"TREES OF ALL SORTS"
by
W.Bro.G.E. HARRINGTON, P.M., Guild of Freemen Lodge No. 3525

"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 ii, 9.)

"So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims,
and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

(Genesis iii, 24.)

"In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life,
which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves
of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

(Revelation xxii, 2.)

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.......
"She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is everyone that retaineth
her."
(Proverbs iii, 13-18.)



"Trees of all sorts." A strange title you may perhaps think, for a Paper from a Masonic
Study Circle, but it is not so really, I have taken this title from the Lectures of the Three
Degrees in Craft Masonry.  In the Second Section of the Second Lecture there is the
following question and answer: -

Q. - A beautiful illustration on the six periods of the creation I will thank you for?

A. - " . . . The earth being as yet irregular and uncultivated, God spake the word, and
it was immediately covered with a beautiful carpet of grass designed as pasture for the
brute creation, to which succeeded herbs, plants, flowers, shrubs and TREES OF ALL 
SORTS, to full growth, maturity and perfection ".

Charles Lamb the essayist of Elia fame, despite his avowed preference for the streets
of London, expressed his admiration for,

"Sun and sky, and breeze and solitary walks, and summer holidays and the greeness
of fields."

That extract, strangely enough is from an Essay of Elia entitied "New Year's Eve."

I hope that you noticed Brethren, the reference to solitary walks ". Wordsworth liked to
be alone too, even when he was quite young and if you have read his famous poem
"The Prelude " you will know that there are many indications of his preference for
solitude.

"Oh, many a time have I, a five years child ....
 Stood alone beneath the sky, as if I had been born
 On Indian plains, and from my mother's hut
 Had run abroad in wantonness, to sport,
 A naked savage in the thunder shower."

"Fair seed-time had my soul, and I grew up....
 Ere I had told ten birthdays, 'twas my joy....
 To range the open heights where woodcocks run
 Along the smooth green turf. . . . "

"I was alone and seem to be a trouble to the peace that Dwelt among them...."

"I would walk alone under the quiet stars, and at that time,
 Have felt whatever there is of power in sound To breathe an elevated mood."

I cannot for too long quote from this great poem.  If any of you have not read it then I
would recommend it to you.  It is comprised in fourteen books, the eighth of which I
would mention in particular because that is entitled " Retrospect-Love of Nature leading
to Love of Man."

Well now, let us take a leaf (appropriate word having regard to the title of this Paper):
let us take a leaf out of the books of these two famous men.  Let us refrain - if only for
a short time - from the feverish activities of the mundane: the cares and employments
of this busy world.  Let us cease from continually anticipating our own future
self-satisfaction; desert our dreamlife in the darkness of cinemas and our gaping and
gazing at television screens; our worrying over stock-exchange prices, the local rates
and our income-tax.  Instead of pulling up at the petrol station to ensure that we shall
without hindrance, be able to do the next ninety miles in two hours or less, let us pull
ourselves up, de-accelerate the frantic revolutions of our mental processes, stop rushing
hither and thither and quietly make our way into the open countryside, leave the busy
road, and in the greenness of field, in sun and sky and breeze, repose, rest and relax
under the beneficent shade of some mighty tree.  There and then we shall be the better
enabled to estimate the wonderful works of the Almighty, to appreciate the beauty that
shines through the whole of the creation in symmetry and order and indeed to: -

Look with feelings of fraternal love
Upon the unassuming things that hold
A silent station in this beauteous world."

It may, however, be neither convenient nor opportune for such migration and therefore
we shall have to use our imagination and I invite you to follow me now in reflection and
meditation on the subject of this Paper.

If I say the word "Trees," I have no doubt that to the mind of each of you will come the
thought of either a specific tree or of a species of trees.  Most likely there will come to
mind the mighty massive oak; the long-lived lofty lime; the hardy horse-chestnut, the
sugary sycamore; the lovely laburnum, the modest ash (the "Venus of the Woods"); the
beautiful birch (the "Lady of the Woods"); the English elm; the cockney tree, the London
plane; the "Mother of Forests" the beech; the wending, winding woolly willows; the
pinnacled poplar; the cathedral-like yew and maybe the conifers (the Indian cedar or the
deodar-some of us can remember a very popular old song "Under the Deodar") and the
cedars of Lebanon.

Of course I could go on like this for quite a time mentioning different species of trees
and using alliteration's artful aid, but do not get alarmed Brethren I do not propose to
do so.  This Paper is not meant to be a treatise on trees-Forgive me the pun.  It is in the
sense that we are not operative but speculative Masons that I wish to consider our
subject.  Nevertheless I would just now like to say a few words about the last tree that
I mentioned, the cedar of Lebanon. In the Fifth Chapter of the First Book of Kings in the
V.S.L. it is written: -

"And Solomon sent to Hiram saying ....

"And behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God, as the
LORD spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in
thy room, he shall build an house unto my name.

"Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon......

And further in the 16th verse of the Second Chapter of the Second Book of the
Chronicles: -

"And we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou shaft need: and we will bring
it to thee in flotes by sea to Joppa, and thou shalt carry it up to Jerusalem."

The cedar is an evergreen and where conditions are favourable it will grow to well over
a hundred feet in height.  The wood is valued on account of its great durability and it
has been said that it has been found almost without signs of decay after a period of
2,000 years.  Certainly a characteristic of the wood is that it is never attacked by worms
and is almost incorrtiptible.  It has, as you know, a pleasant fragrance.

And now we will pass to a consideration of the tree in general and trees in particular,
both as living plants and as symbols.  In this last-mentioned aspect, I shall in no wise
be original, for trees have figured in allegory and myth from time immemorial.

"Tree worship and tree symbology

Indeed throughout the ages and in all parts of the world trees have been worshipped,
and it is interesting to reflect on the forms such worship has taken, i.e. sacred groves
and trees especially sacred, and the belief in tree spirits.  As mentioned in Transaction
No. 81 ("The Steps of Man") the speculations of primitive man did not take the highly
intellectual objective form pursued by modern science.  He did not think in terms of "I"
and "IT" neither did he personify the things and forces around him.  He did not
recognise an inanimate world at all.  Primitive man saw all the things around him in the
terms of, not "I" and "IT", but of "I" and "THOU." He was, as it were, in and of the
cosmos: in what Levy Bruhl has called "participation mystique." Perhaps the very first
impression conveyed to him via his senses of sight and touch would be the
differentiation of form.  Eventually he would notice trees and animals, fishes and birds
and so on, generally having certain shapes but in particular falling into common
categories.  To him the tree would be, like himself, a living soul, suffering if it were cut
or felled and having the power to punish those who were responsible for inflicting such
sufferings upon it.  Another belief was that the tree was just the abode of a spirit, a tree
spirit which could occupy or leave the tree at will and it is interesting to read of the
beneficent powers attributed by certain tribes to these tree spirits, particularly the ability
to bestow the gift of fertility to woman and to animals.  Also it was believed that they
had the power to grant or withhold sunshine and rain thus affecting the crops and the
very existence of the people.  These beliefs of course, bring us right up to our present
day May-pole, it being thought originally that the tree - spirit of the May-tree had
particular power to bestow certain blessings, and accordingly the tree was garlanded
and danced round.

It may interest some of you to know that the Church of St. Andrew Undershaft at the
junction of St. Mary Axe with Leadenhall Street in the City of London, derives the second
part of its name from the fact that the May-pole was at one time set up outside the
Church and revelries conducted there.  Hence the name "Undershaft" (under the Pole
or Maypole).  It is also interesting to learn that in Sweden and in parts of Bohemia, trees
are erected and garlanded on the eve of St. John's day (24th June).  Time does not
permit me to dilate here on a ceremony that was connected with the character known
as Green George.  Of course the election and crowning of a May Queen is kept up in
many parts of England today.

Let us now consider trees in general.  Their roots through which their living substance
is drawn up are fastened in the ground of Mother Earth.  The roots converge upon the
bole or trunk: from this trunk there splay off the boughs and the branches terminating
in twigs, and from these spring the leaves.  It is rather interesting to notice how often
trees appear in simile and metaphor - what I will call tree phraseology, and what more
natural than that I should remind you of a reference to Freemasonry whose branches
are spread over the four quarters of the globe.

Of a person suddenly stricken with fear or confronted with something horrible we say
that "he was rooted to the earth" as indeed we say of some that they had their roots in
a particular university or a particular town.  We refer to our own torsos as "trunks" and
are proud if we can boast a "genealogical tree" showing the branches of our families.

The Christian Master said: -

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do noting.

"If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered and men gather
them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."

(St.  John xv, 5-6.)

We are taught these things, we read these things and we think we know all that they are
about, but certainly I would say that these two verses that I have just quoted call for
careful meditation if there is to be any comprehension of their import and I use the
words "any comprehension" advisedly.  Ouspensky uses the simile of a branch being
the life of a man and the twigs the lives of the people with whom he comes into contact
and this idea is worthy of thought.

I want to pass on to references to particular trees and their places in myth and allegory
and first of all I am going to quote from Sir Edwin Arnold's translation of the
Bhagavad-Gita - The Song Celestial.  These are the words coming from the mouth of
Krishna: -

"Men call the Aswattha - the Banyan-tree -
 Which hath its boughs beneath, its roots above-
 The ever-holy tree.  Yes! for its leaves
 Are green and waving hymns which whisper Truth!
 Who knows the Aswattha, knows Veda, and all.

"Its branches shoot to heaven and sink to earth, 
 Even as the deeds of men, which take their birth 
 From qualities: its silver sprays and blooms,
 And all the eager verdure of its girth,
 Leap to quick life at kiss of sun and air
 As mens lives quicken to the temptings fair
 Of wooing sense: its hanging rootlets seek
 The soil beneath, helping to hold it there.

"As actions wrought amid this world of men 
 Bind them by ever-tightening bonds again.
 If ye knew well the teaching of the Tree,
 What its shape saith: and whence it springs: and then.

 How it must end and all the ills of it 
 The axe of sharp Detachment ye would whet,
 And cleave the clinging snaky roots and lay 
 This Aswattha of sense-life low, to set 
 New growths upspringing to that happier sky-
 Which they who reach shall have no day to die,
 Nor fade away, nor fall--to Him, I mean 
 FATHER and FIRST who made the mystery
 Of old Creation."

Particularly would I call your attention to the words: -

"The axe of sharp Detachment ye would whet,
 And cleave the clinging snaky roots and lay
 This Aswattlia of sense-life low ".

and to those recorded in the V.S.L.: -

"And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."

(St.  Matthew iii, 10.)

The axe too, has a certain place in synibolism.

It will be recalled that in the V.S.L. it is written that fig tree which failed to bear fruit was
cursed and it withered away.

The fig-tree bears its fruit first and its leaves afterwards, but what is the good of leaves
only-just an appearance.

We refer to a society so widely extended whose branches are spread over the four
quarters of the globe.  Yes! Yes! But what do the branches bear? Fruit or just leaves. 
Is there a life force in all our work? Are we who are not only here in the great school of
life for our own instruction but to serve a higher purpose - are we supplying that higher
purpose with what is required, or are we just leaves - of no purpose - failing to supply
that which is required from Above? Is there not a similitude in the parable of the talents?

(St.  Matthew xxv, 14-30.)

In a trade journal which sometimes it falls to my lot to read, there appeared the
following paragraph. The statements in parentheses are, of course, my own.  " U.N.O.
(you know what that means Brethren - we live in an age of abbreviations - U.N.O.,
N.A.T.O., what-ho and so on) the United Nations Organisation is devoted primarily to
the cause of peace and interntional cooperation.  It is perhaps appropriate therefore that
one of its associate bodies, F.A.O., (there we go again-that means Foods and
Agricultural Organisation), should turn from the somewhat frustrating pursuit of the olive
branch to the more practical subject of the olive fruit ".

The olive tree is an evergreen growing to heights varying between 30 ft. and 60 ft., and
to it is attributed a very long life; some say 1,000 years or more.  In Ancient Greece the
olive was considered a sacred tree and of course there are many references in the Bible
to that tree.  You will remember that the dove Noah sent forth from the Ark returned in
the evening "and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off ".

(Genesis viii, 11.)

Olive trees grow more on little hills and low grounds than on mountains, hence the leaf
carried by the dove revealed to Noah that the flood had subsided.

Unto the Israelites it was promised that the Lord their God would bring them unto the
land "with houses full of all good things which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which
thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees which thou plantedst not ". (Deut. vi, I 1.)

In verse 8 of Psalm 52 it is written, "But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God:
I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever."

And then there comes to our mind, Olivet or the Mount of Olives whither it was the
wonted custom of the Christian Master to retire.  Olivet comprised the districts of
Gethsemane (the place of oil-presses) Bethany (the house of dates) and Bethphage (the
house of green figs).

Another tree of considerable interest is the Bodhi, whereunder the Lord Buddha found
enlightenment.  The beautiful story is known to most of you, I have no doubt, of the
pilgrimage of Prince Siddhartha who, leaving wealth and splendour, family and friends
and earthly pleasures, divested of jewels and royal robes, clad in the yellow robe and
carrying the mendicants bowl of the monk, in scorching summer and driving rains,
wandered on in the search of light.  There is the lovely reference to the ewe that was
worried over her injured lamb: -

"Which when our Lord did mark full tenderly
 He took the limping lamb upon his neck
 Saying, poor woolly mother, be at peace
 Whither thou goest I will bear thy care;
 Twere all as good to ease one beast of grief
 As sit and watch the sorrows of the world
 In yonder caverns with the priests who pray."

Can we not think here of the words of the Christian Master?: -

"What think ye, if a man have an hundred sheep and one of them be gone astray doeth
he not leave the ninety and nine and goeth into the mountains and seeketh that which
is gone astray."

(St.  Matthew xviii, 12.)

And are we not reminded Brethren and have not most of us heard the following words,
many, many times: -

"To shed a tear of sympathy o'er the fairings of a Brother and pour the healing balm of
consolation into the wounds of the afflicted."

Can it be possible that we hear these words so often that their true import is lost upon
us? It is not over the sorrows or sufferings of a Brother that we are here enjoined to
shed a tear but over his "failings." What a lot of difference it would make in some
Lodges if this were observed.  Injured pride, injured dignities, what are they really? They
are dreams which we have while we are asleep immersed solely in ourselves as most
of us are.

Let us continue our journey with Prince Siddhartha: -

"There in the sylvan solitudes once more,
 Lord Buddha lived musing the woes of men,
 The ways of fate, the doctrines of the books,
 The lessons of the creatures of the brake,
 The secrets of the silence whence all come,
 The secrets of the gloom whereto all go,
 The life that lies between, like that arch flung
 From cloud to cloud across the sky, which hath
 Mists for its masonry and vapoury piers
 Melting to void again which was so fair
 With sapphire hues, garnet and chrysoprase

and so as we read on we find that eventually the Master wended his way unto the Tree
of Wisdom.

"Even while he mused under the Bodhi tree
 Glorified with the conquest gamed for all
 And LIGHTENED by a LIGHT greater than Day's."

-the Lord Buddha had found Light,


We too at a time in our journey had a predominant wish for Light.

Before leaving this particular subject I would just mention that at ANURADHAPURA, the
old capital of Ceylon, there is a Bodhi tree (the ficus religiosa) which is reputed to be
some 2,200 years old and it is said that when Mahinda an ambassador of Asoka
converted King Tissa and his court in Ceylon to Buddhism, he was followed by his sister
Sanghamitta who took with her a cutting of the Bodhi tree of Buddha Gaya, and that
cutting commenced the growth of this very old tree at Anuradhapura.

Now I come to another tree of life not so long-lived as the ficus religiosa but
nevertheless of considerable longevity - a tree particularly well-known to us in the British
Isles.  I refer to the oak.  The oak tree does not produce an acorn until it is over sixty
years of age and its timber is of little use until it has passed the century.  Unfortunately
it does not enjoy the same immunity from insects as does the cedar but has the
undesirable reputation of being more persistently attacked by a greater number of
insects than any other tree.  It has been said by an authority that some five hundred
insects enjoy their livelihood at the expense of the foliage, bark or timber of the oak. 
Despite that the oak survives and lives to a great old age.

The oak figures in many mythologies and cults.  Among the Celts of Gaul, the Druids
held sacred the mistletoe and the oak on which it grew and performed their rites with
oak leaves in groves of oak trees.  Zeus, the highest of the Greek Gods, the Jupiter of
the Romans, was worshipped in an oak tree at Dodona.  Zeus was said to be the God
of rain and I have already mentioned the ancient belief in the ability of tree spirits to
grant, or withhold sunshine or rain.

The daughter of Zeus and the twin-sister of Apollo was the Greek, Artemis, the Diana
of the Romans.  Diana was an oak-goddess with a temple among evergreen oak trees
at Nemi, guarded by a priest with a drawn sword.  Diana bore the title of Vesta and the
vestal fires were fed with oakwood.  Vesta actually was a Roman Divinity identified with
the Greek Hestia and was the goddess of the hearth.  In her Temple the eternal fires
were kept burning by the Vestal Maidens. It is interesting to reflect that Dianus as
goddess of light represented the sun, while Diana as goddess of light represented the
moon.

In Germany the chief of their holy trees was said to be the oak which was dedicated to
the God of Thunder, Donar or Thunar (hence we have Thunar's day; Thor's day and our
present Thursday) the equivalent of the Norse Thor.  Now Thor was the God of the
Hammer and is usually shown with such in a shape very similar to our gavel with which
three sound to order.

"Gavel" is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "give all." An old form of land tenure was
called "gavel-kind" where, on the death of the holder, the land descended not just to the
eldest son but to all sons in equal shares i.e. to his kind: gavelkind.

He to whom power is given must be not only Master but also servant of all.

And whosoever will be chief aniong you, let him be your servant." (St. Matthew xx, 27.)

He who is Master must give to those Initiated in the Mother Lodge to all alike.  He is
empowered to use the gavel to all alike.  Hence the term "common gavel ".

The gavel is derived from a very ancient symbol. We have the Norse God "Thor": the
Egyptian God of the Hammer - "Ptah": the Greek "Hephaestus" called "Vulcanus" by the
Romans, the god of fire, an artist in metals, Tubal Cain the lame God, Vulcan Mulciber
of whom the poet Milton wrote in Paradise Lost: -

"Each in his Hierarchy, the Orders bright,
 Nor was his name unheard or unadored,
 In ancient Greece and in Ausonian land,
 Men called him Mulciber...."

We love all sprang from the same stock, are partakers of the same nature and sharers
in the same hopes.  All live in three bodies, the physical, emotional and mental or
according to St. Paul "body, soul and spirit ".

Modern scientific thought considers that phenomena is produced by and depends upon
vibration.  An explanation of the gavel is that it denotes the force of conscience.  When
the inner compelling power knocks upon our own being it should reverberate so that
the three levels of spirit, soul and body vibrate in harmony to prevent the intrusion of
inharmonious and unbecoming thoughts.

Thus the knocks with the gavel are vibrations representing three ascending grades of
life.  These knocks are summed up in the First Lecture as alluding to: -- 

"An ancient and venerable exhortation: seek and ye shall find: ask and ye shall have:
knock and it shall be opened unto you." The phrases of seek, ask and knock are to be
found also in the V.S.L., and if you do not know where I will leave you to find them for
yourselves.  True is it not, that he who comes humbly soliciting and knocks at the door
of the Lodge, finds the door opened to him.

Of the God "Thor" Longfellow wrote these verses: -

I am the god Thor,
I am the war god
I am the Thunderer
Here in my North land
My fastness and fortress
Reign I for ever.

Jove is my brothel:
Mine eyes are the lightning:
The wheels of my chariot
Roll in the thunder
The blows of my hammer
Ring in the earthquake.


In Scandinavian Mythology, the world is thought of as supported by a great tree, an
ash-tree (Ygdrasil).  There are three wells at its roots in one of which there is a dragon
or serpent.  One of the roots of the world-tree (Ygdrasil) grew in Midgard, from which
arose Asgard, the Norse Olympus - Odin and the twelve Aesir - here was Valhalla.  The
second root grew in Nifelheim - a place of mist, darkness and cold from the midst of
which burst forth the great fountain from whence all waters flow and to which all waters
return.  It is interesting to note that these waters traversed a vast distance before
congealing and becoming ice when the river grew silent and ceased to move.  An
illustration of force and form.  In the well in Nifelheim is the dragon "Nidhog" which
chews constantly at the root.  For evil always comes to good, decay to growth and time
is spent.  Ygdrasil, the Tree of Existence which sustains all spiritual and physical life
grows out of the past, lives in the present, and reaches towards the future.  The third
root is in Hela, the lower world of the gods where the souls of the dead are judged.  For
all the gods, save Thor there is but one road from Asgard to Hela and that is over the
curved bridge Bifrost "the rainbow" - not altogether without significance.  Thor had to
wade across the four great rivers in the under-world to reach Hela, because as thunder
god, if he travelled across the bridge - the rainbow - the fire from his chariot might set
the bridge alight and destroy it.

In relation to Thor as the god of Thunder of Norse mythology it is interesting to note that
the Sumerians who held that the universe was controlled by an assembly of gods also
had a trinity which included a god of thunder, or a storm god, Adad the "Thunderer".
The trinity consisted of Sin, the moon-god, Shamash the sun-god and Adad or Hadad
the storm-god called also Tarku in the west and Teshup in the east.  In Syria he was
known as Resheph and, in the old Testament as Rimmon.  This god is generally
represented as holding a hammer in one hand whilst three flashes of lightning proceed
from his other hand.

Returning to Scandinavian mythology, their ideas of creation are rather interesting. 
According to them, the sun, moon and earth with the seasons were established but
there were no men on earth.  At a certain time, however, the sons of Bor were walking
on the world's shores: Again we have a triad or trinity.  There were three sons: Odin
(spirit) Ve or Honor and the third appropriately spelt Vile whose other names were Loder
or Loke.  Now Odin was the god of the wind and as such was associated with "breath"
the "pneuma" of the Greeks.  He is the "all-father" "Val-father" the father of the brave who
dwelt in Valhal in high Asgard.  Father too, of Balder the Beautiful, the fair, the comely,
the wise, the eloquent - surely the prototype.

As the sons of Bor walked on the shores they beheld two logs, one from an ash tree
and the other from an alder tree.  Odin breathed life into them and the gods gave these
logs, mind, will and desire so that the ash log became a man named Ask and the alder,
a woman named Embla.  From these descended the whole human race, who lived in
Mid-gard "middle-ward" and Manaheim "the home of men."

Now Svipdag son of Egil (the Archer), Svipdag the Brave, the Shining One, rescued the
beautiful Freyja from captivity.

In mentioning Egil the Archer I would remind you that the arrow is a symbol often used
by artists.  Jung has reminded us that "heart" and "smart" rhyme.  We know the painful
arrows that come from gossip and therefore we should beware of gossip: -

"I shot an arrow in the air
 And where it went I know not where."

We do not know the wounds that the arrows of gossip can inflict on those whose hearts
they enter.

In Asgard there was a goddess Idun who kept in a fast shut basket the golden apples
of eternal youth.  As soon as she drew one apple forth another took its place.  And this
leads me to the consideration of the apple-tree and apples in myth.  At Asgard, the
apples of Idun bestowed immortality on the gods and when the goddess was lost the
gods grew old.  In Greek mythology we have the twelve labours of Hercules, one of
which was fetching the golden apples of the Hesperides. These apples Hera (wife of
Zeus) had received at her wedding from Ge (the Earth) and she had entrusted them to
the keeping of the Hesperides and the dragon Ladon.  The Hesperides were stated to
be the daughters of Atlas and Hesperis.  They kept custody of the apples on Mount
Atlas.  Hercules went to Mount Atlas and undertook to bear the burden of heaven for
him whilst he fetched the apples.  On returning with them Atlas refused to resume the
burden of heaven.  By a trick Hercules succeeded in obtaining the apples and
dedicated them to Athena who restored them to their proper place.

Jung has further reminded us that the tree is predominantly a mother symbol - that a
coffin is made of wood and in German called "totenbaum" which means tree of death. 
So the dead are delivered back to the mother, and mother earth receives us into its cold
bosom.

It is interesting to compare this with the myth of Osiris whose body having been
fastened in a coffin was said to have drifted ashore on the coast of Syria where a tree
shot up suddenly and enclosed the coffin in its trunk.

It is still customary to plant sprigs of cypress, acacia or other plants on graves and the
practice has been said to have originated from the ancient idea that the vital and
immortal principle of a man took shelter in such trees or shrubs growing on the graves. 
To the observant, the number of branches shown pictorially may have interest when we
remember that we are said to be the fifth root race and recognise that we have five toes
on each foot and four fingers plus a thumb on each hand and we have five senses.  The
Chinese believed that planting a tree on a grave strengthened the soul of the deceased
with which it was identified.

In verse 2, chapter 3 of the Book of Exodus it is recorded that unto Moses:

"the angel of the Lord appeared ... in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush " 

and in verse 25 of chapter 15 of the Book of Exodus it is written:

"And he cried unto the Lord and the Lord shewed him a tree which when he had cast
into the waters, the waters were made sweet " 

and in chapter 22 of be Apocalypse there is the reference which I have quoted at the
commencement of this Paper

Maybe, Brethren, that in this Paper, you have observed that I commenced by writing
about trees as we see them around every day and I gave instances of a few common
ones known to us.  I then passed to the primitive worship of trees and the powers with
which they were credited by the worshippers - fertility, rain, thunder and so on.  We then
dealt with tree spirits, temple groves and tree ritual.  Next came tree symbolism and so
we have gradually ascended from the material through to the mental or spiritual aspect
of tree symbolism and I want to pass on to a very important tree glyph, known as the
Qabalistic Tree of Life.

The ancient Hebrews possessed three great writings, the Books of the Law and the
Prophets, the Old Testament of the V.S.L.; the Talmud, a collection of commentaries on
the Books of the Old Testament: and the Kabalah, the mystical interpretation of the Old
Testament, the Oral Tradition in Israel.

I am sure that there are many among you who know considerably more about the
Kabalah than I do and about that very wonderful glyph, the Tree of Life but will surely
forgive me, if for the benefit of those having little knowledge thereof, I give what of
necessity must be a very brief and rough outline.

(i) There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. I would like you to keep this figure in
mind for a time as I shall refer to it again.

(ii) In the system we are considering, to each of these 22 letters is allocated a number.

Hebrew, by the way, is the sacred language of the west as Sanskrit is of the east.

Now the Kabalah can be divided into two sections: the Practical and the Dogmatic.  The
Practical Kabalah is concerned with the mystical and allegorical interpretation of the Old
Testament, dealing exhaustively with each phrase, word and letter and the connections
between the letters and numbers and the different modes of their inter-relations.  In this
there are three methods of interpretation applicable: -

1. What is known as GEMATRIA - interpretation by which a name or word of certain
numerical value is related to others of the same value.

2. NOTARICAN - Abbreviation - Words formed from the initials and finals of a sentence.

3. TEMURA - A complicated system with various modes of interpretation.

Time does not permit of details and I must pass on to the Dogmatic Kabalah - with
which we are more interested being concerned as it is largely with philosophical
conceptions of God, of Angels and of other Beings, presumably more spiritual than
man.  It considers the human soul and its aspect and parts and is devoted also to a
study of pre-existence, reincarnation, and the division of the various planes of existence.

The Dogmatic Kabalah points to thirty-two mystical paths.  These paths are ways of life
that must be trodden to be understood.  They are indicated on a peculiar glyph which
is well worthy of study, and for meditation purposes is very helpful.  The glyph is called
The Tree of Life and I have reproduced a copy and included it in this Transaction.

The thirty-two mystical paths of the Dogmatic Kabalah correspond in number with the
twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet plus the ten sephiroth (of which more later). 
The glyph can also be studied and its parts related to the Tarot Pack of which there are
twenty-two Trump Cards.

It is significant to observe that the thirty-two paths plus that trodden in the physical body
on this Earth makes a total of thirty-three, corresponding in number with the years of the
Christian Master and with the Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Rite.

The Tree of Life

The Kabalistic Tree of Life is formed of Three Pillars, the Pillar of Severity, the Pillar of
Mercy and the middle one, the Pillar of Beneficence.  On these Pillars are placed the
Ten Sephiroth (or Emanations) and these are connected by The Paths.

Obviously, the first thing to strike us is the number of the Pillars - three - and we are
instantly reminded of the law of threefoldness.  Hindu philosophy teaches that during
a state of dissolution of the universe, Prakriti (the substantial cause of both mind and
matter - is in a state of equilibrium of the three gunas, Sattwa (natural law and order -
also the law and order in the spiritual life of man - to reveal consciousness) Tamas
(inertia - which suppresses or veils consciousness) and Rajas (which makes active -
energy).  When this state of equilibrium is removed there is cosmic vibration.  One of
the laws of the science of mechanics states: "If three forces acting on the same principle
can be represented in magnitude and direction (but not in position) by the sides of a
triangle taken in order, they shall be in equilibrium W.Bro.President in his Transaction
No. 65 entitled Explanatory Notes on Craft Symbolism "refers to the fact that the three
Pillars emblematical in our Order, Wisdom, Strength and Beauty do in fact, represent
an indissociable trinity of Divine attributes, and like the Master and Wardens of the
Lodge (another trinity) who always act in concert, these triple attributes are inseparable. 
If Wisdom from on High visits the soul, Strength comes likewise, whilst Beauty shapes
the structure and irradiates it with spiritual graces.

I will not take up too much of your time or that of the Circle by reminding you of all the
triads in connection with our Order.  You are sufficiently well acquainted with them.  And
that may remind you that there are three sets of W.T.'s with three in each.  The interior
of the Lodge is composed of Ornaments, Furniture and Jewels (3), the ornaments are
three; the Mosaic Paving, the Blazing Star and the Indented or Tesselated Border, the
furniture comprises three articles, whilst there are three movable and three immovable
jewels.  There are Three Degrees, Three Grand Principles, three regular steps, and so
on.  One can think of any number of triads.  It is interesting to observe how Trinities
appear in most of the Great Religions of the World: -

Hinduism, Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver) and Shiva (the Destroyer) - I
prefer the Transmutor.  These we can say are representative of the Creative,
Preservative and Annihilative powers of the Deity.

Assyrians and Phoenicians: Ana, Ea and Ba

Egyptian: Osiris (the risen One), Isis and Horus (Son).

Northern Buddhism: Amitabha, Avolokiteshvara, Manjushri.

Zoroastrian: Ahura Mazda, Mithra and Ahriman.

Scandinavian Mythology: Odin, Freya and Thor (I have mentioned the hammer of Thor).

Jewish Traditional: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Christian: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Gurdjieff refers to the three aspects of the Universe existing under the denominations
of: -

Holy-Affirming, Holy-Denying and Holy-Reconciling.

The three in the Jewish Kabalah are Kether, Chokniah and Binah.

If you look at the Three Pillars on the Tree of Life you will observe that the left-hand one
is called the Pillar of SEVERITY the right-hand one the Pillar of MERCY, whilst that in the
Middle is the Pillar of Beneficence-of Mildness, of Equilibrium (reminding us of the
Triangle of Forces in Mechanics and also the equilibrium of the three Gunas which I
have mentioned).  This middle Pillar also reminds us of the pendulum which at each
end of its swing has what is known as Potential Energy (those of you who are not
mechanically minded can see that for yourselves by a little thought).  If I hold the rod
of a pendulum at ninety degrees to the vertical I must exert pressure with my hand to
work against the force of gravity which will swing the weight towards the earth and this
force is the potential energy at that moment.  As soon as I let the weight go, it becomes
kinetic energy and the weight travels towards the earth.  When absolutely vertical, for
a brief fraction of time it has no movement and then it travels upwards in the opposite
direction.  Now it is not difficult to see that between the extremes of severity and mercy
there is mildness and beneficence.  The two Pillars left and right are those that stood
at the porchway or entrance to King Solomon's Temple and are represented in all the
Mysteries. The Candidate when he stands between them is the Middle Pillar.  "I came
from between the pillars," said the Egyptian neophyte.

At this juncture I would point out that in our meditations upon the Tree of Life, we can
use it in terms of the Macrocosm (the Universe) or the Microcosm (man) but to do so
we must remember that it represents for us the Macrocosm when we are looking at it
as it is, but that to represent ourselves, we must, as it were, stand with our back to it so
that the Pillars left and right are reversed.  The Pillars thus, can represent the Ida,
Shushumna and Pingala, of the Hindu system.  The two outside Pillars also represent
the Yin and the Yan of the Chinese, the positive and negative and the active and
passive forces of Nature and if you like, the Yes and the No with the Yes-No in the
Middle, the Yes-No of Ouspensky.

The universe, the earth, our lives and our physical bodies all illustrate the law of the
pendulum, of the opposite pillars of Boaz and Jachim.

We are told that the level at which the sun and the earth are taken to be moving in
space is called the ecliptic.  Also that the earth's axis is tilted at an angle of about 66
1/2 deg. to the plane of the ecliptic, the Equator therefore being approximately 23 1/2
deg. to that plane.  Further that there are twelve constellations lying on or about the
ecliptic and this 16 deg. belt is called the Zodiac so called because several of the twelve
constellations take the names of animals, each of the twelve being given a sign with a
name.  In what is known as the Lesser Zodiacal Year the sun passes through each of
the signs, a sign a month, and the tilt of the earth breaks up the year into the four
seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter and gives us the vernal and autumnal
equinoxes or points when the ecliptic cuts the Equator.  The earth, however, not being
a perfect sphere, but having a bulging at the Equator upon which the gravitational pull
of the sun works, does not revolve truly on its axis the points of which (the Poles) move
in a circle.  This means in effect that the points of intersection of the Equator and the
ecliptic are not fixed and we get what is known as the precession of the equinoxes with
the result that it takes approximately 25,920 yeus (The Greater Zodiacal Year) for the
solar system to make the complete cycle.  Thus a new sign is entered every 2,160
years.

The autumnal equinox is ushered in by shorter days and longer nights, the dying off of
vegetation, the descent of sap reminding us of the descent of the soul into incarnation. 
With the advent of the vernal equinox, however, the commencement of spring, we have
the reverse effects, days get longer, nights get shorter, more light, less darkness, the
sap rises, vegetation grows and we have the symbol of rebirth.

Daily in our passage round the sun, we record its rising and setting.  The rising to open
and enliven the day in the east, the meridian in the south, and the setting in the west.

In our lives from day to day we experience sunlight and darkness, warmth and cold,
health and sickness, success and failure, progress and frustration.  To these external
impressions we respond emotionally and mentally.  At one time we are exultant, at
another depressed; we are joyful and sorrowful, the weather is good we say or the
weather is bad; or this is good or that is bad.  We do not stop to ask ourselves what is
good and what is bad.  We feel well, we feel ill; at one time we are as it is said "on top
of the world" and at another like poor old Atlas, we seem to have the world on our
shoulders; prosperity may brighten us or poverty may dismay us.

"As the steps of man are trod in the various and uncertain incidents of life and his days
are variegated and chequered by a strange contrariety of events, his passage through
this existence, though sometimes attended by prosperous circumstances is often beset
by a multitude of evils: hence is our Lodge furnished with Mosaic work to point out the
uncertainty of all things here on earth.

"Today we may travel in prosperity, tomorrow we may totter on the uneven paths of
weakness, temptation and adversity.  Then while such emblems are before us we are
morally instructed not to boast of anything but to give heed to our ways, to walk
uprightly and with humility before God there being no station in life on which pride can
with stability be founded." 

(Fifth Section of the First Lecture.)

In the East they talk about "being free from the pairs of opposites" and really that is what
we should strive to attain although of course it is by no means easy.

Says Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita: -

"To cease from works is well
 And to do works in holiness is well
 And both conduct to bliss supreme
 But of these twain the better way is his
 Who working piously refraineth not.

"That is the true Renouncer, firm and fixed 
 Who - seeking nought, rejecting nought -
 Dwells proof against the 'opposites'."

There are methods by which this proof against the opposites can be obtained, one of
which in certain modern philosophy is known as non-identifying.

We are told at a certain time that we are at liberty to work with both the points of the
compasses to render the circle of our Masonic duties complete.  Our real initiation takes
place in life itself, the great school, wherein we are taught our lessons and learn them
or do not learn them, receive our rewards and receive our punishments, for by the same
instrument that I have just mentioned we learn that in having defined for our instruction
the limits of good and evil the Almighty Architect will reward or punish as we have
obeyed or disregarded his Divine commands.

And so we see that in the universe and on the earth there is this pendulum - like sway
between the opposites to which we as mortals here are subjected.  The universe the
macrocosm, and man the microcosm, and if we give thought to our physical bodies we
see there again the pendulum sway.  Our hearts beat and the two opposites evolve, the
diastole, receiving the blood and the systole collecting it and sending it forth.  Our lungs
expand and contract, we inspire, we expire and that in an aspiration.  Beneath the lungs
and the heart there is a well-known network of ganglia or nerves aptly called the solar
plexus.

The blood is the life (Genesis ix, 4), it is pumped from the heart and oxidised by the
lungs from the air which we have inhaled.  The oxygen in the air is constantly replaced
by the action of the sun on vegetation.  Air is a mixture of roughly 20 per cent oxygen
and 80 per cent nitrogen.  These figures can be slightly modified for the inclusion of the
so-called rare gases, neon, helium, argon, etc., but the fact remains that we humans
take oxygen from the air and give out carbon dioxide.  Now the action of sun on the
green matter in vegetation (known as chlorophyll) results in the plants taking in carbon
dioxide and giving out oxygen.  Incidentally, chlorophyll as a drug, has been found to
affect blood pressure.  And so Brethren we see how dependent we are for our very
existence on the Sun, the centre of our solar system.  As a pattern of excellence, we are
told to consider that grand luminary the Sun which rising in the E. diffuses light and
lustre to all within its circle.  On the Kabalistic Tree of Life the sphere of the Sun is
assigned to Tipharetli, and when we come to consider that Sephirah, let us remember
what has just been said about the Sun.

In considering these Pillars and remembering that this is a Paper on "All sorts of Trees"
I now want to quote to you from another Transaction of our W.Bro.  President (No. 62
"Some Further Notes on Craft Symbolism") in which he wrote as follows: -

From the Lecture on the Tracing Board of the Second Degree we learn that the
symbolic pillars are both alike in form, as follows: -

1. Square base, or cubical pediment, resting on the ground.

2. Rising on of the base is a shaft, or column, resembling the trunk of a tree.

3. At the top of the column there is a capital, or chapiter, garnished with flowers and
fruit, and surmounted by a circle, or globe, over which is thrown a veil or net-work.

In the description of these two pillars we are invited to see an image of ourselves, and
their interpretation as symbols is the Craft method of providing, at the very entrance to
the Lodge, our first lesson in the science of self-knowledge.  This lesson is likewise
threefold: -

1. The square base is a figure of our normal personality; the bodily man, sprung from,
and resting upon, the earth.

2. Within the earthly square of our mortal person dwells an energy, or Life-force, called
the soul.  This is denoted by the ascending shaft of the pillar.  Like a tree trunk
springing from the soil in which it is rooted, and from which it draws nourishment, so
the human soul grows upwards out of the personal patch of Mother-Earth forming the
physical body, and is developed by earthly experience, ever building something new
into itself by daily activities of thought, conduct and aspiration.  And as the sap, or
life-force, of a tree ultimately breaks into leaf, flower and fruit, so here at the capital of
the pillar, the energies of the soul are shown as manifesting in analogous results (the
graces and fruits of the spirit), and finally shaping themselves into a circle, or rounded
whok.

3. The highest part of ourselves, our spiritual summit is always beyond the sight of the
eye and the ken of the mind.  This is why, in the pillar, it is exhibited covered with a veil,
or net-work.  We see not what we build into ourselves from day to day, but as the pillar
indicates, the essence of our bodily activities is conserved and comes to bloom in our
superphysical part.  Note especially in this pillar imagery the contrast between the base,
which is a square, or cube, and the summit, which is a circle, or globe.  The square is
the ancient geometrical symbol for what has physical form, whereas the circle is the
traditional symbol of what is spiritual and formless. In the old Chinese cosmogonies we
find the adage: "Heaven is round; earth is square." The veiled globe, or circle, at the top
of the pillar, therefore, is an emblem of man's spiritual pole; it is the sphere into which
the seeds, or essence, of his bodily activities come to final fruition.  These seeds are
described emblematically by the many-seeded pomegranate fruit with which the chapiter
is surrounded, whilst the globe itself is otherwise spoken of as the "golden bowl".  In the
poem, "The Testament of Beauty", our Masonic chapiter is referred to as: -

"The full circle where the spirit of man, 
 Escaping from the bondage of physical law, 
 Re-entereth eternity."

This quotation from "The Testament of Beauty calls to mind the admonition given to the
Craftsman: " In all his pursuits to have eternity in view." Let me remind you of another
phrase which is very fresh in my memory at the moment and will by no means be new
to you " Where the divisions of time shall cease and a glorious eternity burst open to our
view." Taking these two phrases side by side, we find that there are two words common
to both: "eternity" and "view" but the second one says "where the divisions of time shall
cease," NOT when the division but where - mark that Brethren.

In considering such a word as "eternity" one is forced to realise the limitation of
language.  Part of the study of "The Tree of Life" reminds us that when a force becomes
a form, it is limited.  We are painfully reminded how, in this earthly body, this perishable
frame, our spiritual capacities are restricted but we are also reminded that we may have
confidence to lift our eyes to that bright Morning Star.  What are the eyes we are to lift
and with what are we to view the glorious eternity that is to burst open to us? I
remember a simple little verse that went something like this: -

"Two men looked out from behind prison bars, 
 The one saw mud - the other saw stars."

One was asleep and had his inner eye closed. The other was awake and lo! he beheld. 
For it is the inner eye that is to be raised to that bright Morning Star: it is with the inner
eye with which in all our pursuits, we are to have eternity in view and we do not have
to wait for that change which we call death.  Eternity must not be confused with time. 
Time is not.  Eternity is.

"Never was time, it was not.  End and beginning are dreams" (Bhagavad-Gita).

Eternity is right here and now; "nearer than hands and feet, closer than breath." To the
scribe who said to the Christian Master "that to love God with all the heart and with all
the understanding and with all the soul and with all the strength; and to love one's
neighbour as oneself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices," was the
answer given:

"Thou are not far from the Kingdom of God" (St.  Mark xiii, 54).

Now at the top of the glyph of "The Tree of Life" you will observe three lines.  These are
the three planes of unmanifestation or negative existence and reading their descriptions
from the lowest upwards they are: -

AIN SOPHAUR (or the Limitiess Light) 
AIN SOPH (or the Limitless)
AIN (Negativity).

At this point let us ask ourselves' what might appear silly questions.  I will put them:
How far is right? How far is left? How far is up? How far is down? How far is forward?
How far is backward? Well there is no limit apparently - we do know - even the much
vaunted operation of sending satellites miles away from and round the earth has not
and will not answer that question for us.  A very sound axiom however, can help us and
that is that although the greater can know the less - the less cannot know the greater.

We are made conscious of what is called manifestation but in the Vast Design of
Heaven and Earth we cannot tell and cannot expect to be able to tell in our present
stage where man is manifest and so the Kabalist has these three veils of
unmanifestation.

In this Paper I have referred to Assyrian gods, Egyptian gods, Scandinavian mythology,
Greek mythology and so on.  I have made but passing reference to them, but students
of mythologies know how extraordinarily comprehensive and yet complicated they are
and such students see how a certain god of one religion, cult or mythology can be
equated with that of another religion, cult or mythology and indeed it has been the
subject of much speculation as to how it is that in widely separated parts of the world
separated also in time, there have been formulated religions having gods of similar
character and import.  How this can be Brethren I am not going to try to essay an
answer but why this is - perhaps I might.  It is believed that man, pretty well unchanged
in configuration from what he is today, has existed on this world for some 500,000 years
- we do not KNOW of course.  But however long he has lived man has been acted upon
by the very forces that I have mentioned.  Now could man describe those forces?

Man described these forces; these energies which impressed themselves upon him from
without and the ideals, inspirations and spiritual yearnings which impressed themselves
upon him from within in the only manner possible to him: the language of himself and
the things about him.  In other words he personified them and he deified them.  He
illustrated his impressions, his ideas and his experiences to himself and to others in the
forms of man, animal, bird, TREES, metals, stones and so on.  In short by
personification and symbol.  Now this "scheme" is used by the Kabalist with the Tree of
Life.  He uses the simple and well-known expedient of travelling to the unknown via the
known. He does not attempt to allow us to rush rashly forward in areas unknown and
inimical to us and where indeed we could be accessories to our own death - our
spiritual death.  A glance at the glyph reveals that there are three pillars with which I
have already dealt, three triangles ten sephiroth and 22 paths.

The Kabalist recognises these as existing in Four Worlds.  These are

1. ATZILUTH. The Archetypal World, the World of Emanations, the Divine World. (Here
are the ten Holy Names of God.)

2. BRIAH. The World of Creation, the World of Thrones. (Here are the Ten Mighty Arch--
angels.)

3. YETZIRAH. The World of Formation and of Angels.

4. ASSIAH. The World of Action, the World of Matter. (Here are the Ten Mundane
Chakras.)

The Malkuth of Atziluth becomes the Kether of Briah, the Malkuth of Briah becomes the
Kether of Yetzirah and so on.

It would be a good thing now to consider - the Three Triangles since we have already
considered the Three Pillars. Kether, is at the apex of the Top Triangle - it is the Crown. 
A Crown is not the head but rests upon the head and could be considered the material
of consciousness in man and the material of existence in the Universe.  Other titles
given to Kether are The Vast Countenance, The Inscrutable Height, the Primal Point. The
Point within the Circle.  Now if we follow the paths we find that the One becomes Two,
differentiating into Chokmah and Binah; the one on the Pillar of Mercy and the other on
the Pillar of Severity.  The one a Force and in the other the Force becomes a Form, the
one the Supernal Father and the other the Supernal Mother.  Binah has two aspects:
Ama, the Dark Sterile Mother and Aima, the Bright Fertile Mother.  She is called the
Great Sea, Marah, the root of Mary, the Mother, a Virgin of whom a Saviour is born. It
will be noticed here that there is the differentiation into opposites.  Male and female,
force and form, positive and negative Chokmah is assigned to the sphere of the Zodiac,
but Binah to the sphere of Saturn.  Papus equates Binah with the Tarot card of The
Empress which seems appropriate, particularly as on this card she bears a sceptre
forming the astological sign of Venus; Venus called Aphrodite by the Greeks, goddess
of love who sprang from the foam of the sea, Marah, the Great Sea, Binah.  The
sephiroth or emanations flow from one to another in the form of a lightning flash,
sometimes shown as a sword with a hilt.

The second triangle consists of Chesed, Mercy or Love sometimes known as Gedullah
- greatness or beneficence.  To it is assigned the sphere of the planet Jupiter. 
Continuing in the direction of the lightning flash, that is right to left we have on the Pillar
of Severity, Geburah which means strength also called Pachad, fear.  To it is assigned
the sphere of the planet Mars.  Now coming down diagonally from left to right we reach
Tiphareth - meaning Beauty - assigned to the sphere of the Sun.

Jupiter is equated with the Greek Zeus.  He was recognised as Lord of Heaven and the
highest and most powerful amongst the gods: as we might say of the Deity-Lord in
Heaven or on High.  Jupiter was worshipped as the god of rain, storms, thunder and
lightning and you will remember that I have said that Zeus, the highest of the Greek
gods, the Jupiter of the Romans was worshipped in the oak tree at Dodona.  Papus
equates the fourth card of the Tarot "The Emperor" with Jupiter and it is interesting to
note that whereas "The Empress" equated with Binah, carries the sceptre of Venus in
her left hand, indicating the passive influence, "The Emperor" holds the sceptre of Venus
in the right hand, indicating the active influence, the vivifying principle.

Jupiter was the guardian of law and order.  He maintained the sanctity of an oath and
was the protector of justice and virtue.  It is not surprising therefore that we find him
balanced in Geburah by the planet Mars, the war-like god of the Romans, the Greek
Ares.  These two, Chesed and Geburah (Jupiter and Mars) are balanced in Tiphareth. 
In the first triangle we have creation, in the second evolution.  Tiphareth is the Saviour,
the Christ Centre, the sphere of the Son, the reflection of Kether.

The third Triangle consists of Netzach, Hod and Yesod, Victory, Foundation and Glory
respectively.  It will be noted that again they have been taken in the direction of the
Lightning Flash.  Netzach is the sphere of Venus the Goddess of Nature.  Hod is the
sphere of Mercury, the Greek Hermes, the Egyptian Thoth, the messenger of the Gods,
the herald of Zeus.  The cultivation of the OLIVE TREE is attributed to him and the PALM
TREE was held sacred to him.  He bore the Caduceus which he received from Apollo. 
May I point out that the Senior and Junior Deacons are the messengers of the Master
of the Lodge, they bear and carry his messages, commands and communications and
whilst the jewel on the collar of a Deacon is a dove carrying a sprig and although
sometimes this jewel appears on the wand, yet in many cases the Caduceus of Mercury
surmounts the Deacon's wand.  Yesod is the sphere of the Moon - near to the sphere
of Earth.  Yesod being in the sphere of the moon is associated with Luna, goddess of
the moon, the Greek Selene, sister of Helios the Sun also identified with Artemis called
Diana by the Romans of whom I have already said that she was oak-goddess with a
temple among evergreen OAK TREES.

At the bottom of the three Triangles there comes Malkuth, the Kingdom of Earth.

So we have Maikuth (the Kingdom) Netzach (the Power) and Hod (the Glory), thereby
expressing the omnipotence of the Father of all as in that well-known prayer which ends
"for Thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory".

"As above - so below." The Universe the Macrocosm - man the Microcosm.  We can
meditate upon the Tree of Life in both, the one in evolution and the other in planes of
consciousness.  In this way, the two side pillars can be as positive and negative aspects
of manifestation whilst the central pillar can represent consciousness, consciousness
which would rise from Malkuth to Yesod to Tiphareth.  Such ascent of consciousness
as depicted on the Tree of Life can be equated with the Chakras of the Hindu system. 
This is not a Paper on the Kabalistic Tree of Life - it is a Paper on "Trees of all Sorts ".
Volumes of course can be, and indeed have been, written on the Kabalistic Tree of Life. 
I am not qualified to write much about it except to introduce it in the brief manner that
I have done, neither am I qualified to talk to you about the Chakras of the Hindu system
but their concept is this.  Just as I have mentioned that in the principle of Chokmah and
Binah, the force becoming form but remaining in the form, so are there forces extant in
our forms: these according to the Hindu system are vortices or, as the word Chakras
means, wheels of force and they are situated in certain parts of the body, that is to say
they are located in those parts but not necessarily in a particular organ.  It is said that
they are linked with the cerebro-spinal and nervous system and the following is their
location with a brief description of their attributes.  Now the Caduccus of Mercury
consists of two serpents plaited or intertwined round a central rod above which there
are a pair of wings (indicating aspiration).  The central rod is the Shushummna and the
serpents the Ida and Pingala that I have already mentioned.  They correspond to the
Three Pillars on the Tree of Life.  The points where the serpents cross the central rod
and the junction of the wings correspond with the position of the Chakras in man. 
Starting from the lowest we have: -

Muladhara - Root or basic.  Base of spine.
Svadhisthana - Pelvic.  Near genitals.
Splenic - Near Spleen.
Manipura - Navel or umbilical.  Near navel.
Anahata -  Heart or Cardiac.  Over the heart.
Vishuddha - Throat or laryngeal.  At the front of the throat.
Ajna - Brow or frontal.  Between the eyebrows.

At the top is the Brahmarandha or Sahasrara - the Lotus of a Thousand Petals, the Halo
- The Crown - Kether - and whosoever rises to that, it is said enters into the Light and
comes not forth again.

The Kabalist equates these Chakras with the Sephiroth in the following way: -

Muladhara - Malkuth:
Svadhisthana - Yesod
Manipura and Anahata Chakras: Tiphareth
Vishuddha - Binah
Ajna - Chokmah.

With a knowledge of astrology and with the use of the Tarot Cards, the Tree of Life can
yield to the truly meditative soul, some rich and remarkable results.

You will have realised that in considering the progress from one Sephirah to another in
the form of the Lightning Flash each Sephirah in turn becomes positive and negative
and this is an illustration of polarity.  Polarity arises from the flow of force.  Energy is
received at one level of pressure and given out at a lower one and so from the
Unmanifest to Malkuth we show on this glyph the flow of force.  Just as there is really
no difference between matter and spirit so can it be said there is no true contradiction
between good and evil and if we are to work with both points of the compasses to
render our Masonic duties complete we must understand both good and evil.  To avoid
these is to endeavour to by-pass as it were Netzach (the true Victory). It is only when
we exceed the limits laid down by the unerring and impartial justice of our Maker that
we lose balance.

Time does not permit of detailed investigation into the Sephiroth, but I will mention that
a symbol connected with Hod is that of the Apron, whilst one connected with Yesod is
the sandal or heel-less slipper.

Now I want to come back to Tiphareth.  It should be noted that this Sephirah is
equilibrated in the centre of the whole Tree.  The six Sephiroth around Tiphareth are
refered to as Adam Kadmon (archetypal man).  Keter can be considered as the Divine
Spark, the four Sephiroth above Tiphareth as the higher self and the four below as the
lower self.  It is in Tiphareth that the higher self is brought through into the
consciousness of the lower self. Tiphareth is the Christ Centre, the place of Crucifixion. 
It is assigned to the sphere of the Sun, and I would have you remember what I said
previously about the beneficence of that Grand Luminary the Sun, Tiphareth is the Sun
behind the Sun, the reflection of Kether.

Of Tiphareth one may quote Keats' words:
"Beauty is Truth
 And Truth Beauty
 That ye know and that is all ye need to know."

Here Brethren must I close my very sketchy and totally inadequate outline of the
Kabalistic "Tree of Life" but as the year in the Christian Tradition ends with the Christmas
Festivities so may I close this Paper with a reminder of yet another tree, a conifer.  I
refer to the symbolic tree, the Christmas Tree.  It is of course well known that one
religion borrows from another and it is strange how in the passage of time the adherents
to a particular religion are quite satisfied that all the symbols and rituals they use are
completely and justly their own.  But they are often mistaken.  The cult of Mithra was
essentially the religion of the soldier, Mithraism overlapped as it were, Christianity by
some 200 years and today we are proud of our Church Army, our Salvation Army and
our hym Onward Christian Soldiers.  In like manner every time of the year approaching
the 25th December we obtain spruce or pine trees which have little or no connection
with the Holy Land, we deck thein with presents and toys and sometimes, not always,
candles.  Right on the top we put an effigy which we call the Christmas Tree fairy and
everybody is happy except the children, when they find the toys are not quite what they
wanted! Now actually we have borrowed this idea of a Christmas Tree from
Scandinavians who celebrated the Winter solstice by a Festival to the god Thor (the God
of the Hammer) with rejoicing and gifts to one another which they hung upon the
evergreen conifer.

Holly you may be interested to know was used to decorate the streets and buildings of
Rome during the Feast of Saturnalia coinciding with the Christian's Christmas.  Mistletoe
of course was associated with the rites of the Druids and its use was condemned by the
early Church as being pagan.

The early Christians used to place wafers upon the Christmas Tree representing the
Host and the candles placed also upon the Tree were arranged in pyramidical form, the
top candle being emblematical of the Chrst.
 Finally Brethren, to close with the beautiful words of a well-known and delightful
song - "Trees": --



"I think that I shall never see
 A poem lovely as a tree;
 A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
 Against the earth's sweet flowing breast:
 A tree that looks at God all day
 And lifts her leafy arms to pray.

"A tree that may in summer wear
 A nest of robins in her hair;
 Upon whose bosom snow has lain
 Who intiniately lives with rain.
 Poems are made by fools like me,
 But only God can make a tree."


 And with an Invocation: -
 May the Most High replace the and wastes
 Of separation, bitterness and strife
 With the rich soil of His Holy Spirit
 That a mighty Tree may grow
 Bearing the fruits of Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth.



So Mote It Be.