![]() Sometimes the hair, nails, clothing, etc. The custom of transferring disease or sickness from men to trees is well known. 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. Important sacred trees are also the object of pilgrimage, one of the most noteworthy being the branch of the Bo tree at Sri Lanka brought thither before the Christian era. In Greek myth, oak trees are said to be inhabited by spirits or nymphs called hamadryads, and if they were cut down by mortals, the gods punished them since the beings in the trees were believed to die. Forms of the tall oaks of the old Prussians were inhabited by gods who gave responses, and so numerous are the examples that the old Hebrew terebinth of the teacher, and the terebinth of the diviners may reasonably be placed in this category. The oak of Dodona was tended by priests who slept on the ground. ![]() Often a tree will be associated with oracles. 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. Sometimes, boughs or plants are selected and the individual draws omens of life and death. 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. These two features very easily combine, and they agree in representing to us mysterious sympathy between tree and human life. 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. 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 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 the Ancient Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers from at least 3000 years ago. Numerous popular stories throughout the world reflect a firmly-rooted belief in an intimate connection between a human being and a tree, plant or flower. In European mythology, the best-known example is the tree Yggdrasil from Norse mythology. This great tree acts as an axis mundi, supporting or holding up the cosmos, and providing a link between the heavens, earth, and underworld. 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. Main article: World tree Yggdrasil, the World Ash of Norse mythology Trees are an attribute of the archetypical locus amoenus. The presence of trees in myth sometimes occurs in connection to the concept of the sacred tree and the sacred grove. ![]() The Egyptian Book of the Dead mentions sycamores as part of the scenery where the soul of the deceased finds blissful repose. The term druid itself possibly derives from the Celtic word for oak. Germanic mythology as well as Celtic polytheism both appear to have involved cultic practice in sacred groves, especially grove of oak. In folk religion and folklore, trees are often said to be the homes of tree spirits. Įxamples include the banyan and the sacred fig ( Ficus religiosa) in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil of Judaism and Christianity. The image of the Tree of life or world tree occurs in many mythologies. Evergreen trees, which largely stay green throughout these cycles, are sometimes considered symbols of the eternal, immortality or fertility. Human beings, observing the growth and death of trees, and the annual death and revival of their foliage, have often seen them as powerful symbols of growth, death and rebirth. ![]() Trees are significant in many of the world's mythologies, and have been given deep and sacred meanings throughout the ages. ![]() The sacred fig is also venerated in Hinduism and Jainism. Significance of trees in religion and folklore The Bodhi Tree of Bodh Gaya is believed to be the Ficus religiosa under which Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment. ![]()
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