tree worship in pagan Europe

The Minoan culture was an ancient culture that predated the ancient Greek civilization and survived on the island of Crete for almost 2000 years until about 1450 BC. Minoan women danced around a sacred tree as a part of their worship and a world tree seems to have been part of their religion, too.

There are many examples of potted trees in Minoan Art, and these were used in tree shaking initiation ceremonies where initiates were required to gnaw on the tree with their hands behind their backs.

In ancient Greece, there were many sacred groves, including Plane tree groves at Olympia and Lerna,Ash trees groves in Ionia and a sacred grove at Lycosura which featured an olive-tree and an evergreen oak growing from the same root.

The oak tree was sacred to Pan and Zeus (the rustling of its leaves was heard as his voice).The myrtle-tree was sacred to Aphrodite and the olive tree was sacred to the goddess Athena.

In Greek mythology, women and men are frequently transformed into trees -- for instance, Atys became a Pine tree, Smilax a Yew tree and Daphne a Laurel tree, sacred to Apollo -- and the spirit of trees is typically personified in female form. The Alseids were grove nymphs, the Dryads were forest nymphs guarding the trees, and the Hamadryads were nymphs forming anintegral part of the trees themselves.

In Ancient Rome, a sacred Fig tree associated with Romulus grew near the Forum, and a sacred Cornel tree grew of the slope of the Palatine Hill.

Pillars similar to those built by Asoka, the Buddhist emperor of India (268 - 232 BC) representing the Cosmic Tree were erected on hilltops by some German tribes. Made of tree trunks, not stone, these pillars (called Irmensul) represented the 'tree of the universe'.

A particularly venerated Irmensul in the Westphalia area was chopped down in 772 AD by Charlemagne in accordance with forced Christian conversions and,to remove the sacred powers or energies of pagan tree cult sites, a church was often built on the same site. The most famous church on these 'converted sites' is the medieval Gothic cathedral of Chartres.

The religious faith of the ancient Celtic inhabitants of Gaul and the British Isles was Druidism and it flourished until Christianity wiped it out. The Druids believed in the immortality of the soul, passing upon death into the body of a new-born child, and they believed themselves to be descended from a Supreme Being.

Learned in astrology, magic, and the magic powers of plants and animals, the Celts believed trees to be the source of sacred wisdom. The Yew tree was a symbol of immortality, the Hazel tree was associated with wisdom, and the Druids venerated the Oak tree (particularly if it had mistletoe growing on it, believing it meant the tree had been struck by lightning and was the tree of life). All Druid rituals were performed in oak forests because they believed that spirits lived within the interior of the oak tree.

Certain names of Celtic Gaul tribes reflect the veneration of trees, for instance the Euburones (the Yew tribe), and the Lemovices (the people of the Elm).

The Christmas tree is an interesting phenomenon because the idea came from Martin Luther, b. 1483, the leader of the Reformation in Germany. He taught that the fir tree is a symbol of the promise of Christ, decorated it with fruit representing the tree of life and,although not intentional, revived a Pagan reverence for trees!

At the same time, the Puritans in England and Wales were tearing down hundreds of village maypoles and banning the practice of maypole dancing with its sinister associations with tree worship. Despite their attempts to remove the maypoles, several prevailed and the tallest, said to measure 30 metres, still stands at Barwick in Elmet, Yorkshire and maypole dancing resumed with the restoration of Charles II in 1660.

The Celts divided their year by four seasons and all celebrated with great festivals. Samhain, signifying the arrival of winter and the New Year was first, and it was celebrated on 1st November. Imbolc was next, on 1st February, followed by Beltane on 1st May and Lugnasdh on 1st August.

Some people believe that May Day celebrations are associated with Beltane and the tree worship of the Druids -- and possibly are associated with the spring festivals of ancient Egypt and India. Others believe May Day, as it is celebrated today, owes more to an ancient Roman festivity honoring Flora, the goddess of flowers and springtime.

As the largest plant, rooted in the earth and reaching skyward, trees were the earliest focus of religious life for many peoples around the world and it should not surprise anyone that so many rites are similar.

tree worship in asia

The Buddhist Tree of Wisdom has four boughs from which flow the rivers of life, and the sacred tree of Buddhism is the Bodhi or Pipal tree because it was under such a tree that Siddhartha Gautama (b. 566 BC) meditated and gained enlightenment.

The enormous respect and veneration for trees in India has produced a great variety of tree myths and traditions.In India, the ghosts of brahmans are believed to live in Fig trees awaiting liberation or reincarnation, and the voluptuous Vrikshaka represents a tree nymph. Asoka, the Buddhist emperor of India (268-232 BC) erected 36 stone pillars -- one of which in Besnagar in Central India represents the Cosmic Tree.

In Japan, the Cryptomeria tree is venerated at Shinto shrines, and a sacred tree is the Sakaki from which a branch becomes a sacred central post in building shrines.

To the Chinese, the Peach tree is sacred, every part of it holding great symbolism. Peach wood possesses the power to ward off evil spirits, and the peach fruit is believed to endow immortality -- if only in a long, tranquil and prosperous life.

The Chinese also identify sacred trees as symbols of renewal. Their Tree of Life, the Kien-Luen, grows on the slopes of Kuen-Luen.

In China, tree patterns decorated the garments of pubescent girls, and most popular was one of phoenixes and pheasants sitting on or flying around an Otung tree which links more with Central Asian rather than Chinese beliefs.

Because of its location between Europe and Asia, and its fame for producing beautiful rugs, Turkey has retained traces of ancient beliefs in carpet patterns which tie its culture with those of Central Asiatic tribes. Mostly decorated with tree patterns,Turkish prayer rugs (namzliks) reveal a pre-Islamic origin, showing the tree as the center of life.

In Turkey today, particularly in the eastern parts, childless women make a pilgrimage to a solitary tree to tie cradles and dolls to its branches. Childless Kazakh women make a similar pilgrimage, offering a sheep; and Yakut women spend a night under a Larch tree in order to conceive. Uzbek women believe a fruit tree acts as the symbol of fertility and in Erzurum, and in other parts of Turkey, the apple tree is revered.

Siberian Turks believed the tie between a man and a tree is like an umbilical cord. When an old tree dies, an old man dies and when a young tree dies, a young man dies -- and the human spirit returns to the tree. The Kazaks and the Turkmen believe in a tree in heaven, every leaf of which belongs to someone on Earth. When babies die, Siberian Turks once wrapped them in birch bark and hung them on trees believing that babies belong to nature.

Turkic people believe that trees are the ancestors of human beings In the mythology of the Oghuz people, two trees, a golden one and a silver -- metaphors for the Sun and the Moon -- are mentioned as ancestors. Trees were also used by Siberian and Central Asian shamans in consecration rites. The Yakuts believed their shamans were trees, referring to limbs as branches.

The Tuva and Altai tribes believed trees were conscious of pain and like humans they slept at night and died as we do; and the Huns of the Northern Caucasus sacrificed horses to the Sacred oak.

All of these tree myths are represented by patterns on carpets, stones and jewellery. There are representations of trees with fruits shaped as human, and the spread of this motif is connected with the expansion of Turkmen tribes in Central Asia in the 10th century.