Trees are significant in many of the world'smythologies, and have been given deep and sacred meanings throughout the ages. Human beings, observing the growth and death oftrees, and the annual death and revival of their foliage,[1][2] have often seen them as powerful symbols of growth, death and rebirth. Evergreen trees, which largely stay green throughout these cycles, are sometimes considered symbols of the eternal,immortality orfertility. The image of theTree of life orworld tree occurs in many mythologies.[3]
Examples include thebanyan and the sacred fig (Ficus religiosa) inHinduism,Buddhism andJainism, thetree of the knowledge of good and evil ofJudaism andChristianity. Infolk religion andfolklore, trees are often said to be the homes oftree spirits.Germanic mythology as well asCeltic polytheism both appear to have involved cultic practice insacred groves, especially grove ofoak.[citation needed] The termdruid itself possibly derives from theCeltic word for oak. TheEgyptian Book of the Dead mentionssycamores as part of the scenery where the soul of the deceased finds blissful repose.[4]
The presence of trees in myth sometimes occurs in connection to the concept of thesacred tree and thesacred grove. Trees are an attribute of the archetypicallocus amoenus.[5]
In many parts of the world travelers have observed the custom of hanging objects upon trees in order to establish some sort of a relationship between themselves and the tree. ThroughoutEurope, trees are known as sites of pilgrimages, ritual ambulation, and the recital of (Christian) prayers. Wreaths, ribbons or rags are suspended to win favor for sick humans or livestock, or merely for good luck. Popular belief associates the sites with healing, bewitching, or mere wishing.[1]
InSouth America,Darwin recorded a tree honored by numerous offerings (rags, meat, cigars, etc.); libations were made to it, and horses were sacrificed.[1][6]
The world tree, with its branches reaching up into the sky, and roots deep into the earth, can be seen to dwell in three worlds—a link between heaven, the earth, and the underworld, uniting above and below. This great tree acts as anaxis mundi, supporting or holding up the cosmos. In European mythology, the best-known example is the treeYggdrasil fromNorse mythology.[7]
Numerouspopular stories throughout the world reflect a firmly-rooted belief in an intimate connection between ahuman being and atree,plant orflower. Sometimes a man's life depends upon the tree and suffers when it withers or is injured, and we encounter the idea of the external soul, already found in theAncient EgyptianTale of Two Brothers from at least 3000 years ago. Here one of the brothers leaves his heart on the top of the flower of the acacia and falls dead when it is cut down. Sometimes, however, the tree is a mysterious token which shows its sympathy with an absent hero by weakening or dying, as the man becomes ill or loses his life. These two features very easily combine, and they agree in representing to us mysterious sympathy between tree and human life.[1]
Sometimes the new-born child is associated with a newly planted tree with which its life is supposed to be bound up; or, on ceremonial occasions (betrothal, marriage, ascent to the throne), a personal relationship of this kind is instituted by planting trees, upon the fortunes of which the career of the individual depends. Sometimes, boughs or plants are selected and the individual draws omens of life and death. Again, a person will put themselves into relationship with a tree by depositing upon it something which has been in close contact with them, such as hair or clothing.[1]
Often a tree will be associated withoracles. The oak ofDodona was tended by priests who slept on the ground. Forms of the tall oaks of the oldPrussians were inhabited by gods who gave responses, and so numerous are the examples that the oldHebrewterebinth of the teacher, and the terebinth of the diviners may reasonably be placed in this category. InGreek myth, oak trees are said to be inhabited by spirits ornymphs calledhamadryads, and if they were cut down by mortals, the gods punished them since the beings in the trees were believed to die.[8] Important sacred trees are also the object of pilgrimage, one of the most noteworthy being the branch of theBo tree atSri Lanka brought thither before the Christian era. The tree spirits will hold sway over the surrounding forest or district, and the animals in the locality are often sacred and must not be harmed.[1]
The custom of transferring disease or sickness from humans to trees is well known. Sometimes the hair, nails, clothing, etc. of a sickly person are fixed to a tree, or they are forcibly inserted in a hole in the trunk, or the tree is split and the patient passes through the aperture. Where the tree has been thus injured, its recovery and that of the patient are often associated. Different explanations may be found of such customs which naturally take rather different forms among peoples in different grades.[1]
In Arab folklore, sacred trees are haunted byjinn; sacrifices are made, and the sick who sleep beneath them receive prescriptions in their dreams. Here, as frequently elsewhere, it is dangerous to pull a bough. This dread of damaging special trees is familiar:Cato instructed the woodman to sacrifice to the male or female deity before thinning a grove, while in theHomeric poem to Aphrodite the tree nymph is wounded when the tree is injured, and dies when the trunk falls.[1]
Early Buddhism held that trees had neither mind nor feeling and might lawfully be cut; but it recognized that certain spirits might reside in them, such asNang Takian inThailand. Propitiation is made before the axe is laid to the holy trees; loss of life or of wealth and the failure of rain are feared should they be wantonly cut; there are even trees which it is dangerous to climb. The Talein ofBurma prays to the tree before he cuts it down, and theAfrican woodman will place a fresh sprig upon the tree.[1] InHawaiian tradition, a tree either located at the end of a valley or on a cliff near the sea, is used by the soul as a gateway to the Underworld (AKAPit of Milu).[9] SomeAncient Indiantree deities, such as Puliyidaivalaiyamman, theTamil deity of thetamarind tree, or Kadambariyamman, associated with thekadamba tree were seen as manifestations of a goddess who offers her blessings by giving fruits in abundance.[10]
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Cook, Stanley Arthur (1911). "Tree-Worship". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 235.