#WearYourHeritage: The Celtic Tree of Life Under its branches, they appointed their chieftain and held gatherings. To honor the Tree of Life, Celtic people left a single, large tree in the center of fields whenever they cleared land. Ancients Celts called the Tree of Life crann bethadh. The Celtic alphabet, Ogham, is even an homage to trees: each letter of the Ogham alphabet represents a particular type of tree. The Celtic Tree of Life symbolizes these diverse ideas in a simple form. In Ireland today, sometimes trees in the countryside have been adorned with ribbons and pleas for favors, love, healing, and prosperity. Trees carried messages to the other realm and conferred blessings. So today Trees are still guarded as sacred wells and are thought to provide healing, shelter, and wisdom. To the Celts, it was a symbol of wisdom, strength, and long life. Long after the Druids, the lore of trees continued as a vital part of Celtic myth and folklore. The Tree of Life represents balance and harmony in nature. ” So the druids were in fact those who were learned in Tree magic and guardian of the doorway. The word Druid, the name of the Celtic Priestly class, is compounded from the words for “oak” ( daur) and “to know” ( wid) – literally “they who know the oak. The root of the oak was the doorway to the Otherworld, the realm of Fairy. The Celtic name for oak, daur, is the origin of the word door. Proto-Celtic was collos Old Irish and Modern Irish coll Scots Gaelic.
As its root system is connected to the outer branches, it ultimately symbolizes both full integration and the continuous. It is a localized ecosystem that provides food and shelter to living things while also drawing upon local resources for its own growth and well-being. It was the center of the world and the connection between Heaven and Earth. Yeats thought the hazel was the common Irish form of the tree of life. The Celtic Tree of Life is associated with positive energy and health. The most sacred tree of all was the Oak, which represented the axis mundi. ‘They Who Know the Oak’ Marcasite Tree of Life Earrings From that belief rises an important and powerful symbol – the Tree of Life. The Tree was a central part of early Celtic spirituality. While walking through a forest hearing the leaves rustle, Celts could easily equate trees and the forest with an omnipotent being. The image shown here is one of many representations of the Celtic Tree of Life. Celts regarded trees as their source of food, protection from the elements, provider of materials to build shelters, and a source of warmth when making fire with its wood. Trees were a very large part of the Celts’ spiritual and daily lives.
If you have ever watched a movie that had trees of magic, with secret doorways that lead to mysterious places, give a little ‘thank you’ to the ancient Celtic peoples.