Cosmic Connection

In many indigenous spiritualities, including the indigenous or pagan spirituality of Europe, any tree can be representative of the tree, that is, the World Tree or Cosmic Tree. In numerous religious traditions the World Tree is represented as a colossal tree which supports the heavens, thereby connecting the heavens, the terrestrial world, and, through its roots, the underworld. The Tree of Life, which symbolically represents and connects all forms of creation and is mentioned in the Judeo-Christian Book of Genesis, is an expression of the World Tree.

– Michael J. Bayly
Excerprted from “The Prayer Tree”
The Wild Reed
September 18, 2017

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Divine Connection
• The Mysticism of Trees
• Holy Encounters Where Two Worlds Meet
• The Landscape Is a Mirror
• November Musings
• “This Autumn Land Is Dreaming”
• Autumn: Season of Transformation and Surrender
• Autumnal (and Rather Pagan) Thoughts on the Making of “All Things New”
• Autumn . . . Within and Beyond (2018)
• Autumn . . . Within and Beyond (2016)
• Thomas Moore on the Circling of Nature as the Best Way to Find Our Substance
• In This In-Between Time
• A Church of Both Roots and Branches
• Making the Connections
• “It Is All Connected”
• Balancing the Fire

Image: Michael J. Bayly.