DIVINATION · LESSON 8 OF 16 · 15 MIN
The Ogham
The early Irish alphabet of notches and strokes, its tree names, its history — and how it is used for divination today.
Ogham is the earliest form of writing in Ireland: groups of strokes and notches cut along a straight line. About 400 Ogham inscriptions survive on standing stones, most from the 4th to 6th centuries CE, chiefly in southern Ireland but also in Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Cornwall. They are mostly memorials: a person's name and ancestry.