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The Cosmic Tree

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The Cosmic Tree CHAPTER FIVE THE COSMIC TREE Frequent reference already has been made to the Tree of Life having a cosmic significance in a variety of different settings. We shall now endeavour to bring these together in a cosmogonic pattern with a view to determining the part played by the imagery in the cosmology of the Fertile Crescent, the Ancient Near East and the Aegan. This will require some consideration of the cosmic speculations current in this crucial region that the symbolism of the sacred Tree may be assigned its proper place and function within the wider range of cosmogonic ideas and legendary tradition. It is true that under Palaeolithic and Mesolithic cultural conditions Early Man does not appear to have been interested in cosmic origins except in so far as they were in some way related to his ever-present problems, observations and necessities. It is possible, as Professor Brandon has recently suggested, that the process of biological birth coupled with the creative experience and understanding gained in the execution of cave art may have given rise to the notion of creativity due to a personal act of creation. 1) But it was not until the third mil­ lennium B.C. that cosmogonic speculations were first recorded in the collections of hieroglyphic texts in the Fertile Crescent and in Western Asia. THE COSMIC TREE IN EGYPTIAN COSMOGONY In Egypt the initial cause of events was interpreted in the Pyramid Texts of the Heliopolitan priesthood (c. 2480-2137 B.c.) as a series of births among the gods beginning with the emergence of Atum from a lotus in the primeval watery abyss, before the heavens and the earth had been formed. 2) This pre-existent ultimate source of all things was created by the utterance of his name and so became Khepri, 'he who exists by himself'. 3) Behind him lay Nun, the creative principle variously applied to the primordial waters, the Nile, the 'green' ocean, the sky and the Sun-god who like Atum arose out of it 1) Creation Legends of the Ancient Near East (1963) pp. Sf. 1) P.T. 1466b-d; cf. Mercer, The Pyramid Texts (New York, 1952). vol. i. p. 233. 3) P.T. 1587a-d. NuMEN, Suppl. XI 9 130 THE COSMIC TREE concealed in a lotus. 1) In this primeval background trees and plants were a conspicuous feature as the original abode of the gods, in addit­ ion to Atum and Re with their lotus manifestations, the two celestial deities Nut and Hathor concealing themselves in the sycomore tree and its foliage where Osiris also dwelt. From the persea-tree at He­ liopolis Re proceeded in his daily course across the horizon and Horus had his lodging in the olive-tree. Therefore, as the gods were envisag­ ed in the primordial state as having resided as it were in the womb of a sacred tree, and as so associated with it prior to their appearance as cosmic deities, it would seem very probable that the lifegiving tree and the creative waters were the basic conception in the Egyptian cosmogony, themselves having a cosmic significance. THE HELIOPOLITAN ENNEAD Thus, in the Heliopolitan texts it is by no means clear whether Atum or Nun was regarded as the head of the Ennead, doubtless because they both emerged from the same primary source. Atum, however, was usually assigned precedence and having reproduced from himself by masturbation Shu, the atmosphere, and Tefnut, the personification of moisture, he was identified with Re the Sun-god, having already become Khepri. From this trio with Nun as the pri­ meval watery matrix, the Ennead developed, Shu and Tefnut produc­ ing Geb, the earth, and Nut, the sky. 2) To these were added, under the influence of the Osirian mythology, Osiris and Isis, Seth and Nephthys, while to add to the confusion Re was regarded as the son of Nun as well as identical with A tum. Originally Re and A tum were undoubtedly independent gods, and throughout the subsequent de­ velopment of the cosmogony the composite deity Atum-Re was represented at once as self-existent and yet a product of the pre­ existent Nun in his dual capacity. When Re became the head of the pantheon after the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, he combined all the creative forces in nature inherited from his father Nun, becoming 'greater than he who made him'. 3) Moreover, according to one ancient tradition he was thought to be born every morning from the womb of the Sky-goddess Nut, begotten by the Earth-god Geb 'before the corporation of the Ennead 1) P.T. 132, 446. 8) P.T. 1655a, b. 3) Wilson, A.N.E.T. pp. 3f., 11f. .
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