Ailm: Breaking New Ground and Having Clear Vision

 

Ailm  Ogham Letter A   Scots Pine / Silver Fur 

The Birch represents the New Celtic Year which begins on Nov. 1^st.  It pairs very well with Ailm for new beginnings so I thought I would include this new letter for the beginning of the Celtic New Year.

Scots Pine

Ailm is the first vowel in the Ogham alphabet.  It represents the letter A and is represented by Scots Pine or Silver Fur.  Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) is a very ancient tree.  It is native to Europe and Asia in the area of the Boreal Forest.  It formed large parts of forests in Britain particularly in the north of England and in Scotland until 8000 years ago.  Between 4000 and 1500 years ago the Irish and West Scottish pine declined massively and the Irish pines went extinct.  This may be why the Silver Fir was taken for Ailm in the early Middle Ages.  Scots Pine went extinct in Wales and England due to over-exploitation and grazing 3-400 years ago but it is now being re-introduced.  The oldest Scots Pine tree was found at Inverary in 1951.  It was thought to be over 330 years old.  According to Jacqueline Memory Peterson, pines can live to be 600 years old.

Scots Pine has fairly short, blue-green needles and orange-red bark.  This tree is very hardy and its deep roots allow it to colonise in extreme climates, from very dry to boggy and even sandy soils.  It was introduced to the US in 1600.  It can grow up to 40m tall.  The Silver Fir can grow up to 50m and has grey, smooth bark.  It is not as hardy as Scots Pine and likes moist soils and high humidity. Both Scots Pine and Silver Fir are used as a Christmas tree in Europe.  With its red trunk and evergreen needles, Scots Pine was traditionally associated with the Winter Solstice. 

Scots Pine is excellent for wildlife and it supports lichen and insects.  Therefore, many birds live in pinewoods.  The level branches are good nesting places for large raptors such as the golden eagle and squirrels eat their seeds.

Scots Pine was used to make tar in the pre-industrial age and is also a source of rosin and turpentine.  The resin is a good fire starter. Pine resins are used to clear cold and chest infections and killing germs.  Their vapours can also boost circulation, ease aches and pains and clear toxins from the body. Pine wood was used to make containers for butter and milk as its wood prevented rancidity.  The Druids prescribed walking in pine forests to help breathing and to clear the lungs from colds and flus.  According to Diana Beresford-Kroeger, pines release an atmospheric aerosol complex of a biochemical called pinene.  This is easily absorbed by the skin and the surfaces of the lungs and has recently been show to boost the human immune system.  Twenty minutes in the pine forest will boost the immune systems’ memory for about thirty days.

As the first vowel sound in the Ogham alphabet Ailm is about breaking new ground, motivation and birth (Danu Forest). According to Elen Sentier, Ailm is all about rebirth and regeneration.  When Scots Pine is cut down, new stems will grow from the roots.  According to Glennie Kindred, Ailm is represented by Fir which is about objectivity, far-seeing and wisdom.  Fir helps us to develop the perceptions and insights necessary to see beyond the present.  It can also help us to see things from another person’s point of view.  The Fir is a strong energy that supports an elevated state of mind.  Liz and Colin Murray also write that Ailm is represented by Silver Fir (Abies alba) and it represents long sight and a clear vision of what is to come.

One can imagine themselves climbing up the branches of the Pine or Fir to get a clear vision of what is ahead by rising above the clutter of the forest. From this viewpoint we can also gain insight into the past and see patterns.  This can help us to let go of patterns that no longer serve us and adopt new ones to take us forward.

Silver Fir

This is a compilation of information taken from the following sources:

Diana Beresford-Kroeger (2019) To Speak for the Trees. Random House: Canada.

Danu Forest (2014) Celtic Tree Magic: Ogham Lore and Druid Mysteries. Llewellyn Worldwide: Woodbury, Minnesota.

Glennie Kindred, (1997) The Tree Ogham. Glennie Kindred: UK.

Liz and Colin Murray (1988) The Celtic Tree Oracle. Connections Book Publishing: London, UK.

Jacqueline Memory Peterson (1996) Tree Wisdom: The definitive guidebook to the myth, folklore and healing power of Trees. Thorsons: London.

Elen Sentier (2014) Trees of the Goddess. Moon Books: Winchester, UK.

 

What the Eye Beholds

 

This has been a year of unfamiliar events for the whole world.  And the same is true for the forest near my home that welcomes me into its community of beings.  The mixed hardwood part of the forest that was idyllic during the lock downs of the summer of 2020 was changed drastically by logging activities in the late winter of 2021.  Mature Black Poplars, White Ashes and Maples were cut down.  Most of their canopy branches were left lying on the forest floor after the loggers left.

Once spring came, the canopy was punched through with holes left by the now absent trees, allowing the sun to stream down full force onto small Balsam Fir, Maple and Elm saplings that had been slowly growing for the past few years.  In the early summer the LDD moth caterpillars ate all the leaves of the remaining canopy and the sun like a giant grow light welcomed new growth from the roots of the logged trees.  Ashes and Maples suckered up from the stumps left behind.  But the Poplars which have root systems that are two to three times the height of the tree took full advantage of the light sprouting saplings everywhere possible. They shot up quickly in the sunny forest and reached six feet in height by the end of the summer.

An unusual Fall forest scene.

Now that it is Fall, the leaves which regrew in the canopy have fallen and the forest is once again filled with grey vertical trunks.  But, the new Poplar saplings are still green.  The sun once again is unobstructed and the bright green leaves are backlit and brilliant.  They are slowly turning brown but they feel like excited children who don’t want to go to bed.  "We just got here!"  It is not a usual, familiar Fall scene that I am used to and I spent some time watching and listening to these youngsters as the stiff November breeze got their leaves to dancing.

I thought about the difficulty for people in my area to face another winter of restrictions.  People talk about impending snow with a mixture of distaste and resignation.  Many are tired of COVID restrictions that change their normal way of getting through the winter.  Some have nothing to talk about now that they can’t travel to warmer places.  I watch for signs of depression.   And yet…

And yet, here is this Fall forest full of new growth, an abundance of green that is the result of logging and caterpillar feasting.  It is a result of the death and destruction of the big trees.  The Poplar saplings remind me that new growth is possible, that we can create new ways of being and doing from our deep roots.  They remind to look around the world for this new growth.  They suggest new eyes for seeing what is also there.

I spent some time photographing these new saplings in the forest to share here with you.  I was focused on the bright green when my partner noticed that the fourteen foot painted wooden snake that usually lies on top of a pile of branches was no longer there.  He asked me if he was looking in the right place.  He was.  It was hard to imagine someone walking out of the forest with a fourteen foot snake over their shoulder.  Perhaps someone didn’t like snakes and had thrown it deeper into the forest.  My partner wandered around looking for it on the forest floor.  Perhaps, we wondered, someone has relocated it within the forest.  We walked along the path looking from side to side but found no sign of it.

The fourteen foot snake emerging from a pile of branches in its usual spot.

The snake had been the prompt for many stories told there in the woods during the summer.  Some people told us that they were afraid of snakes.  My partner had wanted to situate it up in a tree but I thought that might make it more frightening so he agreed to lay it on top of a pile of branches as if it were emerging from them (see picture above).   In fact, the snake was made from one of these branches and had been transformed with bright paint to represent the seven species of snakes that live in our area.  Subsequently, my partner made a much smaller snake and painted it red.  He balanced it between two trees that had grown together while leaving a hole just perfect for a small snake to balance on, just a few feet off the ground.

We agreed that the large snake must be somewhere collecting new stories and reasoned that we could always make a new one since there were still loads of branches lying around.  As we headed back down the trail to the car, I wondered aloud if the little red snake was still in place.  My partner said, yes he’d noticed it there on our way in.  I thought I would still take a look for myself and as I approached the snake tree which I had already passed while taking pictures, I burst into laughter.  Seven feet in the air, above the red snake, was the fourteen foot snake balanced through another hole between the same two kissing trees.  Someone tall and strong had repositioned it up in the air where my partner had originally intended it to go.  Someone else had listened to the snake and put it in its true home.  We couldn’t stop laughing as we made our way back to the car.

The snake in its new position seven feet in the air above the little red snake.

Once I got home, I loaded my photos onto my computer and laughed once again.  Some of the photos that I had taken of the bright green saplings included the giant snake.  I had been so intent on capturing the bright green that I had not noticed the fourteen foot snake seven feet in the air in my photo.  This of course was the source of more laughter.

The fourteen foot snake is evident in the top left hand corner of the photo upon closer inspection.

We see what we focus on, what lights up for us.  I could focus on the empty branches of the mature trees or the bright green poplar saplings backlit by the sun. I could focus on death or new life.   I could focus on the green leaves or a giant snake hovering above me.  I can focus on the restrictions or I can focus on the relationships that people are now valuing more than ever.  There in the forest, the airborne snake reminded me not to take life too seriously for there is new life, creativity and joy to be found if I look for it.

Celtic New Year Begins with Birch

 

Birch   Beith  B

The ancient Celts invented the first alphabet in Europe which is called the Ogham script.  Each letter is associated with a tree or an important plant.  The alphabet was used as a mnemonic device to encode knowledge, the Celtic song of the universe, Ceolta na Cruinne (Diana Beresford-Kroeger).  The thirteen months of the year (pre-Gregorian calendar) were each represented by a particular tree.  The new year began on Nov. 1^st with Birch.

According to Diana Beresford-Krueger, Birch’s ancient name was Beith gheal or gleaming birch.  The bark has a “white periderm like glistening talcum powder.” (Diana Beresford-Kroeger, 197).  In the moonlight it gleams.  Birch was called the lady tree and it was held in high esteem as were women in the ancient Celtic world.  In the oral culture of the Celts, beith was a temple word, a trigger for the meaning of life including the body, mind and soul.  The word beith means to exist as a mystical constant outside of time. (Beresford-Kroeger)

Birch is a pioneering tree that is one of the first to repopulate an area that has been deforested.  It can grow quickly and is relatively short lived, providing nutrients for other species.  Both male and female catkins grow on the same tree and they emerge very early in the spring hence its association with new beginnings. Birch often grows in groves and it supports newly emergent growth. Birch is native to most of the northern hemisphere.

Tea made from the mature leaves of Birch is an ancient treatment for urinary tract infections.  It is mildly diuretic and is thought to be a gentle antiseptic for the urinary tract.  Birch can be distilled to form acetylsalicylic acid (ASA).  Also, birch produces a regulatory phytochemical called betulinic acid which is a growth regulator.  It can also kill human melanoma cells.  The Birch also contains xylitol that inhibits a bacterium responsible for tooth decay.  This is being added to chewing gum.

In North America, birch bark was used to make canoes, and cooking and storage vessels.  It is waterproof.  It contains oils that make it good for starting fires.  Birch wood is used for smoking food.  In Scandinavia, ground up birch bark was fermented in sea water and used to season sails and rope on traditional Norwegian vessels. The bark has also been used as paper for writing and drawing on.  The sap is used to make syrup.

Birch symbolizes new beginnings and determination in overcoming difficulties.  When they shine, they stand out from the other trees and are easy to see, showing the way.  Birch was associated with light – moonlight, starlight.  Traditionally, in Celtic countries, birch was used for purification.  Birch twigs were used to beat out negativity.  Birch is about new beginnings after clearing away the old. According to Elen Sentier, the word birch means white, bright, to shine.  “Beginnings are times of initiating things and setting events in motion, creation, and especially activation.” (Sentier, 14)

Birch is a colonizer tree on disturbed soil, which it enriches as it drops its leaves. It is a tree of great life giving, vitality and nourishment.  Birch represents a new journey or opportunity and it can help you to adopt a new frame of mind to navigate change.  Glennie Kindred advises us to shed the old unhelpful things as Birch sheds its bark.   Birch teaches trust that all will be well and to not fear the unknown.

 

This is a compilation of information taken from the following sources:

Diana Beresford-Kroeger (2019) To Speak for the Trees. Random House: Canada.

Danu Forest (2014) Celtic Tree Magic: Ogham Lore and Druid Mysteries. Llewellyn Worldwide: Woodbury, Minnesota.

Glennie Kindred, (1997) The Tree Ogham. Glennie Kindred: UK.

Liz and Colin Murray (1988) The Celtic Tree Oracle. Connections Book Publishing: London, UK.

Jacqueline Memory Peterson (1996) Tree Wisdom: The definitive guidebook to the myth, folklore and healing power of Trees. Thorsons: London.

Elen Sentier (2014) Trees of the Goddess. Moon Books: Winchester, UK.