Viaţă pentru viaţă

“Cultul arborilor este atestat la toate marile familii europene ale grupului arian… şi nu s-a stins nici astăzi la descendenţii lor. Cît de serios a fost odinioară acest cult se poate constata din pedepsele sălbatice pe care le statuau vechile legi germane împotriva celor care îndrăzneau să cojească un copac… Ombilicul vinovatului trebuia să fie tăiat şi ţintuit în cuie pe partea copacului pe care acesta o cojise; apoi, era gonit în jurul copacului pînă când intestinele sale erau complet înfăşurate pe trunchi… Intenţia pedepsei era de a pune în locul cojii moarte substanţă vie de la cel vinovat; era vorba de VIAŢĂ PENTRU VIAŢĂ, VIAŢA UNUI OM pentru VIAŢA UNUI ARBORE!”

(James George Frazer, Creanga de aur)

‘…Tree-worship is well attested for all the great European families of the Aryan stock… and tree-worship is hardly extinct amongst their descendants at the present day. How serious that worship was in former times may be gathered from the ferocious penalty appointed by the old German laws for such as dared to peel the bark of a standing tree. The culprit’s navel was to be cut out and nailed to the part of the tree which he had peeled, and he was to be driven round and round the tree till all his guts were wound about its trunk. The intention of the punishment clearly was to replace the dead bark by a living substitute taken from the culprit; it was A LIFE FOR A LIFE, THE LIFE OF A MAN for THE LIFE OF A TREE!’

(James George Frazer, The Golden Bough)