The Tree of Life features as a potent symbol in the myths of many different cultures. The relationship between humans and trees stretches back to the earliest history of humankind. Trees have been our protectors, our homes, our foodstuff, they have sustained us, they give us pleasure and occasionally pain. Trees are important to use in our modern world for many reasons, not least because of the oxygen they give and the carbon dioxide they remove from the air we breathe. Trees have always been and still are of prime importance to all life forms. Trees figure in our myths, legends and cultures sometimes individually, sometimes in groups, and sometimes as whole woods or forests. Trees often represent basic values such as life itself, growth, health, fertility, wisdom and strength. On the darker side, their shadowy nature sometimes leads them in myth to entrap and even destroy humans. There are also idiosyncratic trees that have particular power such as large ancient oak or yew trees with whom we may have an individual as well as collective relationship. Trees carry weight in the human psyche; they are powerful and sometimes fearful, particularly when we treat them badly. It is of prime importance in our modern world that we acknowledge and treat trees for what they are, living sentient beings of another order. In many traditions, a special world tree stands in some central place in the universe and is associated with the origin of all life. The Tree of Life in the Judaeo-Christian Bible is such a tree and is perhaps one of the earliest appearances of the modern Qabalistic Tree of Life. As in many tree myths, the Tree connects everyday life with both spirit and the visible world (what is 'above') and shadow and the underworld (the roots of, for instance, Yggdrassil, the world tree of North European mythology which is divided into realms of gods, giants, humans and the dead. This is also the case in the Qabalistic Tree of Life with its division into four worlds representing different aspects of the make-up of not only human life but all forms of life. In Hebrew myth, the first humans, despite a warning against doing so, eat of the fruit of the Tree. While apparently a negative act - they are thrown out of the garden of Eden - it also leads them, in the words of their Creator, to 'become like us', that is, sentient beings with their own free will. The Qabalistic tradition offers the same world view, that through coming to earth, with its attendant difficulties and suffering, we are offered the opportunity for redemption. Unlike some traditions, the Qabalah teaches this redemption may be achieved through the pleasures of earth as much through the difficulties. Indeed, Qabalistic mythology suggests that actually coming to earth is the goal in itself and the most difficult thing to attain. |
