Besom, Stang and Sword by Christopher Orapello

Author:Christopher Orapello
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633410862
Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser

The Black Tree as a World Tree

Trees have generally served significant roles in a variety of religious traditions. The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, the Bodhi tree of Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha, the tale of Odin and his attainment of the runes, and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ all demonstrate the redemptive, insightful, and knowledge-giving qualities attributed to trees as silent stewards of the earth. The Tree of Life found in the Jewish Qabalah and the Poteau-Mitan (“pole in the center”) found in Haitian Vodou are seen as representations of the axis mundi, as are symbols found in ancient Mesoamerican civilizations like the Mayan and Aztec, as well as in cultures found in Northern Asia and Siberia. The symbol of the Black Tree as a World Tree thus echoes an archetypal concept found throughout history and around the world.

We can recognize the Black Tree in the image of the Qabalistic Tree of Life, which also resembles Yggdrasil and its Nine Worlds (see Figure 23). Moreover, the Tree of Life has a particular cultural connection to the common hexagram in the Star of David from Judaic tradition (see Figure 18). Along with its six- or hex-pointed design, the Star of David is also made up of two triangles, one pointing up and the other down. In Western occultism, this arrangement of triangles also implies a union of the elements of Fire and Water, which, by tradition, are distinctly masculine and feminine. This then relates the Star of David directly to the ideas of sex, six, hex, and the union of Above with Below, in a way similar to the rune Hagal (“hail”), with its union and metamorphic qualities. In short, the Tree of Life is a map of creation or the manifestation of the will of Yahweh, which moved from the top sphere (Kether, the crown of creation) down to the bottom sphere (Malkuth, the earthly plane). However, the Tree of Life is a conceptually different World Tree in that it does not depict an Underworld. Its shape, design, and purpose are a map, and this difference is important for our discussion of the Black Tree.

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