Collier's Priestess of Delphi

And I say the sacred hoop of my people

was one of the many hoops that made one circle,

wide as daylight and as starlight,

and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree

to shelter all the children of one mother and one father.

Black Elk

According to Greek mythology, Zeus wanted to locate the exact center of the world. To do this, he released two eagles from opposite ends of the earth. The eagles met at Delphi. Zeus marked the spot with a large, egg-shaped stone called the omphalos, meaning “navel.”

The temple at Delphi once belonged to Gaia, but when the Olympians came into power, Apollo took the temple. The temple was guarded by a great serpent, Pytho. Apollo killed Pytho and excised Gaia. In honor of his heroic deed, the priestess of Delphi was called Pythia. The temple was located at what was believed to be the center of world. And at the center of the temple was the omphalos, the stone Kronos swallowed in place of Zeus.

To consult the oracle, you approached with a question. Asking it of the Pythia, she would breathe in the intoxicating fumes from a fissure in the earth. She would, in this drug-induced state answer your question with what seemed to the patron to be nonsense. The real power laid with the priest who would interpret the Pythia’s words. The outcome often depended on how much tribute the patron had given.






Camilo Miola's The OracleCamilo Miola's The Oracle

After some time, the priestess would start to writhe around and foam at the mouth. In a frenzy, she would begin to voice strange words and sounds. Priests and interpreters would listen carefully and record her words in verse or in prose. The message was then passed on to the visitor who had posed the question. Some modern scholars believe that the priestess did not become delirious but rather sat quietly as she delivered her divine message.

Anyone could approach the oracle, whether king, public official, or private citizen. At first, a person could consult the oracle only once a year, but this restriction was later changed to once a month.

The ancient Greeks had complete faith in the oracle’s words, even though the meaning of the message was often unclear. As the oracle’s fame spread, people came from all over the Mediterranean region seeking advice. Numerous well-known figures of history and mythology visited Delphi, including Socrates and Oedipus.

Visitors would ask not only about private matters but also about affairs of state. As a result, the oracle at Delphi had great influence on political, economic, and religious events. Moreover, Delphi itself became rich from the gifts sent by many believers.


Axis Mundi

The axis mundi (also cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar, columna cerului, center of the world), in religion or mythology, is the world center and/or the connection between Heaven and Earth. As the celestial pole and geographic pole, it expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms.Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all. The spot functions as the omphalos (navel), the world’s point of beginning.

The image is mostly viewed as feminine, as it relates to center of the earth (perhaps like an umbilical providing nourishment). It may have the form of a natural object (a mountain, a tree, a vine, a stalk, a column of smoke or fire) or a product of human manufacture (a staff, a tower, a ladder, a staircase, a maypole, a cross, a steeple, a rope, a totem pole, a pillar, a spire). Its proximity to heaven may carry implications that are chiefly religious (pagoda, temple mount, minaret, church) or secular (obelisk, lighthouse, rocket, skyscraper). The image appears in religious and secular contexts. The axis mundi symbol may be found in cultures utilizing shamanic practices or animist belief systems, in major world religions, and in technologically advanced “urban centers”. In Mircea Eliade’s opinion, “Every Microcosm, every inhabited region, has a Centre; that is to say, a place that is sacred above all.”

Axis Mundi


Kailash is a mountain located in Ngari prefecture in Tibet . The mountain is sacred to the four Asian religions, Buddhism , Hinduism , Bön (Local Shamanistic Religion of Tibet before Buddhism) and Jainism . It was here that the god Shiva descended to earth. Manasarovar called a sacred lake just beyond. The four rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra , Sutlej and Indus have their sources around the mountain. Some believe that Kailash is the mountain Meru from where the Aryans came. In Sultejdalen near Kailash low silver palace with Bönpo -religion’s holy kingdom. This was destroyed by the nykonverterade Buddhists in Lhasa as before spared this country in their conquests.



Chortens and Kailash

The Tibetan name for the mountain is Gangs Rin-po-che. Gangs or Kang is the Tibetan word for snow peak analogous to alp or himal; rinpoche is an honorific meaning “precious one” so the combined term can be translated “precious jewel of snows”.


Another local name for the mountain is Tisé (Tibetan: ཏི་སེ་) mountain, which derives from ti tse in the Zhang-Zhung language, meaning “water peak” or “river peak”, connoting the mountain’s status as the source of the mythical Lion, Horse, Peacock and Elephant Rivers, and in fact the Indus, Yarlung Tsangpo/Dihang/Brahmaputra, Karnali and Sutlej all begin in the Kailash-Lake Manasarovar region.




According to Hinduism, Lord Shiva, the destroyer of ignorance and illusion, resides at the summit of a legendary mountain named Kailāsa, where he sits in a state of perpetual meditation along with his wife Pārvatī. In the Vishnu Purana of the mountain states that its four faces are made of crystal, ruby, gold, and lapis lazuli. It is a pillar of the world and is located at the heart of six mountain ranges symbolizing a lotus.

Kailash Rimpoche


In Jainism, Kailash is also known as Meru Parvat or Sumeru. Ashtapada, the mountain next to Mt.Kailash is the site where the first Jain Tirthankara, Rishabhadeva, attained Nirvana/moksa (liberation).(The authenticity of Mount Kailash being Mount Ashtapada is highly debated.)





View of Kailash

Sacred Tree of Life


The tree of knowledge, connecting to heaven and the underworld, and the tree of life, connecting all forms of creation, are both forms of the world tree or cosmic tree, and according to some , that are portrayed in various religions and philosophies as the same tree.


The Ceiba Tree was the sacred tree of the Mayans, and it had many representations and significances. “The ancient Maya of Central America believed that a great Ceiba tree stood at the center of the earth, connecting the terrestrial world to the spirit-world above. The long thick vines hanging down from its spreading limbs provided a connection to the heavens for the souls that ascended them.”

Sacred Mayan Ceiba Tree

The Archetypal Symbolism of Trees Trees have long held a literal and symbolic fascination for humanity. Their source as a deep archetype of absorption begins with the earliest epic in the Western World, the story of Gilgamesh and his quest for the plant of life (a symbolic tree) that is snatched away by a serpent, thus illustrating that the use of the tree as a universal religious symbol is incredibly ancient; such utilization can be dated to at least the third millennium B.C.E. as a symbol of a rich cultural mythos, the major archetype being that of the center, the beginning where sacred powers first originated. The tree is the navel of the world, the “cosmic axis” (Axis mundi) standing at the universe’s center where it passes through the middle and unites the three great cosmic domains: the underworld, earth, and sky.

With its branches reaching into the sky, and roots deep in the earth, the Tree of Life dwells in three worlds—a link between heaven, the earth, and the underworld, uniting above and below. It is both a feminine symbol, bearing sustenance, and a masculine, visibly phallic symbol—another union. The tree has other characteristics which easily lend themselves to symbolism. Many trees take on the appearance of death in the winter—losing their leaves, only to sprout new growth with the return of spring. This aspect makes the tree a symbol of resurrection, and a stylized tree is the symbol of many resurrected gods. Most of these gods are believed to have been crucified on trees as well. A tree also bears seeds or fruits, which contain the essence of the tree, and this continuous regeneration is a potent symbol of immortality. Trees seen as givers of gifts and spiritual wisdom are quite common. It was while meditating under a Bodhi tree that Buddha received his enlightenment; the Norse God Odin received the gift of language while suspended upside down in the World Ash.

In Celtic creation stories, trees were the ancestors of mankind, elder beings of wisdom who provided the alphabet, the calendar, and entrance to the realms of the Gods.Trees were also associated in the Shamanic beliefs of the Druids and other Celtic peoples with the supernatural world. Trees were a connection to the world of the spirits and the ancestors, living entities, and doorways into other worlds. The most sacred tree of all was the Oak tree, which represented the axis mundi, the center of the world. The Celtic name for oak, daur or duir, is the origin of the word door; the root of the oak was literally the doorway to the Otherworld; the realm of Fairy.

Tule tree




In the Book of Revelation, a Koine Greek phrase xylon (tēs) zōës, ξύλον (τῆς) ζωής, is mentioned three times. This phrase, which is also used for the Genesis tree of life in the Ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, literally means “wood of (the) life”. It is translated in nearly every English Bible version as “tree of life”, see Revelation 2:7, 22:2, and 22:19.


The Tree of Life, or Etz haChayim (עץ החיים) in Hebrew, is a mystical symbol used in the Kabbalah of esoteric Judaism to describe the path to God (usually referred to as HaShem, or “The Name”, in kabbalistic texts) and the manner in which he created the world ex nihilo. Kabbalists developed this concept into a full model of reality, using the tree to depict a map of Creation.

kabbalistic Tree

Some believe the kabbalistic Tree of Life corresponds to the Tree of Life mentioned in Genesis 2:9. This mystical concept was later adopted by some esoterically inclined Christians as well as some Hermeticists. Among the Christian Kabbalists, the sephirot were called Dignities, and were referred to by their Latin names, instead of their Hebrew names. Christian Kabbalah also places emphasis on Christ as Sustainer and Preserver of the Universe, and the Malkuth of Jewish kabbalah is absent, as it is considered of a different order-of-being.

the Tree of Life can potentially be applied to any area of life, especially the inner world of Man, from the subconscious all the way to what Kabbalists call the higher self.


The Tree of Life bears many similarities to the Christian Gnostic conception of the Pleroma, emanations from the ineffable and self-originating Divine Parent that offer the best possible means of describing God. Each emanation in thepleroma is born from a more complex emanation before it. Most notably between these two allegories is the final sephira on the Tree, Malkuth, and the last emanation in the Pleroma, Sophia, whose fall resulted in the physical world.


In every old culture the Tree of Life is a given, our ancient ancestors understood the interconnectedness of Life the Microcosm being a reflection of the Macrocosm, the Outer, a reflection of the Inner, the bellow from the above, the Spirit residing in our inner Hearts, wherever we are, there is the center of the World, the Sacred Womb of the Mother, the Axis of the Universe, the Sacred Mountain, a Sacred Realm of Being.

Mexican Tree of life


About theburningheart

This entry was posted in Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Religions, Archetypes, Axis Mundi, Being, Buddhism, Cosmogony, Cosmology, Forest, God, Hinduism, Indigenous Cultures, Inner Journey, Kabbalah, Maya, Mayas, Metaphysics, Mount Meru, Mysticism, Myth, Mythology, Paradise, Religion, Revelation, Sacred Mountain, Sacred Tree, Shamanism, Spirituality, Subjective, Symbology, Tibetan Buddhism, Tree of Life, Uncategorized, Wisdom and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.


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  4. Laurent GRIVET says:

    Cheating on the relative dimensions of your “axis mundi” picture was a really stupid thing to do! (increasing the peak’s height relatively to its breadth, which becomes obvious when you move on to the original picture) This temptation (strengthening your point), to which you succumbed, ruins everything… as in Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (where he illustrates his point about the quick melting of glaciers by means of a picture of a ‘moulin’, where the people supposed to give you the scale of the phenomenon are situated some ten or twenty metres behind the ‘moulin’, which give the impression that it is huge, which it certainly was, but attempting to make it “huger” than it was casts a veil of doubt upon all the point and all the subsequent points that are made!) Counter-productive is worse than inefficient!

    • theburningheart says:

      Your comment regarding the size of the picture It’s certainly true, however it has nothing to do with the reasons you adduce, it just fits my computer format better, I had observed different computers have different looks as to the size of the pictures, and total format, however it has noting to do with the content of the post, so your complaint, and rant is of little value, and of no relevance to the merits of this post, that you so audaciously, but inappropriately suggest .
      By personal policy I do not accept pingbacks since in the past has proven a source of people trying to use it as advertising of whatever they want to sell, besides drawing people to your blog should be base on the merits of your blog not a piggyback on other people’s merits.
      As for your Axis of the world and your El camino truck, or it’s a car?
      Who cares!
      it’s laughable and of no relevance to this post.
      The only reason I didn’t trash your comment it is for fairness sake, and to show I am not above criticism, however I would be the judge of the fairness of it, yours it is not when casting doubt as regarding to the content of my post.

  5. What a great piece and the images are beautiful!

  6. DG MARYOGA says:

    Most uplifting and meticulous work,loved all the photos,but I prticularly liked the Delphi photo!
    I keep visiting it quite often,it’s a very inspirational place,the ambiance all over mysteriously magnetises you …

  7. kethuprofumo says:

    Dear Mr. Brigido, I guess all the sacred Mountains keep some kind of special energy able to awake & cure our Spirit. Certainly the Tree of Being is far more complicated than our forests, but the last ones give us force. The hi-tech epoch destroys this connection that is so important for every human being on Earth.

    • theburningheart says:

      Maria, yes Mountains, Trees , Forest, Rivers, etc. They are Archetypes, Axis Mundi on our Spirits, and more Real than the Mountains, yes Men are a pain in the neck, when they act so selfishly in relation to our environment, I talk about all these things in May 2014, and October of the same year.
      As always thank you for your comment and the trouble you take to read my posts! 🙂

      • kethuprofumo says:

        Thank you for your profound explanation, dear Mr. Brigido! Oh! It’s always a pleasure to read your considerations. Besides what spiritual education it’s! I guess those who don’t respect the nature are not men. Moreover it’s disrespect to Creator Himself.

      • theburningheart says:

        Thank you Maria for being so kind to me.
        About Men, well we are all in the same boat, and we are not perfect,
        And with a lot of need for improvement! 🙂

  8. Uncle Tree says:

    Extremely informative and equally interesting! 🙂 How could I knot like this?
    I know, you know, as everyone knows, for now and for all times sake.
    To be, or knot to be, is unquestionably a tree’s prerogative.
    Cheerz to existence! Peace, luvz, and hugz, UT

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