Pole

The pole is, of course, distinctly phallic and, when erected in the ground, represents the center of the world. The raising of a pole in the middle of a religious ceremony was universal (the maypole is a remnant of this); symbolically, it is the earth’s midpoint, the point around which everything revolves and where everything happens—it marks the eternal place where humans and gods come together. (See also “Circulating” under Circle.)  

The pole shares similarities with the world axis, the world tree, and the mountain at the center of the world, but also with poles around which everything revolves. (The Greek word pólos means “axis rotation.”) (See also North Pole, Staff, Spear, and Tree.)  

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