Theos-Talk Archives (October 2001 Message tt00406)

<<<Some say that "tree" was a descended offshoot of the hindu
agnishwatta tree which interestingly was always pictured upside down with
its roots in heaven , so to speak. H.P.B. may have been one to try and
bridge the gap between the enormous time periods where knowledge became
inverted and all there was was an "upright" tree to use as a symbol for "the
same thing" ? Whacha think , Jerry?>>>

I have to wonder who these "some" are? I have never heard this from a
Kabbalist, although the symbolism of the tree is archetypal and so
Kabbalists or Qabalists could have come upon on their own. (I use Kabballah
in the tradition sense, and Qabala in the New Age sense)

I don't know Blavatsky's motives. She claimed that her Globes and Planes
model was Eastern, but she used English letters for Globe names and gave us
so many charts and nomenclatures to the planes that it is hard to know what
she is actually saying unless one practices and experiences it. For my part,
I have tried to practice both, and I prefer her circular model to the more
disjointed tree. Note that the Tree of Life has vertical paths going through
planes to interconnect Sephirah, which are detailed regions that can be
explored. However, Blavatsky clearly states that all such interconnecting
paths are "laya centers" and cannot be experienced as objective regions. So
here is another big difference between the two.

The idea of roots in spirit with branches protruding down into matter is
very ancient, and the Planetary Chain model amounts to much the same thing,
but it has separate pathways down and up, while the paths on the Tree allow
passage in either direction. HPB's model shows a downward path through the
globes on the left (Arc of Descent - evolution) followed by an upward path
through the globes on the right (Arc of Ascent - involution), making a
widdershins directional flow of living beings. Now, while the model is just
as model, its symbolism is very important. Widdershins is the direction of
magic - it opposes the "natural" clockwise direction.

Jerry S.