At a glance

• Letter: I
• Tree: yew
• Place: letter 20 of the 20 original letters, the fifth of Aicme Ailme
• Written with: 5 strokes straight across the stem line (on the stones, notches cut into the edge)
• Also known as: Idad, Ido, Idho, Ioho
• Keywords: yew tree, endings, rebirth, transformation, longevity, continuity, ancestors

Lore and history

In the medieval Irish texts, Iodhadh is counted as the fifth letter of Aicme Ailme, the group of vowels, carved as five strokes straight across the stem line, or as five notches cut into the edge of standing stone. The old wordlists known as the Bríatharogaim link it to the yew, and one of the kennings remembered for it calls the yew 'sinem fedo', the oldest of trees, a fitting title for a tree so long lived that many Irish and British churchyards still hold yews standing older than the buildings raised beside them.

In a reading

In modern ogham practice, Iodhadh is drawn as the letter of endings and rebirth, closing one chapter so cleanly that something new is already stirring beneath it. Many of us turn to the yew for its own quiet teaching: it is one of the longest lived trees in Europe, able to hollow out with age and send up fresh growth from its own roots, so it has long stood for continuity through transformation rather than loss. When Iodhadh appears in a casting we take it as permission to let something finish, a season, a way of working, an old version of ourselves, trusting that the root beneath it is still alive and already reaching toward what comes next.

A little more

Yew trees are among the very few in Europe able to send up fresh growth from a hollowed or fallen trunk, which is part of why ancient yews standing in British and Irish churchyards today are sometimes older than the churches built beside them.

Keep exploring

• Before it: Eadhadh
• After it: Eabhadh
• All 25 ogham letters