Editing North Pole (section)

==Cultural associations==
In some children's [[Christmas]] [[legend]]s and [[Western culture|Western]] [[folklore]], the geographic North Pole is described as the location of [[Santa Claus]]' [[Santa's workshop|workshop and residence]].<ref name="Legends">{{cite book |title=Legends of Santa Claus |last= Jeffers|first= Harry Paul|year= 2000|publisher= Twenty-First Century Books|isbn= 978-0-8225-4983-3|page= 20}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mlive.com/living/bay-city/index.ssf/2009/12/meet_your_neighbor_santa_claus.html|title=Meet your neighbor: Santa Claus of the North Pole|date=25 December 2009|access-date=25 April 2015|archive-date=9 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150409090651/http://www.mlive.com/living/bay-city/index.ssf/2009/12/meet_your_neighbor_santa_claus.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Canada Post]] has assigned postal code [[H0H 0H0]] to the North Pole (referring to Santa's traditional exclamation of "[[Ho ho ho]]!").<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.canadapost.ca/business/corporate/about/newsroom/pr/archive-e.asp?prid=1197 |title=Canada Post Launches 24th Annual Santa Letter-writing Program – Post Office Sends Joy to Salvation Army with $25,000 Donation |website=Canada Post |date=15 November 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411032948/http://www.canadapost.ca/business/corporate/about/newsroom/pr/archive-e.asp?prid=1197 |archive-date=11 April 2008 |access-date=2 July 2007 }}</ref>

This association reflects an age-old esoteric mythology of [[Hyperborea]] that posits the North Pole, the otherworldly world-axis, as the abode of God and superhuman beings.<ref>{{cite book|date=1993|title=Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism, and Nazi Survival|isbn=978-0932813350|author=Godwin, Joscelyn|location=Grand Rapids|publisher= Phanes Press}}</ref>

As [[Henry Corbin]] has documented, the North Pole plays a key part in the cultural worldview of [[Sufism]] and Iranian mysticism. "The Orient sought by the mystic, the Orient that cannot be located on our maps, is in the direction of the north, beyond the north.".<ref>{{cite book|author=Corbin, Henry |translator=Pearson, N. |title=The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism|date= 1978|publisher=Shambhala|isbn=978-0394734415}}</ref>

In [[Mandaean cosmology]], the North Pole and [[pole star#In religion and mythology|Polaris]] are considered to be auspicious, since they are associated with the [[World of Light]]. [[Mandaeans]] face north when praying, and [[mandi (Mandaeism)|temples]] are also oriented towards the north. On the contrary, South is associated with the [[World of Darkness (Mandaeism)|World of Darkness]].<ref name="Bhayro 2020">{{cite book|last=Bhayro|first=Siam|title=Hellenistic Astronomy|chapter=Cosmology in Mandaean Texts|publisher=Brill|date=2020-02-10|chapter-url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004400566/BP000051.xml|access-date=2021-09-03|pages=572–579|doi=10.1163/9789004400566_046|isbn=9789004400566|s2cid=213438712|archive-date=25 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325163549/https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004400566/BP000051.xml|url-status=live}}</ref>

Owing to its remoteness, the Pole is sometimes identified with a mysterious mountain of ancient [[Culture of Iran|Iranian]] tradition called [[Mount Qaf]] (Jabal Qaf), the "farthest point of the earth".<ref>{{cite book|author=Ibrahim Muhawi |author2=Sharif Kanaana| title=Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales|year=1989|url=https://archive.org/details/speakbirdspeakag00muha |url-access=registration |location= Berkeley|publisher= University of California Press|author-link=Ibrahim Muhawi}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Irgam Yigfagna|title=al-Jabal al-Lamma}}</ref> According to certain authors, the Jabal Qaf of [[Cosmology in medieval Islam|Muslim cosmology]] is a version of [[Rupes Nigra]], a mountain whose ascent, like [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s climbing of the [[Purgatorio|Mountain of Purgatory]], represents the pilgrim's progress through spiritual states.<ref>{{cite book|author=Irgam Yigfagna|title=al-Jabal al-Lamma|page= 44}}</ref> In Iranian theosophy, the heavenly Pole, the focal point of the spiritual ascent, acts as a magnet to draw beings to its "palaces ablaze with immaterial matter."<ref>{{cite book|author=Irgam Yigfagna|title=al-Jabal al-Lamma|page= 11}}</ref>