📖 Spells8 Book Club XXXVIII (May 3 - 31)

Activities
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What a lovely way to end the day and welcome the night. You have a beautiful practice going, @BlueAngelite! :candle: :open_book: :sparkles:

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22

How are everyone’s books so far? Hope you’re enjoying them :books: :blush:

It’s time for a friendly reminder!

:grey_exclamation: The current reading period will conclude in one week from today (on Friday, May 31) :grey_exclamation:

A Reader’s Review post will appear in the forums at that time for everyone to share their thoughts and hear all about what your fellow coven members have been reading.

I’m looking forward to hearing about your books- happy reading and blessed be! :open_book: :sparkles:

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23

I forgot to add my book! Lol added now, and already finished reading it! Got a new tarot deck and couldnt wait to dig in!

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I changed my book in mid stream my ancestors wanted me to finish this one first

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i will read the other one next month
The Ancestral Power of Amulets, Talismans, and Mascots** by Nigel PennicK

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I’ve got distracted, again. :person_facepalming: I have too many books. Need to focus :rofl:

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@Kiara_Astra No worries at all - sounds like you really enjoyed it! :blush: :heart: And hooray for the new deck, I hope it’s a fun one for you! :flower_playing_cards: :sparkles:

@celineelise Ohhh the Ogam book looks amazing! @MeganB, did you see this? :star_struck: :sparkles: It looks like something you would enjoy (if you haven’t read it already!)

@tracyS Goodness do I know the feeling :handshake: :laughing: Too many books, never enough time to enjoy them all! :books:

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Don’t mind me just adding another book to my TBR list :sweat_smile: thank you because I totally missed it!

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This book is awesome. I beleve it is out of print so look for a used copy… I am probably not gonna finish since our deadline is today :upside_down_face: oh well. I will have review for you all soon…
I gonna go easy on myself and say that I have done alot of other great magical :sparkles: work this month. So :books: reading has not been my focus…
There is always next month!!!
@MeganB do you know of a good book that includes the newer staves that are the 5th that has cherry maple and grove in it? I have a deck and it has no descriptions and this book he has the 4 treasures not the 5th staves.

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No worries on not finishing the book - you can always carry it over to next session! I have to do that all the time since it takes me forever to read a book because of everything I have going on :laughing:

So, the newer staves are the forfeda - the fifth aicme. They’re not used all the time, so I’m not surprised your book doesn’t have them. The book I have for learning ogham is called Weaving Word Wisdom by Erynn Rowan Laurie. It does have the forfeda in it, but the trees of cherry and maple aren’t included. Neither is grove.

The feda themselves are intertwined with the sacred trees in Irish Brehon Law. Among those, cherry and maple don’t appear.

more on the 28 Trees

A text called Bretha Comaithchesa, which means ‘judgements of neighbourhood’, specifically regulated how Irish society dealt with harm done to trees. Damage to an especially valuable tree such as an oak or yew was a more serious offence than to a less prized tree, so 28 principal trees and shrubs are divided into four classes, with different rules applied to each group.

The 28 Principal Irish Trees

The most valuable and noble are the airig fedo – ‘lords of the wood’.

  • Dair ‘oak’ (Quercus robur, Quercus petraea)
  • Coll ‘hazel’ (Corylus avellana)
  • Cuilenn ‘holly’ (Ilex aquifolium)
  • Ibar ‘yew’ (Taxus baccata)
  • Uinnius ‘ash’ (Fraxinus excelsior)
  • Ochtach ‘Scots pine’ (Pinus sylvestris)
  • Aball ‘wild apple-tree’ (Malus pumila)

Then the aithig fhedo – ‘commoners of the wood’.

  • Fern ‘alder’ (Alnus glutinosa)
  • Sail ‘willow, sally’ (Salix caprea, Salix cinerea)
  • ScĂŠ ‘whitethorn, hawthorn’ (Crataegus monogyna)
  • CĂĄerthann ‘rowan, mountain ash’ (Sorbus aucuparia)
  • Beithe ‘birch’ (Betula pubescens, Betula pendula)
  • Lem ‘elm’ (Ulmus glabra)
  • Idath ‘wild cherry’ (Prunus avium)

The fodla fedo are the ‘lower divisions of the wood’.

  • Draigen ‘blackthorn’ (Prunus spinosa)
  • Trom ‘elder’ (Sambucus nigra)
  • FĂŠorus ‘spindle-tree’ (Euonymus europaeus)
  • Findcholl ‘whitebeam’ (Sorbus aria)
  • Caithne ‘arbutus, strawberry tree’ (Arbutus unedo)
  • Crithach ‘aspen’ (Populus tremula)
  • Crann fir ‘juniper’ (Juniperus communis)

And least valuable are the losa fedo – ‘bushes of the wood’.

  • Raith ‘bracken’ (Pteridium aquilinum)
  • Rait ‘bog-myrtle’ (Myrica gale)
  • Aitenn ‘furze, gorse, whin’ (Ulex europaeus, Ulex gallii)
  • Dris ‘bramble’ (Rubus fruticosus aggregate)
  • FrĂłech ‘heather’ (Calluna vulgaris, Erica cinerea)
  • Gilcach ‘broom’ (Sarothamnus scoparius)
  • SpĂ­n ‘wild rose’ (Rosa canina)

Sacred Irish Trees - Lora O'Brien - Irish Author & Guide

The forfeda are generally associated with the following trees (taken from Weaving Word Wisdom)

  • Ebad – elecampane, woodbine, or aspen
  • Ór – spindle tree or heather
  • Uillend – ivy, woodbine, or honeysuckle
  • PĂ­n – pine or gooseberry
  • Emancholl – witch hazel

You’ll be hard-pressed to find any substantial information about the forfeda, especially if you’re looking for historical sources. While there are some, the information available about them isn’t nearly as abundant as the first four aicme. It is thought that the forfeda were added to the Ogham alphabet slowly over time to account for different sounds that Old Irish scholars thought were missing.

Since not everyone uses the forfeda for divination or magic, I’m not surprised. It’s interesting, though, that your deck has the four treasures! I’ve never seen a deck that also includes those! They’re not generally used for divination at all but I can see how including them in an oracle deck can be beneficial.

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30

Thanks for the help and clarification. I appreciate you.
The four treasures arein the book that i am reading not in my deck…
I have this deck

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31

Hooray for enabling! :joy: :handshake:

It looked like something that would be right up your alley! :blush: :open_book:

Well said! I’m with you and Megan - no need to rush a book. Books are so wonderfully patient with us. And it is always okay to continue a book into the next reading session! :books: :grinning:

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Today marks the end of this reading period!

A discussion will soon open up in the forum for everyone to share their thoughts and swap book reviews :open_book:

Please keep an eye on the forums for the soon-to-appear post! :eyes:

:exclamation: The few wonderful reviews already posted here have since been re-homed in the Readers’ Reviews post to make them easier to find!

magic books
Gif from Tenor

Didn’t finish your book or just got started ? No worries!

Feel free to share your thoughts so far and chime in on the reviews that your fellow coven members have shared. You may find a recommendation for a new book! :open_book:

After a one-week review period, the next reading session will begin: Next Friday, June 7 . Feel free to continue reading your current book into the next session or start a brand new book at that time!

Happy reading and reviewing! :books::blush:

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This reading session has closed- thank you to everyone who joined in! If you have a book review or comments to share, please do so in the open Reader’s Review post in Activities : 📝 Spells8 Book Club XXXVIII - Readers' Reviews!