Study › Runes & Norse › The Esoteric Yggdrasil
Read another way, Yggdrasil is a map of the inner worlds. In modern rune magick each of its worlds is a part of the self, and the tree is the way between them.
The tree as a map
The same tree, read another way: a map of the inner worlds.
In magick and in shamanic journeying those worlds are travelled rather than studied. Each is a state that can be reached, and the tree is the way between them.
The worlds as parts of the self
In this reading each world is a part of the self. Midgard, at the centre, is ordinary waking life. Asgard above is the higher self and its tie to the divine; Hel below is what lies beneath the surface — memory, ancestry, the unconscious. Fire and ice, Muspelheim and Niflheim, are the two primal forces of energy and stillness, and the other worlds lie between them. This reading comes from modern rune magick rather than from the old sources, but it gives the practitioner a map for inner work: where a working starts, and where it leads.
Read Yggdrasil, the nine worlds and útiseta.
Questions
What does Yggdrasil represent?
In the myths, the tree that holds the nine worlds; in modern rune magick, also a map of the inner self.
Is this reading from the old sources?
No. It comes from modern rune magick.