How often do you feel centered and grounded? Do you ever get the chance to check in with yourself and score how you’re feeling? Good, bad, better, worse?
I heard the term Axis Mundi recently while listening to one of Richard Rorh’s audiobooks that covers topics of theology and psychology (of the Jungian variety). Axis Mundi translates to World Axis, and according to the dictionary, refers to a “line or stem through the earth's center connecting its surface to the underworld and the heavens around which the universe revolves.”
In spirituality it is often represented by either a tree or a mountain, both of which represent a connection between heaven and earth.
Trees feature in many theologies and mythologies. For example in Buddhism it was under a Bodhi tree where the Buddha attained englightenment. Similarly in Norse mythology, Odin attained enlightenment at a great tree, around which all the rest of creation was formed. Those of us in the west are familiar with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.
Given a little time, space and some quiet we can all check in and understand how far on or off our own axes we are. We can look at ourselves to see how much we are like those trees pictured above—strong, rooted, connected and transcending—or if we’re in a worse state. And just like trees, we can do a few things to manage ourselves.
Trees actually have mechanisms for self-pruning, for doing away with things that are not serving them. Like dropping leaves or flowers at the end of the growing season, or pre-maturely dropping some of it’s fruits in order to conserve resources for the remainig fruit. This process is call abscission.
Abscission happens in three events:
Resorption—when the plant calls back all the nutrients from the area that it needs to let go of.
Protective layer formation—when the plant forms cork cells, kind of like a scar, that protects the abscised area from the elements.
Detachment—the organ (leaf, fruit, etc) finally detaches, leaving only the protective layer behind it.
Myriad practices from the spiritual to the heavily-studied psychological encourage a very similar process for humans to take whenever we’re trying to re-center ourselves.
In our resorption phase we identify things in our life that aren’t serving us—a bad habit, soured relationship, crappy job, etc. We build an awareness of what energies we’re sending out, and through resorption we start calling those energies back in. Trees will reabsorb as many nutrients as they can from the soon-to-be-severed leaf in order to conserve and bolster the resources it has to send to rest of itself.
Once we identify those things that aren’t serving us, we start working on forming a protective layer between us and that thing. If it’s a bad habit, we form a protective layer by building new feedback loops for ourselves. If it’s a soured relationship, we do what we need to start cutting ties. We take the actions needed to form a protective layer between us and the problem.
I want to note here that forming a protective layer might take days, weeks, months or years—we’ve all been in situations that were toxic and difficult to emerge from, whether it was a marriage gone bad, a job that was difficult to get out of, or a bad habit that we struggled to kick, like smoking or alcoholism.
Ultimately, we get to a place of detachment. We’ve built our protective layer, we’ve weatherproofed our wounds, grown thicker skin or built incredible new habits. We’ve transcended, our branches grow higher, our fruits grow juicier, and next season we’ll be ready to spring a few more flowers than we ever have before.
This is how we strengthen our axis mundi.
Checking in
Confession: Lately I’ve been going to my local Cathedral on Sundays for their Sunday Eucharist. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it, as I have avoided the institutions of Christianity since I was an adolescent. (I grew up in Alabama, where Fundamentalism reigns). But I’ve always enjoyed a little ritual, silent time and meeting nice people.
The last time I engaged in religious rituals with other humans was from 2016-2018 when I started attending a buddhist centre for their meditation course. That course taught me how to get quiet and pay attention to my mind and body in ways I never knew were possible. It helped to loosen me up too after a period of great stress and life changes.
I attended Sangha nights and went on one semi-silent meditation retreat with them. Sangha nights are is a bit like a Sunday Christian church service but for Buddhists—we’d sing or chant, meditate and then listen to something like a sermon that contained stories about the Buddha/s. It was ritual combined with silent contemplation and reflection, with some stories thrown in for reference. I really enjoyed it and the people were so warm and welcoming. But I fell out of going after a couple of years.
Then one day on my walk to work, I popped into the Sheffield Cathedral to check out an art exhibition they had on. I got to chatting with one of the Reverends and told him I enjoyed the rituals and quiet reflection time, but had been scarred by fundamentalism in my youth. We kept chatting and both agreed that there’s a million ways to interpret stories whether they’re from the Bible, Bhagavad Gita, Torah or any other holy book—but at the end of the day there are some shared human truths. We both agreed contemplation, ritual and maintaining a connection to our higher consciousness were meaningful things to do.
So, I started attending the Sunday service and so far I’m finding it incredibly useful to go to the same place at the same time each week for ritual, reflection and contemplation. It’s like getting onto the scale except in a more holistic sense. I’m checking on the weight of my overall being, not just my physical weight.
I’m someone who has always loved to sing, too—and having a little time to sing with other humans is actually really nice. I find myself trying to find harmonies, my old training as an Alto in school choirs nipping at the practice. I also love the incense—the Buddhists also had incredible incense!
Each week, Sunday morning is my time to check in with myself. I reflect on how I felt the last time I visited, and use that as a measure for my present state—better or worse. It’s a bit like going to the optometrist and he flicks those lenses in front of your eyes asking, “1 or 2, better or worse?” Each week I find an answer to that question, and then each week I think about what I need to work on—where do I need to apply some abscission? What do I need to change or let go of?
This is my practice for now. I can easily see this being over-taken in the future by something different—a hot yoga class or a tai chi session or maybe I’ll rejoin the Buddhist center just to switch things up again. But for now, this is serving me. It provides that little bubble of space and time where I can reflect on my Axis Mundi and start working some things out.
How are you reflecting on your Axis Mundi?
Is it church, a yoga class, or a few quiet minutes in the morning before everyone wakes up? I hope you find the time and give yourself the grace to practice abscission—to prune, pluck and mend yourself and your environment so that you can be more connected and centered on your axis. More in touch with your State of the Art self.
Thank you so much for joining me here, I really appreciate it. If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe! I’ll write again next week.
On and off I have had a kind of morning yoga practice doing mostly mediyoga (a medicinal yoga created in Sweden) and the some asanas, short meditation, and stretching. Sometimes ending with a short Chinese Reflexology.
Sadly my tenacity and discipline is quite lacking and I don't get the benefit I am sure I would if I kept up this practice/ritual more regularily.
I sit on the mat in my daughter's room and especially if it's really early I find myself both calmer and more envigorated. These moments are the closest to serenity I get in my everyday life.