Ogham Study Group – Luis

Luis

Name: Luis
Pronunciation: Lwee
Sound: L
Tree: Rowan/Mountain Ash (Sorbus aucuparia or Pyrus aucuparia)
Few: two stroke to the right or down from the stemline
Tree web site: http://www.2020site.org/trees/rowan.html

The Rowan tree is also known as the Mountain Ash. This tree has long been connected to magic and protection. An old protection spell included the phrase “rowan tree and red thread”. The rowan tree is native to Britain, Ireland, and other locations. It has distinctive red berries in the fall. The berries have a small five-pointed star opposite the stem. This pentagram symbol is an ancient symbol of protection. Norse runes were often made from a branch of a rowan tree. Branches for this tree were also used for divining metal. Rowan trees are often planted in churchyards to protect and guard the spirits of the dead. The Rowan tree represents the second month of the Celtic calendar (December).

Meaning:
Protection, sanctuary, safety, shield, precaution.

Reversed:
Danger, vulnerability, defenses are down

Delight of eye is Mountain Ash owing to the beauty of its berries.
Word Ogham of Morainn mac Moin; Rowan is delight of eye, quicken-tree; to wit, the flame.
Word Ogham of Cu Chulainn; Rowan is the strength of cattle, the elm.
Word Ogham of Oengus; Rowan is the friend of cattle

To draw Luis, means you should fear no harm, you are being protected and/or you can avoid or protect yourself from danger.

However, this also suggests that there is some kind of danger that you are being protected from, so it's not appropriate to just sit back. take steps to protect yourself and to ask for protection from the spirit world/your ancestors, but do not worry.

A wreath or sprig of Rowan over the door offers protection to your home. Carrying or wearing a symbol or amulet of protection would be appropriate.

Reversed suggests danger is near and that your defenses are down. This however does not mean something bad will happen. It is a warning to take care, change harmful behavior, avoid danger, call upon the powers that be for help, shore up your defenses. The danger is in remaining vulnerable and/or continuing harmful patterns or behaviors.

The berries of the Rowan are bright red, and the flowers are white. White and red are the colors of the sidhe. In legend we also find animals from the Otherworld, with white bodies and red ears that appear before the heros.

Rowan is connected with magic. Dowsing rods are frequently made from Rowan. Rowen was used magically to drive evil spirits away from cattle; cattle being of great importance and representing wealth to the celtic people. Rowan was planted around sacred places, to protect and defend them.

It was believed that dragons and serpents protected the Rowan.

More tidbits!

Ties with witches and divination are very strong. Often used for magic wands. And for METAL dowsing (hazel for water dowsing), which can lead to alchemy/Temperance type meanings. (I got this via the Blackbird in the Druid Animal Oracle, which is shown on a rowan tree.)

More divination: A Celtic legend says that rowan fires were built on both sides before a battle and druids from both sides used the smoke to predict which way the battle would go. The "bull sleep" divination used rowan branches, too. Someone would eat a ritually killed bull and then go to sleep on rowan branches in order to dream of who would be the next king.

Magic wand? and protection: The evil (single!) eye of the evil giant, Balor, was so powerful that armies would fall down dead if he looked at them. In a mighty battle, heroes were able to put out this horrible eye with a great rowan log.

In Scandinavian myth, the first woman was created from a rowan tree; the first man from an alder. Of interest for a relationship reading . . . Like the lady and gentleman in a Lenormand deck maybe?

To add to rachelcat - the word 'rowan' is Scandinavian, meaning "red".

The Mountain-Ash from which Rowan is a member is a member of the Rosaceae (Rose) family. Twigs are fragrant and the berries attract birds. The Latin species name aucuparia means to catch birds and the fruit was made into a sticky substance spread on branches to do just that.

The American equivalent is very similar and is Sorbus americana. It is only available in the north east. If you are looking to make a stave out of a related wood, search for something in the genus Sorbus, in the Rose family. The north west has the sitka mountain ash - Sorbus sitchensis - and this would make a suitable replacement.

If you don't have a Rowan in your area, Caitlin Matthews suggests, in her Celtic Wisdom Tarot, using the following attributes to select an appropriate tree:
• berry bearing tree associated with magic

raeanne said:

Name: Luis
Pronunciation: Lwee

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I have also seen its pronunciation specified as "lus" (like the word loose), which seems the more probable to me.

The Rowan tree represents the second month of the Celtic calendar (December).

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Yes, the second month; but the months (as I can demonstrate, if anyone doubt it) begin at winter solstice (most likely the day after, the solstice itself being the extra day), so the second month extends from about January 19th or 20th to February 15th or 16th: Graves associates it with 'February fill-dike' (and indeed L is a liquid and its sign, aquarius, the ‘water pourer’ or ‘water bearer’).

Regarding its being the second month, one thing not yet mentioned concerning rowan is that as a tree it shelters young of other species, even species that will later supplant it: hence its primary meaning of being the schoolmaster, so to speak, of the spirit of the year. For if you combine its sheltering aspect—which is why L in several ancient alphabets is shaped like the eaves of a roof—with its use to tame bewitched horses—related no doubt to its being shaped like a shepherd’s crook or riding whip in ancient Canaanite (early Hebrew) and linked to a word meaning 'ox goad'—and the fact that in Hebrew its name lamedh involves a root meaning both ‘to teach’ and ‘to learn’, rowan’s divinatory or symbolic meaning becomes clear: as the Spirit or the Year (or waxing year) is born in the first or birch month, the second month would of necessity be set aside for its education. Thus in the ancient Nordic Tifinag alphabet (see Barry Fell's Bronze Age America), whereas B was a circle with a line through it and most probably bore the name bukla, ‘buckler’ (round shield)—this because an infant needs shielding—L itself is two parallel lines, most likely named liki, ‘like’, since the essence of learning is the classification of like things (classes of objects). The square-Hebrew letter shows arms swinging while walking seen from above, signifying therefore a child learning to walk, appropriate since the sign aquarius, signifying the ankles in the broken-and-extended zodiac, is the spine opposite the shoulders in the closed or circular one.

rachelcat said:

In Scandinavian myth, the first woman was created from a rowan tree; the first man from an alder.

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Actually, according to both the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda (I believe), the first man and woman were Askr and Embla, the former (the man) normally translated 'ash', the latter (the woman) oft translated 'elm', occasionally 'vine', but I have also seen it translated 'alder', and I take this last as the correct tree for the simple reason that whereas the ash is unfriendly to plants growing in its shade (i.e. does not bear children, so to speak), alder is friendly thereto and even replenishes nitrogen in the soil, which is why it is recommended to be planted next to gardens (alder is the tree of Bran, that is, of the Corn Spirit or spirit of vegetation).