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Many types of trees found in the Celtic nations are considered to be sacred, whether as symbols, or due to medicinal properties, or because they are seen as the abode of particular nature spirits. Historically and in folklore, the respect given to trees varies in different parts of the Celtic world.
Due to its presence in insular Celtic art, Celtic Reconstructionists use the triquetra either to represent one of the various triplicities in their cosmology and theology (such as the tripartite division of the world into the realms of Land, Sea, and Sky), [6] or as a symbol of one of the specific Celtic triple goddesses – for example the ...
Trees are significant in many of the world's mythologies, and have been given deep and sacred meanings throughout the ages. Human beings, observing the growth and death of trees , and the annual death and revival of their foliage, [ 1 ] [ 2 ] have often seen them as powerful symbols of growth, death and rebirth.
The General Grant Tree is the only living national shrine in the United States. Giant sequoias, the most massive trees on earth, are viewed as sacred symbols in America. [20] Promoted by John Muir using biblical language after their discovery in the 19th century, these trees helped inspire the creation of the national park system.
Miranda Aldhouse-Green has argued that, although Pliny is the only authority to mention this ceremony, the main elements of his account are all features of Celtic religion that are confirmed elsewhere; these include oak trees, mistletoe, ritual banqueting, the moon, and bull-sacrifice.
The clootie well near Munlochy, on the Black Isle, Scotland. Clootie tree next to St Brigid's Well, Kildare, Ireland. A clootie well is a holy well (or sacred spring), almost always with a tree growing beside it, where small strips of cloth or ribbons are left as part of a healing ritual, usually by tying them to branches of the tree (called a clootie tree or rag tree).
Tree deities were common in ancient Northern European lore. In Charlemagne's time, following the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae in 782 offerings to sacred trees or any other form of worship of the spirits of trees and springs were outlawed. Even as late as 1227 the Synod of Trier decreed that the worship of trees and sources was forbidden. [5]
The Celtic deities are known from a variety of sources such as written Celtic mythology, ancient places of worship, statues, engravings, religious objects, as well as place and personal names. Celtic deities can belong to two categories: general and local.