The Place of Tree Cult in Turkish Mythical Thought in Kütahya-Aydoğdu Village

Humankind has been intertwined with nature since the first moments of its emergence on earth and has built its first existential relationships on these natural elements. Humanity, which has feared nature and natural objects within the scope of the feeling of helplessness it has felt and therefore resorted to nature to eliminate this fear, has turned elements such as fire, water, earth and sky into cults within the framework of the fear and respect it feeds. These cults have gained both the fear and respect of individuals, people have established all of their belief-based civil institutions on these and have formed the beliefs and rituals they have formed from the archaic ages to the modern world on the basis of these cults. In this context, one of the natural elements that humans have perceived as a cult is the tree. Trees and forests, which were both shelters and hunting grounds for the first individuals of humanity, have acquired a sacredness that has reached the level of worship as a result of the anxiety of losing them due to the vital opportunities they provide and the necessity to protect them. This holiness was passed on to subsequent generations through various religious-magical practices related to the tree. Although the tree acquired its vital function in terms of the continuation of humanity in mythical times, this effect continues today and continues its existence in the collective cultural world of humanity within some independent beliefs and practices. Indeed, this element can emerge in various ways in rituals applied in places of pilgrimage, practices related to birth, folk medicine, Hıdırellez and some beliefs related to death. In this context, the reflection of the tree cult on the beliefs and practices in Aydoğdu village of Kütahya is discussed in the study. The data obtained through interviews and observation techniques with source persons from the village people were subjected to document analysis within the framework of qualitative research and examined with the comparative method. As a result, it was concluded in the study that the village people kept the tree cult alive within various beliefs and rituals with traces from mythological periods and the place of the tree phenomenon in Turkish mythical thought was determined in the context of the examined region.