TREE MYTHOLOGY
Trees appear in our collective imagination, in dreams, and in myths as universal archetypes, embodying the Divine Feminine, nurturing us through cycles of birth, death and rebirth, and guiding us on our human journey.
Across cultures, the Tree of Life symbolizes a source of spiritual wisdom that reaches its roots into the soil of beingness to collect divine light from above.
In the ancient mystical tradition of Kabbalah, the Tree of Life reveals a map of the divine design of the universe, from physical existence to the Source: macrocosm (all of life) and microcosm (each individual soul’s journey).
The Tree of Life in Africa is the Baobab; in ancient Sumer it is the Cedar of Lebanon; and in eastern Asia, the Banyan represents the universe as an eternal tree that spreads roots above and branches below.
In Chinese culture the World Tree balances universal forces.
Buddha’s mother gave birth beneath a Sal tree that reached a branch down to support her. And Buddha sat under the Bodhi Tree when he vowed not to move until he was enlightened.
The Greek Earth Goddess, Gaia, planted a magical tree with golden apples that held the world together. Groves of sacred trees have served as places of communion across the centuries.
In Iroquois legend, Sky Woman fell through a hole beside the World Tree to the waters below, where Turtle Island (North America) formed on a turtle’s back.
Mayan gods planted Ceiba trees to hold up the heavens, with the sacred World Tree in the middle.
In Norse mythology, Odin received oracular runes while hanging upside down from Yggdrasil, the World Tree, which held the Nine Worlds of the cosmos together.
The runes and the ancient Irish alphabet, the Ogham (“o-am”), based their letters on tree characteristics.
In Celtic tradition, druids, “wise persons of the Oak,” carry the wisdom of the trees since ancient times. Sacred Oak, Yew, Holly and Hawthorn surround ancient holy wells and sacred sites.
Druidic lore reveres the Oak tree as the beating heart of our planet and imagines that “one day people will replant sacred Oak groves, and the idea will catch the world like a wildfire.” – Diana Beresford-Kroeger