Ogham Tuesday: Modifiers

For today’s Ogham Tuesday, I’m taking you on a bit of a side quest. Remember how I talked about Nine Fires’ philosophy being encompassed in three descriptors?

• Myth-informed: We’re showing you this aspect through Beth’s posts showing the connection between ogham in mythology and the correspondences you might draw upon.

• Integrative: Here’s where my posts, talking about the ogham trees in their environment and the parallels with our own lives, fit in. 

• Modern: For the purposes of Ogham Tuesdays, the modern element is MODIFIERS. 

A number of folks I’ve learned from, in books or in person, use modifiers. But not everyone! (Beth never uses them, for example.) They are definitely not attested to in myth and are even further along path of “using ogham for divination,” where Celtic reconstructionist druids will not go. And that’s cool. I just really like ‘em. 

How do I use modifiers? For me, they are adjectives or adverbs, where the actual oghamfews tend to be verbs or nouns. I think we’ve had a few of them appear in New Moon Divinations over the last year or so.*

Sometimes, the modifier is enough on its own, if it’s the first one I see. It gives me a mood, a guiding principle for whatever I take on for the day. Sometimes, it comes up when I ask for clarification or in tandem with another ogham. In those cases, it gives me another layer of meaning or a specific interpretation instead of a general concept. They aren't distinguishable as any different from all the others, and they have the same odds of being pulled for a reading as any other ogham.

What I’ll be talking about in the next few weeks are the modifiers I recently developed as part of a full set for Nine Fires and my personal use, corresponding to the elements of Land, Sea, and Sky. It didn’t seem right to continue to use other folks’ creations. As a teaser, they were inspired by this blessing I have used for so long I can’t recall where I got it or how much I’ve changed it:

May we be mountains on the land

May we be waves in the great, shifting seas

May we be stars, shining in the night sky

I’ll be excited to show them off! And then we’ll be back to me writing about the next set of oghamfews. :)

Blessings,

Nicole

*Modifiers used previously were from Reverend Skip Ellison, of ADF, where I first started learning about ogham.

~ Nicole (Nikki, sometimes Saffron Hare) is founder and general manager at Nine Fires Press. Her Druidic practice has included solitary, small-group, and congregational worship, with a focus on liturgy and seership. She is studying for her Master Gardener certification, rehabbing an underground home in the Midwestern US,and loves to fall in love with bad ideas.

 #ogham #tarot #wordoracle #omens #divination #druidry #pagan #9firespress #oghamtuesday