This is the realm of inspiration, where immortal beings dwell, The
Shining Ones. It’s a place of divine beings and teachers of tradition. It is
the place where the spark that begins the intention is formed, to come
into manifestation. It is the waving boughs of the world tree, reaching
towards the heavens, yet connected to the deep earth through the trunk,
rooted into the soil as it reaches for the stars.
The Upperworld is a place of light, but this is not the sort of good/evil
connotation that usually abounds in modern thinking, where darkness is
evil and light is good. The darkness of the Lowerworld is the darkness of
mystery and transformation, the lightness of the Upperworld is that of
illumination and enlightenment. We need both in our lives, and cannot
ignore one or the other. The Upperworld is often called the realm of the
gods, but this too is an over-generalisation. The gods exist in all three
worlds. The Upperworld is perhaps the place of form, where the “purest”
form or archetypes can be found for many.
In the Hedge Druid’s Craft we work with the Upperworld after
becoming familiar with the Lowerworld and Middleworld, first. We need
the knowledge and stability from these planes of existence before we
move up into the branches of the world tree, otherwise our foundation is
shaky and we can easily topple over in the slightest of breezes. We need
to know who we are, through our ancestors, and where we are, in the
present moment, before we pursue the greater mysteries and questions
of humanity and our own souls.
