COSMIC TREE
Your Genealogical Tree
Your Genealogical Tree
Alex Grey
TREE SYMBOLISM
Tree of Creation; Tree of Life; World Tree;
Philosophical Tree; Tree of Immortality
And everywhere there, the Tree of Life,
and the resurrection of flesh from the Tree … --Origen
These are our roots. A tree can only renew itself
through its roots. --von Franz
TREE SYMBOLISM
Tree of Creation; Tree of Life; World Tree;
Philosophical Tree; Tree of Immortality
And everywhere there, the Tree of Life,
and the resurrection of flesh from the Tree … --Origen
These are our roots. A tree can only renew itself
through its roots. --von Franz
The World Tree is said to dwell in three worlds: Its roots reach down to the underworld, its trunk sits on the Earth, and its branches extend up to the heavens. Many cultures share a belief that this tree is the Axis Mundi or World Axis which supports or holds up the cosmos.
Dale TerBush, From Out My Heart
The tree brings back all that has been lost through Christ's extreme spiritualization, namely the elements of nature. Through its branches and leaves the tree gathers the powers of light and air, and through its roots those of the earth and the water. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 163-174
The symbolic history of the Christ's life shows, as the essential teleological tendency, the crucifixion, viz. the union of Christ with the symbol of the tree. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 163-174
The tree of life may have been, in the first instance, a fruit-bearing genealogical tree, and hence a kind of tribal mother ~Carl Jung, CW 5, Para 321.
Today I finished a long essay on the "Philosophical Tree," which kept me company during my illness. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 104
Writing it [Philosophical Tree] was an enjoyable substitute for the fact that so few of my contemporaries can understand what is meant by the psychology of the unconscious. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 104
I am rather certain that the sefiroth tree contains the whole symbolism of Jewish development parallel to the Christian idea. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 91-93.
But, since I appear in your dream, I cannot refrain from making the remark that I like thick walls and I like trees and green things, and I like many books. Perhaps you are in need of these three good things. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 26-27.
Christ’s redemptive death on the cross was understood as a “baptism,” that is to say, as rebirth through the second mother, symbolized by the tree of death… The dual-mother motif suggests the idea of a dual birth. One of the mothers is the real, human mother, the other is the symbolical mother. ~Carl Jung, CW 5, para 494-495.
Trees in particular were mysterious and seemed to me direct embodiments of the incomprehensible meaning of life. For that reason the woods were the place where I felt closest to its deepest meaning and to its awe-inspiring workings. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 68.
Adam and Eve would indeed have been inadequate people if they had not noticed which tree the right apples grew on. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Ostrowski, Page 48.
... at any time in my later life, when I came up at a blank wall, I painted a picture or hewed stone. Each such experience proved to be a "rite d 'entree" for the ideas and works that followed hard upon it. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 175.
The ancients said: it is terrible to fall into the hands of the living God. They spoke thus because they knew, since they were still close to the ancient forest, and they turned green like the trees in a childlike manner and ascended far away toward the East. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 281.
This new world appears weak and artificial to me. Artificial is a bad word, but the mustard seed that grew into a tree, the word that was conceived in the womb of a virgin, became a God to whom the earth was subject. ~Carl Jung to his Soul, Liber Novus, Pages 242-243.
The Christian-my Christian-knows no curse formulas; indeed he does not even sanction the cursing of the innocent fig-tree by the rabbi Jesus" ~Carl Jung, CW 18, §1468.
I wait, secretly anxious. I see a tree arise from the sea. Its crown reaches to Heaven and its roots reach down into Hell. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 300.
As I look into its reflection, the images of Eve, the tree, and the serpent appear to me. After this I catch sight of Odysseus and his journey on the high seas. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 245.
Good and evil unite in the growth of the tree. In their divinity life and love stand opposed. ~Diahmon, Liber Novus, Page 351.
The growing one is the TREE OF LIFE. It greens by heaping up growing living matter. ~Diahmon, Liber Novus, Page 351.
"One is the beginning, the Sun God.
"Two is Eros, for he binds two together and spreads himself out in brightness.
"Three is the Tree of Life, for it fills space with bodies.
"Four is the devil, for he opens all that is closed. He dissolves everything formed and physical; he is the destroyer in whom everything becomes nothing. ~Philemon, Liber Novus, 351.
Good and evil unite in the growth of the tree. In their divinity life and love stand opposed. ~Diahmon, Liber Novus, Page 351.
Parents must realize that they are trees from which the fruit falls in the autumn. Children don't belong to their parents, and they are only apparently produced by them. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 217-218.
You must go in quest of yourself, and you will find yourself again only in the simple and forgotten things. Why not go into the forest for a time, literally? Sometimes a tree tells you more than can be read in books… ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 479.
It is even very important that the anima is projected into the earth, that she descends very low, for otherwise her ascent to the heavenly condition in the form of Sophia has no meaning…She is the one that is rooted in the earth as well as in the heaven, both root and branch of the tree. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 533.
No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell. ~Carl Jung, Aion, Page 43.
The tree brings back all that has been lost through Christ's extreme spiritualization, namely the elements of nature. Through its branches and leaves the tree gathers the powers of light and air, and through its roots those of the earth and the water. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 163-174
The symbolic history of the Christ's life shows, as the essential teleological tendency, the crucifixion, viz. the union of Christ with the symbol of the tree. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 163-174
The tree of life may have been, in the first instance, a fruit-bearing genealogical tree, and hence a kind of tribal mother ~Carl Jung, CW 5, Para 321.
Today I finished a long essay on the "Philosophical Tree," which kept me company during my illness. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 104
Writing it [Philosophical Tree] was an enjoyable substitute for the fact that so few of my contemporaries can understand what is meant by the psychology of the unconscious. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 104
I am rather certain that the sefiroth tree contains the whole symbolism of Jewish development parallel to the Christian idea. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 91-93.
But, since I appear in your dream, I cannot refrain from making the remark that I like thick walls and I like trees and green things, and I like many books. Perhaps you are in need of these three good things. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 26-27.
Christ’s redemptive death on the cross was understood as a “baptism,” that is to say, as rebirth through the second mother, symbolized by the tree of death… The dual-mother motif suggests the idea of a dual birth. One of the mothers is the real, human mother, the other is the symbolical mother. ~Carl Jung, CW 5, para 494-495.
Trees in particular were mysterious and seemed to me direct embodiments of the incomprehensible meaning of life. For that reason the woods were the place where I felt closest to its deepest meaning and to its awe-inspiring workings. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 68.
Adam and Eve would indeed have been inadequate people if they had not noticed which tree the right apples grew on. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Ostrowski, Page 48.
... at any time in my later life, when I came up at a blank wall, I painted a picture or hewed stone. Each such experience proved to be a "rite d 'entree" for the ideas and works that followed hard upon it. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 175.
The ancients said: it is terrible to fall into the hands of the living God. They spoke thus because they knew, since they were still close to the ancient forest, and they turned green like the trees in a childlike manner and ascended far away toward the East. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 281.
This new world appears weak and artificial to me. Artificial is a bad word, but the mustard seed that grew into a tree, the word that was conceived in the womb of a virgin, became a God to whom the earth was subject. ~Carl Jung to his Soul, Liber Novus, Pages 242-243.
The Christian-my Christian-knows no curse formulas; indeed he does not even sanction the cursing of the innocent fig-tree by the rabbi Jesus" ~Carl Jung, CW 18, §1468.
I wait, secretly anxious. I see a tree arise from the sea. Its crown reaches to Heaven and its roots reach down into Hell. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 300.
As I look into its reflection, the images of Eve, the tree, and the serpent appear to me. After this I catch sight of Odysseus and his journey on the high seas. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 245.
Good and evil unite in the growth of the tree. In their divinity life and love stand opposed. ~Diahmon, Liber Novus, Page 351.
The growing one is the TREE OF LIFE. It greens by heaping up growing living matter. ~Diahmon, Liber Novus, Page 351.
"One is the beginning, the Sun God.
"Two is Eros, for he binds two together and spreads himself out in brightness.
"Three is the Tree of Life, for it fills space with bodies.
"Four is the devil, for he opens all that is closed. He dissolves everything formed and physical; he is the destroyer in whom everything becomes nothing. ~Philemon, Liber Novus, 351.
Good and evil unite in the growth of the tree. In their divinity life and love stand opposed. ~Diahmon, Liber Novus, Page 351.
Parents must realize that they are trees from which the fruit falls in the autumn. Children don't belong to their parents, and they are only apparently produced by them. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 217-218.
You must go in quest of yourself, and you will find yourself again only in the simple and forgotten things. Why not go into the forest for a time, literally? Sometimes a tree tells you more than can be read in books… ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 479.
It is even very important that the anima is projected into the earth, that she descends very low, for otherwise her ascent to the heavenly condition in the form of Sophia has no meaning…She is the one that is rooted in the earth as well as in the heaven, both root and branch of the tree. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 533.
No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell. ~Carl Jung, Aion, Page 43.
Psychological & Spiritual Roots in the Divine
The tree of life may have been, in the first instance, a fruit-bearing genealogical tree, and hence a kind of tribal mother. ~Carl Jung, CW 5, para 321.
The ancient Tree of Life is a central symbol of spiritual unity and strength for peoples throughout the world. This Cosmic Tree or World Tree represents the sustaining wisdom, beauty, love, strength, and power of the Universe.
"(It is with people as with trees.) The more one seeks to rise into height and light, the more vigorously do ones roots struggle earthward, downward, into the dark, the deep — into evil." - Nietzsche
The moment we eat from the Tree of Knowledge we cleave into opposites of divine conflict and our shadow is born. We begin to separate and fragment ourselves.
The tree of life may have been, in the first instance, a fruit-bearing genealogical tree, and hence a kind of tribal mother. ~Carl Jung, CW 5, para 321.
The ancient Tree of Life is a central symbol of spiritual unity and strength for peoples throughout the world. This Cosmic Tree or World Tree represents the sustaining wisdom, beauty, love, strength, and power of the Universe.
"(It is with people as with trees.) The more one seeks to rise into height and light, the more vigorously do ones roots struggle earthward, downward, into the dark, the deep — into evil." - Nietzsche
The moment we eat from the Tree of Knowledge we cleave into opposites of divine conflict and our shadow is born. We begin to separate and fragment ourselves.
Carl Jung, World Tree
TRANSCENDENTAL TREE
World Tree/World Axis
Campbell refers to the Kabbalah: “The Hebrew cabala represents the process of creation as a series of emanations out of the I AM of the Great Face. […] The emanations are represented also as the branches of a cosmic tree, which is upside down, rooted in “the inscrutable height.” The world that we see is the reverse image of that tree” (271).
Joseph Campbell’s portrayal of the Tree of Immortal Life
is an early symbol of spiritual development:
“… From all we know of the Sumerian tradition—and there are other seals in which this tree is shown—there was no sense of sin involved in people’s view of this tree. The deity that attended the tree was there to dispense its fruits, and the fruit of immortal life is to be eaten” (pp. 188-189).
He also discussed the role of the Tree of Immortal Life for both Buddha and Christ:
“… The Tree of Immortal Life is the very tree under which the Buddha sits. When you approach a Buddhist shrine, you see two military-looking door guardians there. Those are the cherubim to keep you out. What do they signify in Buddhism? They signify your psychological fear and desire. The fear of death is the fear of death to your ego, and the desire that the ego should enjoy the goods that it is interested in—these are what keep you from realizing your immortality. Fear and desire are the slashing rocks that exclude us from the intuition of our own immortal character.
“This is the big theme of the mystery religions of Buddhism and Christianity—Christ when through that door and becomes himself the fruit of immortal life by hanging on the tree” (p. 189)
TREE OF THE GOLDEN LIGHT
Trees Symbolize the Living Structure of Our Inner Selves
To forget ones ancestors, is like a river without a source. Or a tree without roots.
“The alchemist saw the union of opposites under the symbol of the tree… the symbol of the cosmic tree rooted in this world and growing up to heaven -- the tree that is also man. In the history of symbols this tree is described as the way of life itself, a growing into that which eternally is and does not change; which springs from the union of opposites and, by its eternal presence, also makes that union possible.” (Carl Jung, CW 9i, para. 198)
Why was Eve created from Adam's rib in the Bible? Because the term TI(L) in Sumerian had a double meaning. It can mean "life" or it can mean "rib". So that the Biblical version became misunderstood by later scribes who were not familiar enough with Sumerian. The "tree of life" or "world tree" is also a very common motif in Sumerian and in many other traditions, but especially in the northern Mesopotamian Hurrian religion. It is also common in many early Shamanistic religions of the far north, as the connection between heaven and earth and the axle of the world. Similar "world trees", without lions or date flowers, are found painted on the sacred drums of shamans in Asia. In Hungarian folktales the tree is climbed by some hero to enter the other realms of heaven or the underworld, in a quest for some important knowledge. Shamans also used the birch tree and the mushrooms that grew near it to enhance their ecstatic experience. The Sumerian notion kept key elements of it like the connection to sacred knowledge.
http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/Sumer-origins.htm
Like an acorn sprouting to become a tree, transcendence is the instinctual impulse of humans to grow and individuate. This impulse towards growth takes the spirit up to lofty heights, but it is only the initial movement of the spirit.
“Trees depict the living structure of our inner self. It’s roots show our connection with our physical body and the earth; its trunk the way we would direct the energies of our being–varied and yet all connected in the common life process of our being. The tree can also symbolize new growth, stages of life and death, with its spring leaves and blossoms, then the falling leaves. The top of the tree, by the end of the branches, are our aspirations, the growing bendable tip of our personal growth and spiritual realization. The leaves may represent our personal life which may fall off the tree of life (die) but what gave it life continues to exist. The tree is our whole life, the evolutionary urge which pushes us into being and growing. It depicts the forces or processes behind all other life forms– expressed through interpersonal existence.” http://thejungian.com/2013/03/01/trees-depict-the-living-structure-of-our-inner-self/
“The tree is an image of spiritual development… You see the tree is a plant and it symbols a strange development entirely different from animal life, like the development we call spiritual… As a tree extracts mineral substances from the earth, the spirit transforms the course body, or the coarseness of matter, into the subtly of organic matter. The tree represents, then, a sort of sublimation. It grows from below up into the air above, has roots in the earth as if it were part of the earth, and extends roots again into the kingdom of air; and so the spirit of development rises out of the material, animal man and grows into different regions above. Therefore the tree has forever been a symbol of spiritual value or philosophical development, like the tree of knowledge in Paradise for instance or the philosophical tree, the Arbor Philosophorum, the tree with the immortal fruits –a Hermetic symbol– also the world tree in the Edda.” (Jung, Notes of the Seminars, from 1934-39, p. 1071)
TRANSCENDENTAL TREE
World Tree/World Axis
Campbell refers to the Kabbalah: “The Hebrew cabala represents the process of creation as a series of emanations out of the I AM of the Great Face. […] The emanations are represented also as the branches of a cosmic tree, which is upside down, rooted in “the inscrutable height.” The world that we see is the reverse image of that tree” (271).
Joseph Campbell’s portrayal of the Tree of Immortal Life
is an early symbol of spiritual development:
“… From all we know of the Sumerian tradition—and there are other seals in which this tree is shown—there was no sense of sin involved in people’s view of this tree. The deity that attended the tree was there to dispense its fruits, and the fruit of immortal life is to be eaten” (pp. 188-189).
He also discussed the role of the Tree of Immortal Life for both Buddha and Christ:
“… The Tree of Immortal Life is the very tree under which the Buddha sits. When you approach a Buddhist shrine, you see two military-looking door guardians there. Those are the cherubim to keep you out. What do they signify in Buddhism? They signify your psychological fear and desire. The fear of death is the fear of death to your ego, and the desire that the ego should enjoy the goods that it is interested in—these are what keep you from realizing your immortality. Fear and desire are the slashing rocks that exclude us from the intuition of our own immortal character.
“This is the big theme of the mystery religions of Buddhism and Christianity—Christ when through that door and becomes himself the fruit of immortal life by hanging on the tree” (p. 189)
TREE OF THE GOLDEN LIGHT
Trees Symbolize the Living Structure of Our Inner Selves
To forget ones ancestors, is like a river without a source. Or a tree without roots.
“The alchemist saw the union of opposites under the symbol of the tree… the symbol of the cosmic tree rooted in this world and growing up to heaven -- the tree that is also man. In the history of symbols this tree is described as the way of life itself, a growing into that which eternally is and does not change; which springs from the union of opposites and, by its eternal presence, also makes that union possible.” (Carl Jung, CW 9i, para. 198)
Why was Eve created from Adam's rib in the Bible? Because the term TI(L) in Sumerian had a double meaning. It can mean "life" or it can mean "rib". So that the Biblical version became misunderstood by later scribes who were not familiar enough with Sumerian. The "tree of life" or "world tree" is also a very common motif in Sumerian and in many other traditions, but especially in the northern Mesopotamian Hurrian religion. It is also common in many early Shamanistic religions of the far north, as the connection between heaven and earth and the axle of the world. Similar "world trees", without lions or date flowers, are found painted on the sacred drums of shamans in Asia. In Hungarian folktales the tree is climbed by some hero to enter the other realms of heaven or the underworld, in a quest for some important knowledge. Shamans also used the birch tree and the mushrooms that grew near it to enhance their ecstatic experience. The Sumerian notion kept key elements of it like the connection to sacred knowledge.
http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/Sumer-origins.htm
Like an acorn sprouting to become a tree, transcendence is the instinctual impulse of humans to grow and individuate. This impulse towards growth takes the spirit up to lofty heights, but it is only the initial movement of the spirit.
“Trees depict the living structure of our inner self. It’s roots show our connection with our physical body and the earth; its trunk the way we would direct the energies of our being–varied and yet all connected in the common life process of our being. The tree can also symbolize new growth, stages of life and death, with its spring leaves and blossoms, then the falling leaves. The top of the tree, by the end of the branches, are our aspirations, the growing bendable tip of our personal growth and spiritual realization. The leaves may represent our personal life which may fall off the tree of life (die) but what gave it life continues to exist. The tree is our whole life, the evolutionary urge which pushes us into being and growing. It depicts the forces or processes behind all other life forms– expressed through interpersonal existence.” http://thejungian.com/2013/03/01/trees-depict-the-living-structure-of-our-inner-self/
“The tree is an image of spiritual development… You see the tree is a plant and it symbols a strange development entirely different from animal life, like the development we call spiritual… As a tree extracts mineral substances from the earth, the spirit transforms the course body, or the coarseness of matter, into the subtly of organic matter. The tree represents, then, a sort of sublimation. It grows from below up into the air above, has roots in the earth as if it were part of the earth, and extends roots again into the kingdom of air; and so the spirit of development rises out of the material, animal man and grows into different regions above. Therefore the tree has forever been a symbol of spiritual value or philosophical development, like the tree of knowledge in Paradise for instance or the philosophical tree, the Arbor Philosophorum, the tree with the immortal fruits –a Hermetic symbol– also the world tree in the Edda.” (Jung, Notes of the Seminars, from 1934-39, p. 1071)
Carl Jung on The Tree of Life, World Tree, Tree of Evolution,
Cosmic Tree, Soma Tree, The Human Spinal Column
Prof. Jung:
Here is a very valuable contribution from Mrs. Baumann, a photograph of Nestor's ring, that famous intaglio with the representation of the world-tree.
And here is a contribution from Mrs. Crowley about the tree in Egypt:
"In the early Pyramid texts, there is a passage in which the Pharaoh on his way to Re, comes upon a tree of Life on the Mysterious island, situated in the midst of the Field of Offerings. 'This king Pepi went to the great isle in the midst of the Field of Offerings, over which the gods make the swallows fly. The swallows are the imperishable stars. They give to this king Pepi this tree of Life, whereof they live, and Ye-Pepi and the Morning Star may at the same time live thereof.'
This image belongs, prior to the Osiris faith, to the Solar religion of the old kingdom, about 3000 B.C.
The tree has many different aspects.
It appears first in ancient mythologies as the cosmic tree, the tree of development-of cosmic as well as human evolution, like the great tree of the Germanic sagas, Yggdrasil.
Another more specific aspect is the tree of life, the tree which gives life to human beings and animals and to the universe.
And this tree has also the aspect of the world axis: the branches up above are the kingdom of the heavens; the roots below form the kingdom of the earth, the nether world; and the trunk is the world axis round which the whole world revolves, and at the same time a life-giving center or the main artery of life throughout the world.
So the tree is more or less equivalent to the spinal column in a human body.
You know in the interior of the cerebellum, a certain part in the middle part branches in such a way that it has a treelike appearance and is called the arbor vitae, the tree of life.
Also this famous symbol of Osiris, the Tet, is a sort of tree form.
It is identified with the os sacrum, that part of the spinal column which is inserted in the middle of the pelvic basin, and it also refers to the whole length of the spinal column,
which maintains the straightness of the body and carries the arteries along the backbone.
These anatomical facts are the same in animals, so naturally they have been known forever, practically.
Moreover, they knew that the arteries carried the blood, which was supposed to be the seat of the soul, so blood is itself a symbol for the soul, as warmth and breath symbolize blood, the indispensable essence of life.
Then another aspect of the tree is the tree of knowledge.
It is the carrier of revelation: out of the tree come voices; in the whispering of the wind in the tree words can be discerned, or the birds that live in the tree talk to one.
We have endless material as evidence for those traditions.
The tree of paradise, for instance, is really one and the same tree but with a three-fold aspect: the tree which carries the evolution of the world, the tree which gives life to the universe, and the tree which gives understanding or consciousness.
And the nyagrodha is the sacred tree of Buddha at the monastery of the Holy Tooth at Bodh Gaya, that famous Buddhist place of pilgrimage and worship in Ceylon.
It is really a pi pal tree, and looks like a willow. The soma tree is also sacred in Hinduism.
According to its oldest definition, soma is a life-giving or intoxicating drink, but is also called a tree because it has the life-giving quality.
One sees no resemblance to a tree, yet because it is life-giving they are identical.
That is the primitive way of thinking: when two things function in the same way, even though they are utterly incommensurable, they are supposed to be one and the same thing.
For instance, things that give life in the way of nourishment are identical.
They say a sort of life power or mana circulates through these different things, uniting them, making them one.
Then the tree is a very central symbol in the Christian tradition, having even taken on the quality of death-just as Yggdrasil is not only the origin of life, but also the end of life.
As life originates in the tree, so everything ends in the tree of evolution; the last couple enters the tree again and disappears therein.
So the mummy of Osiris transforms into a tree. And Christ ends on the tree.
As I told you, the Christian cross was supposed to have been made from the wood of the tree of life, which had been cut down after the fall of the first parents and used later on for the two obelisks or pillars, Aachim and Boas, in front of Solomon's temple.
Those are analogous to the Egyptian pillars or obelisks that flanked the way on which the sun-barque passed to and fro.
One is now in Rome and another is in Paris, but happily enough, there are still a number left at Karnak.
When Solomon's temple was destroyed those two pillars were thrown into one of the ponds of the river valley and much later discovered again, and tradition says the cross was made from the wood of those ancient beams.
So Christ was crucified on the tree of life.
Therefore those medieval pictures where Christ is represented as hanging crucified on a tree with branches and leaves and fruits. ~Carl Jung, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Pages 1437-1438.
Cosmic Tree, Soma Tree, The Human Spinal Column
Prof. Jung:
Here is a very valuable contribution from Mrs. Baumann, a photograph of Nestor's ring, that famous intaglio with the representation of the world-tree.
And here is a contribution from Mrs. Crowley about the tree in Egypt:
"In the early Pyramid texts, there is a passage in which the Pharaoh on his way to Re, comes upon a tree of Life on the Mysterious island, situated in the midst of the Field of Offerings. 'This king Pepi went to the great isle in the midst of the Field of Offerings, over which the gods make the swallows fly. The swallows are the imperishable stars. They give to this king Pepi this tree of Life, whereof they live, and Ye-Pepi and the Morning Star may at the same time live thereof.'
This image belongs, prior to the Osiris faith, to the Solar religion of the old kingdom, about 3000 B.C.
The tree has many different aspects.
It appears first in ancient mythologies as the cosmic tree, the tree of development-of cosmic as well as human evolution, like the great tree of the Germanic sagas, Yggdrasil.
Another more specific aspect is the tree of life, the tree which gives life to human beings and animals and to the universe.
And this tree has also the aspect of the world axis: the branches up above are the kingdom of the heavens; the roots below form the kingdom of the earth, the nether world; and the trunk is the world axis round which the whole world revolves, and at the same time a life-giving center or the main artery of life throughout the world.
So the tree is more or less equivalent to the spinal column in a human body.
You know in the interior of the cerebellum, a certain part in the middle part branches in such a way that it has a treelike appearance and is called the arbor vitae, the tree of life.
Also this famous symbol of Osiris, the Tet, is a sort of tree form.
It is identified with the os sacrum, that part of the spinal column which is inserted in the middle of the pelvic basin, and it also refers to the whole length of the spinal column,
which maintains the straightness of the body and carries the arteries along the backbone.
These anatomical facts are the same in animals, so naturally they have been known forever, practically.
Moreover, they knew that the arteries carried the blood, which was supposed to be the seat of the soul, so blood is itself a symbol for the soul, as warmth and breath symbolize blood, the indispensable essence of life.
Then another aspect of the tree is the tree of knowledge.
It is the carrier of revelation: out of the tree come voices; in the whispering of the wind in the tree words can be discerned, or the birds that live in the tree talk to one.
We have endless material as evidence for those traditions.
The tree of paradise, for instance, is really one and the same tree but with a three-fold aspect: the tree which carries the evolution of the world, the tree which gives life to the universe, and the tree which gives understanding or consciousness.
And the nyagrodha is the sacred tree of Buddha at the monastery of the Holy Tooth at Bodh Gaya, that famous Buddhist place of pilgrimage and worship in Ceylon.
It is really a pi pal tree, and looks like a willow. The soma tree is also sacred in Hinduism.
According to its oldest definition, soma is a life-giving or intoxicating drink, but is also called a tree because it has the life-giving quality.
One sees no resemblance to a tree, yet because it is life-giving they are identical.
That is the primitive way of thinking: when two things function in the same way, even though they are utterly incommensurable, they are supposed to be one and the same thing.
For instance, things that give life in the way of nourishment are identical.
They say a sort of life power or mana circulates through these different things, uniting them, making them one.
Then the tree is a very central symbol in the Christian tradition, having even taken on the quality of death-just as Yggdrasil is not only the origin of life, but also the end of life.
As life originates in the tree, so everything ends in the tree of evolution; the last couple enters the tree again and disappears therein.
So the mummy of Osiris transforms into a tree. And Christ ends on the tree.
As I told you, the Christian cross was supposed to have been made from the wood of the tree of life, which had been cut down after the fall of the first parents and used later on for the two obelisks or pillars, Aachim and Boas, in front of Solomon's temple.
Those are analogous to the Egyptian pillars or obelisks that flanked the way on which the sun-barque passed to and fro.
One is now in Rome and another is in Paris, but happily enough, there are still a number left at Karnak.
When Solomon's temple was destroyed those two pillars were thrown into one of the ponds of the river valley and much later discovered again, and tradition says the cross was made from the wood of those ancient beams.
So Christ was crucified on the tree of life.
Therefore those medieval pictures where Christ is represented as hanging crucified on a tree with branches and leaves and fruits. ~Carl Jung, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Pages 1437-1438.
The Serpents in our Tree are the individual lines of descent from various
common ancestors. They lead us to question who and what we are,
what we know and what we thought we knew about our roots. They offer us Knowledge. Like it or not, they are all still a part of our Truth -- that we are born and we die -- and we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
Tree: denotes life of the cosmos; its growth, proliferation, generative and regenerative processes. It stands for inexhaustible life, and is, therefore, equivalent to immortality.
The growing one is the TREE OF LIFE. It greens by heaping up growing living matter.
Good and evil unite in the growth of the tree. In their divinity life and love stand opposed. ~Diahmon, Liber Novus, Page 351.
“If I accept the lowest in me, I lower a seed into the ground of Hell. The seed is invisibly small, but the tree of my life grows from it and conjoins the Below with the Above. At both ends there is fire and blazing embers. The Above is fiery and the Below is fiery. Between the unbearable fires grows your life. You hang between these two poles. In an immeasurably frightening movement the stretched hanging welters up and down." ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 300.
common ancestors. They lead us to question who and what we are,
what we know and what we thought we knew about our roots. They offer us Knowledge. Like it or not, they are all still a part of our Truth -- that we are born and we die -- and we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
Tree: denotes life of the cosmos; its growth, proliferation, generative and regenerative processes. It stands for inexhaustible life, and is, therefore, equivalent to immortality.
The growing one is the TREE OF LIFE. It greens by heaping up growing living matter.
Good and evil unite in the growth of the tree. In their divinity life and love stand opposed. ~Diahmon, Liber Novus, Page 351.
“If I accept the lowest in me, I lower a seed into the ground of Hell. The seed is invisibly small, but the tree of my life grows from it and conjoins the Below with the Above. At both ends there is fire and blazing embers. The Above is fiery and the Below is fiery. Between the unbearable fires grows your life. You hang between these two poles. In an immeasurably frightening movement the stretched hanging welters up and down." ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 300.
Over the course of the millennia, all these ancestors in your tree, generation upon generation, have come down to this moment in time-to give birth to you. There has never been, nor will ever be, another like you. You have been given a tremendous responsibility. You carry the hopes and dreams of all those who have gone before. Hopes and dreams for a better world. What will you do with your time on this Earth? How will you contribute to the ongoing story of humankind? History remembers only the celebrated, genealogy remembers them all. --Laurence Overmire
“The tree is an image of spiritual development… You see the tree is a plant and it symbols a strange development entirely different from animal life, like the development we call spiritual… As a tree extracts mineral substances from the earth, the spirit transforms the course body, or the coarseness of matter, into the subtly of organic matter. The tree represents, then, a sort of sublimation. It grows from below up into the air above, has roots in the earth as if it were part of the earth, and extends roots again into the kingdom of air; and so the spirit of development rises out of the material, animal man and grows into different regions above. Therefore the tree has forever been a symbol of spiritual value or philosophical development, like the tree of knowledge in Paradise for instance or the philosophical tree, the Arbor Philosophorum, the tree with the immortal fruits –a Hermetic symbol– also the world tree in the Edda.” (Jung, Notes of the Seminars, from 1934-39, p. 1071)
The need for fluid transformation seems to be the first law of alchemy. Such a transformation does not mean merciless hacking away at the coarse woody debris of our past life, but rather acknowledging that even that which needs to be left behind paradoxically nourishes us, just as the fallen tree logs actually recycle nutrients essential for all living organisms, provide shelter for countless creatures of the forest, and, when placed in streams, provide shelter for fish and a place for turtles to lay their eggs. On slopes, coarse wood debris “stabilizes soils by slowing downslope movement of organic matter and mineral soil“ (source: Wikipedia). Dead trees, just as the dying and crumbling structures of our lives, are a valuable resource that needs to be maintained and protected as a sine qua non of our regeneration.
“The tree is an image of spiritual development… You see the tree is a plant and it symbols a strange development entirely different from animal life, like the development we call spiritual… As a tree extracts mineral substances from the earth, the spirit transforms the course body, or the coarseness of matter, into the subtly of organic matter. The tree represents, then, a sort of sublimation. It grows from below up into the air above, has roots in the earth as if it were part of the earth, and extends roots again into the kingdom of air; and so the spirit of development rises out of the material, animal man and grows into different regions above. Therefore the tree has forever been a symbol of spiritual value or philosophical development, like the tree of knowledge in Paradise for instance or the philosophical tree, the Arbor Philosophorum, the tree with the immortal fruits –a Hermetic symbol– also the world tree in the Edda.” (Jung, Notes of the Seminars, from 1934-39, p. 1071)
The need for fluid transformation seems to be the first law of alchemy. Such a transformation does not mean merciless hacking away at the coarse woody debris of our past life, but rather acknowledging that even that which needs to be left behind paradoxically nourishes us, just as the fallen tree logs actually recycle nutrients essential for all living organisms, provide shelter for countless creatures of the forest, and, when placed in streams, provide shelter for fish and a place for turtles to lay their eggs. On slopes, coarse wood debris “stabilizes soils by slowing downslope movement of organic matter and mineral soil“ (source: Wikipedia). Dead trees, just as the dying and crumbling structures of our lives, are a valuable resource that needs to be maintained and protected as a sine qua non of our regeneration.
Jung had a visionary experience just prior to his death, where he saw the following words engraved on a great round stone: “And this shall be a sign unto you of Wholeness and Oneness.”9 He then saw “a quadrangle of trees whose roots reached around the earth and enveloped him and among the roots golden threads were glittering.”. spiritual realization involves the spiritual mutation of the roots of being, and a transformed relationship of the fully surrendered individual to the cosmic Self and the attainment of Wholeness and Oneness, a highly individuated reflection of the Transcendent One.
Genealogy is a Ritual in which we climb up and down,
through our family tree in deep remembrance,
an exercise in time travel that expands consciousness.
through our family tree in deep remembrance,
an exercise in time travel that expands consciousness.
The Tree of Life [Klimt]
is an important symbol in many theologies, philosophies and mythologies. It signifies the connection between heaven and earth and the underworld. This concept is illustrated by Gustav Klimt's famous mural, The Tree of Life. The mural also has another significance, being the only landscape created by the artist during his golden period. Klimt used oil painting techniques with gold paint, to create luxurious art pieces, during that time.
The concept of the tree of life is illustrated by Gustav Klimt's painting, in a bold and original manner. The swirling branches create mythical symbolism, suggesting the perpetuity of life. The branches twist, twirl, turn, spiral and undulate, creating a tangle of strong branches, long vines and fragile threads, an expression of life's complexity. With its branches reaching for the sky, the tree of life roots into the earth beneath, creating the connection between heaven and earth, a concept often used to explain the concept of the tree of life, in many cultures, religions and ideologies. The tree of life illustrated by Klimt also creates another connection, with the underworld, signifying the final determinism governing over any living thing, that is born, grows, and then returns back into the earth.
Gustav Klimt's The Tree of Life is a symbol of unity and an expression of masculine and feminine. The feminine symbolizes sustenance, care and growth, while the masculine is expressed through the use of phallic representations. Life itself and the tree of life are born from this union of opposites. Others say the union symbolizes the virtues of strength, wisdom and beauty. The tree reaching for the sky is a symbol of our perpetual yearning for becoming more, yet our roots remain bound to the earth.
is an important symbol in many theologies, philosophies and mythologies. It signifies the connection between heaven and earth and the underworld. This concept is illustrated by Gustav Klimt's famous mural, The Tree of Life. The mural also has another significance, being the only landscape created by the artist during his golden period. Klimt used oil painting techniques with gold paint, to create luxurious art pieces, during that time.
The concept of the tree of life is illustrated by Gustav Klimt's painting, in a bold and original manner. The swirling branches create mythical symbolism, suggesting the perpetuity of life. The branches twist, twirl, turn, spiral and undulate, creating a tangle of strong branches, long vines and fragile threads, an expression of life's complexity. With its branches reaching for the sky, the tree of life roots into the earth beneath, creating the connection between heaven and earth, a concept often used to explain the concept of the tree of life, in many cultures, religions and ideologies. The tree of life illustrated by Klimt also creates another connection, with the underworld, signifying the final determinism governing over any living thing, that is born, grows, and then returns back into the earth.
Gustav Klimt's The Tree of Life is a symbol of unity and an expression of masculine and feminine. The feminine symbolizes sustenance, care and growth, while the masculine is expressed through the use of phallic representations. Life itself and the tree of life are born from this union of opposites. Others say the union symbolizes the virtues of strength, wisdom and beauty. The tree reaching for the sky is a symbol of our perpetual yearning for becoming more, yet our roots remain bound to the earth.
He sees the tree of life, whose roots reach into Hell and whose top touches Heaven. He also no longer knows differences: Who is right? What is holy? What is genuine? What is good? What is correct? He knows only one difference: the difference between below and above. For he sees that the tree of life grows from below to above, and that it has its crown at the top, clearly differentiated from the roots. To him this is unquestionable. Hence he knows the way to salvation.
To unlearn all distinctions save that concerning direction is part of your salvation. Hence you free yourself from the old curse of the knowledge of good and evil. Because you separated good from evil according to your best appraisal and aspired only to the good and denied the evil that you committed nevertheless and ailed to accept, your roots no longer suckled the dark nourishment of the depths and your tree became sick and withered.
Therefore the ancients said that after Adam had eaten the apple, the tree of paradise withered. Your life needs the dark. But if you know that it is evil, you can no longer accept it and you suffer anguish and you do not know why: Nor can you accept it as evil, else your good will reject you. Nor can you deny it since you know good and evil. Because of this the knowledge of good and evil was an insurmountable curse.
But if you return to primal chaos and if you feel and recognize that which hangs stretched between the two unbearable poles of fire, you will notice that you can no longer separate good and evil conclusively, neither through feeling nor through knowledge, but that you can discern the direction of growth only from below to above. You thus forget the distinction between good and evil, and you no longer know it as long as your tree grows from below to above. But as soon as growth stops, what was united in growth falls apart and once more you recognize good and evil.
You can never deny your knowledge of good and evil to yourself so that you could betray your good in order to live evil. For as soon as you separate good and evil, you recognize them. They are united only in growth. But you grow if you stand still in the greatest doubt, and therefore steadfastness in great doubt is' a veritable flower of life.
He who cannot bear doubt does not bear himself. Such a one is doubtful; he does not grow and hence he does not live. Doubt is the sign of the strongest and the weakest. The strong have doubt, but doubt has the weak. Therefore the weakest is close to the strongest, and if he can say to his doubt: "I have you," then he is the strongest. But no one can say yes to his doubt, unless he endures wide-open chaos. Because there are so many among us who can talk about anything, pay heed to what they live. What someone says can be very much or very little. Thus examine his life.
My speech is neither light nor dark, since it is the speech of someone who is growing.
~Carl Jung, Red Book, Page 301
Trees in particular were mysterious and seemed to me direct embodiments of the incomprehensible meaning of life. For that reason the woods were the place where I felt closest to its deepest meaning and to its awe-inspiring workings. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 68.
To unlearn all distinctions save that concerning direction is part of your salvation. Hence you free yourself from the old curse of the knowledge of good and evil. Because you separated good from evil according to your best appraisal and aspired only to the good and denied the evil that you committed nevertheless and ailed to accept, your roots no longer suckled the dark nourishment of the depths and your tree became sick and withered.
Therefore the ancients said that after Adam had eaten the apple, the tree of paradise withered. Your life needs the dark. But if you know that it is evil, you can no longer accept it and you suffer anguish and you do not know why: Nor can you accept it as evil, else your good will reject you. Nor can you deny it since you know good and evil. Because of this the knowledge of good and evil was an insurmountable curse.
But if you return to primal chaos and if you feel and recognize that which hangs stretched between the two unbearable poles of fire, you will notice that you can no longer separate good and evil conclusively, neither through feeling nor through knowledge, but that you can discern the direction of growth only from below to above. You thus forget the distinction between good and evil, and you no longer know it as long as your tree grows from below to above. But as soon as growth stops, what was united in growth falls apart and once more you recognize good and evil.
You can never deny your knowledge of good and evil to yourself so that you could betray your good in order to live evil. For as soon as you separate good and evil, you recognize them. They are united only in growth. But you grow if you stand still in the greatest doubt, and therefore steadfastness in great doubt is' a veritable flower of life.
He who cannot bear doubt does not bear himself. Such a one is doubtful; he does not grow and hence he does not live. Doubt is the sign of the strongest and the weakest. The strong have doubt, but doubt has the weak. Therefore the weakest is close to the strongest, and if he can say to his doubt: "I have you," then he is the strongest. But no one can say yes to his doubt, unless he endures wide-open chaos. Because there are so many among us who can talk about anything, pay heed to what they live. What someone says can be very much or very little. Thus examine his life.
My speech is neither light nor dark, since it is the speech of someone who is growing.
~Carl Jung, Red Book, Page 301
Trees in particular were mysterious and seemed to me direct embodiments of the incomprehensible meaning of life. For that reason the woods were the place where I felt closest to its deepest meaning and to its awe-inspiring workings. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 68.
The world tree is a motif present in several religions and mythologies, particularly Indo-European religions, Siberian religions, and Native American religions. The world tree is represented as a colossal tree which supports the heavens, thereby connecting the heavens, the terrestrial world, and, through its roots, the underworld. It may also be strongly connected to the motif of the tree of life.
“The alchemist saw the union of opposites under the symbol of the tree… the symbol of the cosmic tree rooted in this world and growing up to heaven-the tree that is also man. In the history of symbols this tree is described as the way of life itself, a growing into that which eternally is and does not change; which springs from the union of opposites and, by its eternal presence, also makes that union possible.” (Carl Jung, CW 9i, para. 198)
Genealogy is our map of the unconscious -- the Land of the Dead. The Red Thread, the thread of destiny, connects to the Source. It shows us the way, igniting imagination with the alchemy of 'seeing', awakening the soul. The red threads of your blood link you and your Tree to the World Tree, your history to world history and mythology. The bloodline is also called the "underground stream". The Red Thread is a transmission of cultural influences of ancestors.
Genealogy is our map of the unconscious -- the Land of the Dead. The Red Thread, the thread of destiny, connects to the Source. It shows us the way, igniting imagination with the alchemy of 'seeing', awakening the soul. The red threads of your blood link you and your Tree to the World Tree, your history to world history and mythology. The bloodline is also called the "underground stream". The Red Thread is a transmission of cultural influences of ancestors.
Iona Miller, Ancestral Tree
The axis mundi (also cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar, center of the world, world tree), in certain beliefs and philosophies, is the world center, or the connection between Heaven and Earth. As the celestial pole and geographic pole, it expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms.[1] Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all.[2] The spot functions as the omphalos (navel), the world's point of beginning.[3][4][5]
The image is mostly viewed as feminine, as it relates to the center of the earth (perhaps like an umbilical providing nourishment). It may have the form of a natural object (a mountain, a tree, a vine, a stalk, a column of smoke or fire) or a product of human manufacture (a staff, a tower, a ladder, a staircase, a maypole, a cross, a steeple, a rope, a totem pole, a pillar, a spire). Its proximity to heaven may carry implications that are chiefly religious (pagoda, temple mount, minaret, church) or secular (obelisk, lighthouse, rocket, skyscraper). The image appears in religious and secular contexts.[6] The axis mundi symbol may be found in cultures utilizing shamanic practices or animist belief systems, in major world religions, and in technologically advanced "urban centers". In Mircea Eliade's opinion, "Every Microcosm, every inhabited region, has a Centre; that is to say, a place that is sacred above all."[7] The axis mundi is often associated with mandalas. -Wikipedia
The axis mundi (also cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar, center of the world, world tree), in certain beliefs and philosophies, is the world center, or the connection between Heaven and Earth. As the celestial pole and geographic pole, it expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms.[1] Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all.[2] The spot functions as the omphalos (navel), the world's point of beginning.[3][4][5]
The image is mostly viewed as feminine, as it relates to the center of the earth (perhaps like an umbilical providing nourishment). It may have the form of a natural object (a mountain, a tree, a vine, a stalk, a column of smoke or fire) or a product of human manufacture (a staff, a tower, a ladder, a staircase, a maypole, a cross, a steeple, a rope, a totem pole, a pillar, a spire). Its proximity to heaven may carry implications that are chiefly religious (pagoda, temple mount, minaret, church) or secular (obelisk, lighthouse, rocket, skyscraper). The image appears in religious and secular contexts.[6] The axis mundi symbol may be found in cultures utilizing shamanic practices or animist belief systems, in major world religions, and in technologically advanced "urban centers". In Mircea Eliade's opinion, "Every Microcosm, every inhabited region, has a Centre; that is to say, a place that is sacred above all."[7] The axis mundi is often associated with mandalas. -Wikipedia
To designate the act of manifestation of the sacred, we have proposed the term hierophany ... something sacred is shown to us. ... The history of religions -- from the most primitive to the most highly developed -- is constituted by a great number of hierophanies ... from the most elementary hierophany -- e.g., manifestation of the sacred in some ordinary object, a stone or a tree -- to the supreme hierophany (which, for a Christian, is the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ) there is no solution of continuity. ... The sacred tree, the sacred stone are not adored as stone or tree; they are worshipped precisely because they are hierophanies, because they show something that is no longer stone or tree but the sacred, the ganz andere [all other]. ... By manifesting the sacred, any object becomes something else, yet it continues to remain itself, for it continues to participate in its surrounding cosmic miieu. ... A sacred stone remains a stone ... from the profane point of view, nothing distinguishes it from all other stones. But for those to whom a stone reveals itself as sacred, its immediate reality is transmuted into a supernatural reality. ... All nature is capable of revealings itself...the cosmos in its entirely can become a hierophany. --Mircea Eliade, p11-12
The Tree of Life cncodes the geometry of spacetime.
Mrs. Baumann: I thought it was very interesting that in the prehistoric mythology of the island of Crete, of which practically nothing is known, there is another example of a world-tree. In a picture on a gold seal ring called the "Ring of Nestor," the tree is depicted in connection with scenes in the underworld.
The trunk of the tree and two large branches divide the picture into four scenes.
In the first, there are two butterflies and two chrysalises over the head of the Mother Goddess, and they seem to represent the souls of a man and a woman who are shown greeting each other with surprise.
In the lower part of the picture is a judgment scene, and the Mother Goddess is standing behind a table on which a griffin is seated, as the souls are brought before her by strange bird-headed beings.
Another point is, that in some of the graves, miniature scales made of gold have been found.
They are so small that they must be symbolic, and a butterfly is engraved on each of the golden discs which form the balance, so it looks as if the souls were weighed as butterflies, not as hearts as in Egypt.
The highest development of the Minoan civilization in Crete was contemporary with that of Egypt, its earliest beginnings dating as far back as 3000 B.C.
Prof Jung: That is a remarkable contribution to the tree and the butterfly symbolism.
You remember Nietzsche applies that symbol of the butterfly to himself-quite aptly, because nobody gets beyond the world, outside the field of gravity, where he might see the world as an apple, unless he has become a soul. One must be a sort of ghost to get to such distances.
To step out of the body and become the spirit or the soul itself, denotes a kind of ekstasis.
Now, we have a number of associations about that tree, and we should try to understand what it means practically when Nietzsche reaches the promontory, the end of his
world, the end of his consciousness, and meets there the tree.
You have heard that the tree is always the symbol of the end as well as of the beginning, of the state before man and the state after man.
Mr. Bash: Would the tree not be the symbol of the collectivum out of which man is differentiated and into which his elements dissolve?
Prof Jung: That is certainly so, and why is that collectivum symbolized by the tree?
Mrs. Sachs: The tree means vegetative life.
Prof Jung: Yes. It might be the snake or any other animal or the earth, but no, it is the tree, and the tree means something specific; that is a peculiar symbol.
It is the tree that nourishes all the stars and planets; and it is the tree out of which come the first parents, the primordial parents of humanity, and in which the last couple, also representing the whole of humanity, are buried.
That of course means that consciousness comes from the tree and dissolves into the tree again-the consciousness of human life.
And that surely points to the collective unconscious and to a collectivum.
So the tree stands for a particular kind of life of the collective unconscious, namely, vegetative life, as Mrs. Sachs rightly said.
Now what is the difference between the life of the plant and the life of the animal?
Miss Wolff: Two things. The plant is rooted to the spot and able to move in growth only, and then the respiratory system of the plant is different from that of the warm-blooded animals.
Prof Jung: Yes, a tree is unable to move in space except for the moment of growth, whereas the animal can move about. And all animals are parasites on plants, while the tree lives on the elements.
Or one can say that the plant is the kind of life which is nearest to the elements, a transition as it were, or the bridge, between the animal and inorganic nature. Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Pages 1432-1434.
http://www.biroz.net/words/minoan-epiphany/review-part-nine.htm
“Trees depicts the living structure of our inner self. It’s roots show our connection with our physical body and the earth; its trunk the way we would direct the energies of our being–varied and yet all connected in the common life process of our being. The tree can also symbolize new growth, stages of life and death, with its springs leaves and blossoms, then the falling leaves. The top of the tree, by the end of the branches, are our aspirations, the growing bendable tip of our personal growth and spiritual realization. The leaves may represent our personal life which may fall off the tree of life (die) but what gave it life continues to exist. The tree is our whole life, the evolutionary urge which pushes us in two being and grow it depicts the forces are processes which is behind all other life forms–but seen as it expresses interpersonal existence.”
“To begin at the beginning . . . the Qabalists postulated the AIN or NO-THING as the Zero From which, in a mysterious manner, the Universe arose. Next, they say, the AIN SUPH, or Limitless Space, became the Nature of the AIN, and this conception was followed by that of AIN SUPH AUR or the Limitless Light of Chaos. It was not until this Limitless Light had concentrated Itself to a Centre that the First Positive Idea arose, and this was called
Kether and attributed to the Number One . . .”
“Let us accept the term AIN as representing That of which Nothing is known, nor can be known, except through the positive manifestations which arise from it. When we attempt to imagine AIN SUPH—Limitless Space—our minds tend to rush on and on, only to fall back before the Profundity of the Great Deep; yet we have to admit the possibility of Infinite extension in space . . . When the AIN SUPH AUR became concentrated upon a Single Centre, it compressed the Light into Substance of Light, which is Life. Or, in other words, the Concentrated Light became an inconceivably powerful Force or Energy in the centre of Kether. This Pure Being, or Living Substance, owing to its reaction from the Invisible Centre, tends to expand towards Infinity. This gives us the idea of the Substance of the Universe ever expanding, ever occupying more and more of the Limitless Space of AIN SUPH, while the Primal Centralizing Urge still continues to contract upon the Infinitely Small, or the AIN . . . Kether is then the junction of these Two Infinites, but particularly represents the concentration of the Light to a Point on its way to the Infinitely Small . . .”1
Mrs. Baumann: I thought it was very interesting that in the prehistoric mythology of the island of Crete, of which practically nothing is known, there is another example of a world-tree. In a picture on a gold seal ring called the "Ring of Nestor," the tree is depicted in connection with scenes in the underworld.
The trunk of the tree and two large branches divide the picture into four scenes.
In the first, there are two butterflies and two chrysalises over the head of the Mother Goddess, and they seem to represent the souls of a man and a woman who are shown greeting each other with surprise.
In the lower part of the picture is a judgment scene, and the Mother Goddess is standing behind a table on which a griffin is seated, as the souls are brought before her by strange bird-headed beings.
Another point is, that in some of the graves, miniature scales made of gold have been found.
They are so small that they must be symbolic, and a butterfly is engraved on each of the golden discs which form the balance, so it looks as if the souls were weighed as butterflies, not as hearts as in Egypt.
The highest development of the Minoan civilization in Crete was contemporary with that of Egypt, its earliest beginnings dating as far back as 3000 B.C.
Prof Jung: That is a remarkable contribution to the tree and the butterfly symbolism.
You remember Nietzsche applies that symbol of the butterfly to himself-quite aptly, because nobody gets beyond the world, outside the field of gravity, where he might see the world as an apple, unless he has become a soul. One must be a sort of ghost to get to such distances.
To step out of the body and become the spirit or the soul itself, denotes a kind of ekstasis.
Now, we have a number of associations about that tree, and we should try to understand what it means practically when Nietzsche reaches the promontory, the end of his
world, the end of his consciousness, and meets there the tree.
You have heard that the tree is always the symbol of the end as well as of the beginning, of the state before man and the state after man.
Mr. Bash: Would the tree not be the symbol of the collectivum out of which man is differentiated and into which his elements dissolve?
Prof Jung: That is certainly so, and why is that collectivum symbolized by the tree?
Mrs. Sachs: The tree means vegetative life.
Prof Jung: Yes. It might be the snake or any other animal or the earth, but no, it is the tree, and the tree means something specific; that is a peculiar symbol.
It is the tree that nourishes all the stars and planets; and it is the tree out of which come the first parents, the primordial parents of humanity, and in which the last couple, also representing the whole of humanity, are buried.
That of course means that consciousness comes from the tree and dissolves into the tree again-the consciousness of human life.
And that surely points to the collective unconscious and to a collectivum.
So the tree stands for a particular kind of life of the collective unconscious, namely, vegetative life, as Mrs. Sachs rightly said.
Now what is the difference between the life of the plant and the life of the animal?
Miss Wolff: Two things. The plant is rooted to the spot and able to move in growth only, and then the respiratory system of the plant is different from that of the warm-blooded animals.
Prof Jung: Yes, a tree is unable to move in space except for the moment of growth, whereas the animal can move about. And all animals are parasites on plants, while the tree lives on the elements.
Or one can say that the plant is the kind of life which is nearest to the elements, a transition as it were, or the bridge, between the animal and inorganic nature. Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Pages 1432-1434.
http://www.biroz.net/words/minoan-epiphany/review-part-nine.htm
“Trees depicts the living structure of our inner self. It’s roots show our connection with our physical body and the earth; its trunk the way we would direct the energies of our being–varied and yet all connected in the common life process of our being. The tree can also symbolize new growth, stages of life and death, with its springs leaves and blossoms, then the falling leaves. The top of the tree, by the end of the branches, are our aspirations, the growing bendable tip of our personal growth and spiritual realization. The leaves may represent our personal life which may fall off the tree of life (die) but what gave it life continues to exist. The tree is our whole life, the evolutionary urge which pushes us in two being and grow it depicts the forces are processes which is behind all other life forms–but seen as it expresses interpersonal existence.”
“To begin at the beginning . . . the Qabalists postulated the AIN or NO-THING as the Zero From which, in a mysterious manner, the Universe arose. Next, they say, the AIN SUPH, or Limitless Space, became the Nature of the AIN, and this conception was followed by that of AIN SUPH AUR or the Limitless Light of Chaos. It was not until this Limitless Light had concentrated Itself to a Centre that the First Positive Idea arose, and this was called
Kether and attributed to the Number One . . .”
“Let us accept the term AIN as representing That of which Nothing is known, nor can be known, except through the positive manifestations which arise from it. When we attempt to imagine AIN SUPH—Limitless Space—our minds tend to rush on and on, only to fall back before the Profundity of the Great Deep; yet we have to admit the possibility of Infinite extension in space . . . When the AIN SUPH AUR became concentrated upon a Single Centre, it compressed the Light into Substance of Light, which is Life. Or, in other words, the Concentrated Light became an inconceivably powerful Force or Energy in the centre of Kether. This Pure Being, or Living Substance, owing to its reaction from the Invisible Centre, tends to expand towards Infinity. This gives us the idea of the Substance of the Universe ever expanding, ever occupying more and more of the Limitless Space of AIN SUPH, while the Primal Centralizing Urge still continues to contract upon the Infinitely Small, or the AIN . . . Kether is then the junction of these Two Infinites, but particularly represents the concentration of the Light to a Point on its way to the Infinitely Small . . .”1
He sees the tree of life, whose roots reach into Hell and whose top touches Heaven. He also no longer knows differences: Who is right? What is holy? What is genuine? What is good? What is correct? He knows only one difference: the difference between below and above. For he sees that the tree of life grows from below to above, and that it has its crown at the top, clearly differentiated from the roots. To him this is unquestionable. Hence he knows the way to salvation.
To unlearn all distinctions save that concerning direction is part of your salvation. Hence you free yourself from the old curse of the knowledge of good and evil. Because you separated good from evil according to your best appraisal and aspired only to the good and denied the evil that you committed nevertheless and ailed to accept, your roots no longer suckled the dark nourishment of the depths and your tree became sick and withered.
Therefore the ancients said that after Adam had eaten the apple, the tree of paradise withered. Your life needs the dark. But if you know that it is evil, you can no longer accept it and you suffer anguish and you do not know why: Nor can you accept it as evil, else your good will reject you. Nor can you deny it since you know good and evil. Because of this the knowledge of good and evil was an insurmountable curse.
But if you return to primal chaos and if you feel and recognize that which hangs stretched between the two unbearable poles of fire, you will notice that you can no longer separate good and evil conclusively, neither through feeling nor through knowledge, but that you can discern the direction of growth only from below to above. You thus forget the distinction between good and evil, and you no longer know it as long as your tree grows from below to above. But as soon as growth stops, what was united in growth falls apart and once more you recognize good and evil.
You can never deny your knowledge of good and evil to yourself so that you could betray your good in order to live evil. For as soon as you separate good and evil, you recognize them. They are united only in growth. But you grow if you stand still in the greatest doubt, and therefore steadfastness in great doubt is' a veritable flower of life.
He who cannot bear doubt does not bear himself. Such a one is doubtful; he does not grow and hence he does not live. Doubt is the sign of the strongest and the weakest. The strong have doubt, but doubt has the weak. Therefore the weakest is close to the strongest, and if he can say to his doubt: "I have you," then he is the strongest. But no one can say yes to his doubt, unless he endures wide-open chaos. Because there are so many among us who can talk about anything, pay heed to what they live. What someone says can be very much or very little. Thus examine his life.
My speech is neither light nor dark, since it is the speech of someone who is growing. ~Carl Jung, Red Book, Page 301
To unlearn all distinctions save that concerning direction is part of your salvation. Hence you free yourself from the old curse of the knowledge of good and evil. Because you separated good from evil according to your best appraisal and aspired only to the good and denied the evil that you committed nevertheless and ailed to accept, your roots no longer suckled the dark nourishment of the depths and your tree became sick and withered.
Therefore the ancients said that after Adam had eaten the apple, the tree of paradise withered. Your life needs the dark. But if you know that it is evil, you can no longer accept it and you suffer anguish and you do not know why: Nor can you accept it as evil, else your good will reject you. Nor can you deny it since you know good and evil. Because of this the knowledge of good and evil was an insurmountable curse.
But if you return to primal chaos and if you feel and recognize that which hangs stretched between the two unbearable poles of fire, you will notice that you can no longer separate good and evil conclusively, neither through feeling nor through knowledge, but that you can discern the direction of growth only from below to above. You thus forget the distinction between good and evil, and you no longer know it as long as your tree grows from below to above. But as soon as growth stops, what was united in growth falls apart and once more you recognize good and evil.
You can never deny your knowledge of good and evil to yourself so that you could betray your good in order to live evil. For as soon as you separate good and evil, you recognize them. They are united only in growth. But you grow if you stand still in the greatest doubt, and therefore steadfastness in great doubt is' a veritable flower of life.
He who cannot bear doubt does not bear himself. Such a one is doubtful; he does not grow and hence he does not live. Doubt is the sign of the strongest and the weakest. The strong have doubt, but doubt has the weak. Therefore the weakest is close to the strongest, and if he can say to his doubt: "I have you," then he is the strongest. But no one can say yes to his doubt, unless he endures wide-open chaos. Because there are so many among us who can talk about anything, pay heed to what they live. What someone says can be very much or very little. Thus examine his life.
My speech is neither light nor dark, since it is the speech of someone who is growing. ~Carl Jung, Red Book, Page 301
The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life is an important symbol in nearly every culture. With its branches reaching into the sky, and roots deep in the earth, it dwells in three worlds- a link between heaven, the earth, and the underworld, uniting above and below. It is both a feminine symbol, bearing sustenance, and a masculine, visibly phallic symbol- another union.
In Jewish and Christian mythology, a tree sits at the center of both the Heavenly and Earthly Edens. The Norse cosmic World Ash, Ygdrassil, has its roots in the underworld while its branches support the abode of the Gods. The Egyptian’s Holy Sycamore stood on the threshold of life and death, connecting the worlds. To the Mayas, it is Yaxche, whose branches support the heavens.
The tree has other characteristics which lend easily to symbolism. Many trees take on the appearance of death in the winter- losing their leaves, only to sprout new growth with the return of spring. This aspect makes the tree a symbol of resurrection, and a stylized tree is the symbol of many resurrected Gods- Jesus, Attis, and Osirus all have crosses as their symbols. Most of these Gods are believed to have been crucified on trees, as well. The modern Christmas tree hearkens back to trees decorated to honor Attis, the crucified God of the Greeks.
A tree also bears seeds or fruits, which contain the essence of the tree, and this continuous regeneration is a potent symbol of immortality. It is the fruit of a tree that confers immortality in the Jewish creation story. In Taoist tradition, it is a divine peach that gives the gift of immortality. In ancient Persia, the fruit of the haoma bears this essence. The apples of Idun give the Norse gods their powers, much like the Gods of the Greek pantheon and their reliance on Ambrosia. This aspect of the tree as a giver of gifts and spiritual wisdom is also quite common.
It is while meditating under a Bodhi tree that Buddha received his enlightenment; the Norse God Odin received the gift of language while suspended upside down in the World Ash (an interesting parallel is the hanged man of the tarot). In Judeo-Christian mythology, the Tree of heaven sits at the center of creation, and is the source of the primordial rivers that water the earth-
The Tooba Tree of the Koran is a similar idea, from whose roots spring milk, honey, and wine.
This tree and its gifts of immortality are not easy to discover. It is historically difficult to find, and almost invariably guarded. The tree of Life in the Jewish bible is guarded by a Seraph (an angel in the form of a fiery serpent) bearing a flaming sword. To steal the apples of knowledge, the Greek hero Hercules had to slay a many-headed dragon Ladon. In Mayan legends, it is a serpent in the roots that must be contended with. Similarly, the Naga, or divine serpent guards the Hindu Tree. The Serpent Nidhog lives under Ygdrassil, and gnaws at the roots.
The tree as the abode of the Gods is another feature common to many mythologies; in some, the tree itself is a God. The ancient Sumerian God Dammuzi was personified as a tree, as is the Hindu Brahman. The Byzantine World tree represents the omnipotence of the Christian god.
Another form, the inverted Tree, represents spiritual growth, as well as the human nervous system. This tree, with its roots in heaven, and its branches growing downward, is most commonly found in Kabbalistic imagery.
A similar tree is mentioned in the Vedic Bhagavad Gita: “The banyan tree with its roots above, and its branches below, is imperishable.”
In Jewish Kabbalah, the inverted tree represents the nervous system as well- the ‘root’ in the cranial nerves, with the branches spreading throughout the body; it also represents the cosmic tree- rooted in heaven, the branches all of manifest creation.
The Tree of Life is an important symbol in nearly every culture. With its branches reaching into the sky, and roots deep in the earth, it dwells in three worlds- a link between heaven, the earth, and the underworld, uniting above and below. It is both a feminine symbol, bearing sustenance, and a masculine, visibly phallic symbol- another union.
In Jewish and Christian mythology, a tree sits at the center of both the Heavenly and Earthly Edens. The Norse cosmic World Ash, Ygdrassil, has its roots in the underworld while its branches support the abode of the Gods. The Egyptian’s Holy Sycamore stood on the threshold of life and death, connecting the worlds. To the Mayas, it is Yaxche, whose branches support the heavens.
The tree has other characteristics which lend easily to symbolism. Many trees take on the appearance of death in the winter- losing their leaves, only to sprout new growth with the return of spring. This aspect makes the tree a symbol of resurrection, and a stylized tree is the symbol of many resurrected Gods- Jesus, Attis, and Osirus all have crosses as their symbols. Most of these Gods are believed to have been crucified on trees, as well. The modern Christmas tree hearkens back to trees decorated to honor Attis, the crucified God of the Greeks.
A tree also bears seeds or fruits, which contain the essence of the tree, and this continuous regeneration is a potent symbol of immortality. It is the fruit of a tree that confers immortality in the Jewish creation story. In Taoist tradition, it is a divine peach that gives the gift of immortality. In ancient Persia, the fruit of the haoma bears this essence. The apples of Idun give the Norse gods their powers, much like the Gods of the Greek pantheon and their reliance on Ambrosia. This aspect of the tree as a giver of gifts and spiritual wisdom is also quite common.
It is while meditating under a Bodhi tree that Buddha received his enlightenment; the Norse God Odin received the gift of language while suspended upside down in the World Ash (an interesting parallel is the hanged man of the tarot). In Judeo-Christian mythology, the Tree of heaven sits at the center of creation, and is the source of the primordial rivers that water the earth-
The Tooba Tree of the Koran is a similar idea, from whose roots spring milk, honey, and wine.
This tree and its gifts of immortality are not easy to discover. It is historically difficult to find, and almost invariably guarded. The tree of Life in the Jewish bible is guarded by a Seraph (an angel in the form of a fiery serpent) bearing a flaming sword. To steal the apples of knowledge, the Greek hero Hercules had to slay a many-headed dragon Ladon. In Mayan legends, it is a serpent in the roots that must be contended with. Similarly, the Naga, or divine serpent guards the Hindu Tree. The Serpent Nidhog lives under Ygdrassil, and gnaws at the roots.
The tree as the abode of the Gods is another feature common to many mythologies; in some, the tree itself is a God. The ancient Sumerian God Dammuzi was personified as a tree, as is the Hindu Brahman. The Byzantine World tree represents the omnipotence of the Christian god.
Another form, the inverted Tree, represents spiritual growth, as well as the human nervous system. This tree, with its roots in heaven, and its branches growing downward, is most commonly found in Kabbalistic imagery.
A similar tree is mentioned in the Vedic Bhagavad Gita: “The banyan tree with its roots above, and its branches below, is imperishable.”
In Jewish Kabbalah, the inverted tree represents the nervous system as well- the ‘root’ in the cranial nerves, with the branches spreading throughout the body; it also represents the cosmic tree- rooted in heaven, the branches all of manifest creation.
The Archetypal Symbolism of Trees:
Spiritual and Religious Dimensions
By Ralph Monday
Trees have long held a literal and symbolic fascination for humanity. Their source as a deep archetype of absorption begins with the earliest epic in the Western World, the story of Gilgamesh and his quest for the plant of life (a symbolic tree) that is snatched away by a serpent, thus illustrating that the use of the tree as a universal religious symbol is incredibly ancient; such utilization can be dated to at least the third millennium B.C.E. as a symbol of a rich cultural mythos, the major archetype being that of the center, the beginning where sacred powers first originated. The tree is the navel of the world, the "cosmic axis" (Axis mundi) standing at the universe's center where it passes through the middle and unites the three great cosmic domains: the underworld, earth, and sky (Roth 11).
In addition to mythological ones, there are other trees throughout our culture, our bodies, and our environment. We have family trees as diagrams relating us and our kinfolk. Philologists construct language trees to show how tongues like Latin, Sanskrit, and English are related historically. Logicians, electrical engineers, and computer scientists all draw trees to depict connections. Our vascular and nerve systems are treelike in their forms, and so are river systems. Although the gallows tree is no longer a familiar sight, it echoes in our racial memory. There is something fundamental and ultimate about trees and tree shapes (Algeo).
Furthermore Algeo writes that
Apart from any explanation why, the fact is that we are attracted to the image of the tree. Consider a few of them. The Edenic Trees of Knowledge and of Life had offshoots in the Kabbalistic tree of Life and in the Tree of the Cross on which Christ was crucified, which Medieval legends held to be made from wood of the Tree of Life. The Buddha reached enlightenment by sitting under the Bo Tree of Wisdom. Odin became the god of wisdom by hanging on a tree, Yggdrasil, the world ash tree that unites heaven, earth, and hell. The Druids, Celtic wizards whose name means "tree," worked their magic in oak groves. The Bhagavad Gita has a tree that grows upside down, with its roots in heaven and its branches in the world. In Tibet a marvelous kumbum tree grows with mystical symbols from the mystery language Senzar on its leaves and bark. (Algeo)
The present tree symbols under discussion are: the Edenic Trees of Knowledge and Life, the Christian Tree of the Cross, and the Norse Yggdrasil.. As we shall see, a commonality possessed by all is the archetypal symbol of life and knowledge in both the conscious and unconscious realms that interaction with the tree brings as a type of mythic boon where the physical and the sacred are united.
The best-known symbol in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is of course, the two trees found in Genesis, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life, the former the very trunk of the mythic fall of humanity and nature and total separation from God that has permeated the mythos for over two thousand years, the latter tree one that is banned from Adam and Eve after their partaking of forbidden fruit so that they might die and not know immortality as the god(s) do. In the Neolithic and Bronze ages the world tree was one where the symbolism was interpreted as a nexus, the world axis, where pairs of opposites come together (Campbell 105). In this interpretation the tree was a universal whole: male and female, dark and light, knowledge and mystery, etc. The Biblical tradition, however, deconstructs this unity and by Eve's partaking of the fruit, humanity was separated into dualities, male and female, good and evil, the unity dissolved and rent asunder, a unique perspective where humanity is thrown into time and space and becomes aware of imminent mortality. The tree, in such a creative reading, no longer unites the three planes of existence: heaven, earth, the underworld, but instead represents the temporal nature of man confined to the earth in disobedience, separated from the tree (nature), the heavens (god), with only the thought of the underworld (Sheol) as a final, inevitable end, unless the disparity of the tree can be transcended in some manner in this particular mythos.
The spiritual transcendence broken by this ill advised repast, is redeemed, of course, in the tree of the Christian Cross that Jesus died upon (the new Adam) in order to synthesize the breech between God and humanity. Travers has noted that: "Coming to [the Christian] tradition, we can think of the cross as the world tree par excellence. There is an old belief, part of our Christian mythology, that the wood from the cross on which Christ was hanged was hewn from one of the trees that grew in Paradise " (Travers, 20). Curiously, Christianity is the only branch of any world mythology that disrupts the unity of the world tree and separates man from god, man from nature, man from himself, and then attempts to reunite the sundering via the context of the sacrificed god. There are reversed echoes of Odin's self crucifixion in such a story, though in the Norse story the spiritual archetype is, of course, the heavens coming down to man, not man ascending to the heavens.
Furthermore, the symbolism of the Christian Cross has an interesting history as stated by Schama in exploring the transformation of the old pagan practice of tree worship into the new interpretation of the tree as symbolized by the cross:
The botanical cross was rapidly translated into the iconography of the Christian West, where it put out multiple shoots. But sometimes traces of pagan prototypes hung on the branches. A decorated capital T (for Te Igitur) in a ninth-century Metz breviary in which the cross is formed from vines also includes a pair of oxen at the base and twin sacrificial lambs at either cnd of the crosspiece." Generally, this signified the victory of the new faith over the old,. and in time classical icons like the oxen were replaced at the base of the cross by the serpent of Genesis. The most austere and militant of the early church fathers were certainly aware that using trees and flowers to symbolize the death-that-is-no-death might come perilously close to outright idolatry. Formidable iconoclasts like St. Eligius, the bishop of Noyon, warned the faithful to obey scrupulously the commandment of Deuteronomy 12:2 to "utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree." But tree cults were everywhere in barbarian Europe, from the Celtic shores of the Atlantic in Ireland and Brittany, and Nordic Scandinavia, all the way through to the Balkans in the southeast and Lithuania on the Baltic. And since the latter province was thoroughly converted only in the fourteenth century, it is still possible to find startling "graveyards" where, instead of conventional crosses, wooden totems, their forms unaltered from paganism, crowd together in antic disorder. (Schama)
In this instance it is easy to recognize that the cross symbolizes eternal life. Various religions employ this archetype with minute differences: Christianity incorporated the mythography of the tree/cross from Gnostic and Kabbalist ritual, and echoes of this religious structure can be found even earlier in the Egyptian world. In addition, in the Mediterranean world the Latin or Roman cross was present, and Buddhist missionaries brought their symbolic version of the cross from India, but as has been touched upon earlier, the specific Christian meaning of the cross is that of the incarnation of Divinity, the "Word (Logos) made flesh" -- crucified on the cross of matter, as St. Paul so eloquently dwells upon (Immink).
In Teutonic and Norse mythology Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is the trunk wedding the heavens, the underworld, and earth. This tree represents the place where the sacred enters the profane. The universe is supported by this tree that towers from the netherworld to the apex of the heavens. According to Travers,
One of its roots is grounded in the fountain of Mimir, from whose sacred waters flows all the wisdom of the world. Close to another root dwell the Norns-who are the equivalent of the Greek fates. And at the foot of the third lies the lake of memory and premonition, to achieve…[its] qualities the high god Odin paid the price of one of his eyes (Travers 20).
Odin, the equivalent of the Greek Zeus, hung on the tree for nine days, self-sacrificed so that he could bring the wisdom of the runes to his people, interpreted as language, knowledge, archetypally equal to Eve's eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Once again, from the symbol of the tree flows human awareness and consciousness, the nexus of being thrown into time and space.
In conclusion, the tree symbol is viewed as a universal archetype uniting the world of temporal matter, the other world of death, and the universal paradise myth regained after the completion of life's journey, for the tree exists in three worlds: the earthly, the underworld, and its branches soar into the infinite heavens, the domain of god.
Works Cited:
Algeo, John. Viewpoint: Trees Around us and Within us, Theosophical Society
in America. Nov.-Dec. 1999. 21 Aug. 2003. http://www.theosophical.org/
theosophy/questmagazine/Novemberdecember1999/viewpoint/
Campbell, Joseph. Occidental Mythology: The Masks of God, New York: Penguin Books,
1964.
Immink, Phyllis. The Secret Wisdom of Symbols. Sunrise Magazine, August/September 1996. Theosophical University Press. http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sunrise/45-95-6/my-imm.htm
Roth, Stephanie. The Tree of Life, The Ecologist. Jan. 2000 v30il. TEL. ASAP.
18 Aug. 2003.
Schama, Simon, Landscape and Memory, New York, Alfred E. Knopf, 1995.
Travers, P.L. "In Search of the World Tree." Parabola: Myth, Tradition, and the Search
for Meaning, Volume 24, Number 3. August, 1999.
Spiritual and Religious Dimensions
By Ralph Monday
Trees have long held a literal and symbolic fascination for humanity. Their source as a deep archetype of absorption begins with the earliest epic in the Western World, the story of Gilgamesh and his quest for the plant of life (a symbolic tree) that is snatched away by a serpent, thus illustrating that the use of the tree as a universal religious symbol is incredibly ancient; such utilization can be dated to at least the third millennium B.C.E. as a symbol of a rich cultural mythos, the major archetype being that of the center, the beginning where sacred powers first originated. The tree is the navel of the world, the "cosmic axis" (Axis mundi) standing at the universe's center where it passes through the middle and unites the three great cosmic domains: the underworld, earth, and sky (Roth 11).
In addition to mythological ones, there are other trees throughout our culture, our bodies, and our environment. We have family trees as diagrams relating us and our kinfolk. Philologists construct language trees to show how tongues like Latin, Sanskrit, and English are related historically. Logicians, electrical engineers, and computer scientists all draw trees to depict connections. Our vascular and nerve systems are treelike in their forms, and so are river systems. Although the gallows tree is no longer a familiar sight, it echoes in our racial memory. There is something fundamental and ultimate about trees and tree shapes (Algeo).
Furthermore Algeo writes that
Apart from any explanation why, the fact is that we are attracted to the image of the tree. Consider a few of them. The Edenic Trees of Knowledge and of Life had offshoots in the Kabbalistic tree of Life and in the Tree of the Cross on which Christ was crucified, which Medieval legends held to be made from wood of the Tree of Life. The Buddha reached enlightenment by sitting under the Bo Tree of Wisdom. Odin became the god of wisdom by hanging on a tree, Yggdrasil, the world ash tree that unites heaven, earth, and hell. The Druids, Celtic wizards whose name means "tree," worked their magic in oak groves. The Bhagavad Gita has a tree that grows upside down, with its roots in heaven and its branches in the world. In Tibet a marvelous kumbum tree grows with mystical symbols from the mystery language Senzar on its leaves and bark. (Algeo)
The present tree symbols under discussion are: the Edenic Trees of Knowledge and Life, the Christian Tree of the Cross, and the Norse Yggdrasil.. As we shall see, a commonality possessed by all is the archetypal symbol of life and knowledge in both the conscious and unconscious realms that interaction with the tree brings as a type of mythic boon where the physical and the sacred are united.
The best-known symbol in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is of course, the two trees found in Genesis, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life, the former the very trunk of the mythic fall of humanity and nature and total separation from God that has permeated the mythos for over two thousand years, the latter tree one that is banned from Adam and Eve after their partaking of forbidden fruit so that they might die and not know immortality as the god(s) do. In the Neolithic and Bronze ages the world tree was one where the symbolism was interpreted as a nexus, the world axis, where pairs of opposites come together (Campbell 105). In this interpretation the tree was a universal whole: male and female, dark and light, knowledge and mystery, etc. The Biblical tradition, however, deconstructs this unity and by Eve's partaking of the fruit, humanity was separated into dualities, male and female, good and evil, the unity dissolved and rent asunder, a unique perspective where humanity is thrown into time and space and becomes aware of imminent mortality. The tree, in such a creative reading, no longer unites the three planes of existence: heaven, earth, the underworld, but instead represents the temporal nature of man confined to the earth in disobedience, separated from the tree (nature), the heavens (god), with only the thought of the underworld (Sheol) as a final, inevitable end, unless the disparity of the tree can be transcended in some manner in this particular mythos.
The spiritual transcendence broken by this ill advised repast, is redeemed, of course, in the tree of the Christian Cross that Jesus died upon (the new Adam) in order to synthesize the breech between God and humanity. Travers has noted that: "Coming to [the Christian] tradition, we can think of the cross as the world tree par excellence. There is an old belief, part of our Christian mythology, that the wood from the cross on which Christ was hanged was hewn from one of the trees that grew in Paradise " (Travers, 20). Curiously, Christianity is the only branch of any world mythology that disrupts the unity of the world tree and separates man from god, man from nature, man from himself, and then attempts to reunite the sundering via the context of the sacrificed god. There are reversed echoes of Odin's self crucifixion in such a story, though in the Norse story the spiritual archetype is, of course, the heavens coming down to man, not man ascending to the heavens.
Furthermore, the symbolism of the Christian Cross has an interesting history as stated by Schama in exploring the transformation of the old pagan practice of tree worship into the new interpretation of the tree as symbolized by the cross:
The botanical cross was rapidly translated into the iconography of the Christian West, where it put out multiple shoots. But sometimes traces of pagan prototypes hung on the branches. A decorated capital T (for Te Igitur) in a ninth-century Metz breviary in which the cross is formed from vines also includes a pair of oxen at the base and twin sacrificial lambs at either cnd of the crosspiece." Generally, this signified the victory of the new faith over the old,. and in time classical icons like the oxen were replaced at the base of the cross by the serpent of Genesis. The most austere and militant of the early church fathers were certainly aware that using trees and flowers to symbolize the death-that-is-no-death might come perilously close to outright idolatry. Formidable iconoclasts like St. Eligius, the bishop of Noyon, warned the faithful to obey scrupulously the commandment of Deuteronomy 12:2 to "utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree." But tree cults were everywhere in barbarian Europe, from the Celtic shores of the Atlantic in Ireland and Brittany, and Nordic Scandinavia, all the way through to the Balkans in the southeast and Lithuania on the Baltic. And since the latter province was thoroughly converted only in the fourteenth century, it is still possible to find startling "graveyards" where, instead of conventional crosses, wooden totems, their forms unaltered from paganism, crowd together in antic disorder. (Schama)
In this instance it is easy to recognize that the cross symbolizes eternal life. Various religions employ this archetype with minute differences: Christianity incorporated the mythography of the tree/cross from Gnostic and Kabbalist ritual, and echoes of this religious structure can be found even earlier in the Egyptian world. In addition, in the Mediterranean world the Latin or Roman cross was present, and Buddhist missionaries brought their symbolic version of the cross from India, but as has been touched upon earlier, the specific Christian meaning of the cross is that of the incarnation of Divinity, the "Word (Logos) made flesh" -- crucified on the cross of matter, as St. Paul so eloquently dwells upon (Immink).
In Teutonic and Norse mythology Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is the trunk wedding the heavens, the underworld, and earth. This tree represents the place where the sacred enters the profane. The universe is supported by this tree that towers from the netherworld to the apex of the heavens. According to Travers,
One of its roots is grounded in the fountain of Mimir, from whose sacred waters flows all the wisdom of the world. Close to another root dwell the Norns-who are the equivalent of the Greek fates. And at the foot of the third lies the lake of memory and premonition, to achieve…[its] qualities the high god Odin paid the price of one of his eyes (Travers 20).
Odin, the equivalent of the Greek Zeus, hung on the tree for nine days, self-sacrificed so that he could bring the wisdom of the runes to his people, interpreted as language, knowledge, archetypally equal to Eve's eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Once again, from the symbol of the tree flows human awareness and consciousness, the nexus of being thrown into time and space.
In conclusion, the tree symbol is viewed as a universal archetype uniting the world of temporal matter, the other world of death, and the universal paradise myth regained after the completion of life's journey, for the tree exists in three worlds: the earthly, the underworld, and its branches soar into the infinite heavens, the domain of god.
Works Cited:
Algeo, John. Viewpoint: Trees Around us and Within us, Theosophical Society
in America. Nov.-Dec. 1999. 21 Aug. 2003. http://www.theosophical.org/
theosophy/questmagazine/Novemberdecember1999/viewpoint/
Campbell, Joseph. Occidental Mythology: The Masks of God, New York: Penguin Books,
1964.
Immink, Phyllis. The Secret Wisdom of Symbols. Sunrise Magazine, August/September 1996. Theosophical University Press. http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sunrise/45-95-6/my-imm.htm
Roth, Stephanie. The Tree of Life, The Ecologist. Jan. 2000 v30il. TEL. ASAP.
18 Aug. 2003.
Schama, Simon, Landscape and Memory, New York, Alfred E. Knopf, 1995.
Travers, P.L. "In Search of the World Tree." Parabola: Myth, Tradition, and the Search
for Meaning, Volume 24, Number 3. August, 1999.
Jungian Archetypes & The Tree of Life
As Jung defined them, the archetypes are the major inhabitants of the unconscious. Jung uses various expressions to describe them, such as "nodal points," "motifs," "primordial images," and "patterns of behavior."
One metaphor he uses is to speak of them as organs of the unconscious much as the heart, liver, etc., are organs of the physical body. In the next chapter we will examine the force and energy aspect of the archetypes to enable us to equate these energies with the Hindu chakra system (the mundane centers on the Tree) because, in the World of Atziluth we find the root energy that we can, think of as centers and fields of force of the sephirah. Strictly speaking, the Qabalists only refer to this root energy as being archetypal. It is not registered as form or image until it reaches the World of Briah, the Prototypal World, when it becomes what Jung called archetypal images. For the moment we will confine ourselves to the individual’s relationship to the major archetypal images Jung associates with the process of Individuation. Later we can examine the archetypal energy that our psychic senses register as images or forms in dreams and visions.
Within the human psyche, the archetypes represent ways of thinking and of acting-an inherited mode of psychic functioning or a pattern of behavior (an instinct). As mentioned before, in essence an archetype is a force, but it is registered most commonly as an image. In dreams archetypes appear often as persons, sometimes quite ordinary, sometimes as mythological or ancient figures. In personal development (development of the psyche) the primary archetypes are the Shadow, the anima (a man’s soul image), the animus (a woman’s soul image), the guide, the Self, the Magna Mater (the Old Wise Woman), and the Old Wise Man who is the philosopher. The anima and the Magna Mater (Great Mother) appear as feminine; the animus and Old Wise Man appear as masculine, in both a man’s and a woman’s psyche. Due to our Western patriarchal orientation (male chauvinism) the guide and the Self usually appear as masculine. In the East a Yogin attempts to make union (Yoga) with "The Mother," but in the West both men and women look to a savior that is a man!
The Higher Self (Tiphareth, the Sun) is as much feminine as It is masculine. That is to say, the mediator may appear as feminine. And where, but in the world of the home, does woman serve so well as she does as mediator between the warring factors of the family? So why not between the warring factors in the soul too? In the septenary system of the Hindus the mediating force is Kundalini and is a neutral force that can take on both masculine or feminine qualities according to whether it is rising in Ida or Pingala. Jung’s Shadow (the nigredo of Alchemy) will usually have the same sex as the dreamer but not necessarily so.
If we view a dream as some kind of stage-play, then these figures take on roles in the play that reflect their particular natures. In a series of dreams we will continually meet these same players over and over again in different dress and with different plots, speaking different line but always representing particular "patterns of behavior." This is not unlike the medieval morality plays, whose characters represented not persons but attitudes such as "Faith," Sorrow," "Courage," etc. Even today these morality plays are performed "out there" in movies and on television. Some styles of play have become honed and perfected the degree that they are now more like rituals than like plays.
The universal appeal of the "Western" movie largely due to its use of players as archetypal symbol. We all recognize the Hero (the good guy, with the white hat), the Shadow (he wears the black hat), the Old Wise Man (the rancher, or the old doctor), the bright anima (the rancher’s daughter, pure and sweet), and the dads anima (the dancehall strumpet, sullied but redeemable). The great Hero Myth replays itself every night on the living room TV. This is our own unique Hero Myth, and serves us as the tales of Ulysses enchanted the Greeks, or the stories of the Knights of the Round Table served the people of medieval England.
Our own personal dreams are no less interesting or significant. They are far more valuable to us, in fact, because they are a record of our inner growth. We do not pay as much attention to them as we should, but if we did, we would soon learn to recognize the "players" just as we recognize them in the Western movie. These players are parts of ourselves, and each night act out our problems, our hopes, and our potentials. They often have contradictory desires and needs which will be acted out in conflicts of various kinds. Sometimes the dreamer is a passive observer, and in these cases the dream is a way that the unconscious tells the ego what the unconscious wants it to know. This is reasonable enough, since the unconscious can’t talk to us when we are "awake," but when we are "asleep," it has control, and then it can complain to us, or congratulate us about how we acted during the day. In psychological terms, some dreams are compensatory (makeup for what we do not do when "awake"), and some dreams are complementary (complement our "waking" life).
In some dreams the dreamer takes an active part and himself participates in the play. Often he represents himself (the ego), but sometimes he may take the part of one of the archetypes. In such a role he may do many things that he ordinarily cannot do (like flying through the air), or that he would not do (like murder), and can experience great successes and great failures. Proper analysis and reflection upon these plays can lead us to greater self-understanding, and also to inner growth.
To do this requires some understanding of ancient symbolism, however. Our dream figures do not always appear as cowboys and bandits and other easily recognized figures. Often they appear as ancient or archaic images. Dr. Jung’s dream analysis rests upon his postulation anent the arche-types, where he often associates dream symbolism with the symbolism of ancient cults. Arriving thus at his abstract conclusions we see why these have served to baffle many of the more orthodox psychologists of our day, and why they would be inclined to think of Dr. Jung as being mystical. His conclusions about this do, however, agree in the main with the teachings of the Mystical Qabalah, and other genuine occult systems.
One of the structures Jung finds in the psyche he calls the Persona. This, he says, is the mask the self-conscious personality wears to meet the exigencies of its world. If the personality becomes totally identified with the Persona it becomes a "grown on" mask that thereby rules and dominates the true personality. This results in the conscious mind being cut off from, and therefore unable to recognize the inferior element or function, which Jung calls the Shadow. (In occult terms the true personality would be the "unit of incarnation," and the Persona would be the conditioning, mores, etc., that this personality becomes identified with, including one’s position in life-doctor, lawyer, merchant chief, butcher, baker, candlestick maker, to quote from the old nursery rhyme.) Jung’s shadow archetype would equate with the Dweller on the Threshhold of occultism—one’s inferior proclivities hidden in the unconscious. The cutting off of this element from consciousness, as the "good" Christian in particular does, results in psychic eruptions that must (due to their subconscious origin) be projected onto one’s world.
The Persona is the role which a person plays, the major or predominant role. Most people have several roles to play: businessman by day, boy-scout leader at night, church-elder on Sunday, etc. Most of us are aware of these roles and can play them without becoming fully identified with them. That is, we are aware that we are playing a role, and do not fully believe that we are what we are playing at being. This does not mean that we are not serious in our play; we can be deadly serious. But we do not intend to become one of those roles for 24 hours a day. In fact we usually cannot keep it up for 24 hours. This is the success of the "marathon therapy" currently in vogue; it wears down the Persona which a person cannot maintain, and it then permits the personality to emerge. The fact that such large numbers of people profit from this therapy suggests that very few of us ever show our real selves in public. But the ease with which the person may be unmasked (by sheer 24 hour endurance) also shows that marathon therapy is not dealing with the psychological depths, but only with the most superficial aspect of the psyche. Anyone who is able (or rather willing) to drop his mask at will is neither frightened by such therapy nor helped by it.
http://mara-gamiel.blogspot.com/2008/08/jungian-archetypes-tree-of-life.html
As Jung defined them, the archetypes are the major inhabitants of the unconscious. Jung uses various expressions to describe them, such as "nodal points," "motifs," "primordial images," and "patterns of behavior."
One metaphor he uses is to speak of them as organs of the unconscious much as the heart, liver, etc., are organs of the physical body. In the next chapter we will examine the force and energy aspect of the archetypes to enable us to equate these energies with the Hindu chakra system (the mundane centers on the Tree) because, in the World of Atziluth we find the root energy that we can, think of as centers and fields of force of the sephirah. Strictly speaking, the Qabalists only refer to this root energy as being archetypal. It is not registered as form or image until it reaches the World of Briah, the Prototypal World, when it becomes what Jung called archetypal images. For the moment we will confine ourselves to the individual’s relationship to the major archetypal images Jung associates with the process of Individuation. Later we can examine the archetypal energy that our psychic senses register as images or forms in dreams and visions.
Within the human psyche, the archetypes represent ways of thinking and of acting-an inherited mode of psychic functioning or a pattern of behavior (an instinct). As mentioned before, in essence an archetype is a force, but it is registered most commonly as an image. In dreams archetypes appear often as persons, sometimes quite ordinary, sometimes as mythological or ancient figures. In personal development (development of the psyche) the primary archetypes are the Shadow, the anima (a man’s soul image), the animus (a woman’s soul image), the guide, the Self, the Magna Mater (the Old Wise Woman), and the Old Wise Man who is the philosopher. The anima and the Magna Mater (Great Mother) appear as feminine; the animus and Old Wise Man appear as masculine, in both a man’s and a woman’s psyche. Due to our Western patriarchal orientation (male chauvinism) the guide and the Self usually appear as masculine. In the East a Yogin attempts to make union (Yoga) with "The Mother," but in the West both men and women look to a savior that is a man!
The Higher Self (Tiphareth, the Sun) is as much feminine as It is masculine. That is to say, the mediator may appear as feminine. And where, but in the world of the home, does woman serve so well as she does as mediator between the warring factors of the family? So why not between the warring factors in the soul too? In the septenary system of the Hindus the mediating force is Kundalini and is a neutral force that can take on both masculine or feminine qualities according to whether it is rising in Ida or Pingala. Jung’s Shadow (the nigredo of Alchemy) will usually have the same sex as the dreamer but not necessarily so.
If we view a dream as some kind of stage-play, then these figures take on roles in the play that reflect their particular natures. In a series of dreams we will continually meet these same players over and over again in different dress and with different plots, speaking different line but always representing particular "patterns of behavior." This is not unlike the medieval morality plays, whose characters represented not persons but attitudes such as "Faith," Sorrow," "Courage," etc. Even today these morality plays are performed "out there" in movies and on television. Some styles of play have become honed and perfected the degree that they are now more like rituals than like plays.
The universal appeal of the "Western" movie largely due to its use of players as archetypal symbol. We all recognize the Hero (the good guy, with the white hat), the Shadow (he wears the black hat), the Old Wise Man (the rancher, or the old doctor), the bright anima (the rancher’s daughter, pure and sweet), and the dads anima (the dancehall strumpet, sullied but redeemable). The great Hero Myth replays itself every night on the living room TV. This is our own unique Hero Myth, and serves us as the tales of Ulysses enchanted the Greeks, or the stories of the Knights of the Round Table served the people of medieval England.
Our own personal dreams are no less interesting or significant. They are far more valuable to us, in fact, because they are a record of our inner growth. We do not pay as much attention to them as we should, but if we did, we would soon learn to recognize the "players" just as we recognize them in the Western movie. These players are parts of ourselves, and each night act out our problems, our hopes, and our potentials. They often have contradictory desires and needs which will be acted out in conflicts of various kinds. Sometimes the dreamer is a passive observer, and in these cases the dream is a way that the unconscious tells the ego what the unconscious wants it to know. This is reasonable enough, since the unconscious can’t talk to us when we are "awake," but when we are "asleep," it has control, and then it can complain to us, or congratulate us about how we acted during the day. In psychological terms, some dreams are compensatory (makeup for what we do not do when "awake"), and some dreams are complementary (complement our "waking" life).
In some dreams the dreamer takes an active part and himself participates in the play. Often he represents himself (the ego), but sometimes he may take the part of one of the archetypes. In such a role he may do many things that he ordinarily cannot do (like flying through the air), or that he would not do (like murder), and can experience great successes and great failures. Proper analysis and reflection upon these plays can lead us to greater self-understanding, and also to inner growth.
To do this requires some understanding of ancient symbolism, however. Our dream figures do not always appear as cowboys and bandits and other easily recognized figures. Often they appear as ancient or archaic images. Dr. Jung’s dream analysis rests upon his postulation anent the arche-types, where he often associates dream symbolism with the symbolism of ancient cults. Arriving thus at his abstract conclusions we see why these have served to baffle many of the more orthodox psychologists of our day, and why they would be inclined to think of Dr. Jung as being mystical. His conclusions about this do, however, agree in the main with the teachings of the Mystical Qabalah, and other genuine occult systems.
One of the structures Jung finds in the psyche he calls the Persona. This, he says, is the mask the self-conscious personality wears to meet the exigencies of its world. If the personality becomes totally identified with the Persona it becomes a "grown on" mask that thereby rules and dominates the true personality. This results in the conscious mind being cut off from, and therefore unable to recognize the inferior element or function, which Jung calls the Shadow. (In occult terms the true personality would be the "unit of incarnation," and the Persona would be the conditioning, mores, etc., that this personality becomes identified with, including one’s position in life-doctor, lawyer, merchant chief, butcher, baker, candlestick maker, to quote from the old nursery rhyme.) Jung’s shadow archetype would equate with the Dweller on the Threshhold of occultism—one’s inferior proclivities hidden in the unconscious. The cutting off of this element from consciousness, as the "good" Christian in particular does, results in psychic eruptions that must (due to their subconscious origin) be projected onto one’s world.
The Persona is the role which a person plays, the major or predominant role. Most people have several roles to play: businessman by day, boy-scout leader at night, church-elder on Sunday, etc. Most of us are aware of these roles and can play them without becoming fully identified with them. That is, we are aware that we are playing a role, and do not fully believe that we are what we are playing at being. This does not mean that we are not serious in our play; we can be deadly serious. But we do not intend to become one of those roles for 24 hours a day. In fact we usually cannot keep it up for 24 hours. This is the success of the "marathon therapy" currently in vogue; it wears down the Persona which a person cannot maintain, and it then permits the personality to emerge. The fact that such large numbers of people profit from this therapy suggests that very few of us ever show our real selves in public. But the ease with which the person may be unmasked (by sheer 24 hour endurance) also shows that marathon therapy is not dealing with the psychological depths, but only with the most superficial aspect of the psyche. Anyone who is able (or rather willing) to drop his mask at will is neither frightened by such therapy nor helped by it.
http://mara-gamiel.blogspot.com/2008/08/jungian-archetypes-tree-of-life.html
“Our unconscious, on the other hand, hides living water, spirit that has become nature, and that is why it is disturbed. Heaven has become for us the cosmic space of the physicists, and the divine empyrean a fair memory of things that once were. But ‘the heart glows,’ and a secret unrest gnaws at the roots of our being. Dealing with the Unconscious has become a question of life for us.” -- C.G. Jung, Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious, Para. 50
(The) Philosophical Tree, Arbor Philosophica - a common alchemical symbol, associated with the seven planets known at the time. These planets correspond to the seven metals - gold, sometimes substituted by sulphur, silver, copper, iron, mercury, lead, and tin, which were said to "grow" on the Philosophical Tree. The fruit of this Tree is the eternal and incorruptible Mercurial manifestation as the Philosopher’s Stone.
The Tree of Life is an age-old symbol of unity consciousness. Many ancient traditions have used the symbol of the Tree of Life to represent the understanding that all life is sacred and interconnected. In the bible it appears in the Garden of Eden as an alternative to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which represents the consciousness of separation between God and man.
In the Jewish mystical tradition, the Tree of Life is the central symbol of the Kabbalah, and is a symbolic map of the process by which an individual can achieve inner wholeness and reconnect with the divine.
The Tree of Life has also been an essential element of the Essene spiritual tradition, representing the unity of God, man and nature. In alchemy the Tree of Life was often used to symbolize the culmination of the Great Work, a state of being unifying the dualities of male and female, Soul and Spirit, the human and the divine.
The Tree of Life is an age-old symbol of unity consciousness. Many ancient traditions have used the symbol of the Tree of Life to represent the understanding that all life is sacred and interconnected. In the bible it appears in the Garden of Eden as an alternative to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which represents the consciousness of separation between God and man.
In the Jewish mystical tradition, the Tree of Life is the central symbol of the Kabbalah, and is a symbolic map of the process by which an individual can achieve inner wholeness and reconnect with the divine.
The Tree of Life has also been an essential element of the Essene spiritual tradition, representing the unity of God, man and nature. In alchemy the Tree of Life was often used to symbolize the culmination of the Great Work, a state of being unifying the dualities of male and female, Soul and Spirit, the human and the divine.
The Tree of Good and Evil Knowledge There is one tree bearing two kinds of fruits. Its name is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Like its name, are its fruits: namely, good and bad fruits of life and death, of love and hate, of light and darkness. This tree was put before Adam, and even if he had in his innocence the liberty to look upon it as a tree of God's wonders. God's prohibition did not allow him to place his desire in it and eat of it, but threatened that (if he would do so) he would die from its fruit. For this was a tree of division where good and evil battled with each other: but in a battle there can be no life: For battle brings forth destruction, and destruction brings forth death, life lives in the sweet unity of love. Therefore, when Adam ate from this tree, a battle started within him, and in this battle he lost his life.
Nevertheless wretched men will not learn through such fall and damage. His desire is still for that tree and its fruits. Man is always desirous to have the division of manifold things, and man is always battling, when he could return to the unity of simplicity, if he only would come in peace. Life's light stands in the middle to point out to men the way to this first rest, and the Father in the heaven lets his Sun rise over good and evil: But everything grows after its own fashion, and man is only too apt to look upon the stars of the manyfoldness, and in his own discretion, to choose them for his ladders, though they make him stray many times from the true light, and detain him in the whirlpool of uncertainty. This whirlpool of uncertainty leads more and more out of the innermost face of the Sun into the outer (world) and can find neither end nor place of rest, unless it leads from the outer (world) back again and seeks the beginning, from which all the smaller star-lights originated.
There is also among 7 stars, hardly one turning its rays inward to direct the searching mind to Bethlehem, and amongst 7 eyes winding around the whirlpool of searching desire is hardly one which stands towards the Sabbath in the innermost; but the restless movement of the working days move them through all spheres, and even if they take a look at God's wonders, they only look upon the surface and every eye looks upon that which is shown through its own desire. God made man to live in an eternal Sabbath, he should not work, but let God work in him, he should not take with his own hands, but only receive what God bestowed plentifully upon His mercy. But man left the Sabbath, and wanted to work himself, raised his hand against the law to take in his own desire what he should not have taken. Therefore, God let him fall, and since he had despised the quiet, he had to feel painfully the restlessness. In such restlessness of life all children of man still extend their hands, trying to grasp their pleasures. And as is their understanding and will, so is their grasping. Some grasp for the good, some grasp for the evil. Some grasp for the fruit, some only for the leaves, some for a branch with fruits and leaves on it. And they derive pleasure from the things they have grasped, these poor fools do not know that all their pain and labor had only been a Studium particulare. They grasp for pieces, where they could obtain the whole. They seek for quiet and cannot find it; for they look from the outside into the restlessness of movement, which dwells in the inner solitude of the inner Centri, and though one may grasp more than the other, it is still piece-work. At times there may be one amongst 7 hands coming near the secret and it grasps the whole stem of the tree at that point where all the divided branches return to unity. But even this hand is still far from the roots of the tree, only grasping and holding the secret from the outside and cannot yet see it from the inside. For the root of this tree is understood only by the eye of wisdom, standing in the Centro of all spheres. These roots go from the visible world of mingled good and evil, into the sphere of the invisible world. This eye looks with the greatest peace upon the wonders of all movements and also looks through all the other eyes, wandering about outside of the rest in the unrest, all those eyes which want to see for themselves without the right eye of wisdom, from which they have received all their seeing-power. This eye can prove all spirits, how intelligent, pure and acute they be. It understands the sources of good and evil. Plain before it is light and darkness. It understands time and eternity, visible and invisible, present and future things, earthly and heavenly things, things of the body and things of the spirit, high and deep, outwardliness and inwardliness. And nevertheless, none of these things are disturbed by it, for the eye lives in the Centro of peace, where everything stands in equality outside of any strife, and whatever it sees it possesses. For in the Centro of its peace is its kingly throne, everything being subject to it. Therefore, dear man! If thou wouldst return to right understanding and right peace, cease from thy works and let God alone work in thee, so that the eye of wisdom will open in thine own self and thou wilt attain a studio particulari ad universale and One find All.
Nevertheless wretched men will not learn through such fall and damage. His desire is still for that tree and its fruits. Man is always desirous to have the division of manifold things, and man is always battling, when he could return to the unity of simplicity, if he only would come in peace. Life's light stands in the middle to point out to men the way to this first rest, and the Father in the heaven lets his Sun rise over good and evil: But everything grows after its own fashion, and man is only too apt to look upon the stars of the manyfoldness, and in his own discretion, to choose them for his ladders, though they make him stray many times from the true light, and detain him in the whirlpool of uncertainty. This whirlpool of uncertainty leads more and more out of the innermost face of the Sun into the outer (world) and can find neither end nor place of rest, unless it leads from the outer (world) back again and seeks the beginning, from which all the smaller star-lights originated.
There is also among 7 stars, hardly one turning its rays inward to direct the searching mind to Bethlehem, and amongst 7 eyes winding around the whirlpool of searching desire is hardly one which stands towards the Sabbath in the innermost; but the restless movement of the working days move them through all spheres, and even if they take a look at God's wonders, they only look upon the surface and every eye looks upon that which is shown through its own desire. God made man to live in an eternal Sabbath, he should not work, but let God work in him, he should not take with his own hands, but only receive what God bestowed plentifully upon His mercy. But man left the Sabbath, and wanted to work himself, raised his hand against the law to take in his own desire what he should not have taken. Therefore, God let him fall, and since he had despised the quiet, he had to feel painfully the restlessness. In such restlessness of life all children of man still extend their hands, trying to grasp their pleasures. And as is their understanding and will, so is their grasping. Some grasp for the good, some grasp for the evil. Some grasp for the fruit, some only for the leaves, some for a branch with fruits and leaves on it. And they derive pleasure from the things they have grasped, these poor fools do not know that all their pain and labor had only been a Studium particulare. They grasp for pieces, where they could obtain the whole. They seek for quiet and cannot find it; for they look from the outside into the restlessness of movement, which dwells in the inner solitude of the inner Centri, and though one may grasp more than the other, it is still piece-work. At times there may be one amongst 7 hands coming near the secret and it grasps the whole stem of the tree at that point where all the divided branches return to unity. But even this hand is still far from the roots of the tree, only grasping and holding the secret from the outside and cannot yet see it from the inside. For the root of this tree is understood only by the eye of wisdom, standing in the Centro of all spheres. These roots go from the visible world of mingled good and evil, into the sphere of the invisible world. This eye looks with the greatest peace upon the wonders of all movements and also looks through all the other eyes, wandering about outside of the rest in the unrest, all those eyes which want to see for themselves without the right eye of wisdom, from which they have received all their seeing-power. This eye can prove all spirits, how intelligent, pure and acute they be. It understands the sources of good and evil. Plain before it is light and darkness. It understands time and eternity, visible and invisible, present and future things, earthly and heavenly things, things of the body and things of the spirit, high and deep, outwardliness and inwardliness. And nevertheless, none of these things are disturbed by it, for the eye lives in the Centro of peace, where everything stands in equality outside of any strife, and whatever it sees it possesses. For in the Centro of its peace is its kingly throne, everything being subject to it. Therefore, dear man! If thou wouldst return to right understanding and right peace, cease from thy works and let God alone work in thee, so that the eye of wisdom will open in thine own self and thou wilt attain a studio particulari ad universale and One find All.
Carl Jung and James Hillman: The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowing Good and Evil
I found this great quote from Tom Cheetham (in his works on Henry Corbin). I think only true Hillmaniacs can understand it, especially when we are trying to reconcile the drive toward integrative wholeness while recognizing the necessity of falling apart: To compare Hillman and Jung in any detail is far beyond the scope of these remarks...Hillman is "a Jungian" by any standard, but rather a wayward one. Any simple contrast will be inadequate and perhaps misleading; but if Jung is the Wise Old man, Hillman is the Trickster, or pretends to be. Years ago when I was immersed in reading them both rather obsessively in the midst of the beginnings of my own psychic crisis, the difference was quite a practical one about which I thought very little. If I were feeling threatened by fragmentation, I would read Jung. If I were in terror of being bound and stifled, I would read Hillman. I still think that says a lot about their differences. (All the World an Icon: Henry Corbin and the Angelic Function of Beings, pp. 190-91)
This contrast may help to explain and understand the juxtaposition of the Jewish tree of life right next to the deadly tree of pathologizing (knowing good and evil) found at the center of Eden. The Hebrew authors typically honor the phenomena of their observed experience, even when the phenomena screws with their received tradition. They acknowledge that humans want long life, and yet recognize that the same humans yearn to defy life by breaking the rules and challenging all boundaries.
When the Genesis author writes that "Adam [humankind] became a living soul," he is recognizing the innate human propensity for life and survival, subsequently stating that God provides a tree of life to feed that original desire to live. But then God creates the puzzling tree of knowing evil as well as life-giving good, presided over by the divinely fashioned wise snake to give that tree of death (desire) a voice. Why? I think this image is added in order to acknowledge that there is also deep within the human psyche a yearning for something more than merely staying alive and following the rules; there is also a drive to challenge death. Humans not only desire to live and follow orders; but from crawling infancy we desire to rise up and walk, talk and act in forbidden ways. Humans have always been compelled to defy that most feared enemy of human existence, mortality. Paul calls death the "final enemy" (I Cor. 15:26). In the Eden story, by placing that final enemy in the form of a deadly tree of good and evil at the center of the garden alongside the tree of life, we see the ultimate challenge of humanity. God's good created order is made to be challenged. The purpose of life is to charge straight into the certainty of death, the real final frontier. Overcoming death is the final obstacle, the last enemy of complete dominion. The Hebrews knew this to be the final goal. In Isaiah the prophet we read of the final removal of the veil of death that encloses all humans: And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, Even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, (25:7-8) Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. (60:20) Paul quotes this passage in the light of Christ's resurrection: "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory'" (I Cor. 15:54). This is reiterated in the Christian book of the Apocalypse: "Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:1-5)
The final obstacle, represented by the tree of knowing good and evil--the tree of death--has been overcome. The seed of the woman (humankind) has crushed head of the snake and his death-test. I am not setting forth a theological or metaphysical system here, though I think one can. I am merely suggesting that the Eden story posits what the human psyche intuits: humans desire both to live in order (tree of life), and we are brazenly compelled to transgress every boundary (tree of knowing good and evil) in our autonomously compelled pursuit of complete dominion, healing, wholeness, integration or individuation.
Psychologically this plays out in everyday life. Humans are chronically discontent, simultaneously seeking order and disorder, pleasure and pathology. The single person wants desperately to be in a relationship; the married person fantasizes about freedom. The demure house wife or house husband ponders or pursues a covert tryst with a stranger. The born again Christian cheats on his taxes. The militant atheist secretly reads books about life after death. Our Jekyl-Hyde character is what makes us so fascinating. This enigmatic combination of loving peace and wholeness along with our innate compulsions to addictions, neuroses and fifty shades of gray is what makes us so damn human. After all, according to Isaiah, this is the schizophrenic or bi-polar image of God in which humans are designed: God says, "I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things" (Is. 45:6-7)
Finally, this ambiguity was not discovered by Freud. The Viennese doctor merely reinvented the Edenic wheel by restating this psychological ambivalence in his theory of the eros (life) and death drives--like it was some novel idea. This moral duplicity is also found in the Hebrew God who sent a flood to obliterate the earth that he so delicately created; and again by destroying the beautifully constructed Tower of Babel built by the very humans he created to have dominion over the earth.
The biblical human is a delightful contradiction, intentionally. The two sides are represented in Carl Jung and James Hillman; Jungian and post-Jungian, wholeness and fragmentation.
I found this great quote from Tom Cheetham (in his works on Henry Corbin). I think only true Hillmaniacs can understand it, especially when we are trying to reconcile the drive toward integrative wholeness while recognizing the necessity of falling apart: To compare Hillman and Jung in any detail is far beyond the scope of these remarks...Hillman is "a Jungian" by any standard, but rather a wayward one. Any simple contrast will be inadequate and perhaps misleading; but if Jung is the Wise Old man, Hillman is the Trickster, or pretends to be. Years ago when I was immersed in reading them both rather obsessively in the midst of the beginnings of my own psychic crisis, the difference was quite a practical one about which I thought very little. If I were feeling threatened by fragmentation, I would read Jung. If I were in terror of being bound and stifled, I would read Hillman. I still think that says a lot about their differences. (All the World an Icon: Henry Corbin and the Angelic Function of Beings, pp. 190-91)
This contrast may help to explain and understand the juxtaposition of the Jewish tree of life right next to the deadly tree of pathologizing (knowing good and evil) found at the center of Eden. The Hebrew authors typically honor the phenomena of their observed experience, even when the phenomena screws with their received tradition. They acknowledge that humans want long life, and yet recognize that the same humans yearn to defy life by breaking the rules and challenging all boundaries.
When the Genesis author writes that "Adam [humankind] became a living soul," he is recognizing the innate human propensity for life and survival, subsequently stating that God provides a tree of life to feed that original desire to live. But then God creates the puzzling tree of knowing evil as well as life-giving good, presided over by the divinely fashioned wise snake to give that tree of death (desire) a voice. Why? I think this image is added in order to acknowledge that there is also deep within the human psyche a yearning for something more than merely staying alive and following the rules; there is also a drive to challenge death. Humans not only desire to live and follow orders; but from crawling infancy we desire to rise up and walk, talk and act in forbidden ways. Humans have always been compelled to defy that most feared enemy of human existence, mortality. Paul calls death the "final enemy" (I Cor. 15:26). In the Eden story, by placing that final enemy in the form of a deadly tree of good and evil at the center of the garden alongside the tree of life, we see the ultimate challenge of humanity. God's good created order is made to be challenged. The purpose of life is to charge straight into the certainty of death, the real final frontier. Overcoming death is the final obstacle, the last enemy of complete dominion. The Hebrews knew this to be the final goal. In Isaiah the prophet we read of the final removal of the veil of death that encloses all humans: And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, Even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, (25:7-8) Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. (60:20) Paul quotes this passage in the light of Christ's resurrection: "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory'" (I Cor. 15:54). This is reiterated in the Christian book of the Apocalypse: "Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:1-5)
The final obstacle, represented by the tree of knowing good and evil--the tree of death--has been overcome. The seed of the woman (humankind) has crushed head of the snake and his death-test. I am not setting forth a theological or metaphysical system here, though I think one can. I am merely suggesting that the Eden story posits what the human psyche intuits: humans desire both to live in order (tree of life), and we are brazenly compelled to transgress every boundary (tree of knowing good and evil) in our autonomously compelled pursuit of complete dominion, healing, wholeness, integration or individuation.
Psychologically this plays out in everyday life. Humans are chronically discontent, simultaneously seeking order and disorder, pleasure and pathology. The single person wants desperately to be in a relationship; the married person fantasizes about freedom. The demure house wife or house husband ponders or pursues a covert tryst with a stranger. The born again Christian cheats on his taxes. The militant atheist secretly reads books about life after death. Our Jekyl-Hyde character is what makes us so fascinating. This enigmatic combination of loving peace and wholeness along with our innate compulsions to addictions, neuroses and fifty shades of gray is what makes us so damn human. After all, according to Isaiah, this is the schizophrenic or bi-polar image of God in which humans are designed: God says, "I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things" (Is. 45:6-7)
Finally, this ambiguity was not discovered by Freud. The Viennese doctor merely reinvented the Edenic wheel by restating this psychological ambivalence in his theory of the eros (life) and death drives--like it was some novel idea. This moral duplicity is also found in the Hebrew God who sent a flood to obliterate the earth that he so delicately created; and again by destroying the beautifully constructed Tower of Babel built by the very humans he created to have dominion over the earth.
The biblical human is a delightful contradiction, intentionally. The two sides are represented in Carl Jung and James Hillman; Jungian and post-Jungian, wholeness and fragmentation.
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