Análisis Descriptivo

The cosmic axis, the great World Tree, divides the spirit worlds. Our first natural division is the veil, the separation between the physical and the nonphysical. The spiritual cosmos is made up of more than two worlds. In the most basic shamanic cosmology, three distinct zones of activity are identified. Though traditions give them different names, they are usually designated by location: the Middle World, Upper World, and Lower World. The scholar Ovid named the three worlds Gaea, Eros, and Chaos.

The Middle World is the one with which people are most familiar. The Middle World is the realm between the two extremes, where our human world resides. The Middle World is the realm of the physical universe-width, height, and depth, as well as time. The Middle World is the space-time continuum and contains all places and all times. A mystic who knows how to move in the Middle World can go anywhere at any time. If you have experienced psychic travel (ITOW, exercise 26), past-life regression (ITOW, exercise 34), or divination (OTOW, exercise 29), you have worked with the Middle World energies.

Those in traditional society, outside the witch's worldview, only look at the physical world. If you can't see, hear, or otherwise measure something, it's not real. Fortunately modern people are accepting the concept of other nonphysical realities through the research of modern scientists involved in quantum physics. In the magickal theory sections of The Inner Temple of Witchcraft (chapter 7), we explored the concept of the vesica pisces, the fishlike sacred geometry form created from two overlapping circles to demonstrate the hologram, two energy fields creating a new construct (figure 9). Perhaps our simple holographic model of the universe is actually the forces of the Upper World and Lower World overlapping to create our Middle World, the physical universe, the solid hologram of our reality.

The Upper World is the heavenly realm above our physical reality. Also known as the Overworld, it is the realm of awareness and enlightenment. It is the realm of white light commonly described by those who have had a spiritually transforming near-death experience.

Imagine looking at the world from above. There is great beauty in seeing the big picture. Think of how awe-inspiring our first view of the earth from space was and still is. If you've ever traveled in a plane and looked out the window, think about how the earth looks below. The view is beautiful, and you can see things, patterns in the big picture, that you could never view from the earth level, yet it all seems distant. The energy of the Upper World feels distant or detached. The realm is one of enlightenment, unconditional love, and divine revelation. It is visualized as a heavenly paradise where everyone and everything is peaceful and unchanging in their cities of light. The sky gods rule the realms above, and many describe it as a very masculine, intellectual, and impersonal realm. These qualities are not good or bad, they simply are a needed part of the balance. One comes to the upper realm for information, perspective, and detachment.

The Lower World, or Underworld, is the realm below, and encompasses the realm of the dead. This is the world of the ancestors and is not to be confused with the Christian concept of hell. The ancestors live peacefully until it is their time to move from that realm to another.

Territories in the Underworld also include those of the Underworld gods, the faery folk, and the deep chthonic powers of creation. Visualized as a primordial realm, an underground forest or a jungle of great age and power, it is like a land before time. There is light in the Lower World, though its source is not always clear, emanating from the land itself. The energy is characterized as more feminine and emotional, embodying both the nurturing and destroying aspects of the Goddess. The Underworld can be a scary place because it acts as a mirror, reflecting whatever we bring to it. For this reason, it can be simultaneously a place of healing and rest and a place of challenges. Journeys to the Underworld are accompanied by the sound of the ocean tides, yet the oceans are not visible, or by the humming buzz of hive insects, such as bees. Like the realm of dreams, messages from the Underworld must be pondered and deciphered, while messages from the Upper World are more direct. The Underworld is a place of challenge and testing, where shamans must unravel a riddle or prove their power to claim wisdom and energy. Shamans descend to the Underworld to receive healing energy and to find allies in the primal powers.

These three zones of activity can be further subdivided, and many traditions do so. The Norse have a system of nine worlds. The Aztecs have thirteen "heavens" and nine "hells." The various Celtic myths divide the lands into different territories, where it can be difficult to tell if the world is upper or lower. The three Celtic realms in this cosmology were known as Annwn, Abred, and Gwynvyd. Annwn is the Lower World in Welsh mythology. Abred, also know by some as Ddaer, is the Middle World. Gwynvyd is the heavenly world, which is said to contain many other realms. The circle of Ceu- gant, the realm of pure divinity, surrounds them all. In the Celtic view, these other worlds, drawn as concentric rings, seem to exist parallel with our ordinary reality, Abred, and you can only tell if you've passed the veil between worlds by crossing a rather innocuous-looking marker, such as a hedge, clearing, or stream. Once you pass that marker, you face otherworldly beasts, and the normal rules of reality no longer apply,

pass that marker, you face otherworldly beasts, and the normal rules of reality no longer apply, like Alice passing into Wonderland. In fact, in medieval lore, witches were called hedge jumpers or hedge witches, noting both their knowledge of the green world and their ability to jump the

"hedge," or veil, between worlds and enter the spirit realm that stands side by side with the one everyone else sees.

The hedge is not only a metaphor for the veil, but also the literal boundary between civilization and the wilderness of spirits. The Stone Age hunter-gatherers of the forest lived as one within the forest. When they learned to clear the land to make settlements, that relationship changed. The area then encouraged the growth of natural hedge walls, consisting of many thorn undergrowth plants associated with witchcraft, such as the hazel, elder, wild rose, sloe, hawthorn, buckthorn, blackberry, barberry, and gooseberry. There the wise ones learned their herbal craft, speaking to plant spirits. They walked the hedge between civilization and the wild world of spirits. Society eventually became separated from the wilderness, no longer finding solace there, but seeing it as place of wild otherworldly things. The wise ones remembered the power of the forest, and there at the edge, in the space between, they became hedge witches.

The Celtic ogham are associated with the three worlds of Celtic cosmology, which is similar to shamanic cosmologies across the globe. The figure known as Fionn's Window, referring to Fionn mac Cumhail, found in The Book of Ballymote, hints at these shamanic associations (figure 10). In Edred Thorsson's The Book of Ogham, the ogham are associated with the three worlds (figure 11). Each world is divided into land, and each of the ogham can be associated with a land or a path between worlds. The singleslash characters are the Underworld, while the double strokes are the paths leading to the Underworld. The triple-stroked ogham are in the Middle World, the quadruplestroked figures are the paths to the Upper World, and the quintuple-stroked oghams are in the Upper World. The central axis, the great tree, is the only path without ogham associations. The paths and associations are very similar to the classical Qabalistic Tree of Life glyph, which consists of ten worlds and twenty-two paths associated with tarot cards and Hebrew letters.

Figure 10: Fionn's Window

These ogham associations reflect one view of Celtic reality. By meditating on figures 10 and 11 or the associated ogham, you can receive insights that will aid your journey. Modern practitioners are reconstructing this system of tree associations with the various worlds and

paths. We don't have knowledge of the original system, assuming this was an ancient shamanic system, so the opinions of various practitioners on corresponding ogham are often conflicting.

For more information on the ogham alphabet and its associations with the shamanic Tree of Life, look to The Book of Ogham by Edred Thorsson and Green Witchcraft III by Ann Moura.

Though there are differences in interpretation, you can use this information as a springboard for your own associations.

Figure 11: Ogham and the Other Worlds Diagram