The Celtic Tree Ogham is a symbolic calendar, like the old Babylonian astrological zodiac. With the Celtic Ogham, instead of the astrological signs — Ares through Pisces — you’ve got trees to represent each of the monthly periods of the calendrical year. Things don’t line up exactly, date wise. There are 13 trees for the 12 signs because of a lunar inflection in the Celtic calendar. This drawing correlates the 13 trees with the 12 signs.

Below is an incomplete drawing of what I hope will one day be a North American ogham comprised of trees native to this continent. The old Celtic Ogham was built on the sacred tree lore of the druids whose ceremonies were often secretly conducted in sacred groves. This underscores an important point about cosmology: place. Cosmologies must be rooted in the specific geography from which they arise. Any North American tree ogham worth its salt will be based on local trees. Hence my pilgrimages to far out spots on this continent. The drawing below sketches in a few of the sites I’ve visited. As you can see, there’s plenty of room for more…