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Eliade, Mircea - On Attis, Osiris and Artemis
Identifier
003234
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Mircea Eliade
'A divinity manifested in a tree is a motif that runs through all near Eastern plastic art, it can also be found in the Indo-Mesopotamo-Egypto-Aegean area. Most often, the scene represents the epiphany of some divinity of fertility – at Moherijo-Daro (3rd millenium BC) we find a divine epiphany in a ficus religiosa'.
In vedic literature there are descriptions of religious experiences of the manifestation of God in vegetation for example. In the Berlin Museum there is a bas relief from Assur of a god coming out of a tree. Gods of vegetation include Attis (fir tree) Osiris (cedar) Artemis (variously myrtle and cedar etc).