Celtic Month of Trees

1. The Month Of The Reed - October 28 - November 24 -

The Ogham: Ngetal
Although not a tree but a grassy plant, it's associated with Samhain.
The Reed Moon says winter is approaching. It's a month to turn our energies toward hearth and home. And it symbolizes fidelity family, and trust.
Reeds are burned to honor household spirits and the Great Spirits. It can also be associated with the family or Traditions deity. A broken reed is often seen as a family betrayed, or indicates a member has betrayed their family.
Reeds may be placed throughout the home, especially around the gathering area. Be that the hearth or kitchen, it's designed to bring the blessings of unity to your family.
It's characteristics include spiritual progress, hunger for truth, introspection and protection.

2. The Month Of The Elder - November 25 - December 22 -

The Ogham: Ruis
The Elder Moon represents the darkest days of the year.
The day after the end of the Elder Moon month, before the start of the Birch Moon, is no month at all, but an “in between” day. The Nameless Day: December 23. Some see this as the actual day of the Gods rebirth. Where the 12 Days of Yule are divided into sections, 3 for the Maiden Goddess, 3 for the Mother Goddess, and the last 3 for the Crone Goddess. The rebirth of the God from his sacrificed death during Lammas occurs the day after the 3 days of honoring the Mother Goddess, on December 23rd.
The Elder Moon’s characteristics include death and regeneration, the Mother phase of the Goddess, wisdom, transformation, and the Underworld. Indicative of the Gods rebirth.
The Elder tree shows the path through the maze, the spiral path that leads within, and the meeting place where birth and death are one.

3. The Month Of The Birch - December 24 - January 20 -

The Ogham: Beth
The birch tree is a totem tree of Celtic shamans. It is seen as the “World Tree,” the axis upon which the universe spins upon.
It's long been associated with the Winter Solstice.
The first to sprout up on new ground at the edge of the wood, the Birch breaks down the soil so that the less hardy trees can spread their roots and thrive after the cold of winter.
Characteristics associated with the birch include fertility, inception, conception, cleansing, purification, birth and rebirth.
The twigs of a witch's broom are most often made of birch which is thought to remove energetic garbage, or unwanted energies from any sacred space.

4. The Month Of The Rowan - January 21 - February 17 -

The Ogham: Luis
Also know as the Mountain Ash, it's a tool often used for divination. Collect rowan sprigs during the Rowan Moon to charge divination exercises.
The Druids inscribed symbols onto rowan rods. These were scattered about as a question was asked, and the varied patterns created by the fallen sticks determined the answer.
This tree is also associated with the festival for Imbolc. It's a member of the apple family, and if you cut across the berries horizontally, a tiny, pentagram-shaped seed container will be revealed.
The Rowan’s characteristics are protection, magick, intuition, a protector against enchantment, and as a guard of the sacred gateways into the Otherworld.
Leafy twigs, bound with red ribbon were often placed in stables and paddocks to protect livestock.

5. The Month Of The Ash - February 18 - March 17 -

The Ogham: Nuin
To the Celts, the Ash represents balance, spiritual knowledge and wisdom. The ash is a strong wood, and even its most slender limbs are hard to break.
When an ash is cut, it releases a red sap resembling blood. Thus it's often associated with the energy of life.
Because the characteristics of the Ash include spiritual knowledge and wisdom it's a great source to use for a Magickal wand.

To make your wand, begin your search before the Ash Moon. When you find a limb you like, ask the tree if you can have it, or for permission to cut it and take it for your wand. Once you've been given the limb, peal away the bark, sand it as desired and then dress it with a light coat of purifying olive oil. Once the oil is absorbed, typically 3 days, decorate the wand. To consecrate the wand as a tool for personal energy, representing the center of creation, dedicate it under the full Ash Moon. Visualize yourself at the center of the universe and ask the moon’s blessing upon the wand. Hold the wand high and see it as a conduit though which the Divine energy can pass through now and when ever used in future magick rituals.

Ash is also used for the shaft of a witch’s broom stick.
In Norse mythology Yggdrasil was a Great Ash Tree, also known as the Tree of Life.

The wide-spreading roots of the Ash are said to extend to various regions of the world. Such as the land of Giants, the land of Men and the land of the Dead.

6. The Month Of The Alder - March 18 - April 14 -

The Ogham: Fearn
The psychically potent alder tree has been used to summon spirits from the Otherworld and to bring about desired weather patterns, particularly storms or rain.
The Alder represents defense and protection, yet it has a watery intuitive side as well. It's thought to bring spiritual perception and is associated with the Celtic God Bran the Blessed and his raven.
European folklore recommends the alder trees must never be cut or their power will return to the ground. If you find a small alder branch that has fallen to the earth, it's a great gift from the tree. So decorate it as a wand and consecrate it to use in weather rituals.

Choose a sunny day during the alder moon to consecrate a weather wand. Mimic the sound of the wind by swishing the wand quickly through the air. Empower it to summon the wind or rain. But be careful how you use your wand. While the wind can be used to summon spirits from the 4 directions, it can also be destructive. And while the rain can be used to purify, it can also be used to drown and wash away more than desired.

7. The Month Of The Willow - April 15 - May 12 -

The Ogham: Saille
The Willow Moon is a time to heal spiritual and physical ills. Like the willow, we can bend much more than we realize, without breaking, and then bounce back again, renewed and ready to go forward.
The willow tree has been used for many Magickal rituals through out the ages. It has long been known as a healer of great power.
It's characteristics denote clairvoyance, intuition and balanced emotions.

8. The Month Of The Hawthorn - May 13 - June 9 -

The Ogham: Huath
Hawthorn, or whitethorn, is associated with the festival of Bealtaine and fairies.
Both Celts and Wiccans believe it's unlucky to bring hawthorn blossoms indoors. The only time one should break or cut hawthorn branches is on Bealtaine Eve to bring the fertility of the tree and it's blossoms into the Bealtaine ritual.
The Hawthorn is associated with the bridal link of the Maiden Goddess and her uninhibited sexuality, typical of spring.

9. The Month Of The Oak - June 10 - July 7 -

The Ogham: Duir
Oak is often associated with the summer solstice. It's characteristics represents strength, endurance, fortitude, fatherhood, the God and loyalty.
The oak tree is also the “door” between the light and dark halves of the year. The oaken doorway is a gateway to the Otherworld. Often used as protection for the door between the safety of home and hearth and the outside world. A practice still used today.
The oak is sacred to the Druids because of its tendency to attract lightening, survive the strikes, and regenerate afterwards. It's also symbolic of male potency in the form of mistletoe. Even in the dormancy of winter, this new life sprouts from its branches with berries of white that symbolize the semen of the Lord of the Forest.
The Oak Moon can be used to renew commitments to deities, spiritual path or between partners.

10. The Month Of The Holly - July 8 - August 4 -

The Ogham: Tinne
The Holly tree guards the door to the inner realms and is associated with Lammas.
It's characteristics include courage, war-like instinct, male sexuality and male energy. Perfect for the battle between the 2 king of the year.
Just as the Holly and Oak kings battled at Yule, they again battle for supremacy now; but this time it's the Holly King, God of the Waning year, who wins the fight.

11. The Month Of The Hazel - August 5 - September 1 -

The Ogham: Coll
The hazel tree is used for making divining rods, for protection from storms and as emblems of authority for Druid priests.
The tree was seen as feminine in nature and with the Hazel Moon falling at the end of autumn it came to represent the growing wisdom as the Goddess gradually grows from living mother to wise old crone.
Hazel is associated with mental alertness, quickness, agility, calculation and measurement, divination, poetry and creativity.
Dowsing rods are typically made from hazel wood. They are used to find both water and ley energy.

12. The Month Of The Vine - September 2 - September 29 -

The Ogham: Muin
The Vine Moon bridges the Autumn Equinox and takes us into the dark time of the year. Therefore many associate the vine with looking inward to find the creativity within ourselves.
The vine is associated with the festivals of Mabon and the Autumn Equinox. Its characteristics include prophecy, psychic development, tenacity, unification and ecstasy.

13. The Month Of The Ivy - September 30 - October 27 -

The Ogham: Gort
Although not a tree, ivy is so resilient and strong that it's used as a binding tool in many Magickal systems.
Ivy may be used to exorcise that which we wish to banish or to unite like-minded people. It has been used during hand fasting celebrations to bind the wrists of partners, and to show them that even the ties that bind can be flexible.
Ivy is often burned as a tool for banishment or closure at the end of rituals, to remove any energies that maybe left over or unwanted.
There is great wisdom in ivy, and it's one of the plants most sacred to the Goddess. Places where ivy grows in abundance are said to be filled with her dark, enthralling mystery.