The World Tree, the tree of life - in Slavic mythology the axis of the world, the center of the world and the embodiment of the universe as a whole. The crown of the WORLD TREE reaches the heavens, the roots reach the underworld (cf. in the article Slavic mythology). The image of the WORLD TREE is typical for Russian riddles and conspiracies. Wed. a riddle about the road: “When the light was born, then the oak fell, and now lies”; this image unites different - vertical (tree from earth to heaven) and horizontal (road) - coordinates of the world. The WORLD TREE embodies not only spatial, but also temporal coordinates; Wed riddle: “There is an oak tree, there are 12 branches on the oak tree, on each branch there are 4 nests,” etc. - about a year, 12 months, 4 weeks, etc. In conspiracies, the WORLD TREE is placed in the center of the world, on an island in the ocean (“the umbilical cord of the sea”), where on the Alatyr stone there is a “damask oak” or a sacred tree of cypress, birch, apple tree, sycamore, etc. On the WORLD TREE, gods and saints live in conspiracies - the Mother of God, Paraskeva, etc., at the roots trees - demonic and chthonic creatures, a demon is chained, lives in the nest (“rune”) of a snake (Skin), etc.

In wedding folklore and “lounge” songs (performed for the newlyweds) the image of the WORLD TREE embodied the fertility of living nature, the tree of life: a nightingale builds a nest in the crown, honey-bearing bees in the trunk, and an ermine at the roots raising small children. , or the young ones themselves, the marital bed; near the “three-year-old” tree there is a tower, where a feast takes place and “honey dishes” are prepared (honey is the food of immortality in many traditions). In Belarusian folklore, the image of the WORLD TREE is directly connected with the wedding ceremony: the groom should not place his horses at the “unlucky tree” of viburnum, but should place them at the lucky sycamore tree, where bees bring honey flowing down to the roots so that the horses can drink, beavers live at the roots, krone - falcon, etc.

In traditional culture, the success of any ritual depended on how well the ritual being performed corresponded to the general picture of the world: hence the importance of the image of the WORLD TREE, which embodies this picture, both in folklore (be it a conspiracy or a wedding song) and in the ritual itself. Wed. the use of ritual trees, symbols of the world axis, during a wedding (see also in Art. Tree), construction of a house (when a ritual tree was placed in the center of the planned building), etc. up to the later customs of installing a Christmas (New Year) tree, etc. The Serbs considered the sacred “record” tree, with a cross carved on it, to be a symbol of the well-being of the entire village; in the old days, sacrifices were made at this tree (see Sacrifice). blood was sprinkled on the roots, trunk and carved cross.

In addition to the ritual tree, numerous ritual objects are associated with the symbolism of the WORLD TREE - a Christmas log - badnyak among the southern Slavs, ritual bread, loaf, etc. Every ritual, thus, was performed as if in the center of the universe, at the WORLD TREE, and repeated the act of creation peace, renewal of space (on New Year and other calendar holidays), renewal of social life (wedding and other family rituals), etc. In folklore, the image of the WORLD TREE can be replaced by the image of a pillar, a “beam” (cf. the riddle about the road - “there is a beam in all of Rus'”), a mountain (cf. the Russian proverb “The world is a golden mountain”), etc.

In the medieval apocrypha, which influenced the formation of the Slavic folk picture of the world, in particular, the myth of the creation of the world is conveyed, where the earth rests on water, water on stone, stone on four whales, whales on a river of fire, that on universal fire, and the fire is on “an iron oak planted first of all others, and all its roots rest on God’s power” (“Razumnik”, apocryphal text of the 10th - 11th centuries). In the “Legend of the Tree of the Cross” by Presbyter Jeremiah (Bulgaria, 10th century), Moses plants a tree at the source, “woven” from three trees (spruce, cedar and cypress), a prototype of the Trinity; From this tree, according to many prophecies, a cross should be made for the crucifixion of Christ. Solomon ordered the tree to be cut down to place it in the Temple, but it did not fit in the Temple and was placed outside. When the time came for the crucifixion, the tree was sawn into three parts, from the bottom - the root - they made a cross for Christ, installing it on Golgotha, where Adam's head was buried: the blood of the Savior, poured out on the head, saved the soul of the first man. Cypress is the tree of the cross in Russian folklore, “the father of all trees,” growing on the holy Zion Mountains; According to spiritual verses, the Dove Book, which tells about the foundations of the universe, falls to this tree. In the ancient Russian apocrypha about Solomon, an ideal state is depicted in the form of a tree with golden branches, a month at the top, and a cornfield at the roots, where the month is the king and the cornfield is the Orthodox peasantry.

Lit.:

Toporov V.N. On the structure of some archaic texts correlated with the concept of the world tree // Proceedings on sign systems. Issue\5. Tartu, 1971;
Ivanov V.V., Toporov V.N. Research in the field of Slavic antiquities. M., 1974 Gold-streaming spring. Monuments of Bulgarian literature of the 9th-18th centuries. M., 1990.

The ancient Hyperboreans knew very well about the Central Portal of the planet, which they called the “Axis of the World”, because he was near the North Pole. With the help of this portal, the Hyperboreans could travel in the multidimensional realities of the Earth, as well as move to other planets and star systems.

It is characteristic that ancient Mongolian myths describe the world mountain Sumeru, which, according to legend, is surrounded by 8 small and 4 large worlds, of which only the southern one, Jambudvipa, is inhabited by people. This mountain was located next to the North Pole and in relation to it, our entire world is actually located further south. It is obvious that Mount Sumeru and the “Axis Mundi” of the Hyperboreans are one and the same - a portal connecting different worlds (dimensions) of our Universe.

The shamanic analogue of the “Axis Mundi” is the “Tree of Life”, which is figuratively associated with the highest organizational principle of the cosmos. The roots of this "tree" are in the Underworld or the realm of the dead, the trunk is located in the Middle World, or the lands of ordinary reality, and the branches extend in the Upper World, which is also the lands of inspiration and providence. By following the trunk of the “tree,” shamans travel to these realities.

The three spheres of existence, connected by the “World Tree” or “World Mountain,” also have sublevels (parallel realities), which, according to various shamanic myths, can be seven, nine or even more.

As A. Korneev notes, the concept of seven “heavens” (levels) is especially widespread in South-Eastern Siberia. Similar myths exist among the Khanty, Mansi and Dzhakun. No less popular are the ideas of nine, sixteen and even thirty-two “heavens”. Thus, nine worlds connected by the “World Tree” are the basis of Scandinavian mythology. Teleut myths speak about sixteen worlds.

The World Tree is one of the most ancient mythological images, reflecting ancient man’s ideas about the structure of the world. This image essentially symbolizes the “Axis Mundi”, connecting heaven, earth and the underworld. Only shamans and magicians have retained the ability to move between these worlds since those distant times when all people possessed these abilities.

According to the famous anthropologist M. Eliade, the technique of shamanic travel is to move from one cosmic sphere to another, since shamans know the secret of the transition of the energy barrier between worlds.
In the Underworld, they restore lost knowledge, gain knowledge about healing, search for "lost souls" or communicate with the dead. Energy body travel in the Middle World serves to answer everyday questions. The upper world is the sphere of creativity, flight and boundless freedom.

Some researchers also compare the structure of time to a large branched tree or to a winding road, on which intersections and forks occur every now and then. Many roads and paths go from these branches and forks in different directions, since the future has many options. Scientists call these forks bifurcation points and they are characterized by the fact that the most insignificant event at this point can become decisive for the choice of our future.

Within this model of time, the fate of each person resembles a branched tree, thanks to which, according to the ancient sages, each person has a choice of at least six options for his fate, from the worst to the best. However, the more global the future event, the less influence an individual human will can have on it.

This explains the well-known fact that, for example, the events of the future of humanity or an individual country can be predicted (projected) with much greater accuracy than the fate of an individual person, since with an increase in the hierarchical level of biological systems, their behavior becomes more deterministic.

In other words, it is much easier to change the fate of an individual than, for example, the fate of a people. It is no coincidence that S. Light notes: “As for phenomena on a global scale, cases when any important event destined by the Universe in relation to a particular country does not materialize are extremely rare. But the individual has a certain amount of freedom. An individual, compared to a group of people, has a greater opportunity to avoid unfavorable circumstances.”

Of great importance for this possibility is the development of the “third eye” - the organ of clairvoyance. It is no coincidence that in Ancient Egypt it was called the “eye of fate”, and in Tibet - the “eye of rebirth”. Ancient mystics point to the connection of the Sun with the destinies of people. It is believed that the fate of each person is recorded in the information fields of the Sun, and by adjusting the “third eye” accordingly, you can penetrate these archives, read the necessary information and even change your fate. However, this is only possible if there is internal purity.

S. Light emphasizes on this matter: “The one who has a pure eye of fate begins to truly see, feel, understand, he allows the streams coming from the world of the divine to penetrate his body and cleanse it. When all the opaque layers that can obscure this eye are dissipated, reliable contact is established through it with the information flows of the universe in order to receive insight, light and inspiration from there. And since light always has the power of purification, it is able to expel everything unclean from us if we can work with its rays...

The secret to obtaining this subtle vision is to work tirelessly on yourself, throwing away everything that can darken or pollute us: you must keep your thoughts, feelings, actions pure, and the day will come when you will be given a clear vision of that “how to make your life truly happy.”

The image of the branching tree of Fate, the “Tree of Life,” which is a kind of “map” for traveling to other realities, is almost identical among shamans of different nations, separated by many thousands of kilometers. A similar structure in the shamanic worldview is the “Magic Wheel”, “Wheel of Time” or “Wheel of Svarog”, which is a mandala that describes the structure of the space-time continuum of the multidimensional Universe, as a fan of different probabilities emanating from the axis of the “Wheel”.

Similarly, traveling along the “Axis Mundi” takes us to different worlds and times along special “space-time corridors” connecting to the central “Axis Mundi”.

Dr. J. Arguelles notes the ancient Maya's knowledge of galactic portals, including the central one leading to the center of our Galaxy (Milky Way). They called the system of these portals “Kushan Suum”. The central portal itself, like the Hyperboreans, represented the Central Axis of the Cosmos, connecting worlds of different dimensions. Through this portal, initiates and magicians could travel to other realities, and creatures from other worlds could contact our reality. Such researchers of Mayan culture as L. Schele, M. Miller, D. Freidel and others also write about this Central Axis of the Cosmos.

At the same time, the Mayans knew about the multidimensionality of time, and they considered achieving harmony with the energy body - the body of Light - as the way to comprehend this multidimensionality. Only with the expansion of consciousness does time become “vertical”, i.e. containing the entire fan of probabilities: "Mayan time is a collection of sliding frequency ranges, or octaves, that connect you vertically to the fourth dimension...

In the fourth dimension, time is radial and cyclical. This is the past and the future at the same time. It's all over the map. It's all deja vu and synchronicity, and this time is not linear. When you take the fishing rod of your pure consciousness and cast it into the octaves of vertical time, you experience time as cycles that rush through your body at the same time.” (J. Argüelles).

Among the Slavic peoples, the world tree symbolized the center of the planet and was the central axis of the entire universe. It is noteworthy that the top of the tree reached the heavens themselves, where the world of the gods was traditionally located. The world of the dead was hidden underground, which included the root of a powerful plant. According to legends, this tree grows from the Altyr-stone, located on Buyan Island. In culture, the image was used in funeral ceremonies, because it was in the crowns of trees that the deceased were buried. Along such a tree, the soul went to the gods and could descend along it back to people to visit its relatives. The veneration of the cult of the tree was firmly entrenched in cultural traditions and was actively used until the 20th century. For example, when building a new house in the center, it was necessary to bury a young shoot, while counting on the kindness of the brownie. When the house was ready, such a tree was planted not far from the new building. Few people think about it, but the New Year tree is also a tribute to the cultural past. At the beginning of the New Year, we honor the world tree and decorate it in every possible way. The Tree of Peace is also found among other peoples. Its description is different, but the sacred meaning is the same for everyone.

After the universal catastrophe, the Earth slowly began to come to life. Eternal Winter and Night with the Waters of Death were inferior to Early Spring. The glaciers, leaving behind huge boulders, retreated to the north, and the planet, washed by the spring waters, changed, became prettier, and became kinder to its inhabitants. People first cautiously looked out of the caves, then left them, looking around in surprise. The huge spaces amazed the imagination with the abundance of beauty and wonders, food, light and warmth! This joyful discovery of a renewed world happened according to our human chronology around 12 thousand BC.

However, people were not the first and not the main inhabitants of this world: its spaces had already been mastered by other, more developed creatures. Ancient people observed, remembered what they saw, composed songs about it, passed them on from generation to generation, and later wrote them down. Thanks to myths, we can find out what the world looked like thousands of years ago.

The culture of all earthly peoples has preserved the memory of the World Axis, which connected three different universes: the heavens with their inhabitants, our middle world and the underground kingdoms of monsters. There is no point in distrusting the tales of the Legendary Times. In the ancient Indian books, the Vedas, the World Tree of Ashwattha is described and it is said: “At the top of this tree, they say, there is a sweet fruit, which only those who do not want to know their ancestors do not strive for.” The ancient Chinese were convinced that the World Tree was the Pantao peach tree, whose fruits bestow immortality on those who taste them. However, not only immortality: peaches of longevity change the very nature of a person, turning him into a deity. The Chinese book “Journey to the West” describes a whole garden of huge peach trees, on which the fruits ripen very slowly: on some - once every three thousand years, on others - twice as long, and on others - once every nine thousand years. The lucky one who tastes the fruit from the first tree is guaranteed immortality and knowledge of the truth. If picked from the second tree, he will gain eternal youth and the ability to fly among the clouds. The peach of the third tree gives you the highest power: you become equal to Heaven and Earth, the Sun and the Moon.

The Chinese god of longevity is depicted as a smiling old man holding a peach tree branch in his hands. Apparently, he was able to taste the fruit only from the first tree: having acquired eternal life, he did not become young.

The ancient Scandinavians considered the Yggdrasil ash tree to be the center of the world: “That ash tree is larger and more beautiful than all the trees. Its branches are stretched over the world and rise above the sky. Three roots support the tree, and these roots spread far.” The Elder Edda describes a wise eagle sitting on the top of Yggdrasil. The eagle is so big that the hawk Vedfrelnir has built a nest between his eyes. Below, at the roots of the ash tree, there is a house in which wise sisters live - the Norns, who determine the destinies of people and their life span. At another root lies a source of knowledge and wisdom, guarded by the giant Mimir. The roots of the tree are being gnawed by the dragon Nidhogg. In a word, the World Tree is a whole world inhabited by strange, inhuman creatures.

The Slavic Tree of the Universe was located on the island of Buyan, where all the creative forces of nature, everything wonderful and amazing that exists in the world were concentrated. Here is the navel of the Earth, and therefore in the middle of the island grows an evergreen oak tree, whose roots go to the center of the planet and its branches reach to the heavens. This is described in the “Pigeon Book”:

What holds the earth?

The water is high.

What keeps the water high?

The stone is flat.

What does the stone hold?

River of fire.

What holds that fire?

The iron oak that appeared

above all trees. He holds everything

The prophetic birds Sirin and Alkonost sing in the branches of the tree. Near the tree trunk lies the magical Alatyr stone, under which all earthly power is hidden. The snake Garafena wrapped itself around the stone. Whoever she bites will begin to understand the language of animals and birds.

The World Tree organized the space of the world not only vertically, but also horizontally, indicating the direction of light, which symbolized four sacred animals, four deities or four colors. Among the Mayan Indians, the Chak gods guarded the four cardinal directions, each with its own color symbolism: east - red, north - white, west - black, south - yellow. In Hindu mythology, the guardians of the world are: Indra - in the east, Kubera - in the north, Varuna - in the west and Yama - in the south.

The World Axis in the form of a tree also served as a kind of chronometer, a model of time, the universe. Many peoples have riddles about a tree with twelve branches - the months of the year, with four branches - weeks, with seven leaves on each.

The Bible describes the Garden of Eden with the Tree of Knowledge. God Yahweh Elohim raised trees on the earth, whose fruits were beautiful to look at and pleasant to eat. In the middle of the Garden of Eden grew the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God placed the first man in this garden, Adam, to care for the plants and protect them, but warned: “You can eat from every tree in the garden. But do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for the day on which you eat from it will be your last.” Alas, Adam violated the ban and this day became the last of his stay in Eden, from where he was expelled. And yet Yahweh took pity on the people: he sent the third son of Adam, Seth, a branch from the tree of knowledge.

The Scandinavian god Odin also gained wisdom from the tree of knowledge: he sacrificed himself and, pierced by his own spear, hung for nine days and nights on the trunk of the world tree Yggdrasil. After this test, Odin invented divinatory runes. Having drunk the sap of the sacred tree - the honey of poetry, I acquired a poetic gift. From now on, he could soar to the celestials or descend into the gloomy underworld. This was a common shamanic practice, which was also resorted to by Slavic holy accordion singers.

In “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” it is said: “The prophetic Boyan, if he wanted to sing a song to someone, he ran like a cape squirrel through a tree, like a gray wolf along the ground, and like a gray eagle under the clouds.”

Time passed, and the World Tree began to change. Strange birds disappeared from its branches, dragons flew away. They were replaced by new gods. One of them was the ancient Roman Jupiter, who, unlike the Greek Zeus, was at first the spirit of the sacred oak and trees in general. This is evidenced by his epithets: “fruitful”, “beech”, “reed”, “fig tree”.

In the sacred groves of the ancient Greeks, beautiful female tree spirits appeared: dryads, meli hells and hamadryads. If the first of them are quite famous, then the rest are almost not remembered. Meanwhile, ash nymphs appeared earlier than the others. They were considered the ancestors of people. The World Tree first moved from the center of the universe to the outskirts - to the Lukomorye, and then left the middle, our world, breaking off communication with the heavens and underground kingdoms. It was replaced by sacred groves.

A branched tree with unusual patterns of flowers, fruits and birds is often found in folk art. It is a symbol of fertility, which represents the strength and power of the earth, living and blooming nature, as well as the connecting axis between earth and heaven. The heavenly tree absorbed the universe of the ancient Slavs. A kind of portal was present among almost all ancient peoples, but it had its own name, for example, among the Scandinavians Yggdrasil, the Baiterek Turks, and the Chinese Kien-Mu. The symbol can be depicted in the form of an ordinary tree with roots and branches, schematically in the form of one stick and three branches, and also in the form of a woman with raised hands.

Let's look at where the concept of the tree of heaven itself came from. According to legend, God was originally inside the egg in complete fog. The dispersion of small drops led to the separation of the world's waters with air space. Wherever the Lord cast his gaze, a bright star lit up everywhere. One day the Almighty decided to revive his mirror image, so the distorted sphere brought to earth a dark deity called the Demon (the bringer of misfortune).

The power of God gave rise to two sacred oak trees, and fallen acorns brought a pair of ducks into the world. The birds began to take out sea sand and build a nest, which then became earth. The Evil Demon did not like the action of the birds. He took a mouthful of silt and covered the construction surface with it, which led to the formation of mountains. The Demon's misbehavior angered God. The Almighty broke one of the trees and drove the evil spirits underground with it. So there is only one Heavenly Tree left in the world.
The entire Universe, consisting of nine heavens, surrounds the tree on all sides. You can get into each world along the trunk, and the highest point of the crown reaches seventh heaven. A tree can be compared to a portal that takes you to different worlds, like a corridor with entrance doors to different rooms.

Legends of the World Tree

Greek and Chinese myths speak of the emergence of the world from an egg. The Slavs also have similar works.
An ancient legend says that previously the world consisted only of the sea and a flying duck, which dropped its egg into the depths of the sea. It split into two parts: the first became the Mother-damp earth, and the second became the vault of heaven.
According to fairy tales, unusual fairy-tale heroes live in the branches of trees: the scientist cat, the firebird, the Nightingale the Robber, etc. Often trees come to the aid of heroes, protect them and have miracle fruits that give youth. A striking example of the presence of clawed animals on the trunk of the tree of life is the cat Bayun. His nickname comes from the word “bayat” - to tell. The magical power of his tales is capable of striking enemies to death. This amazing character is present in A. Pushkin’s famous poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, where the author used the fairy tale to preserve religious and mythical characters.
In one of the fairy tales, the hero visits the underworld to find three princesses. From each kingdom (copper, silver and gold) he brings out an egg, which he breaks on the ground.
According to legend, the tree grew on the island of Buyan on a magic stone, where the center of the Universe was located. It was very difficult to get to him. Different peoples used their own trees as heavenly symbols: oak, sycamore, birch, apple tree, etc.

Main parts of the world tree

The grandeur and mystery of the forest have long attracted humanity. Slavic monuments of the 11th-17th centuries tell of pagan worship of sacred groves, where various rituals were held, newlyweds were married, water was blessed, and festive meals were held. The pagan Slavs considered the tree to be the center of knowledge and the connection of three worlds: ground, underground and upper-heavenly. The image of the tree of ascension was accompanied by silhouettes of spirits and deities, warriors and priests. The top of the sacred trunk touched the world of the Gods, and the roots sank into the underworld, where Chernobog and Madder lived. At the very top, behind the clouds, was Iriy (paradise). Its inhabitants were the Gods, the ancestors of people, the progenitors of animals and plants.

The fauna inhabited all three layers:

World tree drawing photo

The power of the world tree is admirable. Its roots split rocks and boulders.

Such trees, which have come down from ancient times, are part of our world. They act as a hymn to perseverance and love of life.

By combining the knowledge of the Slavs, the ability to draw and their imagination, schoolchildren create completely different creations.

An example of a child's drawing created with a gel pen.

Similar work was done using paints.

How to draw a world tree step by step with explanations

The tree branches in the abstract painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt look a little tangled, but even fourth-graders can replicate this work. It is enough to follow the given steps.

• To begin with, draw a trunk in the center of the sheet.
• Rounded branches are added to its top on both sides.
• A pair of thick branches with curls are drawn on the right and left sides of the tree. A wavy horizontal line is added at the bottom.
• The side branches are complemented with small details.
• Leaves are drawn on the branches in the form of abstract shapes.
• Similar patterns are drawn inside the trunk and the ground.
• The contours of the tree are drawn in black. The author’s work is dominated by golden and brown shades, but the wood can be painted to suit your taste.

An example of drawing a mighty oak tree with a pencil.

To begin with, draw a line of the ground at the bottom of the sheet, and then depict a thick, uneven trunk. It is necessary to take into account that oak branches grow low.

The next stage is very important, as it details the foliage and crown. Their shape is responsible for the appearance of the entire tree. The oak crown is slightly wider on the sides.

The leaves are drawn slightly smeared or each leaf is drawn. Then they add volume to the foliage. This will make the tree lighter.

The lower crown should be slightly darker than the top. The branches and trunk are painted over, and a shadow is added below.

The process of drawing living pictures using acrylic animation is performed to music. This technique combines animation with graphics and painting.

Options for drawing the world tree, photo

Children's imagination can transform ordinary objects into the World Tree: a teapot, an umbrella, a throne, a cane and even a lampshade.

Our ancestors associated the rapid alternation of periods of life with a tree. He was considered a symbol of resurrection and awakening.

The image of a drawn tree can also be different: tree-time, tree-world or tree-genus.

The world tree, as a reflection of infinity, has always attracted the attention of mankind. His seed, like human life, sprouts with renewed vigor, continuing to exist in world cultures.

About them, the oxen of nature are very numerous and multifaceted. There is no such symbol that would mean nature itself. But quite a lot of magical signs are dedicated to her. This is, first of all, magical nature. Therefore, let's start with the symbols of the World Tree (Tree).

The World Tree (among the Scandinavians - the Yggdasil ash tree) is the “axis of the world”, it supports all the worlds. The world of Pravi is located in the crown. At the trunk - Reality, in the roots, where the World Serpent Yusha huddles - Nav. The shaman, being in a trance, can travel through these worlds.

The image of a tree is one of the greatest inventions of mankind. It arose a long time ago and determined the structure of all mythological systems. Thanks to the World Tree, man saw the world as a single whole and himself in this world as a part of it... The tree entered our genetic memory, into the sphere of the unconscious. As psychologists prove, at a certain stage of development of the child’s psyche, it makes itself known as a primary image that has entered the flesh and blood: if a child draws a lot, then wood predominates in his drawings. Some psychologists believe that this is the World Tree, the Tree of Life - the meeting place of man with the Universe, their common symbol is the symbol of any whole made up of parts, the basis of any language with its branching phrases, an idea that permeates poetry, painting, architecture, any games, choreography, social, economic and even mental structures.

All the elements of the world began to be strung on it, like an axis: from concrete gods and animals to abstract concepts like temporal categories. The vertical structure of the World Tree consisted of three parts, or levels: lower (roots), middle (trunk) and upper (branches). This is how the main cosmic zones were formed in the imagination of the ancients, and with them twin opposites: earth - sky, earth - underworld, fire (dry) - moisture (wet), past - present, present - future, day - night. These pairs are mixed in the structure of the tree with ternary unities: past - present - future; ancestors - contemporaries - descendants; three parts of the body: head - torso - legs; three elements: fire - water - earth. Pairs and triplets covered a wide variety of life forms. People understood the interconnection of opposites, the essence of all development.

The World Tree is the basis for organizing thinking, memory, and perception. Images of the external and internal world are strung on this trunk, and now they can be expressed in sign systems - in words, numbers, formulas, images. The tree with its three levels is schematized in the mind, and now abstractions and symbols appear. Next to the horses and bees there appears a sun wheel and an eight-pointed cross inscribed in a circle. We find this symbol in both Orthodox churches and Tibetan temples.

Each of the three parts of the Tree belonged to certain creatures. At the top, on the branches, birds were depicted, in the middle, at the trunk - ungulates (deer, elk, cows, horses), sometimes humans and bees, and at the roots - snakes, frogs, fish and beavers. God sat at the very top of the tree. Sometimes he entered into battle with a serpent or dragon and freed the cattle they had stolen. The tree, symbolizing conception and fertility, was depicted on women's clothing.

The vertical structure of the Tree is more associated with cosmology, and the horizontal structure is more associated with magical rituals. Most often, the Tree was depicted with eight branches, four on each side. It also had four main colors: red, black, white, blue.

It is well known that for the ancient Slavs trees were not just building material. Our pagan ancestors saw in them the same as themselves, children of earth and heaven, moreover, possessing no less a right to life. According to some legends, the very first people were created from wood - which means trees are older and wiser than people. Cutting down a tree is the same as killing a person. But you also have to build a hut!

Russian peasants preferred to cut huts from pine, spruce, and larch. These trees with long, even trunks fit well into the frame, tightly adjacent to each other, retained internal heat well, and did not rot for a long time. However, the choice of trees in the forest was regulated by many rules, violation of which could lead to the transformation of the built house from a house for people into a house against people, bringing misfortune.

Of course, there could not even be any question of raising one’s hand to a tree that was revered, “sacred.” There were entire sacred groves in which all the trees were considered divine, and it was a sin to pluck even a branch from them.

Individual trees that attracted attention due to their extraordinary size, age, or developmental features could also be considered sacred. As a rule, local legends were associated with such trees. Legends have reached us about righteous old men who, at the end of their days, were turned into trees by the gods.

An ancient man would never have decided to cut down a tree that grew on a grave. Back at the end of the 19th century. peasants showed ethnographic scientists a large pine tree that supposedly grew from the braid of a ruined girl; What if a human soul settled in a tree? In Belarus, a sure sign of this was considered to be the creaking sound made by a tree: in creaking trees, according to beliefs, the souls of tortured people cried. Anyone who deprives them of shelter will certainly be punished: they will pay with their health, or even their lives.

In some places in Russia there was a strict ban on cutting down all old trees for a very long time. According to the peasants, it was a sin to deprive the forest patriarchs of the right to natural, “spontaneous” death from windfall or simply from old age. Anyone who encroached on such a tree would inevitably go crazy, be injured or die. It was also considered a sin to cut down young, immature forest. In this case, the mythological view was based on a completely natural desire to preserve young trees that had not reached the best conditions. In relation to the “forest elders,” the law of mythological thinking was in effect: elder means chief, revered, sacred.

Trees with developmental anomalies - a large hollow, a stone or other object grown into the trunk, with an unusual shape of the trunk, with an amazing interweaving of roots - were also not subject to felling: “not like everyone else” - you never know what kind of force could be hidden in them !

In different areas there were also bans on the logging of certain species. First of all, of course, this applied to “cursed” trees, such as aspen and spruce. These species are energetically unfavorable for humans, they “pump” life energy out of him, and even objects made from their wood retain this property. So the reluctance of our ancestors to live in a spruce or aspen house was again not without reason. On the other hand, a person who cut down a completely “benevolent” linden tree was bound to get lost in the forest. Apparently, the gods sternly stood up for the tree that had been shod and even clothed people for centuries...

Dead, dry trees were not suitable for construction. This is understandable: such trees do not have vital forces in them, they bear the mark of death - what good, they will carry it into the house. And even if no one dies in the house, the “dry” will definitely become attached. In a number of places, for this reason, they avoided cutting down trees in winter, when they are deprived of sap and are “temporarily dead.”

The idea of ​​death and the afterlife is also associated with the ban imposed on trees that fell with their tops to the north during cutting, “at midnight”: our ancestors associated this side of the world with eternal darkness, winter, lifeless cold - in a word, the other world. Insert such a tree into a log house, and the people in the house will not live long!

A special and very dangerous variety of forbidden trees are “violent”, “evil”, “wicked”. Such a tree seems to be trying to take revenge on a person for its death: it can crush a lumberjack, and if they cut a log out of it for a hut, just behold, it will bring down the entire house on the heads of the residents. Even a chip from such a tree, deliberately placed by an evil carpenter, was capable, in the opinion of Russian peasants, of destroying a new house or mill. If the “lush” forest was cut down for firewood, one had to be wary of fire!

Belarusians called “lush” trees “storosovye”. This is where our expression “stoeros club” comes from, meaning a stupid and unkind person.

“Lush” trees, according to popular belief, most often grew on abandoned forest roads, especially at the intersections of such roads. The fact is that the Slavs attributed great mythological meaning to the road, and a negative one at that. The road going into the distance, in the opinion of our ancestors, ultimately led to the next world - for outside the tribal territory, as is known, the kingdom of unknown forces began, and the border between the worlds of the dead and the living was close. And besides, the road was thought of by the pagans as a kind of “horizontal projection” of the World Tree, which connected the worlds. It is no coincidence that riddles about the road have been preserved, such as: “When the light was born, then the oak fell, and now it lies,” and etymological scientists claim that the words “tree” and “road” in the Russian language go back to the same root. The twisted trunk, twisted against the sun, also did not inspire confidence in the pagans.

There was also a ban on the use of trees planted by humans in construction. First of all, garden trees, moreover, located inside the estate fence. Scientists believe that the point here is in the mythological understanding of such opposites as “one’s own” - “alien”, “natural” - “cultural”, “wild” - “domestic”. A tree taken from the forest and used for the construction of human habitation certainly had to undergo a “change of quality”: from “foreign” to become “ours”. Such a transformation certainly could not have happened with a garden tree, and besides, garden apple and cherry trees were almost family members for our pagan ancestors...

If the first three trees scheduled for felling, for some reason, turned out to be unsuitable, then on that day it is better not to get down to business at all - it will not be good.