Forlong - Rivers of Life

Tree Worship.
HOLLY.
We have still very prominent stories, and no little reverence throughout Europe
for the Holly, or Holy-tree of our very ancient priests, as well as for the Box, the
white and coloured Hawthom or May, for the Sloe or Black Thorn. and for Ivy.
The Holly was ever the prominent token of joy and good-will, sent from friend to
friend during our still well known winter saturnalia, or that festive season we now
call Christmas. It typified the Sun, Osiris. or life, preserved in spite of Typhon or the
wintry desolation; and Holly was like the Sun, male and female; the prickly Holly
being male, and the non-prickly female. He who plucked the leaves of the female,
and slept, upon them, got reliable dreams, provided he maintained strict silence till
dawn. Whichever kind of Holly first entered a house at Christmas, determined
whether the husband or wife should dominate that year. The Holy could protect the
wearer from lightning and from poison. It decked the house of the awaking Sungod,
and now decks that of those who call him the “Sun of Righteousness.” The
maiden who seeks to see her future husband pins the Holly to her night-dress over her
heart, and goes to sleep with three pails of water in her room; and if further prophesying
is desired, the leaves of the female Holly must, on Venus’ night, Friday, be tied up in a
handkerchief of three corners (a very IOnic symbol), and be slept upon, and perfect
silence observed till the next Saturn’s-day morn; all of which tales point to the old, old
story of both Solar and Phallic proclivities.
THE IVY
Was always sacred to Bacchus and to wild revelry; and, like the Holly and Laurel,
should be used with its berries. The bride and bridegroom in Greece used to get Ivy
wreaths given them, possibly to signify the way in which they should cling to one
another, and 30 increase and pass on. The “Bush” which used to adom tavern doors
was Ivy, and with it was associated Maiya’s sacred “bird of night,” the owl.
THE BOX
Is one of the four woods which form the Phallic and now Christian Cross,
the other woods being the Cedar, Pine, and Cypress—all sufficiently suggestive.
Northern England and far south Turkey alike bring the box to the tombs of their
loved ones. Of vernal trees peculiarly holy, we hear of the flowering White Thorn,
and Elm, both of which. must be plucked and worn in May, and are together called
“May.” In olden days persons then found without these. about them, ran some risk of
being drowned, and in most parts of Europe were certain. to be well ducked. Some
think Christ’s thomy crown was made of “May” and that it brings bad luck;
others say the Black Thorn, or Krishnite, which is the enemy of the white or Sivaik,
formed the crown. Poor little Jewish boys are severely maltreated in Austria on May
Day with the Black Thorn.
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