The Norse Yggdrasil.
The 'tree of life' is a mystical concept, a
metaphor for common descent, and a
motif in various world
theologies and
philosophies.
Conceptual and mythological "trees of life"
Various forms of 'trees of life' appear in
folklore,
culture and
fiction, often relating to
immortality or
fertility. These often hold cultural and religious significance to the peoples for whom they appear. For them, it may also strongly be connected with motifs of the '
world tree', or the '
axis mundi'.
Assyria
★ The
Assyrian Tree of Life is represented by a series of nodes and criss-crossing lines. It is an important religious symbol among these peoples. It is often attended to by Eagle Headed Gods/Priests or the King himself.
China
★ In
Chinese mythology a carving of a Tree of Life depicts a
bird and a
dragon - in Chinese mythology the dragon often represents immortality. There is also the
Taoist story of a tree that produces a
peach every three thousand years. The one who eats the fruit receives immortality.
★ An archaeological discovery in the 1990s was of a sacrificial pit at
Sanxingdui in
Sechuan,
China. Dating from about 1200
BCE, it contained 3
bronze trees, one of them 4
metres high. At the base was a dragon, and fruit hanging from the lower branches. At the top is a strange bird-like creature with claws. Also from Sechuan, from the late
Han dynasty (c 25 - 220
CE) is another tree of life. The
ceramic base is guarded by a horned beast with wings. The leaves of the tree are coins and people. At the apex is a bird with coins and the
Sun.
Ancient Egypt
★ In
Egyptian mythology, in the
Ennead system of
Heliopolis, the first couple, apart from
Shu &
Tefnut (moisture & dryness) and
Geb &
Nuit (earth & sky), are
Isis &
Osiris. They were said to have emerged from the
acacia tree of
Saosis, which the Egyptians considered the ''tree of life'', referring to it as the "tree in which life and death are enclosed". A much later myth relates how
Set killed
Osiris, putting him in a coffin, and throwing it into the
Nile, the coffin becoming embedded in the base of a
tamarisk tree.
★ The Egyptian's Holy
Sycamore also stood on the threshold of life and death, connecting the two worlds.
Germanic and Norse paganism
★ In
Germanic paganism, trees played (and, in the form of reconstructive
Heathenry and
Germanic neopaganism, continue to play) a prominent role, appearing in various aspects of surviving texts and possibly in deity names.
★ The tree of life appears in
Norse religion as
Yggdrasil, the world tree, a massive tree (sometimes considered a
yew or
ash tree) with extensive lore surrounding it.
★ Perhaps related to the Yggdrasil, accounts have survived of
Germanic Tribes honouring sacred trees within their societies. Examples include
Thor's Oak,
Sacred groves and the
Irminsul.
Hebraic monotheism
★ The
Tree of Life is mentioned in both the Books of , in which it has the potential to grant immortality to
Adam and
Eve, and , in which it is referred to as the 'Wood of Life'. (However, it is not immediately obvious, nor is it universally accepted, that the
Book of Genesis account and the
Book of Revelation account speak of the same Tree of Life.)
★ A
Tree of Life, in the form of ten interconnected nodes, is an important part of the
Kabbalah.
★ The Tree of Life appears in the
Book of Mormon in a revelation to
Lehi (see ). It is symbolic of the love of God (see ), and sometimes understood as
salvation and post-mortal existence.
★ The Tree of Life sometimes refers to Jesus, as he died on a cross (often symbolically referred to as a tree in Christian imagery) and is understood to bring new life through the
Resurrection.
Mesoamerica
★ Among
pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, the concept of "world trees" is a prevalent motif in Mesoamerican mythical cosmologies and iconography. World trees embodied the four cardinal directions, which represented also the four-fold nature of a central world tree, a symbolic ''
axis mundi'' connecting the planes of the Underworld and the sky with that of the terrestrial world.
[1]
★ Depictions of world trees, both in their directional and central aspects, are found in the art and mythological traditions of cultures such as the
Maya,
Aztec,
Izapan,
Mixtec,
Olmec, and others, dating to at least the Mid/Late Formative periods of
Mesoamerican chronology. Among the Maya, the central world tree was conceived as or represented by a
ceiba tree, and is known variously as a ''wacah chan'' or ''yax imix che'', depending on the
Mayan language.
[2] The trunk of the tree could also be represented by an upright
caiman, whose skin evokes the tree's spiny trunk.
[3]
★ Directional world trees are also associated with the four Yearbearers in
Mesoamerican calendars, and the directional colors and deities.
Mesoamerican codices which have this association outlined include the
Dresden,
Borgia and
Fejérváry-Mayer codices.
[4] It is supposed that Mesoamerican sites and ceremonial centers frequently had actual trees planted at each of the four cardinal directions, representing the quadripartite concept.
★ World trees are frequently depicted with birds in their branches, and their roots extending into earth or water (sometimes atop a "water-monster", symbolic of the underworld).
★ The central world tree has also been interpreted as a representation of the band of the
Milky Way.
[5]
Other cultures
★ The symbolism of the tree is mentioned in the 135th hymn of the 10th book of
Rig-Veda, and in the 15th chapter of
Bhagavad-gita (1-4).
★ In the
Japanese religion of
Shinto, trees were marked with sacred paper symbolizing
lightning bolts, as trees were thought to be sacred. This was propagated by the fact that after they passed, ancestors and animals were often portrayed as branches on the tree.
★ ''
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' has a story, 'The Tale of Buluqiya', in which the hero searches for immortality and finds a paradise with jewel-encrusted trees. Nearby is a
Fountain of Youth guarded by
Al-Khidr. Unable to defeat the guard, Buluqiya has to return empty-handed.
★ The ''
Epic of Gilgamesh'' is a similar quest for immortality. In
Mesopotamian mythology, Etana searches for a 'plant of birth' to provide him with a son. This has a solid provenance of antiquity, being found in
cylinder seals from
Akkad (2390 - 2249
BCE).
★ One of the earliest forms of
ancient Greek religion has its origins associated with tree cults.
★ In ''Dictionaire Mytho-Hermetique (Paris, 1737)'' Dom
Pernety, one of the most famous alchemist, identify the tree of life with the
Elixir or
Philosopher's Stone
Modern interpretations
★ In ''
Eden in The East'' (1998),
Stephen Oppenheimer suggests that a tree-worshiping culture arose in
Indonesia and was diffused by the so-called "
Younger Dryas" event of c 8,000 BCE, when the sea-level rose. This culture reached China (Szechuan), then
India and the
Middle East. Finally the
Finno-Ugaritic strand of this diffusion spread through
Russia to
Finland where the Norse myth of
Yggdrasil took root.
Modern use
Music
★ Pictoral representations of the Tree of Life can be found in the album artwork for rock band
Mudvayne's ''
L.D. 50''; and on the outer casing of the album ''
Salival'', by rock band
Tool. In addition, the Tree of Life was used in the visual displays shown during several of Tool's concerts, especially during the song Triad.
★ Metal band
Dååth (pronounced 'doth') also uses the Tree of Life as a basis for their music.
★ One of the tracks on the soundtrack album for the film ''
The Fountain'' is called 'Tree of Life'.
Science
The Tree of Life diagram in ''The Origin of Species''.
Graphical representation of the modern "Tree of Life on the Web" project.
★ The '
tree of life in science' describes the relationships of all
life on Earth in an
evolutionary context.
Charles Darwin talks about envisioning evolution and ecosystems as a "tangled bank" in ''
The Origin of Species''; however, the book's sole illustration is of a branched diagram that is very tree-like. See
evolutionary tree and
phylogenetic tree. The evolutionary relationships of the tree of life were refined using genetic data by the great American microbiologist
Carl Woese, the discoverer of the domain
Archaea and a pioneer in molecular (genetic) methods in evolutionary biology.
"Tree of life" excerpt from Charles Darwin's ''The Origin of Species'' [6]:
★
The Tree of Life on the Web is an ongoing Internet project containing information about
phylogeny and
biodiversity, produced by biologists from around the world. Each page contains information about one group of organisms and is organized according to a branched tree-like form, thus showing hypothetical relationships between organisms and groups of organisms.
★ The phrase ''the tree of life'' is often used in association with the
DNA molecule, and has sometimes been associated with the maternal
placenta.
★ The
neuroanatomical term ''
tree of life'' describes the branching pattern between the cortical greymatter and subcortical
white matter of the
cerebellum.
Fiction
★ In
C. S. Lewis' ''
Chronicles of Narnia'' the Tree of Life also plays a role, especially in his first book ''
The Magician's Nephew''.
★ The
Tree-of-Life also appears in
Larry Niven's ''
Known Space'' novels.
★ In the
Warcraft universe, the tree of life is a
Night elf tree largely inspired by the
Yggdrasil, granting energy to its surroundings.
The Tree of Life from the film ''The Fountain''.
★
Darren Aronofsky's film ''
The Fountain'' centers around immortality given by the Tree of Life.
★ ''
The Fountain'', a graphic novel based on the Tree of Life concepts found in ''The Fountain'' film.
★ In the anime movie ''
Ghost in the Shell'' (Kokaku Kidotai), the auditorium in the old sunken part of Newport City shows one of the walls of the building bearing one type of the Tree of Life being shot at from its base by a tank.
★ In the movie, ''
The End of Evangelion'', the Eva series summon the Tree of Life with the Eva-01.
★ In ''
Homeworld'', there is a map called the Tree of Life, probably named after the distinctive shape that the space dust forms.
★ The solitary tree in
Samuel Beckett's ''
Waiting for Godot'' is often thought to be a representation of the Tree of Life.
★ The ''
Hyperion Cantos'' contains several concepts and (indirect) references to the Tree of Life.
★ In the manga ''
Fullmetal Alchemist'', the
Gate of Alchemy depicts a representation of the Tree of Life.
★ In the game ''
Legend of Mana'', the Mana Tree could possibly represent the Tree of Life.
★ In the game ''
The Legend Of Dragoon'' the Divine Tree could possibly represent the Tree of Life.
Art
★ The Tree of Life is depicted in many modern art forms, including
paintings,
sculptures,
furniture, and
jewelry.
Physical (real) "trees of life"
★ The Tule tree of
Aztec mythology is also associated with a real tree. This
Tule tree can be found in
Oaxaca,
Mexico.
★ There is a
Tree of Life in the island country of
Bahrain in the
Persian Gulf.
★
Disney's Animal Kingdom contains an artificial
Tree of Life as the park's icon.
★ is an 87-foot high sculpture in the
Utah Bonneville Salt Flats that is also known as the ''Tree of Life''.
Symbolism
In
mystical traditions of world religions, sacred texts are read for metaphorical content concerning the relationship between states of mind and the external experience of reality. As such, the tree is a manifestation/causal symbol - the Tree of Life representing the coveted state of eternal aliveness or fulfillment, not immortality of the body or soul. In such a state, physical death (which cannot be overcome) is nevertheless a choice, and direct experience of the perfect goodness/divine reality/god is not only possible, but everpresent.
Once the ego (surface consciousness)
[7] experiences shame, having been tempted to absorb or believe in duality (such as eating of the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil), we are protected from living eternally in that limiting,
fallen, experience by the
cherubim guarding the gate of return to paradise. The cherubim are symbolic of the perfect knowledge of self
[8] or true nature, with the power of purification and return to
being.
Acculturation in this rulebound reality of good and bad is primarily familial, with not only the effect of confusion, misperception and illusion, but more critically the effect of displacement and psychological misery. Mystics in these religions often attempt the return journey to Self and Unity based on committed effort, and practices that vary between individuals, religions and cultures.
On a much simpler level, the
maypole,
Christmas tree or
New Year tree can be seen as a
phallic symbol, worshiped as a way of generating fertility.
See also
★
Axis mundi
★
World tree
★
Tree of Life (Judeo-Christian)
★
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
★
Tree of Knowledge
★
Trees in mythology
★
New Year Tree
★
Tree of Life (Kabbalah)
★
Sephirot (Kabbalah)
★
Phylogenetic tree
★
Sidrat al-Muntaha
★ ''
The Fountain (film)''
★ ''
The Fountain (graphic novel)''
★
Five Trees
★
Fleur de lys
★
Palmette
Notes
1. Miller and Taube (1993), p.186.
2. Finlay (2003)
3. Miller and Taube, ''loc. cit.''
4. ''Ibid.''
5. Freidel, ''et al'' (1993)
6. Darwin, C. (1872), pp. 170-171. The Origin of Species. Sixth Edition. The Modern Library, New York.
7. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/underhill/mysticism.iii.iii.html, p. 52
8. Dionysius the Areopagite, "De Caelesti Ierarchia," vi. 2, and vii. 1.
References
★
★
★
★
External links
★
tolweb.org - Tree of Life Web Project
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