World Tree

"The World Tree is like an Axis Mundi, a World Pillar. It has the function of connecting all of creation with its branches reaching to the heavens and its roots taken hold in the underworld. Just imagine what kind of magic that can be created from the tree, with its sap and barks and leaves."

- Diana Black.

The World Tree is recurring motive in religions and mythologies across the world, which often connects all of creation.

Overview
The motif of the "world tree", "cosmic tree", or "Eagle and Serpent Tree", is represented as a colossal tree which supports the heavens, thereby connecting the heavens, the terrestrial world, and, through its roots, the underworlds. It may also be strongly connected to the motif of the tree of life, but it is the source of wisdom of the ages.

Description
Scholarship states that many Eurasian mythologies share a motif of a tree whose branches reach the skies and whose roots connect the human or earthly world with an underworld or subterranean realm. A bird perches atop its foliage, and a snake or serpentine creature crawls between its roots. A more elaborate description is thus: on the treetops are located the luminaries and heavenly bodies, along with an eagle's nest; several species of birds perch among its branches; humans and animals of every kind live under its branches, and near the root is the dwelling place of snakes and every sort of reptiles.

The imagery of the World Tree is sometimes associated with conferring immortality, either by a fruit that grows on it or by a spring source located nearby.

Notable World Trees

 * Tree of Life / Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - Judeo-Christian
 * Yggdrasil - Norse
 * Kalpavriksha - Hindu
 * Gaokerena - Persian-Zoroastrian
 * Wacah Chan - Mayan
 * Aušros medis - Lithuanian
 * Austras koks - Latvian
 * Iso Tammi - Finnish
 * Égig érő fa - Hungarian

Image Sources

 * (Ancient tree by nele diel dazd73s-fullview.jpg) Ancient Tree by Nele-Diel