Yggdrasil

Yggdrasil stands for 'the world ash' tree and refers to Man as the bearer of the Human 'I'.

Ygg is 'I', and 'drasil' comes from the same root as the German verb tragen (to bear).

The name stems from an ancient Germanic myth (see Germanic mythology), a story told by the druids, in which they clothed their astral clairvoyant vision and teachings about Man in this story. Man is like a tree, an ash, that has three roots that correspond to sexuality, heart and speech.

The different cosmic forces working in Man, and their origin, are represented in the story, as are the main challenges of mankind. For example, getting control over the lower body (see Centaur) and excessive sexuality is represented by the serpent Niddhögr gnawing at the first root.

The fruit of the spiritual world is expressed by the nanny goat in the treetop, the interaction between the lower and higher world is represented by the squirrel.

Aspects

Irminsul is another term for this 'tree of the world' used by the Germanic people (for references, see eg Hans Gsänger in his book on Externsteine and/or Roland van Vliet in his lecture based on this, for an introduction see wikipedia page for Irminsul)
see also positioning in Wotan Impulse#1915-07-24-GA162

Inspirational quotes

1904-10-25-GA051

.. the North Germanic legend tells how the three Gods found an ash and an alder on the seashore, and from them created the human race. The Persian myth, too, makes the human race come forth from a tree.
We find echoes of these myths among the Jews, in the story of the Tree of Life in Paradise.
Thus we see, from Persia to Scandinavia, by way of Palestine, traces of similar mythical ideas

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.016 provides a simple illustration of the ash tree representing Man in the ancient germanic myth of Yggdrasil.

For comparison and contemplation:

with Schema FMC00.294 on Man as a threefold being
the three group soul forces of Cow (lower, sexuality), Lion (breast, heart), and Eagle (head & nerves)
The two etheric streams for the squirrel.

Lecture coverage and references

1904-10-25-GA051

for background and longer extract, see Germanic mythology#1904-10-25-GA051

1905-03-22-GA0XX

is in the context of Odin in a lecture 'The old sagas of the Gods'

Odin is a War-god and a magician; he controls battles and is the inventor of runes; he hangs on the world-ash, which bears one of his names, ‘Ygg's gallows,’ (Ygdrasil) as if he were a king that was sacrificed.He is a one-eyed giant, a Cyclops; his lost eye sinks in Mimers well as the sun sets in the sea. He is also the Wind-god, the Spirit-god, (wind, breath, soul.) He gives 'soul' to the logs of ash and alder which become the first man and woman. Ygdrasil has three great roots; they suck up the waters or mead of the three eternal fountains, and these mixed together give imperishable life. One is in the well of Mimer, where the fibres are made white with the holy mead, which gives wisdom to men and poetry also, and is the very elixir of life eternal. Of this Odin drank deeply, and the price he paid was an eye. There was also the Song-mead, which was stolen from the Moon-god. This skaldie mead was given by Ivalde to Suttung, the giant, and in return he was promised the giant's daughter Gunlad, for his wife. Odin resolved to recapture the mead, and assumed the form of the wooer of the giant-maid; and thus he entered the dwelling of the giant, and went through the ceremony of marriage. Later the giants suspected him, but Gunlad enabled him to escape in the form of an eagle.

1907-06-02-GA099

has a reference to the world ash-tree Yggdrasil of the Teutonic mythology (ref: Rudolf Steiner Handbook)

.

1907-05-15-GAXXX

1907-10-07-GA101

(SWCC)

translated lecture version OCR-ed from Golden blade 1957

Here we have the origin of the Germanic version of Genesis. .. the seer would say:
"From the north there flowed hither twelve actually visible streams, and from the south came sparks of fire - it is this that has brought about the new form of the digestive system. Through the union of the fire-sparks with the twelve streams, two beings arose: the Giant Ymir and the Cow Audhumla."
Who is this giant Ymir? He is the thinking man, who has come into being out of the chaos; he is the new body which has been created by the twelve streams. And the cow Audhumla is the new nutritive element. In the new man the giant Ymir and the cow Audhumla are united.
...
The ancient Druid priest derived his wisdom from what had actually occurred. He knew that he would be understood if he described what was presented to the seer in the astral:

the twelve streams which come from the north and constitute the twelve pairs of nerves, and

the sparks of fire which are emitted from the south and unite with the northern streams.

And how beautifully it is told! The two worlds have arisen from the cold Niftheim and the hot, flame-flashing Muspelheim/ Niflheim releases the twelve streams, Muspelheim the marks of fire.
We know that in the moment when the etheric body of the head united with the physical head, the I arose as a clear self-conscious I. Of course, Man had already felt himself to be an I-being, but until then I-consciousness had not dawned on him. What had happened to him? There was the influence of the twelve streams which had permeated his head with the nerves of the brain; but there was also the influence derived from the union of the trunk, the rest of the body, with the head - derived, that is, from the cow Audhumla. These two things united at that time; you can see this clearly in the human being. What came from the south is connected with an earlier, quite different formation which had developed out of a quite different human condition.

What is new is the sexual principle. This was one thing which had established itself clearly in Man.

The second new thing was the form of the heart itself;

and the third thing, which developed little by little at this time, was speech. Speech, too, is a creation of Atlantis. Without speech you cannot envisage the higher spirituality.

Neither can you think of it without the seIf-conscious sexual being. Thus the new man is marvelously organised. His thinking, his vision of external objects, is membered into his head; as a sort of counterbalance to his thinking we have conscious sexuality, the conscious heart-principle, and conscious speech, which is the expression of his inner world.
All this, too, is imaged on the astral plane, as well as the twelve streams. It appears as a tree with three roots—sexuality, the heart, and speech. These three are in communication with the head.
The nervous currents stream unceasingly to and from, like a being who is constantly stifling up and down—like a being in whom the lower part seems to be in continuous conflict with the spiritual. These two streams are in constant conflict with one another. The nerve fluids are all the time flowing down from above and back again. The clairvoyant sees this happening. That is really the picture of the coming into being of modern Man in preparation for Postatlantean times.
The ancient Druid priest, too, had to speak in this way. He had to say: " This can be seen, this is how it is." The people did not understand it, but he could describe it to them in a picture. Therefore he said to them: " What exists in man today, what is now living in him, the I-personality, comes from three sources.

One of these sources, which existed previously but has only now come to consciousness, derives from Niflheim. But there is a snake gnawing all the time at this particular root, from which the whole tree originates. This snake is called Nidhoggr." One can really see this snake biting; for the excesses of the sexual principle are something that bites at man.

Then we have the second root, which is there because the new life of Man comes from the heart. Everything he does comes under the impulse of his heart; he feels what makes him happy or unhappy; be feels the present, and also what he owes to those with whom he grows into the future—the real human destiny felt by the heart. And the priest-sages said: "Here is the root beside which the Norm sit and spin—the three Norns, Urdh, Verdhandi and Skuld, past, present and future."

The third root is what man experiences as speech. Hence Mimir's Well is at this root—Mimir, who drinks the draught of wisdom.

And up above the tree-tops reach into the realms of the spirit; and out of the spiritual come drops of the fructifying nerve-fluid. Hence it was said: "Up above is a she-goat who perpetually fructifies what is down below." And this fructifying principle was also described as a squirrel which runs down from above and carries back grumblings from below.
The new man in the new world is like a tree, an ash that has three roots.

One root comes from the north, from Niflheim;

the second from the warm Muspelheim;

and the third from Mimir's Well.

They are fructified from above by the goat, and a squirrel runs down and returns with complaints from below.
The whole is called 'the World Ash' - Yggdrasil. In this tree the cosmic forces are gathered together. The tree is the I-bearer. Yggdrasil means I-bearer. Ygg is 'I', and 'drasil' comes from the same root as the German verb tragen (to bear).
Now try to remember how many learned and ignorant, clever and stupid explanations of this Germanic myth have been given. None of them has any value for occultism. For occultists the statement that every sign—and even stories are signs—has its reality in the spiritual world holds good, and only when we know what is in tune with the spiritual world do we know the true significance of signs and myths. No one can revive and make use of the forces that reside in the Germanic line of development who does not approach myths in this way. No sign has a significance in occultism that cannot be seen in the higher world, and the ancient myths are signs, realities. If we are able to decipher the writing, we gaze deep into past ages, and at the same time the myths fructify us. Our abstract science can point to the twelve pairs of nerves; the occultist leads us into the entire cosmic connection. And in this way the whole connection becomes clear, as a symbol for the hidden spiritual. Therefore the occultist says, " If a man knows himself rightly, he knows himself to be a symbol."
Man himself, as a transitory being, is a symbol for something that is imperishable. But when he recognises the imperishable, there dawns in him the recognition of his own imperishable core.

1908-08-05-GA266

1915-07-24-GA162

see: Wotan Impulse#1915-07-24-GA162

Discussion

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References and further reading

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