TREE ALPHABET

(Beth-Luis-Nuin) Cosmological concept. The Celts arranged the most familiar and valuable TREES of their lands into a series that had mystica...

OLLOUDIOS (OLLOUIDIAS, OLLUDIO)

Continental Celtic and British god. This relatively obscure Gaulish god may have been a local divinity (GENIUS LOCI) worshiped in a TREE, fo...

TREE AND FOREST SPIRITS

Ot sain op Local sprite, house guardian by Maria Lombide Ezpeleta   The very feel of the forest imparts a sense of wonder and hidden power...

ROOTS OF THE PARADISE GARDEN TRADITION

Alhambra: Granada´s hidden gardens Islamic gardening drew on traditions going back to the very early civilization of ancient Mesopotamia. In...

THE GREEN MAN IN MYTH

  When we hear the word “mythology,” we think of stories, fables, and fairy tales. Nevertheless, myth is not make-believe. Myth is based on ...

THE HIGH FOREST

By Jeff Quick The High Forest is dense with nothingness. Unprepared wanderers can travel for days without finding a friendly face, or even...

BROCÉLIANDE (BROCELIANDE) ARTHURIAN SITE.

This legendary forest in eastern Brittany is said to have been the site where the great magician MERLIN was imprisoned by his mistress, the ...

THE SYMBOLIC OAK

Canopied live oak forest Large and impressively long-lived, the oak was one of the most important TREES to the Celts. In part, this was beca...

HERNE THE HUNTER

British folkloric figure. In The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare speaks of Herne as a hunter who hanged himself from an oak tree and was...

THE SYMBOLIC ELDER TREE

In most Celtic lands, it was considered very unlucky to burn the wood of an elder TREE (genus Sambucus), because the spirits of FERTILITY we...

CELTIC SYMBOLIC TREE - THE ASH

Despite being a common TREE in many climates, the ash (genus Fraxinus) plays a significant role in Scandinavian and Germanic as well as Celt...

CATCH THE WHITE STAG

The White Stag by Ruth Sanderson Beldane would have found the scene unfolding before him amusing if capturing this legendary creature weren’...

THE SACRED STONES OF BELARUS

Since the waning of the cold war, the West has had access to more information about Eastern European nations, their history, pre-history and...

HOLY GROVES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

By Gary Varney No one can determine when the first grove of trees was designated as “sacred” — to be used only for religious ceremony and ri...