Ogham Reading: Divination from the Trees

An Ogham reading taps into the raw, wooded pulse of ancient Celtic divination. It’s bark, root, and bone speaking through a forgotten alphabet carved into stone and branch. Ogham (pronounced OH-um) is a system of twenty sacred staves, each tied to a tree, each tree tied to a force in nature. Later scribes added five more, but the heart of this oracle remains rooted in the forest.

These staves were first etched by Irish seers during the time of the Roman invasion. Long before modern alphabets choked the world with paper and print, Ogham carried meaning through living wood and breath. Each stave holds a message: birch for beginnings, rowan for protection, oak for strength. An Ogham reading channels this into the spread-based layouts you already recognise, letting the trees speak your question into form.

We’ve adapted this Ogham oracle to work with the same spreads used across the Tarotsmith system. Choose a layout, cast the staves, and watch how nature frames your situation. Reversed oghams in this system are shown as ‘blocked’, revealing disruption, tension, or inner resistance—just like reversed cards in tarot, but through a different language.

Every Ogham reading here is automatic. You cast, and the grove responds. The results page will show each stave’s name, its symbol, the tree it corresponds to, and a distilled meaning. You’ll see how the staves interact across your chosen spread, forming a living diagram of your question in motion.

Click a spread below and let the Ogham reading begin. The voice of the trees is waiting. Just ask, and listen to what the forest says back.