The world tree among the Slavic peoples symbolized the center of the planet, was the central axis of the entire universe. It is noteworthy that the top of the tree reached the very heavens, where the world of the gods was traditionally located. The world of the dead was hidden underground, where the root of a powerful plant entered. According to the legends, this tree grows from the Altar-stone, located on the Buyan island. In culture, the image was used in funeral ceremonies, because it was in the crowns of trees that the dead were buried. Through such a tree, the soul went to the gods and could go down it back to people to visit their relatives. The veneration of the tree cult was firmly entrenched in cultural traditions and was actively used until the 20th century. For example, when building a new house in the center, it was necessary to bury a young shoot, relying on the kindness of a brownie. When the house was readysuch a tree was planted not far from the new building. Few people think, but the New Year tree is also a tribute to the cultural past. On the coming of the new year, we honor the world tree and decorate it in every way. The Tree of Peace is also found among other peoples. Its description is different, but the sacred meaning is the same for everyone.
After the universal catastrophe, the Earth slowly began to revive. Eternal Winter and Night with the Waters of Death gave way to Early Spring. The glaciers, leaving behind huge boulders, retreated to the north, and the planet washed by the spring waters changed, became prettier, became kinder to its inhabitants. At first, people carefully looked out of the caves, then left them, looking around in surprise. Huge spaces amazed the imagination with an abundance of beauty and miracles, food, light and warmth! This joyful discovery of the renewed world according to our human chronology happened in about 12 thousand BC.
However, people were not the first and not the main inhabitants of this world: its spaces had already been mastered by other, more advanced creatures. Ancient people observed, remembered what they saw, composed songs about it, passed them on from generation to generation, and later recorded them. Through myths, we can find out what the world looked like thousands of years ago.
In the culture of all earthly peoples, the memory of the World Axis has been preserved, which connected three different universe: heaven with their inhabitants, our middle world and the underworld of monsters. It makes no sense to distrust the tales of Legendary times. In the ancient Indian books, the Vedas, the World Tree of Ashvattha is described and it is said: "At the top of this tree, they say, there is a sweet fruit, to which only those who do not want to know their progenitors do not strive." The ancient Chinese were convinced that the World Tree was the Pantao peach tree, whose fruits would grant immortality to the one who tasted them. However, not only immortality: the peaches of longevity change the very nature of man, turn him into a deity. In the Chinese book Journey to the West, a whole garden of huge peach trees is described, on which the fruits ripen very slowly: on some - once every three thousand years, on others - twice as long.and on the third - once every nine thousand years. The lucky one who has tasted the fruit from the first tree is guaranteed immortality and knowledge of the truth. Tear off the second tree - will gain eternal youth and the ability to fly among the clouds. The peach of the third tree endows you with the highest power: you become equal to Heaven and Earth, Sun and Moon.
The Chinese god of longevity is depicted as a smiling old man with a peach tree branch in his hands. Apparently, he managed to taste the fruit only from the first tree: having gained eternal life, he did not become young.
The ancient Scandinavians considered the Yggdrasil ash as the center of the world: “That ash is bigger and more beautiful than all trees. Its branches are stretched out over the world and rise above the sky. Three roots support the tree, and these roots spread far. The Elder Edda describes a wise eagle perched atop Yggdrasil. The eagle is so large that the hawk Vedfrelnir has built a nest between its eyes. Below, at the roots of an ash tree, there is a house in which wise sisters live - norns, who determine the fate of people and the length of their life. Another root hides a source of knowledge and wisdom, which is guarded by the giant Mimir. The dragon Nidhogg gnaws at the roots of the tree. In a word, the World Tree is a whole world inhabited by strange, inhuman creatures.
The Slavic Tree of the Universe was located on the Buyan island, where all the creative forces of nature, everything wonderful and amazing that exists in the world, were concentrated. Here is the navel of the Earth, and therefore an evergreen oak grows in the middle of the island, which roots go to the center of the planet, and reaches heaven with its branches. This is described in the "Pigeon Book":
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- What holds the earth?
- The water is high.
- And what keeps the water high?
- The stone is flat.
- And what holds the stone?
- The river is fiery.
- And what keeps that fire?
- The iron oak that appeared
above all trees. He holds the whole
the ground.
The prophetic birds Sirin and Alkonost sing in the branches of the tree. At the trunk of the tree lies the magical Alatyr-stone, under which all earthly power is hidden. Garafen's snake turned around the stone. Whoever she bites, he will begin to understand the language of animals and birds.
The World Tree organized the space of the world not only vertically, but also horizontally, indicating the direction of light, which symbolized the four sacred animals, four deities or four colors. Among the Maya Indians, the Chaka gods guarded four cardinal points, each with its own color symbols: east - red, north - white, west - black, south - yellow. In Hindu mythology, the guardians of the world: Indra - in the east, Kubera - in the north, Varuna - in the west and Yama - in the south.
The World Axis in the form of a tree also served as a kind of chronometer, a model of time and the universe. Many peoples have riddles about a tree with twelve branches - months of the year, with four branches - weeks, with seven leaves on each.
The Bible describes the Garden of Eden with the Tree of Knowledge. The god Yahweh-Elohim raised trees on earth, whose fruits were beautiful to look at and pleasant to eat. In the middle of the Garden of Eden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil grew. In this garden, God placed the first man - Adam, to take care of the plants and protect them, but warned: “You can eat from every tree in the garden. But do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for the day on which you eat of it will be your last. Alas, Adam violated the ban and this day was the last for his stay in Eden, from where he was expelled. And yet Yahweh took pity on people: he sent the third son of Adam, Seth, a branch from the tree of knowledge.
The Scandinavian god Odin also gained wisdom from the tree of knowledge: he sacrificed himself and, pierced by his own spear, hung on the trunk of the world tree of Yggdrasil for nine days and nights. After this test, Odin invented the divination runes. Having drunk the juice of the sacred tree - the honey of poetry, he acquired a poetic gift. From now on, he could soar to the celestials or descend into the gloomy underworld. This was a common shamanic practice, which was also used by the Slavic saints, bayan singers.
The "Lay of Igor's Campaign" says: "The prophetic boyan, if anyone wanted to sing a song, he ran like a cape squirrel over a tree, a gray wolf on the ground, a gray eagle under the clouds."
Time passed, and the World Tree began to change. Outlandish birds disappeared from its branches, dragons flew away. They were replaced by new gods. One of them was the ancient Roman Jupiter, which, unlike the Greek Zeus, was at first the spirit of the sacred oak and trees in general. This is evidenced by his epithets: "fruitful", "beech", "reed", "fig".
In the sacred groves of the ancient Greeks, beautiful female tree spirits appeared: dryads, meli hells and hamadryads. While the first of them are fairly well-known, the rest are hardly remembered. Meanwhile, ash nymphs appeared earlier than others. They were considered the progenitors of people. The World Tree first moved from the center of the universe to the outskirts - to the curvature, and then left the middle, our world, breaking the connection with the heavens and the underworld. It was replaced by sacred groves.