Cultus Arborum Part 1

Cultus Arborum.

by Anonymous.

PREFACE.

_The present volume forms a companion to three already issued on "Ancient and Modern Symbol Wors.h.i.+p," denominated severally, "Phallism,"

"Ophiolatreia," "Phallic Objects and Remains," and "Tree Wors.h.i.+p," they all form parts of one whole, and const.i.tute a Series on the various forms and phases of what is known as "Phallic Wors.h.i.+p."_

_The subject is an extensive one, and there still remain sections of it which have not yet been dealt with, but which may be exhibited in future volumes. Although in the compa.s.s of the present work it has been impossible to treat the subject in anything like an exhaustive manner, a great deal of matter has been incorporated in its closely-printed pages which, attentively perused, will enable the reader to form a just opinion of what is included in the t.i.tle._

_At the end of this volume we have endeavoured to give the student of Ancient Faiths a Bibliography of works on or connected with Phallism._

_Being the first attempt of the kind, omissions will doubtless be found, although there are nearly five hundred references given, yet even as it is, it will prove of great use and advantage to those making researches.

It is divided into two cla.s.ses--Phallic works, and books bearing more or less upon the subject._

TREE WORs.h.i.+P.

CHAPTER I.

_Characteristics of Trees--Naturalness of Tree Wors.h.i.+p--Origin of the Wors.h.i.+p--The Tree of Life--Ancient Types--A Tree as a Symbol of Life--Poetical a.s.sociations--Sacred Fig Tree--India specially a Land of Tree Wors.h.i.+p--Trees identified with G.o.ds--Meritoriousness of Planting Trees--Auspicious and Inauspicious Trees--Ceremonies connected with Tree Wors.h.i.+p--Invocations of Tree G.o.ds--Banian Tree--Ritual Directions--Santal Wors.h.i.+p._

In contemplating the various objects to which men, in their efforts to construct a natural and satisfactory religion, have rendered divine honour and wors.h.i.+p, it is not surprising to find that trees, flowers, and shrubs have shared largely in this adoration. While it was possible to offer such a tribute to mere stocks and stones and the works of men's hands, the transition to trees and their floral companions would be an easy one. Most people will agree with the statement, often made, that "There are few of the works of nature that combine so many and so varied charms and beauties as a forest; that whether considered generally or particularly, whether as a grand geographical feature of a country or as a collection of individual trees, it is alike invested with beauty and with interest, and opens up to the mind a boundless field for inquiry into the mysterious laws of creation. But a forest is not merely an aggregate of trees, it is not merely a great embodiment of vegetable life: it is the cheerful and pleasant abode of numerous varieties of animal life, who render it more animated and picturesque, and who find there shelter, food, and happy homes."

"There is, perhaps, no object in nature that adds so much to the beauty, that, in fact, may be said to be a necessary ingredient in the beauty of a landscape, as a tree. A tree, indeed, is the highest and n.o.blest production of the vegetable kingdom, just as man holds the highest place in the animal. Whether standing solitary, or arranged in clumps, or ma.s.ses, or avenues, trees always give freshness, variety, and often grandeur to the scene.

"Unless a man be a forester or a timber contractor by profession, he cannot walk through a forest in spring without having his mind stored with new ideas and with good and happy thoughts. Here is an entirely new animated world opened up to his admiring gaze; a world that seems to be innocent and pure, for everything in it is rejoicing and glad. The first glow and flush of life visible all around is so vigorous and strong, that man partakes of its vigour and strength. He, too, feels an awakening of new life, not of painful but of pleasant sensations; on every side his eye falls on some form of beauty or of grandeur, and they quietly impress pictures on his mind never to be effaced, for

'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.'"[1]

It is easy, therefore, to understand how in times and places where men in their efforts to adore a Supreme Being, wors.h.i.+pped the beauties and wonders of creation, trees should become the representatives of the Divine if not actually the G.o.ds themselves. "The sun as the source of light and warmth, the changes of the seasons, the growth of herbage, flowers and trees, great rivers and oceans, mountains and deep glens--in short whatever of the works of nature is most beautiful or awful, and acts upon the intellectual or sensual perceptions, naturally becomes the object of adoration. Among these objects trees took an early place. Their beauty when single, their grandeur as forests, their grateful shade in hot climates, their mysterious forms of life, suggested them as the abodes of departed spirits, or of existing agencies of the Creator. If the solemn gloom of deep forests and groves were consecrated to the most awful of holy and unholy mysteries, the more open woodland glades became in imagination peopled with nymphs, dryads, and fauns, and contributed to the most joyous portions of adorative devotion. Thus the abstract sacred character of trees is not difficult to conceive, and as the intellect progressed among the early races of the world, we can follow among the Greeks and the Aryans, as well as the Hebrews, its naturally poetic and sacred development."[2]

Serpent wors.h.i.+p is by no means so easy to account for as tree wors.h.i.+p, but it is a fact that in many places the two were intimately a.s.sociated; having dealt with the first of these in a former volume, we now exclusively treat of the latter. Speaking of the naturalness of tree wors.h.i.+p, Fergusson pertinently remarks--"Where we miss the point of contact with our own religious notion is when we ask how anyone could hope that a prayer addressed to a tree was likely to be responded to, or how an offering presented to such an object could be appreciated. Originally it may have been that a divinity was supposed to reside among the branches, and it was to this spirit that the prayer was first addressed; but anyone who has watched the progress of idolatry must have observed how rapidly minds, at a certain stage of enlightenment, weary of the unseen, and how wittingly they transfer their wors.h.i.+p to any tangible or visible object.

An image, a temple, a stone or tree may thus become an object of adoration or of pilgrimage, and when sanctified by time, the indolence of the human mind too gladly contents itself with any idol which previous generations have been content to venerate."

"For the origin of the mysterious reverence with which certain trees and flowers were anciently regarded, and of tree 'wors.h.i.+p,' properly so called, we must go back to that primaeval period into which comparative mythology has of late afforded us such remarkable glimpses; when the earth to its early inhabitants seemed 'apparelled in celestial light,' but when every part of creation seemed to be endowed with a strange and conscious vitality. When rocks and mountains, the most apparently lifeless and unchanging of the world's features, were thus regarded and were personified in common language, it would have been wonderful if the more life-like plains--the great rivers that fertilised, and the trees with their changing growth and waving branches that clothed them--should have been disregarded and unhonoured. Accordingly sacred ruins and sacred trees appear in the very earliest mythologies which have been recovered, and linger amongst the last vestiges of heathenism long after the advent of a purer creed. Either as direct objects of wors.h.i.+p, or as forming the temple under whose solemn shadow other and remoter deities might be adored, there is no part of the world in which trees have not been regarded with especial reverence:--

'In such green palaces the first kings reigned; Slept in their shade, and angels entertained.

With such cold counsellors they did advise, And by frequenting sacred shades, grew wise.'

Paradise itself, says Evelyn, was but a kind of "nemorous temple or sacred grove," planted by G.o.d himself, and given to man; and he goes on to suggest that the groves which the patriarchs are recorded to have planted in different parts of Palestine, may have been memorials of that first tree-shaded paradise from which Adam was expelled.

"How far the religious systems of the great nations of antiquity were affected by the record of the Creation and Fall preserved in the opening chapters of Genesis, is not perhaps possible to determine. There are certain points of resemblance which are at least remarkable, but which we may a.s.sign, if we please, either to independent tradition, or to a natural development from the mythology of the earliest or primaeval period. The Trees of Life and of Knowledge are at once suggested by the mysterious sacred tree which appears in the most ancient sculptures and paintings of Egypt and a.s.syria, and in those of the remoter East. In the symbolism of these nations the sacred tree sometimes figures as a type of the universe, and represents the whole system of created things, but more frequently as a 'tree of life,' by whose fruit the votaries of the G.o.ds are nourished with divine strength, and one prepared for the joys of immortality. The most ancient types of this mystical tree of life are the date, the fig, and the pine or cedar. Of these, the earliest of which any representation occurs is the palm--the true date palm of the valley of the Nile and of the great alluvial plain of ancient Babylonia--a tree which is exceeded in size and dignity by many of its congeners, but which is spread over two, at least, of the great centres of ancient civilization, and which, besides its great importance as a food producer has a special beauty of its own when the cl.u.s.ters of dates are hanging in golden ripeness under its coronal of dark green leaves. It is figured as a tree of life on an Egyptian sepulchral tablet certainly older than the fifteenth century B.C., and preserved in the museum at Berlin. Two arms issue from the top of the tree, one of which presents a tray of dates to the deceased, who stands in front, whilst the other gives him water, 'the water of life.'

The arms are those of the G.o.ddess Nepte, who appears at full length in other and later representations."[3]

Mr. Barlow informs us that the paradise here intended is the state or place of departed righteous souls, who, according to Egyptian theology as explained in the works of Rossellini, Wilkinson, Lepsius, Birch, and Emmanuel de Rouge, have triumphed over evil through the power of Osiris, whose name they bear, and are now set down for ever in his heavenly kingdom. Osiris was venerated as the incarnation of the G.o.ddess of the Deity, and according to the last-mentioned authority, was universally wors.h.i.+pped in Egypt as the Redeemer of souls two thousand years before Christ.

The head of this family was named Poer, and the members of it are shown seated in two rows on thorns, one below the other; each is receiving from the Tree of Life, or rather from the divine influence residing in the tree, and personified as a vivifying agent under the figure of the G.o.ddess Nupte or Nepte, a stream of the life-giving water, and at the same time an offering of its fruit. The tree is the _ficus-sycamorous_, the sycamore tree of the Bible, and it stands on a sort of aquarium, symbolical of the sacred Nile, the life-supporting agent in the land of Egypt. The tree is abundantly productive, and from the upper part of it, among the branches, the G.o.ddess Nepte rises with a tray of fruit in one hand, and with the other pours from a vase streams of its life-giving water.

Mr. Barlow further says--"In the 'Tree of Life' of the Egyptians, we have perhaps the earliest, certainly the most complete and consistent representation of this most ancient and seemingly universal symbol, the Tree of Life, in the midst of paradise, furnis.h.i.+ng the divine support of immortality."[4]

Forlong says--"In his little work on Symbolism, under the head '_Sacred Trees_,' Mr. Barlow has expressed what I have long felt. He says, 'the most _generally received symbol of life_ is a tree, as also the most appropriate.... There might be an innate appreciation of the beautiful and the grand in this impression, conjoined with the conception of a more sublime truth, and _the first principles of a natural theology_, but in most instances it would appear rather to have been the result of an ancient and primitive _symbolical_ wors.h.i.+p, at one time _universally prevalent_.'" (The italics are Forlong's.) As men came to recognise in themselves two natures--the physical and spiritual, the life of the body and the life of the soul--"So these came to be represented either by two trees, as sometimes found, or in reference to universal life, by one tree only." Some thousands of years before even the age _imputed_ to Genesis, there were sculptured on the Zodiac of Dendera, Egypt, two sacred trees, the Western and Eastern; the first was _truth_ and _religion_--the sacred palm surmounted by the ostrich feather--the latter, the _vital or generative force of nature_, beyond which Egypt thought she had risen, therein surpa.s.sing her Eastern parent; at least so I feel inclined to cla.s.s them chronologically. "Besides the monumental evidence furnished,"

says Barlow, "of a sacred tree, a Tree of Life, there is an historical and traditional evidence of the same thing found in the early literature of various nations, in their customs and usages." All grand, extraordinary, beautiful, or highly useful trees, have in every land at some time been a.s.sociated with the n.o.ble, wonderful, lovely and beneficial ideas which man has attributed to his G.o.d or to nature. We can recognise the early wors.h.i.+p of trees in the reverence of thought which attaches to the two in the centre of man's first small world, a garden of fruits and shade. "All unhistorical though the tales may be," continues Forlong, "there is a deep poetry underlying the story of the sacred garden. We naturally picture it as a 'grove,' for man was not yet a cultivator of the ground; amidst the deep shades of Eden, we are told, walked the great Elohim with the man and woman--naked--as created by him through his Logos, _Ruach_, Spirit, or Spouse, but yet 'without the knowledge' which 'the sacred tree of knowledge' was soon to impart."

Further on Forlong remarks--"The numerous tales of holy trees, groves and gardens repeated everywhere and in every possible form, fortify me in my belief that tree wors.h.i.+p _was first known_, and after it came Lingam or Phallic, with, of course, its female form Adama."

"The serpent being Pa.s.sion, and symbolic of the second faith, followed, we may say, almost simultaneously; thus we find the sacred garden-groves of all Edens first mentioned, then the instructor, the serpent, and latterly creative powers in Adam and Adama, or in Asher and Ashera, which last female wors.h.i.+p the Old Testament translators call the 'Grove.' We are told it was always set up with Asher, Babel, &c., under 'every green tree'

by ancient Israel, and up to a few hundred years before Christ, and not seldom even after Christ.

"All Eastern literature teems with the stories told of and under the sacred fig tree, _Ficus Religiosa_, Gooler, a _Ficus Indica_. Under its holy shade, G.o.ds, G.o.ddesses, men and animals disport themselves, and talk with each other on sacred and profane themes. From it, as from many another holy tree, ascended G.o.ds and holy men to heaven, and it and many others are to be yet the cradles of coming Avatars. To the present hour we find thousands of barren women still wors.h.i.+pping and giving offerings throughout the year to this Peepal, or male fig tree of India, to obtain offspring: nor is the female tree, the _Ficus Indica_, neglected; at stated periods this Bar, or true Banian, must be also wors.h.i.+pped with offerings by all who wish such boons. Under this sacred tree did the pious _Sakyamooni_ become a _Boodh_, or enlightened one; and it is from the rubbing together of the wood of trees, notably of the three Banian trees--Peepal, Bar, and Gooler (_Ficus Sycamores_), _the favourite woods for Phallic images_, that holy fire is drawn from heaven, and before all these species do women crave their desires from G.o.d."

With regard to the Ficus, Forlong remarks that others besides Jews have seen divers reasons why it is said to have been the first covering used by the human race. "The symbolic trefoil or _fleur de lys_ with its seed springing from its stems, is still used as a Phallic ornament, and the leaf, especially of the Bo, is very like the old form of Ph: it has a long attenuated point, and is ever quivering on the stillest days. The tree has many peculiarities, not only in its leaves and modes of leafing, but in its fruit and modes of multiplying, which could not fail to make it of a very holy and important character in the pious, poetical and imaginative mind of the East. Among others the fruit or seed hangs direct from its limbs, yet it is commonly said to be germinated by seed from heaven; birds carry off the seed and deposit it on all high places, and in the trunks of other trees; these this Ficus splits asunder and entwines itself all around, descending by the parent trunk as well as aerially, by dropping suckers until it reaches _Mother-Earth_, by which time it has most likely killed the parent tree, which has up to that period nourished it. Thus the Ficus tribe is often hollow in the centre, and if the hollow exist near the base, it is always a very holy spot where will usually be found a Lingam or Yoni stone, or both, or a temple of Matra-Deva--Deva or Siva--the great G.o.d of Creation."[5]

"In a country like India, anything that offers a cool shelter from the burning rays of the sun is regarded with a feeling of grateful respect.

The wide-spreading Banyan tree is planted and nursed with care, only because it offers a shelter to many a weary traveller. Extreme usefulness of the thing is the only motive perceivable in the careful rearing of other trees. They are protected by religious injunctions, and the planting of them is encouraged by promises of eternal bliss in the future world.

The injunction against injuring a banyan or fig tree is so strict, that in the Ramayana even Ravana, an unbeliever, is made to say 'I have not cut down any fig tree, in the month of Vaisakha, why then does the calamity (alluding to the several defeats his army sustained in the war with Ramachandra and to the loss of his sons and brothers) befall me?'"

The medicinal properties of many plants soon attracted notice, and were cultivated with much care. With the illiterate the medicinal virtues of a drug are increased with its scarcity; and to enhance its value it was soon a.s.sociated with difficulties, and to keep it secret from public knowledge, it was culled in the dark and witching hours of night.

Trees have frequently been identified with G.o.ds: thus in the Panma Purana, the religious fig tree is an incarnation of Vishnu, the Indian fig tree of Rudra, and the Palasa of Brahma.

In the Varaka Purana, the planter of a group of trees of a particular species is promised heavenly bliss, and it is needless to point out that from the names of the trees recommended, the extensive utility of the act must be acknowledged. Thus it is said, "He never goes to h.e.l.l who plants an asvatha, or a pichumarda, or a banian, or ten jessamines, or two pomegranates, a panchamra, or five mangoes."

The t.i.thitatva gives a slightly different list, subst.i.tuting two champakas, three kesara, seven tala-palms, and nine cocoanuts, instead of the banian, the jessamines, the pomegranates, and the _panchamra_.

As early as the Ramayana, the planting of a group of trees was held meritorious. The celebrated Panchavati garden where Sita was imprisoned, has been reproduced by many a religious Hindu, and should any of them not have sufficient s.p.a.ce to cultivate the five trees, the custom is to plant them in a small pot where they are dwarfed into small shrubs. Such subst.i.tutes and make-s.h.i.+fts are not at all uncommon in the ecclesiastical history of India. In Buddhist India, millions of miniature stone and clay temples, some of them not higher than two inches, were often dedicated when more substantial structures were not possible. The Panchavati consists of the asvatha planted on the east side, the vilva or aegle marmelos on the north, the banian on the west, the _Emblica officinalis_ on the south, and the asoka on the south-east.

The Skanda Purana recommends a vilva in the centre, and four others on four sides; four banians in four corners, twenty-five asokas in a circle, with a myrobalan on one side, as the const.i.tuents of a great punchavati.

Superst.i.tion has always been active in drawing nice distinctions between the auspicious and the inauspicious, and it is curious to observe how the auspicious qualities of some plants have been extolled. Some are considered auspicious when planted near a dwelling house.

No tree with fruit or blossoms can be cut down, as the sloka threatens the cutter with destruction of his family and wealth. Therefore never cut down any tree that bears good flowers or fruits if you desire the increase of your family, of your wealth and of your future happiness.

Superst.i.tion has a.s.sociated supernatural properties with many plants, and several have been identified with the G.o.ds.

The _durva_, a kind of gra.s.s very common in all parts of India, is excellent food for cattle. It is an essential article in the wors.h.i.+p of all G.o.ds. It is said to have originated from the thigh of Vishnu.

The religious fig tree makes one rich, the _Jonesia Asoka_ destroys all sorrow, the _Ficus Venosa_ is said to be useful in sacrifices, and the _Nim_ gives much happiness. _Syzygium Jambolanum_ promises heavenly bliss, and the pomegranate a good wife. _Ficus glomerata_ cures diseases, and _Butea frondosa_ gives the protection of Brahma. The _Calotropis gigantea_ is useful as it pleases the sun, every day the bel tree pleases _Siva_, and the _Patala_ pleases _Parvati_. The Asparas are pleased with _Bombax malabaric.u.m_, and the Gandharvas with Jasminum, the _Terminalia_ chebula increases the number of servants, and the _Mimusops elenchi_ gives maid-servants. The _Tal_ is injurious to children, and the Mimusops elenchi productive of large families. The cocoanut gives many wives, and the vine gives a beautiful body; the _Corolia latifolia_ increases desires, and the Panda.n.u.s odoratissimum destroys all. The tamarind tree is considered most inauspicious, and according to the _Vaidya Sastras_, is very injurious to health. The _Carica papeya_ plant is more so. The Sunflower, Helianthus, is supposed to emit gases that destroy miasma.

The following trees are said to have peculiar virtues. The Indian fig tree, if on the east side of a house, is always auspicious; so also is the Udumvava tree if on the west, and the pipul if on the south, &c.