The Celtic Tree Mithology by Eliseo Mauas Pinto

"The Celtic Tree Mithology" by Eliseo Mauas Pinto

Trees have always been sacred and precious items for the Celts, fully integrated within its own conception of the world. Druids had studied their fields of energy, timber and medicinal virtues. Today it is beneficial to learn more about the symbolism of the trees and their relationship with our spirituality. Some trees were so appreciated that were taken by the tribes as totems of Celtic Clan. Sacred trees were also used as a meeting place for generations, usually tribal, where secular and religious laws were given. During periods of intertribal strife is known that the invading contingent always tried to destroy the sacred tree (bile) from the enemy tribe, ignoring their contact with the gods .. These sacred trees are linguistically present as Bellow Trees or in the language of Manx Gaelic as "billey / glas" a tree-forever-green, an immortal tree. In addition to these sacred trees distinctive Celts have many trees to act as hosts for the spirits of nature, a Higher Order of Spirits called Sidhe (fairy beings), as we read in the verses of the Scottish popular song-Seven Hundred Elves-, where the main course to demolish several species is questioned by the elves' Who is the one who has come to devastate our forests? Almost all the trees have some association sacral from yesteryear, but some are more respected than others. There is a magical trilogy of Oak, Ash and Hawthorn, and fruit trees such as apple and hazelnut; alongside favorites such as ash, holly, and willow. Some trees are venerated by having its own personality, and some are specifically frequented by fairy characters. Anyone associated with Celtic will surely think of oak and is right and who is perhaps the most sacred tree for Druids which gathered the mistletoe (actually some misconceptions associated with the linguistic theories consider druveid (druid) as one who sees Through the oak). The cult also has been moved to myths such as the famous couplet "Fairy Folks / Are in Old Oaks." It is said that many cups of oak are visited by the sinister 'oak- men' in Scotland. Katherine Briggs cites a popular song from Somerset compiled by Ruth Tongue whose chorus reflects a popular belief in particular: "The Elm grieves, the Oak hates, the Willow walks, if you travel late." Briggs interprets due to the vulnerability of elms a disease that is believed to cut a copy close to another cause that state. Oak trees because of their sacred status, suffer to be cut, and the crown of oak that sprouts from the roots of a fallen trunk is nuisance and dangerous move around at night. The willows are even more sinister as they are believed to have a habit to discard the soil and prosecute those lonely travelers at night (remember the 'Elderly Man Sauce' of Tolkien). Wood - Martin in his book "Traces of Ancient Beliefs of Ireland" devotes its attention to the belief in the trees. For example, when the Fresno event mentions the existence of one in the parish of Clenor in County Cork, whose branches were never cut despite the lack of logs for the fire, and another in Barrisokane, the old "Bell tree" , In the sacred rites of May, which was believed that if a man just burn a splinter in your home is fire all over the house. Such a fate he happened to a farmer who try to cut a branch of elderberry that exceeded the well of a saint. He tried three times, was stopped in the second because it seemed that his house was on fire, but discovered that it was a false alarm. And the third time was not carried away by appearances and became the branch then to find that on arriving at his house had been burned completely. The villagers claim that he had received his deserved. According to K.Briggs Elder has two mythical aspects as recounts it’s story in Hans Andersen (Mother Flower Elderberries) and in Lincolnshire where it is believed necessary to ask permission to cut a tree branch. The flowers and fruits are estimated to make the wine and even said that good people feérica found in them protection of evil spirits. On the other hand in Oxfordshire and the Midlands, many elder suspected of being witches were processed and accounted bled to be cut. In his book "The Kingdom Intermediate" Mac Manus reconfirms the belief that some trees are frequented by feéricos beings and other demons. It gives us an example of a closed group of three trees * Two Espinos and an Elder "which were besieged by three evil spirits. It also cites the sacred trilogy of Oak / Fresno / Espino, which grow nearby and a scion of being cut of each, all united by a red thread, it was of great protection against the spirits at night. As we mentioned at the beginning two trees fruit, apple and hazelnut, possess magical qualities. The fruits of the hazel are a source of wisdom and fertility, the apple of power and youth. Mac Manus mentions other fairy trees : Scots fir (fir), birch (birch), black hawthorn (Blackthorne) and the broom (broom), although the latter is a shrub. Curiously there is the sacred tree without a connection to the world feérico. It is said that the prayers said there are under the direct to Heaven, special differential by the way.