WEBVTT - Tree of Life 0:00:02.080 --> 0:00:05.920 Men call the Aswatha the Banyan tree, which hath its 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:09.920 bows beneath its roots above the ever holy tree yea, 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:14.600 for its leaves are green and waving hymns which whisper truth. 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:20.079 Who knows the Aswatha knows vEDS? And all its branches 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:23.120 shoot to heaven and sink to earth, even as the 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:27.360 deeds of men, which take their birth from qualities. Its 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:31.440 silver sprays and blooms, and all the eager verdure of 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:35.400 its girth leap to quick life at kiss of sun 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.360 and air, as men's lives quickened to the temptings fair 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:44.279 of wooing sense it's hanging Rootlets seek the soil beneath, 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.000 helping to hold it there, as actions rought amid this 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:52.240 world of men bind them by ever tightening bonds. Again, 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.800 Welcome to stuff to blow your mind from how stop 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:08.559 where dot com? Hey? You Welcome to stuff to blow 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:10.720 your mind. My name is Robert Lamb, and my name 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:14.440 is Christian Saga. And that was a reading from a 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:16.800 book I can't pronounce the right way, but it's the 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.319 arnold translation. Chapter fifteen. You say it, yes, the bag geta, 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:21.720 or you know, you can just call it the geta 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:26.080 I always say it wrong, baga, geta yeah, or just 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:27.959 the geta. You know, you can be impersonal with it 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:30.240 if you like. Okay, but yeah, that's the Arenold translation 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:34.360 chapter fifteen, referring to one of the many world trees, 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:38.039 the sacred trees, the trees of life that seemed to 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:42.480 crop up from cultures and traditions around the world, and 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.280 the roots of these trees seem to dive down deep 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:49.440 into human prehistory. Yeah. I have been thinking about this 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:51.440 topic for a few years now. I've I've had this 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.360 in the back of my head when I joined the show. 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:56.200 Here's a little behind the scenes for you all. We 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:59.560 have this huge spreadsheet document that has all of our 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:01.640 potential topics in it, and when I first joined the show, 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:04.120 I probably put I don't know, like two ideas into it, 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:06.000 and this was like one of the first ones I 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:07.640 put in there because I was like, I know what 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.320 Robert's into, I know what the show has covered before. 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:12.639 I need the answer to this question. And the way 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:16.440 I had framed it was, why are the Kundalini, ig DRIs, sill, 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:21.799 and suffer off also similar? And these are all basically 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:23.120 and we're going to get into this. These are all 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:27.799 representations of tree of life symbology across the world, right. 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:30.320 And it first struck me when I was reading these 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:33.760 esoteric books about things like yoga and North myths and 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.440 Cobbalistic mysticism. And then it occurred to me that these 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:41.520 cosmological symbols, they're so similar, despite the fact that the 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.000 cultures that they come from are vastly different and very 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.720 far away from one another. But I didn't originally think 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.280 of them as trees per se. And now that we've 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:52.240 sat down and we've done our homework for this episode, 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.079 it's it's pretty obvious that they're they're all trees. Yeah. 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:56.799 And and if you and if you don't know what 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.840 those those three names were, you don't know these particular 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:03.679 old trees by name. I feel like most people, you're 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:09.480 probably connected with some culture or another that has a 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:12.880 tree symbol within it. And even if you're completely like 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:17.160 somehow completely removed from uh, you know, ancient traditions and 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:21.280 spiritual practices and religious history, you are still going to 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.480 encounter the symbol of the tree somewhere in your world. 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.960 And as as with all the symbols, symbols come into 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.200 contact with each other. UH and you. You really can't 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.920 interact with the symbol of the tree, I feel without 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.120 engaging with the legacy of that symbol, which we're going 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:41.920 to discuss here today. Yeah, exactly, and so we're gonna 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.640 provide you with examples too. Well, we'll get into all 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:48.120 of those, but really our core question here today is 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:53.960 wire trees so intimately connected with spiritual training and development 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.040 everywhere in the world, and we'll find that this actually 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.920 goes along with scientific development as well, that the trees 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.040 symbology has been applied there too. Now I have to 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.160 note here we could do the whole episodes just on 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:10.400 all the various world trees and sacred trees in human tradition. 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:13.080 We could do a whole episode just on tree spirits 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:15.040 and the idea that the tree is a home for 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.039 the soul of the departed, But obviously we don't have time. 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:19.839 We're going to try and at least dip our toes 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.040 and then all the appropriate waters, but we're not gonna 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:25.880 really have time to immerse ourselves. Yeah, this is one 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:27.760 of those where you could do just like an entire 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:30.360 podcast called Tree of Life, and it would be just 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.800 every episode would be about a different one because the 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.159 further we dug into this, the more obvious it was. 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:37.640 It was in every culture. Everybody has it, and each 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:41.000 one's fascinating. Each one has its own particular you know, flourishes. 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:43.960 Uh So, yeah, you could. You could just have a 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.279 Tree of the Week, but unfortunately I won't be able 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.280 to join you for that Tree of the Week on 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.160 Stuff to Blow Your Mind at least because this is 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.480 my last episode of Stuff to Blow your Mind. I'm 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:58.480 actually moving to Portland, Oregon, So if any of our 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:00.680 listeners are out that way and you want to help 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.560 me get situated as I move, I would love your advice. 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:05.120 So what we're gonna do is at the end of 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:07.720 this episode, I will provide information on how to get 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.239 in contact with me where you can find me online. 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.120 But I want to thank everybody out there, all of 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:15.360 you for accepting me into your ears for the last 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.599 few years. I've learned so much working on this show 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.880 and interacting with its wonderful community, and I've made so 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:25.360 many friends from being on this show. So thank you, everybody. 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:27.719 And I wanted to choose a topic that was, uh, 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:29.760 something I've really wanted to cover on this show, but 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:33.440 that's also it's universal man. Yeah, well, I mean for 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.320 for starters, I want to thank you for everything you've 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:37.920 done for the show and UH and you have helped 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.279 to shape its voice over the past a few years here, 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.920 and I wish you the absolute best in Portland's and 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:46.560 UH and as we'll get into at the end of 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:50.159 the show, also your your your future podcast endeavors. Yeah, 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:52.720 You're gonna remain a friend of Stuff to Boil your 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.159 Mind going forward, and I want everybody to to to 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:58.440 be clear on that, Like like five years from now, 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:00.800 I'm going to show up and we're gonna do UH 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:05.400 an episode on some kind of paraphilia, and then we'll 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.839 mix in like the science of some kind of psychedelic 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:11.719 drug into it. Right on that note, I am glad 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.280 that your final episode doesn't have to be the zoophilia episode. 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:17.080 That was one of the ones. I'm kind of your 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:20.159 Stuff to Boil your Mind bucket was my hit list. Yeah, yeah, 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.600 after the necrophilia episode, I was like, we gotta do 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.600 another paraphilia. So I'm glad we got that out of 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.800 the way as a as ikey as it made us 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.520 both feel when we did it. You know, one of 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:34.880 the other things I like here is that your last 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:38.000 episode is kind of accidentally a Christmas episode, or at 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.080 least a Christmas Tree episode, because I found at least 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:44.680 one source referring to the Christmas tree as as yet 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:49.320 another symbol, as yet another echo of this global tradition, 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:51.640 which which honestly I didn't even really think. God, I 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.279 guess it's just because the Christmas tree is just so 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:58.760 it's kind of so overdone in Western tradition, especially because 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:00.839 we cut them down right. But yeah, I hadn't thought 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:02.680 of it either, and it's so obvious now that you 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.960 pointed out. Yeah, and this comes out like somewhat at 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:09.400 the beginning of December. So maybe this will be an appropriate, uh, 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:13.080 going into the Holidays episode for everybody to listen to 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:17.200 and think about trees. So some of you out there 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:20.560 are probably wondering, what are you guys talking about? What 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.120 is a tree of life? Well, a tree of life 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:27.720 it's a widespread archetype or motive that shows up in 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.600 many human myths across the world. There seemed to be 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.560 two main forms that show up, the world tree and 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:37.520 the tree of life. Sometimes it's called the cosmic tree 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:41.120 or the tree of knowledge in symbology. But the first 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:44.160 one is a tree that has a vertical center that 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:48.320 binds together heaven and Earth. And the second one is 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:50.480 a tree that is the source of life at the 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:54.160 horizontal center of the Earth, and the concepts that are 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:59.200 associated with it include life giving force, eternal life, desire 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.040 for heaven, and fertility. So if we look at the 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.560 world tree one first, this is the vertical tradition. The 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:10.000 tree extends between Earth and heaven and is the connection 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.240 between humans and the gods, and the base of the 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:17.600 tree is where oracles and profits perform their activities. But 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:20.440 because the top of this tree reaches up into the heavens, 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:24.080 it was seen as an entity that actually connected the 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.520 three spheres of what most people thought of as existence Heaven, Earth, 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.520 and then underground, which would be the land of the 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:33.720 dead in some cultures. Now, what I think is interesting 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:35.880 about this is that you can easily compare it to 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:40.640 the Holy Mountain in in global traditions. But the mountain 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:44.160 is a like a thing. This is not geologically speaking, 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:47.080 but speaking from like human perspective, the mountain is a 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:50.160 thing that exists and is solid and is unchanging. But 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.920 the tree is a thing that is obviously grown um 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.320 which puts it more in keeping with, for instance, the 0:08:56.400 --> 0:09:00.040 idea of of a tower of Babbel, the idea of 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.040 hour to reach the heavens of False Mountain, except that 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.200 the tree is is authentic. And it also reminds me, 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:09.840 of course, of of space elevators and man made thing 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.720 that has grown or built and used to reach the 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.520 heavenly realm or at least you know, lower orbit. Yeah, 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.400 those are all metaphors that have shown up in other cultures, 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:21.960 not space elevators yet, but we still have time. We 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:25.480 can do like the space Elevator of Life movie at 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:29.440 some point. But you're right, mountains actually are interchangeable with 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:33.280 trees and some of these symbolic legends. But I think 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:37.320 that trees are usually the fallback because they grow and 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:41.559 because of their cycle of fertility. Uh. But let's look 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:45.080 at the horizontal tradition and see how that I think 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:47.680 that plays into that further. That's this is again the 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.520 tree of life versus the world tree. So this version 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:53.520 has the tree planted at the center of the world 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:57.320 and usually it's protected by supernatural guardians. The tree is 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.720 the source of fertility and life, and we humans are 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.000 actually descended from the tree. If it's cut down, the 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.400 ability to reproduce in the world would cease to exist. 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:10.400 And the tree is common in quest myths, so that 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:12.160 you see a lot of myths where like somebody has 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.440 to go and get something, the trees usually involved. So 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:19.120 for example Gilgamesh he obtains the elixir of immortality after 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.400 fighting the guards of the Tree of Life, and its 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:27.880 fruit and sap are thought to bestow both knowledge and enlightenment. Now, 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.560 in some variations this is interesting. I only found this 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.560 in a few There are goats at the base of 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.559 the tree and they are also worshiped and seen as 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.959 symbolic of birth and fertility. That's interesting. I was looking 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:45.920 through um the writings of James Frasier and he made 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:49.400 some connections there as well, between antlert or horned animals 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.559 and the branches of trees. Well, it seems like the 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:56.920 goat represents the ibex, which was once worshiped as an 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:01.240 incarnation of human and herd fertility, so that would make sense, 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:05.120 and the horn formations connecting together. That also makes sense. 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.280 In other variations, though instead of a goat, it's a 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:12.120 dragon or a serpent. I guess dragons sometimes have horns, 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:14.480 but serpents don't usually. Yeah, I mean you do see 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.280 dragons with horns or antlers a lot of traditions. I mean, 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:20.000 just kind of a reminder that the dragon is essentially 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.600 a chimera. It's a it's a you know, it's a 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:25.679 it's a creature created out out of pieces of all 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:29.800 these other animals, including, uh, say, a deer or a goat, right, 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:33.800 and so these seem to symbolize the spirit of the earth. 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:38.280 But the serpent is also an image for the quicksilvery 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:40.960 sap that's within the tree as well, because of the 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:43.120 way it moves. So that's interesting as well. Yeah, I 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:45.200 had not realized that. Yeah, and obviously we'll get to this, 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:47.600 but when we go to the Judeo Christian version of this, 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:49.640 obviously the serpent and the tree in the Garden of 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.840 Eden that all fits together. Right now, I want to 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:56.040 remind everybody about archetypes before we get into this, because 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.240 we're gonna definitely throw that term around a lot. Uh. 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:01.480 Robert and I have covered that in previous episodes. We 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.160 did an episode on on just myth in general and 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:06.520 taking a look at myths across history. We also did 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.720 an episode on the hero myth and we talked about archetypes, 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.239 and we specifically talked about Karl Gustav Young in those episodes, 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:16.719 but just to give you a primer refresher what have you. 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.640 He was a psychoanalyst whose main theory was that archetypes 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:25.800 reappear in the collective unconscious that all human societies share. 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:29.480 And he saw this as a ancient universal mind that 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:33.560 was common to all humans. It's like an ancestral memory. Uh. 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:38.720 And explains why we had the same archetypes across different cultures. 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.400 This is his answer to my question, why why is 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:44.760 this this symbology exactly the same in these cultures all 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:48.360 around the world. Uh. And for instance, the hero, as 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:50.600 we talked about in in in that previous episode, was 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.240 one of the most prominent of these archetypes. Young posits 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.200 that there's this deeper unconscious level that's going on that 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:02.120 manifests itself as dreams or sometimes in more complex forms 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:06.280 as myths or fairy tales. So this is in his 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.760 you know, worldview, and we'll cover some some more frameworks 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:12.920 like this later on in the episode Why these all 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:17.240 connect together? So the tree itself has been used since 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:22.559 prehistoric humanity as a representation for the cosmos for God, 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:26.360 for fertility, knowledge, and eternal life. In fact, there are 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.960 representations of it in prehistoric artistic productions. That's pretty interesting. 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.360 I didn't I didn't realize that. Uh. We also find 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:38.680 the tree in our conceptions of physical matter. So whether 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.400 you're looking at vegetation or rivers or the circulation systems 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:47.120 of animals, they're all we use terms from trees, like 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.800 branches for instance, right. Uh. And the human brain in 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.600 these networks actually resembles the trees crown in the spinal 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.600 cords its trunk, so you can see why human beings 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.320 would automatically gravitate towards this symbol. Yeah, the tree is 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:05.199 just a like a natural symbol and natural metaphor for 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:08.520 all of these other things were encountering, and it's it's complete. 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:10.720 You can see it as a silhouette on a hill 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.199 and then use it as a model. It's kind of 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:18.120 an externalization of cognition to help you understand the rest 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:22.160 of your world exactly. And they're obviously a symbol for 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.920 the cycle of seasons, right like early humanity to now 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:30.880 we all know that trees cycle through seasons, blossom, fruit, decay, 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:34.120 and then are reborn. This is seen as a reflection 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:38.280 of the regenerative cycle of the cosmos itself and trees then, 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.560 because they have a longer lifespan than ours, they seem 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:44.000 inexhaustible to us. Right, it seems like they have this 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.520 natural vigor that lasts forever. But that's just because they 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.400 live longer than us. It's like uh, ents in a 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.360 Lord of the Rings. There you go, So yet another 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:55.840 world tree that we we didn't add to the notes 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.120 here today. Yeah yeah, I also don't think we mentioned 0:14:58.360 --> 0:14:59.800 Game of Thrones at all. But of course they have 0:14:59.880 --> 0:15:02.680 the the spirit trees that the at least the people 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:04.480 of the North views the Where would is that? What 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.960 with the faces of the children of the forest. Yeah yeah, 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:12.000 Now remember too that in this symbology, the fruit of 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.480 these trees bestows both knowledge and eternal life. Right, So 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:19.240 here's an example. The golden apples of Igdrasill are said 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:23.000 to be stored in Valhalla to restore the youthfulness of 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:26.520 the gods. But and this is this pun is intended? 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:30.520 What if it all stemmed from a psychotropic agent that 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:35.560 was in trees in the original representation. So actually, ethnobotanists 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.040 have been throwing theories around trying to figure this out 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:40.720 for a while now, and some of the examples that 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.360 they looked at as possibilities where the fly a garrick 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:46.680 or the Syrian ru trees, But so far they haven't 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:51.400 been able to find a specific hallucinogenic plant that satisfactorily 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.240 fits with the description of world trees. See, I actually 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.240 found out a way to work in uh psychedelics into 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.080 my last episode. Well, you know, this does make me 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:03.960 wonder though, it's would it be necessary to be able 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:07.479 to find like the one the one to one example 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.000 of like here's a tree that produced a psychedelic fruit, 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:11.840 when it would be seems like it would be just 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:14.000 as likely that you have the symbol of the tree. 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.280 But then there's this vast knowledge of these other plants 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:21.680 in your environment that produce various medicinal or psychotropic effects. 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:24.560 You know, yeah, I agree. I think that some of 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:28.880 these researchers, what they're trying to do is pinpoint the 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:32.240 origin place where the myth first started, and a lot 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:34.040 of it we'll get into this later, but a lot 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:35.920 of it seems to point to the Middle East. So 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.200 I think that's why they're looking at those particular trees. 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.560 But you're right. I think that as this uh myth 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:45.760 spread throughout cultures around the world, obviously various trees could 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.080 influence it, depending on what locations there in. So let's 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.040 get Christmas e again for a second. Um. I ran 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:54.200 across this um. This article in Nature from two thousand 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:58.520 by ecologist gear hess Mark title Temptations of the Tree 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:02.360 a perennial image of a life, history and enlightenment and 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.920 uh and he did a wonderful job tying it all 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:07.520 into Christmas. He says. At this time of year, many 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:09.800 people the world over bring a Christmas tree into their 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.240 living room to celebrate life. The tree is one of 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:14.679 the most powerful images in human thought and worship, a 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:18.119 feature of human environments from tiger to rainforest, and a 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:23.760 symbol of persistence, fertility, life, descent, destiny, purification and strength, 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.720 a vertical link between the earth and the heavens, A 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:31.120 place to seek knowledge. Yeah, you know what this is interesting? Actually, 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:33.359 do you do you and your family get a Christmas 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.639 tree every year? We do? Yeah? I used to. In fact, 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.480 my family, like my extended family, owned a Christmas tree 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:41.600 farm in New England, so it was like part of 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:46.119 the family like business. You know. Um, and it's always 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:47.760 sort of been in the back of my head that 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.119 that's why we use Christmas trees. But you know what 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.000 I mean, Like, as you were saying at the beginning, 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.840 we in American culture at least don't really specifically think 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.600 about the fertility stuff that's connected with it. It's more 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:01.159 about the I guess, like the holiday itself from the 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.160 commercial well, you know, I was more inclined to to 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.959 recognize the fertility aspects of it because it's like you're 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.920 bringing an ever tree, an evergreen tree into your home 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:12.960 during the winter, and and they're all these various pagan 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.240 connotations there. But for some reason, I never really thought 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:18.679 about the whole bridge from earth to heaven, despite the 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.399 fact that most in most traditions, you're putting a star 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.560 or an angel, you know, a heavenly being on the 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:27.840 very top of the tree. Like you couldn't have it. 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:32.800 It couldn't be anymore clear. This tree is in your house, 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.880 reaching up and connecting your house to heaven. We actually 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.119 have a ceramic tree now, we just have like a 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.240 little like one ft tall ceramic tree. So maybe that's 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:44.439 why I stopped thinking about that. It doesn't reach to 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:46.240 the heaven what does it mean that we put gifts 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.480 under the tree. You have really like the root system 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:51.760 of the tree would be the underworld. Yeah, all of 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.480 our gifts are from Hell. I'll leave that one for 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.440 the listeners to figure out. All right, we should probably 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.320 take a quick break, and when we get back, we 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:06.359 will jump into some various global examples of the sacred Tree, 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:08.560 the Tree of life, the Holy Tree, so that we 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:14.399 can further ground this discussion. Alright, we're back, So why 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:18.000 don't we start with the example that is probably most 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:21.160 obvious for many of our listeners, the jude and Christian tree. 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:22.560 We were already kind of getting into it with a 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:25.680 Christmas tree, that's right. Yeah. Western audiences are likely familiar 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.240 with the trees of Eden Uh and the Fall of 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:31.399 Man and the Bible. Humans were denied the fruit of 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:33.679 the Tree of eternal life, but the ate of the 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:38.879 Tree of knowledge. Later in Christianity, the god incarnate Jesus 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.359 Christ dies upon an artificial tree of sorts, the Cross 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:46.400 and Uh. In that essay that I was referencing earlier 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:50.919 um ecologist gear hess Mark, he quotes a St. Justin 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.919 Martyr who said that the lord quote reigned from the tree, 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:57.720 meaning both the cross and the Tree of life, so 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:00.199 the two were kind of combined into one symbol. I 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.200 never thought about that before that the cross is a tree, 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:06.280 a dead tree, weird, and the wait, the crown of 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:09.359 thorns too. Well, yeah, you can definitely make that that 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.600 case as well. Huh. Now, outside of just the Christian tradition, 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.080 in Jewish tradition, we have plenty of examples of this 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.760 as well. The Minora, for example, symbolizes the expansion and 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:22.760 illumination of consciousness in the image of the tree. Yeah, 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.880 and obviously, as I mentioned earlier, the tree is represented 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:30.560 in Christianity by the tree that's in the Garden of Eden. Interestingly, 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:34.399 the Christian Church interpretation seems to be one of the 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.800 only ones that associates the tree with guilt and sin. 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.800 It became a loathsome quote tree of temptation only in 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:45.520 Christian Europe, So that's kind of interesting. As we go 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:48.520 through our other examples here, you don't really see that. Yeah, well, 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:49.879 I mean, I guess you could make a case that, 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.880 like the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of of 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:58.480 Life in Christian traditions, like they're they're not really vilified 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:04.560 so much as like human were unsuitable consumers of either fruit. Yeah, yeah, 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.120 that's true. That's true. So this leads us to our 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:11.280 second example, which is connected to Judaism, which is the 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:13.879 Jewish mystical doctrine known as Kabbalah. This is one of 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:16.760 the ones I mentioned at the top. The Seffirof is 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:20.199 another tree of life within the Cabbala that represents a 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:24.680 theory of ten creative forces that intervened between the divine 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:27.720 in our world. Most people probably are familiar with the 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:31.439 terms Seferroth from Final Fantasy seven. I believe that's the 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:33.840 end boss. But if if you, if you have so 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:37.560 much as looked up Kabbala on Wikipedia and even just 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:40.120 glanced at it, you've probably seen this symbol like this 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:43.080 is the Probably you could say this is the chief 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:46.879 symbol of the Yeah. The right side of the Seffroth 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:51.520 represents principles of unity, harmony, and benevolence, and this side 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:55.399 is associated with masculinity. The left side is a side 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:58.679 of power and strict justice that is seen as the 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:02.719