Cedar Trees Stories and Medicinal Uses

By Liliana Usvat

Blog 234-365

Indigenous to the Lebanese mountains, the southwest of Turkey, Cyprus, the Atlas Mountains, and the Himalayas, the cedar tree is also found in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It is a majestic, flat-topped tree, growing to 130 feet, having dark green, needlelike leaves, and oval cones.

The Lebanon cedar

The Lebanon cedar (Cedrus libani) is a conifer that originates from, as its name might suggest, Lebanon and surrounding areas in the Middle East. Original old growth groves of this tree, that is mentioned in the Bible, are now very rare. This tree can live for thousands of years and became a popular exotic specimen tree in European landscape gardens in the 18th, 19th century. 

The oldest Cedar Trees

The oldest Cedar Trees are in a grove in Becharri, Northern Lebanon. These
trees are between 1000 and 2000 years old, making them some of the oldest trees on earth

The Cedars of God 

The Cedars of God is a small forest of about 400 Lebanon Cedar trees in the mountains of northern Lebanon. They are among the last survivors of the extensive forests of the Cedars of Lebanon that thrived in this region in ancient times. The Cedars of Lebanon are mentioned in the Bible over 70 times. The ancient Egyptians used its resin in mummification and King Solomon used the famous trees in the construction of the First Temple in Jerusalem.

History

It is said that the cedar was used to build the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and Solomon's Temple.

Since ancient times, the oil has been used in incense, perfumes, and embalming.

Few people know why our planet is called the Earth. The origin of the name actually lies in the ancient city of Eridu, where the archaeologists found the earliest evidence of the Sumerian civilization.  

 

However, Eridu was not only the first city of the Sumerians, but also the first settlement of the Gods. Its name E.RI.DU echoed its earlier history, for it literally meant “Home in the Faraway Built”. a most appropriate name for the visitors from the planet Nibiru. 

In 1976, Zecharia Sitchin published a remarkable study, corroborating Sumerian claims that their cities had been built upon “the everlasting ground plan” of the Gods.’  

In one of his books " Memories and prophecies of and Extraterrestrial God The Lost Book of Enky"  Zecharia Sitchin translates the Sumerian tablets writing about Enlil an extraterrestrial being coming to Earth.

" Enlil by the heat of the Sun afflicted for a place of coolness and shade was searching."

"The show covered mountains valley on the Edin's north side he took  liking..

The tallest trees he ever saw grew there in a cedar forest. 

There above a mountain valley wit power beams the surface he flattened."

" On Earth was summer; to his abode in the cedar Forest Enlil retreated."

" In the cedar forest was Enlil walking in the cool of the day. " 

So the Sumerian  tablets written over 5000 years ago acknowledge the existence of Cedar Forests.

Cedar Tree Canada

 

 

Many big cedar trees can be seen on a walk through the rainforest of Vancouver Island in Pacific Rim National Park near Tofino, British Columbia, Canada.

Moss covered base of a large western red cedar tree (western red cedar), Thuja plicata, along the Rainforest Trail in the coastal rainforest of Pacific Rim National Park, Long Beach Unit, Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, West Coast, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata)

Medicinal uses: collect in summer/fall from young trees—highest oil content, antifungal, antibacterial—stimulates phagocytosis, helps athlete's foot, ringworm, jock itch, nail fungus, chronic vaginitis, stimulates smooth muscle—helps with respiratory, urinary tract, and reproductive system problems, can make tea, tincture, cold infusion, steam

Internal uses include: boiling limbs to make a tuberculosis treatment, chewing leaf buds for sore lungs, boiling leaves to make a cough remedy, making a decoction of leaves to treat colds, chewing leaf buds to relieve toothache pain, making an infusion to treat stomach pain and diarrhea, chewing the inner bark of a small tree to bring about delayed menstruation, making a bark infusion to treat kidney complaints, making an infusion of the seeds to treat fever using a weak infusion internally to treat rheumatism and arthritis

External uses include: making a decoction of leaves to treat rheumatism, washing with an infusion of twigs to treat venereal disease, including the human papilloma virus and other sexually transmitted diseases, making a poultice of boughs or oil to treat rheumatism, making a poultice of boughs or oil to threat bronchitis, making a poultice or oil from inner bark to treat skin diseases, including topical fungal infections and warts, using shredded bark to cauterize and bind wounds. Extracts of red cedar have been shown to have antibacterial properties against common bacteria. Compounds with antifungal properties have also been isolated.

Preparations:Most preparations of red cedar call for boiling the medicinal parts to make a decoction or for making a tea or infusion. Little information exists on dosages. An essential oil can be prepared from red cedar. This oil is meant to be used topically. It is toxic if taken internally, and has the ability to produce convulsions or even death if taken in even small quantities. A 1999 study done in Switzerland noted an increase in poisoning deaths from plant products, including Thuja, due possibly to an increase in people practicing herbal healing and aromatherapy.