Post by giovanni on Jan 16, 2006 13:59:01 GMT
THE WORLD TREE
Bro René Guénon
We have spoken of the ‘World Tree' and its 'axial' symbolism on a number of occasions;[1] without returning to what has already been said, we will add here a few remarks bearing on certain more specific points in this symbolism, notably those cases where the tree appears as inverted, that is, with the toots above and the branches below, a question to which A. K. Coomaraswamy has devoted a special study, ‘The Inverted Tree'.[2] It is easy to understand that if such is the case, the inversion is above all owing to the root being taken as representing the Principle, while the branches represent the unfolding of manifestation. But this general explanation calls for certain considerations of a more complex character, resting always on the application of the 'inverse sense' of analogy, to which this inverted position of the tree manifestly refers. In this connection we have already indicated that it is precisely on the analogical symbol in the strict sense of the term, that is, on the figure of the six radii the extremities of which are grouped in two ternaries inverse to one another, that the schema of three branches and three roots is constructed, a schema that can be looked at from the two opposite directions, which shows that the two corresponding positions of the tree must refer to two different and complementary points of view, according to whether it is looked at upward from below or downward from above, that is, in sum, according to whether the point of view is that of manifestation or that of the Principle.[3]
In support of this, Coomaraswamy cites the two inverted trees described by Dante[4] as being near the summit of the 'mountain', thus immediately beneath the plane of the Terrestrial Paradise, whereas, when this latter is reached, the trees are seen to be restored to their normal position; and thus these trees, which seem in reality to be only different aspects of the one and only Tree; are ‘inverted’ only below that point at which the rectification and regeneration of man takes place: It is important to note that, although the Terrestrial Paradise may still effectively be part of the ‘cosmos’, its position is virtually 'supra-cosmic'; one could, say that it represents 'the summit of contingent. being' (bhavagra), so that its plane is identified with the 'surface of the Waters'. This surface, which must be considered essentially as a 'Plane of reflection', brings us back to the symbolism of the image inverted by reflection, which has already been mentioned in connection with analogy: ‘that which is above; or higher than the ‘surface of the Waters', namely the principial or ‘supra-cosmic' domain, is reflected in an inverse sense in ‘that which is below; or lower than this same surface, that is, what is in the ‘cosmic' domain. In other words, all that is above the ‘plane of reflection' is upright, and all that is beneath it is inverted. If therefore it is assumed that the tree rises above the Waters, what we see for so long as we are in the 'cosmos' is its inverted image, with the roots above and branches below. If, on the contrary, we place ourselves above the Waters, we no longer see that image which now is under our feet, so to speak; rather, we see its source, that is, the real tree, which naturally presents itself to us in its upright position. The tree is always the same, but it is our position relative to it that has changed, and therefore also the point of view from which we consider it.
This is further confirmed by the fact that in certain Hindu traditional texts two trees are referred to, one ‘cosmic' and one 'supra-cosmic’. As these two trees are naturally positioned atop one another, the one may be considered as the reflection of the other; and at the same time their trunks are continuous, so that they are as two parts Of a single trunk, which corresponds to the doctrine of ‘one essence and two natures' in Brahma. The equivalent is found in the Avestan tradition with the two Haoma trees, the white and the yellow, one celestial (or rather 'paradisal'; since it grows at the summit of Mt. Alborj), and the other terrestrial, the second appearing as a ‘substitute' for the first, for a humanity remote from ‘the primordial abode; just as the indirect vision of the image is a 'substitute' for the direct vision of the reality. The Zohar also speaks of two trees, one above and one below; and in some representations, notably on an Assyrian seal; two superposed trees are clearly distinguishable.
The inverted tree is not only a 'macrocosmic' symbol, as we have just seen; at times it is also and for the same reasons a 'microcosmic' symbol, that is, a symbol of man. Thus Plato says that ‘man is a celestial plant, which means that he is like an inverted tree, whose roots reach toward the heavens and the branches below toward the earth: In our times the occultists have greatly abused this symbolism, which for them is nothing more than a mere comparison the deeper meaning of which totally escapes them, and which they interpret in the most grossly, ‘materialist' way, trying to justify this by anatomical or rather ‘morphological' considerations of an extraordinary puerility. This is one example among so many others of the deformation they inflict on those fragmentary traditional notions which they have searched out without understanding them, and which they seek to incorporate into their own conceptions.[5]
Of the two Sanskrit terms principally used to designate the ‘World Tree', one, nyagrodha, gives rise to an interesting observation in this connection, for it means literally ‘growing downward', not only because such growth is in fact represented by that of the aerial roots of the species of tree that bears this name,[6] but also because, when it is a question of the symbolic tree, the latter is itself considered as inverted.[7] It is to this position of the tree, therefore, that the name nyagrodha properly refers, while the other designation, ashvattha, seems, originally at least, to be that of the upright tree, although subsequently the distinction may not have always been made so clearly. This word ashvattha is interpreted to mean ‘the station of the horse' (ashvn-stha), for the horse, here the symbol of Agni or of the Sun, or of both at once, must be considered as having come to the end of his course and halting when the ‘World Axis' has been reached.[8] We should recall in this connection that in various traditions the image of the sun is also linked to that of the tree in another way, for it is represented as the fruit of the ‘World Tree'; it leaves its tree at the beginning of a cycle and comes to rest upon it at the end, so that in this case, too, the tree is indeed the ‘station of the Sun'.[9]
There is yet more to add concerning Agni: he is himself identified with the 'World Tree’, whence his name of Vanaspati or ‘Lord of the Trees'; and this identification, which confers on the axial ‘Tree' an igneous nature, relates it clearly to the 'Burning Bush’; which, insofar as it is the place and support of manifestation of the Divinity, must also be considered as having a 'central' position. We spoke earlier of the ‘column of fire' or of the ‘column of smoke' of Agni as replacing in certain cases the tree or pillar as ‘axial' representation; the remark just made completes the explanation of this equivalence, and gives it all its meaning.[10] In this connection Coomaraswamy cites a passage from the Zohar where the ‘Tree of Life’, which moreover is there described as ‘extending from above downward’, and so as inverted, is represented as a ‘Tree of Light’, which agrees completely with this same identification; and we can add to this another similar instance drawn from the Islamic tradition, which is no less remarkable. In the Surat an-Nur[11], a 'blessed tree' is mentioned, that is, a tree charged with spiritual influences,[12] which is ‘neither of the east nor of the west; this clearly defining its position as ‘central' or 'axial';[13] and it is an olive tree, the oil of which feeds the light of a lamp. This light symbolizes the light of Allah, which is really Allah himself, for, as is said at the beginning of the same verse, ‘Allah is the Light of the heavens and of the earth: It is obvious that if the tree is here an olive, it is due to the illuminating power of the oil drawn from it, and therefore because of the igneous and luminous nature which is in it, so that thus here again if is the ‘Tree of Light' that is in question. On the other hand, in at least one of the Hindu texts describing the inverted tree,[14] the latter is expressly identified with Brahma; and if it is identified with Agni elsewhere, no contradiction exists, for in the Vedic tradition Agni is one of the names and aspects of Brahma; in the Koranic text, it is Allah under the aspect of light who illumines all the worlds.[15] It would certainly be difficult to push the parallelism further, and we have in this another most striking example of the unanimous agreement of all the traditions.
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[1] See in particular The Symbolism of the Cross, chaps. 9 and 25.
[2] In Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta, chap. 5, we have cited the texts from the Katha Upanishad, 6.1, and from the Bhagavad-Gita 15.1, where the tree is presented under this aspect. Coomaraswamy further cites several more such texts which are no less explicit, notably Rig Veda, 1.24.7, and the Maitri Upanishad 6.4. (For the study referred to above, see Coomaraswamy Selected Papers, 1, Traditional Art and Symbolism, ed. Roger Lipsey (Princeton University Press, 1977). Ed.]
[3] We have pointed out elsewhere that the ternary tree may be considered as synthesizing in itself unity and duality, which, in biblical symbolism, are represented respectively by the ‘Tree of Life' and the ‘Tree of Knowledge’. The ternary form is found notably in the three ‘columns' of the 'sephirothic tree' of the Kabbalah; and it is then naturally the `middle column' that is properly ‘axial' (see The Symbolism of the Cross, chap. 9). To relate this form to the schema just indicated, we must bring together the extremities of the two lateral 'columns' by two lines crossing one another on the `middle column' at its central point, that is, in Tifereth, whose ‘solar' character entirely justifies this position of 'radiating' center.
[4] Purgatory, 22-25.
[5] The assimilation of man to a tree, hut without any reference to its inverted position, plays a considerable role in the ritual of Carbonarism.
[6] The species nyagrodha is commonly known as the 'banyan'. ed.
[7] Aitareya Brahmana, 7,30; Satapatha Brahmana II a. 7. 3.
[8] Similarly, according to the Greek tradition, eagles (another solar symbol), setting out from the ends of the earth, came to rest on the Omphalos of Delphi, which represents the 'Center of the World'.
[9] See The Symbolism of the Cross, chap. 9. The Chinese character designating the setting of the sun represents it as resting on its tree at the end of the day.
[10] It may be said that this 'column of fire' and this ‘column of smoke' are precisely the same as those that alternately guided the Hebrews during their exodus from Egypt (Exod. 14), and which moreover were a manifestation of the Shekinah or 'Divine Presence’.
[11] Koran 24:35.
[12] In the Hebrew Kabbalah these same spiritual influences are symbolized by the ‘dew of Light which emanates from the 'Tree of Life’.
[13] Similarly, and in the most literally 'geographic' sense, the pole is situated neither in the east not in the west.
[14] Maitri Upanishad 6.4.
[15] According to what follows in the text, this Light is even 'light upon light’; therefore a double light, superposed, which evokes the superposition of the two trees mentioned above. Again one finds there 'one essence; that of a single Light, and 'two natures; that from above and that from below: or the unmanifested and the manifested, to which correspond respectively the light hidden in the nature of the tree and the light visible in the flame of the lamp, the first being the essential ‘support' of the second.
Bro René Guénon
We have spoken of the ‘World Tree' and its 'axial' symbolism on a number of occasions;[1] without returning to what has already been said, we will add here a few remarks bearing on certain more specific points in this symbolism, notably those cases where the tree appears as inverted, that is, with the toots above and the branches below, a question to which A. K. Coomaraswamy has devoted a special study, ‘The Inverted Tree'.[2] It is easy to understand that if such is the case, the inversion is above all owing to the root being taken as representing the Principle, while the branches represent the unfolding of manifestation. But this general explanation calls for certain considerations of a more complex character, resting always on the application of the 'inverse sense' of analogy, to which this inverted position of the tree manifestly refers. In this connection we have already indicated that it is precisely on the analogical symbol in the strict sense of the term, that is, on the figure of the six radii the extremities of which are grouped in two ternaries inverse to one another, that the schema of three branches and three roots is constructed, a schema that can be looked at from the two opposite directions, which shows that the two corresponding positions of the tree must refer to two different and complementary points of view, according to whether it is looked at upward from below or downward from above, that is, in sum, according to whether the point of view is that of manifestation or that of the Principle.[3]
In support of this, Coomaraswamy cites the two inverted trees described by Dante[4] as being near the summit of the 'mountain', thus immediately beneath the plane of the Terrestrial Paradise, whereas, when this latter is reached, the trees are seen to be restored to their normal position; and thus these trees, which seem in reality to be only different aspects of the one and only Tree; are ‘inverted’ only below that point at which the rectification and regeneration of man takes place: It is important to note that, although the Terrestrial Paradise may still effectively be part of the ‘cosmos’, its position is virtually 'supra-cosmic'; one could, say that it represents 'the summit of contingent. being' (bhavagra), so that its plane is identified with the 'surface of the Waters'. This surface, which must be considered essentially as a 'Plane of reflection', brings us back to the symbolism of the image inverted by reflection, which has already been mentioned in connection with analogy: ‘that which is above; or higher than the ‘surface of the Waters', namely the principial or ‘supra-cosmic' domain, is reflected in an inverse sense in ‘that which is below; or lower than this same surface, that is, what is in the ‘cosmic' domain. In other words, all that is above the ‘plane of reflection' is upright, and all that is beneath it is inverted. If therefore it is assumed that the tree rises above the Waters, what we see for so long as we are in the 'cosmos' is its inverted image, with the roots above and branches below. If, on the contrary, we place ourselves above the Waters, we no longer see that image which now is under our feet, so to speak; rather, we see its source, that is, the real tree, which naturally presents itself to us in its upright position. The tree is always the same, but it is our position relative to it that has changed, and therefore also the point of view from which we consider it.
This is further confirmed by the fact that in certain Hindu traditional texts two trees are referred to, one ‘cosmic' and one 'supra-cosmic’. As these two trees are naturally positioned atop one another, the one may be considered as the reflection of the other; and at the same time their trunks are continuous, so that they are as two parts Of a single trunk, which corresponds to the doctrine of ‘one essence and two natures' in Brahma. The equivalent is found in the Avestan tradition with the two Haoma trees, the white and the yellow, one celestial (or rather 'paradisal'; since it grows at the summit of Mt. Alborj), and the other terrestrial, the second appearing as a ‘substitute' for the first, for a humanity remote from ‘the primordial abode; just as the indirect vision of the image is a 'substitute' for the direct vision of the reality. The Zohar also speaks of two trees, one above and one below; and in some representations, notably on an Assyrian seal; two superposed trees are clearly distinguishable.
The inverted tree is not only a 'macrocosmic' symbol, as we have just seen; at times it is also and for the same reasons a 'microcosmic' symbol, that is, a symbol of man. Thus Plato says that ‘man is a celestial plant, which means that he is like an inverted tree, whose roots reach toward the heavens and the branches below toward the earth: In our times the occultists have greatly abused this symbolism, which for them is nothing more than a mere comparison the deeper meaning of which totally escapes them, and which they interpret in the most grossly, ‘materialist' way, trying to justify this by anatomical or rather ‘morphological' considerations of an extraordinary puerility. This is one example among so many others of the deformation they inflict on those fragmentary traditional notions which they have searched out without understanding them, and which they seek to incorporate into their own conceptions.[5]
Of the two Sanskrit terms principally used to designate the ‘World Tree', one, nyagrodha, gives rise to an interesting observation in this connection, for it means literally ‘growing downward', not only because such growth is in fact represented by that of the aerial roots of the species of tree that bears this name,[6] but also because, when it is a question of the symbolic tree, the latter is itself considered as inverted.[7] It is to this position of the tree, therefore, that the name nyagrodha properly refers, while the other designation, ashvattha, seems, originally at least, to be that of the upright tree, although subsequently the distinction may not have always been made so clearly. This word ashvattha is interpreted to mean ‘the station of the horse' (ashvn-stha), for the horse, here the symbol of Agni or of the Sun, or of both at once, must be considered as having come to the end of his course and halting when the ‘World Axis' has been reached.[8] We should recall in this connection that in various traditions the image of the sun is also linked to that of the tree in another way, for it is represented as the fruit of the ‘World Tree'; it leaves its tree at the beginning of a cycle and comes to rest upon it at the end, so that in this case, too, the tree is indeed the ‘station of the Sun'.[9]
There is yet more to add concerning Agni: he is himself identified with the 'World Tree’, whence his name of Vanaspati or ‘Lord of the Trees'; and this identification, which confers on the axial ‘Tree' an igneous nature, relates it clearly to the 'Burning Bush’; which, insofar as it is the place and support of manifestation of the Divinity, must also be considered as having a 'central' position. We spoke earlier of the ‘column of fire' or of the ‘column of smoke' of Agni as replacing in certain cases the tree or pillar as ‘axial' representation; the remark just made completes the explanation of this equivalence, and gives it all its meaning.[10] In this connection Coomaraswamy cites a passage from the Zohar where the ‘Tree of Life’, which moreover is there described as ‘extending from above downward’, and so as inverted, is represented as a ‘Tree of Light’, which agrees completely with this same identification; and we can add to this another similar instance drawn from the Islamic tradition, which is no less remarkable. In the Surat an-Nur[11], a 'blessed tree' is mentioned, that is, a tree charged with spiritual influences,[12] which is ‘neither of the east nor of the west; this clearly defining its position as ‘central' or 'axial';[13] and it is an olive tree, the oil of which feeds the light of a lamp. This light symbolizes the light of Allah, which is really Allah himself, for, as is said at the beginning of the same verse, ‘Allah is the Light of the heavens and of the earth: It is obvious that if the tree is here an olive, it is due to the illuminating power of the oil drawn from it, and therefore because of the igneous and luminous nature which is in it, so that thus here again if is the ‘Tree of Light' that is in question. On the other hand, in at least one of the Hindu texts describing the inverted tree,[14] the latter is expressly identified with Brahma; and if it is identified with Agni elsewhere, no contradiction exists, for in the Vedic tradition Agni is one of the names and aspects of Brahma; in the Koranic text, it is Allah under the aspect of light who illumines all the worlds.[15] It would certainly be difficult to push the parallelism further, and we have in this another most striking example of the unanimous agreement of all the traditions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] See in particular The Symbolism of the Cross, chaps. 9 and 25.
[2] In Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta, chap. 5, we have cited the texts from the Katha Upanishad, 6.1, and from the Bhagavad-Gita 15.1, where the tree is presented under this aspect. Coomaraswamy further cites several more such texts which are no less explicit, notably Rig Veda, 1.24.7, and the Maitri Upanishad 6.4. (For the study referred to above, see Coomaraswamy Selected Papers, 1, Traditional Art and Symbolism, ed. Roger Lipsey (Princeton University Press, 1977). Ed.]
[3] We have pointed out elsewhere that the ternary tree may be considered as synthesizing in itself unity and duality, which, in biblical symbolism, are represented respectively by the ‘Tree of Life' and the ‘Tree of Knowledge’. The ternary form is found notably in the three ‘columns' of the 'sephirothic tree' of the Kabbalah; and it is then naturally the `middle column' that is properly ‘axial' (see The Symbolism of the Cross, chap. 9). To relate this form to the schema just indicated, we must bring together the extremities of the two lateral 'columns' by two lines crossing one another on the `middle column' at its central point, that is, in Tifereth, whose ‘solar' character entirely justifies this position of 'radiating' center.
[4] Purgatory, 22-25.
[5] The assimilation of man to a tree, hut without any reference to its inverted position, plays a considerable role in the ritual of Carbonarism.
[6] The species nyagrodha is commonly known as the 'banyan'. ed.
[7] Aitareya Brahmana, 7,30; Satapatha Brahmana II a. 7. 3.
[8] Similarly, according to the Greek tradition, eagles (another solar symbol), setting out from the ends of the earth, came to rest on the Omphalos of Delphi, which represents the 'Center of the World'.
[9] See The Symbolism of the Cross, chap. 9. The Chinese character designating the setting of the sun represents it as resting on its tree at the end of the day.
[10] It may be said that this 'column of fire' and this ‘column of smoke' are precisely the same as those that alternately guided the Hebrews during their exodus from Egypt (Exod. 14), and which moreover were a manifestation of the Shekinah or 'Divine Presence’.
[11] Koran 24:35.
[12] In the Hebrew Kabbalah these same spiritual influences are symbolized by the ‘dew of Light which emanates from the 'Tree of Life’.
[13] Similarly, and in the most literally 'geographic' sense, the pole is situated neither in the east not in the west.
[14] Maitri Upanishad 6.4.
[15] According to what follows in the text, this Light is even 'light upon light’; therefore a double light, superposed, which evokes the superposition of the two trees mentioned above. Again one finds there 'one essence; that of a single Light, and 'two natures; that from above and that from below: or the unmanifested and the manifested, to which correspond respectively the light hidden in the nature of the tree and the light visible in the flame of the lamp, the first being the essential ‘support' of the second.