World Tree

I recently went though the list of specific mythos I’ve blogged about here: Breton, Irish, Slavic, Basque, Egyptian, Norse and Central American mythologies, as well as the occasional touch on Classical mythology. One thing that stood out is that several of these cultures share a “world tree.”

The Norse have Yggdrasil, where Odin hung for nine days to receive knowledge.
The MesoAmericans have the ceiba tree.
The oak tree of the Slavic gods.
The ashvastha, or sacred fig, of Hinduism.
An ancient religion of the Mongols and Turkic people believed in a world tree, culturally linking Siberia and Koreans. The Crown of Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, portrays a world tree.
Judeo-Christian beliefs begin in the Garden of Eden, and Eve’s incident with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Even Charles Darwin utilized the metaphor of a “Tree of Life” to illustrate his theory of evolution, where different species share a common ancestor.

The tree is a universal symbol of the different planes of existence. The branches in the realm of gods, the roots in the grasp of death, the solid trunk of mortality.

The Tree of Life is the constant in a constantly changing world, representing immortal wisdom, giving protection, rest and nourishment to its people. Only the brave and true may climb it and take its fruit and gather its strength. To become part of the tree, as Odin did in his sacrifice, is to become part of the godhead, part of eternity. To become part of the tree, or partake of its fruit, however, also requires sacrifice. Odin lost an eye for the privilege, Adam and Eve lost Paradise because they knew too much of sin.

It’s the permanent nature of the tree that draws us, as well as its ultimate mortality. The roots that draw food from the earth, the solidity of the trunk that provides a strong base, the branches reaching toward the sun, toward the light. The metaphor crosses all boundaries: no mountain or ocean can contain it, no language can distill it.

So next time you look out your office window, see what place the tree has in your story.

Image: World Tree by Doug Stapleton
Resources: “World Trees” by Hazel Minot
Wikipedia: World Tree See also, Tree of Life

Mystical Places: The Oracle at Delphi

The Oracle is both a place and a person. The Oracle was a woman who predicted the future at the site of Delphi. As one site puts it: "During the 8th c. B.C. Delphi became internationally known for the Oracular powers of Pythia--the priestess who sat on a tripod, inhaled ethylene gasses, and muttered incomprehensible words that foretold the future."

The ancient Greeks believed Delphi to be so important that it was the center of the world. As the NY Times put it: "For at least 12 centuries, the oracle at Delphi spoke on behalf of the gods, advising rulers, citizens and philosophers on everything from their sex lives to affairs of state. The oracle was always a woman, her divine utterances made in response to a petitioner's request. In a trance, at times in a frenzy, she would answer questions, give orders and make prophecies."

In the late 1990's a theory was put forth that the women would inhale naturally occuring ethylene gas from fissures in the rocks at the site of the temple, and thereby induce a trance state. Some scholars argue against the theory, first because there's no way to know exactly if or how much ethylene gas was present at the site 2,000 years ago and second, because the theory plays into modern ideas about the need for intoxication or some kind of substance use to induce the trancelike state. Maybe the priestesses were truly gifted. Maybe the site was indeed magical. Maybe they didn't need any kind of chemical assistance in order to fortell the future. Or maybe not. Truthfully, scholars dismissed the whole idea of them breathing vapors as nonsense until the ethylene gas theory was first put forth in the 1990's, so who's to say?

Regardless, there are many accounts in the literature of ages past recounting accurate and often gruesome fortellings by the Oracle at Delphi. We assume it was a series of priestesses who took on the role, but again, who's to say? Could there have been one being called Pythia, fortelling the future at Delphi for twelve centuries? The very idea boggles the mind and fires the imagination!

I find it interesting that the name Pythia is a reference to the legend of Apollo killing a dragon named Pytho. Of course, I always find dragons interesting. ;-)

Until next time,
Bianca
http://www.biancadarc.com/
New Blog: http://biancadarc.com/blog/

Mystical Places: Giant's Causeway

Yet another mysterious, magical, mystical place in the U.K. - the amazing volcanic rock formation known as the Giant's Causeway. How cool is this place?

Wikipedia offers the following:

"The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns resulting from a volcanic eruption. It is located on the North East coast about 3 kilometres (2 miles) north of the town of Bushmills in County Antrim, Northern Ireland."

"Legend has it that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. One version of the legend tells that Finn McCool fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over Fionn and pretended he was actually Fionn's baby son (in a variation, Fionn fled after seeing Benandonner's great bulk, and asked his wife to disguise him as the baby.) In both versions, when Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant', he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Fionn.

Another variation is that Oonagh painted a rock shaped like a steak and gave it to Benandonner, whilst giving the baby (Fionn) a normal steak. When Benandonner saw that the baby was able to eat it so easily, he ran away, tearing up the causeway.

The "causeway" legend corresponds with geological history in as much as there are similar basalt formations (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at the site of Fingal's Cave on the isle of Staffa in Scotland."

Looking at these weird rock formations, it's easy to believe some strange and magical being had to have a hand in creating them. Yet, we know today, they are instead, the magic of nature.

Until our next adventure,
Bianca D'Arc
Come over to the D'Arc side... http://www.biancadarc.com/

Mystical Places: Standing Stones

Standing stones are one of the great mysteries of the stone age. Wikipedia boils it down to this:

"Standing stones, orthostats, liths or more commonly, megaliths because of their large and cumbersome size, are solitary stones set vertically in the ground and come in many different varieties. Where they appear in groups together, often in a circular formation, they are sometimes called megalithic monuments. Standing stones are found throughout the world with no known or documented history."

I'm very interested in these structures because standing stones feature prominently in my book, Lords of the Were, and in subsequent stories I'm writing in that same setting. You might also notice the best known of these monuments - Stonehenge - is the current banner for this blog.

There's something mysterious and awe inspiring about these stone rings, and puzzling as well. Why are they there? What was their purpose? Are they really as magical as they seem?

In my books, stone circles are the sites of ancient rites and seats of power for those working on the side of light. You might notice the stones in the distance on my cover for Lords of the Were. The artist, Anne Caine did a wonderful job incorporating all the images I wanted on the cover of this novel. Kudos to her! In this book, the circle of stones is used as a ritual place where the werecreatures gather to celebrate the sabbat of Samhain at the beginning of the story, and later, to work powerful magic against those who would do evil.

A great deal of mysticism and myth has built up around megaliths over the centuries. In fact, many gather at Stonehenge and other sites like it on various pagan holidays to celebrate. One clarification - henges are considered to be slightly different. Again, Wikipedia gives us the definition:

"A henge is a prehistoric architectural structure and is nearly circular or oval-shaped flat area over 20 metres (65 feet) in diameter that is enclosed and delimited by a boundary earthwork that usually comprises a ditch with an external bank. The earthwork permits access to the interior by one, two, or four entrances. Internal components may include portal settings, timber circles, post rings, stone circles, four-stone settings, monoliths, standing posts, pits, coves, post alignments, stone alignments, burials, central mounds, and stakeholes (English Heritage definition).

Because of the defensive impracticalities of an enclosure with an external bank and an internal ditch (rather than vice versa), henges are considered to have served a ritual, rather than a defensive, purpose.

[...]

The word henge is a backformation from Stonehenge, the famous monument in Wiltshire. Stonehenge is not a true henge at all as its ditch runs outside its bank, although there is a small extant external bank as well. This is a modern distinction however, we do not know if ditch placement would have been a significant feature or not to the people who built the monuments."

So the "henge" formation indicates a ritual purpose to scholars who are trying to reverse engineer the function of these amazing structures in the modern world. Regardless of what they are, they seem magical to us today. The idea that Stone Age people could not only create such intricate places, but that they would last so many thousands of years is mind boggling. Yes, I believe, there simply must be some kind of magic involved. Don't you? ;-)

Bianca
http://www.biancadarc.com/