There is so much to learn and so little space in a busy schedule this year. I knew nothing about the artist Odilon Redon and when I looked his work up I was presented with so many images of flowers, vases, heads and eyes. Surprisingly, I was able to complete this K-A very quickly; it is a collage of cardboard images of the flowers currently blooming in our little garden. I even managed to sign it!
Here is the link to Phil Gomm’s Kick-About website where you can see the amazing creativity of the other artists:
Already it’s August and Lammas is upon us; a time when we celebrate the summer and the gathering in of the harvest. There’s work to be done as the wheel of the year turns towards the Autumn Equinox and the darker days of winter.
Ivy, Gort in Irish, is the 12th letter (G) in the Ogham Tree Year. As Yuri Leitch says in his book The Ogham Grove, Ivy is an evergreen and is seen symbolically, as immortal; of the spirit world.
Ivy, Hedera helix, is not actually a tree, but a climber belonging to the Aralia family, Araliaceae. A slow grower it can live for hundreds of years. Its fruits are nutritious to birds like blackbirds and thrushes but they are poisonous to humans if ingested: the berries contain Triterpenoid Saponins and Oxalate Crystals. The leaves were collected as fodder for livestock from ancient times up until the 16th century.
In ancient Egypt, Ivy was dedicated to Osiris, the lord of vegetation. Along with the vine, it was concocted to use in ceremonies to honour the Greek vegetation god Dionysos, called Bacchus by the Romans.
A tough wood, it has been used to make tool handles.
Ashley
Books I’ve used as references:
The Ogham Grove by Yuri Leitch ISBN 9781517653637
The Spirit of Trees by Fred Hageneder ISBN 0-86315-557-X
