Tree of life

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For other uses, see Tree of life (disambiguation).
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  It has been suggested that this article be split into articles entitled World tree, Tree of Life (Judeo-Christian), Tree of life (Kabbalah), Tree of life (science) and Tree of life (disambiguation), accessible from a disambiguation page. (Discuss)
An 1847 depiction of the Norse Yggdrasil as described in the Icelandic Prose Edda by Oluf Olufsen Bagge.
An 1847 depiction of the Norse Yggdrasil as described in the Icelandic Prose Edda by Oluf Olufsen Bagge.

A tree of life is a mystical concept, a metaphor for common descent or a motif in various world theologies and philosophies.

Contents

[edit] Conceptual and mythological "trees of life"

Various 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.

[edit] Assyria

  • The Assyrian Tree of Life was represented by a series of nodes and criss-crossing lines. It was an important religious symbol among these peoples, often attended to by Eagle Headed Gods & Priests, or the King himself.

[edit] China

  • In Chinese mythology a carving of a Tree of Life depicts a phoenix 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 meters high. At the base was a dragon, and fruit hanging from the lower branches. At the top is a strange bird-like (phoenix) 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Germanic paganism


The Kabbalah Tree of Life derived from the Flower of Life.
The Kabbalah Tree of Life derived from the Flower of Life.

[edit] Hebrew bible/Christianity

  • The Tree of Life is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, in which it has the potential to grant immortality to Adam and Eve, in Proverbs where it's a simile for a blessing.
  • A Tree of Life, in the form of ten interconnected nodes, is an important part of the Kabbalah. As such, it resembles the ten Sephirot.
  • Etz Chaim, Hebrew for "Tree of Life", is a common term used in Judaism. The expression, found in the Book of Proverbs, is figuratively applied to the Torah itself. Etz Chaim is also a common name for yeshivas and synagogues as well as for works of Rabbinic literature. Further, it is also used to describe each of the wooden poles to which the parchment of a Sefer Torah is attached.
  • 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.

[edit] Mesoamerica

Main article: Mesoamerican world tree
  • 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 fourfold 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]


Fragment of a bronze helmet from Urartu, with the "Tree of Life" depicted.
Fragment of a bronze helmet from Urartu, with the "Tree of Life" depicted.

[edit] Ancient Armenia (Urartu)

  • In ancient Armenia around 13th to 6th century BC, the Tree of Life was a religious symbol, drawn onto the exterior walls of fortresses and carved on the armour of warriors. The branches of the tree were equally divided on the right and left sides of the stem, with each branch having one leaf, and one leaf on the apex of the tree. Servants (some winged) stood on each side of the tree with one of their hands up as if they are taking care of it. This tree can be found on numerous Urartu artifacts, such as paintings on the walls of the Erebuni fortress in Yerevan, Armenia.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Modern interpretations

[edit] Modern use

[edit] 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.
  • In their album Emissaries the black metal Melechesh make a reference to the Tree of Life in their song "Touching the Spheres of Sephiroth".
  • One of the tracks on the soundtrack album for the film The Fountain is called "Tree of Life".
  • The duo "Trees of Life" did the soundtrack for the animated film Tamala 2010.

[edit] Science

Darwin’s first sketch of an evolutionary tree from his First Notebook on Transmutation of Species (1837)
Darwin’s first sketch of an evolutionary tree from his First Notebook on Transmutation of Species (1837)
The Tree of Life diagram in On the Origin of Species (1859)
The Tree of Life diagram in On the Origin of Species (1859)
Graphical representation of the modern "Tree of Life on the Web" project.
Graphical representation of the modern "Tree of Life on the Web" project.

"Tree of life" excerpt from Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species [6]:

“ From the first growth of the tree, many a limb and branch has decayed and dropped off; and these fallen branches of various sizes may represent those whole orders, families, and genera which have now no living representatives, and which are known to us only in a fossil state. As we here and there see a thin, straggling branch springing from a fork low down in a tree, and which by some chance has been favoured and is still alive on its summit, so we occasionally see an animal like the Ornithorhynchus or Lepidosiren, which in some small degree connects by its affinities two large branches of life, and which has apparently been saved from fatal competition by having inhabited a protected station. As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications. ”
  • 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 grey matter and subcortical white matter of the cerebellum.
  • In the world's rain forests, trees' leaves and branches form a canopy, which traps moisture and protects the diverse ecology underneath from the equatorial Sun. The phrase trees of life is used to describe this protective barrier, as, in its absence, life quickly abandons the area, due to extinction or migration.

[edit] Fiction

The Tree of Life from the film The Fountain.‎
The Tree of Life from the film The Fountain.‎

[edit] Physical (real) "trees of life"

[edit] 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)[10] 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[11] 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.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  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. ^ Moringa
  8. ^ Moringa Oleifera : Malnutrition Fighter : NPR
  9. ^ The possible role of Moringa oleifera in HIV/AIDS supportive treatment
  10. ^ http://www.ccel.org/ccel/underhill/mysticism.iii.iii.html, p. 52
  11. ^ Dionysius the Areopagite, "De Caelesti Ierarchia," vi. 2, and vii. 1.

[edit] External links

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