The Sacred Tree (original) (raw)

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2018

It is easy for human beings to ascribe meaning to trees because they are satisfyingly homologous with people; they are alive in a way that stones, however impressive, cannot be. In the landscape trees are frequently dominant and inspirational, like the giant California redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum) which grow to remarkable heights, or the ancient Huon pines of Tasmania, which can live for up to three thousand years. Holy trees are part of sacred nature, the physical world that is infused with the divine. Ancient Pagans and Christians alike used trees to express profound cosmological and spiritual truths. Trees are used as an image of the world (imago mundi), and as the centre (axis mundi), which mapped territory and connected the earth to the heavens above and the underworld below. Trees marked out physical territory, conferred identity on the peoples who lived in the vicinity of their sheltering branches, functioned as meeting places for religious and political assemblies, and were places of ritual. In the twenty-first century trees are again spiritually significant, not only for religious people, due to the devastating impact of environmental destruction, and the loss of biodiversity and animal habitats resulting from the industrialized nations’ rapacious exploitation of natural resources. This special issue traces the sacred tree: from the theological writings of the Orthodox monk St Maximus the Confessor in the seventh century; through its depiction in the Byzantine Christian architecture of medieval Italy; to Glastonbury (UK) where the Holy Thorn signified the resurrection of Christ. The relevance of sacred trees beyond the Christian tradition and in the modern world is probed in articles that consider four disparate cases: the sacred grove on Joseph Smith’s estate in New York state, now a major Mormon pilgrimage site; the aesthetics of tree veneration in contemporary India; trees in nature-oriented modern Paganism; and trees in the Australian national and social imaginary.