(viewed from the south) is holy to
Hinduism and several religions in
Tibet. There are multiple interpretations about the origin of the concept of the axis mundi. One psychological and sociological interpretation suggests that the symbol originates in a natural and universal psychological perception – i.e., that the particular spot that one occupies stands at "the center of the world". This space serves as a microcosm of order because it is known and settled. Outside the boundaries of the microcosm lie foreign realms that – because they are unfamiliar or not ordered – represent chaos, death, or night. From the center, one may still venture in any of the four cardinal directions, make discoveries, and establish new centers as new realms become known and settled. The name of
China — meaning "Middle Nation" (
pinyin: ) – is often interpreted as an expression of an ancient perception that the Chinese polity or
group of polities occupied the center of the world, with other lands lying in various directions relative to it. In many religious and philosophical traditions around the world, mankind is seen as a sort of bridge between either: two worlds, the earthly and the heavenly (as in Hindu, and Taoist philosophical and theological systems); or three worlds, namely the earthly, heavenly, and the "sub-earthly" or "infra-earthly" (e.g., the underworld, as in the Ancient Greek, Incan, Mayan, and Ancient Egyptian religious systems). Spanning these philosophical systems is the belief that man traverses a sort of axis, or path, which can lead from man's current central position in the intermediate realms into heavenly or sub-earthly realms. Thus, in this view, symbolic representations of a vertical axis represent a path of "ascent" or "descent" into other spiritual or material realms, and often capture a philosophy that considers human life to be a quest in which one develops insights or perfections in order to move beyond this current microcosmic realm and to engage with the grand macrocosmic order. In other interpretations, an axis mundi is more broadly defined as a place of connection between heavenly and the earthly realms – often a mountain or other elevated site. Tall mountains are often regarded as sacred and some have shrines erected at the summit or base.
Mount Kunlun fills a similar role in China.
Mount Kailash is holy to
Hinduism and several religions in
Tibet. The
Pitjantjatjara people in central Australia consider
Uluru to be central to both their world and culture. The
Teide volcano was for the Canarian aborigines () a kind of . In ancient
Mesopotamia, the cultures of ancient
Sumer and
Babylon built tall platforms, or
ziggurats, to elevate temples on the flat river plain. Hindu temples in India are often situated on high mountains – e.g.,
Amarnath,
Tirupati,
Vaishno Devi, etc. The pre-Columbian residents of
Teotihuacán in
Mexico erected huge
pyramids, featuring staircases leading to heaven. These
Amerindian temples were often placed on top of caves or subterranean springs, which were thought to be openings to the underworld.
Jacob's Ladder is an axis mundi image, as is the
Temple Mount. For Christians, the
Cross on Mount
Calvary expresses this symbol. The Middle Kingdom, China, had a central mountain,
Kunlun, known in
Taoist literature as "the mountain at the middle of the world". To "go into the mountains" meant to dedicate oneself to a spiritual life. As the abstract concept of is present in many cultural traditions and religious beliefs, it can be thought to exist in any number of locales at once. The
ancient Armenians had a number of holy sites, the most important of which was
Mount Ararat, which was thought to be the home of the gods as well as the center of the universe. Likewise, the
ancient Greeks regarded several sites as places of Earth's (navel) stone, notably the oracle at
Delphi, while still maintaining a belief in a cosmic world tree and in
Mount Olympus as the abode of the gods. Judaism has the
Temple Mount; Christianity has the
Mount of Olives and
Calvary; and Islam has the
Ka'aba (said to be the first building on Earth), as well as the
Temple Mount (
Dome of the Rock). In
Hinduism,
Mount Kailash is identified with the mythical
Mount Meru and regarded as the home of
Shiva; in
Vajrayana Buddhism, Mount Kailash is recognized as a similarly sacred place. In
Shinto, the
Ise Shrine is the . Sacred places can constitute world centers (), with an
altar or place of prayer as the axis. Altars, incense sticks, candles, and torches form the axis by sending a column of smoke, and prayer, toward heaven. It has been suggested by Romanian religious historian
Mircea Eliade that architecture of sacred places often reflects this role: "Every temple or palace – and by extension, every sacred city or royal residence – is a Sacred Mountain, thus becoming a Centre."
Pagoda structures in Asian temples take the form of a stairway linking earth and heaven. A
steeple in a church or a
minaret in a mosque also serve as connections of earth and heaven. Structures such as the
maypole, derived from the
Saxons'
Irminsul, and the
totem pole among
indigenous peoples of the Americas also represent world axes. The
calumet, or sacred pipe, represents a column of smoke (the soul) rising from a world center. A
mandala creates a world center within the boundaries of its two-dimensional space analogous to that created in three-dimensional space by a shrine. In the
classical elements and the Vedic
Pancha Bhoota, the corresponds to
Aether, the quintessence. , the World Ash in Norse myths
Plants Plants often serve as images of the axis mundi. The image of the
Cosmic Tree provides an axis symbol that unites three planes: sky (branches), earth (trunk), and underworld (roots). In some
Pacific Island cultures, the
banyan tree – of which the
Bodhi tree is of the
Sacred Fig variety – is the abode of ancestor spirits. In Hindu religion, the banyan tree is considered sacred and is called ("Of all trees I am the banyan tree" –
Bhagavad Gita). It represents eternal life because of its seemingly ever-expanding branches. The Bodhi tree is also the name given to the tree under which
Gautama Siddhartha, the historical
Buddha, sat on the night he attained
enlightenment. The
Mesoamerican world tree connects the planes of the underworld and the sky with that of the terrestrial realm. The
Yggdrasil, or World Ash, functions in much the same way in
Norse mythology; it is the site where
Odin found enlightenment. Other examples include
Jievaras in
Lithuanian mythology and
Thor's Oak in the myths of the pre-Christian
Germanic peoples. The
Tree of Life and the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in
Genesis present two aspects of the same image. Each is said to stand at the center of the
paradise garden from which four rivers flow to nourish the whole world. Each tree confers a boon.
Bamboo, the plant from which Asian calligraphy pens are made, represents knowledge and is regularly found on Asian college campuses. In
Yoruba religion,
oil palm is the axis mundi (though not necessarily a "world tree") that
Ọrunmila climbs to alternate between heaven and earth. '' by
Leonardo da Vinci ()
Human figure The human body can express the symbol of the world axis. Some of the more abstract Tree of Life representations, such as the
sefirot in
Kabbalism and the
chakra system recognized by Hinduism and Buddhism, merge with the concept of the human body as a pillar between heaven and earth. Disciplines such as
yoga and
tai chi begin from the premise of the human body as axis mundi. The Buddha represents a world center in human form. Large statues of a meditating figure unite the human form with the symbolism of the temple and tower.
Astrology in all its forms assumes a connection between human health and affairs and celestial-body orientation. World religions regard the body itself as a temple and prayer as a column uniting earth and heaven. The ancient
Colossus of Rhodes combined the role of the human figure with those of portal and skyscraper. The Renaissance image known as the
Vitruvian Man represented a symbolic and mathematical exploration of the human form as world axis.
Homes Secular structures can also function as . In some Asian cultures, houses were traditionally laid out in the form of a square oriented toward the four compass directions. A traditional home was oriented toward the sky through
feng shui, a system of
geomancy, just as a palace would be. Traditional Arab houses are also laid out as a square surrounding a central fountain that evokes a primordial garden paradise. Mircea Eliade noted that "the symbolism of the pillar in [European] peasant houses likewise derives from the 'symbolic field' of the . In many archaic dwellings the central pillar does in fact serve as a means of communication with the heavens, with the sky." The nomadic peoples of Mongolia and the Americas more often lived in circular structures. The central pole of the tent still operated as an axis, but a fixed reference to the four compass points was avoided.
Shamanic function A common
shamanic concept, and a universally told story, is that of the healer traversing the axis mundi to bring back knowledge from the other world. It may be seen in the stories from
Odin and the
World Ash Tree to
the Garden of Eden and
Jacob's Ladder to
Jack and the Beanstalk and
Rapunzel. It is the essence of the journey described in
The Divine Comedy by
Dante Alighieri. The epic poem relates its hero's descent and ascent through a series of spiral structures that take him through the core of the earth, from the depths of hell to celestial paradise. It is also a central tenet in the
Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Anyone or anything suspended on the axis between heaven and earth becomes a repository of potential knowledge. A special status accrues to the thing suspended: a
serpent, a rod, a fruit,
mistletoe. Derivations of this idea find form in the
Rod of Asclepius, an emblem of the medical profession, and in the
caduceus, an emblem of correspondence and commercial professions. The staff in these emblems represents the axis mundi, while the
serpents act as guardians of, or guides to, knowledge. ==Modern expressions==