TREE -GOD PROTECTOR

As I already mentioned the Illyrians before they began to anthropomorphize their deities, they worshipped them in their celestial shape (sun, moon, stars, etc.), natural (tree, stream, forest, etc.) or animal form – snake, salamander, frog… That’s why the initial religion of our forefathers could be called shamanism, while in the later periods, especially after intertwining with Greek, Celtic and Roman influences, it obtained its classic ancient form with a pronounced pantheon. Belief in a tree as a divine symbol among the Illyrian tribes perfectly coincided with their religious practice based on worshiping nature and its forces. Belief that inside a tree there are supernatural forces which have a fatal influence on a human’s life was present for centuries among the Bosnian people.
According to belief each man possessed his own tree in the forest, which is unknown to him, but if he accidentally cuts it down it can cause his death. Such beliefs were recorded in various parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina such as Rogatica or Kamengrad near Sanski Most. Identification of a man with a tree is then not accidental but as we can see it stemmed from Illyrian religion according to which each man has his own tree in which dwells his god protector. Each tree possesses in itself the strength of the Grand Mother, goddess of the earth, and that is why it is directly connected with the source of life but also dead forefathers. That’s why in traditional Bosnian belief the tree was always equated with humans and their luck or better to say with their lives.
Throughout the centuries, as the religious influence of our forefathers weakened, there were some alterations but never such drastic ones which could uproot the original belief. In ethnological books we can find the description of the ritual in Žepče according to which a person that has bad luck or has a longer streak of issues and difficulties, when something is not going according to his plan, he climbs a tree and another person stands underneath the tree trunk and starts to cut the tree down. Then the unlucky person, while still sitting on the tree asks: “What are you doing?” and the other one replies: “I will cut down your luck so you can get a new one!” Then he cuts the tree down which falls down to the ground together with the man sitting on top of it. After that it is believed that the person will receive new luck and that nice things will start to happen to him. By observing rituals we will notice a symbolic “death” and “resurrection” of man (luck) which falls down together with the tree. He willingly sacrifices himself to “die” together with the tree and in such a way he will avoid the anger of the tree deity which will punish anyone who cuts it down. With this ritual he will get a new tree as a protector and with it new luck.