Snow came early this year in Sweden. The photo to the right was taken by me in early December, on a path running alongside the steep banks of a river. You can see footsteps in the snow, leading to the stairway and disappearing around the corner. This picture encapsulates the evanescent nature of time. We can only predict for so long into the future what's going to happen, and beyond that point it deconstructs into a myriad of possibilities. Still, certain things can be taken for granted. We may assume that the trees will sprout once more in spring, that the sun will rise once more in the morning. This is because of the cyclical nature of time.
And this is probably what the pagan precursor to our modern Christmas boils down to - a celebration of the death and rebirth of the sun and of all life in a perpetually repeating cycle.
The Swedish word "jul", meaning christmas is the equivalent of English "Yule", the ancient pagan midwinter festival and predecessor to modern day christmas.
Some of our modern traditions still allude to the original pagan purpose of winter celebrations. One such example is the christmas tree. If you look closely at any coniferous tree, you can see that it's needles are arranged in a spiraling pattern on the branches, placed in repeated intervals along lines that curl around the branches like a helix.
Coniferous trees therefore symbolize the cycles of time, and bringing them indoors for christmas can be interpreted as a celebration of the annual death and rebirth of life that these cycles entail.
Apart from the cycle of Earth's orbital period, we are significantly affected by the lunar phases. The moon not only casts the light of Sol (the name of our star) onto Earth, it is also temporally linked with the sun because the average rotational period of the sun is about equal to the tropical period of the moon - 28 days.
Not only the branches but also the cones are coiled in a spiraling fashion. The structure of coniferous trees with a straight central column like stem is reminiscent of the axis of a wheel, adding to the affinity with cycles.
So what about deciduous trees?
They symbolize the parallel nature of time, in that a multitude of timelines run in parallel with one another.
An ancient oak like the one to the right above can be said to symbolize the entire history of the universe, the base of it's trunk representing big bang, the single event that made time come into existence and continuously as it progressed fork out into evermore timelines shooting out from the existing ones, just like younger branches shoot off of older ones on a tree.
As conflict and chaos erupts, and the equilibrium of the established order is turned over, new timelines emerge constantly from the main one in all directions. This is similar to ripples on the surface of water, when impacted by a rock being thrown.
In old norse mythology, a tree called Yggdrasil was believed to constitute the center of the universe. At the foot of the tree sat three goddesses of fate known as Urd (the past), Verdandi (the present) and Skuld (the future). They were thought of as spinning the threads of life and weaving the fabric of destiny.
The song "en väv av legender" (a weave of legends) kind of alludes to this mythological concept. It was one of the highlights of a Swedish tv-show produced for Christmas in 1984.
The lyrics goes as follows:
Imagine if everything that happens, is recorded in the book of the heart. As a weave of legends, as an image of our past. All that you dream and wonder, all that you hide in your heart, could be read like a saga, then you would see. Yes I can see that you smile, at the child, still living inside of you. A saga might be truer than you think.
There is even some evidence to suggest that the weave of destiny is more than mere myth. American hypnotherapist Dolores Cannon in her 1993 book "Between death and life" reports on an artwork being witnessed by her clients while regressed through hypnosis to a point in time before birth. They described it as the "tapestry of life". Each thread representing a single life. Some threads are black, others are silvery or golden, depending on the character of the life being represented. The tapestry was overwhelming in its beauty and magnificence and had supposedly inspired a lot of artists throughout history.
In conclusion, trying to wrap things up, I'd like to return to the topic of Christmas. As I said before, "christmas" in Swedish is "jul". But what about Santa Claus? It's called "Jultomten" which translates as "the christmas gnome". Santa's helpers are considered as gnomes as well.
The Swedish term for gnome, "tomte" comes from "tomt" which means "piece of land" or "property" (belonging to a farm or house). This is because it was believed that each farm had it's own gnome that that lived in the stable or barn and helped caring for the animals and bringing good fortune to it's hosts if treated well.
Still in these modern times there are people who claim to have seen these beings.
But if you want the best possible chance of getting a glimpse of them, I recommend you visit the theme park Santa World or "Tomteland" as it is known in Swedish. It's located in Dalarna, Sweden and features the whole mythological universe surrounding Christmas. Have a look at the music video to "Merry Christmas Everyone" by Shakin' Stevens below. It was filmed at Santa World where Stevens brought his own daughter to record the video.
https://youtu.be/N-PyWfVkjZc?
Still in these modern times there are people who claim to have seen these beings.
But if you want the best possible chance of getting a glimpse of them, I recommend you visit the theme park Santa World or "Tomteland" as it is known in Swedish. It's located in Dalarna, Sweden and features the whole mythological universe surrounding Christmas. Have a look at the music video to "Merry Christmas Everyone" by Shakin' Stevens below. It was filmed at Santa World where Stevens brought his own daughter to record the video.
https://youtu.be/N-PyWfVkjZc?
And with this, I, the enlightened one, wish all of you a splendidly merry Christmas.
1 comment:
A very beautiful weaving of thoughts and connections, the Enlightened One, and I especially enjoyed your discourse on the nature of trees and the tapestry of life as seen in dreams. Where I live we're lucky to get snow once in a decade, so it's great to hear from someone connected to nature in Sweden and offer their insights. Thanks for sharing. Your Santa is rooted in myth and nature, not in department stores like in the USA, if those even still exist anymore in the age of Amazon.
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