XPost: alt.religion.druid, alt.spirituality.druid   
   From: xremovexwade180@comcast.net   
      
   >>> Searles wrote:   
   >>> The Ogham that is shaped like a cross is Ebadh which is symbolic of a   
   >>> gathering. Perhaps in this case it is a gathering of power? I wonder   
   >>> also if the trefocal may have had a relationship to the way that the 27   
   >>> days were constructed? I think there would have had to be some way of   
   >>> correlating the days to the offense and the person involved, again   
   >>> through Ogham. Perhaps an Ogham name or something almost like a reverse   
   >>> synastry chart of modern astrology. Here, I'm just following my imbas   
   >>> but I'll continue onward to see if there is further verification in the   
   >>> tales and the traditions.   
   >>   
   >> However the forfeda are a fairly late addition to the ogham.  If I were   
   >> to   
   >> go looking for meanings behind the four armed cross the satire ogham was   
   >> carved on I'd probably start with wheel symbolism... which invokes images   
   >> of the divine essence regulating time and the cycles of the agricultural   
   >> year.   
   >> One cannot ignore the possibility that the Filid had considered the image   
   >> carefully and had chosen one with both pagan and christian significance   
   >> on purpose.  They were well known for playing fast and lose with biblical   
   >> scripture to promote their own ends and for blurring the lines between   
   >> pagan and christian themes.   
   >> ---   
   >> Wade   
   >   
   > That's true but the time period for the Forfedha and the appearance of   
   > Christianity are very close to one another. When it is said that the   
   > Forfedha are a latter addition to the Ogham, I think scholars mean it was   
   > added sometime in the Old Irish or Middle Irish period and not during   
   > modern times.   
      
   Yes... late is a relative term.  If memory serves the forfedha were said   
   to have been added around the 700/800s.   
      
   > McManus has this inclusion dated to the end of the 7th century CE and the   
   > Old Irish period. Ogham is itself another way of identifying Primitive   
   > Irish which is sometimes called Ogam Irish.   
   >   
   > I think the symbol of the cross is universally understood as a wheel, a   
   > Sun or a generation of power type of symbol. The existence of the cross   
   > symbol in Ireland is attested from the earliest of times in the carving   
   > found in the passage mounds and brughs.   
      
   Yep... the cross goes way back.   
   ---   
   Wade   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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