Crafting Your Own Ogham Twigs
Come make your own set of Ogham Twigs, a divination set using the Ancient Ogham Alphabet. Learn the origins of the Ogham, how to cast the twigs and finally, how to read them. We will spend some time exploring the origins of the Ogham but most of the class will be hands on, making the twigs and then learning about casting them. All materials and a handout with history and actual divination meanings for all of the letters as well as the methods of divination will be provided. The set we will make will be a practice set for you to use until you can craft one from actual tree twig sometime in the future such as those shown here.
It is my hope that I can give you a few ideas of what the ogham is, where it might have come from, and how I (and others) use it as a spiritual tool. Many experts believe that the ogham was a tool used by the Druids containing their sacred teachings. Theirs was an oral tradition and each of the letters contained certain teachings as well as a Mystery (or several that were all related). Perhaps they used the letters as visual symbols of those teachings.
We do not know if the ogham was actually used as an alphabet. We do not know for sure if the ogham was ever used for divination. We do know that the Druids were the keepers of the history of the Celts. They kept their history without benefit of written texts. What is thought is that the many oghams were mnemonic devices for memorizing sets of facts. By organizing things by the sound of the first letter, and perhaps in using poems utilizing those sounds, they were able to memorize great bodies of spiritual knowledge.