Yggdrasil Day April 22

This day is an opportunity to reflect on humanity's place in the nine worlds and to celebrate the blessings of nature, often illustrated by the planting of a tree. It is also a time to celebrate one's culture, heritage, and spirituality.

Regardless of faith, Yggdrasil Day is a great opportunity for anyone to give back to nature and recognize our interdependence on each other and the natural world.

Arbor Day is dedicated to trees and their importance here in our little blue world. I don't know how many trees are planted around the world today—perhaps millions—but none can compare to the largest tree ever planted, Yggdrasil. Arbor Day is another one of those secular days of celebration that I've borrowed and use to honor something or someone in our great pantheon of gods and goddesses.

Voluspa often described the Tree:

"Until three of the Aesir assembled there, strong and benevolent, came to the sea. They found on the shore two weak trees, Ask and Embla, with no fixed destiny.

Gylfaginning ends the story:

“And they gathered them together and created men from them. The first gave them spirit and life, the second intelligence and power of movement, the third form, speech, hearing and sight. They gave them clothes and names.

The gods gave life to the trees, and thus humanity was born. Voluspa gives us a wonderful description of the Great Ash:

“There is an ash tree, its name is Yggdrasil. A great tree watered from a cloudy well. Dew falls from its branches into the valleys. Evergreen, it stands beside the spring of the Norns.

The importance and sacredness of the Gods is shown in Gylfaginning when Gangleri asks, "Where is the chief place, or sanctuary of the Gods?" High One replies, "It is near the ash tree Yggdrasil. There, every day, the Gods hold their court."

The Top then goes on to give the best description of Yggdrasil.

“The ash is the best and largest of all trees, its branches stretching over the whole world and reaching up to the sky. The tree is held in place by three mighty roots that spread far and wide. One is among the Aesir; the second among the Frost Ogres, where Ginnungagap once was; the third extends over Niflheim, and beneath this root is the well Hvergelmir. 

But Nidhogg gnaws at the root from below. Beneath the root that turns in the direction of the Frost Ogres lies the spring of Mimir, within which wisdom and understanding are hidden. The third root of the ash tree is in the sky, and beneath this root lies the most sacred spring called Urd. There, the gods hold their court of justice.

The High One later adds:

“There is much to be said about it. In its branches sits an eagle, and he is very learned. Between his eyes is a hawk called Vedrfolnir. A squirrel named Ratatosk pops up and down from the ash and passes words of abuse between the great eagle and Nidhogg. Four deer jump onto the branches of the Ash and eat the shoots. And with Nidhogg there are so many snakes that no tongue can count them.”

Yggdrasil is the cosmic world tree, and ash, which links this world to others, to the world of gods, spirits and ancestors, it is the symbol of our union with nature. In the mythology Nordic, it is an ash tree known as Yggdrasil, the cosmic tree that symbolizes the center of the world, which Odin suspended for nine days and nine nights in a trance, received the sacred knowledge of the runes, the Elder Futhark.

Yggdrasil has always played an important role in the lives of the people of Northern Europe. We all come from nature and will one day return to it, so on this day we honor the forces of nature and will always remember the importance of protecting the world we live in.