Sacred Groves
Many of the world's ancient belief systems also include the belief of sacred groves, where trees are revered and respected and there are priests and priestesses attending to them who also serve as guardians, preventing those who wish to tear down the trees by means of ancient magic and elaborate protection rituals.
From ancient Norse and Celtic mythologies, to the Nigerian and Indian cosmological thoughts, extending far east in the ancient Shinto faith of Japan and the peculiar habits of the 19 tribes of the forest peoples of Malaysia, sacred groves provide relief and shelter from the mundane aspects of life and are considered living temples, albeit absent of stone walls or ornate stone monuments. A place of meeting where ancient rituals are performed, it is also a place of refuge for many in times of danger. For those who were fated to not find peace in this life, it is considered as the final resting place where the soul finds eternal peace as it reunites with the creator.
Read more about this topic: Tree Worship
Famous quotes containing the words sacred and/or groves:
“You are told a lot about your education, but some beautiful, sacred memory, preserved since childhood, is perhaps the best education of all. If a man carries many such memories into life with him, he is saved for the rest of his days. And even if only one good memory is left in our hearts, it may also be the instrument of our salvation one day.”
—Feodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881)
“One wonders that the tithing-men and fathers of the town are not out to see what the trees mean by their high colors and exuberance of spirits, fearing that some mischief is brewing. I do not see what the Puritans did at this season, when the maples blaze out in scarlet. They certainly could not have worshiped in groves then. Perhaps that is what they built meeting-houses and fenced them round with horse-sheds for.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)