On the polysemanticism of the image of a tree in the Siberian shamanism worldview

The article foregrounds the symbolic concept of culture with regard to the traditional worldview of Siberia's peoples, particularly, to shamanic views. The main research focus is on the multiplicity of meanings put into the image of a tree which allows to consider it as a universal symbolic code that includes basic cultural meanings and mechanisms of their formation. The original idea of the identity of man and tree has several lines of development: 1) the emergence of the first man out of a tree; 2) his potential immortality associated with a tree and destroyed as a result of a fatal mistake; 3) the staying of souls of future people, prior to their birth, on trees; 4) the possibility of conceiving, giving birth and nurturing of a newly born with the help of a tree; 5) the return of man to a tree after death; 6) the existence of family trees associated with the life of members of a certain family. The immediate unity of man and tree, which guarantees immortality and absolute vitality, acts as a pattern of the sacred. Man's birth and his earthly life are seen as one or another degree of lowering the sacredness (the fall of souls of future children from celestial trees onto the ground), whereas man's death brings him back to the sacred pattern (burials on trees). The 'median' location of the World tree among other objects defined the concentric nature of the cultural values system formation - from the centre to the periphery, from sacred patterns to their profane embodiments. The stratification of the world, expressed in the vertical sprouting of a tree through its three main spheres is, possibly, a mythological interpretation of the idea of coexistence of various kinds of vitality (primarily, natural and cultural). Moreover, through the image of a tree a major function of culture was realized: the establishment of both spatial and time-related boundaries (between the real and the otherworldly, between night and day, between the live and the dead, etc.). The greater closeness of a shaman to the sacred sphere than that of other members of the traditional society determined the special role of a tree in the shamanic system of views. It could play an important role in the process of shamanic initiation and embody the shamanic race as well as the shamanic way and its various directions. In essence, with the help of a tree the most important idea of the traditional worldview was expressed: the idea of the inseparable link between the world of people and that of spirits and of the possibility of establishing a constant contact with the sacred sphere of being. Thus, the image of a tree in the traditional worldview of Siberia's peoples is disclosed in the three main closely connected segments of meaning: 1) the World tree as the primary structure forming element of the cosmic model which forms its space and time characteristics; 2) the tree of life which embodies the concept of the universe as a life-giving and man's life and death defining source; 3) the shamanic tree as a central symbol of the shamanic ideology disclosing ideas of the shamanic gift, initiation and the shamanic way. Besides, the meaningful disclosure of this significant cultural symbol can be traced at the three main levels of being: cosmos-society-man.

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