Tree

We are all of us standing
under the tree
pyramid
ziggurat
stupa
(Can I reach back
to the centre
the source?
I am sworn
to the sphere
and the cube
This is
‘alam al-mithal
the world of the image
intermediary
between intellect and senses)
Energy of the snake
soul-sap
swirls in the immortal tree
honey-mead
firewater
amrita
Yggdrasil
the three Norns sit at its foot
watering its roots
passing the shuttle beween them
and Odin
wielding the valknut
binds and looses
In the Siberian taiga
beside the lake of milk
the White Youth comes to the tree
smelling its sweet perfume
seeing the light flowing through
drawn by a woman’s voice
a white horse
Djed pillar
sacrum of Osiris
seat of virility
root-chakra
where Kundalini pulses
Pine tree of Attis
decked with the violets of his blood
where he castrated himself
for Cybele
the dancing priests
wail and lament
and cut off their genitals
to be planted in the ground
Through the centre of the corn-plant
up the blessed pollen-path
the Navaho twin heroes
ascend through the heavens
to the sun
and undergo the trial
by fire and water
then return to earth
to teach men the sandpainter’s art
Onto the sandpainting
the sick man is placed
into the Axis Mundi
and they cover him in sand
heal him with sand
plunge him into the vortex
into the seed-time
to be re-integrated
Witness all the worlds
in the inverted asvattha
its roots in the heavens
its boughs to the earth
the force of creation
descending
Gold of the menorah
blossoming almond
tree of Mesopotamia
seven orbits of the planets
around the sun-shaft
from the serpent’s mouth
Eve takes the fruit
Upon an altar
beneath the banyan tree
Sakyamuni sits
rooted
to the earth’s core
he who was born
under the sal tree
In the sun lodge of the Sioux
eight breast-tethered braves
dance their blood out
for Wakan-Tanka
around the cottonwood tree
and the twenty-eight spokes
of the wheel
Aqua permanens
courses
through the Philosophical Tree
its branches spreading
throughout the world
veins in the body
Astride Burak
Mohammed flies
into the heavens
to the Garden of Paradise
the trees of pure gold
coral
and nacre
and at the centre
the Celestial Tree
four rivers flowing from it
water
milk
honey
and wine
See the tripartite tree of history
thrusting upwards
outwards
inwards
down
each millennial shoot emerging
out of the one before
each stage germinating
the next
seed from fruit
fruit from seed
(Joachim of Floris
a deer in the forest
sundappled
supping from the stream)
It is the other
I love
and fear
the horns of lightning
the rainbow’s curve
Under the kadamba tree
upon a lotus throne
Lord Krishna
sustains the universe
with his music
drawing all hearts towards the centre
Winged doors
of the kekayon
in the Javanese shadow theatre
epicentre of the battle
between demons and gods
through which we must pass
in fiery flight
The tree-pillar
of Emperor Akbar
in the Diwan-i-Khas
at Fatehpur Sikri
on which the Moghul
sat presiding
over ecumenical debate
between leaders of all religions
Marcel Duchamp
sets a Parisian bottlerack
in place
Celestial Tree
Pole Star
Piet Mondrian
strips the tree
down to the bone
the knot
and then just the equilibrium
of forces
In muddy ponds
for six months
the nagakals are immersed
soaking up the energy
then to be set up
beneath a tree
by women praying for a child
At Golgotha
the navel of the world
Jesus is lifted up
on the cross
on the very spot
where Adam was born
and died