The Trees

The thirteen in order

The Birch, Beith, 24 December to 20 January, is the pioneer, the first tree onto cleared ground and the first person out of the door while everyone else is still talking. The Birch page.

The Rowan, Luis, 21 January to 17 February, is the protector, the one who senses when something is off long before anyone says so and quietly stands between it and the people they love. The Rowan page.

The Ash, Nion, 18 February to 17 March, is the connector, the tall tree with deep roots that lives on boundaries and ties the threads together. The Ash page.

The Alder, Fearn, 18 March to 14 April, is the guardian of thresholds, the one who gets harder under pressure and holds the position nobody else will take. The Alder page.

The Willow, Saille, 15 April to 12 May, is the healer, bending in the storm, feeling what you feel before you have named it. The Willow page.

The Hawthorn, Huath, 13 May to 9 June, is the threshold guardian, blossom and thorns together, warm and inviting and very clear about where the gate is. The Hawthorn page.

The Oak, Duir, 10 June to 7 July, is the sovereign, the slow growing centre of the forest that everyone gathers under and leans on. The Oak page.

The Holly, Tinne, 8 July to 4 August, is the warrior, green all winter, sharp at the edges, and never off duty when a principle is at stake. The Holly page.

The Hazel, Coll, 5 August to 1 September, is the wisdom keeper, modest to look at and full of nourishment, the natural teacher and writer. The Hazel page.

The Vine, Muin, 2 September to 29 September, is the celebrant, who turns an ordinary evening into an occasion and knows what a shared cup is for. The Vine page.

The Ivy, Gort, 30 September to 27 October, is the steadfast climber, who finds a way round every wall and does not let go of what matters. The Ivy page.

The Reed, Ngetal, 28 October to 24 November, is the voice, the hollow stem that becomes a pipe, the one who says what needs saying. The Reed page.

The Elder, Ruis, 25 November to 23 December, is the transformation keeper, the tree at the edge of the churchyard who knows how to let a thing end well. The Elder page.

Yes, the Vine is a vine, the Ivy is a climber and the Reed is a grass. The calendar calls them trees. So do I, and I have not had a complaint from any of them yet.

How to use these pages

Find your birthday in the list and read your tree first. Each page opens with the living tree itself, because the image comes before the rule, and then moves to who you are, your strengths, your challenges, how you love and work, what the Ogham letter meant, and how your tree sits across the other traditions. Each ends with a question worth sitting with.

Then read the tree of someone you are trying to understand. The dates are fixed every year, so you can do this for anyone whose birthday you know, with no chart and no birth time. In my experience a family read as a row of trees makes a lot of sudden sense.

The Ogham and the Tree Calendar page explains why there are thirteen, where the letters come from and what to do if you were born on a boundary, which is nothing, because the dates settle it.

The Western overlaps

Each tree month covers parts of two Western signs, and every tree page names its overlap in a sentence, so an Oak will find Gemini into Cancer on the Oak page and a Rowan will find Aquarius on the Rowan page, with a pointer to The Signs in the Western Astrology section. Two pictures of the same person from two different windows, and the places they agree are usually the places worth looking at.

Your tree is coming to Find Your Numbers and Signs along with the rest of your chart. Until then, the dates above are all you need.

You will learn more from your own tree than from anything I could write about anyone else's.

If you would like your own chart read, my readings are here.

Related pages
The Animals

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