Horoscopes · Systems of many cultures
Celtic tree calendar · Celtic tree month 2
Rowan
Rowan · Luis
Rowan (Luis), month 2 of the modern 'Celtic tree calendar', 21 January – 17 February.
The rowan or mountain ash, with its red berries, was used throughout Britain and Ireland as a protection against witchcraft — sprigs were hung over doors and tied to cattle. In the tree calendar it represents protection, insight and the quickening of life around Imbolc.
The thirteen tree months come from Robert Graves' The White Goddess (1948), not from ancient sources. The tree associations of the Ogham letters do go back to medieval Irish scholars, but there is no evidence for an ancient Celtic tree calendar.
Personality
visionary · original · protective · independent · idealistic · perceptive
In the modern 'Celtic tree calendar', a person born in the Rowan month (21 January – 17 February) is described as an original thinker, visionary and quietly protective. The thirteen tree months come from Robert Graves' The White Goddess (1948) and later Pagan books rather than from ancient Celtic sources; Rowan corresponds to the Ogham letter Luis, and falls around Imbolc in Graves' scheme.
Modern writers derive the Rowan personality from the tree's folklore: across Britain and Ireland rowan sprigs were hung over doors and tied to cattle as protection against witchcraft. Rowan people are therefore said to be perceptive, intuitive and guardians of others, with an independent, sometimes unconventional mind and strong ideals. Their challenges are described as aloofness, an inclination to keep their feelings hidden and impatience with tradition for its own sake.
In love Rowan people are portrayed as devoted but in need of intellectual connection and freedom; in work, as innovators, thinkers, protectors and people who bring insight to a group. Like all tree-calendar portraits, this is a modern, contemplative reading of the tree rather than a historical Celtic tradition.
Sources and further reading
- The White Goddess — Robert Graves, 1948
- A Guide to Ogam — Damian McManus, 1991
- The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles — Ronald Hutton, 1991