TREE AND Develop Respect.
THE Celts had their own cult of grass, but they adopted tight cults--Ligurian, Iberian, and others. The Fagus Deus (the divine beech), the Sex arbor or Sex arbores of Pyrenean inscriptions, and an nameless god represented by a conifer on an altar at Toulouse, apparently chance to tight Ligurian tree cults continued by the Celts trendy Roman period. 1 Forests were in the same way in person or ruled by a tape goddess, similar Dea Arduinna of the Ardennes and Dea Abnoba of the Black Plant. 2 But boss antiquated inspiration prevailed, similar that which assigned a whole class of tree-divinities to a forest, e.g. the Fatae Dervones, spirits of the oak-woods of Northern Italy. 3 Groups of grass similar Sex arbores were honored, possibly for their size, misery, or some other oddness.
The Celts completed their sacred spaces in dark groves, the grass to the same degree hung with charitable trust or with the heads of wounded. At all sacrifices were hung or impaled on grass, e.g. by the warriors of Boudicca. 4 These, similar the charitable trust stationary placed by the folk on sacred grass, were fixed to them to the same degree the grass were the motherland of spirits or divinities who in plentiful hand baggage had power improved bushes.
Pliny believed of the Celts: They have to do with nobody boss sacred
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than the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows. But aloof from this they reputation oak-woods for their sacred groves, and perform no sacred rite lacking using oak brushwood." 1 Maximus of Tyre in the same way speaks of the Celtic (? German) image of Zeus as a utter oak, and an old Irish word list gives daur, "oak," as an little Irish name for "god," and glosses it by dia, "god." 2 The sacred need-fire may bear been obtained by fighting from oak-wood, and it is to the same degree of the old blessedness of the oak that a clause of its thicket is stationary cast-off as a talisman in Brittany. 3 Option Aryan folk extremely the Celts regarded the oak as the symbol of a high god, of the sun or the sky, 4 but apparently this was not its creative quality. Oak forests were on one occasion boss extensive improved Europe than they are now, and the old tradition that men on one occasion lived on acorns has been away from home to be authoritative by the proof of archaeological finds, e.g. in Northern Italy. 5 A ancestors living in an oak territory and subsisting in part on acorns nation honestly fix the oak as a emblematic of the spirit of bushes or bulge. It was long-lived, its foliage was a protection, it friendly harvest, its thicket was cast-off as food, and it was thus brilliantly the friend of man. For these reasons, and to the same degree it was the greatest constant and living thing men knew, it became the archetype of the spirits of life and bulge. Folk-lore survivals stand that the spirit of bushes in the model of his emblematic was annually slain at the same time as yet in full vigour, that his life nation kindness all things and be accepted on undiminished to his successor. 6 As a consequence the oak or a
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at all to the same degree animated the spirit of bushes, or what's more together, were burned in the Midsummer fires. How, along with, did the oak come to symbolise a god equated with Zeus. While the equation may be inept, it is doable that the link up lay in the fact that Zeus and Juppiter had agricultural functions, or that, being the equation was completed, the preferably spirit of bushes had become a idol with functions in the neighborhood people of Zeus. The fires were kindled to compose the sun's life; they were fed with oak-wood, and in them an oak or a at all raise objections animated the spirit in the flesh in the oak was burned. As a consequence it may bear been hint that the sun was strengthened by the fire residing in the sacred oak; it was thus "the new store or lean of the fire which was from time to time haggard out to feed the sun." 1 The oak thus became the symbol of a happy god in the same way primary with bulge. But, to arbitrator by folk survivals, the roomy thought stationary remained hard-wearing, and tree or at all raise objections pompous for good all vegetable bulge as well as man's life, at the same time as at the fantastically time the fire strengthened the sun.
Dr. Evans argues that "the new holy object within the major triliths of Stonehenge was a sacred tree," an oak, image of the Celtic Zeus. The tree and the stones, on one occasion attached with predecessor admire, had become symbols of "a boss space Description or Self-esteem than people of departed at all beings." 2 But Stonehenge has now been proved to bear been in authority to the fore the arrival of the Celts, thus such a cult need bear been pre-Celtic, still it may comparatively well bear been adopted by the Celts. Whether this educational cult was practised by a gallop, a group of tribes, or by the whole ancestors, need carry on obscure, and, incontestably, it may well be questioned whether Stonehenge was ever boss than the chance of some clannish wake.
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Option trees--the yew, the cypress, the alder, and the ash, were honored, to arbitrator by what Lucan relates of the sacred grove at Marseilles. The Irish Druids approved special intrinsic worth to the hazel, rowan, and yew, the thicket of which was cast-off in magical ceremonies described in Irish texts. 1 Fires of rowan were lit by the Druids of alike armies, and incantations believed improved them in order to make ashamed the opposing bring in, 2 and the thicket of all these grass is stationary alleged to be efficacious v fairies and witches.
The Irish hatred was a sacred tree, of robust age, surfacing improved a holy well or fort. Five of them are described in the Dindsenchas, and one was an oak, which not now yielded acorns, but loopy and apples. 3 The mythic grass of Elysium had the fantastically varied fruitage, and the project in what's more hand baggage is possibly the fact that being the civilized apple took the place of acorns and loopy as a harvest hub, words indicating "nut" or "acorn" were transferred to the apple. A myth of grass on which all these fruits grew nation along with honestly upsurge. Discrete Irish hatred was a yew described in a poem as "a steadfast strong god," at the same time as such phrases in this poem as "word-pure man, eyeball of origin, spell of knowledge," may bear some costing to the creation of calligraphy divinations in ogham on rods of yew. The other hatred were ash-trees, and from one of them the Fir Umbrage, "men of the tree," were named--perhaps a totem-clan. 4 The lives of kings and chiefs set in motion to bear been primary with these grass, apparently as representatives of the spirit of bushes in the flesh in the tree, and under their shadow they were inaugurated. But as a modify for the king was slain, so doubtless these pre-eminent sacred grass were too sacred, too a good deal charged with trickery bully, to
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be cut down and burned, and the twelve-monthly ritual would be performed with changed tree. But in time of feud one gallop gloried in destroying the hatred of another; and even in the tenth century, being the hatred maighe Adair was in pieces by Maeloeohlen the act was regarded with be alarmed about. "But, O reader, this curve did not go past unpunished." 1 Of changed hatred, that of Borrisokane, it was believed that any congress in which a speck of it was burned would itself be in pieces by fire. 2
Tribal and untraditional names chance to belief in family tree from tree gods or spirits and possibly to totemism. The Eburones were the yew-tree gallop (eburos); the Bituriges possibly had the mistletoe for their symbol, and their last name Vivisci implies that they were called "Mistletoe men." 3 If hatred (tree) is primary with the name Umbrage, that of the predecessor of the Milesians, this may chance to some myth of family tree from a sacred tree, as in the container of the Fir Umbrage, or "men of the tree." 4 Option names similar Guidgen (Viduo-genos, "son of the tree"), Dergen (Dervo-genos, "son of the oak"), Guerngen (Verno-genos, "son of the alder"), hint at filiation to a tree. While these names became customary, they reveal what had on one occasion been a living belief. Names on loan simply from grass are in the same way found--Eburos or Ebur, "yew," Derua or Deruacus, "oak," etc.
The idolization of grass surfacing versus cremation mounds or megalithic monuments was apparently a pre-Celtic cult continued by the Celts. The tree in the flesh the ghost of the notable hidden under it, but such a ghost might along with hard be differentiated from a tree spirit or idol. Total now in Celtic districts extreme idolization exists for grass surfacing in cemeteries and in other spaces. It is crypt to cut them
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down or to heroism a call or share out from them, at the same time as in Breton churchyards the yew is hint to feast a root to the orifice of each corpse. 1 The story of the calm of Cyperissa, young person of a Celtic king in the Danube territory, from which if possible sprang the "despondent cypress," 2 is primary with broad myths of grass surfacing from the graves of lovers until their brushwood intertwine. These typify the belief that the spirit of the dead is in the tree, which was thus in all plan the object of a cult. Instances of these myths go in Celtic story. Yew-stakes encouraged guide the bodies of Naisi and Deirdre to verification them aloof, became yew-trees the tops of which embraced improved Armagh Place of worship. A yew sprang from the calm of Bail'e Mac Buain, and an apple-tree from that of his devotee Aillinn, and the top of each had the form of their heads. 3 The certificate of tree and ghost is arrived limited.
The great, rowan, and bristle are stationary planted stage houses to verification off witches, or sprigs of rowan are placed improved doorways--a survival from the time being they were alleged to be tenanted by a beneficent spirit adverse to evil influences. In Ireland and the Coral reef of Man the bristle is hint to be the alternative of fairies, and they, Eke the forest fairies or "thicket men" are apparently representatives of the roomy tree spirits and gods of groves and forests. 4
Tree-worship was fixed in the oldest setting admire, and the House of worship had the farthest away obscurity in suppressing it. Councils fulminated v the cult of grass, v charitable trust to them or the placing of lights to the fore them and to the fore wells
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or stones, and v the belief that unquestionable grass were too sacred to be cut down or burned. Long-winded fines were levied v people who practised these wake, yet stationary they continued. 1 Amator, Bishop of Auxerre, tried to wait the admire of a enormous pear-tree standing in the centre of the conurbation and on which the semi-Christian people hung nature heads with a good deal ribaldry. At last S. Germanus in pieces it, but at the coincidental of his life. S. Martin of Tours was allowed to clash a temple, but the ancestors would not allow him to swing a a good deal honored pine-tree which stood versus it--an fast example of the way in which the boss administrator paganism level to the fore Christianity, at the same time as the roomy religion of the muddy, from which it sprang, might not be impartial eradicated. 2 The House of worship often effected a reunion. Descriptions of the gods affixed to grass were replaced by people of the Virgin, but with analytical argue. Legends arose significant how the devoted had been led to such grass and impart revealed the image of the Madonna surprisingly placed in the midst of the brushwood. 3 These are match to the myths of the leak of images of the Virgin in the earth, such images to the same degree really people of the Matres.
Representations of sacred grass are on the odd occasion met with on money, altars, and ex votos. 4 If the interpretation be very well which sees a print of part of the C'uchulainn heading on the Paris and Tr`eves altars, the grass figured impart would not necessarily be sacred. But before they may pull out sacred grass.
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We now turn to Pliny's statement of the mistletoe rite. The Druids apprehended nobody boss sacred than this lodge and the tree on which it grew, apparently an oak. Of it groves were formed, at the same time as brushwood of the oak were cast-off in all goody-goody wake. No matter which surfacing on the oak had been sent from heaven, and the specter of the mistletoe showed that God had sure the tree for especial favour. Uncommon as it was, being found the mistletoe was the object of a thorough ritual. On the sixth day of the moon it was culled. Preparations for a sacrifice and nosh-up were completed in the tree, and two white bulls whose horns had never been regulate were brought impart. A Druid, clad, in white, ascended the tree and cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle. As it level it was wedged in a white cloth; the bulls were along with sacrificed, and prayer was completed that God would make His gift loud to people on whom He had bestowed it. The mistletoe was called "the broad healer," and a potion completed from it caused bleak nature to be sweet. It was in the same way a go into v all poisons. 1 We can hard conjecture that such an expand ritual straightforwardly led up to the medico-magical use of the mistletoe. Conceivably, of course, the rite was an attenuated survival of no matter which which had on one occasion been boss important, but it is boss possibility that Pliny gives now a few odd weary and passes by the intelligence of the ritual. He does not connect us who the "God" of whom he speaks was, possibly the sun-god or the god of bushes. As to the "gift," it was apparently in his life form the mistletoe, but it may comparatively well bear alleged the gift of bulge in section and gather. The tree was possibly cut down and burned; the oxen may bear been incarnations of a god of bushes, as the tree in the same way may bear been. We craving not arrived say again the meaning which has been resolution to the ritual, 2 but it may be further that if this meaning is
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very well, the rite apparently took place at the time of the Midsummer market, a market of bulge and productivity. Mistletoe is stationary gathered on Midsummer eve and cast-off as an antidote to poisons or for the cure of wounds. Its Druidic name is stationary sealed in Celtic idiom in words indicating "all-healer," at the same time as it is in the same way called s`ugh an daraich, "sap of the oak," and Druidh lus, "Druid's weed." 1
Pliny describes other Celtic herbs of panache. Selago was culled lacking use of slick at the back of a sacrifice of cash and wine--probably to the spirit of the lodge. The notable collection it wore a white robe, and went with unshod feet at the back of washing them. According to the Druids, Selago sealed one from destiny, and its smoke being burned healed maladies of the eye. 2 Samolus was placed in consumption troughs as a go into v plague in accumulation. It was culled by a notable fasting, with the disappeared hand; it need be significantly uprooted, and the gatherer need not visage knock down him. 3 Vervain was gathered at sunrise at the back of a sacrifice to the earth as an expiation--perhaps to the same degree its catnap was about to be ill at ease. So it was rubbed on the stature all needs were gratified; it dispelled fevers and other maladies; it was an antidote v serpents; and it conciliated hearts. A share out of the dried out herb cast-off to asperge a banquet-hall completed the touring company boss affectionate. 4
The ritual cast-off in collection these plants--silence, a number of tabus, ritual purity, sacrifice--is found anywhere flowers are culled whose decency lies in this that they are creepy by a spirit. Option flowers are stationary cast-off as charms by modern Celtic peasants, and, in some hand baggage, the ritual of collection
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them resembles that described by Pliny. 1 In Irish sagas flowers bear magical powers. "Urchin herbs" placed in a carry restored beauty to women bathing therein. 2 Into the T'ain C'uchulainn's wounds were healed with "balsams and healing herbs of fairy forte," and Diancecht cast-off matching herbs to set right the dead at the battle of Mag-tured. 3
Footnotes
198:1 Sacaze, Inscr. des Pyren. 255 Hirschfeld, Sitzungsberichte (Berlin, 1896), 448.
198:2 CIL vi. 46; CIR 1654, 1683.
198:3 D'Arbois, Les Celtes, 52.
198:4 Lucan, Phar. Usener's ed., 32; Orosius, v. 16. 6; Dio Cass. lxii. 6.
199:1 Pliny, xvi. 44. The Scholiast on Lucan says that the Druids divined with acorns (Usener, 33).
199:2 Max. Tyr. Diss. viii. 8; Stokes, RC i. 269.
199:3 Le Braz, ii. 18.
199:4 Mr. Chadwick (Jour. Anth. Inst. xxx. 26) connects this high god with roar, and regards the Celtic Zeus (Taranis, in his consideration) as a thunder-god. The oak was attached with this god to the same degree his worshippers dwelt under oaks.
199:5 Helbig, Die Italiker in der Poebene, 16 f.
199:6 Mannhardt, Baumkultus; Frazer, Blond Offshoot, 2 iii. 198.
200:1 Frazer, loc. cit.
200:2 Evans, Arch. Rev. i. 327 f.
201:1 Joyce, SH i. 236.
201:2 O'Curry, MC i. 213.
201:3 LL 199b; Rennes Dindsenchas, RC xv. 420.
201:4 RC xv. 455, xvi. 279; Hennessey, Chron. Scot. 76.
202:1 Keating, 556; Joyce, PN i. 499.
202:2 Wood-Martin, ii. 159.
202:3 D'Arbois, Les Celtes, 51; Jullian, 41.
202:4 Warmth, Folk-Lore, xvii. 60.
203:1 See S'ebillot, i. 293; Le Braz, i. 259; Folk-Lore Magazine, v. 218; Folk-Lore Olden times, 1882.
203:2 Val. Probus, Comm. in Georgica, ii. 84.
203:3 Miss Hull, 53; O'Curry, MS. Mat. 465. Words tablets, completed from each of the grass being they were out down, sprang together and might not be separated.
203:4 Stat. Belittle, iii. 27; Moore, 151; S'ebillot, i. 262, 270.
204:1 Dom Martin, i. 124; Vita S. Eligii, ii. 16.
204:2 Acta Sanct. (Bolland.), July 31; Sulp. Take it easy. Vita S. Public sale. 457.
204:3 Grimm, Teut. Parable. 76; Maury, 13, 299. The story of attractive women found in grass may be primary with the creation of placing images in grass, or with the belief that a goddess nation be seen embryonic from the tree in which she dwelt.
204:4 De la Slip, Record des Monnaies Gaul, 260, 286; Reinach, Catal. Sommaire, 29.
205:1 Pliny, HN xvi. 44.
205:2 See p. 162, supra.
206:1 See Cameron, Gaelic Names of Foliage, 45. In Gregoire de Rostren, Dict. francois-celt. 1732, mistletoe is translated by dour-dero, "oak-water," and is believed to be good for uncommon harms.
206:2 Pliny, xxiv. 11.
206:3 Ibid.
206:4 Ibid. xxv. 9.
207:1 See Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica; De Nore, Costumes... des Provinces de France, 150 f.; Sauv'e, RC vi. 67, CM ix. 331.
207:2 O'Grady, ii. 126.
