The world tree symbolizes. World tree is

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World tree in state symbols

The symbol of the world tree is depicted on the national emblem and flag of the Chuvash Republic.

Folklore

Most often in folklore, as world trees, oak, sycamore, willow, linden, viburnum, cherry, apple tree, pine appear. The world tree is located in the fairytale space of folklore, usually on a mountain, in the middle of the sea, in clear fields near the road, at the master’s master in his yard. The time was also marked with a tree. When a tree marks a year, it is drawn or cut out with many branches, the so-called "pine". Mysteries about the tree-year have also been preserved: “Oak-oak is many years old, it has twelve heads, four nests on each branch, and seven eggs in each nest, and each has a name.”

In mythological representations, the world is divided into three worlds: person (microcosm), society and universe (macrocosm). Or chronicle reality, nav and rule - the world is modern, otherworldly and ideal - heavenly. Moreover, all natural phenomena, events in society and the experiences of individuals occurred the same way in each of these three worlds, and in them all simultaneously and interconnected, as in a single organism. And the tree was a mediator between these worlds and placed these worlds on itself. With its help, you can move from one world to another (to the world of ancestors, to the heavenly world).

World tree in fairy tales

In fairy tales there is a “tree to heaven” motif, climbing on which the hero sees a heavenly deity and receives magical gifts. The custom of planting trees or bushes on graves is also connected with the image of a mediating tree between the worlds. There is a concept - “give oak” (die). The importance of this custom is emphasized by the fact that they plant plants of certain breeds. Among the Slavs it is mainly viburnum.

In Slavic legends, girls turn into trees from longing for their loved ones. In a fairy tale about a magical flute from the bones of a girl insidiously killed by sisters, a viburnum bush grows. A flute made from her twig speaks in a human voice. In general, in the fairy tale epic tree is closely associated with women and girls. Recall: a firebird has come to the royal court - to steal golden apples or pears from a magic tree. The prince goes on a campaign to catch a thief, and returns home with his bride. From this point of view, the fairy tale “Grandfather and Grandmother's Daughter”, in which an orphan girl meets a stove, a well and an apple tree (female characters), is interesting from this point of view. In the fairy tale “The Golden Boot”, the dying mother left her daughter a present-amulet: a seed from which the willow grew. For a long time, a tree inhabited by magic people, a poor orphan, helped. The tree came in handy when it was time to look for a mate. And after the wedding, the girls with the prince "willow with a well went underground and again left in the prince's garden."

In the spring trees there is a fairytale tree motif that crowns lovers: three churches and a bell tower appear from it: three clear candles (say, Mariyka, Oksanka and Nadiyka) in the church, and three vowel bells (Ivanko, Petrus and Vasilko) in the bell tower. Then Ivanko says: “I love Mariyka, I’ll buy my boots for Mariyka,” and so on for each pair.

World tree as the embodiment of fertility

The symbol of the tree of life is also the image of fertility, a woman, the Mother Goddess. Nature, the mother of all living things, is the tree of life. In images (on embroideries, Easter eggs, towels and carpets) the image of a woman is associated with a tree sign; she merges with him, and sometimes completely replaces him. They say that the house rests on a woman, like a roof on a bastard. The bastard holds the roof, like the tree of life - the sky. When housing appeared in people, it seemed to be a reference point in a limitless universe, a center of being for every person. The four walls of the house were oriented on the four sides of the world. And the base of the housing was the scum, which symbolized the strength of the home. When installing the scum in the house, there were a lot of rites and customs. When I had a dream that there was no scum in the house, it was believed that this was to death. The connection between the “core of the house” and the ideas about the tree of life is also confirmed by the ornament on the scraps: solar signs, snakes, zigzag images of water, “pines”.

World tree - This is a family tree. The most common image of a world tree is a trunk with three branches. Such family trees were embroidered with red threads on a white cloth of fate-towels and hung as amulets over insults, windows, portraits of relatives. Birds, which are intermediaries between the world of the living and the world of ancestors, as well as the guards of the clan, in carols and fairy tales act as assistants and advisers in the selection of a pair. Moreover, they, of course, are sitting on a tree. Sometimes in the role of such an assistant to a young man is a snake, which is located near the root of a tree. Wedding symbols are decorated with verbal and hand-drawn, embroidered images of the tree of life. This is a wedding wreath, and wall paintings and embroideries saturated with marital symbolism, and songs that speak of a paradise tree that gave birth to two berries - young and young.

World Tree Synonyms

As in most symbols, the world tree has synonyms that to some extent replace it in some texts or emphasize and develop one of the meanings or a separate property of the tree. Such symbols in fairy tales and ritual songs are a pillar, a mountain of the world, a road, a church with three tops, three towers, a ship, a ladder, a hook, a chain, an arch, a city. The personification of the world tree is a milestone - a high stick with a wheel on top (the wheel is a symbol of the sun), Kupala and May trees and the like. These attributes of the world tree are present in almost every of the largest holidays of the calendar cycle, as well as at the wedding. As the embodiment of a girl’s fate, the symbol of a tree appears in one of the fortunetelling on St. Catherine (December 7). The girl cuts a sprig of cherry in the garden, brings it into the house and puts it in a cup of water. If it blooms before Generous evening (St. Malania, January 13) - a good sign, there will be a wedding this year. And if it does not bloom - another year will have to sit in the girls. Here the cherry branch symbolizes the fate of a girl, the girl herself - or bloom for her at this year’s wedding, or not.

At the wedding, the young is symbolized by a wreath - a young tree, or branch, most often from pine or cherry. At a bachelorette party on Saturday, girls decorate it together with flowers, viburnum and colorful ribbons, while singing the song “to the Giltsya”. It’s like a symbol of the bride’s maidenhood. When they begin to share the loaf, the wreath is taken apart by a young friend on a branch. It is believed that the branches of the wedding wreath, decorated with flowers, then help friends to get married happily.

In some places in Polesie the custom to “drive a bush” on Green holidays (Day of the Holy Trinity). One of the girls the group chooses "bush." To do this, weave two magnificent wreaths of branches of maple and linden, large - on the neck, small - on the head. For the girl’s belt they plug the branches so that it forms like a skirt made of greenery. With a bush girl, they go home, greet the owners on Green holidays, wish happiness and wealth. Apparently there is an echo of faith that dead souls move to trees, and come to descendants to visit Green holidays.

Kupalsky treewhich is called Kupaylitsa or Madder, symbolizes fertility, girlhood, the unity of the young in marriage. It also recalls the first tree from which the world began. This tree (a large branch, most often made of willow or cherry) is established by the guys in the evening at the edge of the feast of Ivan Kupala (July 6). At the end of the ceremony, the Kupaylitsa is drowned or broken into small twigs, and each girl takes herself a twig.

Before Christmas there is a custom (which came to us from Western Europe) to install in the house and decorate the Christmas tree. Evergreen tree symbolizes eternal life, and decorations on it are those gifts that a person should receive in the new year. There is a thought that the Christmas tree is an image of the sacred tree, and the star with which it is crowned is a symbol of the sky or the sun. Among the Slavs, the image of the world tree is fixed in ornamental images on embroidered and woven towels, carpets, embroideries, Easter eggs, caskets, furniture, gingerbread boards, dishes and in the decoration of clothes.

World Tree and Tree of Life

The concepts of “Tree of Life” and “World Tree” should not be confused.

The "Tree of Life" bears fruits that give eternal life, and the "World Tree" is the foundation (frame) of the Universe. In the cultures of some ethnic groups, the symbolism of the Tree of Life and the World Tree are combined, and the name "Tree of Life" is often used.

Sources

"100 of the most famous images of Ukrainian mythology", under the general. Edited by Doctor of Philosophy Elena Talanchuk
Santillana, Giorgo de / Dechend, Hertha von: Hamlet’s Mill. Gambit, Boston 1969

WORLD TREE (arbor mundi, "cosmic" tree), an image characteristic of mythopoietic consciousness, embodying the universal concept of the world. The image of D. m. Is witnessed almost everywhere, either in its pure form or in variants (often with emphasis on one or another particular function) - "", "fertility tree", "center tree", "tree of ascension", "heavenly tree", "shaman tree", "mystical tree", "", etc .; rarer variants: "tree of death", "tree of evil", "tree of the underworld (lower world)", "tree of descent" (see fig. 1). With the help of D. m. In all the variety of his cultural and historical variants [including his transformations or his isofunctional images, such as the “axis of the world” (axis mundi), “world pillar”, “world”, “world man” (" "), a temple, a triumphal arch, a column, an obelisk, a throne, a chain, etc.] the general binary semantic oppositions serving to describe the basic parameters of the world are brought together
The image of D. m. Identified or reconstructed on the basis of mythological, in particular cosmological representations recorded in verbal texts of various genres, monuments of fine art (painting, ornament, sculpture, glyptic, embroidery, etc.), architectural structures (primarily religious ), utensils in the broad sense of the word, ritual acts, etc. Directly or indirectly, the image of D. m. Is restored for different traditions in the range from the Bronze Age (in Europe and the Middle East) to the present [cf. autochthonous Siberian, American (Native American), African, Australian traditions]. The image of D. m. Played a special organizing role in relation to specific mythological systems, determining their internal structure and all their basic parameters. This role is clearly seen when compared with what preceded the "era of D. m." in the form that people of the subsequent era imagined this stage. These are fairly standard descriptions of unsigned and unsigned chaosopposing sign-organized space . describe the formation of the world as a result of the consistent introduction of the main binary semantic oppositions (- earth, etc.) and gradual series such as animal people, etc. and the creation of space support in the form of D. m. or its equivalents. In contrast, the earliest sign systems created by man and restored from ancient sources dating back to the Upper Paleolithic (cave paintings, etc.) do not reveal any distinct traces of oppositions with a local-temporal meaning, and the image itself is D. m .on these systems is missing. m. is located in the sacred center of the world (the center can differentiate - two world trees, three world trees, etc.) and occupies a vertical position It is the dominant determining the formal and substantial organization of the universe of space. When dividing D. m. Vertically, the lower (roots), middle (trunk) and upper (branches) parts are distinguished. Oppositions are found vertically [top - bottom, - earth, earth - lower world, (dry) - moisture (wet), and others], with sufficient completeness and accuracy, identifying mythological characters and the world in which they operate With the help of D., m are distinguishable: the main zones of the universe - upper (heavenly kingdom), middle (earth), lower (underground kingdom) (spatial sphere); past - present - future (day - night, favorable - unfavorable time of year), in particular in genealogical refraction: - current generation - descendants (temporal sphere); cause and effect: favorable, neutral, unfavorable (etiological sphere); three parts of the body: head, trunk, legs (anatomical sphere); three types of elements of elements: earth, ("elemental" sphere), etc. Thus, each part of D. m. Is determined by a special bunch of signs
Trinity D. m. Vertically underlined by the assignment to each part of a special class of creatures, most often animals (occasionally classes of deities or other mythological characters). With the upper part of D. m. (Branches) are connected (often two - symmetrically or one - at the top, often -); with the middle part (trunk) - ungulates (deer, moose, cows, horses, antelopes, etc.), occasionally bees, in later traditions, and humans; with the lower part (roots) - snakes, frogs, mice, beavers, otters, fish, sometimes a bear or fantastic monsters of the chthonic type. Wed description of the huluppu tree in the Sumerian version of the epic about Gilgamesh: in the roots - a snake, in the branches - a bird, in the middle - a virgin. In the plot of the so-called. the main Indo-European myth also plays up the vertical structure of D. m.: the thunder god, located on top of a tree (or), strikes a snake at the roots of a tree and releases cattle stolen by the snake, wealth (middle part of the tree). The Egyptian sun god (in the form of a cat) strikes a snake under sycamore. fairy tales like AT 301 escapes from a dragon, climbing on D. m., and takes the hero out of the lower world.
A number of facts indicate that the image of D. m. Is correlated with the general model of marriage and, more broadly, with the continuity of generations, the genealogy of the genus as a whole (cf. "mythological" family trees). Among Nanai with ancestral trees - their images are traditional on women's wedding gowns - ideas about the fertility of women and the continuation of the genus were associated. Such trees grew in the sky in the possession of the female spirit. Each genus had its own special tree, in the branches of which the souls of people multiplied, then descended in the form of birds to the ground to enter the womb of a woman of this genus. The upper part of the Nanai robe reproduces the dragon's scales, and behind the robe two dragons are depicted on the robe - a male and a female. Thus, all three tiers of D. m. - the peak, trunk and roots - and the three classes of animals associated with them in their own way reflect the idea of \u200b\u200bconception and fertility. There are inverted images of D. m. Here are typical descriptions of such D. m.: "From the sky, the root reaches down, from the earth it reaches up" ("Atharva Veda") or: "At the top of the root, at the bottom of the branch, this is the eternal fig tree" ( "Katha Upanishad"), or in the Russian conspiracy: "On the sea on the Ocean, on the island on the Kurgan white birch, down branches, up roots. "Such inverted trees are depicted in the corresponding traditions on ritual objects. Often, natural inverted trees are also used in the ritual [for example, two rows of trees were placed on the sides of the Evenki shaman’s plague, symbolizing the middle world, the earth - branches up (the tree of the lower world), branches down (the tree of the upper world)]. It is possible that the image of the “inverted” tree arose precisely in connection with the geometry of the lower world, in which all relations are “inverted” compared to the upper and middle m world (live becomes dead, visible - invisible, etc .; see Art.. Afterworld ) It is characteristic that during the so-called "shamanistic journeys" the shaman, returning from heaven to earth, sees first the branches, and then the trunk and roots, that is, the same "inverted" tree. Thus, the “inversion” is explained either by the peculiarities of the metric of the spatiotemporal continuum of the universe, or by changes in the observer's position. The image of the “inverted” tree often arises in later eras in the individual mystical consciousness, in painting and poetry.
The horizontal structure of D. m. Is formed by the tree itself and objects on the sides of it. Most clearly, it is found in connection with the trunk. Usually on both sides of the trunk are most often symmetrical images of ungulates and (or) human figures (gods, mythological characters, saints, priests, people), cf. typical Aztec images of D. m., where the solar god is to his right, and the god of death to his left, or the sacrifice scene in the Ancient Mesopotamia, etc. Such compositions quite transparently appear even later in works of Christian and Buddhist art. If the vertical structure of D. m. Is connected with the sphere of the mythological, primarily cosmological, then the horizontal structure is correlated with the ritual and its participants. The object of the ritual or its image (for example, in the form of a sacrificial animal - a cow, a deer, an elk, etc., and previously a person combined with a tree) is always in the center, the participants of the ritual are on the right and left. The whole sequence of elements horizontally is perceived as a ritual scene, the main purpose of which is to ensure well-being, fertility, offspring, wealth. The ritual itself can be interpreted as a pragmatic realization of a myth, a projection of the "mythological" into the sphere of the "ritual". Since the horizontal structure of D. m. Models the ritual, it conveys not only the sacrificial object, but also the subject perceiving this object, which in principle can be identical to it [cf. numerous images of a deity on a tree, a cross, a pillar, etc. (test Odin on ash Yggdrasil in Scandinavian mythology, a bloody sacrifice on a Celtic tree, Jesus Christ etc.) or descriptions of a person as a tree].
A significant number of facts allows us to reconstruct two horizontal axes in the scheme of D. m., I.e., the horizontal plane (or, cf. mandala), defined by two coordinates - from left to right and from front to back. In the case of a square, each of the four sides (or corners) indicates the direction (country of the world). On the sides or corners there may be private world trees or mythological characters that are correlated with the main D. m. In the center, personifications of the countries of the world, in particular winds [cf. "Eddu" or "four" of gods, for example, among the Aztecs: the god of the east (red), the god of the north (black), the god of the west ("feathered serpent", white), the god of the midday sun (blue), "four Perkunasov"and four-faced deities, cf. Zbruch idol]. Aztec images of D. m. inscribed in shamanic tambourines among Laplanders and other northern peoples, the mythologized structure of a city or country (eg, in ancient China) and etc.
The same scheme of D. m. Is constantly repeated in ritual formulas; cf .: “I went out on four sides, I made a sacrifice” (“The Legend of Gilgamesh”) or “On the sea on Okeyan, on the island of Buyan there is an oak. Under that rune there is a scorpion serpent. And we will pray for you, for all four we bow to the sides "". stands a tree .; call in and hear from all four sides from the drain and the west, and from and siver: go from all four sides. as the month goes, and frequent small stars "" At this ocean-sea stands tree kolkolist; on this tree kolkolist hang: Kozma and Demyan, Luke and "(Russian conspiracies). The same four-part scheme, as you know, underlies religious buildings that preserve the semantics of their elements (cf. pyramid, ziggurat, pagoda, stupa, church, shamanistic plague, menhirs, dolmens, cromlechs, etc.), in particular countries of the world. Wed plan of the Mexican pyramid Tenochtitlan: divided into four parts by diagonals, in the center - a cactus with an eagle devouring a snake; the structure of the altar through which the axis of the world passes, marking the sacred center. In many cases, each marked element of the horizontal structure is distinguished by a special D. m., Hence the wide distribution of octal objects (cf., for example, eight pairwise connected trees and eight creatures associated with the countries of the world, in bososorko in Western Sudan; the image of the world in the form an octopus moose in orcs in the Far East; eight branches of a tree in front of the dwelling of a deity and octagonal earth in Yakut mythological texts; eight deities Ptakhov in the ancient Egyptian Memphis version of the myth of creation, etc.). The horizontal structure of the scheme of D. m. Models not only numerical relations (see The numbers) and the countries of the world, but also (spring, autumn, winter), parts of the day (morning, day, evening, night), colors, elements of the world. The horizontal structure allows us to distinguish between mastered (related to culture) - undeveloped (associated with nature). D. itself m. In a certain sense and in certain contexts becomes a model of culture as a whole, a kind of "tree of civilization" among natural chaos.
D. m. Separates the cosmic world from the chaotic world, introducing organization into the first of them and making it accessible for expression in sign systems of texts. In particular, it is D.'s diagram of m. That contains a set of "mythopoetic" numerical constants that organize the cosmic world: three (vertical divisions, triads of gods, three fairy tale heroes, three highest values, three social groups, three attempts, three stages of any process, etc.) as an image of some kind of absolute perfection, any dynamic process involving the emergence, development and completion; four (horizontal divisions, notebooks of gods, four countries of the world, main directions, season, space age, element of the world, etc.) as an image of the idea of \u200b\u200bstatic integrity; seven as the sum of the two previous constants and the image of the synthesis of the static and dynamic aspects of the universe (cf. the sevenfold structure of the universe among the Zuni Indians; seven branches of D. m., shaman trees, sevenfold pantheons, etc.); twelve as a number describing D. m. (“There is an oak, 12 branches on an oak.” or “There is a pillar to heaven, 12 nests on it.” in Russian riddles) as an image of fullness.
In archaic traditions, there are diverse texts that are directly or indirectly associated with D. m. And allowing to clarify its ritual and mythological meanings. First of all, such texts describe the main sacred value - D. itself. M., Its appearance, its parts, attributes, connections, etc. In these texts, D. m. Depicted statically and, as a rule, in isolation from the needs of the human collective. However, there are texts of a different kind: in them D. m. Is described in its functional aspect. Typically, texts of this kind are confined to the situation of the main annual holiday, marking the transition from the old year to the new. It is in this situation that global determinism, characteristic of the mythopoetic worldview, proceeding from the identity of macro- and microcosm, nature and man, is manifested with special sequence. The highest value (maximum sacredness) is possessed by that point in space and time where and when the act of creation took place, that is, the middle of the world where D. is standing, and “in the beginning” is the time of creation (see Mythical time ) In the temporal plan, the situation "at the beginning" is repeated during the holiday, when at the junction of the old and new years he will describe his annual year around D. m. And just reproduce the foreign situation with his structure, when the forces of chaos that have fallen into decay are opposed by the forces that have gained power. A fatal duel occurs, as "at the beginning", ending with the victory of cosmic forces and the reconstruction of a new (but modeled after the old) world.
The festive ritual imitates these stages of creation. It begins with the “overturning” of the entire system of oppositions ( king becomes slave, - the king, the rich - the poor, the poor - the rich, the top - the bottom, etc.) and ends with the restoration of it in the previous arrangement. Based on cosmogonic texts, it is possible, hypothetically, to restore the entire ritual scheme dedicated to D. m.: 1) the starting position is the junction of the old and new years, the world fell apart in chaos; the task of the ritual is to integrate from the components of the sacrifice, knowing the rules of identification given by mythopoetic classifications; 2) the priest pronounces a text containing these identifications over the victim near the sacrificial pillar or other image of D. m., Marking the sacred center of the world; 3) riddles about the elements of space in the order of their occurrence and answers to them; 4) appeal to D. m. As the image of the newly recreated space. The mythological aspect proper is associated with the presence of all gods, the duel between them (or the main among them) and their adversary (monster), the distribution of spheres and functions in the organized world between individual gods, mythological motifs of an etiological nature ("how was it created?" "Why at night dark? "" where did the stones come from? "etc.).
The special role of D. m. For the mythopoetic era is determined, in particular, by the fact that D. m. Acts as a mediating link between the universe (macrocosm) and man (microcosm) and is the place of their intersection. Image D. m. Guaranteed a holistic view of the world, a person's determination of his place in the universe.
In the cultural development of mankind, the concept of D. m. Left traces in numerous cosmological, religious and mythological representations reflected in the language, in verbal texts of various kinds, in poetic images, in the fine arts, architecture, planning of settlements, in ritual, games, choreography, in social and economic structures, possibly in a number of features of the human psyche (cf., in particular, a special “Koch test” in psychology, which reveals that at a certain stage in the development of the child’s psyche the image of Eve dominates children's images). In the Middle Ages, the scheme of D. m. Was widely used as a means of illustrating the whole, consisting of many elements hierarchized in several plans [cf. "genealogical (family tree) tree," "alchemical tree", "tree of love" (its image is given in one Provencal poem by Matthra Ermengau, 13th century), "tree of the soul", "tree of life's path", etc.]. Later versions of such schemes are widely used in modern science (linguistics, mathematics, cybernetics, chemistry, economics, sociology, etc.), that is, where processes of “branching” from a single “center” are considered. Many control schemes, subordination, dependencies, etc. currently used, go back to the scheme of D. m. (Compare the image of the structure, social relations, the composition of the parts that make up the state, management systems, etc.).

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Despite the fact that the concept of the World Tree is absent in Greek mythology, medieval Greek folk traditions claim that there is a Tree that holds the Earth.

The World Tree (Wacah Chan) also appears in the Mayan religion as the axis of the world. The axis of the world connects people (Middle world), with a dungeon (en) (Other world) and heaven (Upper world).

World tree and ancient concepts of time and space

In the image of a tree, ideas about time, space, life and death are united. Try to solve the riddle:

There is a tree, on a tree there are flowers, under the flowers there is a cauldron, above the flowers there is an eagle, it picks flowers, it throws flowers into the cauldron does not decrease, in the cauldron does not increase. (Life and death)

The oldest Ukrainian carols brought to us the idea of \u200b\u200bhow the world appeared from a chaotic primitive ocean. They talk about times when there was still no sky, no earth, but only the blue sea. In that sea stood a tree (sycamore or pine). On a tree, three birds argued: how to establish peace? One bird dived into the sea - brought out a golden stone. The second dived - brought out a silver stone. The third is copper stone. From the golden sun appeared, from the silver - the moon, from copper - the dawn. Along with the creation in the imagination of primitive people the image of the world tree, an extensive system of oppositions arose:

day Night
summer Winter
life death
right - left
straight - crooked
top bottom
fire water
man Woman
paired - unpaired

In the horizontal plane, the world tree and the space around it are divided into four parts, expressing the idea of \u200b\u200btime (morning, day, evening, night; spring, summer, autumn, winter) and space (east, south, west, north). At the top of the tree is the Sun, it was his “movement” that determined the “division” of the space around it into four parts. Vertically, the tree is divided into three parts: the lower - the root (underground world), the middle - the trunk (earthly world) and the upper - the crown (heavenly world). Each of these parts includes certain creatures. Below, near the root, there are snakes, frogs, fish, waterfowl and animals, because the bottom of the tree symbolizes not only the underworld, but also water. In the middle part, on the ground, there are large animals: tours, deer, horses, bears, wolves. It is also a world of people. At the top of the world tree, birds and bees settle, here are the heavenly bodies.

Folklore

World tree

World tree in fairy tales

World tree as the embodiment of fertility

The world tree is also a family tree. The most common image of a world tree is a trunk with three branches. Such family trees were embroidered with red threads on a white cloth of fate-towels and hung as amulets over insults, windows, portraits of relatives. Birds, which are intermediaries between the world of the living and the world of ancestors, as well as the guards of the clan, in carols and fairy tales act as assistants and advisers in the selection of a pair. Moreover, they, of course, are sitting on a tree. Sometimes in the role of such an assistant to a young man is a snake, which is located near the root of a tree. Wedding symbols are decorated with verbal and hand-drawn, embroidered images of the tree of life. This is a wedding wreath, and wall paintings and embroideries saturated with marital symbolism, and songs that speak of a paradise tree that gave birth to two berries - young and young.

World Tree Synonyms

Before Christmas there is a custom (which came to us from Western Europe) to install in the house and decorate the Christmas tree. The evergreen tree symbolizes eternal life, and the decorations on it are those gifts that a person should receive in the new year. There is a thought that the Christmas tree is an image of the sacred tree, and the star with which it is crowned is a symbol of the sky or the sun. Among the Slavs, the image of the world tree is fixed in ornamental images on embroidered and woven towels, carpets, embroideries, Easter eggs, caskets, furniture, gingerbread boards, dishes and in the decoration of clothes.

World Tree and Tree of Life

The concepts of “Tree of Life” and “World Tree” should not be confused.

My granddaughter asked: What is the World Tree?

My granddaughter asked me a question about how the universe works. And we did our morning energy practices with her and she saw the image of a centenary oak. She asked me:

And what does it mean that I see oak during my practice?

It is wonderful. The image of the Oak is a symbol of the World Tree. Since you are already thinking about the structure of the Universe, you are interested in how the Universe came about, then you have come to the most important image of the universe - the image of Oak. This is the World Tree. Want to know more about him?

Really want to.

Then I will write a post for you about the World Tree. It will be interesting to all readers of my diary. Have you agreed?

Oh sure!

And now my friends, I wrote this post for Christina and of course for you.

The Universe, the Creator of the Universe, the Divine Absolute - these concepts carry majesty, unknowability, mystery and a huge desire to learn more and reveal the secret of how the Universe was created. Who is He - the Creator of the Universe?

The best minds of mankind break spears, proving each their own understanding of the essence of the Divine Absolute. Understanding what God, the Creator, is inextricably linked with understanding the world order ...

We are all godlike, we are creators and have great Power.

Hermes Trismeister also said that above is below.

Already in ancient times, people knew that the world order is based on the principle of similarity. Our wise ancestors had legends, myths, and traditions about the World Tree and the World Egg.

This information has reached us. Even in ancient times, their ideas about the world order, about the Divine were very clear, although figurative .. And they conveyed this idea in the images of their myths and legends, in monuments. Thanks to the many stone omphalas that have been installed all over the planet, we understand that their knowledge of the world order and the Divine Spirit that breathes life into all life was surprisingly true.

And the image of the World Tree is found among all the peoples of the planet. The World Egg and the World Tree reflect in themselves the organization of everything that exists - from the atom to the galaxy. This is an egg of a living creature, which encloses a matrix along which the body further develops. Perhaps the same Matrix-Egg initially contained all the universes of our manifested world?

The human psyche is like a macrocosm. And if a person perceives himself as a World Tree, firmly standing on a powerful and solid foundation - the planet Earth, then he feels and feels like God in his own universe. Then his affairs get along and life is filled with joy and achievements. If a person feels himself divorced from his divinity, from his Spirit, then where can he find strength for achievement and happiness. Then his lot of suffering ...

ABOUT THE WORLD TREE.

From ancient times, the Tree represents an infinitely renewed living Cosmos. Along with the stone, the tree serves as an altar, since the Tree is the Center of the world and the support of the Universe. The tree is a symbol of Life, fertility, is identified with the source of immortality (the Tree of Life) and, accordingly, is a symbol of the resurrection of vegetation, spring and the "rebirth" of the year (Maypole); In ancient myths, the mystical bonds between trees and people are emphasized (trees give birth to people; a tree as a repository of souls of human ancestors).

The oldest "holy places" looked like a landscape of stones, water (source) and trees. In the pre-Indian civilization of Mohenjo-Daro, the holy place consisted of a fenced area around a tree. Similar holy places could be found all over India at the time the Buddha was preaching. The writings of Pali often mention a stone or an altar, placed on a sacred tree, forming a structure for worshiping the deities of fertility (Yaksha). This ancient skill to connect trees with stones was adopted and adopted by Buddhism. Buddhist chayta sometimes was just a tree. Neither Buddhism nor Hinduism could weaken the religious significance of the ancient holy places, included them in themselves and thereby legitimized them. The same sequence can be observed in Greece and in the Semitic world.

Canaan and the Jews had sacrificial places "on every high hill and under every tree branch" (Jer. 2, 20). The same prophet recalls the sins of the children of Judah, who placed the altars and images of Astarte "by the green trees, on the high hills" (Jer. 17, 2).

"Holy place", reproducing the natural landscape, reflects the Whole, there is a microcosm. The altar, the temple (or the palace, or the funeral monument), which are the further development of the primitive "holy place", are also microcosms, because they are the centers of the world and represent imago mundi, the image of the world (cf .: Garden) The stone highly represented reality, its indestructibility and strength; the tree, with its periodic revival, showed the power of the sacred in life order.

In the Bhagavad Gita, the Cosmic Tree expresses not only the Universe, but also the position of man in the world: "... There is an immortal banyan tree, whose roots grow up and its branches down, and its leaves are Vedic hymns. He who knows this tree knows the Vedas [ ...] The true form of this tree cannot be comprehended in this world. No one can understand where it ends, where its foundation begins and where it is necessary to decisively cut down this tree, whose roots have deeply gone into the earth, by the weapon of detachment. After it is necessary to find the place, reaching which o one ever back does not come back, and there surrender to the Supreme divine essence from which everything began and from whom everything has extended since time immemorial "(XV, 1-3).

The world tree, whose roots extend to Heaven, and branches to the Earth, is found in the Hebrew teachings (Zogar), and in the Islamic tradition of the “Tree of Happiness”, and in Scandinavian mythology, and recorded in the XX century. rituals of Australian tribes.

In Mesopotamian iconography, a tree is usually surrounded by goats, stars, birds, or snakes. Each of these symbols has a specific cosmological meaning. An archaic drawing from Susa shows a snake rising vertically to taste the fruit of a tree.

In Elder Edda, Yggdrasil is a cosmic tree, its roots reaching the very heart of the Earth, where hell and the kingdom of giants are located. Nearby is the source of Mimir (“reflection”, “memory”), where Odin left one eye on the security and where he constantly returns to refresh himself and his wisdom. In the branches of Yggdrasil live Heydrun, goat, eagle, deer and squirrel; the serpent Nidhogg encircles his roots and tries to destroy him all the time. Every day an eagle fights with a snake. When the Universe trembles to the ground in the cataclysm predicted in "Elder Edda", Yggdrasil will be greatly shaken, but not defeated.

The world tree connects spaces and times - top and bottom, past and future. The motives of immortality, fertility given by the Tree and / or the nearby "eternal river" are combined with the motive of higher knowledge.

TREE is a fundamental cultural symbol representing a vertical model of the world, semantically based on the idea of \u200b\u200bbinary oppositions (both cosmologically and axiologically articulated). In traditional culture, it acts as a fundamental symbol of the ordering of the universe (the “world tree”) and a metaphor for the genesis as accomplished and productive. Within the framework of an archaic culture, the mythology of world D. acts as the most important component of mythological cosmogony. In the context of anthropomorphic models of cosmogenesis, based on the plot of the Sacred marriage of the Earth and Sky (Nut and Geb in ancient Egyptian mythology, Gerd and Freud in Scandinavian, Gaia and Uranus in ancient Greek, etc.), the central moment of the cosmos of the world is the erection of a world vertical that separates each other from a friend the Earth and Sky and ensuring the existence of world space.

World D. as a cosmic vertical, on the one hand, is traditionally a phallic symbol and in this regard refers to the celestial (male) principle (the world tree as the phallus of Uranus in ancient Greek mythology), on the other hand, the mythological D. is closely connected with the female principle: virgin in the trunk (ancient Egyptian sycamore, ancient hamadriads, the myth of the birth of Adonis from the hollow opening in the trunk) or even identified with the trunk (Lilith in Sumerian mythology). Mythology D. is semantically ambivalent, being related both to the earthly (female) and to the heavenly (male) principles. In this sense, separating Heaven and Earth, D. simultaneously symbolizes by itself their marriage.

As the wind plays with leaves, so feelings flow over, rising from leaf to leaf, from branch to branch - burning with fire, shining, sounding an indescribable sensual song, the Song of God! Diving deeper into the endless well of feelings! The guards of the Animal Beginning do not doze off, trying to steal the HUMAN attention, but if you are consistent and make your choice, you will certainly be Rewarded with a DIVINE HAPPINESS, meaning LIFE.

WORLD TREE

Each nation had its own sacred tree, with its features and properties based on natural and sometimes occult qualities, as set forth in esoteric teachings. So, Ashwattha, or the sacred tree of India, the abode of Pitri, became the Bo tree (or ficus religiosa) of Buddhists around the world, since Gautama Buddha reached the highest knowledge and Nirvana precisely under this tree. Ash, Yggdrasil, serves as a world tree among the Scandinavians. Banyan - a symbol of spirit and matter, descending to the earth, taking root, and then again rushing to heaven. The palace, with triple leaves, is a symbol of the triple essence in the Universe - Spirit, Soul, Matter. Black cypress was the world tree of Mexico, and now among Christians and Mohammedans it is a symbol of death, peace and tranquility. Fir was considered sacred in Egypt, and its cones were carried in religious processions, although now it has almost disappeared from the country of mummies; Sycamore, tamarisk, palm tree and vine were also sacred. Sycamore was the Tree of Life in Egypt, and also in Assyria. He was dedicated to Hathor (Hathor) in Heliopolis; now, in the same place, he is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. His juice was precious due to the quality of his occult powers, as well as Soma for the Brahmins, and Haoma for the Parsis. " The fruit and juice of the Tree of Life grant immortality. "In Erzyan beliefs, the tree is called Echke Tumo, where the nest of the sacred duck Ine Narmun is located, which gives birth to the same egg from which the whole world is born. In Turkic mythology, the tree is called Baiterek - it keeps the earth in place with its roots and supports the firmament with branches to he didn’t fall down. In Kabbalah, this is the Mekabtsiel Tree. In the Qur'an, this is Sidrat al-muntaha. In China, this is Kien-Mu, along which the Sun and Moon, lords, sages, Gods, spirits and so on. these sacred trees of antiquity, some of which are revered to this day, I could write a large volume, and still the matter was not settled.

According to the ideas of the ancient Egyptians, the axis of the earth is a gigantic golden tree, with its peak resting against the sky. Gemstones grow on its upper branches and the heavenly goddess Nut lives. The rain that irrigates the earth and penetrates in the form of soil water into the underworld comes from the fact that a wonderful phoenix bird strikes with its wings the branches of this sacred tree, and it sprays its life-giving moisture. The worship of the world tree was closely connected with the cult of Osiris, the god of fertility and the eternal renewal of nature. Next to his tomb was a tree, on which it was believed that the soul of God sat in the form of a bird. In ancient Egyptian images you can see how this mythical tree sprouts through the entire tomb of Osiris, braiding it with its roots and branches. Moreover, Osiris himself was often identified with the tree.

Like the ancient Indians and other nations, the Egyptians believed that the earthly tree they worship was a copy of the heavenly tree that grows in the upper world. To the other ancient people of the Middle East - the Phoenicians who inhabited the coast of Palestine - the universe was drawn in the form of a giant tent, supported by a huge tree standing in its center, propping up the sky.

The ancient Chinese were confident in the existence of the cosmic tree. Myths placed him far in the east, in the Valley of Light. It was there that a colossal mulberry of inextensive thickness rose up from the seething sea. A wonderful rooster was sitting on its very top, with its cry heralding the onset of the day, which is why all the evil spirits roaming the earth at night retreated in a hurry. On the branches of the mulberry lived ten suns that had the appearance of golden three-armed ravens. Another world tree was placed in the far west of the universe, its leaves were like stars and illuminated the world at night. Over the centuries of its existence, mythology has constantly evolved: some plots and images were forgotten, others arose and overlapped with the old. Therefore, in addition to the two named cosmic trees in Chinese myths, there are many references to others like them. Thus, it speaks of a huge tree Xun a thousand li high, as well as a wonderful bread tree with a thickness of five girths, which grows on the world mountain Kunlun; wonderful sources beat there and all the gods of the Middle Kingdom live. It is also reported about trees through which you can ascend to heaven and descend into the underworld, this is the road of the gods and shamans.

The Mayans in Central America also placed the fantastic First Tree of the World, depicted with a barrel-shaped trunk dotted with prickly spikes, in the center of the universe. It was believed that it supports the universe. In addition to him, however, there were four more sacred trees located in the four corners of the world. They were to serve as additional support. But still, the central tree remained the main one, because first of all the gods gathered around it, there, in the center of the universe, they solved the most important issues concerning the fate of people and the universe. The cult of the great world tree permeated many areas of the Mayan religious life, many of its images are found in their manuscripts and on stone reliefs. At least of its importance is indicated by the fact that the altar, on which human sacrifices were made, was given the shape of a stump of this sacred tree. It was believed that since it binds together all the worlds of the universe, then through it the victim easily falls into heaven and will be more pleasing to the gods.

The world tree plays a very special role in archaic shamanistic religions. It was there that his image was developed in more detail than anything else. In Yakut mythology, great attention was paid to the wonderful tree Aal Luuk Mas, as if growing in the middle of Sibiir-land. The legends say that it exudes life-giving moisture "ilge", which gives those who have tasted it vivacity and new strength. Once this tree was conceived to grow into the heavenly land of the upper spirits in order to destroy them, but in the end it refused this sacrilegious thought and, having reached heaven, became a hitch for celestials. Having decided to reach the underworld and destroy the lower spirits, it again changed its mind, and its roots began to serve as a hanger for the creatures of the lower world. Stretching high up and deep down, Aal Luuk Mas forms the unshakable core of the universe

According to Altai beliefs, in the fertile place where seventy rivers merge, a hundred-trunk seven-knee eternal poplar with golden and silver leaves rises. Under a single branch of this fantastic tree, a whole herd of horses can hide. Two golden cuckoos are sitting on its top, portending fate, from their singing wonderful flowers bloom all over the earth. On the middle branches are two black golden eagles with diamond claws, sensitively guarding the depths of the blue sky. Two scary dogs with bloodshot eyes are chained to the base of the poplar with iron chains. A magic horse grazes peacefully there, which only a great hero can possess.

The world tree is an indispensable attribute of the shamanistic picture of the world and the shamanistic cult. Many supernatural abilities were attributed to shamans, one of the most important was that they could travel to other worlds to gods and spirits. This was done for various purposes, but most often in order to return the soul of the sick person, which was believed to be abducted by spirits, or to identify with spirits, for which they sent a particular disaster to people. In preparation for such a journey, the shaman brought himself into a state of sacred ecstasy. To achieve this state, he beat a tambourine and danced, circling in one place. As a result, his assistant spirits come to him. With them he set off on the road. And here the world tree came to the fore, for it was along it that the path to heaven or to the underworld lay. With the help of friendly spirits, the shaman climbed up or, conversely, went down to the very roots and, finally, got into other worlds.

World tree (Evenki)

The above helps to understand why the world tree is often called shamanistic. For shamans, it not only served as a sacred road, but was also considered their cradle. Legends say that on the knots of this tree are located one above the other nests, like birds, the souls of all future shamans are raised there. The higher the nest, the more powerful the shaman will be born. The "spellcasters" themselves said so about themselves: "I am the fourth female shaman," "he is the seventh female shaman," etc. The ritual substitutes of the universal tree played a large role in the shamanistic ritual. A special tree was often planted in front of shamans' yurts. During initiation into shamans, the subject climbed a tree, which symbolically signified his ascent to heaven. A special sacred tree was also chosen as the place for the shaman to be buried, so he could more easily go to heaven, and then reincarnate as one of the people.

In addition to linking the worlds into one whole, the most important function of the world tree was that in a concentrated form it embodied the idea of \u200b\u200bfertility. It is a prayer for fertility that is the main content of a huge number of religious rites and beliefs: a man prayed to the gods to send him more food, game, cereals, moisture, necessary for the harvest. The above data show that all this was abundant under the magical tree of the world. Life-giving keys, giving strength and immortality, are beaten there, all kinds of plants and fruits grow luxuriantly, various animals graze peacefully there. Moreover, the cosmic tree not only represents excess food, but also sends down children. There are a large number of myths, according to which the souls of people grow on it in the form of flowers or fruits. Falling down in the womb, they become the cause of the birth of a child. In fairy tales, such representations were processed: a magic wand appeared, originally representing a branch of a wonderful tree. With one touch of her, various miracles can be performed - to extract water in the desert, turn a stone into gold, revive the dead.

It is quite natural that under the world tree, in the center of the universe, gods, heroes and great kings are born. According to ancient Greek myth, the baby Zeus was fed by the goat Amalthea at the foot of a sacred tree. Under the tree was born another great god of ancient Greece - Apollo. Legends say that the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar was found under a tree as a baby. Maya, the mother of Buddha, walking in the garden, felt the approach of labor and gave birth to a "deliverer of all living beings", clutching a branch of one of the trees with her hand. The legendary adviser to one of the great kings of ancient China, Yin, according to legend, was found in the hollow of mulberry, which, as we know, was revered by the Chinese as a world tree. Genghis Khan, as the legend tells, was found in the steppe sucking leaves of a lonely standing wonderful tree. Finally, apocryphal Christian traditions report almost the same thing about Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew says that the archangel Gabriel brought Mary the news of the Immaculate Conception at a time when she scooped up water from a spring at the foot of a tree.

The tree of knowledge that appears in the book of Genesis, apparently, is a world tree already familiar to us from the myths of many peoples. In the Old Testament this is shown rather convexly. A number of details are added by later Talmudic and apocryphal legends. According to some traditions, the tree from which Adam and Eve tasted was grape, since nothing brings more evil than wine. According to others, it was a fig tree, from the leaves of which the ancestors allegedly sewed clothes for themselves, and according to the third, wheat or breadfruit: after all, as the Babylonian Talmud explains, not a single child can name either father or mother before eating bread, - that is why the Old Testament speaks of the tree of knowledge. In Genesis, another tree of paradise is mentioned - the tree of life (it seems to be just a duplicate of the tree of knowledge). In the Talmud, truly cosmic dimensions are attributed to him: it only takes 500 years to go around it.

World tree in Zoroastrianism

The Tree of Life and Being, the destruction of which alone leads to immortality, according to the Bhagavad-gita, grows roots up and branches down. The roots depict the Supreme Being or the First Cause, the Logos; but one must strive beyond these roots in order to merge with Krishna, who, says Arjuna, “Above Brahman, and the First Cause ... Eternal! You are both Being and He Being, Inexpressible That which is beyond them. " Its branches are Hiranya-Garbha, the highest Dhyan-Kogan or Deva. The Vedas are its leaves. Only one who has risen above the roots will never return, that is, will not be reincarnated during this Age of Brahma.

The most famous World Tree is undoubtedly Yggdrasil - the giant ash of Scandinavian mythology, which is the axis, the structural basis of the world, the tree of life and destiny. The descriptions of Yggdrasil, the “tree of the best,” are contained in numerous ancient Scandinavian texts, primarily in the Elder and Younger Edds. Sometimes they differ from each other, but in the end they actually add up to a mythological description of the whole universe, as the Scandinavians understood it.

Ash I know
named Yggdrasil,
tree washed
cloudy moisture;
dew from him
descend to the valleys;
over the source of urd
it turns green forever.
(Elder Edda, Divination of the Velva)

Yggdrasil unites all worlds: the world of the gods (Asgard); world of people and giants; the underworld, the kingdom of the dead. Three of its roots, which are constantly gnawed by snakes and the dragon Nidhegg, have three sources: the source of Mimir, Urd and the Boiling Cauldron (Hvergelmir). The copper source of the giant Mimir, “in which knowledge and wisdom is hidden,” nourishes the World Tree with honey. Sacred life-giving honey is impregnated with the whole Yggdrasil. At the source of Urd, his name also meant "Fate," "Rock." Three virgins live in this source: the first bears the same name of Destiny, Urd, the second is called Verdandi, which means "Becoming," the third is Skuld, "Duty, Duty." At the same time, their names mean the inevitability of the passage of time: the name Urd means the accomplished, past time, Verdandi - the present, Skuld - the inevitable future. These are virgins of fate or norn, similar to the Greek moira. Numerous female deities or spirits, similar to them, which are also called norn or disami, come to each newborn baby and give him fate - good or evil, depending on the nature of the deity itself. They come from different mythological creatures - some from the gods, others from dwarfs (carls, zwergs), others from alves, natural spirits, the name of which recalls the elves of European fairy tales and legends. But the main nors determine the fate of the whole world, embody its past, present and future. Their origin is mysterious, like mysteriously much that dates back to the beginning of time. The world tree, growing at the source of the norn, not only unites all the worlds in the mythological space, it connects the past and the future. This mythical time - a time measured by the alternation of day and night, by the luminaries moving through the firmament in their chariots - seems indifferent to the destinies of the world and man. This is the time of cosmic cycles, the time of eternal repetition.

In the beliefs of many peoples, the souls of unborn babies live in the branches of the world tree. The tree of fate was also a family tree. The Icelandic skald Egil Skallagrimson in his song “The Loss of Sons” compares the deceased son with an ash tree grown from his family and that of his wife, and taken by Gaut-Odin to the world of the gods - to his own souls. The dead returned to the world of their ancestors, to the world tree. The fate of all creatures is decided by the world tree and the incarnations of all worlds converge at its trunk, in the crown and at the roots. A huge wise eagle dwells in its branches, between whose eyes a hawk sits; The squirrel Rodenttooth warps up and down its trunk - it carries the swearing words exchanged between the dragon Nidhegg and the eagle. Four deer eat around his foliage, and the Elder Edda mentions many more snakes that gnaw along with Nidhegg his roots, and the trunk of the ash tree is rotten. Therefore, the norn should daily water the ash from the Urd spring and even fertilize it - they draw water along with the mud that covers the banks. The water of this spring is sacred - whatever gets into it becomes white. It is so life-giving that the ash remains evergreen. “The tree of life is always green,” Goethe wrote in Faust, continuing this ancient German tradition.

The dew flowing from Yggdrasil to the ground is honey dew, bees feed on it and collect nectar. Two wonderful swans swim in the spring. Swans are magic birds in which the divine virgins and companions of Odin the Valkyries loved to turn. The whole bestiary - the animal world, which is connected with the world tree, embodies all spheres of the universe and their relationship: the eagle (and the hawk) live in the sky, but seek prey on the earth, the dragon is a monster of the underworld, but thanks to its wings it can reach heaven, swans - waterfowl; four deer also embody the four cardinal points, like dwarfs sitting on the edge of the earth.

The “Tree of Limit”, growing in the center of the world and connecting all the worlds of Scandinavian mythology, reaches with its crown Valhalla, the hall of Odin, located in the divine city of Asgard. Here we begin to understand why Asgard is simultaneously in heaven and in the center of the world: he is permeated by the world tree. In Valhalla it is called Lerad - "Shelter". On the roof of Valhalla there is a goat Heidrun and picks ash leaves, therefore, hoppy honey flows from her udder and fills a large jug every day, so it’s enough to get drunk while drinking in the Odin room. Yggdrasil is truly the honey tree of life that feeds the magic drink. A whole grove of magic trees grows in Asgard at the gates of Valhalla. It is called Glasir - “Shiny”, because all the leaves are made of red gold. In addition to the goat on the roof of Valhalla, there is also the deer Eikturnir - “With oak tips of horns”; he also eats leaves, and so much moisture drops from his horns that it, flowing down, fills the stream of the Boiling Cauldron, from which the twelve earthly rivers originate. Deer is a sacred animal associated with the world tree in the most diverse mythologies of the world; this connection was striking to the creators of ancient myths, not only because deer feed on tree branches, but also because their horns themselves resemble a tree. It was not by chance that the “oak tips” were attributed to the horns of the Eikturnir - we can suspect that the deer himself, in the German myth that had not reached us, acted as a world tree - after all, all world waters began with its horns. The late Icelandic Song of the Sun, written already in the Christian era, but in the tradition of pagan poetry of the Skalds, speaks of a sun deer, whose legs stood on the ground and the horns touched the sky. The gods (aces) gather at Yggdrasil to administer justice, the supreme god Odin tied his horse about the eight legs of Slaper to his trunk.

World Serpent Yormungand - was born when the creation was already completed. The evil as Loki became the father of this and other monsters who at the end of time attack Asgard and destroy the ancient enemies. This snake grew so much that it could only fit in the oceans, where it surrounds the earth with a ring, biting its own tail. Therefore, it is called Midgardsorm - Midgard Serpent, or Belt of the world. But he has another name, Jörmungand, which means "great staff."

Elena Blavatsky in the book - "Isis Unveiled" vol. 1 chap. 5 - believes the Egyptian pyramids also symbolically represent this idea of \u200b\u200bthe earth tree. Its top is a mystical link between heaven and earth and expresses the idea of \u200b\u200bthe root, while the base represents the diverging branches, extending to the four countries of the world of the material universe. The pyramid conveys the idea that all things had a beginning in the spirit

According to the ancients, the Tree of Life was closely connected with the front essence of man, for example, among the Assyrians, a unicorn (a symbol of the front essence) was often depicted next to the Tree of Life.

Symbol in the form of unicorns on the seal of the proto-Indian peoples.

I will quote from the book of Anastasia Novykh AllatRA:

Rigden: From ancient times, the Unicorn was one of the symbols of the Forward Being, which promotes a spiritually pure person connecting with his Soul, leaving the circle of rebirths. He personified the desire in only one direction - the spiritual, and therefore he was endowed with the qualities that are characteristic of man in his spiritual work on himself: purity, nobility, wisdom, strength, courage, perfect goodness, and also associated with the forces of Allat - the divine purity of the female beginning (myths of the Virgin and the unicorn). If you trace the history of symbols, then, for example, the Sumerians put the image of a unicorn as a symbol associated with a circle (Soul), which researchers interpret as a “moon symbol”, as well as an attribute of goddesses in the concept of spiritual purity. The Assyrians depicted a unicorn in bas-reliefs next to the Tree of Life, the Egyptians put the best moral qualities in its image. The Persians, according to their sacred knowledge, considered the unicorn to be perfect, a representative of the “clean world” among animals (originally four animals), and its horn was the only force capable of defeating Ahriman. Or take ancient Slavic legends and epics recorded in the old Russian collection of spiritual songs “Pigeon Book” (a book that in the 13th century became banned by religious priests of that time), where the unicorn is referred to as Indrik-beast (Indra). There are such lines:

“We have Indrik the beast to all the beasts, And he walks, the beast, through the dungeon, He passes all the mountains of white stone, Cleans the streams and grooves. When this beast beats up, the whole universe will pick up. All the beasts worship him, the beast. He does not offend anyone. ”

Rigden: In addition, Indra is believed to be the Guardian of one of the four cardinal points. There is also a mention that relates to Knowledge about the arrangement of the world. In particular, that Indra rules Svarga (Heaven) - according to the ideas of the Hindus, paradise, located on the top of Mount Meru. And now remember that in Slavic-Russian mythology there was also the god Svarog - the god of Heaven, heavenly fire, the father of Dazhbog and Svarozhich. In the all-Russian chronicle vault of the beginning of the XII century “The Tale of Bygone Years”, included in the Ipatiev Chronicle, there are such references to him: “... for the sake of nickname and god Svarog ... and the king’s son, he’s named Sun, he will be called Dazhbog ..” "The sun is the king, son of Svarogov, if he is Dazhbog ...".

Anastasia: That's right, it all has the same root! Indeed, although allegorically, it speaks of seven dimensions, the spiritual work of man on himself. The same Svarog as the personification of heaven, according to epics, "in the darkness of the clouds kindled the flame of heavenly fire (lightning)." And then, "breaking the clouds with thunder arrows, he kindled the lamp of the sun, extinguished by the demons of darkness." If we take into account that Svarog plays the role of the Front Entity here, the clouds are thoughts from the Animal Beginning, and the lamp is the Soul, "extinguished by the darkness" of subpersonalities, then ancient Russian mythology comes out quite amusing.

Rigden: Well ... By the way, in the same “Pigeon Book” explaining the origin of the world, Alatyr-stone is also mentioned. According to legend, it is believed that signs “talking” about the laws of the god of the sky Svarog are embossed on it. According to ancient Russian beliefs, it is precisely from under the Alatyr stone that the sources of living water originate, which bring food and healing to the whole world (creation), it is under it that a power that has no end is hidden, and it is on the Alatyr stone that the damsel Zarya, who is red, sits constantly awakens the world from night sleep. Now compare all this with knowledge about the AllatRa sign, about the power of the divine creative female principle of Allat and its important role both in the processes of the development of the Universe and in the spiritual awakening of the Person and its merging with the Soul. By the way, Alatyr - so the ancestors of the Slavs from ancient times called in the spiritual legends the power of Allat, emanating from God, and the person who accumulated this power and multiplied it in himself by spiritual labor. “

In the views of the ancient Slavs, the World Tree is located on the island of Buyan on Alatyr-stone, which is also the center of the universe. Magical rivers flow from under the Alatyr stone around the world - Alatyr is guarded by the wise snake of Garafen and the bird of Gagan.

In my opinion, it is easy to determine the etymology of the word Alatyr - tyr, tyr, steal, accumulate - Alatyr means accumulated (accumulating) Allat! The words of God have the same etymology. A tyr - a diving - accumulating (accumulated) God, acquiring (accumulating) the Holy Spirit - it is amazing how modern philologists interpret this word as Rich and Voivod - or even exuberant, considering this word to be of Turkish or Mongolian origin, although its clear meaning lies on the surface !!

The image of this tree has come down to us, both in the image of various fairy tales, legends, epics, plots, songs, riddles, and in the form of ceremonial embroidery on clothes, patterns, ceramics, painting dishes, chests, etc. Here is an example of how the Peace Tree is described in one of the Slavic folk tales that existed in Russia and tells about the extraction of a horse by a hero-hero: "... a copper pole stands, and a horse is tied behind it, there are clean stars on the sides, a month shines on the tail , red sun in the forehead ... " This horse is a mythological symbol of the whole universe which is nevertheless tied to the center-pillar or tree.

I will give one more excerpt from the book of Anastasia Novykh “AllatRa”:

“Rigden: So it is. The Icon of the Virgin “The Burning Dome” has nothing to do with all these matters of the priesthood. And in Russia they began to call it so not from the word “kupina” - “blackthorn, shrubbery”, but from the Old Slavonic word “kupa”, which means “connection”, “elevation”, “totality of something”. And the fact that she was associated with the belief in fire protection, but now, as you correctly noted, she stands in every house, famous for her miracles. But even more importantly, knowledge reached the majority through it, albeit in such an “unopened form”. And they are now, and this is important!

It is no accident that the “Burning Cup” is associated with the symbolism of the Immaculate Conception from the Holy Spirit. This is just a symbol of what I told you about. The Mother of God is the Conductor of the power of God̆ for every person who walks along the spiritual path, this, with the help of which the Soul of man is freed from earthly reincarnations. Jesus as a Spiritual Being from the world renewed the true Knowledge that has been lost for centuries and gave people spiritual tools for spiritual salvation. That is, in other words, he left the keys. Working on himself with the help of these tools, a person acquired, figuratively speaking, the key to the sign. And the Mother of God as the Conductor of the power of God, as a spiritually liberated Being, located between the worlds for the spiritual liberation of human souls, He gave signs. And only when the zeal, work on oneself of the spiritual seeker and the strength of the Mother of God (Allat) was combined, did the Person merge with the Soul, that is, a person achieved the liberation of his Soul, the seventh dimension or, as they say in Christianity, “paradise”, “the kingdom of the Father and the Son ". And it only depended on a person’s choice whether the sign would be active, whether the person would be Worthy to receive this divine power that would lead him to God. The key is given to be used. And in order to use the key, you must make your own efforts to this. This is the path of a spiritual person - the path of spiritual dispassion, which only (together) with the creative power of God leads to liberation.

And this is known not only in Christianity, but also in other religions. This was known in ancient times when people called God and His Son and the Mother of God (Great Mother) in a different way. After all, the point is not in the priestly concepts from the mind and in their epithets, but in the same spiritual grains, on which all their religions rest. I will give a simple example.

As I mentioned, not so long ago, the cult of the goddess Isis, who originated in Ancient Egypt, was widely popular among various eastern and western peoples. By the way, it is enough to pay attention to the art of Ancient Egypt, to those of its samples that have come down to the present time in buildings, murals of ancient temples, sculptural images. And you can see the same symbols of the transmission of the foundations of spiritual Knowledge that are everywhere in the world: the AllatRa working sign, lotus, circle, cube, rhombus, pyramid, cross, square, symbolic image of the four Essences. So, the cult of the goddess Isis lasted for more than one millennium, including the era of the Roman Empire. And what is the real reason for such popularity? In active signs - “AllatRa”, which was distributed in those days with the help of the cult of the goddess Isis, as it is today distributed with the help of the cult of the God-Mother. Primordial Knowledge has long been largely lost, but symbols and signs remain!

Anastasia: Yes, Isis as the “Great Mother” was often depicted precisely with the AllatRa sign on the head, as we have already said, in the form of horns upwards, above which, like the convex side of the pearl, is.

Rigden: This sign indicates that this power belongs to the One, who created everything in the Universe. I have already said that once upon a time people designated the concept of “One Higher” (One Eternal) by the sound of Ra. Where later, with the birth of priesthood, appeared the god Ra, who, according to legend, arose from a lotus flower that rose from the oceans. The great goddess (who was called various epithets, later transformed into names) appeared initially as a conducting force of Ra (One Eternal). In addition to Isis, the bearers of such a sign in Ancient Egypt at different times were also the goddess Hathor (daughter of the sun Ra; her name meant “the house of Heaven”), the goddess ISat (her name meant “the creative hand of God”, “the greatest among those who come”) . It was believed, for example, that if a person tastes the spiritual gifts of the goddess Hathor, then this will give him additional spiritual strength, she will help to transfer this person from the earthly world to the (spiritual) one. Because of this, she was awarded the epithets of the Great Mother, the goddess of Love, spiritual joy, “Shining in the rays of Ra,” the Great Woman, the Creator of all living things. Among the additional associative designations symbolizing her, there were sycamore trees as the “Tree of Life”, as well as symbols of life - the colors green and blue, which, according to legend, she commanded. The latter is associated with encrypted knowledge and the moment of spiritual transformation. “

The center of the world for the ancient Slavs was the World Tree. It is the central axis of the entire universe, including the Earth, and connects the World of people with the World of Gods and the Underground World. The crown of the tree reaches the World of the Gods in heaven - Iry or Svargu, the roots of the tree go underground and connect the World of Gods and the World of people with the underworld or the World of the Dead, ruled by Chernobog, Marena and other "dark" Gods. Somewhere above, behind the clouds (heavenly abyss; above the seventh sky), the crown of a sprawling tree forms an island, here lies Irius (Slavic paradise), where not only Gods and human ancestors live, but also the ancestors of all birds and animals . Thus, the Tree of Peace was fundamental in the worldview of the Slavs, its main component. At the same time, it is also a staircase, a road through which you can get into any of the worlds. In Slavic folklore, the Tree of Peace is called differently. It can be oak, sycamore, willow, linden, viburnum, cherry, apple or pine.

In ritual songs and generally traditional folklore, such descriptions of the World Tree have come to us: a nightingale nests twists in its crown (as well as other sacred birds - Gamayun, Sirin, Alkonost, Utochka, Firebird, etc.), in the trunk live bees that they bring honey, an ermine lives at the roots, in the hole (nest) of a snake (Shkurupey), a dem is chained to the chain (the last, apparently, later bedding), the fruits of the Tree of Peace are the seeds of all existing herbs, flowers, trees. Traditional in folklore are hassles of the very snake that lives in the roots, and the bird that lives in the crown. At the same time, the serpent constantly threatens to burn the tree, and the bird each time defends itself or goes to cunning.

In the crown of the World Tree, the Sun and the Moon are often placed. In Belarusian folklore, beavers live at the roots of the tree, and a falcon lives in the crown, leaves are covered with beads, flowers are like silver, fruits are made of pure gold. Since this is the World Tree, the Slavic tradition in its folklore placed here all the most amazing creatures, from mythological birds to half-humans, half-horses, half-bulls, half-dogs, as well as all possible Deities and creatures. Here their place is near the center of the world.

The World Tree was so revered by the Slavs that it participated in many celebrations. The ritual tree was installed just before the construction of a new house in the very center of the planned construction, thus attracting power to this place and making it sacred, with a powerful energy base. The builder of a new dwelling makes his house a projection of the center of the universe, the same mystical modeling of the center occurs when a tree is brought into the house, placed in the middle of it, or in the red corner. Another rite may be a round dance on sunny holidays around a tree, with which birch or oak are often chosen. In ancient times, there were whole sacred groves, sacred forests, where it was strictly forbidden to cut down or spoil the trees. This directly applies to the figure of the World Tree itself, since, by analogy with it, sacred trees were the habitat of spirits, creatures. In such groves, holidays, ceremonies, rituals of curing diseases took place.

Scythian cross from the excavations of Olbia

As we know, the ancient cross is a symbol of man, also a symbol of the World Tree. And the tombstone was placed as a symbol of the Tree of Life, rebirth. As a pointer and assistant to the soul of the deceased. The world tree is inextricably linked with man

The connection of the cross with the tree of paradise is reflected in the Ethiopian work known as “Thirteen Cross Suffering”. “There is a forest country called Litoster. They cut down eight trees there and made a cross of seven cubits and one inch long, three cubits and one inch wide. The first four trees were fig trees, the fifth - olive, the sixth - wild olive, the seventh - wheat, the eighth - reed. " It is further narrated that the fig tree was brought by an eagle from paradise, and then thrown into Jordan, where it sailed against the tide, thereby revealing its wonderful properties.

A characteristic detail is noteworthy: the cross tree here is composed of many plants of different species. This can only be understood in the sense that it represents embodied fertility, and therefore, is regarded as a symbol of inexhaustible life energy, eternal renewal and rebirth. And fertility is one of the important mythological signs of the world tree. Another characteristic of it, as we recall, is that it connects various worlds. This is also reflected in Christian mythology. For example, in the apocryphal “The Acts of the Apostle Andrew” the glorification to the cross says: “You extend to heaven and broadcast about the Higher Word. You prostrate to the right and to the left and expel dark forces and collect the scattered. You are strengthened in the earth and you connect the earthly with the heavenly ... O cross, planted in the earth and bearing fruit in heaven

It should be added that the image of the cross in the form of a flowering, evergreen tree was very popular in the Middle Ages. The ancient and universal mythological image, which has already changed its appearance several times, has become one of the favorite symbols of the world religion - Christianity.

Godfather (medieval europe)

The image of the World Tree was imitated during funeral rites. In ancient times, people were buried in the branches of trees. Later this rite was modified and now, after cremation, the ashes of people were left on the so-called Bdyny - pillars with huts, which are also a prototype of the World Tree and help the deceased both ascend to the World of the Gods and descend this tree to the World of People to visit their descendants . It is known that the Christmas tree acted as a symbol of death, which connected with the "other world", the transition to it and the necessary element of the funeral ritual.

Since our ancestors burned their dead, i.e. sent them to the family, the spruce, as a tarry tree burning well at any time of the year, was used for cropping. The deceased Slavic prince or princess was densely lined with branches of spruce and cones, at the end of the funeral prayers of the sorcerers, and when the oats, rye were shed with cereals, and the “voting” of many-weeping mourners was set on fire, a mournful fire or kroda was set on fire. Burning flames rushed into the sky. It was believed that with the help of fire that rises to a great height (and bonfires for cremation were often very large), the soul fell directly into the realm of the dead. Also an important attribute at the funeral was the boat. This is due to the beliefs and mythology of the Slavs, which says that in another world, in Navi (World of the dead, where dead people go and where our ancestors live.)

This is due to the beliefs and mythology of the Slavs, which says that in another world, in Navi, the soul of the deceased must cross the Smorodina river to get directly to the place where it should be. In some traditions, we can find that the soul crosses the river along the Kalinov bridge, but nevertheless, the dead were burned in a boat. By the way, it’s worth saying that the modern coffin for burial is precisely a modified, simplified boat, the tradition of burying in which came to us from centuries of time. A priest or a sorcerer sets fire to the dead with a dead man at sunset. The fact that cremation occurs at sunset is also very symbolic. First, the sunset of the day, like the sunset of life. Secondly, according to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, the sun goes to the underworld of Nav at night and takes with it the soul of a dead person. Thirdly, it is believed that at sunset the soul can see the light of the setting sun and, in principle, understand where to keep its path. A fence with sheaves of hay was laid out around the perimeter of the fire, which was also set on fire. The burning fence was also a fence in the sacred sense, which distinguished between the world of the dead and the world of the living, and was an analogue of the legendary burning river in another world. It is also noted that, along with the human body, the bodies of domestic animals and wild animals were burned - a bird, a bear, a hare, etc. - sacrificing the animal principle of man.

During the burning, special ritual prayers and chants were read. Strava was held - a feast for the deceased, and Trizny - funeral rituals and military games. The fire rising to the very sky means that the human soul rose to Svarga and left only its remains on earth. After the fire burns out (or in the morning), people collect bones and ashes (although, for example, the northerners did not collect the remains, but poured a hill on top of which they mounted a tripod) into a clay pot (a pot for food or in a special urn) and put in a special "hut on a pillar", an impromptu small house on a high stick. Some descriptions of this action omit the mention of huts and say that a vessel with ash was simply placed on a pole by the road. Such huts with remains were put on the way from the village to sunset directly along the road. In some regions of Russia, the custom to put houses right on the graves remained right up to the 20th century.

The pillar can also carry us to the archaic past of our ancestors. Even before the corpses were burned, people were buried in trees. Such trees were a prototype of the "world tree", which not only connected the world of the living and the world of the dead, the Gods, but also performed many other functions, such as maintaining the heavenly vault, the functions of the main axis of the universe, etc. Later, instead of a tree, a pillar began to be used, which, apparently, continued the role of the World Tree. With the help of the World Tree (pillar), the soul of the deceased could rise up into the world of the dead and come down. It is also worth noting that one of the places, according to the assumptions of the ancient Slavs, where the souls went after death, was the Moon. In general, planets, stars, cosmic bodies were presented to the ancient Slavs by the Gods and souls of their ancestors. So the Milky Way was called only "The Path of the Dead, Going to Eternal Life"

Remember what beliefs the ancient Egyptians had - here is an excerpt from the book of Anastasia Novykh, Sensei 4:

Well, since there is such an interest in this issue, then please ... The ancient Egyptians called one of the elements, as you already know, Ba - the soul that forms the basis of the Spiritual principle. The Ba was often portrayed as a falcon, with the head of a man and a burning lamp placed in front of him, as a symbol of Ba's belonging to heaven. The people believed that the stars were a cluster of small icon lamps of the blessed Ba - the soul of the mother of the stars Nut. - Sensei paused and clearly repeated. - Mother of the stars! Remember this, in the future you will understand why this is necessary. In addition, the ancient Egyptians endowed their gods Ba. For example, the constellation Orion was called only the soul of the god Osiris. Sotis, or Sirius in our opinion, was the soul of the goddess Isis, the faithful wife of Osiris ... This is also noted for yourself.

Sensei was silent for a while, apparently giving us the opportunity to better understand what we heard, and then continued:

The second element that makes up a human being according to the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians is “Ah,” or as it is also called “Ab.” Ah means “spirit”, “blessed”, “enlightened”, that is, from the Egyptian lexical basis “ah” - “to shine, to radiate”. Ah was seen as the connecting link between man and the radiant life force. It was believed that after death, Ah leaves the body in order to join the stars. Even such an expression existed: "Ah - to heaven, body - to earth."

Ah was portrayed in the form of a bird with bright plumage - an ibis, which the Egyptians actually called "akhu," that is, "luminous." In addition, in Ancient Egypt, Thoth was worshiped - the god of knowledge (as well as the bearer of divine power and soul), who was depicted as a person with the head of an ibis or completely, like an ibis. It was believed that his wife Seshat wrote down the details of the life of each person on the leaves of the Tree of Heaven.

It is also worth saying that the ancient tribes built huts and temples in such a way that a living tree appeared inside, that is, they built a house around the tree - oak, ash, birch and others. Like the idols that represent the land of the Gods, the tree inside the house was the embodiment of the World Tree, which could also connect all three worlds and be the main place during some kind of house rituals. This tradition was alive right up to the beginning of the 20th century practically on the whole territory of Russia, and further, but in its simplified form. Before the construction of the house, a young tree was dug up and planted in the center or red corner of the future log house, with the sentence: “Here you are, grandmother, a warm house and shaggy cedar!”, It is understood that meant Susedushka-Domovoi. There it grew until the very end of construction. Then he was carried out and planted in another place. In antiquity, it grew with people and towered with its crown above the roof, as above the firmament of heaven.

The Slavs most clearly have developed views related to the world tree, illustrated by the "Word of Igor's Campaign" (XII century), in which pagan motives and traditions have not yet given way to the traditions of the Orthodox worldview. The song-maker Boyan in “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”, like the Scandinavian Odin, who has tasted the honey of poetry, makes a shamanic journey through the world tree:

“If you are afraid to do it, if you at least remember to do something, then thought will shatter through the tree, and will fly through the earth,

Shizym orlom up the clouds ... ”-

"... jumping, glory, according to the thought tree, flying mind beneath the clouds, twisting glories both floors of this time ...".
"... the diva cries out in the tree ...".

It is easy to notice that the World Tree was present in all ancient cultures - on all continents there was this knowledge - knowledge about the inextricable connection of the Soul of man with the One Creator - and the inextricable connection of Allat with the concepts of the World Tree! So a person acquiring the Holy Spirit, every second being in the creator - gains Immortality, rising to the top according to the World Tree's roots to its roots - to the bottomless well, at the bottom of which there will be a reward!

Prepared by Arbat