Product Code Database
The tree of life is a fundamental archetype in many of the world's mythology, religion, and philosophy traditions. It is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree.Giovino, Mariana (2007). The Assyrian Sacred Tree: A History of Interpretations, Saint-Paul. p 129. . The tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life which appear in Genesis' Garden of Eden as part of the Jewish cosmology of creation, and the tree of knowledge connecting to heaven and the underworld such as Yggdrasil, are forms of the world tree or Cosmos tree, and are portrayed in various Religion and Philosophy as the same tree.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a similar quest for immortality. In Babylonian religion, Etana, the King of Kish, searched for a 'plant of birth' to provide him with a son. This has a solid provenance of antiquity, being found in from the Akkadian Empire (2390–2249 Common Era).
The tree of life appears in Asherah iconography, particularly on the Lachish ewer and Pithos A from Kuntillet Ajrud, where it is flanked by ibexes.Taylor, Joan E. “The Asherah, the Menorah, and the Sacred Tree.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 1995Hestrin, Ruth. “The Lachish Ewer and the ‘Asherah.” Israel Exploration Journal, vol. 37, no. 4, 1987, pp. 212–223. Israel Exploration Society. The tree's design, with buds, flowers, and possibly almond drupes, resembles the Temple menorah, which is thought to represent a stylized almond tree in Exodus 25:31-36Yarden, L. The Tree of Light: A Study of the Menorah. E&W Library, 1971. This suggests a continuation of Asherah's cultic representation in the temple.Stager, Lawrence E. “Jerusalem and the Garden of Eden.” Eretz-Israel 1999. Scholars have explored these connections, noting parallels between sacred trees, Asherah, and the menorah.Hestrin, Ruth. “The Lachish Ewer and the ‘Asherah.” Israel Exploration Journal, vol. 37, no. 4, 1987, pp. 212–223. Israel Exploration Society.Smith, Mark S. The Early History of God. Eerdmans, 2002.
The Gaokerena is a large, sacred haoma planted by Ahura Mazda. Ahriman created a frog to invade and destroy the tree, aiming to prevent all trees from growing on the earth. As a reaction, Ahura Mazda created two kar-fish staring at the frog to guard the tree. The two fish always stare at the frog and stay ready to react to it. Ahriman is responsible for all evil, including death; Ahura Mazda is responsible for all good (including life).
Haoma is another sacred plant because of the drink made from it. Preparing the drink by pounding and drinking it is a central feature of Zoroastrian ritual. Haoma is also personified as a divinity. It bestows essential qualities—health, fertility, husbands for maidens, and even immortality. The source of the earthly haoma plant is a shining white tree that grows on a Paradise. Sprigs of this white haoma were brought to earth by divine birds. The tree is considerably diverse.
Haoma is the Avestan form of the Sanskrit soma. The identity of the two in ritual significance is considered by scholars to point to a salient feature of an Indo-Iranian religion antedating Zoroastrianism.
Another related issue in Persian mythology is Mashya and Mashyana, two trees that were the ancestors of all living beings. This myth is a prototype for the creation myth, in which gods create living beings.
An archaeological discovery in the 1990s was of a sacrificial pit at Sanxingdui in Sichuan, China. Dating from about 1200 Common Era, it contained three 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 bird-like (Phoenix) creature with claws. Also found in Sichuan, 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 represent coins and people. At the apex is a bird with coins and the Sun.
Pope Benedict XVI has said that "the Cross is the true tree of life." Bonaventure taught that the medicinal fruit of the tree of life is Christ himself. Albertus Magnus taught that the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, is the Fruit of the Tree of Life. Augustine of Hippo said that the tree of life is Christ:
In Eastern Christianity the tree of life is the love of God.Saint Isaac the Syrian said that "Paradise is the love of God, in which the bliss of all the beatitudes is contained," and that "the tree of life is the love of God" (Homily 72).
The vision is said to symbolize love of Christ and the way to eternal life and is a well known and cited story with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A member of the church reflected that the vision is "one of the richest, most flexible, and far-reaching pieces of symbolic prophecy contained in the standard works scriptures."Corbin T. Volluz, "Lehi's Dream of the Tree of Life: Springboard to Prophecy," JBMS 2/2 (1993): 38. – as quoted in Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life: Understanding the Dream as Visionary Literature, Charles Swift, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, 2005. p. 52–63 – online version at [1]
In Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermetique (Paris, 1737), Antoine-Joseph Pernety, a famous alchemy, identified the tree of life with the Elixir of life and the Philosopher's Stone.
In Eden in the East (1998), Stephen Oppenheimer suggests that a tree-worshipping culture arose in Indonesia and was diffused by the so-called Younger Dryas event of c. 10,900 BCE or 12,900 BP, after which the sea level rose. This culture reached China (Sichuan), then India and the Middle East. Finally the Finno-Ugric strand of this diffusion spread through Russia to Finland where the Norse myth of Yggdrasil took root.
The tree of life appears in Norse mythology as Yggdrasil, the world tree, a massive tree (sometimes considered a European yew or ash tree) with extensive lore surrounding it. Perhaps related to Yggdrasil, accounts have survived of Germanic people honouring sacred trees within their societies. Examples include Thor's Oak, , the Sacred tree at Uppsala, and the wooden Irminsul pillar. In Norse Mythology, the apples from Iðunn's ash box provide immortality for the gods.
The tree in Quran is used as an example of a concept, idea, way of life or code of life. A good concept/idea is represented as a good tree and a bad idea/concept is represented as a bad tree. Muslims believe that when God created Adam and Eve, he told them that they could enjoy everything in the Garden except this tree (idea, concept, way of life). Iblis appeared to them and told them that the only reason God forbade them to eat from that tree was that they would become angels or they start using the idea/concept of Ownership in conjunction with inheritance generations after generations which Iblis convinced Adam to accept, "But Satan whispered to him, saying, “O Adam! Shall I show you the Tree of Immortality and a kingdom that does not fade away?”"
When Adam and Eve ate from this tree their nakedness appeared to them and they began to sew together, for their covering, leaves from the Garden.
The hadiths also speak about other trees in heaven.Maulana Muhammad Ali (2011) Introduction to the Study of the Holy Qur'an "This in itself gives an indication that it is the well-known tree of evil, for both good and evil are compared to two trees in and elsewhere. This is further corroborated by the devil's description of it as "the tree of immortality" (), ..."
The tree of life in Islamic architecture is a type of biomorphism found in many artistic traditions. It is considered to be any vegetal pattern with a clear origin or growth. The pattern in al-Azhar Mosque, Cairo's mihrab, a unique Fatimid architectural variation, is a series of two or three leave with a central palmette of five leaves from which the pattern originates. The growth is upwards and outwards and culminates in a lantern like flower towards the top of the niche above which is a small roundel. The curvature of the niche accentuates the undulating movement which despite its complexity is symmetrical along its vertical axis. The representations of varying palm leaves hints to spiritual growth attained through prayer while the upwards and side wards movement of the leaves speaks to the different motions of the worshiper while in salah.
The tree of life is mentioned in the Book of Genesis; it is distinct from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were driven out of the Garden of Eden. Remaining in the garden, however, was the tree of life. To prevent their access to this tree in the future, cherubs with a flaming sword were placed at the east of the garden..
In the Book of Proverbs, the tree of life is associated with wisdom: "Wisdom is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is that retaineth her.". In Proverbs 15:4, the tree of life is associated with calmness: "A soothing tongue is a tree of life; but perverseness therein is a wound to the spirit.".For other direct references to the tree of life in the Jewish biblical canon, see also , .
In the liturgy, the Eitz Chayim is a piyyut commonly sung as the Sefer Torah is returned to the Torah ark.
The Book of Enoch, generally considered biblical canon,Ariel Hessayon, "Og King of Bashan, Enoch and the Books of Enoch: Extra-Canonical Texts and Interpretations of Genesis 6:1–4", in Scripture and Scholarship in Early Modern England 5, 7 (Nicholas Keene & Ariel Hessayon eds., 2006) states that in the time of the great judgment, God will give all those whose names are in the Book of Life fruit to eat from the tree of life.
From the Renaissance onwards, Kabbalah became incorporated as tradition in Christian Western esotericism as Hermetic Qabalah.
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, , Mixtec, Olmec, and others, dating to at least the Mid/Late Formative periods of the Mesoamerican chronology. The tomb of Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal of the Maya city of Palenque, who became its ajaw or leader when he was twelve years old, has tree of life inscriptions within the walls of his burial place, showing just how important it was. Among the Maya, the central world tree was conceived as or represented by a Ceiba pentandra and is known variously as a wacah chan or yax imix che in different Mayan languages.
The trunk of the tree could also be represented by an upright caiman, whose skin evokes the tree's spiny trunk.
Directional world trees are also associated with the four Year Bearers in Mesoamerican calendars and associated with the directional colors and deities. Mesoamerican codices which have this association outlined include the Dresden Codex, Codex Borgia and Fejérváry-Mayer codices. 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.
The tree of life motif is present in the traditional Ojibwe cosmology and traditions. It is sometimes described as Grandmother Cedar, or Nookomis Giizhig in Anishinaabemowin.
In the book Black Elk Speaks, Black Elk, an Oglala Lakota people (Sioux) wičháša wakȟáŋ (medicine man and holy man), describes his vision in which after dancing around a dying tree that has never bloomed he is transported to the other world (spirit world) where he meets wise elders, 12 men and 12 women. The elders tell Black Elk that they will bring him to meet "Our Father, the two-legged chief" and bring him to the axis mundi where he sees the tree in full leaf and bloom and the "chief" standing against the tree. Coming out of his trance he hopes to see that the earthly tree has bloomed, but it is dead.
The Oneidas tell that supernatural beings lived in the Skyworld above the waters which covered the earth. This tree was covered with fruits which gave them their light, and they were instructed that no one should cut into the tree otherwise a great punishment would be given. As the woman had pregnancy cravings, she sent her husband to get bark, but he accidentally dug a hole to the other world. After falling through, she came to rest on the turtle's back, and four animals were sent out to find land, which the muskrat finally did.
The world tree or tree of life is an important symbol in Turkic mythology. It is a common kilim motifs. It is used in the logo of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Turkey) and in 2009 it was introduced as the main design of the common Turkish lira sub-unit 5 kuruş.
Tree of life is known as Ulukayın or Baiterek in Turkic communities. It is a sacred beech tree planted by Kayra. Sometimes, it is considered axis mundi.
Also, in the Tablet of Ahmad of Bahá'u'lláh: "Verily He is the Tree of Life, that bringeth forth the fruits of God, the Exalted, the Powerful, the Great".
Bahá'u'lláh refers to his male descendants as branches ( ʾaghṣān) and calls women leaves.Liya, Sally (2004). The Use of Trees as Symbols in the World Religions in: Solas, 4. Donegal, Ireland. Association for Baháʼí Studies English-Speaking Europe. p. 55.
A distinction has been made between the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The latter represents the physical world with its opposites, such as good and evil and light and dark. In a different context from the one above, the tree of life represents the spiritual realm, where this duality does not exist.Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 122.
In his 1927 novella Kappa (Japanese: 河童) Japanese author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa wrote of a fictitious religion called 'Lifeism' whose adherents believe their God, the Tree of Life, teaches them to 'live avidly'.
The 2006 Darren Aronofsky film The Fountain features the Judeo-Christian tree of life as a major plot element in its non-linear narrative. In Central America during the Age of Discovery, it is the sought-after object of a Spanish conquistador, who believes its gift of eternal life will free Spain and its queen from the tyranny of a religious inquisition. In the present day, a sample from what is implied to be the same tree of life is used by a medical researcher—who seeks a cure for his ailing wife—to develop a serum that reverses the biological aging process. In the distant future, a space traveler (implied to be the same man from the present) uses the last vestiges of a tree's bark (again, implied to be the same tree of life) to keep himself alive as he journeys to Xibalba, a fictional dying star lying inside a nebula in the constellation Orion, which he believes will rejuvenate the tree—thereby granting him eternal life—when it explodes.
Alex Proyas' 2009 film Knowing ends with the two young protagonists directed towards the tree of life.
There are literal and thematic references to the tree in Terrence Malick's free-flowing 2012 film The Tree of Life, including in the title.
The 2021 adventure film Jungle Cruise follows a boat captain (Dwayne Johnson) who takes a scientist (Emily Blunt) on a quest to find the Tree.
|
|
