The Milky Way: Path to the Empyrean?

Before the Ptolemaic model of the cosmos became established in the West, an earlier model had been predominent for many centuries. This ancient cosmology was so widespread and ingrained that its influence still continues today, especially among many rural Arctic and Mexican peoples. It pictured the Earth as a disc, with a great tree or pillar growing out from its "navel". There is evidence that this shining central axis was originally identified with the Milky Way, whose summit led to a whirling vortex.