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Home Preface 5 Planes of Existence Introduction Five Planes of Manifestation A to Z Contact Related Information BIBLE VERSES |
YGGDRASIL, GREAT ASH TREEA symbol of the Divine Life extending through all planes of manifestation. "In the centre of Midgard stands the great ash Yggdrasil. All life is cherished by it, even that of serpents which devour its roots and seek to destroy it. It has three grand roots. One strikes down to Niflheim, and into the fountain Hvergelmer, where Nidhogg, with all its reptile brood, gnaw at its roots. A second root penetrates to the regions of the Rimthursar. The third root runs into the region of the Asar or Gods. Beneath it is the Urdar, or primeval fountain. . . . On the topmost bough of Yggdrasil sits an eagle, and between the eagle's eyes a hawk. A squirrel runs up and down the stem, and four stags leap about beneath it, and feed on its buds" (Prose Edda). - HOWITT, Literature of North. Europe, Vol. I. p. 45. The Ray from the Supreme, or the Tree of Life, centres, as it were, on the mental plane (Midgard). From it proceeds the life of all things, even of the desires which antagonize it. It has three great currents of energy. One current passes downwards to the lower nature (Niflheim), and to the fount of illusion-the astral plane of the desires (serpents). A second current flows to the plane of the primal mental qualities (Rim-thursar). The third current outpours on the atma-buddhic planes, whereon is the fountain of Truth. The height of attainment for the soul is atma-buddhi (hawk-eagle). The consciousness passes, as it were, up and down the Divine Ray; and the four soul-bodies are active on their respective planes, and subsist on the life forces which evolve as experiences. "The three Norns have a certain analogy to the three mythic Persian destinies seated by the fountain of perennial life; and the tree (Yggdrasil) itself is evidently a symbol of that inscrutable Power which is the life of all things. - H. E. BARLOW, Essays on Symbolism, p. 87. "Ling supposes Yggdrasil to be the symbol both of universal and human life, and its three roots to signify the physical, the intellectual, and the moral principles. Other writers cited by Finn Magnusen take these roots to have been meant for matter, organisation, and spirit, and the Ash itself for the symbol of universal, primordial vitality." - MALLET, North. Antiq., p. 493. |
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ASAR
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