Passages similar to: Secret Teachings of All Ages — Flowers, Plants, Fruits, and Trees
Source passage
Western Esoteric
Secret Teachings of All Ages
Flowers, Plants, Fruits, and Trees (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.
When our artisan awaked and told his dream, his apprentice said, "If the tree aimed at uselessness, how was it that it became a sacred tree?" "What...
(13) When our artisan awaked and told his dream, his apprentice said, "If the tree aimed at uselessness, how was it that it became a sacred tree?" "What you don't understand," replied his master, "don't talk about. That was merely to escape from the attacks of its enemies. Had it not become sacred, how many would have wanted to cut it down! The means of safety adopted were different from ordinary means, and to test these by ordinary canons leaves one far wide of the mark." Tzŭ Ch'i of Nan-poh was travelling on the Shang mountain when he saw a large tree which astonished him very much. A thousand chariot teams could have found shelter under its shade. "What tree is this?" cried Tzŭ Ch'i. "Surely it must have unusually fine timber." Then looking up, he saw that its branches were too crooked for rafters; while as to the trunk he saw that its irregular grain made it valueless for coffins. He tasted a leaf, but it took the skin off his lips; and its odour was so strong that it would make a man as it were drunk for three days together. "Ah!" said Tzŭ Ch'i. "This tree is good for nothing, and that is how it has attained this size. A wise man might well follow its example." In the State of Sung there is a place called Ching-shih, where thrive the beech, the cedar, and the mulberry. Such as are of a one-handed span or so in girth are cut down for monkey-cages. Those of two or three two-handed spans are cut down for the beams of fine houses. Those of seven or eight such spans are cut down for the solid sides of rich men's coffins.
The Shaikh laughed, and said to him, "O friend, This is the tree of knowledge, O knowing one; Very high, very fine, very expansive, Thou hast run...
(1) The Shaikh laughed, and said to him, "O friend, This is the tree of knowledge, O knowing one; Very high, very fine, very expansive, Thou hast run after form, O ill-informed one, Sometimes it is named tree, sometimes sun, Sometimes lake, and sometimes cloud. 'Tis one, though it has thousands of manifestations; Its least manifestation is eternal life! Though 'tis one, it has a thousand manifestations, That one is to thy personality a father, In relation to another He may be wrath and vengeance,
Chapter XI: Abstraction From Material Things Necessary in Order to Attain To the True Knowledge of God. (13)
Wherefore also Moses says, " Show Thyself to me," - intimating most clearly that God is not capable of being taught by man, or expressed in speech,...
(13) Wherefore also Moses says, " Show Thyself to me," - intimating most clearly that God is not capable of being taught by man, or expressed in speech, but to be known only by His own power. For inquiry was obscure and dim; but the grace of knowledge is from Him by the Son. Most clearly Solomon shall testify to us, speaking thus: "The prudence of man is not in me: but God giveth me wisdom, and I know holy things." Now Moses, describing allegorically the divine prudence, called it the tree of life planted in Paradise; which Paradise may be the world in which all things proceeding from creation grow. In it also the Word blossomed and bore fruit, being "made flesh," and gave life to those "who had tasted of His graciousness;" since it was not without the wood of the tree that He came to our knowledge. For our life was hung on it, in order that we might believe. And Solomon again says: "She is a tree of immortality to those who take hold of her." "Behold, I set before thy face life and death, to love the Lord thy God, and to walk in His ways, and hear His voice, and trust in life. But if ye transgress the statutes and the judgments which I have given you, ye shall be destroyed with destruction. For this is life, and the length of thy days, to love the Lord thy God."
Chapter 22: Of the Birth or Geniture of the Stars, and Creation of the Fourth Day. (65)
And the whole Deity will reveal itself, which is the Day-spring, Dawning, or Morning-redness, and the Breaking-forth of the great Day of God, in which...
(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 fucceeds, that the Time of the Discovery of the Tree is at Hand, therefore the Spirit will show it to them. And the whole Deity will reveal itself, which is the Day-spring, Dawning, or Morning-redness, and the Breaking-forth of the great Day of God, in which, whatsoever is generated from Death, to the Regeneration of Life, shall be restored and rise again. [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 fucceeds, that the Time of the Discovery of the Tree is at Hand, therefore the Spirit will show it to him. And the whole Deity will reveal itself, which is the Day-spring, Dawning, or Morning-redness, and the Breaking-forth of the great Day of God, in which, whatsoever is generated from Death, to the Regeneration of Life, shall be restored and rise again.]