Ogham hand signs and runes:
key to the mystic numbers of Pythagoras
Ogham symbols were related to hand signs used since the 6th century BC
known as the “mystic numbers of Pythagoras”
The only knowledge available about the Ogham symbols was described in the 12th-century “Book of Ballymote” in Ireland, introduced as a parallel Latin system to replace 25 symbols with tree names that were hand signs already in use for centuries. Following clues imbedded in the Book of Ballymote, that was probably written by changing an original text, the thread leads to the 6th century city of Babel, the city where mathematician and Greek philosopher Pythagoras studied, described in a biography written in Rome 700 years later by Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry.
In Babel Pythagoras learnt the principles of “metempsychosis” – knowledge about past lives and purification of the mind – a technique that was first taught by the Buddha: Dependent Origination with 12 links in a chain of birth, ageing and death. Were the 25 hand signs a list of concepts, developed by Pythagoras, to explain the meditation system taught by the Buddha?
Did Pythagoras make an illustration of the hand signs on the Phaistos disk, where each field illustrated a chronological series of meditation instructions and where each of the 12 fields around the edge can also be looked at like spokes in a wheel to see the deeper layers of knowledge about how the 6th sense works? In the text, available online, the 1,800 years of history is unraveled to show the links between Pythagoras and the Ogham and rune symbols that were used until the 12th century before people gradually stopped meditating.
Several Ogham and rune stones in Scotland, the Isle of Man, Ireland and the Latin inscription on a stone in Plougastel-Dauolas, France were translated to illustrate the meaning.
550 BC
Ogham distribution map, Phaistos Disk, Trundholm chariot
Ogham and rune stones made from the 5th century were already illustrated as fields on the Phaistos Disk of Crete in the 6th century BC. The 32 fields on side A were expressed as 32 Ogham symbols on a stone in Ballintaggart Ireland. On Ogham stones the numbers 22 (to follow in the footsteps of the horse, symbol of the Buddha as ascetic and teacher), 16 (Sixteen Vipassanā Insight Knowledges), 12 Dependent Origination factors (to see past and future lives) and 13 (what a meditator needs to practice) were repeated often.
550 BC – 950 AD
Ogham distribution map: link with learning centres in Greece southern Europe: Delphi, Athens, Crete
c. 550 BC
Phaistos Disk made by Pythagoras: 32 fields illustrate the meaning of ogham & rune symbols
c. 550 BC
Trundholm chariot: 27 symbols gold (all the Buddhas) 25 hand symbols bronze: mystic numbers of Pythagoras
2nd century c. 125 AD
Gundestrup Cauldron teacher panel with “coded ivy leaves”
Ogham developed from 20 hand signs used since the 6th century BC to teach meditation, probably referred to as “the mystic numbers of Pythagoras”. Hand signs were recorded as pictures, as symbols of the Greek alphabet (Y upsilon holy number 20 ivy, Π pi 16 Vipassanā Insight Knowledges yew tree, Tetractys Perfect number 10) and as Latin.
On the Gundestrup Cauldron (c. 93-144 AD) leaves of the “ivy” named in the Book of Ballymote (or Bodhi tree leaves) were used as codes to visually illustrate numbers of concepts and meditation techniques – later replaced by single Ogham and rune symbols.
6th century BC – 5th century AD
Kharosthi and Latin symbols:
early development of Ogham hand signs
The 20 hand signs were used for centuries before the Ogham and Elder Futhark were formalised in northern Europe. The early development can be followed from Newton in the north of Scotland with a unique Kharosthi/Ogham stone, the Latin letters “J.A.M.P.M.P.T.” used on a Roman temple and at Trusty’s Hill (c. 122 AD made during Hadrian’s visit to Britain ?), on Ogham/Latin stones in Manx and on the Latin/Rune stone of Plougastel-Daoulas in Finistère. From France the trail went south with Latin and Etruscan used in Italy and Linear A – and Linear B scripts on clay tablets in Greece.
5th century
Ogham table of hand signs and runes: how to analyse
the meaning of symbols 5 groups of 5 = 25
Ogham table of hand signs and equivalent Elder Futhark runes: the definitions are read in a vertical and horizontal direction to illustrate the deeper meaning and relationship between symbols that represent concepts and meditation techniques of the meditation system originally taught by the Buddha.
c.450 AD
Massive silver chains, Golden Horns of Gallehus, Golden Collars
When the Ogham symbols were introduced as a system in Ireland and the Elder Futhark rune symbols in Sweden, symbols were engraved on monumental votive standing stones but several high quality objects were also made in metal to illustrate details of the meditation system. Visual information can be analysed by “counting” symbolic images (dots or strokes etc) that expressed the same numbers used for ogham and rune symbols: the position in the Ogham stem-line or in the Elder Futhark rune row were listed in the table with short definitions to explain the meaning.
c. 430 AD
Massive silver chains Scotland: codes expressed by the numbers of links, also illustrated on the Shandwick high cross
c. 430 AD
Golden Horns of Gallehus 6 (6 senses) & 7 zones (Seven Stages of Purification) with 32 rune symbols (the Buddha)
c. 430 AD
Golden Collars of Sweden: 12 Dependent Origination factors, 8-fold Noble Path and 16 Vipassanā Insight Knowledges
c.450 AD – 950 AD
Ogham and rune stones with coded symbols
Ogham symbols on stones were designed as “mathematical formulas” by arranging symbols in blocks that follow the meditation system originally taught by the Buddha Gotama in India in the 6th century BC. The numbers used in the meditation system were recorded in the Abhidhamma and is still taught as both theory and as meditation methods at Buddhist universities and at a small number of monasteries in Theravada countries, unchanged after 2,500 years.
c. 450-950 AD
Breastagh Ogham stone Ireland: 16 Vipassanā Insight Knowledges, 23 symbols purification of kamma, “our possession”
c. 450-950 AD
Ballintaggart Ogham stone Ireland, 16 Vipassanā Insight Knowledges and Eightfold Noble Path
c. 950 AD
Rök rune stone Sweden: 12 Dependent Origination factors, Ten Dhammas. 16 Vipassanā Insight Knowledges, 28 Buddhas
2021
Modern meditation chart with a list of the same techniques,
still taught unchanged after 2,500 years
Sketch of an Excellent Man
Pa Auk Tawya Meditation Monastery
DOCUMENTARY: 1h43 minutes
Available in 14 languages
In the Pa Auk Forest Monastery in Myanmar over a thousand people from all over the world are first taught 40 concentration techniques to be able to analyse the ultimate realities of Mind and Matter (Nāma and Rūpa) at subatomic particle level by “their own direct experience”.
They then proceed to practise Dependent Origination and Insight Meditation (Vipassanā) as described in the “Path of Purification” (Visuddhi Magga), a 1,500 year old summary of the Pāli texts: the legacy of the profound practical knowledge as originally taught by Gotama the Buddha.
For people in search of the truth it can be a life changing experience to learn about “the wisdom light” produced by a concentrated mind found in the heart base – the sixth sense – described in detail.
Rare footage of the Most Venerable Pa Auk Tawya Sayadaw explaining Vipassanã and Dependent Origination in English, illustrated by an artist/architect (watercolour, animation) make this subtle and profound knowledge enjoyable to watch even by non practitioners.
In the Pa Auk Forest Monastery in Myanmar over a thousand people from all over the world are first taught 40 concentration techniques to be able to analyse the ultimate realities of Mind and Matter (Nāma and Rūpa) at subatomic particle level by “their own direct experience”.
They then proceed to practise Dependent Origination (Paticca-samuppāda) and Insight Meditation (Vipassanā) as described in the “Path of Purification” (Visuddhi Magga), a 1,500 year old summary of the Pāli texts: the legacy of the profound practical knowledge as originally taught by Gotama the Buddha. For people in search of the truth it can be a life changing experience to learn about “the wisdom light” produced by a concentrated mind found in the heart base – the sixth sense – described in detail.
Rare footage of the Most Venerable Pa Auk Tawya Sayadaw explaining Vipassanã and Dependent Origination in English, illustrated by an artist/architect (watercolour, animation) make this subtle and profound knowledge enjoyable to watch even by non practitioners.
(Setti Wessels Myanmar 2015)