The levator scapulae muscle resides at that back and side of the neck. Levator means to lift in Latin, so as the name implies, its goal is to lift the scapula. It comes up by tendinous slips from the transverse processes of the atlas and axis and from the posterior tubercles of the transverse processes of the third and fourth cervical vertebrae. It is embedded into the vertebral border of the scapula, amid the medial angle and the triangle smooth surface at the root of the spine.