Celtic Runes

There is a great interest today in all things pagan and Celtic and there are many different sets of Celtic runes available to buy in the stores. Some of these are things of great craftsmanship and beauty. But how authentic are they?

Although the ancient Celts did use a form of runes, there is little if any evidence to tell us that the ancient Celts ever actually used runestones at all, let alone for divination. Some people also point out that strictly speaking the word "rune" refers to the Germanic Futharks, however the Ogham alphabet would qualify in common usage.

Any form of scrying system that works for you is fine and if the "Celtic runestones" on sale appeal to you intuitively then great, buy them. Many people use them and are very pleased with the results. However if historical authenticity is your aim then you might want to do some further research into alternative forms of runestone.

Ogham

What the ancient Celts definitely did have was a "runic" alphabet, Ogham (sometimes spelt Ogam). Most of the "Celtic runestones" and associated jewelry that you can buy today are based on this alphabet. Ogham was widely used in the Celtic lands during the 5th and 6th century CE.

Ogham consists of twenty "major" characters and another five supplementary characters. These are divided into groups of five characters each, the groups being called aicmi. All are based on straight lines. This is to make carving easier - Ogham was used to carve inscriptions into stones and was written from bottom to top.

The major twenty characters are significantly simpler than the five supplementary ones, and their form - one to five lines, left and/or right - has led to speculation that they might also have been used as hand signals.

Each character in Ogham was associated with a tree or other plant, hence it is also known as the Celtic tree alphabet.

On the next page is a table showing all the Ogham runes.

Site Information