Notes for
the Celtic Tree Calendar
1st B
BETH (beh) BIRCH Dec 24 - Jan 20 Pheasant (Besan) -
White (Ban) - Red Sard
2nd L LUIS (loush) ROWAN Jan 21 - Feb 17 Duck (Lacbu) - Grey
(Liatb) – Yellow Chrysolite
3rd N NION (knee-un) ASH Feb 18 - Mar 17 Snipe (Naescu) - Clear
(Nechot) - Sea-green Beryl
4th F
FEARN (fairin) ALDER
Mar 18 - Apr 14 Gull (Faelinn) -
Crimson (Flann) - Fire Garnet
5th S SAILLE (sahl-yeh) WILLOW Apr 15 - May 12 Hawk (Seg) - Fine
Coloured (Sodath) - Carbuncle
6th H HUATH (hoh-uh) HAWTHORNE May13 - Jun 9 Night Crow (hadaig) -
Terrible (Huath) - Lapis Lazuli
7th D
DUIR (dooir) OAK 10 - July 7 Wren (Droen) - Black (Dub)
- White Carnelian
8th T TINNE (chihnn-uh) HOLLY July 8 - Aug 4 Starling (Thuin) - Dark
Grey (Temen) - YellowCairngorm
9th C
COLL (kol) HAZEL Aug 5 - Sept 1 Crane (Corr) - Brown
(Cron) - Banded Red Agate
10th M
MUIN (mooin) VINE Sept 2 - Sept 29 Titmouse (Mintan)
-Variegated (mbracht) - Amethyst
11th G
GORT (go-ert) IVY Sept 30 - Oct 27 Mute Swan (Geis) -
Blue (Gorm) - Yellow Serpentine
12th Ng
NGETAL (nyetal) REED
Oct 28 - Nov 24 Goose (Ngeigh) –
GlassGreen (Nglas) - ClearGreenJasper
13th R
RUIS (roosh) ELDER Nov 25 - Dec 22 Rook (Roenat) -
Blood-Red (Ruadh) – Dk Green Malachite
------------------------------o0o-----------------------------
The
Day of Liberation on the 23rd December, the
‘extra’ day that stands apart from the 364 days of the thirteen months of the
solar year, recognised from antiquity and in the earliest courts of law as ‘A
Year and a Day’, has its Mayan counterpart in the southern hemisphere on the 25th
July, known by them as the Day Out of
Time. They are the ‘connecting’ day of their respective 13 moon natural
time counts, where the old is atoned for, resolved and let go, and good
intentions set for the coming year; the West’s tradition of making New Year
Resolutions is an echo of this shared ancient human story. Its Celtic
correspondences are the letter ‘J’, amber in the precious jewels, and mistletoe
in the ‘trees’ – the plant most venerated by the Druids for its spiritual
(psychotropic) qualities.
The Celtic culture and epistemology also has innumerable synchronistic
parallels with its Australian Aboriginal counterpart, and indeed with all the
world’s traditional indigenous cultures. We all once shared more or less the
same method of time reckoning, primarily by the fixed solar and lunar cycles,
and all once devised seasonal calendars describing the signs in Nature that
indicated change in all the important plants and animals that were utilised in
our day-to-day activities – deeper gnosis revealed the fine details of how to
manage our societies to integrate into the territorial and marine ecosystems to
maintain biodiverse health, ecological balance and productivity.
The Celt’s Tree Calendar, originally conceived by the Druids as a
secret/sacred language, evolved into a mnemonic teaching aid for all the
community. Each month of 28 days (four seven-day weeks) was attributed a
corresponding consonant, totemic tree, colour, bird and mineral. The four solar
‘stations’ of the year, the fixed Solstices and Equinoxes, plus the Day of
Liberation, made up the five vowels and the four Gaelic moveable seasonal
observances, situated roughly halfway between the equinoxes and solstices; Imbolc (i-molk) 1st February;
Beltane (bel-tine) 1st May; Lughnasadh
(loo-nasa) 1st
August; Samhain (sah-win) 31st October, made up the 8 yearly
‘holy-day’ ritual celebrations that structured their lives.
As with many other traditional cultures around the world, many of the
once phenomenal Aboriginal cultures are currently experiencing a revival. The
Aborigines, possibly the first civilisation to evolve on Earth and arguably the
most advanced, multi-dimensional, highly evolved and fully realised in their
integration with the environment of all human cultures, are custodians of the
longest continuous holistic knowledge streams, which may well be invaluable to
our survival in a rapidly changing future.
