Cheerokee Great Tree of Life- Ga-lun-la-Ti

Ga- Lun-La-Ti Tree

The Great Tree of Life Grew in the Center of Ga-lun-la-ti  
In the Beginning of the Cherokee World In the beginning, there were two worlds: The heavenly world called ga-lun-la-ti, which was placed high in the heavens, and the lower, dark world where the forces of evil lived. Ga-lun-la-ti was populated with beings in animal, human and plant forms. All creatures spoke the Cherokee language and lived together in harmony. The Earth was but a ball of water on which gigantic fish and reptiles lived. The universe of the Cherokees depended on harmony and balance. Light was balanced by dark; things of goodness balanced by things that hid from the light of day in the shadows of the darkness.

Native American Strawberry Legend
In the beginning there was no sun, but a Great Tree of Life grew in the center of Ga-lun-la-ti. It lit the world so all could see and cast its light down on the dark waters below. So it was that the Creator lived by the Tree of Life where he tended the plants and cared for the animals. Sometimes, the waterfowl, the hawks, and eagles flew down in the darkness below; giant turtles and muskrats swam on the water's surface and bathed in the pale light of the heavenly tree. The Creator led a solitary existence. When his work was done, he sat by the Tree, admiring his world around him and below. Sometimes he became lonely and longed for a companion, perhaps a daughter who would sit beside him in the evening, watching his creation live and grow.
 
Then, the Creator made a young lady whose beauty and grace touched his soul. He knew that she, too, would long for someone to run and play with so he created a man in his likeness and taught his children the things that he knew. The Creator found that his daughter laughed and sang too much; and she talked constantly. She asked too many questions. Why do the leaves of the Tree of Life shine? Who created the Upper World? Who named the plants? Creator still loved her, for this was his daughter, but this constant laughter and questions, what could he do? The Creator had told them many times to stay away from the Tree of Life and not to play around its trunk. But like all curious children she had to see why her father said these things. First Man would insist that she not go to the tree but every day First Woman would climb the tree to its highest limbs. One day she found a hole in the bottom of the trunk and started to go in. First Man was again insistent that she stay away from the tree but to no avail. She went in and fell out of the bottom of Ga-lun-la-ti. Continue..

By The First People- The Legend  http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/StrawberryLegend-Cherokee.html

Kabbalah- Tree of Life

Richard Quinn

Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is synonymous with the Kabbalah or Jewish Mysticism. The Kabbalah describes the ten sefirot by which the divine spirit descended into the material world, which is also the path man can take to ascend back to their true divinity. The Kabbalah represents male and female, dark and light, division and wholeness.

Kabbalah of Esoteric Judaism
It comes from the Kabbalah of esoteric Judaism. The Kabbalist seeks to know the universe and himself as the expression of God. I have incorporated this spiritual symbol into a living tree. 10 Sephiroths, here represented as spheres, express aspects of the Divine, such as The Divine Crown, Wisdom, Mercy, Justice, Beauty, Glory and Eternity.

Also present in the symbol are 22 Paths or Relationships linking the various Names of the Divine. The initiation of the Creation is at the top and flows through the various Sephiroths down into the condensing of the physical universe. It is then thought that the Divine energy reverses course and begins the ascent up the Tree to the origin from whence it sprang. Each Sphere or Sephiroth is associated with a particular color representing its energy or quality. Continue..

By Tree of Life Healing; http://www.treeoflifehealing.com/scripts/pageview.asp?id=57

Yggdrasil - Norse Tree of Life

Yggdrasil

The Tree of Knowledge

Yggdrasil- The Norse World Ash, World tree the giant mythological Tree that holds together the Nine Worlds or realms of existence.  The tree itself, created many years before the earth was formed, was the giver of all life, but also symbolically important.
As long as Yggdrasil stood, healthy and green, the gods would be safe.This interpretation is layered in ancient Norse mythology & symbolism, the giant ash tree that links and shelters all the worlds.


Nine World 

The World-ash encompasses the Nine Worlds, and is guarded by the serpent Jormungandr. Yggdrasil is one of many variations of the Cosmic Axis or Universal World Tree known to all human cultures. Yggdrasil is home to many creatures, most notably the serpent or Dragon Nidhogg, who lurks in the base, The Rooster Gullinkambi (golden comb), who lives at the tree’s peak, and the squirrel, Ratatosk, who carries messages between them. These animals can be viewed as metaphors for the human body. According to Norse legend, Yggdrasil is where the god Odin hung upside-down for nine nights in order to obtain the Rune Alphabet. Beneath the roots of the World Ash lies the spring, Mimir, to which Odin sacrificed an eye to gain wisdom.

Known also by these devotional name;

                                                             "The Terrible One's Horse"
                                                                    "The Eternal Tree of Life"
                                                                             " The Tree of Knowledge"
                                                                                       "The Horse of Yggr*"

Continue...
By Symbol Dictionary Net; http://symboldictionary.net/?p=779

The Fascinating Balanced Sacred Assyrian Tree of Life

Lydia Bush Brown

The Sacred Assyrian Tree of Life
The Tree is a bridge between the world and God and His Heaven. It is a ladder to be climbed through ascetic life and a device to receive divine powers and knowledge. The significance of the Tree is seen in the ancient world among Assyrians and Egyptians. 

“It is a path for human to become a ’perfect-man‘ (insan kamil)”.
“Tree generally represents the nature of the forces behind Creation on all levels, from microscopic to macrocosmic.” 

Assyrian Secret of Heaven & Earth

The Assyrians doctrines were guarded as “secrets of heaven and earth” that were passed on to a limited number of initiates only. [3] The use of terms such as, mūdû mūdâ likallim lā mūdû aj īmur, “Let the learned instruct the learned, the ignorant may not see.” And, pirištu ša ilāni rabûti, “Secret of the great gods” resemble the confidentiality of their knowledge same as the Tree of Life in Christianity and Judaism. The Tree is seen at the second chapter of the Old Testament, and throughout the whole Bible.

"And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Genesis 2:9)

“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” (Revelation 22:14)

And amazingly enough, even the very last verse of the Bible refer to the Tree of Life. The body of the Assyrian Tree is constructed by nine great gods, all of whom are Ashur’s powers. And Ashur, the creator of himself and the universe is the Almighty God, unseen but existent, Ashur is the source of all manifest divine powers. Ashur could not be known directly neither by human nor even by gods, all of whom he created. His nature is not fully comprehensible, but Ashur is the “sum total” of all gods. Continue...

By Assyria Times: http://www.assyriatimes.com/engine/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3426

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1.02.28

The Sacred Celtic Tree of Life.

Jen Gelyth

The Celtic Tree of Life

The symbolism of the Celtic Tree vividly comes to life in this design by Celtic artist, Jen Delyth. Their branches reach high into the heavens. Their roots dig deep into the Earth. Yet all are woven together, signifying the connection between all things in the Heavens and the Earth. The Celts have a wonderful insightful connection with it own rich traditional culture mythological legend of the Tree of life.

Fundamental Element of Celtic Spirituality.

In fact, the Irish Druids believed the Sacred Tree had the power to reveal messages from the gods. The ancient Celts believed all living things were spiritual, mystical beings, not just inanimate objects to be exploited. They believed trees in particular were a source of great wisdom with the power to bridge the gap between the upper and lower worlds and bring blessings from the gods.

 There are numerous stories in Irish folklore involving mystical trees. Some say that if you fall asleep under certain trees, you will awaken to find yourself in the midst of fairies in the Otherworld. The idea that trees were messengers to the gods still holds out in Irish superstitions as well. As you drive through the Irish countryside, you can still see trees decorated with ribbons and "prayers" to the gods asking for health, wealth, and love.

The Irish people believed that the Celtic tree of life was rooted in Uisneach, the center of the Land. They believed the sacred tree of life sheltered all Life on Earth. According to folklore, the Celtic tree of life grew 26 miles high, provided nourishment to all the four corners of the Earth, and that it's branches reached up into the heavens and touched every single star.

When people in ancient Celtic Ireland were building their stone circles, they would use the sacred tree as an axis to align the sun in the sky with their monuments. The point where the sun was aligned with the circle became the central source of spiritual connection between the Earth and the Heavens. Continue...

By Fantasy Ireland: http://www.fantasy-ireland.com/Celtic-tree-of-life.html

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1.02.28

Ashvatha- Eternal Tree of Life

Daniel B. Holem

As Above So Below
The Tree of Life is found as symbol in many of the creation myths and mystical tradition of our World cultures, including Biblical Garden of Eden parable, the ancient Assyrians, Native Americans, many indigenous cultures, Kabbalistic mystery, schools, Nordic & Celtic, mythologies to name a few. Here are my studies and finding that has inspire & continuously change my experiences toward the central understanding universal teaching of human interconnectedness in life.

Rig Veda

 "(=Atharva-Veda 9.9-10): This hymn, consisting of fifty-two verses, is a collection of profound riddles. The sixth verse, for instance, asks about the nature of the one that is unborn and is yet the cause of the manifest universe. Verses 20-22 speaks of the two birds that occupy the same tree. The one is said to eat of its fruit, while the other merely looks on.The tree can be read as a symbol of the World. The unenlightened being devours the tree's fruit, impelled by egoic and primal desires. The enlightened being, or the sage, however, abstains and merely looks on dispassionately. The tree could be could be seen as a symbol of the tree of knowledge, of whose fruit the sage partake but not the uninitiated. A more strictly Vedantic interpretation is the following: the on looking bird is the uninvolved self beyond the realm of nature; the other is the embodied being enmeshed in condition existence."   Interpretation by Georg Feurstein

Yogo & the Tree of  Life

This tree is an original and ancient symbols embody the ground and field of understanding in the Yogic tradition. The first written reference to this symbol, the tree of life, is found in Rig Veda, a text composed in India over 5000 years ago;

"What is that tree, what kind of wood is it made from, from which the Earth and Heaven are fashion?".

Archeological finding from Mohenjo-Daro show images of the Ashvattha Tree of the Yogis along with images of the Yoga practitioners sitting in meditation poses. These iconographical treasures unearthed in modern day Pakistan date back to more than 1000 years before the oldest parts of the Bible were composed.A reference to this ancient tree is found in the Katha Upanishad, a Vedic scripture dated around 1000BC;

"There is an eternal tree call the Ashvattha, which has its roots above and branches below. Its luminous root is call Brahman, the Supreme Reality, and it alone is beyond death. Everything that exist is rooted in that point. There is nothing else beyond it." 

This points to the Source of All that is also the seed from which the cosmic tree of Yoga springs. In other words, creation springs from the Eternal and Yoga has its roots in the same Ground of Being. This up side down tree is a metaphor illustrating the connection between all of existence with its transcendental origins. We can also follow the tree of Yoga back to its roots.

Written by Shantarasa Shcool of Yoga

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1.02.28

Blessing the Tree- Paulo Coelho's Blog

Ansel Adam

Blessing the Tree Jewish tradition

A man was traveling through the desert, hungry, thirsty, and tired, when he came upon a tree bearing luscious fruit and affording plenty of shade, underneath which ran a spring of water. He ate of the fruit, drank of the water, and rested beneath the shade.

When he was about to leave he turned to the tree and said: ‘Tree, oh, tree, with what should I bless you? “Should I bless you that your fruit be sweet?

Your fruit is already sweet. “Should I bless you that your shade be plentiful? Your shade is plentiful. That a spring of water should run beneath you? “There is one thing with which I can bless you: May it be G-d’s will that all the trees planted from your seed should be like you…”

Blog by Paulo Coelho’s

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1.02.28