Read Page Three of Cathbad's excellent Guide to Druidism and then come back and answer the questions below:

Copy and paste the questions and send them with your answers to the MysterySchool with Druid 4 from _________ (your magikal name) in the subject line.

1. T/F - The Celtic people believed in the same group of gods.

Matching - Match the gods to their discriptors.

2. _____ A triple Goddess of Fire, Peotry, and the Forge. 3. _____ Lord of the Kingdom of Davyd. 4. _____ Welsh counterpart to the Irish Manannan. 5. _____ The quintessential wizard. 6. _____ "Silver hand" 7. _____ God of healing 8. _____ Mother of the poet Taliesson 9. _____ God of the sea and master of Magic. 10. _____ A triple goddess of War. 11. _____ Goddess associated with horses and the Underworld. 12. _____ He was called good because of the diversity of his skills. 13. _____ Goddess of Caer Arianhrod. 14. _____ Lord of the Otherworld 15. _____ Son of the Sun 16. _____ God of the sea.

a) Lugh Lamh-fada b) Dagda the Good c) Nuada Argat-Lamh d) Morrign, Badb, and Nemhain e) Brigid f) Diancecht g) Manannan mac Lir h) Arawn i) Math op Mathonwy j) Pwyll k) Arianhrod l) Rhiannon m) Cerridwen n) Lyr o) Manawyddan

Name the Celtic equivalent of the Roman Gods listed below.

17. Apollo - ______________________

18. Dispater - _______________________

19. Jupiter - ______________________

20. Mars - ____________________

21. Mercury - ____________________

22. Minerva - ____________________

23.  Name the four fire festivals and list when they occur in the Northern hemisphere.

24. What is Ogham?

25. The Geas is a kind of magical ____________, ______________, or _________________ that a person may possess.

Exercise (required)

Supplies you will need - 60 index cards and a pen or pencil.

Step 1:  Separate the index cards into three piles of 20 cards.

Step 2:  With the first pile, write one of the letters of the Ogham on the front of the first card. On the back write the corresponding "Name" and "tree".  Repeat this step until you have written all 20 letters with the correct correspondences.

Step 3:  Repeat step two with the second pile of cards except write the "Name" on the front of the card and the corresponding "Letter" and "Tree" on the back of the card.

Step 4:  Repeat step two with the third pile of cards except write the "Tree" on the front of the card and the corresponding "Letter" and "Name" on the back of the card.

Step 5:  Keeping the piles separate from each other, mix each pile up. Now lay out the correct "letter" card with the correct corresponding "name" and "tree" cards. Do as much from memory as you can.

Step 6:  For the next 20 days repeat step 5, again doing as much from memory as you can. Record your results in your journal. Record which set of letter/tree/name cards you were able to do by memory and which ones you needed to look at the back of the cards to match them together. At the end of the 20 days email the Mystery School with Druid4 Exercise from ________ (your magikal name) in the subject line, reporting the date of each time you did this exercise and how many correspondences you did by memory each day. Be sure to try out the mnemonic (memorization aid) below.

Mnemonic Device for Memorizing Ogham
Diakonissa Deborah, R+C with a stroke of genius had invented the following mnemonic.  She writes:

I started this exercise on memorizing the ogham alphabet (the words for the letters and the trees, at least). But I came up with a mnemonic device to help memorize the trees. I now can do all 20 correspondences without looking (though a few I have to look at for awhile until it kicks in; I'm still working on getting them down pat). At first I could do the letters and names of letters perfectly without looking; that part I didn't find difficult. But I only got 7 or 8 trees correct. So I came up with this mnenomic device to help me out. Maybe it will help someone else. They're pretty corny at times--beware!

Beth:  Birch (starts with B--this one was easy)

Luis:  Rowan--LWEESH, I'll Rowan -ance you (translation: Louise, I'll romance you)

Fearn:  Alder--Alder-fearn (I have a family friend names Alderfer)

Saille:  Willow--Shall-yuh make a basket?

Nionn:  Ash--Nee-unh, home run (rhymes, plus most baseball bats are made from ash)

Huath:  Hawthorn--starts with H (another easy one)

Duir:  Oak--The DOO-r is made from oak

Tinne:  Holly--Chinn-yuh avoid touching the holly? (trans.: Shouldn't you avoid. . . .)

Coll:  Hazel--The CULL-or of some people's eyes

Quert:  Apple--Qwairt you make an apple pie (this one is a bit of a stretch--"couldn't you make an apple pie")

Muin:  Vine--the "M" and the vine go together in the Grail heresy

Gort:  Ivy--Gort, look at that ivy!

Ngetal:  Reed--Nyeh-tl do for a straw (It'll do for a straw--reeds were long used to suck through like a straw)

Straiff:  Blackthorn--Blackthorn would hurt if used for a strahf (i.e., strap)

Ruis:  Elder--Rweesh, those Elders!

Ailm--silver fir--I'd ahl-m for the silver fir sure (I'd aim for the silver for sure)

Onn--Furze or gorse--Uhn-oh, the furze or gorse is prickly!

Ura:  Heather--OOH-rah for the Scottish heather!

Eadha:  Poplar--EH-yuh, it's pop-lar (think Yankee here; Eh-yeah, it's popular)

Idho:  Yew--the "i" often sounds like "y", and Yew starts with "y"

As you notice, I'm also practicing the sounds here as well. I thought it was important to tie it all together.  -- Diakonissa Deborah

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