Sacred Tree

The world's oldest recorded tree is a 9,550 year old spruce in the Dalarna province of Sweden. The breath taking imagery of a giant tree that can out live empires may be the reason behind its importance in religion.

There are common themes in many religious texts and ceremonies. One of these commonalities takes the form of a tree. Images of trees are often seen in modern religion and ancient mythologies.
• The golden fleece hangs from a tree
• Odin hangs himself from a tree to learn rune magic
• The Norse world is pierced by a tree
• The forbidden fruit of the bible hangs from a tree
• The Buddha reached enlightenment while sitting under a tree

Trees are often the backdrop of a story. Trees are the object form which a coveted item hangs from or the starting point for enlightenment as in the case of Odin and the Buddha.

In Greek mythology, Trees are featured in many stories and they also represent the gods themselves. In Greece, “each deity had her or his own tree, e.g. Zeus, the oak; Aphrodite, the myrtle; Hera, the willow; and Dionysus, the vine” (Jones 20). Trees were viewed as sacred to the Greeks. They were used as items of worship before “the times of build temples and images” (Jones 20). A tree or a tree branch, say from an oak, could be viewed to be more sacred than any other image of Zeus.

Many temples in Greece often had trees at their center. “No temple was dedicated unless there was a holy tree associated with it” (Jones 20). But before temples were built, tradition states that “Greeks started religion by fencing off groves of trees” (Jones 20). Also, temples were often built from the trees associated with the god housed in the temple, like “the first temple of Apollo at Delphi was a hut made of laurel trees” (Jones 20).

Nature was a pivotal part of early Greek religion. The gods formed the Earth around the Greeks and in return the Greeks worshiped nature. The gods themselves were represented by something as simple as a tree branch. Before the Greeks built massive structures and elaborate temples, they simply had open air fenced off groves.


Jones, Prudence. History of pagan Europe. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1999.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080416104320.htm