“Symbol of the sacred, the tree appears in mythology and culture as the center of the universe, as a representation of life, of sustenance, of the whole. Frazer, in The Golden Branch, illustrates the worship of trees of mythical traditions from different parts of the world, placing the forest as a synonym for temple, to the point of pointing out how “among the Germans, the oldest sanctuaries were natural forests… Among the Celts we are all familiar with the worship of the druids to the oak and its ancient word for “sanctuary” we believe it identical in origin and meaning to the Latin nemus, a forest or open forest, which still survives by the name of Nemi”.

Lola López Mondejar