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The Ogham is a special alphabet limited to mnemonic learning by question and answer, and embodying special symbolic uses, most of which are lost to us today. This is an early Irish alphabet, or rather, an alphabet code, believed by some to have been in use from about 600 B.C. The letter order is arranged phonetically in four groups of five letters. Each of the letters has its own name, which is the name of a tree or plant.
The Tree Alphabet was in use until about 700 A.D. Its use was symbolic and was not used for speech or writing in the modern sense. Instead, each letter has a host of ideas and thoughts centered around it relating it to Celtic cosmology and philosophy.
Most of the Ogham inscriptions found have been on stone markers in Ireland. Legend has it that Ogma, god of eloquence and literature and Champion of the Tuatha de Danaan, invented Ogham.
The above Ogham signs are the basic 20 fews, or fedha. At a later time five additional signs were added to represent dipthongs. This is shown by the Irish name for them, forfedha, which means "additional tree or letter," and by the fact that these signs are not used in the pre-medieval inscriptions. I have chosen, for now, not to present the forfedha here.
There is also some discrepancy as to which order the Ogham signs should appear. I have seen Beith-Luis-Fearn most often, so that is what I have presented here, although the Beith-Luis-Nuin sequence is common as well.
It is thought by some that these Ogham symbols were also used for divination, etched onto staves of wood and cast in a manner similar to the Chinese I Ching.
There are many variant forms of Ogham found in the Book of Ballymote, compiled in the 14th century in Co. Sligo. Parts of this book are said to be copied from earlier 9th century texts.
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