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.

did ireland save christianity?

The physical location of Ireland, as well as the easy conversion to Christianity of its Celtic Pagan population, most definitely provided Christianity with a safe haven, but it was the expansionist evangelical efforts of Pope Gregory (590-604) that prevented Christianity from dying out in Europe and remaining, if at all, as an essentially middle-eastern religion.

Historians claim that Ireland - an ethnic Celtic island at the westernmost part of Europe - is the cradle of western civilization, and Christianity is the religion upon which it was founded in 675 AD.

In that St. Patrick had Christianized Ireland from 432AD, and Rome was - and still is - the central power of Christianity in the western world, it does seem strange that Ireland, rather than Rome, is considered to be the cradle of western civilization and the savior of Christianity.

It is unclear whether it was the isolated western geographical region of Ireland, its distinctive race of white Celtic people or its devotion to Christianity that made it the historical birthplace of western civilization.

Actually, Ireland's geographic position had to be the definitive factor.

With the fall of the Roman Empire in 378AD, the European city states and the new religion of Christianity were in the throes of turmoil. Ireland was seen as being the last bastion - the last hope - for the continuation of any sort of European civilization, with or without Christianity, in the face of advancing hordes from eastern Europe, the far north and the Middle East. And, as it turned out, it was!

Here is what was happening in Europe at the time:

• 378 - the Visigoths defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople
• 395 - the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western parts
• 407 - the Romans evacuated Britain
• 410 - Rome sacked by the Visigoths
• 410-442 The Jutes, Angles and Saxons invaded Britain

At this point, in 432AD, when all appeared to be lost in Europe, St Patrick returns to Ireland - where he had previously been enslaved - on an evangelical mission to introduce Christianity to the Pagan Celtic race and hopefully convert the population to his faith. In the following years, things got worse in Europe.

• 450 - The Huns invade all Roman cities in the old Empire
• 455 - Rome, itself, was sacked by the Vandals

It took Rome nearly 150 years to recover from the invasion, and while Christianity was stagnating in Rome it was thriving in the eastern lands. The magnificent church of St Sophia - which later became a mosque - was built in Constantinople in 532-537 and stands as evidence that Christianity was seen more as an eastern religion than a European one.

Fearing loss of power, in 597 Pope Gregory sent St Augustine to England. It was expected that with the widespread conversion to Christianity in England that Rome would regain control of that part of the world - if not politically then at least in the hearts and minds of the population - but the new religion of Islam intervened.