The Tree
I ween that I hung on the windy tree,
Hung there for nights full nine;
With the spear I was wounded, and offered I was
To Odin, myself to myself,
On that tree that none may ever know
What root beneath it runs.
Poetic Edda, “Hovamol” (translated by Henry Adams Bellows, via Joseph Campbell: Primitive Mythology
Odin (aka Wotan), the Zeus-like Ruler of the Gods in Norse mythology, in order to retrieve sacred wisdom from the Underworld, sacrifices himself on the World Tree, Yggdrasil,
whose shaft was the pivot of the revolving heavens, with the World Eagle perched on its summit, four stags running among its branches, browsing on its leaves, and the Cosmic Serpent gnawing at its root… It is the greatest of all trees and the best, the ash where the gods give judgment every day. Its limbs spread over the world and stand above heaven. Its roots penetrate the abyss. And its name, Yggdrasil, means “The horse of Ygg”, whose other name is Odin.
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:40 pm
As you mentioned, the purpose of the Odinic sacrifice on the world-tree was to retrieve sacred wisdom from the underworld, that is, a mystery initiation. Your rather tongue-in-cheek use of an image of Christ’s crucifixion to illustrate this post points to that mysterious, seldom-referenced element of the Christian myth cycle that indicates a similar shamanic role for Christ. From the Apostle’s creed:
Though the belief in the resurrection is central to the contemporary practice of Christianity, information on the descent into Hell is somewhat more elusive. The canonical gospels are conspicuously tight-lipped on the matter, and most medieval musings on the relationship between Christ and Hell draw inspiration from the Revelation of St. John, not the mysterious time between the death and resurrection. Meanwhile, the notion of Christ’s descent into Hell has posed problems for theologians of all stripes, from Aquinas to Calvin. These problems arise, with few exceptions, from a fundamental inability on the part of theologians to reconcile the outer structure of the Christian myth with the inner substance of eternal religious truth they have long since abandoned. The result has been that almost all of this deeper, subtle meaning has been lost or suppressed to contemporary practitioners of the faith. Nevertheless, Christianity is clearly a door to the mysteries…a door that’s been closed, deadbolted, and painted over for nearly two millenia but a door, no less.