Debrina's latest update....Roots Beneath the Layers....

Heavenly....

Reality...

Before the chains of the well lead to ....

Hell

(note - since this photo, a skull has been added to the lower blue panel)

Lifting the shroud....

The tree....finished...pages turn to reveal the pages shown above...

Layers and...

layers...

Ok, lots of lovely photos, but I better fill you in now on my thought processes to date.  Last time I posted about this book, I talked a little about the Anglo Saxon belief in Yggdrasil - the World Tree.  This mythological construct comprised of three parts: Asgard - the Upperworld (Heaven), Misgard or Middle Earth (our subconscious existence) and Hel (Underworld) see my last posting for more detail on this.

When Rome invaded Britain, it also brought with it Christianity.  Christianity by-passed the Anglo Saxons for some time, however.  Then, during the early Dark Ages, it slowly began to break down the resistance of the upper echelons of society and many conversions took place. Incredibly, and maybe somewhat surprisingly, the Saxon belief system was not lost during the conversions; instead, it was assimilated and in a sense preserved.  In my pages (the first three you see) - I have tried to illustrate this assimilation and evolution.

These last photos, below, show how I have begun to look at these Anglo Saxon constructs in more detail...

So, the shroud photo to the left of the tree will develop more to reflect this....

Love Debs

Round 3 - Debrina's Contribution to Lisa J's book

I've chosen to play with Lisa's title, "Roots Beneath the Layers" to explore the shamanistic beliefs of my European ancestors.  I've chosen Yggdrasil - the World Tree - as my focus for this round.  I first learned about this cosmological structure in Brian Bate's "The Real Middle Earth". 

My pages fold up into a nice neat signature of 12 pieces (see above illustration).  3 is a universally magic number and Yggdrasil comprises of 3 parts.  I want to concentrate on each part separately, so with some witchery stitchery, I have constructed a 3 part layout to my segment of pages.

The first part is the upperworld - Asgard - where light, elvish beings, the gods, goddesses and the deities reside.  If this sounds reminiscent of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, you'd be correct.  Tolkien was fascinated by Saxon mythology and drew his inspiration from their cosmological and mythological constructs.

The book unfolds to reveal the rest of the tree...the underworld (the lower part of the tree is hinted at with the quote above - this is not stuck down yet; nor are these white pages finished...much more layering to do...).

The middle part of Yggdrasil is revealed.  Midgard is the real middle earth, the spiritual world of living beings, such as animals, plants and human beings.  I will be using the pages to the left of the tree to illustrate these realms as I am describing them here.

Finally, Yggdrasil is revealed in its entirety - Niflheim (Hel) are the roots of the tree.  Here is the Underworld, where Nidhogg the dragon sleeps and the dead reside.  Hel (Christian root word for Hell- scuse the pun) is the powerhouse of the subconscious; inhabited by underworld entities that we may fear but where we may also obtain our greatest source of potency.