In almost every culture there is a legend of a World Tree, a central axis and source from which all things emerge.
The Tree of the Sun was a magnificent tree, such as we have never seen and most likely never will see. Its crown stretched out for miles around; it was really an entire wood, for each of its smallest branches formed, in turn, a whole tree. Palms, beech pines, plane trees, yes, and many other kinds of trees grew here, trees that are to be found all over the world; they sprang forth, as small branches, from the great branches, and these, with their knots and windings, were like hills and valleys, carpeted with soft, velvety green, and covered with thousands of flowers. Each branch was like a great blooming meadow or the most beautiful garden. The blessed Sun shone down upon it, for, remember, it was the Tree of the Sun.
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The crown of the tree was a spreading, fragrant garden, and in the very center of it, where the great branches rose up into a green hill, there stood a castle of crystal, with a view toward every country in the world.“
In Norse mythology the World Tree is named Yggdrasil and it grows through the three layers of the Nine Realms. Nine was important as it represents a Trinity of Trinities and the number of Man. “Ygg” means “to terrify” and “drasil” means “horse”. Yggdrasil is one of Odin’s many names and its the Tree’s association as “Odin’s Horse”. Odin gives up his eye in the search for knowledge, piercing himself with his spear and hanging himself from Yggdrasil. In his trance state he discovered the original runes. Piercing the self and hanging from the World Tree is shamanic journeying.
The one eyed motif is repeated all over the world and generally relates to the cycles of the Moon and its association with wisdom, but is also an allegory of the blind prophet.
In Egypt Osiris is the shamanic father. He ends up trapped inside the bough of a tree. The hanged man in the Tarot and Freemasonry is based on this process of shamanic journeying. A shaman is one who travels into the lower or higher worlds to attain knowledge from Nature itself. They show due respect and the plants and animal spirits guide them as their familiars.
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