“Trees have long held a literal and symbolic fascination in our history. Their source as a deep archetype of absorption begins with the earliest epic in the Western World, the story of Gilgamesh and his quest for the plant of life (a symbolic tree) that is snatched away by a serpent, thus illustrating that the use of the tree as a universal religious symbol is incredibly ancient. 

In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is the trunk wedding the heavens, the underworld, and earth. This tree represents the place where the sacred enters the profane. The universe is supported by this tree that towers from the netherworld to the apex of the heavens.​

Odin, the equivalent of the Greek Zeus, hung on the tree for nine days, self-sacrificed so that he could bring the wisdom of the runes to his people, interpreted as language, knowledge, archetypally equal to Eve's eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Once again, from the symbol of the tree flows human awareness and consciousness, the nexus of being thrown into time and space.

In conclusion, the tree symbol is viewed as a universal archetype uniting the world of temporal matter, the other world of death, and the universal paradise myth regained after the completion of life's journey, for the tree exists in three worlds: the earthly, the underworld, and its branches soar into the infinite heavens, the domain of god.”

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(Ralph Monday, The Archetypal Symbolism of Trees:

Spiritual and Religious Dimensions )