Symbols - What does heaven look like
Tree of life
If you look at the Intelligence hierarchy, you will see that from the ‘central’ Ultimate Intelligence that is God – the sum of all function, - Intelligences are spawned with gradually fewer and fewer functions. So if I now draw a very simple diagram you can see that there is a central ‘trunk’ with branches that get gradually ‘thinner and thinner’ as a result of their loss of function.
In the picture the letters represent functions.
At the bottom of this inverted tree structure, you get the functional copies of each of the systems that occur in the twiggy bits. The leaves [shown green].
So the tree of life is like a system hierarchy with the master copies of all the systems and the gradual decomposition of systems [with the proviso that functions can be shared between systems] and at the end we have the copies – the little packages that get implemented on all the physical ‘computers’ – us horses, cats, dogs, plants, and so on.
The Tree of life is not a species hierarchy like the Linnean hierarchy, because most of our classifications of living things are based on form and not function. Furthermore this hierarchy covers all systems not just those that are related to animals and plants.
Thus the branches are the Intelligences, the main trunk at the base is the Ultimate Intelligence [all function] and the leaves are the implemented packages – us.
I have drawn it as a 2 dimensional hierarchy for simplicities sake, but if you now imagine this hierarchy spread out within each Egg, you can see it will look very much like a tree with a spherical shape and a ‘head’
In fact the symbolism falls down a little bit as the three dimensional nature of the Egg is such that branches will come out in all directions from the centre, but we see in many examples of this symbol’s use, that they incorporate the roots as well, so they do the best they can symbolically!
The universality of the symbolism
In most ancient religions in China, Indochina, India, Phoenicia, the Aegean, Mesopotamia, the Altaics, Australia, amongst the Arctic peoples and in Mayan iconography – the tree of life has the same symbolic meaning. It also in myths and legends almost worldwide, for example in the myths of
- Nordic people
- Central Asatic peoples
- The Altai and germanic peoples
- the Abakhan Tatars who used a 7 branched birch tree on an iron mountain
- the Vasyugan Ostiak shamans – where it had seven levels
- The Saxons
- The Celts
- Indians and Hindu cosmology
- Chinese mythology – uniting the nine springs and nine heavens
- Mesopotamian culture
- Miao groups – who specify the bamboo as the source of their existence along with Formosan aboriginals, the Tagalog of the Philippines, the Ya-Lang of Yunnan and in Japan
- Australian Aborigine groups – those around Melbourne believed the Mimosa was the source of their existence
- Madagascar – the Antaivandrika tribe are named after the belief they descended from a tree literally 'the people of the tree' – the vandrika
- The Warramunga tribe of Northern Australia believe that the 'spirits of children', the size of a grain of sand, exist in certain trees, whence they sometimes come and enter the wombs of their mothers through the navel
Actual trees as symbols
In most of these examples, the symbol of the tree of life has been made concrete and real and eventually assigned to a specific tree – usually one which looks like the spiritual tree of life or one which provides food or sustenance, hence the use of figs, bamboo, bananas and mimosa trees. In the UK and Europe the tree was often an oak, sometimes a birch, a Cyprus, pine tree or ash tree. Some species of birch were looked on as the Tree of Life because the fungi which grew on the tree provided the hallucinogenic substances which enabled the shaman to access the spiritual world.
In African cultures it is the Baobab. In some Pacific islands cultures the banyan tree, of which the Bodhi tree is of the Sacred Fig variety, is the tree of life. In Fiji, the Tavola Tree is sacred.
In the Hindu religion, the banyan tree is considered sacred and is called "Ashwath Vriksha" ("I am Banyan tree among trees" - Bhagavad Gita). It represents eternal life because of its seemingly ever-expanding branches. The Ashoka is also sacred
In some parts of China the sacred Bo tree Chiang mai is sacred. In others it is the Peach Tree.
The Norse myths surrounding Yggdrasil, which is an ash tree, functions in much the same way in Norse mythology; it is the site where Odin found enlightenment. Other examples include Jievaras in Lithuanian mythology and Thor's Oak in the myths of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples.
Tree of Life with Eggs 1976 by myself
Observations
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- A A Popov - The initiation of an Avam-Samoyed shaman
- A P Elkin - Aboriginal men of high degree - Jajauring initiation
- Agassiz, Louis – Essay on Classification – The correspondence in the details of structure in animals otherwise entirely disconnected
- Alice in Wonderland - Ch 05 - 2 Serpent
- Ancestors, the - Art - The Shigir Idol
- Anna Reid - The Shaman’s coat – The Sacred cedar
- Aristotle - History of Animals - Tree of Life
- Ashoka
- Bax, Clifford - The Meaning of Man - Ah what though the Tree whose rise and fall
- Beowulf - The creation
- Bhagavad Gita - The Tree of Life
- Bingen, Hildegard of - Liber Divinorum Operum 13th century
- Black Elk - Native American Indians - Circles within circles
- Black Elk - Native American Indians - Climbing high mountains
- Black Elk - Native American Indians - Spiritual path
- Black Elk - Native American Indians - The Hoop of the Earth
- Blake, William - My roots are brandished in the heavens, my fruits in earth beneath
- Böcklin, Arnold - The Sanctuary of Hercules 1884
- Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad – The Creation myth – 02 Verses 1.4.4 to 1.4.6
- Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad – The Creation myth – 04 Verses 1.4.9 to 1.4.10
- Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad – The Creation myth – 06 Verse 1.4.12 to 1.4.17
- Bruno, Giordano – Cause, principle and unity - 01 The Second Dialogue
- Bruno, Giordano – Cause, principle and unity - 12 The Fifth Dialogue
- Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit 15th century
- Buddhist spatial cosmology
- Celtic - Map of the Egg
- Chandogya Upanishad
- Cirlot on snakes and serpents
- Cirlot on the Inverted tree
- Clark, Fay Marvin – Into the Light – Hunabku is not vindictive and Hunabku does not punish his children
- Cohen, Leonard - Ballad of the Absent Mare
- Concept - Korean mystic shamanism – Intelligence hierarchy and the Tree of Life
- County Limerick - The phantom boats of Lough Gur
- Cowper, William - God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform
- Cowper, William - Shortlived as foliage is the race of man
- Crowley - 15 The Devil
- Crowley - 21 The Universe
- Daniel Mackie - Red Pill and Blue Pill
- Dante - Paradiso - The Ladder of Paradise
- David Livingstone - The Dying God
- Denis - The ladder in the foliage 1892
- Descartes, Rene - Entities and entity sub-types
- Desnos, Robert - Ring of stars
- Destruction on a terrifying scale
- Dickinson, Emily - Cocoon above! Cocoon below, Stealthy cocoon, why hide you so
- Dickinson, Emily - When winds go round and round in Bands
- Doré, Gustave - The Bible - Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden
- Elburz
- Eleanor C Merry - The Flaming Door - Mistletoe
- Eliot, T S - Four Quartets - 01 Burnt Norton I
- Eliot, T S - Four Quartets - 03 Burnt Norton V
- Else Roesdahl - About the sagas
- Elwin, Verrier – The great Karma dance of the Gonds
- Eridu - Enki and Ninursag
- Evelyn Lip - Chinese Geomancy
- Freddie Mercury and Queen - The Prophet’s Song
- Frost, Robert - There was never naught
- Gabriel Delanne – A case for Intelligent Design and the existence of the Higher spirit
- Gaudi - Professional work - 04 The Sagrada Família
- Genesis 02 - Garden of Eden
- Genesis 03 - The Fall
- George Meredith - Dirge in Woods
- Gershom Scholem – On the Kabbalah and its symbolism - Sefiroth
- Gershom Scholem – On the Kabbalah and its symbolism - Trees of Life and Knowledge
- Grandma Moses - A solemn thing within the soul
- Grant Gronewald - HTML flowers - Bright threadz
- Grant Gronewald - HTML flowers - Hospital is where we put people nobody likes
- Grof, Dr Stanislav - Exploring the tree of life and what it feels like to be a fish
- Hafez of Shiraz - Thirty Poems - O royal keen eyed falcon
- Harivamsha Purana - The return of the celestial tree
- Hawker, Robert Stephen - Modryb Marya - Now of all the trees by the King's highway
- Hawker, Robert Stephen - The Signals of Levi
- Hawker, Robert Stephen - The Vine - Hearken, there is in old Morwenna's shrine
- Herbert, George - Heaven
- Herbert, George - Judgement
- Hokusai - Mishima pass in Kai province
- Hush a bye baby
- Hyangga of Korea - Requiem for the Dead Sister - Master Wolmyong
- Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Tree of life
- Ibn El-Arabi - The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq - At Dhú Salam and the monastery
- Ibn El-Arabi - The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq - Flashes of lightning gleamed to us
- Ibn El-Arabi - The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq - O doves that haunt the arák and bán trees
- Intelligences - TRINITY CREATOR AND CREATED Enlil and Ninlil
- Jesus - Matthew 13 - Grain of mustard seed
- Jili, Abd al-Karim - Al-Kahf wa al-raqim - 043 Section 3
- Kabir - A certain bird sits in the tree
- Kabir - I know of a strange tree
- Kabir - Student do the simple purification
- Kakuzo, Okakura - The Book of Tea - The Creation
- Kant, Immanuel - Dreams of a Spirit Seer - 08 Chapter Two
- Karnataka and South India - 04 Bhoga Nandeeshwara and Arunachaleswara Temples
- Katha Upanishad
- Keightley, Thomas - The Elle-king's soldiers
- Kipling, Rudyard - Just So Stories - The Crab that Played
- Kish - The Myth of Etana – Tablet 2
- Klimt - Fulfilment and Expectation
- Lalla - For a moment I saw a beautiful moving river
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - Diversity and beauty
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - Sun dance ceremony
- Lame Deer - Native American Indians - The Power of Four
- Li Ho - Lament That the Days Are So Short
- Linga Purana - The number of spirit beings
- Little Bo-Peep
- Louis Ginzberg - Legends of the Jews
- M A Czaplicka - Siberian magic
- M A Czaplicka - Siberian shamanism - Symbolism
- Malta - 10 Ħaġar Qim
- Mayan - Popol Vuh - 07 The Story of Blood Moon
- Mayan - Popol Vuh - 08 The Story of Blood Moon
- Mayan – Yaxche – The Tree of Life
- Meister Eckhart - Selected writings - The multitude of angels is a number beyond all numbers
- Mellery, Xavier - Chute des dernieres feuilles d’Automne
- Michelangelo - 1508 Sistine Chapel - 01 Symbolism
- Mirabai - We do not
- Mircea Eliade - A initiation ceremony
- Mircea Eliade - Abakan Tatars Tree of Life
- Mircea Eliade - Australian Aboriginal Initiation rites
- Mircea Eliade - Australian aboriginal ropes and stairs
- Mircea Eliade - Batu Ribn rises at the Centre of the World
- Mircea Eliade - Belet
- Mircea Eliade - Mimir
- Mircea Eliade - On Drum Maps and Drumming
- Mircea Eliade - On Siberian shamanism Out of body to last heaven
- Mircea Eliade - Shamanic bridges
- Mircea Eliade - Siberian Shamanism and the Cosmic mountain
- Mircea Eliade - The Altai and the Tree of Life
- Mircea Eliade - The Eagle in Buryat and Yakut legend
- Mircea Eliade - The Moussian Tree of life
- Mircea Eliade - The Yakut and the Tree of life
- Mircea Eliade - The Zhi Ma Funeral ceremony of the Na-Khi of Southwest China
- Mircea Eliade - Warramunga tribe and the Tree of life
- Mircea Eliade - Yakut beliefs on death
- Mircea Eliade - Yggdrasil
- Mircea Eliade discusses the Epic of Gilgamesh
- Mircea Eliade – Chinese mythology
- Mircea Eliade – Mishna and the Tree of Knowledge
- Mircea Eliade – The Antaivandrika
- Mircea Eliade – The Na-khi – The Psychopomp role
- Mircea Eliade – The Tree in Africa and the Indus valley
- Mircea Eliade – The Zohar and the Tree of life
- Misc. source - Jaguars as naguals
- Misc. source - Mayan maypole
- Morrells, Luce and frost giants
- Moses de Leon – Sefer ha-Rimmon - Tree of life
- Mucha, Alphonse - The Slav Epic
- Mucha, Alphonse - The Slav Epic
- Native American Wisdom - The Hako Party presented to the Powers
- Native American Wisdom - White Buffalo Calf Woman
- Nietzsche - On the Genealogy of Morals - The ripest fruit is the sovereign individual
- Nizami – Makhzanol Asrar (The Treasury of Mysteries) – from On the Ascension
- Nizami – Makhzanol Asrar (The Treasury of Mysteries) – from Poets and Poetry 03
- Nizami – Makhzanol Asrar (The Treasury of Mysteries) – from Poets and Poetry 04
- Norse - Heiðrún
- North Whitehead, Alfred – 04 The immortality of an entity, the system of the universe, in time and outside time
- North Whitehead, Alfred – 06 The impossibility of a Big Bang; the emergence of the ‘concrescence’
- North Whitehead, Alfred – 07 Event based processing versus objective based processing
- North Whitehead, Alfred – 18 The difference between a type of entity and an entity, class and member of class, its impact on consciousness
- Ogotommeli - Egg and Atom layout
- Ogotommeli - The Matrix and constellations
- Paul Devereux - Mayan - Chichen Itza cave
- Plato - Timaeus - Putting the leaves on the tree of life
- Plensa, Jaume – MACBA 25
- Poetic Edda - Grimnir's sayings [extract]
- Poetic Edda - Sayings of the High One [Odin's sacrifice]
- Poetic Edda - Völuspá [extract]
- Poetic Edda - Völuspá [extract]
- Ravidas – from the Adi Granth 19
- Reichel-Dolmatoff – Amazonian Cosmos - Master of Animals
- Reverdy, Pierre - Arc en Ciel
- Rig veda - Tree of Life
- Rig Veda - Two Birds
- Rilke, Rainer Maria - 23 Fifth Elegy
- Rilke, Rainer Maria - 50 Tenth Elegy
- Rock a bye baby
- Rosary of the Philosophers - 10 The Union
- Rumi - Love Poems - Bough and leaf set free from the earth
- Rumi - Misc - Love is the Treasure
- Sacred geography – Picts – Sacred trees and sacred groves 01
- Sacred geography – Picts – Sacred trees and sacred groves 02
- Sacred geography – Picts – Sacred trees and sacred groves 03
- Saddharma Pundarīka Sūtra - On plants
- Saint Brendan - 05 The Voyage of Saint Brendan
- Saint Brendan - A summary of his 'voyage'
- Sefer ha-bahir – Para 21 - Order of Creation and Tree of Life
- Sefer ha-bahir – Para 85 - The Egg and Intelligence hierarchy
- Segantini - Engel des Lebens 1894 [L'angelo della vita]
- Segantini - Love at the Fountain of Life
- Shih Ching - Dove
- Sri Airobindo - Savitri - A Message from the Unknown Immortal Light
- Sterry, Peter - Imagine this Life as an Island, surrounded by a Sea of Darkness
- Sting - Sacred love
- Sting - Shape of my Heart
- Susa - Enlil and Ninlil with the Tree of life
- Svetasvatara Upanishad
- Symbolism - Korean mystic shamanism – Costume: Crown
- Symbolism - Korean mystic shamanism – Costume: Ribbons and rainbows
- Symeon the New Theologian - The Light of your Way
- Taq Bostan 02
- Tavener, John - Funeral Canticle
- Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre - Phenomenon of Man - Diversification
- Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre - Phenomenon of Man - The creation process
- Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre - Phenomenon of Man - Tree of life
- Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre - Phenomenon of Man - Tree of life
- Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre - Phenomenon of Man - Tree of life
- Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre - Phenomenon of Man - Wheel of evolution
- The Ancestors - Avebury World Heritage site - The Sanctuary
- The Ancestors - Star Carr, Yorkshire, UK
- Theodore Roethke – The Waking
- Through the Looking Glass - Ch 03 - 3 The Gnat
- Tom Berman - Storks
- Tranströmer, Tomas - A Few Moments
- Tree of life with eggs
- Tree, Isabella - Sliced Iguana – The Church of San Juan Chamula
- Tzu, Lao - Attain to utmost Emptiness
- Tzu, Lao - The Spirit of the fountain dies not
- Upanishads, the – Commentary by Mircea Eliade
- Urantia Book - Paper 34 - The Local Universe Mother Spirit - Father, Mother and Son
- Uruk – Miscellaneous artefacts
- Uruk – The Anu district of Kulaba
- Various symbolic concepts - Babylonian Tree of Life
- Various symbolic concepts - Mircea Eliade – Trees of Truth and Life
- Vitebsky, Piers - The experiences of the Sora shaman
- War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness – 03 2 The standards
- Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass - I visit the orchards of God
- Yeats, W B - Selected poems - Among schoolchildren
- Yeats, W B - Selected poems - Vacillation
- Zohar - III 202a - Tree of Life