Yggdrasil. Published in 1895, 'Den ældre Eddas Gudesange', by Karl Gjellerup. Wikimedia. Public Domain. The World Tree is a mythological symbol found in numerous cultures throughout human history. Its origins, like those of many other concepts of its kind such as a world egg or cosmic ocean, are obscured by the mists of time. The World Tree (and sacred trees in general) is a particularly widespread feature of Indo-European religions. The World Tree, and World Pillar, function as the cosmic axis of the world, or axis mundi. The Tree also functions in many religions as an imago mundi, an image or representation of the world or cosmos.
Writing about the sacrality of vegetation in human religious thought, Peter Chemery reminds us that “the earliest sacred places were small-scale reproductions of the world in toto achieved by forming a landscape of stones, water and trees” and that “over the course of time the elements of such a landscape were reduced to the single most important element: the tree or sacred pillar.” He notes the use of trees, water and stones (including stone altars and pillars) at Australian Aboriginal sacred places as well as sites in India and East Asia.
Writing about the sacrality of vegetation in human religious thought, Peter Chemery reminds us that “the earliest sacred places were small-scale reproductions of the world in toto achieved by forming a landscape of stones, water and trees” and that “over the course of time the elements of such a landscape were reduced to the single most important element: the tree or sacred pillar.” He notes the use of trees, water and stones (including stone altars and pillars) at Australian Aboriginal sacred places as well as sites in India and East Asia.
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