Trade Secrets

[spiral]

Robert Graves claimed that the thirteen consonants in the Irish Ogham or tree alphabet correlated to the thirteen months of the year.

It seems reasonable to have a system of marking off each month though I'm puzzled why letters should represent tree species, especially in a tree-poor country like Ireland.

A couple of us have already posted the following http://www.maryjones.us/jce/celtictreecalendar.html

[Neil]

Robert Graves claimed that the thirteen consonants in the Irish Ogham or tree alphabet correlated to the thirteen months of the year.

I'm currently reading a book called The Mystery of the Seven Vowels by Joscelyn Godwin (highly recommended). In it he claims that the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet corresponded to the seven planets/gods, much like the days of the week do.

[Boreades]

Robert Graves claimed that the thirteen consonants in the Irish Ogham or tree alphabet correlated to the thirteen months of the year.

It seems reasonable to have a system of marking off each month though I'm puzzled why letters should represent tree species, especially in a tree-poor country like Ireland.

A couple of us have already posted the following http://www.maryjones.us/jce/celtictreecalendar.html

This is simple confusion. The 13 trees were an aide-memoire for each month in the 13 month calendar. The 13 letters were the written version.

[Mick Harper]

Extract Sixty-Eight

The only other tidal island in the Bristol Channel, north or south, is St Catherine’s Island:



Apart from the name – St Catherine is the Christianised Hecate, a female version of Hermes – there seems little Megalithic about this island. It does however have one Megalithic claim to fame which is as the northern end of a very odd sequence crossing the Bristol Channel. A line drawn due north from Tintagel on the North Cornwall coast passes through Lundy Island, Caldey Island (of whose Megalithic significance presently) and then Catherine’s Island. Since Tintagel is itself the centre of the Arthurian cult and Arthur is reputed to be = Great Bear = North Pole, this meridian might be significant.

Tintagel Island while not a causeway tidal island, is a curiously causewayed island:



This particular meridian -- not, it has to be said, ferociously accurate -- would be easy to dismiss were it not for various other curious north-south concordances between South Wales and the West Country.

[Mick Harper]

Time to add St Vincent to our list of Megalithic saints. Last paragraph especially important.

So when the Latin poet Prudentius came to tell the story of St Vincent (who came from the same Roman province in Spain as he, with its capital at Tarragona) he brought in the name Elijah when recounting the role of a raven in the martyr’s tale.

Vincent remains calm throughout, unlike the raging Roman governor. He sees the light of Christ in his dark cell and his soul is taken by angels to heaven. The pagan Romans then do something that was taboo even in their world, which is to dishonour his body, leaving it to be eaten by wolves and vultures.

That is where the raven comes in. It drives away the vultures and chases off a wolf. The Roman governor then has Vincent’s body thrown into the sea tied to a millstone. This simply floats, and the Christians receive the body on the shore to give it burial and honour the remains as holy relics.

The 12th-century Sicilian geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi mentions that ravens guarded the chapel at Cape St Vincent, in Portugal, and ravens still figure on the coat of arms of Lisbon, of which St Vincent is patron.

Full article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religio ... qus_thread

The point being that Cape St Vincent is the most southwestern point of the Eursian landmass and Lisbon promontory is the westernmost point of the Eurasian landmass and therefore both need their ravens:

[spiral]

Vincent and Goram were brothers. They both fell in love with Avona, a fair lass from the distant land of Wiltshire. Avona said she'd marry whichever of them drained a huge lake which stretched from Rownham Hill to Bradford-on-Avon. Which is to say it ran the same course as the present-day river Avon.

Goram started digging a route from the lake to the sea through Henbury while Vincent started work at Durdham Down. Goram got tired, though, and, since it was thirsty work, he had been consuming prodigious quantities of beer. While halfway through carving out Hazelbrook Gorge in what is now Blaise Estate, Goram fell asleep in his giant stone chair.

The industrious Vincent on the other hand, hacked his way through the Downs to Sea Mills and drained the lake and got the girl.

When Goram woke up and realised he'd lost he got so angry that he stamped his foot. The footprint, like the chair, is another feature you can see for yourself at Blaise. Goram then threw himself into the Bristol Channel where he turned to stone. His head is the island of Steep Holm and his shoulder is Flat Holm.

[hvered]

Vincent is said to mean 'conquering' [cf. Viking]. Goram sounds like a typical Golem, a brainless hulk or shapeless mass but always formed from mud. Either way the story seems to be describing a terraforming operation.

In line with your dictum 'the ancients crafted and planned the countryside on a monumental scale, the way that we nowadays plan the development and skyline of cities', every time I come across a "vast ritual landscape" I try substituting managed instead. The interpretation changes, the features and blood pressure don't.

[spiral]

Robert Graves claimed that the thirteen consonants in the Irish Ogham or tree alphabet correlated to the thirteen months of the year.

It seems reasonable to have a system of marking off each month though I'm puzzled why letters should represent tree species, especially in a tree-poor country like Ireland.

Let's take a look.

The lunar cycle is the 29.5 days it takes to complete a lunation (from New Moon to New Moon, or from Full Moon to Full Moon).

The problem for all lunar solar theorists is that since twelve synodic months (354 days) .......are about eleven days shorter than the solar year (365¼ days).

You can either add on extra days to the moon/month leaving you with twelve months

Or... add in an extra thirteenth month

Problem is it will be approx every 3 years, if it is the length of your normal moonth.

This is only a problem for farmers.....

[spiral]

I'm currently reading a book called The Mystery of the Seven Vowels by Joscelyn Godwin (highly recommended). In it he claims that the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet corresponded to the seven planets/gods, much like the days of the week do.

This is far from unlikely......some cultures have sun and moon consonants. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_and_moon_letters

But what were your Brits doing?

[spiral]

Ok so this is a reworking of the idea that Newton got from your Greek sophists that there was a connection between colours, musical notes, metals and the days of the week......