Glossary Entry: World Tree

The World Tree is a common theme or concept in many mythologies and religions. This gigantic tree is so large that many worlds or realms are connected by its parts. For example, some depictions of the World Tree imagine Paradise (or Heaven) being held aloft by the tree's branches, while Earth is represented by the trunk and the Underworld (or Hell) is located among the roots. Additionally, many stories involve their protagonists using the World Tree as a means to travel between worlds, while anything that endangers the World Tree is seen as a threat to the existence of the universe itself.

The most well known example is probably Yggdrasil from Norse mythology, a tree so vast and great that it winds through each of the Nine Realms.

Although these magical trees are typically the background settings for tales based in mythologies, there are rumors that some occult practices have adopted the symbol.

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