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The Theme of the Tree of Life

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The Theme of the Tree of Life CHAPTER EIGHT THE THEME OF THE TREE OF LIFE In the pursuit of this inquiry it has become apparent that we are dealing with the interplay and interaction of recurrent closely related motifs and imagery integrated in and around the Tree of Life as the common cult-object having many ramifications and numerous modes of expression. Some of the available data are subsidiary to the main theme and its symbolism, but, nevertheless, being either de­ rivative or supplementary they have their place and function in the in­ vestigation, directly or indirectly throwing light on the dominant theme and its motifs. THE SACREDNESS OF THE TREE OF LIFE In the first instance the sacredness of trees arises from their being regarded as the embodiment of the life principle and the bearers of supra-mundane power manifest especially in the regeneration of vegetation, the seasonal sequence celestial phenomena and potencies (e.g. cloud, rain, the sun, moon and stars), and in association with mountains, stones, plants and trees regarded as the abode of a god, spirit, or inherent sacredness rendering it transcendentally unap­ proachable and tabu, or an object of veneration and worship as the embodiment of supernatural power and cosmic potentialities, equated sometimes with the creative principle in the universe, variously per­ sonified and symbolized as the World-Tree, like the Scandinavian Yggdrasil, or as a primeval pair of deities, the Earth and the Sky, as by the Egyptians and the Greeks, while in Mesopotamia the Cosmic Tree was brought into relation with the primal waters as the source of all life. When Mother-earth was believed to be the universal life­ producer, the womb from which all vegetation was brought forth, it was by a sacred marriage with the Sky-father that she exercised her maternal functions in the promotion and sustaining of fertility in nature. Therefore, around its enactment at the Annual Festival by the king and queen as their earthly vicegerents, the principal life­ tokens tended to be assembled. But since the marriage of heaven and earth had a cosmic as well as a vegetation significance, the same life principle being operative throughout the entire universe, the creation 246 THE THEME OF THE TREE OF LIFE of the sky, the earth and the subterranean primordial waters was, interpeted in terms of this nuptial context. In this all-embracing symbolism and its several motifs birth and death, renewal and regeneration were so intimately connected as to be inseparable. Thus, in the Mystery cults the Corn-mother and the grain­ producing earth were linked at Eleusis with human destinies. As the grain must fall into the inexhaustibly fertile soil and die in order to bear fruit over and over again in new forms, so man by passing through a mystic ritual death could be reborn to a fulness of life which would endure beyond the grave in as it were a never-ending seasonal rotation, often portrayed on sarcophagi and in epithets in a comparable imagery. Thus, the tree as the symbol of the resurrection of vegetation, of the rebirth of the year in the spring ( or its seasonal equivalent) became the Tree of Immortality giving a superabundance of life to the dead in a blissful eternity. The entire universe, in fact, has been conceived as belonging to one great system of interrelated and in­ herent life in which the sacred tree has been regarded as occupying a central position as an ultimate source of ever-renewing vitality. The principle and its symbolism rest on the conception of the unity of life in nature making possible union with the divine source in its various manifestations. Thus, there has been a tendency to assign particular degrees of sanctity to persons and objects displaying out­ ward and visible signs of an inherent potency, ranging from primitive animatistic dynamism associated with awe-inspiring and arresting natural phenomena arousing the sense of the numinous, to a monistic and pantheistic divine cosmic immanence, such as Rta in India, Asha in Iran, Tao in China, Maat in Egypt, Dike and Moira in Greece and Numen in Rome. THE CONCEPTION OF THE SACRED THE PROFANE Indeed, so far as people in a primitive state of culture and mentality are concerned, it has been contended by Levy-Bruhl and his followers that the reality in which they move is itself mystical. Everything, it is said, appears to be permeated by forces, influences and actions, which though imperceptible to sense are, nevertheless, real. Consequently, the world of fact becomes full of mystery. The primitive thinks, it is alleged, in terms of 'collective representations' in which objects are not divided from one another, but united in a bond so intimate that each participates in the other, making a thing what it is not. By the 'law of participation' is explained how a man may believe himself .
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