True story. When my brother in law died, I had a dream after his funeral. I found him kneeling next to a river with a tree on the opposite side. The ground was white, the tree was white, the water was almost silver flowing but calm. I had a brief conversation with him and woke up. Very interesting to see the theme of the river and tree through so many cultures.
I was thinking that these universal sacred images may run deep than culture, like obviously water was extremely important to our ancestors, and white would have been associated with an unattainable wonder of clouds that provide water, and the trees that our ancestors found refuge and sustenance in. Like just because they are shockingly similar is not evidence of correlation. Like how people try to connect American and Egyptian pyramids, when a pyramid is just the easiest way to stack something high as shit so are these images just burned into our DNA.
On the morning of July 5th there was a vision of a dog inventing religion and ruling over man. All was glorious until the volcano sacrifices started, though at least those sacrificed were turned into diamonds This was proceeded and followed by too many coincidences Writing this, I am now reminded of a story about a wolf that brought fire to man and Cu Chulainn and Lions just remembered my coat of arms
Plato said learning is recollection, and I believe this is true in more than one sense. In this fantastic documentary, you show us how modern learning is uncovering and reconstructing the ancient beliefs of our ancestors. At the same time, there surely is a sacred and spiritual parallel: we are remembering the beautiful, authentic true religion of our people so it can live again in the present. This religion is being reincarnated just as we are life after life until we are ready to live among the Gods.
So that any layman can experience the feeling of this information for themselves; I seek to create Star Magi Mystery School, a reimagineering of my 30 year Dungeons&Dragons game houserules. In which the characters experience the players as voices and thoughts which guide them. Especially dangerous or suicidal instructions may require a check, rolling a d20 and comparing the Conviction ability score of the character. The characters are mammoth hunters in the ice-age, so the only thing interesting to do is go into the burial mounds take a hallucinogen and adventure together along the world tree starting in the dark underworld of the roots seeking magics to prove their worthiness to the tribe (the elders warn against such recklessness, at first). My goal is to encourage people to follow their own inner voice and do what they think is best even if it seems to require a personal loss or social stigma. The magic system is based on personal time management, such that the players keep track of their real-life chores and good deeds in order to power the spell effects to aid their characters. The players must find a way to describe these magical effects as coincidences and synchronicities, otherwise any vulgar magical effects will transfer that magical power to the Kur (the Dungeon Master who controls the setting and all the enemies), who uses it to weave curses and ensnare items and turn characters into NPCs (Kursed). So, the setting is Ancient North Eurasain/PIE/Norse World Tree The magic system is my gamification of comparative mythology, theology of numbers, and journaling/scheduling Each game session would be a new generation, so you can age up your current character or get reincarnated as a new one. Factions may occur in the tribe over time as groups associate themselves with one player over another. Eventually I'd like it to evolve into a Civilization type game with the players guiding nations of people with weird belief systems based on previous game events. It's too much though, my brain hurts, and I feel stuck. And whenever I try to tell anyone about it their eyes graze over and I know that I sound like an insane person. So now I share it here, with you. Because I think maybe you can glimpse it too. The thing I try to do.
@@jonathanjonathansen Presumption and arrogance are even more silly ideas, especially when consciousness is not understood by modern science. Those who deride magical thinking fail to see that modern science still sees all thinking as magical. None know from where it comes or why.
Holy hell (hah). This is a masterwork. I’m a Native American with Germanic ancestry, so the comparison of their myths is something I’ve looked into quite a lot. Something I’ve seen a few others mentioning in the comments is that MANY Native American myths (including ones not mentioned in the video, such as the pre contact Mississippian culture) have a striking thunder god, often a bird. The Mississippian priests would wield ceremonial hammers or blunt axes, and sacrifice victims via decapitation. Some myths depict this thunder god fighting with an underwater horned serpent, with a glowing single jewel on its head associated with wisdom. I believe there’s much more to be uncovered here. Absolutely amazing documentary. Many more people need to see this one. EDIT: I'd like to also mention black drink ceremonies, prevalent in Southeastern Native American societies. However, the ritual shell cups used in these ceremonies have been found as far north as Wisconsin in the States. I feel like my mind is racing now lol.
I'm of a similar extraction (but French & Scottish) & I like the mound building similarities b/w Creeks & Celts. Research has also linked southeastern Creek/Mississippian culture to the Aztecs, some evem theorizing that there was a large second migration from Mexico to the southeast.
The thunder God fighting with the horned serpent underwater is a metaphor for the fight between the soul and the consciousness/mind. The spiritual polarization of the wise. Whether Jesus being tested in the wilderness, or this story, or any other similar, is just a metaphorical telling of what happens when one seeks wisdom. The Egyptians had a similar representation of the soul as a horned serpent with a sun disc on it's head. It's just ancient metaphysics, which I suspect were brought by Aryans to the rest of the world.
I always talk about all this to my friends and cousins, although, nobody really pays attention; just saying I’m thinking too into it, but I know it’s something I need to talk about to keep our people’s culture going. I’m glad that someone out there is showing the origin of some our stories may come from. Through exchange or through direct cause. Thank you, as a Native American.
Without our story tellers, all of our ancient knowledge/beliefs fade to obscurity and replaced by whatever the present "leaders" want to purvey. No matter who your ancestors were, they must be honoured. Their wisdom most be passed on. I prefer the old knowledge/ways to what's going on today. May the gods bless and protect you.
It's good to see a native thinking. I am a quarter breed, and spent my first 30 years digging up all I could on the old ways. My other 3/4 s is Germanic, I was very confused when I started into germanic paganism, because the similarities were all so obvious to me. I actually think that's part of the reason Natives we're so destroyed. Couldn't have em reminding the white man of the old peaceful ways. Hootka.
An interesting note, Scythians also had a world tree (Associated with Dargatavah, the thunder god) which was sorrounded by deer and connected the world with heaven and earth along with a mountain a lake and goddess Tapati (Raesave's Scythian mythology).
Where did he find it when there is nothing written by Scythians what survived? We don't even know what was their language really only some names & foreign accounts.
@@szymonbaranowski8184 Raevsky (I messed up his name, apologies). Did so by studying the Hellenic account, the appearance of the account in the Argonauts and Scythian art.
@@szymonbaranowski8184 Saka/Scythians spoke Gothic languages and are the precursors to the broadly Nordic nucleus including Germans, Slavs, and Saxons among others. They were also in the Iranian regions.
14:00 "I hate Níðhöggrs", he thought. "I've never been to this branch of Yggdrasil before. There could be NÍÐHÖGGRS anywhere." The cool air felt good against his bare chest. "I HATE NÍÐHÖGGRS", he thought.
Great video. As a Hindu, I would also like to add about Usha devi, the goddess of dawn and Surya deva, the God of the Sun. Also, the sun god has 4 forms, depending on the times of the day( a great example is the Konark Sun temple where the dawn sun is depicted as child, morning as teen, midday as adult/middle age/ at its zenith and setting one as an illustrious old man). Both these gods occupy the Eastern gates of a temple traditionally.
HI Infinite, I don´t think the Suraya mytheme has anything to do with our Sun. It´s rather the central galactic Light of Creation. The Goddess of Dawn is also connected to the galactic Light and the galactic Milky Way contours.
Masterful exposition brother! Pythagoras' mentor Pherekydes speaks also of the cosmic tree unifying the Sun and Moon. Yggdrasil shares elements of the Zoroastrian Time Tree. Blessings upon you.
Great work. It would be cool if Thomas would pay attention to the Finnish mythology one day. Finno-Ugric cultures absorbed and preserved very ancient elements of Indo-European culture.
Unfortunately, nowadays he's too Anglo-centric to do that. Maybe if he finds a way to tie it to the Anglo-Saxons. Or if he runs out of material one day.
I've notice Ymir is called Brimir in Voluspa 9, this same name is given as the owner of a mead-hall in Voluspa 37. Snorri mentions the same hall in Gylfaginning 52, except there he says the hall itself is named Brimir and is where the dead will go after Ragnarok. Maybe this is the remnant of past tales where after Ymir's sacrifice he lived in a hall in the underworld, filling a similar role to Yama.
The Purusha problem is an obstacle to the idea that Yemo was involved in the primordial sacrifice - is Purusha equivalent to Yama? Some would say not. In that case the argument equating Yemo and Ymir falls flat. But Brimir is a lot like Yama, having a hall for souls as you say, so this could "solve" the problem
Yama is associated with the realm of the dead because he was the first [cosmic] being to die. In the Gathantic and Vedantic contexts Yimo was a great king who ruled for multiple ages in a perfected world. That said, at that epoch death was not a reality as we know it currently. Ymo sacrificed himself or was sacrificed in order to save creation as it were. More on that later... There is an ancient north Eurasian shamanistic concept involving dismemberment of individuals as a means of transcendence. You can find the continuum of this concept spanning from Germania to Babilonia, to Bharata, and beyond. The gist is that a shamanistic or heroic figure is dismembered or ripped apart and the sacrifice effects the greater good and balance of the world. Its akin to hatching from an egg and being reborn [which is why ancient Indo European shamans were also associated with eggs and such.] I digress... *people to this day keep bones of heros and saints for a reason. At any rate Yama [/Yima/Yamo/Yamsheed/Ymir] sacrificed himself to save humanity and its domesticated animals. In the Gathic texts he played a golden flute thrice, and each time he played it the Earth expanded [for the Aryan world; i.e that nation expanded]. After there was no more space and too many people people grew too wicked Yama was instructed to construct a vault in the Earth which was called a "Val"[presumably related to Valhall(a)] in which he was to place all perfected humans and perfected farm animals in preparation for a great flood. The text explicitly excludes deformed humans and animals. After the great flood Yama ruled for a time and ultimately was superceded as ruler as we observe in many texts. I will expand on this and state that the vault he created in the Earth is probably his "hall".
Your best video yet my dude! Incredible stuff. Amazing that we can reconstruct the broad strokes on Ancient Northern Eurasian mythology so many millennia later. Wonder if we could push things back even further into the ice age and beyond.
As an Orthodox Chrisrian who delves into the glorious lore of my ancestors, I hold this information you present to the utmost importance in my existence. I believe, as a European man, that it is counterintuitive and futile to continue the distain between European belief systems which continues to dilute and divide our great people. All have their merit, time, and place. We must unite as brothers once more. We truly are Men of the West. Fantastic video as always my brother! Thank you for your hard work.
I'm thinking that these "world trees" can almost certainly be equated with the "tree of life" mentioned in the bible and to a lesser extent the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is also a river of life (like the several rivers mentioned) which flows from the throne of God and then underneath this tree of life. To eat of its fruit grants immortality. Likewise, the monsters of chaos "Leviathan" and "Behemoth" who dwell at the roots of the world may be related to creatures like Níðhöggr. And perhaps Veðrfölnir is related to the great bird "Ziz" of jewish tradition? I don't want to overstate things. Comparative religion can get kind of ridiculous. But if perhaps Leviathan is equated with Jörmungandr, then maybe it's another recurrence of the "storm god battling a serpent" theme that seems to pop up everywhere. Yahweh taking the role of the storm god in this situation.
Fantastic video, this is what I love about your channel. I've been very interested in the world tree lately and you weave it all together so wonderfully. Thank you!
Impeccable timing 🤙 I’m heading into this weekend with a weeklong nightly wandering through various materials on this very subject. I’ve always been rather fond it’s nordic name, Yggdrasil. I’ve envisioned this world tree form at multiple levels from micro to macro, as it feels like a fractal familiar. For example, the emergence of two opposing complimentary realms from the “”Big Bang”” event. Also, the reciprocal flow of energy in and out, both as limbs stretching into the sky and roots into the ground. As above, so below. Yin and Yang. The cosmic Q-Tip of balance. My mind’s straying… and so I’ll look forward to further detail you’ll present us today!
Thank you for everything that you do Mr. Rowsell! You are a true inspiration. Your work is so immensely important. You have so much influence on all of us...
I've been wanting to learn more about the mysterious ANE people, the progenitors of the Indo-Europeans and indigenous peoples of the Americas! Thank you! And thanks also for including the wonderful D.W. Draffin as a reader.
Amazing. Thank you for making these videos that make bring such knowledge to us. There seems to also be parallels in Tengrism with reconstructed PIE religion that are probably from a shared ANE ancestry.
I had a dream once 10 years ago... I was on an Island with this massive tree on it, absolutely huge, it covered the entire thing, and it's roots were massive. I was on the edge of the Island overlooking a vast ocean and it was bright with the sun. I looked behind me and I could see those massive roots, and it looked almost like a jungle and it was dark. When I looked up I saw as well a massive dragon pulling one of these monstrous roots out towards the ocean and he said "this is what we do everyday".
Absolutely stunning presentation! A true work of storytelling and scholarly research, this should prove to be a hefty milestone in promotion of ancient roots. Chef d'œuvre !
Absolutely wonderful!! I was just reading up on how 80% of North American Indian Nations are 1/3 Western Eurasian from 25,000 BCE. Truly great work Tom.
Well, this I have to watch, I guess I had a hypnotic past-life regression session in 2011, in Ft. Lauderdale of all places. I saw 7 different scenes of past lives, some mundane, others were traumatic deaths (peasant pulling a mule in ancient Rome, another life dying by animal in a colosseum, water carrier during the construction of the pyramids in Egypt, a young girl in the South Pacific, a boar hunter falling off a cliff in ancient Mexico, Confederate soldier, young mother who died with my baby and husband in the San Francisco earthquake was the last one, and I remember floating up into the sky with other souls who had just died, we were like bubbles.) At the end, I met my spirit guides at my "tree of life" that was also a fountain that had many individual pools cascading water into each other. The pools I could see into showed the 7 scenes I just saw. Then I zoomed up to a tree branch, then I and my spirit guides all melted into a sun. I still leave open the possibility it was all my imagination. And yet, I believe.
Thank you, Tom, for resurrecting and preserving our ancestral traditions during an age which suppresses them from nearly every side. You fight to keep our soul alive, and for that, your soul will live forever; just as it has met every challenge up to our present incarnation; clearly, else you wouldn't be such a warrior.
Well, that was epic, an hour and ten minutes! I appreciate the great work synthesizing all of this. Can I ask if you have a bibliography for this so I can go deeper.
@@Survivethejive I truly believe this to be among the best documentaries I’ve ever seen. It seriously deserves applause and recognition. I’ve seen mainstream documentaries that pale in comparison. You pursue a very useful idea and follow it to an evidence based conclusion. No hype, no click bait, no getting claims of getting swallowed on camera by an anaconda, only then to fail to deliver on a dramatic promise. Thanks for your work, and best regards!
For as far back as I can remember I’ve had a vivid reoccurring dream about entering a hollow tree under the ground, then crawling upward inside an endless, humid, cramped tunnel within this tree, toward filtered light coming from above. I know it sounds like the birth process, but it’s something more, because the dream carries the acute sense of Infinity.
In Greece we also have this myth. On our folk legends we imagine goblins chewing on this Tree and every time Christmas comes, they stop to venture out into the open world.
Yup. Life comes from a sacred cow. That's why we eat them, our natural human source of life & our evolutionary origin as species (well earlier more like mamoths & other megafauna). Our animal nature from animal nature.
Interestingly enough, I had a dream not long ago where I walked through a city built inside a HUGE white tree that grew on the shores of a glowing lake/sea. It's crown was so big it covered the sky and thousands of birds and animals similar to elk ran/flew towards the tree. It was so beautiful that I cried on the sand between the tree and the water. Then I was welcomed in, backpack on my back and all...
Brother, you are doing some great work. I think that, in your field of study, you are a great illuminary. Keep up your great work and thank you for doing it.
Interesting work StJ. The part at 53:00 remind me of the Koran where it tells of hell having a foul plant or food stuff the denizens have to eat to survive.
Amazing video! This is everything I want in a video about history. Mythology, historical facts, feel like your travelling through time and cultural, a mystery to solve. 10/10 My next video will be similar. You're certainly an inspiration, thank you!
Excellent. I am writing on a post-scifi mythology involving the world tree (since 18 years) and much of this makes me realise all my patterns I lay out are mostly in a deeper hidden meaning, rooted in edda and other sources I have read along the way, not understanding, but their pictures blossoming in meaning, reminding me of their symbolism. It all comes together so beautifully and this is a very good resource to refresh ideas I forgot and maybe to enhance it even further , to become more bold to lay off modern images and dive my fingers into old clay. Thank you sincerely for indirectly helping me with my life's work, blessings.
This is by far my video on your channel. I'm of both native American and European ancestry and it's intriguing to me that both populations share paleolithic origins.
Very interesting and well researched as usual! I especially liked the Proto-Indo-European reconstructed cosmology of the afterlife. Really puts the finger on the core of the tradition. Useful not only for historical reasons, but also for modern days pagans in their own practices and search for further understanding of life and death.
I do hope so, although I must warn again that it isn't 100% certain that the way I presented it is correct. The elements are 100% definitely there, but how they got together is not certain
