tree of life

tree of life, a widespread archetype common to many religions, mythologies, and folktales. The tree of life is a common idea in cultures throughout the world. It represents, at times, the source of life, a force that connects all lives, or the cycle of life and death itself. Common features of various myths include supernatural guardians protecting the tree and its fruits that grant those who eat them immortality. It is typically planted at the centre of the world, often within a sacred garden or forest. The tree of life is closely related to both the world tree, a motif found across many cultures that is typified by the Norse belief in the sacred tree Yggdrasill, and the tree of knowledge, which was said to grow in the Garden of Eden in Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).

The motif of a sacred tree was common in ancient Mesopotamia and spread to many neighboring regions, including Egypt and Greece. While scholars believe this tree symbol held religious significance, there is no consensus that it represents the same tree of life idea that became a feature of later religious art and thought in the region. In ancient Assyria this sacred tree became a symbol of the divine order of things as personified by the king.

In some cultures a sacred tree was said to bear fruit that could grant immortality to the one who ate it. In Chinese Daoist mythology the pantao is a peach that ripens once every 3,000 years and is the food of the immortals. In Norse mythology apples of immortality are grown on sacred trees guarded by the goddess Idun.

In the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, both the tree of life and the tree of knowledge are said to grow in the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge, God bars them from the garden, setting an angel with a flaming sword to keep them out so they will not eat from the tree of life and become immortal. The idea of the tree of life subsequently became important to many Jewish and Christian traditions. In Kabbala a numbered diagram with a central trunk and branches reaching left and right is said to represent the attributes and powers of God. Christian thought sometimes relates the tree of life to Jesus, the source of eternal life in Christian theology. It is sometimes related to the cross upon which Christians believe Jesus was crucified.

In Norse mythology Yggdrasill is an enormous ash tree that connects the nine worlds, including the underworld (Niflheim), the earth (Midgard), and the realm of the gods (Asgard). Yggdrasill is associated with both life and death: it acts as a gallows that the god Odin hangs himself from in order to gain mystical knowledge, and it is said to be the source of new life after Ragnarök, the catastrophic final war of the gods.

The Celtic tree of life is associated with the dead. Celtic tribes would preserve a tree in the centre of their settlements to act as a sacred site. The tree was said to allow access to the Celtic otherworld, a realm of the dead and other spirits.

In science the tree of life is often used as a metaphor for the connection between the diversity of all life on Earth. Every organism on Earth appears to descend from a single common ancestor that existed roughly 3.5 billion years ago. As that ancestor and its descendents reproduced, life diverged in a process called speciation. These divergences are often compared to branches on a single evolutionary tree. Phylogenetics is the study of how different groups of organisms are related to each other, using genetics and other evidence to create diagrams that explain evolutionary history, called phylogenetic trees (or phylogenies).

The tree of life continues to be a powerful symbol in art, particularly religious art. It is the subject of one of the most famous works by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. The Tree of Life, Stoclet Frieze (1905) is a mural from Klimt’s golden period that symbolizes the unity between heaven, earth, and the underworld. A Mozambican sculpture commemorating the end of Mozambique’s postindependence civil war was named Tree of Life (2005). The sculpture was made from pieces of weapons turned in by citizens in exchange for tools, in a reference to the biblical concept of beating swords into plowshares. The Tree of Life is also the title of a critically acclaimed 2011 film by filmmaker Terrence Malick. Starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn, the film concerns the trials and tragedies of an American family but seeks to place the family in the far broader context of the world and the universe. It accomplishes this in part with religious themes, opening with a quotation from the Book of Job, and has been frequently discussed in Christian and Roman Catholic contexts. The film was widely praised by critics and received the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival.