Fable: The World Tree

The world is a tree with many trunks. This, we know. How do we know? I will tell you.

Look around you. See the pillars. They grow tall and strong; straight, and beautiful. They are the trunks of which I speak. Back when the world was young, and our ancestors were just babies would could barely crawl, the trunks were short and thin. Floor and ceiling touched together. The humans of that day could not walk or stand, because they had no room! But now, look. The ceiling is up so high, because the tree trunks grew, and grew, and pushed their branches high above.

The ceiling is their branches. Yes, yes it is! Look above, how the columns widen at the tops. They are tree trunks with branches that spread out to meet each other. Though they are many, like a forest canopy, they are one. Yes, it is true. It is.

The ground is their roots. I know it to be true. Like the ceiling, the bases of the columns reach out toward one another. They have joined together. They are one tree, now, and the columns are the many trunks.

You do not believe me? Listen. I have one more bit of proof.

Have you ever dug down, deep? And deeper still? So deep that you cannot climb out? So deep that if you put your house in the hole, the edges would still be above your roof? Ah, of course you have not. So you may not know that people have done this.

Why? Well, there are things in the ground that people want. Yes, yes, many things, like gold and silver and diamonds. Yes, these things grow in the ground. They are the product of the trees, like nuts and tubers. Ah, see? The world tree doesn’t produce fruit, but it still produces.

You are still not convinced? What are they teaching you in school? Listen, if you dig too deep, do you know what happens? When you hurt the world too much, it heals. Ah. You did not know? The world closes its wounds over time. If you cut the ground, or you cut a pillar, the stone reshapes itself. What else can do that, but a living thing? How could the world heal, if it were not a tree?

The world is a tree. I know this, and now you know this, too.