1 - Rooting in: why give time to sacred trees?

Summary

In summer 2011, Private Eye featured in their ‘Funny Old World’ column a letter written by one Radnor the Wise. He had sent this letter to the Surrey Advertiser, in an attempt to address local concern about the Wiccan practice of draping a sacred tree in underwear.

Some of your readers may be aware of the recent discovery of a tree in the Hurtwood forest, which was found to be covered in black underwear (both men's and women's panties, briefs, bras and ladies' stockings), and reported in the local Peaslake parish magazine. As a practising Wicca (with the ceremonial title of High Witch), I can confirm that there is nothing sinister in this practice, and users of the Hurtwood forest should have no fear. The decoration of sacred trees is a feature of our religion, and represents our faith in the virility and generosity of mother nature. The tree-dressing ceremony is conducted very early during an icy spring morning, and is followed by a tactile exploration of rebirth, rejuvenation and renewal which is the highlight of the Coven's annual calendar. A similar ceremony is held at Harvest time, followed by our annual barbecue and quiz night. I hope this ceremony shows how religion, fashion, feminism, and ecology can work harmoniously together in the modern day.

Radnor is at pains to emphasise the intellectual sophistication and relevance of the tree-dressing practice, enacting as it does the potential intersection of religion, fashion, feminism and ecology in modern culture. He also takes care to frame sacred trees within the recognisably normal: what could be ‘sinister’ about anything followed by a barbecue and quiz night, that staple of Anglican social life and no doubt often advertised in the Peaslake parish magazine? Yet Radnor is fighting a losing battle here. For there is nothing sophisticated about sacred trees in the public imagination. To the contrary, sacred trees almost always find themselves stereotyped as the preserve of the weird and deluded, something very much marginal to the concerns of mainstream society. For most people today, ‘Funny Old World’ is simply the only appropriate kind of space for giving any thought to sacred trees.