Introduction

Caidi aimser ocus log ocus perso ocus tugait scribind in lebor? Ni ansa:

(What are the time, place, person, and the cause of the writing of this book? Not hard to say:)

The time of the writing of this book is the fifth decade of the author’s life, in the later part of the twentieth century, and during the 1935th year, after the Druids of Mona were attacked by Sueltonius Paulinius, according to the reckoning of the years of the Common Era (CE).

The places of its writing are the states of Virginia, Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama within the geographical United States of America and also The Summerlands (http://www.summerlands.com), a cyber community on the Internet.

The author of this work is Searles O'Dubhain, a student of Draíocht; a descendent of the chiefs of Cnogba and Barra; out of the lines of Daman and Niall; a free man of a free people.

The reason for the writing of this treatise is to recover and explain what can be known about the ways of the Druids. This investigation will be accomplished from a study of what was written about the Druids, from the tales told within folk memory, and using the information that can be discovered through the use of discerning inquiry and the techniques of Imbas.

It is a common misconception within some parts of the academic community that the knowledge of the ancient Druids has been lost to us. Many authorities think that the oral nature of the Druidic teachings prevented their knowledge from being preserved in writing; in books and letters. It is also commonly accepted as a fact by these skeptics that the Druids ceased to be an organized group in the fifth century CE. If any of these perceptions and misconceptions were true, then the writing of this book would not have been possible and the words that you are about to read would still be hidden. It is very fortunate that the knowledge of the three worlds is not dependent on the recording efforts of histories alone. There are many sciences that retain the deeds of the past: biology, linguistics, geography, archaeology, and physics, being only some of them. It is also a godsend that wisdom is not restricted to what can be geometrically proven according to the rigid precepts of science or logic alone. Wisdom has been said by the ancient sages to be available to those who seek it spiritually as well. "When the student is ready, the teacher will come," is a saying that applies equally to the physical sciences, the mental disciplines and spiritual questing. Knowledge comes to us through tradition, through science and through inquiry. In the matter of divination, our inquiries are made of the gods. We will not be disappointed in our seeking of truth if we listen truly with our body, mind and spirit. These three approaches to investigating the subject of Druidic knowledge are essential to producing a complete understanding of information, knowledge and wisdom, but they are not the only sources for discovery available to us.

If we are seeking the knowledge of Druids, then we should seek such knowledge in the way that a Druid would seek it. In matters of the knowledge of reality and being, we would do well to follow the examples set for us by the ancestors and the gods. We should do as they did when they took counsel before a quest or a battle. We should seek the best information that can be found in the tradition. We should observe and experiment with the ways that we actively experience the worlds. We should make inquiries into the extended nature of reality through metaphysical insight, meditation and spiritual discipline. If we take this threefold approach to understanding then we will be embracing the ancient Draíocht of the three Druids of Partholan. Their names: Fios, Eolas, and Focmart, mean knowledge of tradition, knowledge of experience , and knowledge of inquiry. All three forms of knowledge are necessary for completing our understanding of the ways of Druids. Even the gods sought this trinity of knowledge, these "Three Gods of Danu," to guide them in their own undertakings. Can we expect to do any less in our quest for the teachings of the Druids? Triadic knowledge is the source of wisdom. Within the triadic kennings, we will find the secrets of the Ogham.

Before we begin our walk along the Druid way to discover the realms of Tree Wisdom and the Circles of Song, I’d like to introduce myself to you more completely by recounting some of my personal history:

This book represents the imbas that illuminated the darkness of my threefold ignorance, to borrow a phrase from the life of Angus Mac ind Oic. Its first parent in knowledge was the child of my youthful dreams, which I struggled long and hard to master. With ever increasing control, I was able to direct the activities of my dream-time and to create worlds in which to play and learn. It was during this time of dreaming that I first became aware of Otherworldly consciousness. At times, during my dreams, I found myself being instructed and taught to the vast amusement of my "instructors." Dreams became a struggle between my always rebellious spirit and the guidance of these other beings. It was also during this time that I experienced several accidents and illnesses which were themselves coupled with Otherworldly experiences and periods of "second sight." During these times of sickness and travail, I would sometimes be in a separate reality, foreseeing the events of the near and distant future. A Druid must see all of reality: the dreams, the visions and the perceptions.

My adventures in the Dreamtime soon found themselves competing with my more formal education in the public schools. I dived into my secular studies with the excitement of a kid in a candy shop. It was during this period of secular education that I discovered the rudimentary techniques of shamanism and meditation. Shamanism described the more formal ways of the Dreamtime and the Otherworld of my youthful experiences. It also showed me a way to overcome social conditioning to more fully perceive all of reality. Until then, I had resisted having conscious visions as something that was perhaps abnormal. Transcendental meditation introduced me to Yoga and ways to control the breath, the heartbeat and the mind. As I gained control of my body, mind and spirit, through meditation, I began to experiment with ways of changing reality. At the same time I was questioning the teachings of traditional religion. I was seeking truth. A Druid must know the inner self and must reconcile tradition, perception and contradiction.

No matter how strongly I reasoned, and no matter what the initial assumptions and conditions were, all attempts at deducing a purpose to reality and a central control of it were doomed to becoming circular arguments. I despaired of ever finding a true solution to this matter. My only successes were in making my circles larger and larger before they turned back upon themselves in endless loops. It was within the quietness of meditation that I encountered the second parent of this work on Ogham divination. As I lay calling out into the darkness of my mind, I folded my perceptions back, one upon one another. I collapsed my reality until it was no longer around me. It became a black sphere of being and existed completely within my mind's eye, until I could see all parts of it simultaneously. It was then that I met my guide. The world that existed on the other side of that darkness is the second parent of this book. It is the "Not-World" that is sometimes called An t-Saoil Uile or Annwfn in Celtic tradition. This is the dark womb of creation that connects to all parts of external reality in every place, though it is sometimes more strongly felt in some places than others. When one is within the "Not-World," creation can occur and journeys can be accomplished to anywhere that the mind can conceive. Awareness is no longer limited by neural capacity and information is no longer limited to memory alone. The mind is re-united with its greater self and communication is a series of "knowings" rather than word sequences or symbols. Knowing replaces thinking and answers outnumber questions. The "Not-World" is the second parent of the knowledge found within this book. It taught me about the flows of imbas and connected me across time and space to the knowledge that creates. A Druid stands at the crossroads of the worlds.

The third parent of this work is the silence of the Druids themselves. They did not write their knowledge in words, nor did they trust to books for education. A Druidic student through verbal exchange and repetition, observation and experience; discipline and mind expansion attained wisdom. The existence of even one Druid was a guarantee that all Druidic knowledge was still retained and available to be taught and learned. Some think, that no Druids or Druidic teachings survived the twofold onslaught of Roman legions and the later legions of well-meaning Roman Christian priests. In the case of the legions, Druids were slaughtered on Mona in 61 CE without quarter. Only those who were elsewhere survived within isolated pockets, as resistance continued in the hills of Western Britain and Scotland. In the centuries that followed, the new wave of Christianity swept into the British Isles promising a fulfillment of spirit in this life and the next. The Celtic people as a continuation of their existing spirituality embraced the spiritual message of Christianity. It was woven into their tales and traditions to the point that stories such as the "Quest for the Holy Grail" were developed and the deities were granted sainthood, while Brighid fostered Christ himself into the family of the Gael. A Druid is a creature of spirit, inhabiting a physical body, with a mind that has achieved clarity of insight.

As I traced my genealogy through several wars of independence and through hundreds, then thousands, of years of antiquity, I encountered the origins of my people within their burial mounds on the Plain of Brega, and within the chambered cairns of Cnogba. It was here that I discovered the roots of the darkness that became O'Dubhain. I found the dark well of our origins along the pathway of the Equinoctial Sun as it passed from the eastern entrance to the west within the hill of my ancestors. I beheld its many folded nature in the basin of the Nine Dúile and within the dark waters of their baptism. I was pierced by its sharpness when the stone of my ancestor Ferdia was shattered by his bright brother's Gae Bolga at the Ford of the Battle. It was within these visions and traditions that I found the symbolic language of the stones, from old to new. It was within these stone symbols that I once again beheld the gateways to the knowledge of bright stars and dark groves. The symbols upon the stones marched through the years until the first of the Celtic Wise placed the marks of Fionn’s wisdom upon stone and wood. It was upon that ladder that I discovered the progressions to wisdom of the Druids and it is under the ridgepole of their house that I will attempt to define it within this book. There are many doorways to knowledge that travel beyond our ignorance. It is to these doorways that we will apply the keys of the Ogham. A Druid dares to explore beyond darkness and ignorance.

I have opened each of these doorways to knowledge with its own key and its sacred song. I have discovered new knowledge and new doorways to knowledge beyond knowledge, as well as wisdom upon wisdom. Each step has provided access to a family of steps, as each leap brings understanding to another side of knowledge. The courage to open each door must be gained from the need to seek the truth that is hidden from the world. Such work is not suited for the timid or the shy. One must be on fire with the search for truth. The most fearsome adversary that will be met within this darkness is oneself and one's shadow. Death's dark eyes see truly, yet life's warmth awaits us beyond the edge of darkness. If you are one who seeks truth beyond fear and Life beyond Death, then come step into my darkness, a world beyond fears, a Not Place of Making, an unmaking of worlds, a creation of others. The fire that lights your way must become a Seeking of Truth. Without that light, there is only darkness and fear. I am O'Dubhain. I have met myself within the outer darkness of the unknown and I have found myself within the inner light of Imbas. Come into the Ogham and journey beyond Fear. A Druid travels the ways of creation using the truth of knowledge as a guide to wisdom.

How to Use this Book

This book was written as a practical, hands-on explanation of the wisdom and techniques of the Druids in performing Ogham Divination. It uses scholarly references where those are available, but it makes no attempt to limit itself to only the left-hand side of the brain, as reality is much more than the framework provided therein. The approach to the ways of the Druids that I have selected uses both sides of the brain, as well as the expanded mind that goes beyond limitation into worlds of action and creation. One must enter and become immersed in the waters of knowledge in order to learn how to swim toward wisdom. This book is divided into five major sections (as is fitting for any work dealing with Ogham). It attempts to address the five streams of the Well of Segais in the way that the flows of wisdom are created. These five parts of knowledge are:

The Paintbrush of Perception - a section that deals with how we perceive reality and how it has traditionally been expressed in symbols by our ancestors, as well as identifying the Celtic elements of the self and the Cosmos as represented by the Directions, Dúile, the Cauldrons and the Worlds.

The Song of the Forest Trees - a discussion of the ways in which Druids taught, learned and expressed themselves using Ogham as tools for constructing chants, memory theaters, and a correlation of their storehouse of knowledge.

The Ogham Correspondences - a presentation of the major uses and meanings of each Ogham in terms of its overall meaning, its two basic meanings, its three fold images and its nine-fold correspondences to the dúile.

The Wisdom of the Ancients – a discussion of Celtic Otherworldly cosmologies, deities and realms, as well as how these can be used in developing models for a casting cloth to be used during Ogham divinations. The cosmologies of the Sky and Sea are detailed using the Ogham diagrams of the Stream Strand of Ferchertne and the Wheel Ogham of Roigne Roscanach as well as traditons, such as, "The Voyage of Mael Duin’s Boat" and the Leabhar Gabála.

The Way of the Woods - interpretations of traditional Ogham readings, kennings and ciphers, as well as a sampling of readings that demonstrate the methods, charts, and techniques presented in this work.

This book is used as a textbook in a course in Ogham divination that is taught at The Summerlands, an online, Pagan, cyber community (http://www.summerlands.com). It is also used as a textbook in a larger Druidic training program. This program includes a discussion of the many Celtic tales and traditions that are linked to each Ogham. Such a system of correspondences was included in the curricula of the schools of the Druids and the Filidh. It is my opinion that the Ogham were used to instruct Druidic students in all aspects of the common knowledge or Coimgne. This book may also be independently used by those already familiar with techniques of divination (and the tales) as a sourcebook for interpreting and validating their own readings.

Within the following pages are discussions of musical theory, symbolic languages, magical pathworking, as well as several types of meditations and traditional ancient memory techniques. Any of these disciplines can be studied on its own as a guide in developing a greater level of personal skill and a deeper understanding of life in general. It is my recommendation that the greatest strength of the Druids is embraced when all of their techniques and knowledge are studied together within an integrated learning experience. This combination of separate studies is a confluence of knowledge that becomes a symbiotic tool of transformation for the willing student. A Druid is many skilled and capable, a fabric of interlocking threads and strong connections. A Druid's cloak contains as many colors as the knowledge that it encompasses. A Druid’s quest is a strand of many pathways and passages within and beyond life, a second awakening within life itself. A Druid is the truth at the crossroads of the Worlds.

Acknowledgements

This book came into being because my teachers would not permit me to do otherwise. I was required to develop and write this book so that Draíocht would once again be a gift of the living from the never dying. If I’d had a choice in the matter, I would have remained at the knee of one of my teachers to learn this wisdom the easy way. I would not have done the work and research that’s been required to learn by experimentation and investigation. Ease in learning was wishful thinking on my part. A great truth is that one part of wisdom is the experience that is gained by being immersed in a subject up to the elbows. Many times it is this hard work that pays the greatest rewards, if we will only go the extra mile in our efforts. The hard lesson is the lesson that is not forgotten.

I would like to thank my entire family for supporting me in a multitude of ways that are even now becoming known. I especially thank my parents Zeke and Dorothy DeVane for their patience and love. Without them I would be undone in many ways. I would also like to thank my second set of parents O.B and Eloise Cleveland for showing me that magic lives in the hearts and lives of everyone. I especially thank my wife Deborah O'Dubhain for manifesting me into her life through the guiding star of manifestation. In many ways she has been one of my greatest teachers. In a similar manner, my daughters Corinne and Lauren have shown me that youth can be the Cauldron of Age, as each of them shows me things about myself and themselves that span many lifetimes. In those lifetimes, I thank the beings who can walk between the worlds, bringing their golden light into the darkness. I thank my brothers and their families and the families that have existed these countless centuries to bring me to this point in existence. I thank those forbears who warded their own tribes and were inspired by the ancestors at Cnogba. I understand the dedication of the Red Hand and its sacrifice. I am proud of those who sought to unify the land of my ancestors and also those who fought to free the land of my birth.

There are others beyond family to thank for their examples and their inspirations. I thank Rilla Mouldin and Jehana Silverwing who insisted that I pursue a study and teaching of Celtic tradition and Ogham Divination. I also thank many a Bard and a Druid that I have met along the way in this study of learning. Some of them follow hawks within shadows, others are the Moon's shadow on horned wings, swiftly gliding the night. One might see through the eyes of a Bard upon a Tor, beyond illusion into spiritual realities, while others seek the gray steel of the wolf in truth and with relentless cunning. There is one who stands between the worlds and whose religious teachings span many pathways. There is another who is an Oak above kings. I hope to someday teach as each of you teach, in subtle ways, as a strong upholder of the truth that stands clearly among the world's many illusions. I especially dedicate this book to the many among the Wise who gave of themselves at Mona so that the world would listen to the Song of the Trees in the time of its own anguish. To that end, I dedicate the spirit of this book to Luna and her guardian Julia as they each battle to save us from the destructive ways of humankind against the green world of creation.

In the Beginning

(copyright 1995 by Searles ÓDubhain, all rights reserved)

I have used the Ogham to perform divinations for many years, since I first discovered them while pursuing my Celtic roots. I was fascinated by the secret writings of the Druids. Since that time, I have read every book on Ogham that I could find. I have a set of Ogham (made from 6000 year old "faerie" wood) that I use regularly and I have personally made several sets. In addition to my studies, I have used the Ogham to interpret dreams as well as to determine the future (for myself, as well as others). If I really need to know the truth of a situation and it is beyond conscious knowing, I turn to the ancient wood wisdom of the Druids to show me the way. This work presents what I have discovered about the Ogham, the self, the Cosmos and the Druid way.

In our pursuit of the wisdom and secret knowledge of the Druids, we are faced with many obstacles. Having incomplete accounts of their knowledge in what they left behind created most of these obstacles. The ancient Druids did not write their teachings into books or upon paper. They considered the mind to be stronger and more powerful than books, as they also considered the tongue to be sharper than the pen or the sword. If we are to recover their ancient knowledge and wisdom from the remnants that were recorded during the Middle Ages, we must become as the Druids of old, and relentlessly devote ourselves to a pursuit of truth and the attainment of a total awareness of the reality that surrounds us. The attitude of the Druids was best summed up by these words:

Come share a cup of mead with me from the Well of Wisdom. We shall go into the darkness of death, seeking truth upon the swift wings of the wind, and trusting in the silver splendor of our sharp, singing swords! May the mead of our speech become a spell of truth. Let us become new creatures of thought. Let our knowing become understanding. Let our understanding lead us to wisdom! An Fhirinne in Aghaid an t-Saoil! Let us become as Druids! We shall read the Ogham and foresee the future.

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The Stones Speak