The Axis Mundi and the Sky-Ward Direction

Cosmologies built on a vertical axis, an axis mundi connecting a sky realm, the ordinary world and an underworld, treat Above as a genuine direction in its own right rather than simply "up" in a loose sense. Norse cosmology's Yggdrasil reaches its branches into the sky realms while its roots run down into Niflheim and other lower worlds; Siberian and Central Asian shamanic traditions describe the shaman's journey along a comparable world-tree or world-pillar axis to reach the sky spirits above; and Mesoamerican cosmology places a world tree at the center of a similarly layered cosmos, its crown standing in for the heavens.

In each of these systems, Above names a real destination reachable along the vertical axis, not merely an empty direction, which is why it takes its place beside the horizontal cardinal directions in cosmological diagrams built on this model rather than being treated as a metaphor for them.