Celtic tree horoscope

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Display board at the Wirchensee in Brandenburg

The Celtic tree horoscope is an invention in the course of Neopaganism (neo-paganism), which speculatively constructed a horoscope system from original Celtic plant myths. A historical tree horoscope cannot be proven as a mantic practice (fortune telling) among the Celts either by ancient or medieval sources about Celtic religion and customs.

History of origin

The Celtic tree horoscope has its origin in the book The White Goddess , published in 1948 (German The White Goddess , 1981) by the British writer and poet Robert Graves , in which the author created a Celtic tree calendar by means of a mostly arbitrary etymological assignment of Ogham symbols to individual trees , also called the Celtic Tree Circle (according to the "astrologer" Michael Vescoli) and the Tree of Life circle . Although some tree names appear in the designation of the individual characters, the majority of the designations have a different origin. For his speculations, Graves used the non-Oghamic monk script Cló gaelach , which in simplified form is now the official script of the Irish Republic .

The most famous form of this horoscope today goes back to a series of articles by the French journalist and director Paula Delsol (* 1923; † 2015), who invented a series of horoscope systems in 1971 on behalf of the fashion and lifestyle magazine " Marie Claire ", the "old “Cultures were modeled on. Among other things, after in-depth studies of the respective cultures (sic!) , Delsol developed an "Arabic" horoscope ( Horoscopes Arabes ), which is now available in German , an equally fictitious "Tibetan" horoscope ( Horoscopes Tibetains ) and a "Celtic" tree horoscope apparently based on Robert Graves ( Horoscopes Gauloises ). The horoscope systems developed by Delsol appeared again in 1981 as an anthology.

In 1984 the tree horoscope appeared under the title Trees Don't Lie. The Celtic horoscope (published by Annemarie Mütsch-Engel in Verlag Bert Schlender, Göttingen) in German for the first time. This edition of the book initially referred to an "ancient", but actually invented text tradition. Licensed editions of other publishers that appeared later even reported on an old manuscript in a Polish monastery, a translation of which is enclosed with the book.

The real history of the "Celtic" horoscope had to be disclosed in a dispute that went as far as the German Federal Court of Justice over questions of copyright and the right to pass on exploitation licenses (judgment of June 27, 1991, 1st civil senate, file number I ZR 7/90) . It turned out that the German edition was based on an article in a Polish garden calendar, which in turn was a translation of the “Celtic” horoscope that Paula Delsol had created for “ Marie Claire ”. The proof was a translation error that turned the hackberry tree (Latin name Celtis australis from the hemp family ), unknown in Poland but widespread in France, into cedar . The cedar (Latin: Cedrus ) was unknown to the Celts and was only planted in England in the 17th century. Because of this flaw, the cedar has remained a component of most of the “Celtic” tree horoscopes in German-speaking countries to this day. Instead, the yew tree , which is actually documented in Celtic mythology and regarded as sacred, is missing in the horoscope. After the modern source of the horoscope system became known, the German tarot and esoteric author Bertram Wallrath, who initially defended the authenticity of the "Celtic" tree horoscope, wrote that it was nonetheless

[...] congenially reflects the emotional world of the Celtic Gauls and their relationship to trees. This is what a Celtic or Gallic horoscope could have looked like if there was a certain tradition.

In 1998 Wallrath published The Real Celtic Tree Horoscope , in which he replaced the cedar with the hackberry tree of the French original. The Celtic Tree Horoscope followed in 2001 , in 2004 he published "The Celtic Tree Tarot" with Leah Levine , and in 2005 The Celtic Tree Horoscope of Love. The Celtic Tree Horoscope was advertised on Amazon.de as follows:

The Celtic tree horoscope depicts human characteristics in their assignment to our trees as a fascinating alternative to the familiar signs of the zodiac. This implementation was already familiar to the Druids in ancient Gaulish France, to whom, like us again today, the trees were closer than the stars. In addition, the druidic-magical healing knowledge and its application in everyday life are rediscovered. 'The apple tree - love' [...] or 'The hazelnut - the extraordinary' [...]

Although the "Celtic tree horoscope" is a free invention of the 20th century and has nothing to do with the ancient Celts, it has found widespread use and is viewed by some parts of the new pagans as part of their view of life. The wrong view of the allegedly real Celtic horoscope has now become so firmly established in everyday knowledge in the German-speaking area that even the former Austrian Justice Minister Karin Miklautsch addressed the Celtic tree circle with its tree messages in a speech and the Federal Ministry of Justice pointed out in a broadcast, that three former Austrian Justice Ministers were born under the sign of the linden tree . According to the broadcast, they are characterized by “a special sense of justice and a pronounced ability to harmonize” and understand how to “put themselves in the shoes of their fellow human beings in order to discover an acceptable solution for every situation”.

Celtic plant mysticism

The information about plant mysticism among the Celts has been a source of speculation since the Middle Ages, because a magical-medicinal use of plants could be assumed with them. In a Bavarian oak mistletoe tract from the 14th century, which includes Germanic-Gallic mistletoe belief , oak and mistletoe are explicitly named as particularly medicinal. This work has come down to us in 21 manuscripts and was also translated into Old French . Here, however, as is so often the case, the white berry mistletoe (Viscum album) is confused with the actually intended oak mistletoe (Loranthus europaeus), also known as belt flower. According to Pliny the Elder ( Naturalis historia XVI, 95), the druids claimed that the oak mistletoe could cure anything. According to Meid and Nagy, the name of the druids derived from * dru-ṵid- (“having knowledge of the oak, knowledgeable about oak”) is a sign of the oak as a world tree, since the Celtic god of the sky had the oak as a symbol.

Sacred trees are often found in all Celtic tribes, which is evident from the veneration of the "sacred grove" ( nemeton , drunemeton among the Galatians ) and from the importance of anthropomorphic pole gods ( Xoanon ). The “five famous trees of Ireland”, which correspond to the five provinces, are three ash trees and one yew and one oak each, they mark the mythical center of the respective kingdom. The old Irish word bile ("holy tree") can still be found today in place names as billy , as in Toberbilly ( County Antrim ) and Moville ( Irish Bun an Phobail ). In Wales, damage to the holy yew tree ( ywen sant ) was forbidden by a law of King Hywel Dda with maximum penalty. The close relationship between the Celts and trees is also evidenced by the large number of personal names of this kind, such as Mac Daro ("son of the oak"), Mac Cairthin ("son of the mountain ash"), Dar Chairtinn ("daughter of the mountain ash") in Old Irish , Mac Cuill ("son of hazel") and Dar Ibair ("daughter of yew").

Whether the neo-pagan constructs can be traced back to the old Irish legend about Airmed , the daughter of Dian Cecht , the healer of Túatha Dé Danann , and her extensive knowledge of plants, or to the Welsh tradition of the 500-year-old dynasty of doctors from Myddfai who used their knowledge of the Tylwyth Teg from the lake Llyn Fan Fach ("Lake at the little signal fire hill" in the Black Mountains in Carmarthenshire ), received (handed down in Llyfr Coch Hergest , "The Red Book of Hergest"), is not verifiable.

Modern tree circles

"Celtic tree calendar"

Tree circles based on the model of the tree horoscope have been created in some places as a recreation area and tourist attraction: in Germany, for example, in Gnutz ( Schleswig-Holstein ), in Castrop-Rauxel and on the Sophienhöhe near Jülich ( North Rhine-Westphalia ), in Münchsteinach and Stamsried ( Bavaria ) as well as in Achern - Oberachern and Wald ( Baden-Württemberg ), in Austria among others in Gundersdorf , Weng im Gesäuse and Sankt Stefan ob Stainz (all Styria ), Pyhra , Frankenfels , Hoheneich and Kettlasbrunn (all Lower Austria ), Ampflwang ( Upper Austria ), at Eberstein Castle ( Carinthia ) and in Vils ( Tyrol ).

The creation of a "Celtic" tree circle in the Vienna district of Döbling (the so-called tree of life circle in the sky ) was even presented in the Austrian parliament and led to some violent protests on the part of science against state subsidies for horoscopes and neo-paganism. This has led to the Vienna community correcting incorrect botanical information and removing the addition “Celtic” from the tree circle table.

The types and calendar segments in the "Celtic Tree Circle"

  • Apple tree (December 23rd to January 1st and June 25th to July 4th)
  • Fir (January 2nd to 11th and July 5th to 14th)
  • Elm (January 12 to 24 and July 15 to 25)
  • Cypress (January 25th to February 3rd and July 26th to August 4th)
  • Poplar (February 4th to 8th, May 1st to 14th and August 4th to 13th)
  • Zürgelbaum (February 9th to 18th and August 14th to 23rd)
  • Pine (February 19th to 28th and August 24th to September 2nd)
  • Pasture (March 1st to 10th and September 3rd to 12th)
  • Linde (March 11-20 and September 13-22)
  • Oak (March 21st) and yew tree (September 23rd)
  • Hazelnut (March 22 to 31 and September 24 to October 3)
  • Rowan (April 1st to 10th and October 4th to 13th)
  • Maple (April 11-20 and October 14-23)
  • Nussbaum (April 21 to 30 and October 24 to November 11)
  • Chestnut (May 15-24 and November 12-21)
  • Ash (May 25th to June 3rd and November 22nd to December 1st)
  • Hornbeam (June 4th to 13th and December 2nd to 11th)
  • Alder (June 14-23 and December 12-21)
  • Birch (June 24th) and beech (December 22nd)

See also

literature

  • Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 .
  • Helmut Birkhan: Post-Antiquity Celtic Reception: Projections of Celtic Culture. Praesens, 2009, ISBN 3-7069-0541-8 .
  • Helmut Birkhan: Observations on the mystical image of the Celts, especially in Austria. Presentation at the Celtic Conference in Hallein 2010.
  • Raimund Karl , Jutta Leskovar , Stefan Moser (eds.): The invented Celts - mythology of a term and its use in archeology, tourism and esotericism: conference contributions to the 4th Linz Talks on interpretative Iron Age archeology . (= Studies on the Cultural History of Upper Austria, Volume 31). Upper Austria. Landesmuseum, Linz 2012, ISBN 978-3-85474-257-9 .
  • Gunter Lehrieder: The Celtic Tree Circle. In: The Steigerwald. Journal of a Franconian Landscape: Nature - Culture - History. Volume 27, No. 3 (July) 2007, pp. 27-48.
  • Wolfgang Meid : Celtic religion in the testimony of language . Journal of Celtic Philology (ZcP), Vol. 53, No. April 1, 2003.
  • Michael Vescoli: The Celtic Tree Calendar. About time and trees. Heinrich Hugendubel, Munich 1995; New edition there 2000, ISBN 3-89631-377-0 .
  • Bertram Wallrath: Fairy tales about the Celtic tree horoscope. Smaragd, Woldert 2002.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas G. Heiss, Jutta Leskovar: The ›Celtic Tree Calendar‹ - On the development and reception of a myth . In: Ethnographic-Archaeological Journal . tape 54, 2013 , no. 1/2 , 2015, ISSN  0012-7477 , p. 99-136 ( researchgate.net ).
  2. ↑ Gunter Lehrieder (2007), p. 31.
  3. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 911, footnote 1.
  4. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 566 ff. The Ogham names are (p. 569, note 1): beithe (birch), luis (flame or herb), fern (alder), sail (willow), nin (fork), hÚath (terror), dair (oak), tinne (metal bar), coll (hazel), ce (i) rt (oak bush ?), muin (neck), gort (field), gétal (killing), straif or sraib (sulfur), ruis (redness ), ailm (conifer, rather elm), onn (ash), úr (earth), edad (?), idad (?). If it was necessary for his system, he changed names, so the oak became a beech, an alder and finally a willow!
  5. ↑ Paula Delsol: Horoscopes insolites: Les horoscopes gaulois, chinous, arabes, tibetains, lunaires, des alchimistes, la corologie, le zooroscope, chiffres vous disent qui vous êtes. France loisirs, Paris 1981, ISBN 978-2-7242-1123-8
  6. ↑ Annemarie Mütsch-Engel (Ed.): Trees don't lie. The Celtic horoscope. Bert Schlender, Göttingen 1984, ISBN 978-3-88051-023-4 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption: Projections of Celtic culture. P. 584 ff.
  8. ↑ a b Helmut Birkhan: Observations on the mystical image of the Celts, especially in Austria. P. 7 f.
  9. ↑ Bertram Wallrath: The real Celtic tree horoscope. Smaragd-Verlag, Woldert 1998. ISBN 978-3-926374-60-8
  10. ↑ Bertram Wallrath: The Celtic tree horoscope. Magic and medicine of the ancient druids. Smaragd, Woldert 2001. ISBN 978-3-926374-45-5 .
  11. ↑ Leah Levine and Bertram Wallrath: The Celtic Tree Tarot: Book and Cards. Silberschnur, Güllesheim 2004, ISBN 978-3-89845-076-8
  12. ↑ Bertram Wallrath: The Celtic tree horoscope of love. Smaragd, Woldert 2005, ISBN 978-3-934254-96-1 .
  13. ^ Republic of Austria, Federal Ministry of Justice. (accessed on September 22, 2006): Miklautsch visits Gerasdorf Prison and Hartberg District Court
  14. ^ Gundolf Keil : Oak mistletoe tract. In: Burghart Wachinger et al. (Hrsg.): The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon . 2nd, completely revised edition, Volume 2 ( Comitis, Gerhard - Gerstenberg, Wigand ). De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1980, ISBN 3-11-007264-5 , Sp. 392 f.
  15. ↑ Annelore Högemann: The old German "oak mistletoe tract". Investigations into a Bavarian drug monograph from the 14th century (= Medieval miracle drug tracts, II). Wellm, Pattensen; now Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 1981, ISBN 3-921456-25-8 (= Würzburg medical historical research. Volume 19), (also: Dissertation Würzburg 1981).
  16. ^ Gundolf Keil: Eichenmisteltraktat , in Annelore Högemann: The old German ›Eichenmisteltraktat‹.
  17. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 631 f.
  18. ↑ Wolfgang Meid: Celtic religion in the testimony of language. P. 30.
  19. ^ Joseph F. Nagy: Celtic Religion. History of Study. In: Lindsay Jones (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Religion , Vol. 3 (2005), ISBN 0-02-865736-5 , pp. 1486 f.
  20. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 781.
  21. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 881.
  22. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 588 f, note 3.
  23. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 627 f.
  24. ↑ Parliament of the Republic of Austria: Parliamentary Correspondence No. 731, December 5, 1996
  25. ↑ Gunter Lehrieder (2007), pp. 30–48.