Time travels both forwards and backwards in the ‘way of wyrd’

The world tree ‘yggdrasil’ stands at the centre of Norse cosmology.

At its roots lies the nourishing Well of Urd (Wyrd in old English)

Here time is cyclical. ‘Water’ flows up from the well into the tree, then drips down from the leaves back into it, to begin the cycle once more.

The ‘well of destiny’ is the realm of ‘completed actions’; it feeds the tree of the present moment, influencing its growth and, in turn, the dewy droplets of the present fall back to the past.

In this cosmology the past is mutable. The present moment informs the past, changing and reshaping it, to be reabsorbed into a new present. Time flows forwards and also backwards.

By this action, all who are subject to destiny, have some degree of agency in its shaping. The pracice of magic seeks to do this actively, gaining a greater degree of control over the forces of destiny.

The Well of Wyrd is home to three maidens of the lake; Urd, Verdandi and Skuld; “What Once Was”, “What Is Coming into Being” and “What Shall Be”

There they carve, at the tree’s immense trunk, the runes that map destiny.

From the tree hang the ‘nine worlds.’

Our world is named ‘Midgard’; the only realm that is completely visible to mankind, although other realms may intersect ours at certain places.

Growing up with ‘the enchanted wood’ and ‘the magic faraway tree’, certainly hardwired these types of themes into my sensibility. Or perhaps they only fed into the inherent motifs I gravitate towards naturally.

It’s all there!; the tree, the myriad ‘worlds’, held in the topmost branches and, what I found so captivating, the denizens and folk of the faraway tree itself. They seemed to live outside the drama and concerns of the individual worlds. they were like guardians and caretakers, protecting something fundamental; A way or transition point.

In the the Norse cosmology, we also find beings living in, on, or under the tree itself.

An eagle perches in its upper branches and a number of dragons gnaw at the roots from below. A squirrel, ‘Ratatosk’, scurries around the tree carrying messages to the eagle, as four deer, Dain, Dvalin, Duneyr, and Dyrathror, nibble at the highest shoots.