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One of the most enduring and most elemental of archetypes
is that of the tree, especially in the European tradition.
This is hardly surprising, when one considers that:
 | The forests, especially of Northern Europe, were very
extensive prior to the medieval period |
| Wood was the most important commodity after food and
water in a pre-industrial age, as the main source of fuel for heat,
and as a construction material |
| Very large trees were the largest living object that
most people would have seen (and, in Northern Europe, larger or taller
than most man-made objects before the era of larger and taller
churches) |
| In terms of a human lifespan, trees were the most
permanent and long-lived living thing in the world around, and the
antiquity of a large and ancient tree would extend far back into a
community's oral history and tradition |
| Trees, launching into the sky, are an obvious
fertility symbol (Freudians would also point out the phallic symbol
potential of trees) |
| Trees are gender neutral - the world-tree is neither
masculine nor |
Ygdrasil
(also Yggdrasil)
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The most powerful representation of this archetype, and
one of the best known, is Ygdrasil, the World Tree of Nordic myth.
This is a great ash-tree, set in place by the All-Father. It is the Tree
of Existence and nourishes all life. Its branches reach into heaven
and spread over the world. It has three roots, one which goes down
into the underworld, receiving water from the fountain of the
goddess of fate and death, the second going to the realm of the
frost-giants, into the well of Mime, where knowledge and wisdom lie,
and the third going down to cold primeval waters, and there the
serpent or dragon Nidhug lives, gnawing away at the root. The three
Norns, spinning out the fate of men, are associated with the tree, a
wise and knowledgeable eagle sits in its branches (with a hawk on
its forehead), and the squirrel Ratatosk runs up and down it. Four
stages eat the leaves and branches. At the top of the tree lives a
cockerel.
The power of this symbol is considerable. It
bridges heaven and earth. It goes deep into the underground. It shelters
and houses nature. Its leafy branches represent the fecundity of
nature. It reaches into the wellsprings of life, both warming and
cold, and into the mountains of
achievement. As it is, it is the present; its roots go into the
past; its crown into the sky of the future.
Like all archetypes, it has its light and dark aspects, but most
important of all, it embodies the renewal of life: the serpent-dragon
is always gnawing at its roots, and the deer eating its leaves, but
it is constantly renewed, keeping the balance between the forces of
destruction and construction - and these forces are morally neutral,
for both are needed, otherwise the tree would be static, lifeless.
The cosmology around the World-Ash is much more
complex and comprehensive than this brief outline - for further
details, read the first seven chapters of The Prose Edda at http://www.midhnottsol.org/lore/prose2/index.html
If one believes in a life-force, of which the religions of the world
are but a particular abstract, and if one is prepared to accept the
gods, giants, and dwarfs as metaphors for the human psyche and for
human experience, then the cosmology around Ygdrasil is one of
the most successful expressions, or allegories, of life yet
invented.
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The Tree in the Garden of Eden
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Another well-known World Tree is the Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, in the
Bible (Genesis 3:1-20). This tree has similar characteristics
- its constructive side is that by eating its fruit, Adam and Eve
gain knowledge, and its destructive side that they are now mortal.
It, too, has its |
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Another variant of the World tree is
the cross on which Jesus was crucified.The symbol of the cross is
much older than Christianity (it is found, for example, on Etruscan
tombs), as is the symbol of the sacrifice hung on the tree (for
fertility in the spring). In both cases, Christian iconography was
continuing a well-entrenched tradition of symbolism. In some
Christian traditions, the tree that the cross is made of is the
world-tree of the Garden of Eden, bringing the role of the
world-tree full-circle. For a marvellous medieval poem about the
tree as cross, see The
Dream of the Rood
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Many other traditions have world-trees
in their cosmology or their stories. The most significant are
perhaps:
| The bo tree under which Gautama Buddha sat and
attained enlightenment |
| The world-tree of the Muslim tradition, on
whose leaves the name of every person is written. When the
leaves fall, they are collected by Israfil (the Angel of Death -
in other Muslim versions, he erases names from a book) |
| In Mayan mythology, the world-tree Yaxché is
the tree of heaven |
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see also:
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trees
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woodcutter
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