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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. 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]
Many types of trees found in the Celtic nations are considered to be sacred, whether as symbols, or due to medicinal properties, or because they are seen as the abode of particular nature spirits. Historically and in folklore, the respect given to trees varies in different parts of the Celtic world.
Sacred trees and groves are mentioned throughout the history of the ancient Germanic people, from their earliest attestations among Roman scribes to references made by medieval Christian monks. Notable examples of sacred trees and groves in the historical record among the ancient Germanic peoples include the following:
Tree deities were common in ancient Northern European lore. In Charlemagne's time, following the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae in 782 offerings to sacred trees or any other form of worship of the spirits of trees and springs were outlawed. Even as late as 1227 the Synod of Trier decreed that the worship of trees and sources was forbidden. [5]
A world tree is a common motif in Persian mythology, the legendary bird Simurgh (alternatively, Saēna bird; Sēnmurw and Senmurv) perches atop a tree in the center of the sea Vourukasa. This tree is described as having all-healing properties and many seeds. [66] In another account, the tree is the very same tree of the White Hōm (Haōma). [67]
These deities can also govern natural features such as mountains, trees, or volcanoes. Accepted in animism , pantheism , panentheism , polytheism , deism , totemism , shamanism , Taoism , Hinduism , and paganism , the nature deity can embody a number of archetypes including mother goddess , Mother Nature , or lord of the animals .
Kalpataru, the divine tree of life being guarded by mythical creatures at the 8th century Pawon temple, a Buddhist temple in Java, Indonesia. Kalpavriksha [note 1] (Sanskrit: कल्पवृक्ष, lit. 'age tree', Kalpavṛkṣa) is a wish-fulfilling divine tree in religions like Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.
Keats addresses the nightingale as "light-winged Dryad of the trees", in his "Ode to a Nightingale" . In the poetry of Donald Davidson they illustrate the themes of tradition and the importance of the past to the present. [11] In The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, dryads appear as inhabitants of Narnia, as do many creatures from Greek ...