Healing bodies & delivering souls: The pagan roots of Christmas trees

Healing bodies & delivering souls: The pagan roots of Christmas trees December 20, 2022

Long before the advent of Judaism and Christianity, the world tree was a sacred conduit between the material and spirit worlds that bestowed gifts upon humanity, including the healing of both body and soul.

Deeply rooted in sacred springs, the world tree above ground was like the handle of a cosmic umbrella that reached to the celestial pole and twirled the cauldron of stars all around it. The world tree was the axis mundi connecting the earth to the cosmic hub of the universe, a pivot point in space once perceived as an immovable island outside of time and the turning seasons.
Because the celestial pole was perceived as timeless, it was a place without cause and effect and therefore a place of youthful joy, a paradise of healing for tattered souls recovering from the suffering of an earthly lifetime. Atop the world tree was a sacred bird representing the constellation Cygnus and at its base was a serpent, representing rivers.

A yew tree in a cemetery.
A yew tree in a cemetery. (Nigel Eve/Shutterstock)

Eyptian kings drank the milk of rebirth from breasts on the trunk of Mother Hathor’s sycamore tree. The Yakut of Siberia believed the first man at creation was fed from breasts emerging from a silver birch. In Celtic Brittany the roots of a yew tree growing in a cemetery were said to extend into the mouths of the dead as a vehicle for souls to rise to the heavens. The people of Madagascar leave gifts at the base of baobab trees, believing ancestral spirits live in the trunk. In aboriginal Australia, the yaraan (red gum) tree responded to the death of the first man by weeping red tears on its white trunk and helping him reach the afterlife. Across cultures and continents, the bark, leaves, nuts and fruits of world trees were used as healing medicine, and many have been shown to be effective.

Fruits of the Eucharist

Proving that no religion comes in a brand new wrapping, the term Etz Chaim in the Book of Genesis means tree of life that reaches into divine realms. Legend has it an oak tree grew for more than 5,000 years in Hebron, Palestine, right on the spot where Abraham saw three angels as part of his transformational religious epiphany. The tree in question finally died in 1996.
The holy act of Catholic communion was once compared to partaking in the fruits of the tree of life. St. Augustine taught that the Christian tree of life was Jesus Christ and Saint Bonaventure described Jesus as the medicinal fruit of the tree of life. Taking the metaphor a bit further, Saint Albert the Great, a 13th century German Dominican friar, taught that the body and blood of Christ partaken at the Eucharist was the fruit of the tree of life. Considering Christ’s healing abilities and his promise to deliver souls to the heavens, pagans could easily have embraced him.

The Cross as World Tree

The universal motif of the world tree shows a sacred bird on top and/or with birds in its branches. Birds were believed to be capable of traveling between the material and spirit world as healers and soul guides. One of the most consistent biological traits of world trees across cultures is their ability to attract birds.

A robin in a hawthorn tree.
A robin in a hawthorn tree. (Superstar/Shutterstock)

On Palm Sunday in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI told an audience in Sydney Australia, that the cross of Jesus was the tree of life. It wasn’t the first time the analogy was drawn. A medieval Christian legend describes a robin alighting on Jesus’ bloodied head during the crucifixion, gently removing some of the thorns and staining its own breast with blood in the process.

In nature the robin enjoys feasting on the sacred hawthorn tree’s red fruit in winter. Featuring thorns up to five inches long, the hawthorn blooms with flowers in late spring, around Easter.

Joseph of Arimathea was said to bring the wooden staff of Jesus on a journey to England, where Jospeh reported that a hawthorn tree sprung from the staff during a rest stop at Wearyall Hill, just southwest of Glastonbury. During the Middle Ages robins were reported to fly into churches and sing in harmony with hymns while perched on lecterns, bibles and choir lofts.

Cygnus and the Northern Cross

In the nature religions the bird atop the world tree represented the constellation Cygnus hovering around the northern celestial pole in midwinter. In western culture, the Cygnus constellation became known as the Northern Cross.
Mythologian Joseph Campbell made these connections years ago in The Mythic Image (1981, Princeton University Press), writing that the pagan tree of life was “conceived as an axis extending vertically to the pole star and downward to some pivotal point in the abyss. Iconographically, it may be represented as a mountain, a stairway or ladder, a pole, or very commonly, a tree. It is symbolized in our Christmas tree, with the pivotal star at its summit, bounteous gifts appearing beneath … ”
A 14th century fresco by Giusto de Menabuoi covering the dome of the Padua Baptistry shows Jesus at the celestial pole position, the highest central point. He is surrounded by the ‘Cloud of Witnesses,’ referring to the early Christian martyrs who were tortured and executed for testifying to their faith. Similar scenes with Christ at the center of the dome/sky decorate the ceilings of numerous Christian churches.
The pagan mind could imagine the branches of the world tree stretching up to the dome of the church where those who sacrificed for the greater community took up residence. The Book of Revelation promises that souls who reach paradise on Judgment Day will enjoy the healing benefits of the eternal tree of life.

Shining examples of virtue

A similar concept can be found in Egyptian, Hindu and Celtic traditions: Those who sacrificed themselves for the greater good enjoyed a trip to the circumpolar stars that turn closest around the celestial pole, never setting below the horizon. These virtuous souls, ever shining, could always be seen from earth, a constant guide and model for others.

tree pole
A time-lapse image of the celestial pole. (Jason Cornell/Shutterstock)

In ancient Egypt, the pharaohs were rewarded for their service by spending eternity among the never-setting circumpolar stars. In the Pyramid Texts the pharaoh says, “May you lift me and raise me to the Winding Waterway (Milky Way), may you set me among the gods, the Imperishable Stars.”
In the Hindu Mahābhārata, those who gave their life for others received eternal rest in the cosmos. “And those brilliant regions that are seen from the earth, there he beheld (those) who had yielded up their lives, stationed in their respective places.”
The 4th century Welsh poet Taliesin wrote that only heroes could eat from the Dagda’s cauldron, which was located inside a castle always turning in the northern sky. Taliesin wrote that the cauldron “will not boil the coward’s portion.”
During the Democratic Convention of 1964, Senator Robert F. Kennedy reflected on a similar concept when he spoke about his slain brother for the first time in public.
“When I think of President Kennedy, I think of what Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet: ‘When he shall die, take him and cut him out into stars, and he shall make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night, and pay no worship to the garish sun.”

The sympathetic magic of priapism

Symbols of the axis mundi include world trees, sacred mountains and ladders to heaven along with a motif that academia may be too squeamish to acknowledge, the erect penis.

Man with erection at Göbekli Tepe.
A headless man with an erection holds onto a bird at the base of Pillar 43 in Enclosure D at Göbekli Tepe. (DAI, Göbekli Tepe Project)
Headless man with erect penis
A bird-headed hunter with erect penis lies dead next to the animal he killed. (Peter80/Wikimedia Commons)

This particular motif can be dated back at least 17,000 years to Lascaux Cave in France, where a painting depicts a dead hunter recently killed by a bison-like animal. The bird-headed hunter is lying on his back with an erect penis. Although the scene appears highly symbolic, there may be some truth behind the iconography. An erection at death is not unusual after a violent impact to the head, neck, or spine; the medical term is priapism.
The erect penis on the dead hunter in the Lascaux Cave painting may have symbolized soul flight directly to the celestial pole, a result of the hunter sacrificing his life for the community. The nearby motif of a vertical line with a bird on top may indicate the Cygnus constellation, which was right next to the celestial pole 17,000 years ago compared with its more remote position today.
The painting itself may also have been an example of sympathetic magic, as cave walls were once universally perceived as a membrane between the material and spirit worlds. The act of painting the death scene may have been an attempt to draw (as in attract) the souls of the hunter and the hunted into the painting and the next world beyond.
Cygnus was still close to the celestial pole 6,000 years later when another example of priapism was etched in stone at Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey, the oldest known megalith in the world. Lead archaeologist Klaus Schmidt described “a headless human with erect penis … ” on Pillar 43 in Enclosure D, which was estimated to be about 11,000 years old.

The triple death of kings and druids

In a similar vein, the forensic analysis of bodies preserved in the peat bogs of England and Ireland suggest the legendary “triple-death of kings,” a ritual execution using three different methods, may not be so legendary.
The grisly death-ritual of a king or druid leader was apparently carried out after some kind of catastrophe had brought harm or ruin. A 2,000-year-old bog-body known as Lyndow Man found near Manchester, England, may be an example of the triple-death ritual. A forensic study showed the victim was hit on the head and strangled so violently his neck was broken. Finally his throat was cut. Otherwise, the man was healthy, well-manicured, and in his mid-20s, suggesting a comfortable life. A druidic ritual is suspected due to the presence of mistletoe pollen in his stomach.
Considering the priapism represented at Lascaux Cave and Göbekli Tepe, perhaps the triple death of kings was a ritual intended to create a ‘good death’ by eliciting an erection. If one method of execution didn’t cause priapism, maybe another method would do the trick, ensuring the king’s soul went to the celestial pole to shine forever with those who gave their lives for the community.
In 2017, Ned Kelly of the National Museum of Ireland told the Irish Examiner that a 4,000-year-old body found in a bog in the Irish Midlands showed evidence of a violent and ritualized death. Kelly believes it’s the third example in Ireland of the ancient Celtic custom of killing kings who preside over a disaster such as plague or blight. Kelly said evidence of excessive violence was found on bog bodies known as Old Croghan Man and Clonycavan Man.

(Ben H. Gagnon is an award-winning journalist and author of Church of Birds: An Eco-History of Myth and Religion, coming March 2023 from John Hunt Publishing, now available for pre-order. Church of Birds includes a cross-cultural review of 26 world trees, including biological traits and cosmological meaning.)


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