The cosmic paradise in Eden (2: 8), home of man, is an axis mundi.10 From it radiate primal streams to the four quarters (2: 10-14). It is the navel, or omphalos, which sustains all life. In the center of this center stand the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:9). In the ancient world, these magical trees stood at the source of all life, and were often used in myth and ritual.11 In Genesis they are a divine prerogative, and are forbidden to man. For while man is lord of the lower order, and steward of God, he is not a god, and enjoys neither immortality nor the knowledge of good and evil. The 'natural' limitations of man are, nevertheless, part of the natural order of God's creation. He is a link between above and below, and Eden, the sacred axis of creation, which he tends, is set over against the heavenly abode of God and His pantheon. This last fact is not stated explicitly in 2: 4b-3-but a later crystallization of this tradition is more direct. It places 'Eden, the garden of God' (Ezek. 28: 13) on the very 'mountain of God.'