Lesson Fifteen ~ Sacred Trees
Popular imagination intimately links Druids with trees, and for once this perception is a valid one. In the next lesson we will look at the Ogam alphabet, which has strong tree symbolism, and continue with our exploration of trees in myth and magic. For this lesson we will have a more general look at the role of trees in Celtic culture and religion, to set the scene for Lesson Sixteen.
If we go back far enough in time, early Britain was covered with forests. Back then trees must have seemed as plentiful as blades of grass are now. The sort of concrete jungle we have transformed our world into must have been unimaginable to our early ancestors, who could scarcely have thought of a world as soulless as ours. Though, sadly, this did not stop several tribes using slash-and-burn farming techniques, which deforested large areas and turned them into moorlands.
From a purely practical point of view, trees played (and continue to play) a vital role in human survival. The old tribes built their houses from wood, depending on trees for firewood, the materials with which to build boats, make tools, carve religious statuary, harvest fruit for themselves and food for their animals. It can scarcely be any wonder that those people viewed trees as holy things.
Such was the importance of trees, that the Brehons introduced laws to protect them. In one of the earliest examples of ecological law-making, the Fenechus introduced penalties for people who felled trees without permission. The following excerpt is a poem from the Crith Gablach:
| Cia annsom fidbeime fiachaib bacth? Briugid caille, coll eidnech. Esnill bes dithernam dire fidnemid nair. Ni bie fidnemid fiachaib secht n-airech, ara teora bu inna bunbeim bis. Bit alaili secht setlaib losae. Laumur ar dochondaib dildi cailli: cairi fulocht benar, bas chnoe foisce frisna laim i saith soi. Slanem de dithgus dithli. Dire ndaro, dire a gabal mar, mess beobethad; bunbem n-ibair inonn cumbe cuilinn, Annsom de dire secht n-aithlech asa mbi bo: bunbeim beithe, baegal fernae, fube sailech; dluind airriu aithgein anog sciath sceo draigin; dringid co fedo forball, forball ratho, raited, aine, acht a ndilse do flaithib. | What are the most oppressive cases of tree-cutting for which fools are fined? The hospitallers of the forest, the ivied hazel. A danger from which there is no escape is the penalty for felling the sacred tree. You shall not cut a sacred tree and escape with fines for the seven noble trees on account of the fine of three cows that is fixed for cutting its stem. There are others, seven atoned for in seoit [money] due for undergrowth. Let me venture for the benefit of the immature to state the immune things of the forest: a single cauldron’s cooking wood that is cut, a handful of ripe nuts to which one stretches not his hand in satiety. Freest of all is the right of removal. The penalty for the oak, the penalty for lobbing its larger limbs, with its life-sustaining mast; the trunk-cutting of the yew; the same penalty for cutting the holly tree. Most oppressive of all is the penalty of the seven commoners of the forest for each of which there is a cow of payment: the trunk-cutting of the birch, the peril of the alder, the undermining of the willow, declare restitution for them, the maiming of the hawthorn and of the blackthorn; its restitution extends to the undergrowth of the wood, the undergrowth of fern, of bog-myrtle, of reeds, save that these are free to lords. |
As you can see, a whole list of fines applied to anyone who wantonly hacked down trees or even lopped off branches without gaining consent from the local lord. In addition to the Crith Gablach, there is mention of a law book called the Fid-bretha, the Law of Trees, however this text has been lost to time. Fidnemed is one of the words for a sacred grove of trees ~ one probably used for ritual. The word for an individual sacred tree is bile, and there are various places in Ireland that take their name from a holy tree that once stood there.
This list, which is backed by other sources, divided trees into three categories according to the size of the fine payable for each ~ oak, hazel, holly, yew, ash, pine and apple are classed as airig fedo, “nobles of the wood”. One text states that this is because oak has acorns and nobility, hazel has nuts, apple its fruit and bark, yew because it is good for building, holly for making chariot-axles, and ash for spear shafts.
Alder, willow, hawthorn, rowan, birch, elm and cherry were counted as aithig fedo, “commoners of the wood”. Blackthorn, elder, spindle-tree, aspen, juniper, whitebeam and a now rare tree called arbutus were called fodla fedo, “lesser divisions of the wood”. The lowest class, losa fedo or “bushes of the wood” included bracken, bog-myrtle, gorse, bramble, heather, briar and broom.
Various stories talk of tribes having trees that were regarded as especially sacred. In Ireland there were five famous trees, all planted by Fintan. A giant attended an assembly at Tara with a branch bearing nuts, apples and acorns all at the same time. He lived on the smell of this fruit while teaching the people, and gave some to Fintan. He then planted the seeds around Ireland, where they became magical trees of huge size ~ the Ash of Tortu (Bile Tortan), the Yew of Ross (Eó Ruis), the Yew of Mugna (Eó Mugna), Dathi’s Ash Branch (Craeb Daithi) and the Ash of Uisnech (Bile Uisneg). Trees such as this were often tied tot he happiness and success of the tribe in whose territory they grew. This myth describes trees being deliberately planted, so it may well be indicative that ~ despite being surrounded by dense forests ~ the old tribes might have planted saplings for special occasions or ritual use. Even if they didn’t, it’s something to be heavily encouraged these days, to help reverse the trend to concrete over everything in sight.
Trees were so important to some tribes, that they named themselves after them, such as the Euburones (the Yew People), and the Lemovices (the Elm People) of Gaul. Accounts of forest spirits are prominent, such as the moss covered ghillie-dhu who guards the woods and occasionally helps lost travellers. The Russians have a similar story, about spirits called the Leshii, the Greeks have Dryads, and even Tolkien took the idea and came up with the Ents.
Many ancient (and modern) people regard trees as sentient, thinking creatures. A common notion is that they harness the myriad number of creatures that depend on them (birds, squirrels, rabbits in the roots etc) as eyes and ears to observe things over a greater range ~ so overcoming the fact that they cannot walk. Though there are many old stories of trees that do occasionally go for a wander! A birch lives about the same length of time as a human, an oak tree averages 900 years, whilst a yew can live for thousands of years. Think of the amount of wisdom and understanding a 2000 year old yew tree might have amassed! Some trees might actually remember the original Druids gathering near them. It’s small wonder that trees are held as sacred in just about every religion going. Many faiths have the idea of a cosmic tree, or one particularly sacred tree. The Heathens have the idea of Yggdrasil the World Ash, Buddha found enlightenment meditating under the Bo Tree, Eden was home to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil etc. The Irish god Bile is named after the sacred tree, and many writers postulate (though others disagree) that he is the Celtic version of a world tree, sometimes called the Crann Bethadh.
Folk traditions advise people wanting to cut off branches, or chop down whole trees, to speak to them first. Certain species (such as the elder) are said to be particularly vindictive if they are cut without consent. Several traditions recommend leaving an offering ~ either a libation, or often a coin buried in the roots. If you do ever need to chop the whole tree, it would be a good idea to plant several more in recompense.
Botanists have come round to the idea that trees communicate with each other, mostly through the release of chemicals. In 1979 a chemist called Rhoades carried out an experiment with willow trees that suggested when one tree was under attack from bugs, it could send out a warning to other willow trees who would then produce chemicals to defend against the bugs. Jeanne McDermott, another researcher, published an article in 1984 backing this up with further studies of her own. Such research is still in its early stages, and there may be more ways for trees to communicate than just releasing pheromones. One day it may be possible for science to show how trees communicate with humans as well.
As the Ice Age began to recede in Europe, a variety of trees sprang up. In most of Europe the birch and hazel were amongst the first, followed by the Scots pine and juniper. Later on came the oak and alder. About 7, 500 years ago the land bridge with the continent was washed away. Those trees (and animals) here before that date are the main ones regarded as native. After that date, other tree species were introduced, usually deliberately by mankind. In those early days most of the land was covered in forests. By the time of the Domesday Book, only 20% of the land was wooded. The rate at which farms, towns, roads etc have swallowed up the woods has been alarmingly fast. Many charities have been set up to preserve surviving woods, or plant new ones, but it’s never likely to be more than a cosmetic move unless there is a drastic reduction in the size of the human population of these islands.
Some questions for you to think about:
Have you a favourite species of tree? If so, what is it about that tree that you most like?
Are the feelings you get when walking in a woods different from those when walking on the beach, in the mountains, through a town etc? Do you get different feelings in different types of forest ~ such as between deciduous and coniferous?
Have you ever planted a tree to mark a specific event in life ~ a birth, marriage, death etc? Did you plant whatever tree was available, or choose a particular species because it suited the occasion?
Practical exercise:
Find a tree and talk to it! Spend time quietly meditating… make offers… compose poems in honour of it… sit and listen to what it says, what images come into your mind. In the longer term, try going back to the tree in different seasons and keep a diary of how its moods change. Try to talking to other trees of different species, to see if you can pick up on distinct qualities.