THE WEEPING WILLOW
"All around my hat l wear the green willow
All for my truelove who is far away"
This traditional song shows the willow tree has long been associated with sorrow, loss and mourning, growing beside pools of tears, reflecting on the transience of life. The swan ascending, symbol of the released spirit, joins the moon and stars in the heavens, but the cycle continues as fresh shoots emerge from the waters of life below, and a dragonfly dries his newly opened wings and prepares to take flight.
The tree is one of the most fundamental of all traditional symbols. Its form reflects the threefold mystery of life, with roots that originate in the underworld, the trunk standing in the middle-earth of our physical existence, and the branches reaching up to the world beyond. The tree as world axis represents the ultimate reality, inexhaustible life and immortality.
