Genus: Cedrus (cedar)

Family: Pinaceae (pine)

(Part II – in a two-part series on “Truth and Trees”)

My love of trees began in Holzhausen Park near our home in Frankfurt, Germany. It was filled with wise old oaks, plane and chestnut trees that spoke to my heart and expanded my mind.

“Nature is the source of all true knowledge.” – Leonardo da Vinci

At the age of seven we traveled across the Atlantic on the SS United States and stayed in Washington DC for a few weeks. A few months later we moved to Algoma, Wisconsin – a small fishing town along the shores of Lake Michigan, which is where I met my first “cedar” trees. They were soft to the touch and their scent was intoxicating. These “cedars” ultimately became my first American friends that provided a safe haven whenever I needed solace from a world filled with contradictions.

Many years later, after 9/11, an image of the “Tree of Life” inspired me to untangle the shared roots of world belief. This vision was confirmed when I discovered that my beloved “cedars” were also known as arborvitae, the “Tree of Life!”

In 2017 we moved to southwest Oregon where I met incense cedars, Port Orford cedar, western red-cedar and Alaskan cedar. They were similar to the “cedars” I knew in Wisconsin so I was curious to know more. What I discovered is that none of them were actually “true” cedars!

So what is a “true cedar?”

The word “cedar” comes from the ancient Greek word Kedros, meaning “cedar tree.” Kedros was originally used to describe several aromatic species of conifers (cone-bearing trees) in both the pine and cypress families.  

The most famous cedars are the Cedars of Lebanon, Cedrus libani, from the snow-covered mountains of Phoenicia (present day Lebanon, Syria and Turkey). They were a primary source of wood throughout the Middle East during the dawn of civilization over 6000 years ago. These legendary cedars were large, slow growing conifers that could live for thousands of years and reach heights of 100 ft or more. Their sheer size and resistance to rot and insects made them ideal for building ships and temples. They also inspired epic stories of man’s desire to connect with something beyond their earthly existence. They were often described as the “Cedars of God.”

All “true cedars” belong to the pine family. They have needle-like leaves, versus the flattened braid-like leaves of “false cedars” belonging to the cypress family. As a member of the pine family they are related to pines, firs, spruce, hemlock and larch. “False cedars” in the cypress family include cypress, juniper, arborvitae, redwood and sequoia trees.

There are only four species of “true cedar” in the Cedrus genus. All are native to the mountainous regions of present day Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, Cyprus, India, Tibet, Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Today three of these four species are currently endangered.

• Genus – Cedrus
  • Cedrus Iibani – Cedars of Lebanon (endangered)
    • Taurus Mountains of Lebanon, Syria & Turkey
  • Cedrus atlantica – Atlas cedar (endangered)
    • Atlas Mountains of Morocco & Algeria
  • Cedrus brevifolia – Cyprus cedar (endangered)
    • Troodos mountains of Cyprus

Himalayan cedar is the only species where vast forests still remain.

• Cedrus deodara – Deodar cedar/Himalayan cedar (least concern)
  • Western Himalayan mountain range

The reason for this is that the forests of Cedrus deodara were seen as sacred. The Latin name deodara comes from the Sanskrit word devadaru meaning “divine tree.” In Hindu belief Deva is the divine masculine, while Devi is the divine feminine. Daru is also the root for the words “tree and truth”, implying that trees are “truth tellers.”

According to the Vedas (c.1500 – 900 BCE) Indian sages known as Rishi’s meditated under deodar cedars to attain veda (knowledge). During meditation they connected with the trunk of the cedar tree to attain the wisdom of the divine. The word Yoga means “to yoke with the divine,” which is a path of connection. The Hindu sect of Shaivism believed that deodar cedars represented the sacred union of Shiva (divine masculine) with Shakti (divine feminine). Temples dedicated to Shiva/Shakti were built in these forests for protection.

Meanwhile, in the Fertile Crescent, ancient Sumerians and Egyptians believed that the cedars of Phoenicia (Cedars of Lebanon) were also sacred. Unfortunately they chose to build their temples with cedar beyond the forest.

The earliest historical evidence of logging the Cedars of Lebanon comes from the Phoenicians who lived along the Mediterranean coast. They were master loggers, shipbuilders and navigators who had traded cedar for silver, gold, ivory and tin for thousands of years.

The first Egyptian temple of Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) c. 3500 BCE was constructed with four 47′ long cedar logs that came from the Phoenicians. The Great Pyramid of Giza c. 2566 BCE contained a solar barge made from the Cedars of Lebanon, which was designed to carry the pharaoh Khufu into his afterlife. The Egyptians also used cedar resins and oils for embalming and as a preservative against decay and rot.

The Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100 – 700 BCE) tells the tale of this great cedar forest and its desecration by Gilgamesh, the Sumerian king who ruled Uruk around 2700 BCE. Inscribed in cuneiform onto 12 clay tablets, it offers a glimpse into the fate of humanity and our relationship with nature itself.

Abbreviated version: King Gilgamesh, driven by his own need for fame, glory and immortality desired to build a temple of cedar to make himself immortal. He and his friend Enkidu traveled a great distance to cut down the sacred cedar trees to build his city in Uruk. Before gaining access to the forest they had to kill Humbaba, its protector. Humbaba was placed there by Enlil, the lord of air and chief god of the Sumerian pantheon, to protect the forest from humans. After they killed Humbaba, Enlil and the other gods punished Gilgamesh and Enkidu. This story then goes back in time when Enlil sent a flood to cleanse the earth of destructive humans. Enlil’s brother Enki (Ea) warned a man named Utnapishtim of the flood and instructed him to build an ark. After the flood Enlil was so impressed with Utnapishtim’s actions he granted him immortality. Gilgamesh, knowing he had angered Enlil, traveled to see Utnapishtim hoping to learn the “secret” of his immortality. Utnapishtim offered Gilgamesh a chance at immortality, but only if he could stay awake for six days and seven nights. Gilgamesh fell asleep soon after he sat down near a tree. Gilgamesh eventually died of old age. This epic story speaks to man’s disconnection with nature in search of fame, fortune and immortality.

The Epic of Gilgamesh went on to influence the stories contained in the Book of Genesis, which includes the Hebrew god El/Elohim (Enlil) who sent a flood to cleanse the Earth of humans and of Noah (Utnapishtim) being forewarned by Enoch (Enki) to build an ark.

Genesis also tells the story of the prophet Abraham (c. 2000 BCE) a Sumerian from Ur, which is 58 miles southeast of Gilgamesh’s home in Uruk. Abraham undoubtedly shared the stories of Gilgamesh as he traveled up the Euphrates River and down through Phoenicia, Canaan and Egypt. He was driven by a divine calling of obedience to “one god” to be the “father of a new nation”. He ultimately traveled back to Canaan (modern day Palestine/Lebanon) where he built a sacrificial altar on Mount Moriah (modern day Jerusalem) dedicated to the “one god.” Abraham was the father of Ishmael and Isaac, through them he became the “father” of the three major monotheistic beliefs of: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Ironically each of these religions worships a different form of “god.”

Abraham’s son Isaac stayed in the land of Canaan and through his grandson Judah the Kingdom of Judah was established, which became the House of David. According to 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, David’s son King Solomon requested that the first Jewish temple be built from the Cedars of Lebanon as well his palace “The House of the Lebanon Forest.” Solomon’s temple was built on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem around 950 BCE, it was destroyed in 587 BCE by the Chaldeans.

The second temple was built under Persian rule, led by Cyrus the Great around 516 BCE, who also encouraged the Jews to write their “laws.” During this period the book of Genesis was written based on the stories that were passed down in the oral tradition.

Soon after Alexander the Great captured the Phoenician port city of Tyre in 332 BCE he became King of Persia as well as the Pharaoh of Egypt. Eventually the Romans plundered the cedar forests as their Empire grew. Around 20 BCE the Roman-Jewish king of Judea, Herod the Great, expanded the second temple, but it was destroyed in 70 CE during the first Jewish-Roman War by the Roman Emperor Titus.

By 118 CE, Roman Emperor Hadrian saw that the cedar forests were in danger of being over-harvested, so he commissioned the installation of stone markers to surround the forest by declaring that the forest was the sole property of the Roman Empire.

Hadrian was also eager to reimagine Jerusalem as a Roman city. He built temples dedicated to Venus/Aphrodite as well as to Jupiter/Zeus. The temple of Jupiter was built over the site of the second Jewish temple. When he placed a statue of Jupiter/Zeus in front of the temple, it led to the final Jewish-Roman revolt in 136 CE. which resulted in the destruction of the temple and Hadrian expelling the Jews from Jerusalem. All that remains today of the original temple is the Western Wall.

Early followers of Jesus began to form a new religion centered on his life and death. Some referred to him as Christos, the Messiah or the anointed one. In 325 the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (b. 272- d. 337) sent his mother Helena to oversee the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after he declared Rome to be a Christian city. Queen Helena designated the temple of Venus as the original site of Jesus’s death, burial, resurrection and ascension to heaven.

Muslims captured Jerusalem in 632 CE and by 692 CE the Dome of the Rock was built to commemorate Islam’s connection to Abraham and the ascension (Miraj) of the Prophet Muhammad (b. 570 – d. 632).

Jerusalem’s “Old City” continues to be a holy site for Jews, Christians and Muslims. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. In 1982 it was listed as a World Heritage in Danger.

Today the Cedars of Lebanon are the national emblem of Lebanon. Its national flag, designed in 1943, features a cedar tree that represents eternity, steadiness, happiness and prosperity.

It wasn’t until the end of WWII in 1944 that the Cedars of Lebanon were finally protected.

Only .4% (25 acres) of this historic cedar forest remains in Lebanon, which was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1998.

So what is a “false cedar?”

French explorer Jacques Cartier (c. 1491 – 1557) and his crew were sent by the French King – Francis I (c. 1494 – 1547) to find a Northwest route to Asia. When Cartier and his crew fell ill with scurvy in the winter of 1535-1536, the native Iroquois along the St. Lawrence River showed Cartier how to make a medicinal tea from the needles and bark of a conifer tree called aneda. This tea helped Cartier and his crew regain their health.

Excited by this “discovery” Cartier collected seed cones from the “aneda tree” and carried them to the “Old World” as a present for King Francis. They were planted in the Kings medicinal garden at Fontainebleau, Paris. As the tree grew it was named “l’arbre de vie,” or arborvitae, arbor (tree) vitae (life) meaning the “Tree of Life”. Cartier’s discovery ignited a botanical Renaissance throughout Europe regarding the medicinal benefits of plants.

The first arborvitae was planted in Britain around 1566. It was given the botanical name Cedrus by Matthias de L’Obel, also known as Lobelius, (c. 1538 – 1616) a Flemish physician and botanist. In his book Plantarum, seu, Stirpium historia he identified Arborvitae as Cedrus Lycia, which he associated with Cedrus Libani “Cedar of Lebanon” and the “Thuja of Theophrastus.“

Theophrastus (c. 371 -287 BCE), a Greek botanist, used the Greek word thuinos meaning “fragrant wood” to identify a new type of fragrant conifer he found in North Africa, later known as Thuja articulata. Thuja articulata was also known as citrum, citron and or thyine; some even called it African juniper or Juniperus Lycia, which was native to the Atlas Mountains of Northwest Africa. Its scented wood was used to make jewelry boxes or burned as incense. Today its true botanical name is Tetraclinis articulata in the cypress family.

By 1607 Lobelius became the personal physician to King James I of England as well as the royal botanist. In 1611 King James I (c. 1566 – 1625) commissioned The King James Bible, which became a tool for teaching the “King’s English.”

“The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar in Lebanon” – Psalm 92:12

The Bible mentions the Cedars of Lebanon over 70 times. Since cedars weren’t native to France, Germany or England most Europeans didn’t know what cedar trees truly looked like. All they knew was the scent of “cedar” found in items imported from Africa and the Middle East. As Europeans began to arrive in the Americas they were greeted by aromatic conifers that smelled like the cedar they knew, which inspired them to begin calling these native trees “cedars.”

They brought “hope chests” made of oak, pine or chestnut to help them begin their new life. As this tradition was passed on these hope chests became known as “cedar chests” which were now made from Juniper – Juniperus Virginiana (Eastern red-cedar) or Arborvitae – Thuja occidentalis (Eastern white-cedar). Junipers and Thujas are not only aromatic, they are also insect repellent and rot resistant, which made their wood highly desirable. The marketing of these “cedar” chests and boxes added to the mistaken association of trees in the cypress family with the legendary Cedars of Lebanon.

“Maybe you are searching among the branches, for what only appears in the roots.” – Rumi

As the “Kings English” was enforced upon the land, the indigenous names of Juniper and Thuja were lost and replaced by “cedar.” Over time the name “cedar” became sacred to the First Nation people for it didn’t change their relationship with the trees that their ancestors had known and honored for thousands of years. They continued to perform ceremonies using “cedar” just as they had for generations before them.

“Cedar” along with sage, sweetgrass and tobacco are honored as sacred plants that carry prayers to the creator when burned during ceremony. The smoke of burning “cedar” was used for smudging to create sacred space before ceremonies by defining boundaries and clearing the air. 

A few original names for “cedar” by tribe:

• Cherokee – Atsina
  • Juniperus Virginiana – Eastern red-cedar
• Oneida – Tekana’takwaht
  • Thuja occidentalis – Eastern white-cedar
• Shoshonee – Bahsahwahbee
  • Juniperus scopulorum – Rocky Mountain cedar
• Skokomish – We’le
  • Thuja plicata – Western red-cedar
• Coast Salish – Nootka
  • Cupressus nootkatensis - Alaskan yellow-cedar

Juniperus virginiana (eastern red-cedar) is found throughout the eastern region of North America. The Mississippi mound builder culture used juniper (red-cedar) to create timber circles or wood henges that functioned as ceremonial calendars to track the Equinoxes and Solstices in the four directions. The Cahokia Woodhenge (east of St. Louis in IL) was built between 1000 – 1200 CE. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. To learn more visit: cahokiamounds.org.

Thuja plicata, or western red-cedar is native to the Pacific Northwest and can grow to be 230 feet tall. Several tribes refer to Thuja plicata as “Grandmother Cedar” or “Tree of Life.” It is honored as a provider of life, wisdom and protection.

Some of these Pacific Northwest tribes even refer to themselves as “people of the red-cedar.” Thuja plicata was used to make totem poles, canoes and shelters dating back to at least 5000 BCE. The word “totem” means kinship group in Ojibwa. Totem poles were carved to tell the stories of their ancestors, their clan lineages as well as life events.

In Salish tribes along the western coast of Canada, Cupressus nootkatensis, or yellow-cedar was used as an integral part of potlatch ceremonies that celebrated special events such as births, adoptions, marriages and deaths. The purpose of the potlatch was to redistribute wealth by gift-giving to guests. Potlatch ceremonies were banned between 1884 – 1951. They were revived in the 1970’s.

Today there are 33 genera (genus) in the Cupressaceae (cypress) family, at least seven of them are still commonly referred to as “cedar” versus their true botanical name.

The following are a few examples of trees in the cypress family that are commonly called “cedar”:

Family: Cuppressaceae (Cypress)

• Genus: Callitropsis
  • Species: Callitropsis nootkatensis – Alaskan yellow-cedar
• Genus: Calocedrus
  • Species: Calocedrus decurrens – Incense cedar
• Genus: Chamaecyparis
  • Species: Chamaecyparis lawsonia – Port Orford cedar
  • Species: Chamaecyparis thyoides – Atlantic white-cedar
• Genus: Cryptomeria (Sugi)
  • Species: Cryptomeria japonica – Japanese cedar
• Genus: Cupressus (cypress)
  • Species: Cupressus lusitanica – Mexican white-cedar
• Genus: Juniperus (juniper)
  • Species: Juniperus virginiana – Eastern red-cedar
  • Species: Juniperus ashei – Mountain cedar
  • Species: Juniperus bermudiana – Bermudan cedar
  • Species: Juniperus oxycedrus – Mediterranen cedar
  • Species: Juniperus scopulorum – Rocky Mountain red-cedar
• Genus: Thuja (arborvitae)
  • Species: Thuja occidentalis – Northern/Eastern white-cedar
  • Species: Thuja plicata – Western red-cedar

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” – Galileo 

While I admit it’s hard to not refer to my beloved “cedars” as cedar trees, I know it’s equally important to understand their true botanical name and to know the difference between trees in the pine family versus those in the cypress family. It’s easy to differentiate a true cedar from a false cedar once you know what to look for. When we lose our understanding of history we endanger our ability to discern what is true or false. My hope is to shed some light on the story of cedar and how its presence teaches us to be open to learning, unlearning and relearning in order to understand how interconnected we are to nature in our search for meaning.

The next time you meet a “cedar” tree take a good look at its leaf structure. If it is made up of needle-like pine needles then you may in fact be in the presence of a true cedar, if the leaf structure is flattened with braid-like leaves then you are standing with one of the native trees in the cypress family. Regardless of what type of tree you are with, please take the time to listen to what it has to share with you. This can be done in silence by simply being present in the moment.

Forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku in Japanese, can improve our mental, spiritual and physical health. By walking in a conifer forest we naturally inhale organic compounds known as terpenes. Terpenes such as pinene, cedrene and limonene are useful in reducing inflammation, stress and blood pressure, while improving metabolism and circulation. 

Another way to connect with the essence of cedar is through the use of essential oils. A few drops can be added to a diffuser to enhance a room or used in combination with a carrier oil as a massage oil etc. Not all “cedar” essential oils are made from “true” cedars, although all of them have similar scents and benefits. Here are a few of the most common essential oils that carry the name cedar.

• Cedar essential oils in the pine family.
  • Atlas cedar – Cedrus atlantica
  • Himalayan cedar – Cedrus deodara

• “Cedarwood” essential oils in the cypress family.
  • Cedarwood – Juniperus virginiana
  • Western red cedarwood – Thuja plicata
  • Thuja cedarleaf – Thuja occidentalis
  • Port Orford cedarwood – Chamaecyparis lawsoniana
  • Texas cedarwood – Juniperus ashei

Message: Cedar reminds us that trees were our first wisdom keepers and that their forests were our temples. Cedar offers insights into the ancient mysteries of faith and our intrinsic connection to nature and each other. To have faith, we must be open to continually learning, unlearning and learning again. Cedar reminds to reconnect with nature as a spiritual experience that is accessible anytime and anywhere. Even if we are confined inside – our minds eye can see and our heart will remember.

Challenge: To not believe everything we are told, which can make us vulnerable to misinformation. Be aware of believing and or spreading misinformation based on unsubstantiated information and half-truths. Practice discernment versus judgement.

If you like what you read and want more... you may be interested in having the actual guidebook and card deck. The 204 page full-color book is sold separately from the cards. My goal is to find a publisher who can offer this as a complete and affordable set. In the meantime, you can purchase either the book or cards via these links.

Thank you for you support. Laural