Tree Alphabet Oracle Cards

 

I'm going to double up on my tree alphabet to make an oracle deck, so each letter has two cards. I'll do the artwork and a little booklet with the tree information and rune connections. I'm thinking that the artwork will be a large landscape of the valley, and the cards will fit on top, so each card's landscape will have the background of the larger picture. For example, the willow tree background will fit in along the waterway that flows through the valley.

It now looks like this, lol:

Letter          Celtic tree                My tree #1                         My tree #2

B                    Birch                   Paper Birch                          River Birch

L                   Rowan                Rowan (Mtn Ash)                     Cascara 

F                     Alder                       Alder                                     Larch

S                   Willow                     Willow                              Pussy Willows

N                     Ash                      Red Ash                                   Maple

____

H              Hawthorn                  Rosehips                               Thimbleberry

D                  Oak                     Garry Oak                                 Chestnut

T                  Holly                   Oregan Grape                           Snowberry

C                 Hazel                    Beaked Hazel                          Black Walnut

Q                 Apple                         Apple                               Pacific crabapple

____

M                Vine                        Purple Vetch                          Pink Vetch

G              Ivy (bramble)               Raspberry                           Salmonberry

Ng              Fern/Reed                    Bracken                               Horsetails 

Z              Blackthorn(sloe)        Canada Plum                          Saskatoon

R                 Elder                          Elderberry                         High Cranberry

____

A               Fir                            Douglas Fir                                 Cedar

O             Furze                          Juniper                                       Thistle

U            Heather                     Strawberry                                   Clover                                   

E              Aspen                         Aspen                                     Cottonwood

I                Yew                            Yew                                         Hemlock

____

EA           Poplar Grove          Poplar Grove                            

OI            Spindle                 Red Osier Dogwood                    Fire Cherry

UI            Honeysuckle            Honeysuckle                            Yerba Buena

IA            Gooseberry              Gooseberry                                 Currant

AE           Witch Hazel              Fireweed                                    Lupine

P               Pine                            Pine                                       Ponderosa

                 

Blue Meadow - Persephone's Boundaries

 Now that Persephone is ready to connect with people, she needs some boundaries. 

Persephone will use the boundaries here in the Blue Meadow, and instead of ignoring Artemis's struggles in the Yellow Meadow, Persephone will take them to Artemis when she calls so they can work together in both the yellow and blue meadows.

This is a work in progress, as always, but here is what I have come up with so far, all of which ultimately affects her connections with others, even the boundaries that have lots of internal work. Most of them have the same format:

1. Nyx and Hemara help Persephone with fears of Pandeia (cPTSD).

2. Identify the problem and which boundary is needed - Persephone, as her more confident Queen persona, does this step.

3. Reframe my thinking / positive self-talk - Artemis and her dogs come to help Persephone manage the emotions.

4. Clarify the situation and the boundary, convey that the limit is reached and what I need, do the work - Athena and Inyx share this step.

5. Hold the boundary - Pallas.

6. Recover - the 3 charities and their Mom from Step 6 of the Apology Bridge.

Athena and Pallas were raised together as warriors by Pallas's father Triton, son of Poseidon. Athena is the sister of Persephone, and they often spent time together. She is the goddess of war so she is my choice for using strategies and negotiating and keeping a level head during conversations. Pallas is fierce and will hold the boundary when they experience push-back.

Inyx is an oread, a mountain nymph. 'Iynx' means 'that which attracts the spirit to desire and love'. She invented a magical love-charm known as the iynx--a spinning wheel with a wryneck bird attached. The Wryneck is a migratory bird, traveling long distances to reach its breeding grounds. It navigates using a combination of celestial cues, such as the position of the sun and stars, and landmarks on the ground. This remarkable ability to navigate across vast distances will be needed as Inyx helps Athen navigate conversations so that love is the goal, not defeating the other person and making them do what you want.

Blue Meadow - The First Step

I've been working hard to sort out my Blue Meadow now that my Green Journey through Overwhelm has made me feel safe enough to try working on some of the really hard things - conversation, communication, connection, and relationships; allowing others to express their emotions and opinions; not ignoring, avoiding, withdrawing, isolating. 

Just like Persephone had to master her fear of Cerberus (my PTSD) before she could take her first step towards accepting emotions, here she needs to master her fear of talking to people (my cPTSD) before she can take the first step to connect with the people around her.

So it's going to go like this:

1 - Persephone is trapped in the Underworld by her fear, but not in Hypnos's cave so she has not left life completely. She is trapped and avoiding the things she fears but she is with Nyx and Hemara, who live together near Hypnos's cave. Nyx is night, and Hemara, who is Nyx's, daughter, is day. They meet each other twice a day as one goes out and the other comes in at dawn and twilight. 

2 - Nyx mothers Persephone, and reminds her that she is a Queen. When Persephone is ready, Hemara takes her on a shortcut out of Hell. They meet Pandeia (my cPTSD), the daughter of Selene and goddess of the full moon, and spend a little time with her. She helps the girls uncover the truth of how cPTSD works, Persephone moves past her fear a little bit, and the two girls can continue on the shortcut to the Blue Meadow.

3 - Once in the Blue Meadow, Artemis comes to help Persephone. Hemara says goodbye and continues on her daytime travels through the sky, bringing the sunrise to the world as she ascends. 

4 - Now that Persephone has faced her fear she is ready to take the first step toward starting a conversation or initiating an interaction. This will be the Phoenix - the rebirth of the courage to try to connect again after each time Persephone dissociates due to fear. This will probably happen multiple times a day until the fear begins to fade.

My Backyard Ogham Tree Alphabet

Image: Ogham Grove entwined pentagrams (Celtic Ogham Tree Alphabet) by Yuri Leitch, fineartamerica.com. This picture depicts the Evergreen Pentagram entwined with the Rose Queen Pentagram. This is a beautiful, Venusian, pattern formed by the Ogham trees in their traditional sequence. Yew (corresponding with winter solstice) sits at the top of the dark green pentagram; and Apple (corresponding with summer solstice) sits at the botttom of the golden pentagram. This is just one of many wonderful patterns to be found in the Ogham Grove.

We don't have all of the Celtic Alphabet trees here, so I have changed some out for trees that are native to BC to make my personal tree alphabet. Since many people have told me their different ideas of what to include in the Kootenay Tree Alphabet, I am going to just use the ones I have in my backyard. Not only will I be able to visit them every day, but I can justify my choices a little easier, lol.

I'll be going deeper into each tree, but for now I've decided on the following:

B - Celtic: Birch. Mine: Birch

L - Celtic: Rowan. Mine: Rowan (our native rowan trees are called Rocky Mountain Ash).

F - Celtic: Alder. Mine: Western Larch, which loses its leaves like a deciduous tree and is super common where I live (I have no Alders near me).

S - Celtic: Willow. Mine: Pussy Willow.

N - Celtic: Ash. Mine: Rocky Mountain Maple. Ash is not native here but Maple trees are, and they both have helicopter seeds.

________

H - Celtic: Whitethorn (Hawthorn). Mine: wild rosehips, a thorny shrub with red fruits because we don't have the thorny hawthorn trees here.

D- Celtic: Oak. Mine: Western Red Cedar instead of the oak trees we don't have here. Cedar is the most important tree in the Indigenous way of life on the Pacific coast, and we have cedar here as well, such as these ones.

T - Celtic: Holly. Mine: Oregon Grape, our local prickly leaves since we don't have holly.

C - Celtic: Hazel. Mine: Saskatoon since we don't have hazel trees - and the berries are just as amazing in their own way as hazel nuts are.

Q - Celtic: Apple. Mine: Pacific Crab Apple, our native apple tree. The wild turkeys LOVE eating the crabapples in my backyard tree, lol. They have even begun roosting in the trees near my house just so they can be close to it.

____

M - Celtic: Vine. Mine: Vetch, a native peavine that fills the fields and roadsides where I walk with the goats.

G - Celtic: Ivy. Mine: common snowberry - it grows in the fields, the goats love them, and they have berries - all of which ivy has. Ivy is not native to BC, but snowberry is.

Ng - Celtic: Fern. Mine: Bracken, a type of fern native to BC and one that fills the goat's field.

St - Celtic: Blackthorn (Sloe). Mine: Canada Plum, a very thorny tree native to the area. We have a bunch in the goat's field. 

R - Celtic: Elder. Mine: We call it Elderberry, and we have them over here as well.

____

A - Celtic: Fir. Mine: Douglas Fir. I love the cones, they look like little mice are hiding inside with their tails peeking out.

O - Celtic: Furze. Mine: Common Juniper is a prickly bush similar to furze, which we don't have here.

U - Celtic: Heather. Mine: Fireweed. Heather grows in BC but generally in the sub-alpine meadows. Fireweed is the same color and grows everywhere here.

E - Celtic: Aspen. Mine: Trembling Aspen.

I - Celtic: Yew. Mine: Western Hemlock instead of yew. It still has the poison connection (the tree is not actually poisonous like the hemlock plant, but don't tell, lol) and our Yew is in Eastern Canada and so not around here so much. 

____

Ea - Celtic: Poplar. Mine: Black Cottonwoods. Cottonwoods are poplars and I have tons along the creek behind my house.

Ia - Celtic: Gooseberry. Mine: Black Gooseberry, native to BC and one of the parents of Jostaberries (I have Jostaberries in my garden).

Ui - Celtic: Honeysuckle. Mine: Northwest Honeysuckle, native to BC and my neighbour has one that grows over the fence between us.

Oi - Celtic: Spindle Tree. Mine: Red Osier Dogwood. No spindle trees here, but tons of beautiful red dogwood.

Ae - Celtic: Witch Hazel (twin of hazel). Mine: Fire Cherry. Both the native Fire Cherry and Saskatoon are part of the rose family, and so could be considered twins.

P - Celtic: Pine. Mine: Pine.

Kootenay Ogham Trees

 My Mom is teaching me how to read tea-leaves. When she was young, her Grandmother read tea-leaves to her. I checked in our geneology photo album and my Grandma Weaver came from Scotland. After her mother died when she was twelve, in 1901, she went to work in a teacup factory, and maybe learned more about tea-reading there. Some of her Scottish ancestors came from Fearn, which is right at the top of Scotland. There are tons of stories of spae-wives and witches from there, and lots of Norse and Old Celtic beliefs. Spae-wives are herbalists, healers, and fortune-tellers.

Researching Fearn led me down another rabbit-hole - I've been reading all about the Celtic Ogham Tree Alphabet, and came across a couple of alphabets made by people in the States, using trees more common to their area. 

I was inspired to make my own with trees from where I live because I have just discovered my own 'sacred grove' on my mother's farm - a Grandmother Poplar Tree, sending out suckers from her roots, now stands with her sons and daughters in a perfect circle around her:

I'll be working on the Kootenay Alphabet for the next while, choosing trees and making cards so I can make an oracle deck.

I'll do them in 5 batches, as the letters are split into 4 'aicmi' (families) and 1 'forfeda' (additional letters).

A Connection Reading

 I'm still obsessing over connecting with my kids but not actually doing anything.

I did a reading with Maia Toll's Wild Wisdom Late Winter season and oracle cards, in a spread that is similar to the Mah Jongg oracle spread. It was surprisingly helpful - giving some structure, which I feel like I need, lol.

Her Late Winter season starts with a ritual of planting seeds of intention. I have planted some peas, and I may plant something else, but as I tend the seeds, I'm to tend my intention to connect. 

I'm thinking that when I check the peas each day, I will also send a text. When I water the peas, I will send an email. When I put them on the windowsill to sit in the sun for a bit, I will send a photo.

**Update: I have sent a text and an email this week already, so definitely found the structure I needed!

The next thing in the book is 'tending the flame' - the spark of creation (or wanting to connect) is not enough, one must blow on the spark ever so gently to build it into a flame. 

Again, a clear message that I need to DO things to keep the flame alive, to keep the connection going. Relationships require work, continual little actions that show you care. 

The crystal for this season is Mica. The one part of all she wrote about Mica that resonated with me was the bit where she says that Mica can handle heat - including the heat of anger. Something that holds me back is fear of both my anger and other's anger. I will have to have some Mica on hand to remind myself that I can handle it.

The spread started with a center card - one that had been left behind during the shuffling phase so when I found it I assumed that the universe was telling me that this one was important. It was the Hearth card, meaning center, community, nourishing relationships, protection. Ties in with the 'feeding the flame', doing acts of connection. Another affirmation that this is something that I need to do.

I just put one card in each of the 4 directions, instead of the traditional 3 cards in each spot when doing a Mah Jongg oracle reading.

In the East position, the personality position, I had The Maker card, from the Late Winter season. It's about interacting with the physical world, creatively. I do totally DO things if I'm comfortable, passionate about it (like my goddess project or oracle readings), or I need to help someone. So I CAN do connection things if I remember this.

In the South position, what will happen in the near future from present circumstances, I had the Seed card, from the Late Winter season. She writes that the seed is sent out by the mother plant with a love letter that says "I see you clearly. I have faith in you. This is what you will become." And to grow, the seed needs to have sunlight and water - what do my kids need to grow, what does the connection need to grow? What is the sunlight and water in this case? With the structure from the peas/intentionality, and the love letter, I think that the connections will blossom.

In the West position, the obstacles, I had The Sun card - the summer solstice. The book warns that many give up before they master the lessons they have learned. In my case, I learn many things but I give up before I put them into practice. I NEED to take action.

In the North position, the future, I had The Harvest card. Here it says that the hard work, the careful tending, the many little things you do will come to fruition, and to savor the results of your labors. I can feel the love already, lol. 

So, all in all, a very positive reading and a kick in the butt to get going. 

Today I am the Goat Shepherd

 I have been super busy lately. My Mom had a bad spell and I've taken over her farm chores and the making of dinners for the next while until we have test results back and she is less tired all the time.

It's been great for getting me outside - every morning I take the goats and dogs out to the field and sit while the goats graze and the dogs dig and run and bark.

I wrote my first poem in a long time:

Today I am the goat shepherd

on my Mother's farm.

I walk the muddy paths,

the herd trailing along behind me.

I bask in the first warm sunny day of February.

We all stop to lift our heads,

so that we feel the sun on our faces.

We rummage around in the melting snow

for the first signs of Spring:

- trickling water

- bits of green grass

- the smell of wet soil

- birdsong all around us

I stop in the poplar grove,

cuddled between the trunks of the trees.

I look up to see their branches

intertwined above me,

nestling me in their arms.

I have found a sanctuary for my soul in this field, 

held close in the embrace of the trees,

surrounded by peaceful animals,

and warm sunlight,

and new life.

My heart fills with the wonder

of the world around me.

I recall the words of Heȟáka Sápa (Black Elk), 

a Sioux holy man.

"Perhaps you have noticed 

that even in the very lightest breeze

you can heat the voice 

of the cottonwood tree; 

this we understand

is it's prayer to the Great Spirit, 

for not only men,

but all things and all beings

pray to Him continually

in differing ways."