Sacred Grove 4

by Sarah Loft

Title

Sacred Grove 4

Artist

Sarah Loft

Medium

Digital Art - Digital

Description

Per Wikipedia: A sacred grove or sacred woods are any grove of trees of special religious importance to a particular culture. Sacred groves feature in various cultures throughout the world.

They were important features of the mythological landscape and cult practice of Celtic, Baltic, Germanic, ancient Greek, Near Eastern, Roman, and Slavic polytheism, and were also used in India, Japan, and West Africa. Examples of sacred groves include the Greco-Roman temenos, the Norse hargr, and the Celtic nemeton, which was largely but not exclusively associated with Druidic practice. During the Northern Crusades, there was a common practice of building churches on the sites of sacred groves. The Lakota and various other North American tribes consider particular forests or other natural landmarks to be sacred.

Ancient holy trees still exist in the English countryside and are mentioned often in folklore and fairytales.
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This series of designs are my digital take on the sacred grove notion. Generally associated with pagan religions, groves and trees are also significant in Judeo-Christian thought. The Garden of Eden where "God walked" is a sort of sacred grove and scripture mentions a grove planted by Abraham for worshiping God. Most significantly for Christians, the cross is frequently referred to as a tree and symbolically identified with the "tree of life" in the Garden of Eden.

The response of early Christians to pagan groves was interesting-- on the one hand was the felt need to cut down and destroy so as to "prove" the inadequacy of the pagan gods and the inclination on the other to build churches in "sacred" spaces of any kind. The Christmas tree very commonly used by Christians began as a pagan symbol in Germany, the sort the early missionaries went about chopping down. It's perfectly natural, however as an adopted Christian symbol: The tree is both an image of the cross and of the "root of Jesse" referring to the human ancestry of Christ. Both themes-- incarnation and Crucifixion are at the very center of Christian faith.

Note: The watermark will not appear on the print you purchase.

Featured in the Greeting Cards for All Occasions group, February 2017.

Featured in The Earth Is Art group, June 2018.

Featured in the Textile Tapestry Pattern Art group, July 2018,

Uploaded

August 10th, 2016

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