Ogham Tuesday: Elder

In a very modern sense, Elder points out our cognitive dissonance. It’s an ogham I’ve spoken of a few times on my TikTok series (which I hope to pick up again soon). Whether I look at divination as a way to receive information from powers outside myself or a way to uncover insight in my own consciousness, Elder calls a yellow flag on the play.

Or maybe a red flag, because the name Ruis connotes “redness of the face” or blushing – possibly from shame. 

Many of us have a complicated relationship with shame. Few steps in my divination journey have changed me more than understanding that Elder is NOT the voice of anybody trying to hurt or diminish me. It’s the voice of somebody who loves me and wants the best for me, and who knows that being honest with myself is essential. It’s also an ogham that inspires questions before it answers them. 

How am I behaving in ways that undermine my goals or my vision of my best self? 

Where am I not being truthful with myself or others? 

Which of my choices or behaviors are unnecessarily unkind?

Did you find yourself arguing with me, just there? If you think to yourself that the questions above are irrelevant and they clearly don’t apply…well, then I think you need to ask yourself a little harder what Elder is doing there. This is an ogham that shows up when those circumstances are already true. Bullshit has already been called, my friend. 

You might not know immediately what Elder is referencing. Take your time with this one. It’s a reading that needs time to work in your brain. Keep it in mind as you go through your day and see if you can spot where its lesson can shine a light. If you can, pull another ogham for clues or tools to help. 

For example, I pulled Elder not too long ago. I was letting fear make a lot of my choices, imposing more and more control over what my own senses were telling me. Perfectionism, self-sabotage. You get it. Mostly, it was a reaction to some uncomfortable degrees of uncertainty in my life. It’s entirely possible I will be fighting those impulses forever, but the reading was a great corrective moment about some patterns I tend to lose perspective on. 

The knee-jerk interpretation of Elder is as a call-out, which, like many first impressions, lacks depth and tends to trigger defensiveness. But when we look at it instead as a call IN? chef’s kiss 

The Ogham Tuesday series started in 2023 and focused first on introducing each of the standard ogham alphabet in order. We're moving those posts to the blog now, so they can be more easily searched.

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