Reed actually is a kind of giant grass, but the druids considered it a tree because of its dense root system.
Reed symbolizes protection (it offers cover for several species of wildlife and birds and for people poor enough to have to thatch their roof with reed - or rich enough to have it thatched), royalty (the Pharaohs as representants of the Sun God had sceptres made of reed arrows) and male divinity (Pan, the god of herds and male sexuality, played on a syrinx made of seven reeds).

A reed deity is the King of the Underworld. In stead of the Welsh Arawn, I chose the Breton figure An Ankou, a more sinister version of Terry Pratchetts rather adorable Death.
The Ankou, in his traditional Breton outfit, collects the souls of the deceased and escorts them to the Land of the Dead. A necessary but not very desirable job for which there are but few applicants, so it is said that the last one who dies in the year has to become the Ankou of the next year.

Accompanying the Lord of the Underworld are a pack of red-eared, white dogs.
Dogs as psychopomps are known in cultures around the world and keep appealing to the imagination: from a story in the Indian Mahabharata to the Greek Cerberus, from the Welsh Hounds of Annwn, appearing at night to foretell death, to Robert Johnsons Hellhound. And a nice storyline in Charles de Lints "Forests of the Heart" wants us to believe that, when your Time is Nigh, you will be summoned by the most favorite dog you ever had in your life.

The Ogham sign attributed to this month is Ngetal.