Copacul lumii sau evadarea transcendentală
The tree of the world or the transcendental flight

Summary/Abstract: The „Cosmic tree”, the ladder, the belts and the mountain symbolize “...the ascending path crossed by those who pass from the visible world to the invisible one. (...) Symbol of evolving life, rising to the sky, the tree evokes the whole symbolism of verticality.” (Chevalier Jean, Gheerbrant, Alain, Dicţionar de simboluri, Bucureşti, Editura Artemis, 1995, vol.1, pp. 124-125) The „Axis mundi” is a connection between Earth and Heaven. The symbol originates in a natural and universal psychological perception: that there is a "center of the world" which serves as a microcosm of order because it is known and settled. Outside the boundaries of the microcosm lie foreign realms which represent chaos, death and night. This is due to the fact that they are unfamiliar or not ordered. (M. Eliade, Imagini şi simboluri, Eseu despre simbolismul magico-religios. Prefaţă de Georges Dumezil. Traducere de Alexandra Beldescu, Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 1994). In the Romanian fairy-tales, the tree is a gate to the other world. The real path followed by the heroes is towards their inner self, towards the center of their being and this is the “the most real imaginary voyage” (G. Durand, Structurile antropologice ale imaginarului. Introducere în arhetipologia generală. Traducere de Marcel Aderca. Postfaţă de Cornel Mihai Ionescu, Editura Univers enciclopedic, Bucureşti, 1998, p.129). In order to “put into practice” the concept of the cosmic tree, we analyzed three tales: Piciul ciobănaşul şi pomul cel fără căpătâi, gathered by Petre Ispirescu, Bulimandră şi Mândra-Lumei, by Simion Florea Marian and Copacul-Minune, included in Sachsische Volksmarchen aus Siebenburgen – Basme populare săseşti din Transilvania, by Josef Haltrich. All these three stories focus on an untrustworthy shepherd as a hero. A “reversed analogy” results: those who start the initiation path are seen as ignoble by the layman.

• Details
• Contents