In Circumpolar mythology, the Circumpolar peoples considered the World to be divided in three layers (or in some cases three×three = nine elements): the Heaven, the Earth and the Underground. Stars and constellations also played an important role in their mythology. The World, what ever shape it may have taken, rotatated around axis mundi, the axis through the Polaris.

The cosmos was filled with spirits and demons that typically showed up on the Earth in special figures such as stone or landscapes. Those rare places were usually centre for sacrifice. Examples are the Samis' seid (=body-shaped figure or rock) or the Nenets' tree-gods. Most things have a ruler that reared and ruled over the object.

Rulers had power in a complex hierarchy. The most powerful was in genereal associated with the axis mundi. But there are differences: the Nenets' god Num was both the heaven and ruler of the heaven.

Many spiritual phenomenons occures in Norse sagas, too.

See also: Circumpolar religion