Forlong - Rivers of Life

Tree Worship.
line, &c. On upper bar we observe a ladder, cross, milk jug, and bee hive, &c.
Can any Phallic tale be more complete? “We must,” says the writer,”be here
content with our general knowledge that the Maienbaum was a Pagan object, and that
its decorations were originally symbols of the gods and goddessses.” Christian
significance is given to all these; for as the priest could not efface the old faiths, he
told his credulous herd that this hammer is that which nailed Christ to the cross, that
the tree is the conventional olive of church pictures, and that the cross, the cock, the
cup, and sacred heart are all connected with “the Passion of Christ.” The broom
represents witches, and the horse shoe the corona or Mary’s head-dress; it is also
Maiya’s sign. and is there as a charm to hold witches at bay like the Ephod of old..
The whole may, I fancy, be taken as one great “tree of life.” On May Day, says
M. D. C., “it is festooned with green branches, for the Bavarian peasants keep up in
many ways the ancient reverence for sacred trees.” When a house is finished, it is
consecrated by having a birch sapling stuck into the roof, and in a thousand tales the
poor and ignorant are still taught to fear trees. One story says that before a large fir tree,
King Ludwig’s horse fell three times forward on its knees, and here he built a
celebrated church, taking care that the fir tree should be in its very centre; read for
church, ark or boat, and the signification and old faith is still clearer. “The. most
interesting feature of the Passion Play to me,” says M. D. C., “was that nine young
birch trees, reaching from floor to ceiling, had been set along the walls inside, at
intervals of ten to fifteen feet.” That the sacred tree of ancient Germany, and even of
ancient Greece, which has so long been held as a charm against witches, against
lightning and other evils, should be here overshadowing Christian worshippers, was
curious enough. “The enclosure was also surrounded by birch trees regularly
planted. Like our remote ancestors who worshipped Odin, we sat amidst the sacred
grove.”
“There are some remote corners of these mountains, it is said, where one who
has a fever still goes to a birch tree, and shakes it, with the words, ‘Birch, a fever
plagues me, God grant it pass from me to thee.’ ” If this be so, then we have genuine
worship of trees this very century in the centre of civilised Europe as truly as we find
Christ and Mary worship.
“When one is snbjeet to cramp,” says M. D. C. “he takes a broom made of
birch-switches into his bed.”
The Ammergau play is traced back far into Pagan times. It appears to have
been always the custom to represent here the deeds of the gods and heroes of the
people theatrically, and hence we see the old signs of the tree, the upright pole
streaming with serpents, and all the symbols of fecundity still on the living scenes of
this canvas. The Christian priest used as his own what he could not remove, or he
was perhaps himself too ignorant or bigoted towards the old faiths to wish to see them
entirely effaced. “It is probable,” says this writer, “that the sacred birches, which
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