The World Tree

The World Tree

In world mythology, The World Tree is the axis mundi, world axis, or central axis of the cosmos. Images of the World Tree exist in nearly all cultures and represent the world center and/or the connection between heaven and earth. The axis mundi links heaven and earth as well as providing a path between the two. Many ancient cultures incorporate the myth of the World Tree, Tree of Life, or Tree of Knowledge, as it is also known. The Mongols call this axis the turge tree. The mythic Eagle, who was the first shaman (buu), perches at the top of the turge tree, which touches the sky by the Pole Star (Altan Hadaas). A tree of seven branches with a bird or eagle at the top and a serpent at the roots is symbolism often found on prehistoric monuments.

This central axis exists within each of us. Through the sound of the drum, which is invariably made of wood from the World Tree, the shaman is transported to the axis within and conveyed from plane to plane. As Tuvan musicologist Valentina Suzukei explains: "There is a bridge on these sound waves so you can go from one world to another. In the sound world, a tunnel opens through which we can pass, or the shaman's spirits come to us. When you stop playing the drum, the bridge disappears." The inner axis passes through an opening or hole through which the shaman can ascend to the Celestial Realm of unmanifest potential and descend on healing journeys into the temporal realm of manifest form. Read more.

How Enlightenment Changes the Brain

Enlightenment is a traditionally mystical and slippery concept, but when it is subjected to the rigors of empirical analysis, there is a lot to be learned about our brains and ourselves. Dr. Andrew Newberg, who has put enlightenment through a battery of scientific tests, says there are actually two kinds of enlightenment: lowercase-e enlightenment, which changes our opinions about the world, and Enlightenment, which changes our essence, i.e. how we think of life, death, God, etc. Read more.

Meditation Rebuilds the Brain

Test subjects taking part in an 8-week program of mindfulness meditation showed results that astonished even the most experienced neuroscientists at Harvard University.  The study was led by a Harvard-affiliated team of researchers based at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the team's MRI scans documented for the very first time in medical history how meditation produced massive changes inside the brain's gray matter. "Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day," says study senior author Sara Lazar of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and a Harvard Medical School instructor in psychology. "This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing." Read more.

The 10 Best Pilgrimages for Modern Travelers

Pilgrims approaching Elizabeth Castle

Thousands trek to Nevada's Burning Man festival to burn a towering effigy and the hopeful ill journey to Lourdes seeking a cure as they have for centuries. Although pilgrimage may seem an antiquated religious ritual, it remains a vibrant activity in the modern world as pilgrims combine traditional motives--such as seeking a remedy for physical or spiritual problems--with contemporary searches for identity or interpersonal connection. That pilgrimage continues to exercise such a strong attraction is testimony to the power it continues to hold for those who undertake these sacred journeys. Read more.

"Tending the Soul with Healing Ritual"

Tending the Soul with Healing Ritual by Gay Wolff, Ph.D. is a guidebook for those wishing to develop their intuitive senses and learn to tap into the healing power of personal ritual. Part 1 talks about why we need ritual and what it involves. Part 2 provides a menu of personal rituals with detailed instructions. According to the author, "Ritual takes us beyond the psychological. It is a process of thinning the veils between the dimensions of the material world and those luminous realms lying within and beyond oneself. In Ritual, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, certainty becomes mystery, and potentialities become real possibilities!" I highly recommended this insightful book to anyone seeking to awaken and engage the blueprint of the soul. The Rituals will guide your soul work to help you engage at an energetic level, where you can access the power to change and heal. The passionate expression of our soul's purpose is precisely the medicine the earth needs at this time.