![]() ![]() If the Ogham tree-alphabet is to be more than an exotic import here, the ancient letters need to find new equivalents among the trees of this very different land. ![]() For example, birch, holly and spindle are completely unknown here except where they have been introduced by white settlers, and the Garry oak – our only native oak – is a relatively small, shrubby tree found in a few dry prairie areas, not a mighty lord of the forest like the English oak. The complicated natural history of North America’s northwest coast, shaped by volcanic fire, glacial ice, and the torrential rains of one of the world’s few temperate rain forest environments, has created a unique ecosystem with few parallels in the Old World.Īs a result, some of the traditional Ogham species are not native to this region, and many of those that are native have wholly different roles in the local ecosystem. The Puget Sound area of the Pacific Northwest, where I live and practice Druidry, is nearly a different planet in botanical terms. The tree-Ogham as it has come down to us in modern Druid tradition is a creation of the British Isles, and draws on the trees of that region. ~ Erynn Rowan Laurie, “The Preserving Shrine” (from The Druid Renaissance, ed. ![]() Because they are here, now, they speak more clearly to me and with greater power than places half a world away. These things have as much to teach us as the rowan or the Shannon or Mount Snowdon. I live with the Duwamish river and the mountain called Tahoma. I live with cedars and dog-tooth violets, with banana slugs and stellar jays. But it holds many different things as well. It shares many things with the wild lands of my European ancestors wolf and salmon, oak and eagle. All rights reserved.īecause I live in North America, my wilderness is not that of the Irish Iron Age, or the forests and mountains of modern Wales. ![]()
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