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...