Global InformationAxis mundi information
In astronomy, axis mundi is the Latin term for the axis of Earth between the celestial poles.
In a geocentric coordinate system, this is the axis of rotation of the celestial sphere. Consequently, in ancient Greco-Roman astronomy, the axis mundi[1] is the axis of rotation of the planetary spheres within the classical geocentric model of the cosmos.[2]
In 20th-century comparative mythology, the term axis mundi – also called the cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar, center of the world, or world tree – has been greatly extended to refer to any mythological concept representing "the connection between Heaven and Earth" or the "higher and lower realms".[3] Mircea Eliade introduced the concept in the 1950s.[4] Axis mundi closely relates to the mythological concept of the omphalos (navel) of the world or cosmos.[5][6][7] Items adduced as examples of the axis mundi by comparative mythologists include plants (notably a tree but also other types of plants such as a vine or stalk), a mountain, a column of smoke or fire, or a product of human manufacture (such as a staff, a tower, a ladder, a staircase, a maypole, a cross, a steeple, a rope, a totem pole, a pillar, a spire). Its proximity to heaven may carry implications that are chiefly religious (pagoda, temple mount, minaret, church) or secular (obelisk, lighthouse, rocket, skyscraper). The image appears in religious and secular contexts.[8] The axis mundi symbol may be found in cultures utilizing shamanic practices or animist belief systems, in major world religions, and in technologically advanced "urban centers". In Mircea Eliade's opinion: "Every Microcosm, every inhabited region, has a Centre; that is to say, a place that is sacred above all."[9]
- ^ as a declined form in Latin, plural axes mundorum
- ^ The term is used by Geminus in his Elementa, in early modern editions misattributed to Proclus as Commentarius in sphaeram. R. B. Todd, "The Manuscripts of the Pseudo-Proclan Sphaera", Revue d'histoire des textes 23 (1993), 57–71. The term continues to be used in modern astronomical works throughout the 18th century, e.g., Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler, Physikalisches Wörterbuch (1791), p. 688.
- ^ Mircea Eliade (tr. Philip Mairet). "Symbolism of the Centre". In Images and Symbols. Princeton, 1991. ISBN 069102068X. p.48–51
- ^ Mircea Eliade (tr. Philip Mairet). "Symbolism of the Centre". In Images and Symbols. Princeton, 1991. ISBN 069102068X. p.40
- ^ J. C. Cooper. An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols. Thames and Hudson: New York, 1978. ISBN 0500271259.
- ^ Mircea Eliade (tr. Willard Trask). "Archetypes and Repetition". In The Myth of the Eternal Return. Princeton, 1971. ISBN 0691017778. p.16
- ^ Winther, Rasmus Grønfeldt (2014). "World Navels". Cartouche 89: 15–21.
- ^ Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrandt. A Dictionary of Symbols. Penguin Books: London, 1996. ISBN 0140512543. pp.61–63, 173–175
- ^ Mircea Eliade (tr. Philip Mairet). "Symbolism of the Centre". In Images and Symbols. Princeton, 1991. ISBN 069102068X. p.39