The Sacred Tree (original) (raw)

“The Sacred Tree”: Special Issue of Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture

Carole M. Cusack
University of Sydney

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: its depiction in the Byzantine Christian architecture of medieval Italy; to Glastonbury (UK) where the Holy Thorn signified the resurrection of Christ; in the sacred grove on Joseph Smith’s estate in New York state, now a major Mormon pilgrimage site; and in the aesthetics of tree veneration in contemporary India.

Carole M. Cusack
University of Sydney

This article considers the most famous British sacred tree, the Glastonbury Thorn, which has a special place in esoteric Christianity and popular folklore. It was part of the Christian pilgrimage site at Glastonbury during the Middle Ages, and its significance is reinforced by the fact that Puritan soldiers chopped it down during the Civil War (16421651). Elaborate folklore developed between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. According to these tales, Jesus came to England in the company of his mother’s uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, a tin merchant trading with Cornwall. Jesus and Joseph erected a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary there, and after Jesus’ death and resurrection Joseph returned. He thrust his staff into the ground and it burst into flower, becoming the Glastonbury Thorn, a living tree. The Thorn is considered miraculous, as it flowers twice yearly, the second flowering in winter, at Christmas. In addition to the “original” Thorn on Wearyall Hill, there are two others, grown from cuttings, in the town (in Saint John the Baptist churchyard, and at Glastonbury Abbey). The most important role played by the Glastonbury Thorn is that all occult Christian traditions that assert that Jesus walked on soil other than that of the Middle East are engaged in the sacralization of territory, the absorption of the periphery into the centre. This article considers the sacred tree in

general, then the Glastonbury Thorn specifically, assembling antiquarian accounts, folklore and popular cultural traditions to investigate its religious and spiritual importance in history, and to clarify its contemporary significance.

Managing for the Spirit: The Spiritual Ecology of the Mormon Sacred Grove

Jason M. Brown
University of British Columbia
Like most Puritans, Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon (LDS) movement, often went to the woods to pray. However, in the spring of 1820 the young Smith, living in upstate New York, claimed to have witnessed a series of visions. Since that time, Mormonism has become a globally significant religion. That small seven-acre grove on the Smith family farm is now a 150 acre sacred site for thousands of Mormon pilgrims who visit each year. Informally protected since the late 1800s, in the 1990s, the LDS Church shifted its approach to management of the grove emphasizing the importance of ecological health. This paper will outline the history of management and protection of the Sacred Grove as a Sacred Natural Site and discuss the spiritual importance of the site to Mormon faithful. I argue that the site functions not only to commemorate the faith’s founding theophany, but also as an axis mundi for the Mormon movement itself.

Sacred Trees In India

Louise Fowler-Smith
Art and Design, University of New South Wales
Sacred trees are found throughout India and venerated by those of varied faiths, including animism, local cults, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Since 2003 I have travelled the sub-continent of India, photographing the aesthetic enhancement of trees as an act of worship, and conducting interviews in the field. Here, examples of the veneration and a selection of the myths, beliefs, and rituals that underlie this practice will be provided. It is then argued that these trees, through their adornment by worshippers, become subjects of adoration for not only Indians but for outsiders as well. In reflecting on this, the link between the aesthetic and the sacred is shown to have the potential to inspire ethical, eco-conscious, and transcultural responses to the natural world.