Ogham Staves Reading Set

Twenty staves, each cut from seasoned hazel and notched by hand along one edge in the manner of the old ogham script — the early Irish tree alphabet, its letters called fews after the trees they were named for. The staves are bundled together with a linen tie, and a printed guide to each few and its associated tree comes packed alongside them. Hazel itself carries its own weight in the old Gaelic tales, long associated with hidden knowledge drawn from wells and streams. Ogham was carved into standing stones across Ireland and western Britain from around the fourth century onward, most often marking names and boundaries rather than messages meant to be read for meaning. Later folk tradition assigned each few a tree, and in time a meaning to go with the tree, turning what had been a functional script into a set of staves for casting and reading, much as runes developed from an alphabet into a divinatory set. Cast the full set onto a cloth and read whichever staves land face up, or draw one at a time from a bag or pouch for a single answer. The guide gives the traditional tree and meaning for each few, a starting point rather than a fixed rule. A workshop-carved set of twenty, cut from seasoned hazel. Sold as a curiosity — no medical or scientific claims are made.