The cedar is a great Russian treasure, a symbol of strength, health, power, stability and longevity.
In the famous Epic of Gilgamesh (Sumer, 2700 BC), the Goddess of Love (in ancient times Inanna was considered to be the Goddess of Love), infatuated with the handsome Gilgamesh, offered him to be her husband by saying: "Be you my husband, and I will be your wife!... Come into our house, with the fragrance of cedar." "I have covered myself with the oil and scent of cedar. I am as honey... The fragrant cedar oil on my skin shall be as a path of love, which summons you to the tenderness I seek to make you smile and to give you happiness." Man and woman are drawn to each other by forces unknown. The power of these forces symbolizes love.
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"Gilgamesh offered to cut the giant cedars on the edge of the forest...and the axes made by Uruk's masters began to work. ......And Gilgamesh began to cut the trees while Enkidu rooted out the stumps. And when their work was done, Enkidu said to his friend: "Hang your battle axe on your belt...let us take the cedars to the shore of the Euphrates!"
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"And as a sign that he wished to wed Inanna, Dumuzi, in the custom of his ancestors, poured cedar oil on the doorstep of the house of Ningal..."
Let us turn to historical facts:
Needles were used as a remedy many thousand years BC. Sumerian clay tablets, found during archaeological excavations of the ancient kingdom of Sumer, confirm that needle extracts and decoctions were used in compresses and stupes as early as 5,000 BC.
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In ancient Babylon, aromatic oils were added to construction materials used to build temples. The well-known antimicrobial properties of cedar oil ensured that temples were disinfected.
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Druids, the ancient Celtic priests, possessed deep knowledge about the nature of trees and their connection with man and the Universe. The cedar was one of a number of "healing trees" they identified. The cedar's special properties were noted by several races in the Bible. Thus, in Leviticus, the third book of Moses, God teaches priests to heal people. Of all the plants, only cedar is mentioned several times as a healing and cleansing tree (a cure for leprosy, among others).
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The legend concerning the cedar states that:
The Mother of the World said to the Creator: "Sparks from the Fire of your Spirit can bring salvation, but who will gather them, who will keep them?" And the Creator replied: "The trees and grass will keep my sparks, but when the sparks fall let the Cedar and its sisters keep their elements of Fire for the whole year." (A. Klizovsky, The Fundamental Principles of Understanding the World in the New Era, volume 3).
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Russian cedar nuts were exported to England and other countries as early as the reign of Ivan the Terrible.
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Petr Simon Pallas (1740-1811), a Russian natural scientist and member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences wrote in "Russian Flora": "The tips of young pine and cedar branches are praised by all the industrialists and seafarers of Siberia as the best antiscorbutic and balsamic medicine, and are considered by medicine to be a significantly powerful treatment for scurvy."
compiled by Dr. Svetlana Kovaleva
