Eden and Jacob's Ladder to Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel. It is the essence of the journey described in The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. The epic poem relates its hero's descent and ascent through a series of spiral structures that take him through the core of the earth, from the depths of hell to celestial paradise. It is also a central tenet in the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Anyone or anything suspended on the axis between heaven and earth becomes a repository of potential knowledge. A special status accrues to the thing suspended: a serpent, a rod, a fruit, mistletoe. Derivations of this idea find form in the Rod of Asclepius, an emblem of the medical profession, and in the caduceus, an emblem of correspondence and commercial professions. The staff in these emblems represents the axis mundi, while the serpents act as guardians of, or guides to, knowledge. Modern expressions A modern artistic representation of the axis mundi is the Colonne sans fin (The Endless Column, 1938) an abstract sculpture by Romanian Constantin Brâncuși. The column takes the form of a "sky pillar" () upholding the heavens even as its rhythmically repeating segments invite climb and suggest the possibility of ascension. See also Alchemy Celestial sphere Comparative mythology Crucifix Fertile Crescent Fleur de lis Herma History of the center of the Universe Hyperborea Liminal spaces North pole Optical axis Palmette Phurba Sacred natural site Taiji (philosophy) Vorticism References Comparative mythology Esoteric cosmology Geographical centres Religious cosmologies Mythological places Panentheism Pantheism Religious symbols Shamanism Spirituality