Might King Will and Queen Kate restore pagan tree-worship to its rightful place in British culture?
The Daily Mail reports that ‘Miss Middleton, 29, who studied history of art at St Andrew’s, has devised a theme which she says ‘pays tribute to the Language of Flowers’ – an idea that is bound to have gone down well with her gardening-obsessed father-in-law, Prince Charles, who famously admitted that he talks to his plants’.
One wonders if her history of art course included what little is known of paganism in the British Isles. Prince Charles wanted to become the ‘defender of faiths’ (instead of merely the Defender of Faith (Fidei Defensor). As the AP photograph shows, she has used trees to decorate Westminster Abbey. Tree worship was common throughout Europe before the advent of Christianity. I might become a strong supporter of the monarchy if the King Will and Queen Kate restore paganism to its proper place as one of the world’s major ‘religions’. It has a kinship with Hinduism, Daoism, Shinto and the religions of pre-Islamic West Asia.
I wish the young couple well but was not pleased to hear that the Metropolitan Police would deal harshly with protestors. Why shouldn’t we protest against vicious despots being invited to Britain and protected with millions of pounds from the public purse? It made me wonder about a small protest of my own. The best I could think of was sticking a postage stamp to the pavement outside Westminster Abbey and taking a video of people treading upon it. Instead, I will remember the trees and send and send Will & Kate every good wish from Gardenvisit.com. Like them, I am an alumni if St Andrews University.
Here in the USA freedom of speech is protected by our constitution, what is often forgotten(even by our supreme court) is our freedom of religion is also protected. A wedding IS a religious rite(as is a funeral), to protest at one is to trample on the religion of those participating. There is a time and place for everything, and protesting during someone elses religious rite is not the right time to protest in my opinion.
Respectfully,
Roy Brewster
Yes, there should be no protest against the wedding – and I have not heard that anyone wishes to protest. But protesting against the heavy-handed policing we have had in London recently, foreign despots and wanton public spending are other matters.
The trees in the Abbey looked truly beautiful. I am not sure what Edward the Confessor would think of pagan tree worship…but I am sure he would approve of the wedding.
Two prominent trees in Judeo-Christianity are the tree of knowledge (of good and evil) and the tree of life (everlasting), both of which grew at the centre of the Garden of Eden.
For the Celts the Yew tree is the symbol of immortality. What species I wonder were the two trees in the Gardn of Eden?
I agree about the trees looking beautiful in the Abbey and kept thinking of the wonderful ‘husband and wife’ statuary in medieval cathedrals eg http://www.executedtoday.com/images/John_Tiptoft_tomb.jpg
Christianity grew out of paganism and was never respectful of its ancestors in the way Islam was respectful of its non-pagan ancestors.