Symbolism in garden design and representation

Garden Symbology: The Tree of Life

Few images are more universal or could be said to conjure a more positive association than the Tree of Life. An idea that has traceable roots to importance for a broad array of cultures, the Tree of Life is remarkable for its importance to both theological and secular ideologies. This is because it represents a continuity of life that is embraced by religions, sciences, and philosophies alike. (Nakate, 1) It is thus that we find this image particularly resonant and familiar, with roots stretching beneath the soil and branches reaching up toward the sky. Its implications as an analogy for the past, present and future of human experience draws an immediate emotional connection as well.

Nakate (2010) reports on this connection as having distinct implications relating to theology throughout history, noting that "The Tree of Life symbol meaning represents different qualities/virtues like wisdom, strength, protection, beauty, bounty and redemption. It is also considered to be the symbol of 'Creator'. The tree is associated with the creator because it provides protection, supports abundant fruit production and thereby, regeneration. This analogy can also be used to describe the life of humans." (p. 1)

Indeed, for this reason, the Jewish, Christian, Buddhist and Baha'i religious traditions all include some particular interpretation of the Tree of Life, with most directing this discussion toward a relationship between man and God, but also between Earth, sky, nature and humanity. Interestingly, the breed of tree selected for the Tree of Life image will often differ according to the geographical and meteorological context of the cultural tradition. For instance, Nakate offers, the pagan faith practices by the ancient Egyptians projected the Acacia tree as having a role in the emergence of Isis and Osiris. In Buddhist practice, the banzai plant which is readily present throughout the Chinese landscape, offers man a role as the tender of that tree, denoting the connectivity between man and nature.

In the Jewish and Christian faith, the Tree of Life has a core presence in the Creation myth, as Fackerell (2010) points out. Accordingly, his source remarks on the implications of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. According to Fackerell, this offered Adam and Eve an opportunity for life everlasting. Instead, the myth of Original Sin tells, they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and were cast out of Paradise. According to the Christian extrapolation on the Genesis Creation myth, we have forever been forbidden from reentry into Eden for this trespass, which could have been summarily avoided had Adam and Eve instead eaten from the Tree of Life. (Fackerell, 1)

This denotes a direct connection, for Fackerell, to the directive for adherence to the scriptures in one's life, which he views as analogous to 'eating from the Tree of Life.' Ironically, the Tree of Life has also carried direct implications for evolution theorists, who may be viewed as a direct counterpoint to those who espouse the factual veracity of the Old Testament's Creationist theory. For evolutionists, the symbol carries the same implications of continuity between the roots of the past and the form which man takes in the present day.