The Role of the Tree in Shamanic Journey

The tree is a universal image of the cosmos and it works on two levels. One is the root which is the place of animal spirits and power animals, also the place of primordial instinctual powers. The middle world can basically be understood as the reality we all kind of walk around in a gree upon. In the Norse tradition there is an animal that runs up and down the world tree the tree of life and that is the red squirrel. It's seen then that the red squirrel really represents the shaman as the messenger between the worlds.