Monday, June 9, 2014 — Imagine

Imagine there’s no heaven. It’s easy if you try.
No hell below us. Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people living for today.

Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too.
Imagine all the people living life in peace.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.
I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can.
No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people sharing all the world.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us and the world will live as one.

Micah 4:4 Everyone will live in peace and prosperity, enjoying their own grapevines and fig trees, for there will be nothing to fear. God has made this promise!

Revelation 2:1-2 Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.

Psalm 24:1 “The earth, and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it, belong to God.”

In the middle of Asgard where the Norse gods lived, was Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life. Yggdrasil is always portrayed as an eternal green ash, whose branches stretch out over all of the nine worlds, and extend up and above the heavens. Yggdrasil is carried by three enormous roots which go deep.

One of the three roots is at the well of Urd, where there are three Goddesses of fate (Urd “past”, Verdani “present” and Skuld “future”) spin the threads of life of every human, animal and god. Every day they carry water from Urd’s well, and pour it over Yggdrasil. The water from the well is of vital importance to keep the tree green and healthy.

Well, this is a shortened story, of course – but it also made its way into Celtic mythology. To the Celts, the tree was a source of basic sustenance- a bearer of food, a provider of shelter and fuel for cooking and warmth. Wood from sacred trees had magical properties; in the Celtic Ogham alphabet each letter represents a particular sacred tree. In Celtic creation stories, trees were the ancestors of mankind, elder beings of wisdom who provided the alphabet, the calendar, and entrance to the realms of the Gods. Trees were living entities, and doorways into other worlds. The most sacred tree was the Oak, which represented the “axis mundi”, the centre of the world. The Celtic name for oak, ‘daur’, is the origin of the word door. The word Druid, the name of the Celtic Priestly class, is compounded from the words for oak and seeing- a Druid was one who was “Oak seeing,” meaning learned in tree magic and guardian of the doorway.

I’m sure many of us remember when the song “Imagine” was released – oh didn’t some of the churches just go completely squirrely at the mention of “No Religion” – and my memory is that it was some of the more conservative Christian churches which focused only on those two words and missed the entire rest of the meaning of the song.

Years ago the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov wrote a story in which the earth is a living organism. In this story, Earth tires of the wars, disease, and damage done to her – and in defense, her own immune system comes into play and she removes the disease, called humans. Earth is portrayed as feminine, and the core of Creation – and Creation has to react and respond to this disease called humanity.

So back to the Beatles, the Norse, the Celts, trees, Micah, Revelation – and most importantly, I think, the Psalm. The earth and all that is in it belongs to God. Not to us – that is, not to human beings. We have been victims of bad translation in Genesis – God giving human beings “dominion”, making us rulers. We are not the rulers of the earth and all that is in it – God is; we are the caretakers of this Creation, this Earth God has given us.

The Tree of Life – Yggdrasil – where the whole of Creation, and of our Earth, resides, is fed, grows, and lives in peace – as one. There is no heaven, no hell, no borders, no boundaries – just Earth, tended and cared for as she was intended to be – a lovely Garden. Imagine.