Page 29 - ECOlogic Book

another. Therefore, the death of the Tree represents the rebirth both of a
19
new cycle and of the Tree of Life itself.

An article in the 1978 issue of Shaman’s Drum magazie, entitled, “Tree of
Life May be Dying”, referred to El Tule, the mythic Tree of Life in Santa Maria
del Tule, in Oaxaca, Mexico. The Mexican Indians’ 2,000 year old national
symbol showed signs of dying from pollution. Depressing as this is, does it
nevertheless carry within it the seed of hope? Is it perhaps a harbinger of
the Ecological Age – a new time when the fires of the burning bush are the
fires of the transformation of human consciousness? Does it signify the
transition from one era to another, more life-enhancing one?

There are psychosymbolic reasons why the tree was chosen to represent life
itself and the connection between heaven and earth to humans. “The
Sacred Tree,” says Mircea Eliade, “is not merely a picture or a static symbol.
It is a vehicle by which to enter the visionary worlds. Without it, the bridge
20
between the worlds would collapse.

The World Tree, or sacred pole; Sipapu, as it is known to aboriginal cultures,
represents the fifth (vertical) direction where North, South, East and West
intersect. It is the imaginary pole that connects heaven and earth. The four
directions are related to the four elements. These, Earth, Air, Fire, and
Water, have been known since ancient times. The new element, the fifth
one where the other four intersect, is creativity; the creative unfolding of the
21
cosmos and the creative unfolding of the human.

Iron Thunderhorse suggests a new shamanic paradigm in which there are
three paths to enlightenment, which correspond to the three worlds. The
path to the left represents the solar path, the way of the warrior,
corresponding to the underworld. The path to the right symbolizes the lunar
path, the way of the adventurer, representing the upperworld. The third
path is the center, the Sacred Way of the Tree which grows at the center of
the world and corresponds to the world of inner space. This is the way of
the Thunderbird, whose flight leads to creative solutions to any problem.

19 Iron Thunderhorse and Dionn Le Vie, Jr., Return of the Thunderbeings, (Bear & Company Publishing, Santa
Fe, NM, 1990, P. 116.

20 IBID>

21 IBID.

29