Celtic Wisdom Sticks: Ancient Ogam Symbols Offer Guidance for Today

by Caitlín Matthews

Celtic Wisdom Sticks is a powerful divination tool drawing on the ancient memory and wisdom of the trees and the culture of the Celts. By selecting different combinations of the sticks included with this pack and laying them out, readings can easily be made for yourself and your friends. These can be simple one-stick responses for everyday problems, or more complex readings which use all twenty sticks for more in-depth guidance. Four different ways of using the sticks are explained, along with a sample reading for each. Caitlin Matthews also explains the history and use of the ogam alphabet, one of the oldest known in the Western world. Further advice is given for phrasing questions to the oracle and interpreting the responses given. Guidance for working more freely with the system once you are familiar with the sticks will allow you to develop your own way of using the oracle.

Genres: Divination, Paganism, Nonfiction, Magic

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 28, 2001

About the author

Caitlín Matthews is a writer, singer and teacher whose ground-breaking work has introduced many to the riches of our western spiritual heritage.

She is acknowledged as a world authority on Celtic Wisdom, the Western Mysteries and the ancestral traditions of Britain and Europe. She is the author of over 50 books including Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom, a study of Divine Feminine in Gnostic, Jewish and Christian thought and King Arthur’s Raid on the Underworld, a new translation and study of the Welsh poet Taliesin’s extraordinary poem, itself a major cross-roads of British mythology.

Caitlín was trained in the esoteric mystery traditions through the schools founded by Dion Fortune, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and Gareth Knight. Her shamanic vocation emerged early in her ability to sing between the worlds and to embody spirits. She has worked in many of the western traditions with companions upon the path including R.J.Stewart. Like him, she teaches the many strands of the ancestral European traditions. She specializes in teaching traditional European spirit-consultation oracles where the diviner draws directly upon the spirits of nature for answers and in the use of the voice to sound the unseen. Caitlín has been instrumental in revealing the ancestral heritage of the Western traditions through practical exploration of the mysteries as well as through scholarly research. Her teachings are couched in a firm historical and linguistic framework, with respect to the original context of the teachings, but never loses sight of the living traditions of these teachings which can be explored through direct application to their spiritual sources.

Trained as an actress, Caitlín is in demand as a storyteller and singer. She appears frequently on international radio and television, and was the song-writer and Pictish language originator for the Jerry Bruckheimer film King Arthur. With John Matthews, her partner, who was historical consultant on the film, she shared in the 2004 BAFTA award given to Film Education for the best educational CD Rom: this project introduced school-children to the life and times of King Arthur. She and John are both concerned with the oral nature of storytelling and its ability to communicate the myth at a much deeper level than of the commercial booktrade. This is apparent in their forthcoming project, The Story Box. For Caitlín, her books are merely the tip of a much bigger oral iceberg which is her teaching.

With her partner, John Matthews, and with Felicity Wombwell , she is co-founder of The Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies, which is dedicated to the sacred arts that are not written down. Their FíOS shamanic training programme teaches students the healing arts as well as hosting masterclasses with exemplars of living sacred traditions. Caitlín has a shamanic practice in Oxford dedicated to addressing soul sickness and ancestral fragmentation, as well as helping clients find vocational and spiritual direction. Her soul-singing and embodiment uniquely bring the ancient healing traditions to everyday life.

Caitlín’s other books include Singing the Soul Back Home, Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain, The Psychic Protection Handbook, and Celtic Devotional. She is co-author, with John Matthews, of the Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom and Encyclopaedia of Celtic Myth and Legend. Her books have been translated into more than nineteen languages from Brazil to Japan.

The author lives in Oxford with her husband and son in a kind of book-cave or library, whichever you will. They share their home with a white cat and a black cat.

Reviews

[Tami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Celtic Wisdom Sticks is a divination package that includes 21 wooden sticks. Twenty of these pieces are trimmed and inscribed with one distinct ogam symbol. For convenience for those just learning the different symbols, each ogam wood also includes the icon's name. The final stick is called an indicator stick and contains four symbols, one on each side of the stick. These markings are for the four cardinal directions. Used together, each ogam wood can have four very different interpretations based upon the cardinal result of the indicator stick.

Celtic Wisdom Sticks are not really suitable for those wanting to play at fortune telling. There are no cute answers or entries about winning love or gaining material possessions. Instead, these tools are best used for gaining insight and guidance for personal growth and understanding of one's self or life path.

[Emilious Tarr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent guide for those new to divination, or even to the experienced who are new to the Ogam. I was able to find the set in like new condition by shopping around, I feel I got my money's worth at $30, but I would not recommend the over $200 US Dollar price tag for a new set advertised on Amazon. It came with the book, 21 sticks and a burlap bag, all were exactly as described. I suspect most people will want to get additional references, the good news is that there is a list of additional readings at the end of the boot that provides a good jumping off point.

(edited 10/12/2015 to correct typos)

[Lilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not too keen on Caitlín's meanings in the book nor the forfeda stick included with the set, but as for a decent set of sticks to read and learn ogam with, this is fairly handy. I would just supplement it with more reading to get a better idea on the meanings, kennings and associations.