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 Hi to all our members and friends, we hope you and yours are well. The Druí of Celtic Druid Temple will celebrate the Full Moon on Thursday the 25th of January at 8pm on the Hill of Tara in Co. Meath, at 8pm at Temple Crom in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon and at 7pm in Vienna, Austria. Our moonthly newsletter is now live and you can read it here.
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Hi, I was asked for an opinion on a recent find of a plank with Ogham carings - see the pic below, its about 8 foot long and recently found. My reply to a friend who follows that fb page was - In my opinion this Ogham Plank is a moderm movie or tourism prop. The “W” end which would represent the root or feet is symetrical showing it to be cut to be seen, i.e. on top and not in the ground where the root belongs according to the Book of Ballymote. Two modern scholars have translated the section of the Auraicept that tells us how to read Ogham. In the translation of Calder (1917): “This is their number: five Oghmic groups, i.e., five men for each group, and one up to five for each of them, that their signs may be distinguished. These are their signs: right of stem, left of stem, athwart of stem, through stem, about stem. Thus is a tree climbed, to wit, treading on the root of the tree first with thy right hand first and thy left hand after. Then with the stem, and against it and through it and about it.” In the translation of McManus (1988): “This is their number: there are five groups of ogham and each group has five letters and each of them has from one to five scores and their orientations distinguish them. Their orientations are: right of the stemline, left of the stem-line, across the stemline, through the stemline, around the stemline. Ogham is climbed as a tree is climbed.” The ‘root’ would be in the ground. The visible remaining steel screws (guess) suggest that it was fitted upside down and held in place by these screws attached to a ground scaffold of probably steel with the ‘roots’ in the air... Asking for advice on dendrochronology for dating would merely suggest the age of the wood and not the engraving on it. It is too thin with a neatly cut back with Ogham type symbols raised to be considered as ancient. The removal of wood to leave raised Ogham is a lot more work than the usual method of carving the symbols into the parent material - wood or stone... The alphabet is a mix of two types with one type using the leaning half line style. This is shown on the modified image with the comment. It looks good but it does not say anything. A movie or tourism prop that was discarded after use, nice find however.  Other pictures of this plank did show actual steel woodscrews...
 Our moonthly newsletter is live and can be read here. In this moonths newsletter we share our timing for our Imbolg ceremony and details of a new 6 week afternoon lecture series taking place at the Hemp Hall here at Celtic Druid Temple from Saturday the 17th of Febuary.
Here are the Sun, Moon and Star calendar charts that show us the Full and Dark Moon with the Eightfold Sun Year for 2024. After a lifetime of searching I have found the keys to setting the correct dates for what is often called the 'cross quarters'. This is an unfair term / name as it implies that the festivals of Imbolg, Beltine, Lughnasa agus Samhain fit into a Sun year by being a mathematical balance to the equinoxes and solstices. They are not calculated by interpolation or by using the catholic commercial calendar - each of these 4 festivals are calculated using the ‘heliacal setting’ of the Sun with one of the four bright Stars in the belt of the Zodiac. Heliacal means when the Sun is just below the horizon and a Star becomes visible just before sunrise. The Egyptians used the Heliacal Rising of the star called Sirius with the flooding of the Nile to set their calendar. The Hindu's use the Heliacal setting of the Sun with the Dark Moon and the same 4 bright stars as I have used in my calculations - they get different results because of longitude and latitude. They do not share their methodology but their Diwali is nearly always the same night as our Samhain. Heliacal usually refers to a star rising and being visible just before the brightness of the rising Sun hides that star in its glare but in this instance I will use it to refer to the setting Sun and Dark Moon being below the horizon and one of the four bright stars making an appearence before it too sets. This Dark Moon is the day after the Last Cresent of the Moon and the day before the First Cresent of the Moon - it is between these two Last and First cresents that there is a Dark Moon. This Sun, Dark Moon and one of the four bright stars making alignment to Earth is not fixed in time and not aligned to any temple. It is however a spectacular event in archaeoastronomy that can be seen as a moveable celebration / feast that cannot be controlled by the will of kings, emperors and priests. It is a lost part of a living calendar as used by our ancestors now returned to modern use. I now have this method of fixing the dates for our modern version of our indigenous calendar secure and I'll offer a specialised course to a limited number of students later this year. I will include this understanding in my next (currently being written) book entitled “Sacred Starlore of the Tuatha De Danannan”. I will also teach a Saturday class here that includes this topic during February and March - more info later. Pre-register at [email protected] subject ‘Wisdom in the Hemp Hall’.  Moon Year 2024 Chart Code From the left - Weekday: actual day of the week Example Monday, Tuesday etc Date: Day, Moonth, Year of the Gregorian commercial calendar 2024 Rise: Actual time of Moon Rise over Dublin / east coast Degree*: Degree on east horizon of Moon Rise. Example NE, E and SE Full: Time when the Moon is directly opposite the Sun @100% illumination Tara 20:00: At 8 pm on Tara shows the Degree to look to see the Moon. #Eclipses: Two partial eclipses visible over Ireland - 25/03/2024 and 19/09/2024  Sun Year 2024 Chart Code From the left - Imbolg: Festival aligned with Brigid, aka Fomalhaut In Piscis Australis Sun-7*: Sun is 7 degrees below horizon DMoon-10*: Dark Moon is 10 degrees below horizon Brigid+5*: Brigid is 5 degrees above Horizon Event: Time and degrees west for the Helical setting of Sun, Moon and Star. Rise 127*SE 8:36: Sun rises at 127 degrees to the south east at 8:36 HNoon: High Noon aka Sun exactly due south / true midday Set: Sun Set time MNight: Exact time of true midnight (12 hours after High Noon) Earrach: Spring Festival aligned with Crom, aka Hydra Earrach: Closest to equal day to night = 11 hours 59 minutes 55 seconds of daylight Beltine: Festival aligned with Bile, aka Alderbaran in Taurus. Event: Time and degrees west for the Helical setting of Sun, Moon and Star. Samhradh: Festival aligned with Aonbharr, aka Saggitarius Samhradh: Longest Day with 17 hours 00 minutes 12 seconds of day light Lughnasa: Festival aligned with Lugh, aka Shasllinnis in Leo Event: Time and degrees west for the Helical setting of Sun, Moon and Star. Fomhar: Autumn Festival aligned with Corra, aka Cygnus Fomhar: Closest to equal day to night = 11 hours 58 minutes 28 seconds of daylight Samhain: New year Festival aligned with Tlachtga, aka Antares in Scorpio Event: Time and degrees west for the Helical setting of Sun, Moon and Star. Geimhreadh: Festival aligned with Dagda aka Orion Geimhread: Shortest day with 7 hours 29 minutes 56 seconds of daylight # Partial Solar Eclipse 8 April visible over Ireland. Max 20:10 Duration 18 minutes. As always, edits, errors, corrections and comments welcome. Grá Con 07/01/2024 Hi Melanie, thank you for your comment / query. Yes, you are correct - the ‘Moon’ for Lughnasa should read Dark Moon - thank you for seeing this and informing me - I have corrected this. Yes you are correct again - the Dark Moon of Beltane will happen on the 8th of May, please see pic below. I made a miscalculation and thanks to your support I have now made the correction. For Beltane 2024 when the Sun is minus 7* below the horizon and the Dark Moon (under the Pleiades) is unlit by the Sun - Bile (Alderbaran) is +3* above the horizon we will get that magic illumination of the bright star at 312* NW during twilight from about 10 o’clock... I really appreciate your comment and your supportive polite manner of giving it. Grá Con  Where should we look to reclaim our stolen cultural treasures? I’m asking about the gifts our ancestors gave to us that were stolen and written out of our history, the magic source of connecting with the ways of our ancestors.  Where should we look to reclaim our stolen cultural treasures? I’m asking about the gifts our ancestors gave to us that were stolen and written out of our history, the magic source of connecting with the ways of our ancestors. Not inside the imperial literary tradition libraries - that much I was always sure of. Because what is given to us as Celtic and pre-Celtic mythology is in fact catholic mythology of the indigenous traditions and our ‘Pathways to connect with higher awareness’ were re-written to suit their alien episcopal agenda. Not in archaeology either with its Latin terminology / philosopy and its preoccupation with death and graves etc. Sitting inside ancient temples feeds our inner spirit but so many of these temples have been destroyed by robbers and by commercialisation for tourism profits that the energies are often contaminated.
I’ve looked for my whole life to find an uncontaminated connection to the indigenous ways of this island and have realised that it is only in the Realm of Sky that we still have the chance of finding such a pure connection. All their smoke and mirrors and misdirections cannot change what is alive and shining bright - we just have to look at the stars without the dark limited perceptions of those who would deny our connection to source. I have posted many images of the stars, sunsets, eclipses etc over the last few months because I have focused my research into the Relam of Sky and there is so much truth to be seen there. I reckon I have found the ancestral method for the true dating of Samhain, Imbolg, Beltine agus Lughnasa that our ancestors used. It is a scientific (i.e. repeatable) formula that uses the Sun, Moon and Stars at Sunset to plot the correct timing. What gets me about this is that I knew this ‘answer’ over 20 years ago but did not apply it! I have made a formula for use in calculation of the dates and I have found that the Hindu tradition uses the same / similar techniques. Their Diwali is our Samhain and the same dating techniques are used to determine the correct date/s for celebration. So this year I have created a Moon Year Calendar and Sun year Calendar using these methods. This will be online at https://www.celticdruidtemple.com/ soon. I will include this understanding in my next (currently being written) book entitled “Sacred Starlore of the Tuatha De Danannan”. I will also teach a Saturday class here that includes this topic during February and March - more info later. Pre-register at [email protected] subject ‘Wisdom in the Hemp Hall’. A blanket of heavy energy has been lifted off allowing all seekers to make their own connection and support those who wish to walk their own Path to the ways of the ancestors. The portals are through our sacred starlore but before you seek access let go of the all things that do not serve your spiritual alchemy to your highest expression. Be sure to bring your smile expressing your inner peace. Grá Con celticdruidtemple.com |
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