The Mayans believed that heaven was a wonderful place on Earth hidden by a mystical magical mountain. A place called Tamoanchan and that Heaven, Earth, and Underworld (Xibalba) were connected by the ‘world tree’.
The world tree grew at the center of creation and all things flowed out from that spot into four directions. East is associated with red, North represented by white, West is black and South by yellow. The Mayan tree of life is a cross with its centre being the point of ‘absolute beginning’ and its branches passing through each of the three layers of existence – underworld, earth, and the sky.
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The Sumerians Babylonian Tree of Life
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The oldest name of Babylon, Tin-tir-ki, actually means ‘the place of the tree of life’. To the Babylonians, it was a tree with magical fruit, which could only be picked by the gods. The earlier Sumerian traditions played a major role in Babylonian culture. The early Sumerian art (around 2500 BC) depicts pictures of a tree guarded by a snake or a pair of intertwined snakes. Babylonians have the concept of the ‘navel of the world’, the place of the connection of different spheres. This vertical dimension or axis mundi as it is called, is the connection between three cosmic spheres: heaven, earth and underworld.
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Assyrians
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Assyrians substituted the tree for the caduceus with coiled snakes circling around the wood of the wand. Here we see a snake symbolising an underworld consciousness, passing through earth, climbing a stick, transcends to a winged reality, a heavenly creature. The wings on a wand became a symbol of transformation and transcendence.
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The Egyptian version of the Tree of Life
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In Egyptian mythology the first couple are Isis and Osiris. They have emerged from the acacia tree, which the Egyptians considered the tree of life. Egyptians considered the Tree of Life to be the tree in which life and death are enclosed. The direction East was associated with the direction of Life, the direction of the rising Sun, and the direction West was seen as the direction of death, of under-world, because Sun sets in the West.
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Nordic Ygdrassil
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Within the Nordic cultures we also find a Tree of Life to be called Yggdrasil. It is a massive holy ash tree where the Gods assembled daily.and the tree provided a magical spring of knowledge. An eagle sits on top of the tree while a serpent is coiled around the roots of the tree. The eagle and the snake are opposites and hate each other. On the top of the above tree is the symbol of Thor, the eagle while the dogs guarding the Tree appear very much like the guardian lions seen often in Byzantine works.
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Chinese Immortality Tree
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A Taoist story tells us of a peach magical tree that produces a peach every three thousand years. The one who eats the fruit becomes immortal. At the base of the Tree of Life is a dragon, and at the top is a phoenix (a bird). The tree has deep connections with the earth, yet its branches reach up into the heavens.
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Kabbalah Tree of Life
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The Tree of Life that is in the centre of Kabbalah can be studied as a complex formula of existence, the flow of creation from the Divine to Earth and back to the Divine. It is the Tree of Life and Knowledge and a magical key to how life manifests itself. The Kabbalah is a magical framework for the Hebrews’ mystical thoughts.
The Tree in the Garden of Eden
The tree legend appears to have merged with the legend of Garden of Eden. In the centre of the Garden of Eden grew the Tree of Life guarded by a snake. The main river flowing from Eden to water the garden spread into four major directions.
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The Cross of Christ is also referred to as the Tree of Life. The cross is a symbol of life, the union of heaven and earth, and spirit and matter. It also represents the centre, meeting the divine in the human heart. The arms extend into the four directions
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The Tree of Life is found in many traditions because it represents a universal principle through symbol. . . one that has resonance. . . symbolizing our reaching to connected to the divine and the chance we all have to grow in that direction while experiencing ourselves being grounded and connected to all..
