the Celtic Horoscope: The Astrology of Trees

Very little is known about the exact origin and the history of Celtic astrology and the Celtic tree horoscope, which is probably because the Celts or Kelts were a rather mysterious and secretive culture hardly left any accounting records to posterity. What we do know is that the Celts used the wisdom of the druids and the rune oracle whenever they had questions concerning the future. We also know that the Celts had a rather tight bond with nature and that they felt a special closeness to trees, based on which they developed the tree horoscope. In their perception of the world, every tree represented a different quality or property and so they would use trees to explain human nature.

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The celtic zodiac signs

Neo-pagan phenomenon

Celtic astrology and especially the Celtic tree horoscope are considered to be a neo-pagan invention. Apparently, the Celts started to derive a speculative horoscope from the myths that revolved around plants at that time and which must have been quite popular in Celtic societies. Since the Celts were said to be a mystical and secretive culture, they kept a lot of secrets and shared only very few of them. So, the origins of Celtic astrology are almost completely in the dark, as the Celts left practically no insightful records for subsequent generations. As opposed to that, we know with certainty that the Celts observed the sky and drew their conclusions from the movements of the stars, the moon and the sun. However, their main focus lied on nature and especially on the world of plants that surrounded them and which they scrutinized to gain a better understanding of recurring phenomena like the four seasons or the waning and the waxing moon. Trees were especially insightful for that purpose and so it is not surprising that trees should become the key element of Celtic astrology.

Trees as the foundation of the Celtic horoscope

Trees have always played an important role in Celtic societies because they revealed a lot of information to them. Even today anyone can tell the current season just by looking at a tree. Based on that reliable source, the Celts elaborated a system to predict certain events, which eventually brought about the Celtic tree horoscope. Celtic astrology is a rather complex system that comprises several sub-systems, but unfortunately there is only very few evidences in writing for that. It is being assumed that the Celtic horoscope is based on the Celtic calendar and on the Ogmah, the Celtic alphabet which originally consisted of twenty characters, each of which is connected to a certain tree. In Celtic astrology, specific human qualities and traits have been assigned to specific trees, which is similar to the Western system of assigning certain properties to a certain zodiac sign. However, as opposed to the classical Western system, the Celts have categorized human nature into 20 different personality types, each of which is represented by a certain tree that is said to have the same qualities as the person in question. Another peculiarity of Celtic astrology is that the Celtic year is divided in two halves and that each of these two have twenty trees assigned to them.

The Celtic horoscope in a nutshell

The most important tree for the Celts was the oak. It stood for power and strength and according to the pagan beliefs of that time, the oak also was a shelter for the gods. The Celtic word “druid”, which could be translated as “oak savant”, was also derived from the word “oak”. Unlike many other horoscopes, the Celtic tree horoscope is simple, clear and brief. Every tree is connected to a certain period of time, which in some cases can only be one single day, and so the qualities attributed to a specific time and to a specific tree are automatically assigned to every individual that is born in that particular period of time. The Celtic horoscope was created based on the Celtic traditions and beliefs and was enriched later on with elements and aspects of other more modern astrological systems. Before that, when the Celts didn't have their horoscope yet, they would consult the rune oracle or ask the druids for insight whenever questions arose that concerned the future.