Tree of Life to early Semites and

Most people feel kindly disposed to, or even “love ” trees, since they pro-vide them with many directly useful resource products. Moreover, they are a habitat for desired fauna; protect watershed lands, streamsides, and springs from erosion; provide shade for humans and their animals; and are a source of aesthetic enjoyment. A util-itarian attitude often results in their being removed in order to convert them into useful material. Other rela-tionships toward trees, however, involving respect, awe, worship or fear, will be referred to as “sacred,” and usually result in tree or forest con-servation and preservation, rather than utilization. Trees, groves, or forests become sacred through a recognition of some kind of power that they express. This power may evoke in us attitudes of worship, awe, or fear (many other emotive feelings have been suggested, but these three span a spectrum which is sufficient for this paper). Sacred individual trees and groups of trees have characterized almost every cul-ture and religion where trees are capa-ble of growing. Even in virtually tree-less deserts, the date palm became th