In ancient time our ancestors believed that all nature was ruled by some mysterious but impersonal force which lay inside trees of a certain shape. This belief gave rise to many customs. The Romans would hang laurael branches outside their doors every year on the first day of March. The Germans raised birch maypoles in their villages. All these customs were designed to honour and display the mysterious governing force. The dead were buried near trees in the belief that they would be nourished by the life of the plant and their souls live longer.

As time went by the idea of an impersonal force was replaced by the belief that a divine being actually lived inside trees. For this reason forests became sacred places and temples were built near them.

The belief that spirits dwelt in trees was worldwide. The early Buddhists held that spirits could reside in trees and this is still believed in modern India. In ancient Rome the woodsman had to propitiate the gods before thinning a grove.

The ancient Egyptians thought the sycamore and the palm to be sacred. The sycamore grew almost miraculously at the limits of cultivated land where the barren sands of the desert began. The palm was venerated because it raised its beautiful head of fresh fruit and cool water were made to these trees.

The oracular oak of Dodona in Greece was tended by priests who slept on the ground.