The trees, the moon and the doors.

[Wolfcrow]

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'A narrow weirwood door stood between two slender marble pillars, a crescent moon carved in the white wood.'

'The light of the moon painted the limbs of the weirwood silvery white as she made her way toward it, but the five-pointed red leaves turned black by night.'

'It looked as if the tree was trying to catch the moon'

'It was white weirwood, and there was a face on it. A glow came from the wood, like milk and moonlight, so faint it scarcely seemed to touch anything beyond the door itself, not even Sam standing right before it. The face was old and pale, wrinkled and shrunken. It looks dead. Its mouth was closed, and its eyes; its cheeks were sunken, its brow withered, its chin sagging. If a man could live for a thousand years and never die but just grow older, his face might come to look like that.'

'The left-hand door was made of weirwood pale as bone, the right of gleaming ebony. In their center was a carved moon face; ebony on the weirwood side, weirwood on the ebony. The look of it reminded her somehow of the heart tree in the godswood at Winterfell. The doors are watching me, she thought.'

In the books we see, pretty often, a connection between the trees and the moon, with the above to be some of them, but I want to go deeper in the last three.

The first, is from a Bran chapter and it looks like the tree is conjoint with the moon physically, symbolizing that the two somehow are connected, probably with magic. In the second, it's the black gate, the weirwood door that is glowing with moonlight and has a face. In the last quote by Arya the moon on the weirwood door, like the face of the weirwood in Winterfell, is watching her.

Another pattern we see is, that both the moon and weirwoods are associated with doors, the moon door, the door at tHoBaW and the black gate. A door can be a symbol of opportunity or one of imprisonment, exactly the situation both Bran and Arya are at this point of the story. Even the moon door in reality leads you to your death, meaning another world. Robin said "make them fly", a verb used mostly when we talk about freedom, but in this scene it leads you to your deth, a place that you cannot come back from, like a prison. Doors or doorways symbolize the transition and passageway from one place to another and are often used to symbolize the passage from one world to another in many religions, mythologies, and literature.

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"We'll find this gate at the bottom of the well?"

'Pale moonlight slanted down through the hole in the dome, painting the branches of the weirwood as they strained up toward the roof. It looked as if the tree was trying to catch the moon and drag it down into the well.'

And this is where another connection comes to play with weirwoods, doors and the moon, wells. The black gate, a really important place on the wall, that is a key element for the story to continue, is inside a well, the well is the entrance.

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' "The back door is three leagues north, down a sinkhole." '

'They placed it in the great cavern by the abyss, where the black air echoed to the* sound of running water far below.'

' "The river you hear is swift and black, and flows down and down to a sunless sea. And there are passages that go even deeper, bottomless pits and sudden shafts, forgotten ways that lead to the very center of the earth. '

' The river was six hundred feet below, down steep slopes and twisty passages, she explained, and the last part required* climbing down a rope. '

A sinkhole with running water underneath, sounds like a natural well to me, specially when there is already a rope so you can go up and down easier. Again, the well is playing the role of the entrance and throughout our story we have many weird bottomless wells. Another thing we know is, that throwing unwanted kids, specially bastards, to wells, was a common practice in Westeros and aparently it still is in the North. But we also know, that sacrificing kids specially ones with magical blood was also a common practice.

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' "The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. '

' wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees '

If wells, leads you to the deep rooted strong trees, by throwing magical kids to wells, you are giving them to the Gods. I think that heraldry in asoiaf gives some hints about the world and if this is the case, then House Wells (North) sigil is a great hint. Underneath the wells we see green and white, the main colours we associate with the trees, moon and ice.

A well is a dark hole in the earth, the exact oppisite from a full moon. And we have plenty of times when the moon and wells are described similarly, it depends on the light and the place we have. Another thing is that this comparisons are mostly from Bran, a greensheer.

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' When Bran finally lifted his head around to look back up the shaft, the top of the well was no bigger than a half-moon. '

' The moon was a black hole in the sky. '

So, the greensheer is a link between the moon and the trees.

The singers carved eyes into their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new greenseer learns to use ...but in time you will see well beyond the trees themselves.

And this is where another story comes in:

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'... formed a single realm ruled by the God-on-Earth, the only begotten son of the Lion of Night and Maiden Made-of-Light, who traveled about his domains in a palanquin carved from a single pearl and carried by a hundred queens, his wives.'

This pearl palanquin, sounds like a fancy phrasing for the moon. And, indeed, the moon is always visible, night and day, and is "watching" the earth while "traveling". 'Carried by his handred queens' this maybe is about the stars, but unlike the moon, they are not visible during daylight, but also, it could be about the trees. Picturing the scene Bran saw, the moon is carried by the trees, like horses carrying a carriege, the moon even is depicted as carved, a word often used for wooden objects. If the moon was carved from something, it would be from weirwood wood, that often is described white as the moon and glowing with moonlight, making the palanquin and the wives from the same material and even more fitting with each other. And that makes the God on earth and the eye of the god the person and the place the first human practiced magic, a greensheer, or something similar.

If you don't need the trees to see, the moon is a great place for the spirit. It's everywhere and leaves forever, and even though it lights the night and it's glowing, it's still stronger when it's dark. The moon it's in every myth about the long night in the known world, it's the nexus between light and dark, day and night and between every form of magic we have seen. It's the medium between the stars (often associate with the others and are visible only at night) and the sun (close to fire, visible during the day and "father" to dragons). The moon cracking because of the Blood Betrayal, means there was no more balance, because magic was used for unethical things, things the gods don't like and no human is allowed to do. The moon (often paired with women and goddesses that helped through the long nigh), is there to light the way and help during the long night.

These are some thoughts I had, that I found interesting.

[Springwatch]

Funny I never really saw that connection before: the tree wants to drag the moon down a well, and lo and behold, down the well is a glowing white door. Made of the tree wood. As imagery goes, it's kind of complicated.

[Wolfcrow]

17 minutes ago, Springwatch said:

As imagery goes, it's kind of complicated.

In general, specially, Bran chapters are packed with stuff, that I didn't notice the first time I was reading the books. Another thing that didn't really click the first time around for some reason, is that in the chapter Barn finally greensheers and get connected to the trees, every time we see time passes in the cave, the paragraphas start with these 2 phrases:

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The moon was a black hole in the sky.

The moon was a crescent, thin and sharp as the blade of a knife.

Descriptions that we have seen for the well, that the Black Gate is located. 

[Evolett]

On 6/6/2022 at 1:45 AM, Wolfcrow said:

Another pattern we see is, that both the moon and weirwoods are associated with doors, the moon door, the door at tHoBaW and the black gate. A door can be a symbol of opportunity or one of imprisonment, exactly the situation both Bran and Arya are at this point of the story. Even the moon door in reality leads you to your death, meaning another world. Robin said "make them fly", a verb used mostly when we talk about freedom, but in this scene it leads you to your deth, a place that you cannot come back from, like a prison. Doors or doorways symbolize the transition and passageway from one place to another and are often used to symbolize the passage from one world to another in many religions, mythologies, and literature.

Yes, I agree. In terms of greenseeing, weirwoods certainly open doors to the past, the present and even to the future, their carved eyes being the "doors" that the greenseer can open and look through once wedded to the tree. According to the lore of the CotF, souls of the dead go into the trees where their memories are preserved and when Varamyr is dying he feels himself inside the weirwood, gazing out on the world. The trees are definitely portals to another world.

In combination with the moon and with wells or pools, weirwood doors seem to lead to death or to the underworld or "otherworld." The house of black and white is basically a house of death, dedicated to the "Many Faced God of death," a place where those who no longer want to live can end their lives with a drink from the poisoned pool or where those who desire the death of others may engage the faceless assasins to do the deed.  And as you point out, the Moon Door of the Eyrie leads to death. The Black Gate which is a white weirwood door glowing with moonlight allows access beyond the Wall, essentially another world, also home to the Others.

I think the black and white weirwood moons on the doors of the tHoBaW depict a full moon and a new moon, the latter being the "black hole in the sky." Epithets of the "black moon" are probably the wells and pools associated with the moon. The Moon Pool of Braavos where bravos duel to the death in the night is a good example of the moon, pool and death association. After the horse heart eating ceremony, Daenerys bathes in the lake known as the Womb of the World. A reflection of the moon shatters and reforms on its surface as she bathes, perhaps a hint to the "death" of her former life and rebirth as a mother of dragons and conqueress of cities. 

In real life, there are years when not twelve but thirteen moons are counted within one year. These can be either 13 full moons or thirteen new moons. The extra new moon is referred to as a "black moon" while the extra full moon is the "Blue Moon." Both are rare events occuring only every 19 years. The 13th black moon is also termed a "betrayer moon" or "traitor's moon," and indeed we have one such mentioned by Tyrion in the narrative:

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“Shagga, what moon is this?” Shagga’s frown was a fierce thing. “Black, I think.” “In the west, they call that a traitor’s moon.

I've reserched the black moons in the story and have found they are consistently linked to treachery. That makes me wonder about the black moons that appear in Bran's last chapter as well as a possible link to Night's King who was the 13th LC of the NW who reigned for 13 years and chased and loved a woman with skin as white as the moon. 

At the Nightfort, why do we have a weirwood door with a face at the bottom of a well (symbolising a black moon) acting as a portal to another world? And right next to the well we have a young weirwood without a face, its brances reaching towards the moon as if trying to catch it?

On 6/6/2022 at 1:45 AM, Wolfcrow said:

So, the greensheer is a link between the moon and the trees.

Yes, but what does this mean? The Black Gate weirwood door is obviously alive, down at the bottom of a well in darkness. Surprising that it should be alive at all with no natural light at its disposal. This is speculation, but I'm thinking the Black Gate is synonymous with the black moon and is in reality an ancient greenseer with a face imprisoned in a weirwood at the bottom of the well to act as a "watcher," a guard who only opens the door to a member of the NW who speaks the right words. If this "Black Gate" is synonymous with the treacherous 13th black moon, perhaps this ancient face is none other than that of Night's King, imprisoned for his crimes within the Wall to forever keep watch - analogous to the 79 sentinells locked into the ice of the Wall. We've seen Bloodraven, former LC of the NW still alive in the darkness, seated in and welded to the weirwood so this kind of fits.  And perhaps the young weirwood trying to catch the moon above is a representation of the younger Night's King still trying to catch his Night's Queen whose skin was as white as the moon. 

 

[Evolett]

On 6/6/2022 at 1:45 AM, Wolfcrow said:

Even the moon door in reality leads you to your death, meaning another world. Robin said "make them fly", a verb used mostly when we talk about freedom, but in this scene it leads you to your deth, a place that you cannot come back from, like a prison. Doors or doorways symbolize the transition and passageway from one place to another and are often used to symbolize the passage from one world to another in many religions, mythologies, and literature.

The Moon Door at the Eyrie is especially interesting as is Sweetrobin's desire to see people "fly" out the door. There is a direct connection between flying out the Moon Door at the Eyrie and Bran's falling from the tower of the Old Keep and subsequently learning  to "fly." The connection suggestes the Moon Door is not only a portal or transition to death but also a door to the "higher mysteries." Bran and Sweetrobin are cousins through their Tully mothers. I've argued elsewhere that Bran's greenseeing powers come from his Tully side and still believe I'm right on that account. Sweetrobin also shows signs of the supernatural and all this is linked to the idea of the Moon Door. 

Bran loved climbing, making his way skillfully up to the top of the Old Keep at Winterfell. The top is the eyrie, where he fed the crows. 

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The last part was the scramble up the blackened stones to the eyrie, no more than ten feet, and then the crows would come round to see if you’d brought any corn.

Bran keeps falling during his dream while the three-eyed-crow urges him to "fly or die." As he falls, he sees jagged spires of ice that fly up at him like spears - a death sentence.

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Bran looked down. There was nothing below him now but snow and cold and death, a frozen wasteland where jagged blue-white spires of ice waited to embrace him. They flew up at him like spears. He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points. He was desperately afraid.

Bran manages to "fly" rather than die. Later in the darkness of the Winterfell Crypts (another "Underworld"), his third eye will open, allowing him to skinchange summer. The jagged spires of ice in his dream are akin to the seven arrow-like the towers of the Eyrie perched on the Mountains of the Moon. 

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The Eyrie was a small castle by the standards of the great houses; seven slender white towers bunched as tightly as arrows in a quiver on a shoulder of the great mountain.

Bran is the "Winged Wolf." In the Vale, there are tales of the "Winged Knight," a legendary figure who rode a falcon and had great armies of eagles at his command. There are common elements to these observations. Was the Winged Knight a skinchanger? 

The Arryn sigil depicts a falcon flying high over a crescent moon. The crescent moon reminds us of the phases of the moon - new moon, waxing moon, full moon, waning moon. The moon changes its shape during the course of the month, it "shape-shifts," likely a clue to the moon's connection to skinchanging. The crescent moon is sickle shaped and the author often describes it in terms of a knife:

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The moon was a crescent, thin and sharp as the blade of a knife.

Lysa dies when she flies out the sickle-moon door but the falcon suggests an alternative - the ability to "fly" in spirit. 

 

[Wolfcrow]

On 6/10/2022 at 11:57 PM, Evolett said:

Yes, but what does this mean?

It seems that along with the trees, the greensheers are connected to the moon too. This is why I said about God on Earth, he sounds like a greensheer, but he was "using" the moon to see. Bloodraven said that at first you need the trees, but with time it's not the only way to see the past and the present at any given place, but if not uisng the trees then what? The moon it's a great alternative, visible from anywhere and everywhere and was there since the beginning. 

 

On 6/10/2022 at 11:57 PM, Evolett said:

I've reserched the black moons in the story and have found they are consistently linked to treachery. That makes me wonder about the black moons that appear in Bran's last chapter as well as a possible link to Night's King who was the 13th LC of the NW who reigned for 13 years and chased and loved a woman with skin as white as the moon. 

At the Nightfort, why do we have a weirwood door with a face at the bottom of a well (symbolising a black moon) acting as a portal to another world? And right next to the well we have a young weirwood without a face, its brances reaching towards the moon as if trying to catch it?

About, that yes, I am intereted to see where this is going. It would hint that Bloodraven doesn't say the full truth and it could hint at an eclipse too. A full lunar eclipse it's a black hole in the sky, it would mean this is one of the reasons why it's so dark for so long, and why the moon turned its back on humanity. 

 

On 6/11/2022 at 12:46 AM, Evolett said:

I've argued elsewhere that Bran's greenseeing powers come from his Tully side and still believe I'm right on that account

I agree with that too, I had a post at some point about the bloodlines of the Stark kids and Cat's bloodline seems to be magical too. Also, sweet Robin fits the description Bloodraven gave us about greensheers, even more than Bran. Actually even Rickin fits better and both these charachters had dream, I think that the crow tried to visit all three of them, it just happened that Bran "crossed" to the other side and connected, because of his near death experiance, but the potential was there for all of them. 

 

On 6/10/2022 at 11:57 PM, Evolett said:

I've reserched the black moons in the story and have found they are consistently linked to treachery.

Another  thing that is connected to treachery and lies are crows, that constantly throughout the series people say that they are not ravens. So, it could be that Bloodraven it's not exactly transparent, since on Bran's dreams he was not a raven, but a crow. 

[Evolett]

On 6/6/2022 at 1:45 AM, Wolfcrow said:

'... formed a single realm ruled by the God-on-Earth, the only begotten son of the Lion of Night and Maiden Made-of-Light, who traveled about his domains in a palanquin carved from a single pearl and carried by a hundred queens, his wives.'

While I agree that greenseers are connected to the trees as well as to the moon and that they might be "seeing" with the moon as well, I do not think the first God-on-Earth was a greenseer or able to see at all or had any power over moon-magic represented by the pearl palanquin. His wives carry the pearl, they are the ones doing the "travelling," carrying the "pearl" along with the Emperor. The direct contact between the pearl and the wives suggests the wives were responsible for any magic associated with the pearl. The pearl is a feminine symbol and a gem stemming from oysters, creatures of water, matching the moon's association with water.

In the main story, the pearl is associated with fertility and with peace and also with a number of maidens and women who wear pearls, including Sansa, Arya, Lysa and Dany, all women with a magical heritage. The pearl's association with peace and fertility in the main book series echos the era of the Great Empire of the Dawn which was characterised by 10000 years of peace and prosperity, the latter suggesting a era of great fertility and food production. The GEoTD was probably well versed in agricultural practice, this I believe represented by the "pearl moon" and his 100 wives as the mediators of this fertility magic. 

That the first god-emperor had no powers of clairvoyance or "seeing" is heavily suggested by the absence of a "jewel name." Emperors that follow him are all named after diverse jewels, beginning with the Pearl Emperor. In the narrative, the eyes of various characters are often described in terms of jewels. Daenerys has amethyst eyes, Cersei has emerald eyes, Drogo has eyes of onyx, a carving of the Crone of the Seven has pearl eyes and so on. The first god-emperor has no jewel name and thus "no eyes." He could not "see" as a greenseer sees through the weirwood or with the help of the moon. If seeing into the future was a thing at that time, his wives are the most likely candidates for the conduits of this moon magic, they being the seers. The next god-emperor, the Pearl Emperor, a son of the first, now shows the inheritance he receives from his pearl-carrying mother. 

It's possible the ancients eventually used trees, the black trees with inky leaves in Palace of Dust from which Shade of the Evening is brewed suggest this. There are bits of evidence suggesting that magical women were eventually replaced by trees for this purpose, first and foremost here where the wives are carrying the pearl moon which we later see happening with the weirwood. 

We get further information on the link between individuals with coloured eyes and clairvoyance through Bloodraven as well: 

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Those you call the children of the forest have eyes as golden as the sun, but once in a great while one is born amongst them with eyes as red as blood, or green as the moss on a tree in the heart of the forest. By these signs do the gods mark those they have chosen to receive the gift.

Note here, regarding greenseeing through the trees, the eyes are not compared to jewels, rather to blood or moss. 

 

On 6/12/2022 at 12:06 PM, Wolfcrow said:

About, that yes, I am intereted to see where this is going. It would hint that Bloodraven doesn't say the full truth and it could hint at an eclipse too. A full lunar eclipse it's a black hole in the sky, it would mean this is one of the reasons why it's so dark for so long, and why the moon turned its back on humanity.

 Yes, a full lunar eclipse would also be a black hole in the sky but the Maiden-made-of-Light that turns its back on humanity is a reference to the sun turning its back, or possibly to a solar eclipse. 

 

On 6/12/2022 at 12:06 PM, Wolfcrow said:

Bloodraven said that at first you need the trees, but with time it's not the only way to see the past and the present at any given place, but if not uisng the trees then what? The moon it's a great alternative, visible from anywhere and everywhere and was there since the beginning. 

When Bran sees the series of visions beginning with Ned under the Winterfell weirwood and ending in the old man being sacrificed to the tree in very ancient times, he is not sitting in his weirwood throne or connected to the tree at all. Nearby is a fire suggesting the flames are involved in the visions but we cannot be certain. Bran seems already to have reached the stage where he can see independently of the weirwood and I support the idea that the moon is probably involved - maybe we can call it moon-energy accessed by the weirwood which travels through the white roots snaking through the underground. 

Check out this blog post if you're interested in more ideas on this general topic.

[Wolfcrow]

19 hours ago, Evolett said:

In the main story, the pearl is associated with fertility and with peace and also with a number of maidens and women who wear pearls, including Sansa, Arya, Lysa and Dany, all women with a magical heritage. The pearl's association with peace and fertility in the main book series echos the era of the Great Empire of the Dawn which was characterised by 10000 years of peace and prosperity, the latter suggesting a era of great fertility and food production. The GEoTD was probably well versed in agricultural practice, this I believe represented by the "pearl moon" and his 100 wives as the mediators of this fertility magic. 

The thing is, that this fertility and plenty connection, goes straight to Garth and it is heavily hinted that Garth had green powers, plus god on Earth as a title" draws a connection with God's eye, a place again connected with the trees.

 

19 hours ago, Evolett said:

That the first god-emperor had no powers of clairvoyance or "seeing" is heavily suggested by the absence of a "jewel name." Emperors that follow him are all named after diverse jewels, beginning with the Pearl Emperor. In the narrative, the eyes of various characters are often described in terms of jewels. Daenerys has amethyst eyes, Cersei has emerald eyes, Drogo has eyes of onyx, a carving of the Crone of the Seven has pearl eyes and so on. The first god-emperor has no jewel name and thus "no eyes." He could not "see" as a greenseer sees through the weirwood or with the help of the moon. If seeing into the future was a thing at that time, his wives are the most likely candidates for the conduits of this moon magic, they being the seers. The next god-emperor, the Pearl Emperor, a son of the first, now shows the inheritance he receives from his pearl-carrying mother. 

Maybe the name doesn't suggest a jewel, but we have one named moonstone, a jewel that we see in a sword named Nightfall and most importantly, within the Great Sept of Baelor, a chamber has carvings of the Seven with eyes of onyx, jade, malachite, and yellow moonstone. Even the moon, looks like an eye on the sky looking down on earth, the Isle of faces, is in the middle of God's eye and it resembles, the moon. So, i think that he was seeing, he was actualy the first.

 

19 hours ago, Evolett said:

Note here, regarding greenseeing through the trees, the eyes are not compared to jewels, rather to blood or moss. 

Yes, but red and green is again connected with another gemstone, Bloodstone. The last descendent of the God on Earth. Th eyes of ghost and shaggy, both connected with skinchangers are aften descibed as gems too. 

 

[Evolett]

9 minutes ago, Wolfcrow said:

The thing is, that this fertility and plenty connection, goes straight to Garth and it is heavily hinted that Garth had green powers, plus god on Earth as a title" draws a connection with God's eye, a place again connected with the trees.

I don't disagree with any of your observations on Garth, the God's Eye etc. Unfortunately we don't have a reliable timeline. My premise is that the women came before the trees, and before men as greenseers. They were the original seers and workers of fertility magic and were supplanted at some point in time by the trees and men bound to the trees as greenseers. In ancient times it was women who represented mother earth and these Earth goddesses were often associated with the underworld (just like the trees are in the narrative). Greek Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life as well as the Titans. Persephone, Demeter are fertility goddesses also relevant to the theme of fertility and seasons in the books.

Garth brought agriculture and fertility magic to Westeros, yes. He also fathered numerous children, was the first High King of the First Men and so on. He's a classic horned lord or green man figure who should have been married to a mother goddess figure to ensure the fertility of the land. Like the Prince of Pentos who had to deflower a maid of the sea and a maid of the fields to ensure the fertility of sea and land. 

If the trees were originally so important to fertility or seeing to the First Men, Garth included, why did they cut down the weirwoods? It was only after the peace pact that the FM accepted the trees as the "old gods." And only then did the children cut faces into the weirwoods at the God's Eye. I hardly think the FM would have waged such a bitter and centuries long war against the CotF and the trees if they had been aware of their worth. They feared the trees. So, we'll have to agree to disagree on this point