Spirit World & World Tree
Journeying to the Spirit World
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The Spirit World and the World Tree
The spirit world is considered to be an alternate reality, different from our day-to-day world. Yet it also encompasses this world and interacts with it.
The spirit world is generally considered to have three main parts, or layers: the upper world, the middle world, and the lower world. In some cultures, shamans recognize only one or two parts of the spirit world. Others divide them into smaller parts.
Running through the mythologies of many cultures worldwide is the image of the world tree, which growns up from the lower world and extends through all three worlds.
World Tree
The world tree, which grows through all the worlds, appears to different cultures as different species of tree. For example, the Norse had the myth of Iggdrasil, which was an ash tree.
In some cultures the shaman goes on his journey while physically climbing a pole that represents the world tree. In others the tree is more abstract or symbolic but still represented in the physical world. In some cultures the tree is visualized and climbed only in the inner world of spirit.
The image of the world tree is so important to human beings that it lingers in some form in many agricultural (modern world) religions to this day. For example, mystical Judaism has the kabbala, which seems to represent the world tree as energy.
In shamanic journeying, you can find the tree on the plain of the four directions. You can climb upward or downward (into the roots and below) to reach the Upper World or the Lower World.
Upper World
The upper world is inhabited by high teachers. Certain birds, such as eagles, are said to be able to fly up to heaven to take messages to the spirits there.
In Siberia the upper world is divided into seven layers, or seven heavens. Because of the writings of Mircea Eliade, who focused on the upper world, some people have gotten the impression that it is more important than the other worlds and that it corresponds to the Christian Heaven, but that's not true.
Middle World
The middle world corresponds to the everyday world with certain differences. While it may look like our world, it is not the same.
Shamans may journey to the middle world to see what is happening in a far off place in ordinary reality. They often search in the middle world to find lost people or objects.
Lower World
The lower world is the realm of the animal spirits and human ancestors.
Shamans in some cultures mainly deal with the lower world, and modern people often have the idea that the lower world is the spirit world. It is really just a part of the spirit world.
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