(39) 1 have told you before, out of what Power the Tree is grown; viz. that it grew out of the Earth, and has wholly had Might. the Nature of the Earth in it, as at this Day all earthly Trees are [so,] (and no otherwise, neither better nor worse,) wherein Corruptibility stands, as the Earth is corruptible, and shall pass away in the End, when all shall go into its Ether, and nothing else shall remain of it besides the Figure. Now this was the Tree which stood in the Midst of the Garden in Eden, whereby Adam must be tempted in all Essences; for this Spirit should rule powerfully over all Essences, as the holy Angels, and God himself does.

(17) For out of the earth there sprang up grass and herbs and trees, and now also it stands written thus: [Gen. i. 12] Each according to its kind. In these words lies hidden or concealed the kernel of the eternal birth or geniture, and it cannot be comprehended or apprehended by or with flesh and blood, but the Holy Ghost, through the animated or soulish birth, must kindle the astral man, otherwise he is blind herein, and understands nothing but concerning earth and stones, also grass, herbs and wooden trees.

(16) Several ancient peoples--notably the Hindus and Scandinavians---regarded the Macrocosm, or Grand Universe, as a divine tree growing from a single seed sown in space. The Greeks, Persians, Chaldeans, and Japanese have legends describing the axle tree or reed upon which the earth revolves. Kapila declares the universe to be the eternal tree, Brahma, which springs from an imperceptible and intangible seed--the material monad. The mediæval Qabbalists represented creation as a tree with its roots in the reality of spirit and its branches in the illusion of tangible existence. The Sephirothic tree of the Qabbalah was therefore inverted, with its roots in heaven and its branches upon the earth. Madam Blavatsky notes that the Great Pyramid was considered to be a symbol of this inverted tree, with its root at the apex of the pyramid and its branches diverging in four streams towards the base.

(65) But seeing men now, at the end of this time, do listen and long very much after the root of the tree, through which nature sheweih that the time of the discovery of the tree is at hand, therefore the spirit will shew it to them. And the whole Deity will reveal itself, which is the Dayspring, Dawning, or Morning- redness, and the breakingforth of the great day of God, in which whatsoever is generated from death to the regeneration of life shall be restored and rise again.

(21) Trees are repeatedly mentioned in the Old and New Testaments, and in the scriptures of various pagan nations. The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil mentioned in Genesis, the burning bush in which the angel appeared to Moses, the famous vine and fig tree of the New Testament, the grove of olives in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went to pray, and the miraculous tree of Revelation, which bore twelve manners of fruit and whose leaves were for the healing of the nations, all bear witness to the esteem in which trees were held by the scribes of Holy Writ. Buddha received his illumination while under the bodhi tree, near Madras in India, and several of the Eastern gods are pictured sitting in meditation beneath the spreading branches of mighty trees. Many of the great sages and saviors carried wands, rods, or staves cut from the wood of sacred trees, as the rods of Moses and Aaron; Gungnir--the spear of Odin--cut from the Tree of Life; and the consecrated rod of Hermes, around which the fighting serpents entwined themselves.

(21) Now the Tree of the strong [Tartness or Wrath,] (which is in the Midst of Nature,) grew also in the Midst of the Garden of Eden; and was (according to the Ability of its own Form which it has from the eternal Quality in the Originality) the greatest and the mightiest [Tree.] And here it may be seen very clearly, that God would have preserved and had Man to be in Paradise, for he forbade him this Tree, and caused other Fruit enough [besides] to grow in the Forms and Essences. The Gate of the Tempting.

(18) Now then, out of these Forms, out of the Matrix of the Earth, by the Fiat, in the Word, went forth all the Creatures of this World; also Trees, Herbs, and Grass, every one according to its Kind; as also Worms, evil and good, as every Form in the Matrix of the Genetrix had its Original. And thus it was also with the Fruits in the Paradise of this World in the Garden of Eden; when the Word was spoken, Let there come forth all Sorts of Trees and Herbs, then out of all Forms, [or the Genetrix or Womb,] Trees and Herbs came forth and grew, which were altogether good and pleasant; for the Word in the Fiat had imprinted itself in all the Forms.

(22) For thus stood the birth or geniture of nature in the time of the kindling, and was thus together incorporated in the earth, and must also in such a birth spring up again: For it is written, [Gen. i 12] That the dead earth should let the grass and herbs and trees spring up, each according to its kind, that is, according to the kind and quality that it had been in from eternity, and as it had been in the heavenly quality, kind and form. For that is called its own kind which is received in the mother's body or womb, and is its own by right of nature, as its own peculiar life.

(9) The third Day God, by the Fiat, divided the Waters upon the Earth, and created them for several Places, that there might be a Dwelling upon the Earth, and so the Earth became dry. Now when this was done, then God did seek the Creature, and the Eternal Father said, (that is, he wrought through the Son, who is his Heart and Glance,) [or Luster,] in the Fiat, in the Earth; and there budded the Life through Death, and Grass, Herbs, and all Manner of Trees and Plants sprung up, every one according to the eternal Source, as it had been before. Thus every Essence became visible, and God manifested his manifold Virtue with the manifold Herbs, Plants, and Trees, so that every one that does but look upon them, may see the eternal Power, Virtue, and Wisdom of God therein; if he be born of God, he may know in every Spire of Grass, his Creator in whom he lives. Thus in this Time sprung up all that grew [or was] in the Earth. the Man Christ's remaining in Death till the third Day, and his bringing of Life out of the Earth. the Author's or no.

(7) Behold and consider a tree: On the outside it has a hard, gross rind or bark, which is dead, benumbed, and without vegetation—yet not quite dead, but in the impotence; and there is a great difference between the bark and the body that grows next under the rind or bark. The body has its living power, and breaketh forth through the withered rind, and generateth many fair young bodies or twigs, all which stand in the old body.

Then justice created the beautiful paradise. It is outside the circuit of the moon and the circuit of the sun in the luxuriant earth, which is in the east in the midst of stones. And desire is in the midst of trees, since they are beautiful and appealing. And the tree of immortal life, as it was revealed by the will of god, is in the north of paradise to give life to the immortal saints, who will come out of the fashioned bodies of poverty in the consummation of the age. Now, the color of the tree of life is like the sun, and its branches are beautiful. Its leaves are like those of the cypress, and its fruit is like clusters of white grapes. Its height rises up to heaven. And next to it is the tree of knowledge, possessing the power of god. Its glory is like the moon shining forth brilliantly, and its branches are beautiful. Its leaves are like fig leaves, and its fruit is like good, delicious dates. And this tree is in the north of paradise to raise up the souls from the stupor of the demons, so they might come to the tree of life and eat its fruit and condemn the authorities and their angels. The effect of this tree is described in the Holy Book as follows: You are the tree of knowledge, which is in paradise, from which the first man ate and which opened his mind, so that he loved his female partner, and condemned other alien likenesses, and loathed them. Now, after this there sprouted up the olive tree, which was to purify kings and chief priests of justice, who will appear in the last days. The olive tree appeared in the light of the first Adam for the sake of the anointing that they will receive.

(16) So also it went with this spirit: The first fire was but a seed, and not a constant lasting light: Since that time many a cold wind blew upon it; but the will never extinguished. 16a. This tree was also often tempted to try whether it would bear fruit, and shew itself with blossoms; but the blossoms were struck off till this very time, wherein it stands in its first fruit, in the growth or vegetation.

(2) Indeed it had moved on the first day, and had begun the birth or geniture in the body of the corrupt nature; for on the first day the life separated itself from the death, and on the second day a firmament was created between, and on the third day the life brake forth through death. For there the light brake forth through the darkness, and made the dead body of nature to spring, to flourish, and to be stirring and agile.

(5) But when, on the first day, the light somewhat brake forth again, through the Word or Heart of God in the root of the nature of the body of this world, as a choosing or appropriating of the day, or as a beginning of the mobility of life, then the severe and astringent birth or geniture again obtained a glimpse or rising up of the life in the birth or geniture.

(19) The concept that all life originates from seeds caused grain and various plants to be accepted as emblematic of the human spermatozoon, and the tree was therefore symbolic of organized life unfolding from its primitive germ. The growth of the universe from its primitive seed may be likened to the growth of the mighty oak from the tiny acorn. While the tree is apparently much greater than its own source, nevertheless that source contains potentially every branch, twig, and leaf which will later be objectively unfolded by the processes of growth.

(80) But if thou sayest it has but one kind of birth or geniture, thou speakest again also like one that is blind; for the herbs and wood which grow out of it are not earth, neither is the fruit, which grows upon a tree, wood; so also the power and virtue of the fruit is not God either; but God is in the centre, in the innermost birth in all the three natural births or genitures, hiddenly, but is not known, except in the spirit of man alone; also the outermost birth in the fruit does not comprehend, conceive or contain him, but he containeth the outermost birth of the fruit, and formeth it. Another Question is: Why then is the earth so mountainous, hilly, rocky, stony and uneven? Answer.

(26) Under the appellations of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is concealed the great arcanum of antiquity--the mystery of equilibrium. The Tree of Life represents the spiritual point of balance--the secret of immortality. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as its name implies, represents polarity, or unbalance--the secret of mortality. The Qabbalists reveal this by assigning the central column of their Sephirothic diagram to the Tree of Life and the two side branches to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. "Unbalanced forces perish in the void," declares the secret work, and all is made known. The apple represents the knowledge of the procreative processes, by the awakening of which the material universe was established. The allegory of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is a cosmic myth, revealing the methods of universal and individual establishment. The literal story, accepted for so many centuries by an unthinking world, is preposterous, but the creative mystery of which it is the symbol is one of Nature's profoundest verities. The Ophites (serpent worshipers) revered the Edenic snake because it was the cause of individual existence. Though humanity is still wandering in a world of good and evil, it will ultimately attain completion and eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life growing in the midst of the illusionary garden of worldly things. Thus the Tree of Life is also the appointed symbol of the Mysteries, and by partaking of its fruit man attains immortality.

(20) Man's veneration for trees as symbols of the abstract qualities of wisdom and integrity also led him to designate as trees those individuals who possessed these divine qualities to an apparently superhuman degree. Highly illumined philosophers and priests were therefore often referred to as trees or tree men--for example, the Druids, whose name, according to one interpretation, signifies the men of the oak trees, or the initiates of certain Syrian Mysteries who were called cedars; in fact it is far more credible and probable that the famous cedars of Lebanon, cut down for the building of King Solomon's Temple, were really illumined, initiated sages. The mystic knows that the true supports of God's Glorious House were not the logs subject to decay but the immortal and imperishable intellects of the tree hierophants.

(25) And now as the whole earth was, together with the word, so was the fruit also; but the word remained in the centre of the heaven, which is also in this place hiddenly; and this birth or geniture caused the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, out of or from the outermost, corrupt and dead birth or geniture, to form the body; and itself, viz. the Word or Heart of God, remained in its heavenly seat, sitting on the throne of majesty, and filled the astral and also the mortal birth or geniture, but to them was the holy life altogether incomprehensible.

(63) There are four trees, one in each of the four worlds established in the preceding chapter. The first is in the Atziluthic World, the ten circles being the ten globes of light established in the midst of AIN SOPH. The powers and attributes of this Tree are reflected into each of the three lower worlds, the form of the Tree remaining the same but its power diminishing as it descends. To further complicate their doctrine, the Qabbalists created another tree, which was a composite of all four of the world trees but consisted of only ten globes. In this single tree were condensed all the arcana previously scattered through the voluminous archives of Qabbalistic literature.