Celtic Tree Astrology — A Birthday Reading in Thirteen Trees
About 3 min read
Celtic tree astrology is often presented as the wisdom of the Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, but it is in fact a distinctive form of divination put together in the mid-twentieth century. Placing trees rather than stars at its center, it assigns the season of your birth to one of thirteen trees and reads personality and fortune through the temperament of the tree that resembles you.
What Is Celtic Tree Divination?
The Druids held trees sacred and believed each tree housed its own nature and symbolism. Celtic tree astrology spread from the twentieth-century poet Robert Graves, who wove this idea together with the Ogham tree alphabet to divide the year into thirteen periods, each assigned to a tree such as birch, oak, or willow. The tree whose period contains your birthday becomes the tree that resembles you, and its nature is used to interpret your innate temperament.
The Thirteen Trees and Your Birthday
The Celtic tree calendar divides the year into thirteen periods of roughly four weeks each. There are thirteen rather than twelve because it follows the cycle of the moon (the lunar calendar). It begins with birch and continues through rowan, ash, alder, willow, hawthorn, oak, holly, hazel, vine, ivy, reed, and elder. Your tree is set by which tree's period your birth date falls within.
Each Tree, a Different Symbol
Every tree holds its own symbolism of character. Birch stands for new beginnings and pioneering, oak for deep-rooted strength and leadership, willow for intuition and sensitivity, hazel for wisdom and learning, and reed for insight and the power of story. Knowing a tree's nature lets you naturally read the innate temperament and strengths of the person assigned to it.
How to Read Your Tree
Each tree’s character sketch mostly comes from how the tree grows and how people have used it. Steadiness is read from the oak that grows straight and sensitivity from the willow that bends by the water, so picturing the tree itself makes the reading clearer. It is enough to enjoy it as a mirror held up to nature rather than as an old prophecy.
How Does It Differ From Star Signs?
Celtic tree astrology is like Western star signs in that it reads disposition by birthday, but it differs in placing trees and the cycles of nature at its center rather than the stars. Dividing the year into thirteen periods is likewise a result of following the rhythm of the moon rather than the sun. That makes Celtic tree divination a birthday reading of a slightly different grain — one that touches more closely on nature and the seasons.
Celtic tree astrology is a wisdom of nature that reflects you in a single tree. If you're curious which tree your birthday belongs to and what temperament that tree carries, check it directly below.