Nigel Pennick

Nigel
Pennick

Nigel Pennick is an authority on ancient belief systems, traditions, runes, and geomancy and has traveled and lectured extensively in Europe and the United States. He is the author and illustrator of more than 60 books, including Celtic Tree Alphabets and The Pagan Book of Days, and is an accomplished traditional musician and craftsman. He lives near Cambridge, England.


In Celtic Tree Alphabets, Nigel Pennick explores the traditional lore of the Celtic trees and their relationship to ancient, mythic beings from whom their understanding was legendarily derived. Each Ogham character is a meditative symbol in its own right, embodying a creative power available to all. Pennick provides a full explanation for each of the Ogham letters along with correspondences from historic Irish sources and considers their use in ciphers, spiritual invocation, divination, and symbolic art. He also discusses ceremonies that assist in reconnecting us with nature and the wilderness, including “Maying” and greenwood marriages and the use of colors and magical binding-knots in the Celtic tradition.

Celtic Tree Alphabets Cover

 

Our ancestors were deeply aware of the magical power of their local landscape. In Magic in the Landscape Nigel Pennick details the ancient practices of geomancy and Earth magic, including how to work with ley lines, astrology, and the four directions to honor a space and make it a place of power.

Member for

6 years 6 months
Blog: View recent blog entries

View Recent Blogs

The Way of the Eight Winds: The Return of an Ancient Belief System

Nigel Pennick
May
28
/ 2025
Image of the cosmos, filled with galaxies.

 

The Way of the Eight Winds is a spiritual path that recognizes and celebrates the plurality of the Cosmos and the creativity of Nature, of which we are part. The inner essence of all religions and spiritual ways is in the relationship of humans to the Cosmos. Usually, this takes the form of the adoration of some specific aspect of multivalent reality; this can be perceived in an infinite variety of different ways, described by different explanatory mythologies.

The Origins of Welsh Bardic Scripts

The Origins of Welsh Bardic Scripts
Nigel Pennick
June
17
/ 2024
The entire body of ancient Celtic lore and legend was transmitted from mouth to ear, without being written down. The oldest written texts contain material that may have existed in oral form for centuries before being committed to writing. Most ancient written sources contain legends, history, genealogies, and tales of the gods. From written sources alone, it is reasonable to assert that Bardo-Druidic tradition has a continuity from at least the sixth century AD. The secret and initiated traditions, jealously guarded, were not consigned to writing until much later, if at all. Also, the vagaries of history have meant that what comes down to us from ancient times must, of necessity, be but a fragment of what has existed over

The Origins of Welsh Bardic Scripts

Nigel Pennick
June
17
/ 2024
AI image of ancient Celtic druids gathering around a fire.

The entire body of ancient Celtic lore and legend was transmitted from mouth to ear, without being written down. The oldest written texts contain material that may have existed in oral form for centuries before being committed to writing. Most ancient written sources contain legends, history, genealogies, and tales of the gods. From written sources alone, it is reasonable to assert that Bardo-Druidic tradition has a continuity from at least the sixth century AD.

Hepatomancy In Ceremonial Beginnings: Finding An Auspicious Site

Top Image: On Carrington Moss, shows individuals gathering material for besoms by David Cox (1851) (Public Domain)
Nigel Pennick
November
18
/ 2022
Beginning with a proper state of mind, augmented by proper rites and ceremonies, is essential for any enterprise. The most developed ceremonies of beginning are in European building traditions. One of the best explanations of this is by the Italian Renaissance architect, Leon Battista Alberti, in his influential book, De re aedificatoria (On the Art of Building; 1452). Alberti wrote: “It is undoubtedly proper . . . to set about our work with a holy and religious preparation. . . We ought therefore to begin our undertaking with a clean heart, and with devout oblations, and with prayers to almighty God to implore his assistance and blessing upon the beginnings of our labour, that it may have a happy and

Lustrous Gems As Amulets And Talismans Of Ancient History

Ram-headed falcon amulet, gold, lapis lazuli, turquoise and carnelian. (1254 BC) Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre (Rama/ CC BY-SA 3.0)
Nigel Pennick
April
09
/ 2021
Astrology is a very significant component of traditional magic. Although today it is marginalized even in magical practice, it played a significant role in determining when and how to implement a magical act. Gems played an important role in late Roman belief, as attested to by the Gnostic gems that still exist. Gems were considered powerful if they complemented the astrological horoscope of the individual, but could be detrimental if in conflict with the persons' signs. Wearing the zodiacal stone of one's birthday, the birthstone , is commonplace today, even if the deeper symbolic and magical meanings are rarely understood. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"85070","attributes":{"alt":"Ceramic replica of the High Priest's breastplate with 12 gemstones. Sephardic synagogue in Ramat Gan (Dr. Avishai Teicher/ CC BY-SA

Magical Landscapes: Monuments, Memories and Memorials

Stonehenge sunset (Terry/ Adobe Stock)
Nigel Pennick
May
19
/ 2020
All over the world, historical records and local memory keep places alive with meaning even when the physical reminders of that meaning have been obliterated. This happens with both religious and secular monuments, and even with fictional events that never took place. Memories " Back in the 1980s, on my first visit to Stuttgart, Germany, the man I was staying with took me walking with his dog in the local park. As we entered it, he pointed out an ordinary-looking patch of grass where, I was told, a Nazi monument had once been. It no longer existed, he said, because it had been blown up in 1945 by the French army of occupation. By telling me, a visitor who had

Magical Landscapes: Monuments, Memories and Memorials

Nigel Pennick
May
19
/ 2020
Stonehenge sunset (Terry/ Adobe Stock)

All over the world, historical records and local memory keep places alive with meaning even when the physical reminders of that meaning have been obliterated. This happens with both religious and secular monuments, and even with fictional events that never took place.