Iodhadh is the twentieth and last letter of the ogham alphabet, written ᚔ, and it is linked to the yew. Fittingly for the final few, it carries themes of endings and rebirth, ancestry, and the eternal, drawn from one of the longest-lived trees in the world. This page covers the letter, the yew in Celtic tradition, and what Iodhadh is taken to mean. For the whole alphabet see the ogham letters guide, and for every symbol at a glance, the ogham symbols page.
The letter Iodhadh
Iodhadh is the fifth and final vowel, written as five notches on the central line: ᚔ. Its sound is I. In the traditional order it follows Eadhadh and closes the alphabet, which suits a letter tied to endings.
The yew in Celtic tradition
The yew is a tree of extraordinary age. Individual yews can live for well over a thousand years, and as an old trunk decays the tree sends up new growth from within, so it seems to renew itself endlessly. That habit, along with its dark evergreen foliage and its poisonous berries and needles, tied the yew closely to death and to what lies beyond it. Yews were planted in graveyards and sacred sites long before and after the arrival of Christianity, standing as a link between the living, the dead, and the ancestors. Its near-immortality made it a symbol of eternity and of rebirth out of endings.
What Iodhadh means in ogham
In modern ogham practice, Iodhadh is read as endings and rebirth, ancestry, and the eternal, a sign of a close that opens into something new. The reading grows from the yew’s ties to death, renewal, and immense age. As with every few, the tree’s associations are old while the tidy one-line meaning is a modern reading. See the ogham symbols and their meanings page for the full set.
Yew in the Celtic tree calendar
Unlike most of the fews, the yew is not one of the thirteen monthly trees in the Celtic tree calendar. In that modern system, traced to Robert Graves in 1948, the yew is instead tied to the winter solstice and to the theme of death and renewal at the turn of the year. For the wider system, see the Celtic tree calendar and find your birth tree guides.
FAQ
What does Iodhadh mean in ogham?
Iodhadh is read as endings and rebirth, ancestry, and the eternal. The meaning comes from the yew, an extremely long-lived tree that renews itself from within and was long linked to death and what lies beyond it. The tree’s associations are old, while the specific one-line divinatory meaning is a modern reading.
What tree is Iodhadh?
Iodhadh is the yew, a dark evergreen that can live well over a thousand years and regrows from its own decaying trunk. Its great age and its poisonous foliage tied it to death, rebirth, and eternity, and yews were planted at graveyards and sacred sites.
Why is the yew linked to death and rebirth?
The yew lives for centuries and renews itself as the old wood decays, so it seems to die and return at once. Combined with its dark, poisonous foliage and its place in graveyards, this made it a natural symbol of death, the ancestors, and rebirth out of an ending.