online course in Ogham Divination at the Summerlands — the first major Celtic Pagan online community, which O'Dubhain founded. One of his students, attending under the login "MacDagda," was Isaac Bonewits: founder of Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF), the most influential modern Druidic organization, and arguably the most important figure in the revival of Druidry in the twentieth century.
This is the complete IRC chat transcript of Class #1. The class covers what Ogham divination is and is not, the origins of Ogham as a memory art and divine alphabet, the stone language of the Brú na Bóinne, the nine Dúile elements connecting person to cosmos, and the structure of the Ogham aicme families. Isaac Bonewits appears midway through as "MacDagda," asking characteristically precise questions about linguistic structure, cultural parallels, and the relationship between Gimbutas's "Language of the Goddess" and O'Dubhain's framework.
O'Dubhain posted this transcript to alt.religion.druid in August 2010 — the week after Isaac Bonewits died — to document their teacher-student relationship and honor his friend's memory. It stands as both a historical document of early online Pagan community and a substantive introduction to one practitioner's approach to the Ogham.
Class #1 Transcript
February 16, 2000. Logged by Deborah O'Dubhain.
<Searles> I see that most of the folks that had a few questions are here.
<Searles> We'll talk informally for a few minutes as 1st timers straggle into the room.
<Teacup> Searles, just make sure you have a clear escape route...
<Branfionn> Informally, I am so delighted to be here with all of you and to begin this study. Thank you Searles (and all)!
<Searles> My pleasure. I'm thinking that the class will be an excellent learning opportunity for all of us.
<Daibh> Looking forward to it! I've got the Runes down pretty well, but I'd rather get a handle on the Ogham.
<Searles> You'll notice that I miss a space every now and then while typing. I'll be editing these in the transcripts that will be posted to the class message board.
<Daibh> BTW Searles your text is great! Looking forward to seeing same in book format!
<Searles> I'll also be spell checking any typos (mostly my own).
<Wade> I'm nervous without my spell checker :-)
<Daibh> Nervous, hell I'm petrified without one!
<Searles> We are still editing typos and polishing places that are awkward or not clearly expressed. I think the perfect bound version of the book should be available at Bealtaine.
<Branfionn> All creative people typo (Branfionn theory #4)
<TopazOwl> Indeed. And we all read fluent typo. :-)
<Branfionn> I'm going to tell the local pagans about your book!
<Searles> I know some of you understand my dialect of it pretty well. I think that our mistakes are sometimes our best teachers and at other times I see them as creative adventures.
<Jehana> creative adventures, yes.
<Branfionn> and we are the Adventurers!
<Wade> I've written scathing rebuttals based on typos...
<Daibh> Typos the wonderful invention of this error...oops era.
<Branfionn> usta be called Freudians
<BlueDreams> <<<getting complex!
<Deborah> did everybody get a chance to read up on how to do this on the message board?
<Deborah> are we ready to rock and roll
<Daibh> ? to question, ! to comment, and ... to continue a statement.
<Deborah> and GA to 'go ahead'
<Searles> we'll stick with our rules of IRC as posted on the message board. I feel this allows the class to be more interactive. If it gets too confusing then we'll go to a moderated format here in the room (but I really don't like how that slows things down). I'll be logging the chat as I expect Deborah is also logging so we won't miss anything if either of us gets bumped. My keyboard also loves to repeat letters especially ssssss and iiii. :-)
<Deborah> Going into Formal CO Rules
<Searles> Let me Welcome you to The Summerlands Ogham Divination class. We'll try to use these class sessions for discussion more than anything else. I like to split it up into equal parts presentation and dialogue and use the message boards for detailed discussion. That way I get a chance to think a bit before answering :-) I also get to use my spell-checker a bit as well to the benefit of all.
The course will run for eight weeks. It will consist of eight IRC sessions dedicated to the class materials and it will also have additional materials provided via the website and message board for the course. The three additional parts of the book will be provided as PDF files and maybe zipped files for download by the students. At the end of the course, or shortly after that, a hard copy of the book will be made available for purchase.
Homework assignments are due in before the next class. I prefer them to be done in time to have some individual discussion with each student about them via e-mail. I normally start a few minutes after the hour and continue until folks run me off :-)
<Deborah> But we're trying to get to where we 'start on time' aka 9PM sharp <G> <subtle hint!>
<Searles> So, what exactly is Ogham divination? Let me start by saying what it isn't. Ogham Divination is not something that is going to give you an ability that you don't already have. It's not a magically charged bunch of symbols that are going to empower your own magic.
(Searles thinks "Your Own Magic" might be a good title for a book :-)
Ogham divination is also not something that I can make you develop. What it is is an ability that you can develop for yourself by hard work. The study of Ogham was one of the first activities of the students of Druids and Poets in olden days. The reasons for this are twofold. The first reason is that the Ogham were the basis of the memory techniques of the Druids and they were also used to focus and construct the magical actions of chant and spellwork. We will consider those uses in this course as we go along. Ogham are sometimes equated to being keys to doors of knowledge. Each of the symbols will open a door for you to worlds of meaning. This only occurs after much study. This study is tied to the tales of heroes and wizards as well as queens and kings. It is my hope that you will each tie the tales to the Ogham yourselves. I also hope that events in your own lives will begin to become more interconnected through Ogham as you learn and study about them.
The word "Ogham" has no known meaning. To find a meaning for it one must journey into realms of meaning in a kind of pathworking. Each person can find their own meaning in this way. The father and mother of Ogham are sometimes said to be Sound and Form. At other times they are the hand and the knife of its inventor. That is to say that Ogham are named for Ogma the Irish Celtic god of eloquence.
<Branfionn> ?
<Deborah> Branfionn GA
<Branfionn> How would you, phonetically, say Ogham? GA
<Searles> I'd say it "OH-am." Even if it were spelled as "Ogam" I'd still pronounce it that way. This is because in Irish the "h" softens the letters around it and mutates the way that most of them are pronounced. In fact, in the "Scholar's Primer:" also known as Auraicept na n-Éces, the powers of the letters to affect one another are explained.
This might be one of the inherent powers of Ogham in that it is a fundamental language and alphabet, that is based on primal sounds. It is not a conglomeration of languages as English is. English that is — or Bearla as the Irish call it. My own meaning of the word Ogham is that it is a division of sound and time. This is what its two components mean... though they could also mean primal time or divisions of time.
To me Ogham is the "Druid's Egg." This is how primal creation came forth from a sound or a word and why knowing a true name has power over something. Knowing its truth... what called it or him/her into being is a function of how sound is constructed in a name.
Now as to divination — that is an easier word to define. (after all it's in my dictionary.) Divination is synonymous with augury and foretelling. I'd like to say also that divination is divine knowledge. It is literally knowledge that we get from the gods.
That being said, we should endeavor to empower our own Ogham woods or fedha with power. Where do we get this power to do this empowering? I've already said that the Ogham are powerless on their own. They are only keys. The power for the Ogham comes from within each of you. Divination is divine knowledge that you hear with your own spirit.
One of the things to be addressed and learned in the course is to listen to your inner self and spirit. It is within this spirit that you will make the connection through the Ogham to the gods... to divine knowledge.
The Ogham keys will be used to open the doorways to your gods and the rivers of spirit that flow from their sacred wells. It is in this connection of spirit to spirit that we will separate creation with Ogham letters in strokes of awareness that creates names of power and chants that have a true music all their own.
How we perceive is a fundamental ability that must be understood to see why symbols have a power. That is one reason why this class's homework is about looking at symbols carved on stones about 5000 years ago. Understanding the stone language is a form of perception that many of us haven't used in a long time.
The builders of the brúghs on the Boyne River tried to speak directly from their inner spirit to the world through the carved stones that are found there. In a way, these stones are an ancient ink blot system.
Some of them appear to be a way of charting the movements of the Sun and the Moon, while others of them are depictions of the Moon itself. At Knowth there is a carving that forms an almost perfect overlay for areas of the Moon. The usage of these sites is related to the Sun and the Moon and the Stars — all fundamental parts of existence as understood by the ancient astronomers and users of the sites.
The Celts developed mythologies for these sites paralleling their astronomical functions. It is in these myths and the stone language that we can see the voice of deity that became astrology and then the science of astronomy. The stones also attempt to divide time itself. The relationship of the dividing lines of time in the long ago past were first indicated on tally sticks. These were used for counting and also for recording the seasons.
As you look at the homework images, you will see some of these tally stick types of markings. One of the origins of the Ogham is thought to be in this tally stick usage. Many times scholars say that the Ogham marks on wood was a cumbersome way of recording information that would not have been practical. I note that tally sticks are recorded and found as being over 22,000 years of age. They were used in wooden rods form as recently as the 18th century in Britain to keep books.
In fact, when the books were converted to paper, they burned these tally sticks in public fires to destroy them. These actions echo a report of such fires in Ireland during the early days of Christianity there. Aside from the fact that wood rots, I think that such willful destruction accounts for a lack of wooden Ogham fedha being found in Ireland today. What has survived was carved on stones, metal, bone and jewels.
Now back to perception, which I seem to have blurred in my tangent :-) How do we perceive? What is the mechanism? How do we know that we exist within reality? Indeed, how do we know that the gods exist or that their voices may be heard? The well of wisdom known as Segais had five streams flowing from it. What are these five streams? Beings have been constructed from ninefold elements. What are these nine elements?
(Searles wonders if anyone has the answers to these questions.)
<Daibh> looking
<aine> give us a hint
<Searles> How do we participate in this class?
<RowanF> The five streams are our senses
<Wade> the nine elements are the duile
<TopazOwl> The five streams are the Senses.
<Daibh> Essentially
<Searles> Well... my hint is this... listen, see, touch, feel, taste, hear, look, smell, speak and think. Then you'll discover the answers.
<Rowan_Witc> The nine elements: bones, flesh, hair, blood, breath, mind, brain, face and head
<Daibh> Bones..Body..Hair..Blood
<Searles> That's right. We perceive through these interfaces between the world and our minds. In a way, the senses are extensions of our minds into the world. Sometimes we add to the world through these senses and mostly we are affected by them. The sensory inputs give us information but it is the mind that integrates this information into knowledge. If the mind can transform information into knowledge, what transforms knowledge into wisdom?
<Branfionn> !
<Searles> ga Branfionn
<Branfionn> It is a strong feeling I have that we are one with the world (and each other) but have forgotten that which leads to some of the pains and problems we now see — reflected in the making of places — Mothers and Fathers and Kin... GA
<Searles> Are you saying that in some way we are all connected? ga
<Branfionn> I am saying that in essence we are connected. In details we might vary but Life is really like the World tree — nothing separated... GA
<Searles> I agree with you BTW and your remarks are central to the point I'm trying to make. That point is that the discrete inputs of the senses and our perceptions of the world are integrated into an inner reality by our minds and our spirits. Our reasoning ability serves to separate or measure this connection but our true mind is a flowing like a goddess river. It connects us one to another.
<Daibh> ?
<Searles> ga Daibh
<Daibh> Thus the senses combined with the elements transform us, or lift us to the plane in which divination is more of a sensory perception? In a sense. NPI GA
<Searles> In a way, when we become really physically and personally close to a person... the senses of one become the senses of the other.
<Daibh> Ah ok that works, the one becomes part of the whole. GA
<Searles> The most intense form of this among humans is usually found in sexual acts and relationships, though deep friendships seem to also develop a pure empathy and a deeper awareness of one another.
If we were all physically the same then we would be perhaps like twins having an almost physical (though psychic) link. Lovers sometimes have this link, but I think that their link is a case of the mind destroying the barriers of separation rather than an actual physical similarity.
Information becomes knowledge as we interpret the readings of our senses into a whole. Knowledge becomes wisdom as it uplifts us into realms of spirit. Spirit is the connection between spirits, beings and deities.
In our study of the Ogham we must come to know each symbol as if it were a sense. We must see it as a way of channeling spirit into and through the world. In a way the elements of the Ogham are like the speech of tree leaves. These sounds are subtle yet are natural rhythms that we cannot hear fully with our ears alone. The Ogham can become an extension of our awareness as we learn what they mean and how they connect the information of the world to the mind.
The Ogham are symbols that have been selected to be primal forms of communication and also to be mathematically related to one another as the members of a family might be related. They are interlinked through a series of parent-child relationships as well as fostering one another in a blending of descriptions and sounds. My imagination tells me that we would be hearing humming, chanting sounds as we approached a grove of Druids learning their Ogham. In a way, these Ogham might be rounds or songs that echo inside of our minds while we meditate in our beds or focus upon the stones of recollection that we hold to our chests. The Stones of the Brúghs are flowing symbols of such blendings. In particular, I'm thinking of the entry stone of Brú na Bóinne.
To me it has a series of flowing lines that are spirals, some triple and some double... but above all, it reminds me of a brain made of stone. When I see the stone at the entry to the Brú of the Gods, I see the thoughts and the spirit waves of being forming at the opening. I've included a symbolic picture of how I interpret this stone in the first three chapters of the book.
Parts of it I see as dreams while other parts of it are the music of the seasons. The center line is the navel string of Mac ind Óic, the Young God of Dreams, the new Sun of Life.
<ceathach> Can we come to that by using divination for our personal use
<ceathach> explain parent child relationships
<Searles> In the ways that the Druids presented the Ogham, they were drawn on diagrams that resemble mandalas. On these diagrams, Ogham exist on different levels or circles. Some of the diagrams are square and the Ogham are sequenced around the squares going inward or outwards, right-hand-wise and left-hand-wise.
The tendency of the trees and their Ogham symbols to define sequences in the forests, as well as on these diagrams, links them together in a structured format. Words link the letters and strokes as well. In fact, the very idea that the Ogham are both letters and numerical sequences implies that the seeds of one follows or springs from another. It is this idea of trees, sequences, seeds and inherent relationships or families of symbols that causes me to characterize the Ogham as families.
The Ogham are grouped as such. These groupings are called aicme. Each aicme is named for the unary character that begins it. These are "B" "H" "M" "A" and "EA" in Roman or English notation. Each of these is a single stroke about a line called a dreim except for EA which is formed by two lines (though I see this more as an opening or a point).
The way that an Ogham can be a parent to another Ogham is that each member of an aicme contains the basis of the unary or aicme name within it. All the Ogham of a family have a common underlying theme and also the characteristic of the relationship of its position relative to the center line or dreim.
In a sense the center line connects the different children of the aicme family and it also connects one family to another. Some of the Ogham diagrams are shaped like ladders and hence as one climbs the Ogham ladder one becomes more integrated into the families of existence through symbolic meaning. I personally try my own Ogham sets as children and parents, family members and actual living beings.
<TopazOwl> ?
<Searles> ga Topaz
<TopazOwl> Speaking of climbing ladders.... can you give us that little saying that helps us remember which sides come where? Do you remember the one I mean?
<Searles> I always start to the right.
<TopazOwl> Yes, but there is a little climbing poem or some such thing that helps us remember that.
<Searles> Follow the right-hand path.
<TopazOwl> Oh, no matter, I will have to find it. GA
<ceathach> I'm confused Searles,
<Searles> OK.. Ceathach what is your confusion?
<ceathach> Do you mean the family of the groups of oghams
<Searles> I mean that the Ogham are like a tribe. Each of its members contributes something to the unity of the entire group. Some of the families in the tribe have uniquely identifying characteristics with the entire tribe having an aggregate quality all its own.
<MacDagda> ?
<Searles> ga Mac Dagda
<MacDagda> I've heard the aicme families also indicate linguistic clusters, such as labial, palatal, fricative, or voiced/unvoiced letters. Does that make sense to you?
<Searles> In a grammatical sense that is how they are grouped. Similarly sounding and produced sounds are grouped together.
<MacDagda> So each letter would be related to its corresponding letter in the other families?
<Searles> The first three groups are consonants and the last two groups are vowels. The letters within families are related by classification. The letters of different groups are related by the degree to which they shape the group. That is a linguistic way of viewing them. The Ogham are also linked esoterically by their nature and characteristics into groups and families.
<MacDagda> So as the seed of each grows, it goes through a similar pattern of growth as that of the other seeds in the other groups?
<Searles> One could almost think that the vowels represent more of a goddess type of flow while the consonants become channels of god-activated power. Though Celts tend to blur the lines in this god-goddess separation. Indeed their Sun and Moon might well be either male or female. Sometimes... perhaps they are both. I'd say that yes, the seed and the form of the letters are like the ways that various groupings of trees occur.
<TopazOwl> !
<Searles> ga Topaz
<TopazOwl> I think that each aicme is the next level of the spiral. That's all. Hard to say what I'm thinking. :-) ga
<Searles> In a sense they are. When they are expressed as a spiral that is the case. The letters are also differing levels if we look at them as being circles within circles.
To better understand the structure of the boundaries we should first focus on the centers. The concepts we've presented here are very much worth keeping in mind as we go forward. In the Celtic and Druidic sense of reality everything is relative and related to the center and the boundaries.
These are the point and the circle. Each can be infinitely small or unimaginably large. In only these two symbols we can enclose or ignore all of creation. To progress through creation we use lines to separate intervals. On the stone of the brúgh we find the dot, the circle, lines, waves, zigzags, arcs and lozenges or diamonds. Each of these symbols is part of a stone language that attempts to convey primal knowledge to us.
In your homework I'd like for each of you to read these symbols on the stones provided and write a short story of what they are saying. Some of these stories can be as dull as a shopping list or a calendar, though some of them might make perhaps a romance novel of ancient proportions? :-)
The center line is what we will be walking as we develop a relationship between the elements of ourselves and those of creation that are known as Dúile. I've listed them as being ninefold since that is a Celtic way of indicating completeness. That is also a convenient way to relate the nine qualities of being to the three worlds or realms of creation that are called the Sky, the Land and the Sea. Each of these also has its uniquely defining characteristics.
<Rowan_Witc> ?
<Searles> ga Rowan_Witc
<Rowan_Witc> You're talking about the stone symbols on pages 49-50, right? There aren't any others online or anything? GA
<Searles> I'm talking about those and the ones that I posted to the class message board. There are four images on the message board to be used in your homework. These are stones from cairns and brúghs in Ireland.
<Rowan_Witc> Ok. I'll double check the message board. Thanks!
<MacDagda> ?
<Searles> ga MacDagda.
<MacDagda> When you talk about the pictographs being a "stone language," are you thinking in terms of Gimbutas' "Language of the Goddess" specifically, generally, or not at all? (I ask because she has a whole complex vocabulary of symbols worked out.)
<Searles> I'm thinking about Gimbutas hardly at all. She had a specific mindset and agenda regarding the stone language that was goddess-centric. I view them more as deity-centric.
<MacDagda> Ahhh. Agreed.
<Searles> I do however recommend her books as excellent sources for images and information about the earlier cultural artifacts of Europe. I think it's instructive to look at her symbols... and the language that she presents but it only goes so far. I personally see the Ogham as the way the Druids took this much earlier form of expression and went beyond primitive concepts into realms of creating and affecting reality.
<Toliem> ?
<Searles> ga Toliem
<Toliem> The symbols you posted on the boards — do you wish each of them to be submitted? And one of the symbols — there are triangles — that one confused me a bit
<Searles> BTW this will all become crystal clear as we go forward with the classes. Don't despair while we tilt at windmills and wheels :-) I'd say pick one of the stones and really work on developing the story on the stone. To do them all would require too much time and we have lots to cover in only eight weeks.
<Toliem> wipes her brow in relief thanks
<ceathach> ?
<Searles> GA Ceathach
<ceathach> In manuscripts they are read as in Sanskrit, right to left bottom to top. How are the cairns read...
<Searles> I think they have a relative structure. Some of them have sequences that follow the course of the Sun as it shines on them within their inner chambers. The curb stones have an internal organization. They are not regimented into left to right or bottom to top formats. They pretty much follow spiral or heavenly motions and sequences that naturally occur. They're like primal speak. They follow the nature of their expression but I'd personally work from the center outward for a right-hand-wise story. I'd go the other way for a left-hand pathtale.
<ceathach> ok
<Searles> Next class we'll discuss the elements and the Worlds more fully as we expand our knowledge of Celtic cosmology. These concepts of being will be connected to deities and qualities of ourselves known as cauldrons. In fact, we will be listening to Amergin describe how to become one with being and to create and control being through this connection.
Do the homework. Re-read the transcript as it is posted (hopefully tomorrow). Ask questions, make comments on the message boards and in the coming weeks we will become members of a growing community of Ogham Diviners :-)
<Daibh> Quick ??
<Searles> ga Daibh.
<Daibh> Referring back to the fedha, being that they are parts of the whole, are they not imbued with elements from same.
<Searles> Each Ogham has its own unique nine qualities that better define how it connects to being. These nine qualities are developed and presented in Part Three of the Book which should be available for download shortly.
<ceathach> ?
<ceathach> I work nights and can't be here for the round table — can I get a transcript?
<Deborah> Ceathach... I'll try to remember to log it tomorrow night. It's a lot less formal than this.
<Wade> ? — what document formats will you accept... and how do we post the homework? Word 2000?
<Searles> Don't have that one yet. Word 97.
<Wade> ok — thanks Searles.
<Searles> Send it via e-mail and I accept text, Word, WordPerfect etc.
<Cridhe> Since I did not make it tonight, I would also like a transcript.
<Toliem> ?
<Searles> ga Toliem
<Toliem> quick question — in what I think is image one there is what appears to look like a daisy of sorts within a circle; are the petals of the daisy arcs? And in the other image with the triangles — what do they mean?
<Searles> That's the homework assignment. What do they say to your primal awareness.
<Toliem> had a feeling you'd say that grins
<Searles> Don't try to quantify them... just look at them and listen to what they are saying. Maybe the beginning of a story?
<Searles> OK... class is over for the night but the work is just beginning. I hope to hear from each of you this week and to see many a goodly stone story.
Oíche mhaith, Oghamers.
End of Class #1 transcript.
Colophon
Transcript of Class #1 of the Summerlands Ogham Divination course, taught by Searles O'Dubhain. The class was held on February 16, 2000, via IRC on the Summerlands — the first major online Celtic Pagan community, which O'Dubhain founded. Isaac Bonewits (1949–2010), founder of Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF) and the most influential figure in the revival of modern Druidry, attended as "MacDagda."
O'Dubhain posted this transcript to alt.religion.druid on August 16, 2010 — one day before he received confirmation that Isaac had died (August 12, 2010) — in response to a dispute about whether Bonewits had been his student. The transcript stands as documentation of the teacher-student relationship between two of the most important figures in late twentieth-century Celtic Druidry, and as a historical record of the first sustained online Druidic teaching community.
Original Message-ID: <ca76c79a-bfb6-4df2-96ba-f7ffa9844558@t20g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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