The Tree of Life
“Simo Parpola asserted that the concept of a tree of life with different spheres encompassing aspects of reality traces its origins back to the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the ninth century BCE.” — Wikipedia, “Tree of Life”
The Tree of Life in the above illustration is a diagram of fundamental archetypal energies which has evolved through assorted versions over many centuries. This popular version emerged in the 14th century and has been used in various mystical traditions ever since.
"All the most powerful ideas in history go back to archetypes." — Carl Jung
"There are as many archetypes as there are typical situations in life. Endless repetition has engraved these experiences into our psychic constitution, not in the forms of images filled with content, but at first only as forms without content, representing merely the possibility of a certain type of perception and action." — Carl Jung
Though we usually encounter this diagram in the context of one esoteric tradition or another, the basic pattern of the Tree of Life does not belong to any particular culture. The essence of it transcends cultures and is universal, so that anyone might benefit from contemplating it.
Accordingly, people everywhere seem to agree on the basic functions of the formless energies attributed to the spheres on the Tree. However, the same cannot be said of symbols and forms associated with the sphere energies, and especially with the paths that link them on the Tree. All kinds of additional correspondences have been ‘grafted’ onto the Tree according to the beliefs and teachings of the traditions and individuals using it. Individuals speculate freely about appropriate correspondences to the paths, yielding a variety of theories.
In my view, there is no need for membership in any formal mystical tradition in order to interpret the Tree of Life and find profound meaning in it. To know the planetary energies (which not everyone does) is to know the spheres on the Tree from whence all else on it is derived. Interpretation of any path begins with the combined meanings of the two spheres that it connects. Beyond that, the Zodiac and the tarot give us all the symbolic language we need for a clear and meaningful interpretation of the whole Tree.
This mystical diagram is rich in meaning, not to be understood all at once, but through periodic contemplation, organically. At first one sees distinct archetypes, then connections among them; in time the whole map comes to life in one’s mind, an inner reality to be explored at will as if it were a dream. ‘There’ our intuition lets us discover more of what we already know about life than we ever realized we knew. Not only is it fun, but it offers lasting benefits:
a satisfying orientation to reality so that we never need to feel “lost”
a way of keeping things in perspective no matter what happens, rather than sometimes feeling confused and overwhelmed
The Tree of Life truly is mystical, but not because it’s too esoteric for an ordinary seeker to understand, as some seem to believe. It’s mystical because, with repeated contemplation, it really evokes natural intuition and yields progressively deeper insights into the human life that we all live.
In this series, we view astrology and tarot as elegantly combined to the enhancement of both in the Tree of Life, which is comprised of three parts:
The Colorful Fruits (the spheres)
The Storytelling Serpent (the diagonal paths)
The Ladder to the Stars (the vertical & horizontal paths)
An interpretation of a tarot card belonging to the Ladder is featured each month.
The Colorful Fruits
The ‘fruits’ on the Tree are the 10 spheres. There is general agreement as to their correspondences with the planets and with most of the sphere colors. The outer planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) had not yet been discovered in the 14th century, but the existence of similar energies was intuited, and spheres with descriptions appropriate to those planets were included on the Tree.
Here’s a closer view of the spheres/planetary powers as they appear on the basic Tree:
The more powerful collective outer planets correspond to the upper spheres, while the less powerful personal planets correspond to the lower ones, closer to the Earth. Halfway up the Tree are the “social” influences involved in issues of conflict and justice.
The planets/spheres on the Tree are numbered in order of strength from the top down, 1 being the most powerful and 10 being the least. Life manifests through them in sequence from 1 down to 10 (the “Lightning Path”); consciousness then develops more slowly in reverse sequence from 10 up to 1 (the “Serpent Path”).
The 10 planetary influences and their numbers correspond to the numbered cards of the Minor Arcana in the tarot, which portray examples of their effects.
The positions of the spheres on the Tree tell us more about the relationships of the ten energies to one another. Overall, Saturn, Mars, and Mercury are said to comprise energies oriented to the challenges of physical life on the black “Pillar of Severity”, while Uranus, Jupiter, and Venus encourage expansion of experience through opportunities and rewards on the white “Pillar of Mercy”. The general effect is that of “bad cop/good cop”.
On the “Middle Pillar” between the two, human consciousness learns to keep the Black and White extremes in balance, neither too “severe” and controlling nor too “merciful” and lax, in order to live wisely and well.
As it develops, consciousness ‘rises’, or ‘ascends’ up the Center, growing progressively ‘brighter’ through mastery of states marked by the lights of the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, and Neptune/Pluto.
"Colors express the main psychic functions of man." ~ Carl Jung
The planetary spheres on the Tree are the very same energies that are described in the Pantheon of Colors series here at Elixir, listed below with their numbers on the Tree. To read a published post about any planet and the 4 tarot cards associated with it, click on its Pantheon link:
NEPTUNE (Black) = Concealing, Mystery, Imagination, Illusion, Intoxication. Modern ruler of Pisces (and Sagittarius?). Minor Arcana Aces.
PLUTO (White) = Revealing, Penetration, Detoxification. Modern ruler of Scorpio and Aries.
URANUS (Purple) = Creativity, Individuality. Ruler of Aquarius. Minor Arcana Twos.
SATURN (Violet) = Gravity, Contraction, Boundaries, Commitment to Time, Burdens & Delays, Duty, Fate. Ruler of Capricorn. Minor Arcana Threes.
JUPITER (Blue) = Wisdom, Confidence, Humor, Expansion, Lightness. Classic Ruler of Sagittarius and Pisces. Minor Arcana Fours.
MARS (Red) = Desire, Assertiveness, Physical Strength & Speed. Classic ruler of Scorpio and Aries. Minor Arcana Fives.
THE SUN (Yellow) = Ego Awareness, Honor, Balance. Ruler of Leo. Minor Arcana Sixes.
VENUS (Green) = Beauty, Harmony, Aesthetic Sensitivity. Ruler of Taurus and Libra. Minor Arcana Sevens.
MERCURY (Orange) = Knowledge, Efficiency, Attention to Details. Ruler of Gemini and Virgo. Minor Arcana Eights.
THE MOON (Amber) = Feeling, Memory, ‘Programming’, Habit. Ruler of Cancer. Minor Arcana Nines.
THE EARTH (Brown) = Current Established Reality. No rulership. Minor Arcana Tens.
The Storytelling Serpent
“The snake, or serpent, is one of the most symbolically significant animals in literature, religion, and mythology. Although many people associate the snake with sinister and even downright evil connotations, in reality the symbolism of the serpent is far more ambiguous and wide-ranging than this.”
— Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University), “The Curious Symbolism of Snakes in Literature and Myth”
In the context of the Tree of Life, the Serpent is a metaphor for Time and Space.
The ancient symbol of the Ouroboros expresses the cyclical nature of time, as does the Zodiac and Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth (the Hero’s Journey), both of which tell the universal story of human experience and inner development through time.
Below we see the Ouroboros coiled around circular diagrams of the Zodiac and of tarot images associated with the Monomyth. Its rope-like appearance emphasizes our being bound to time and space throughout our lifetime on earth. The place in the cycle where head bites tail is where a life renews itself, taking only unlearned lessons remaining from the old cycle into the new one.
This very same serpent appears unwound as the diagonal paths on the Tree of Life, allowing for further symbolism alluding to the gradual shift of our consciousness towards the timeless Center as we improvise our way spiralwise through our story.
Life is said to manifest, or “emanate”, from the top down in a “Lightning Flash”, while human awareness develops from the bottom up as we ‘climb’ the diagonal segments of the “Serpent Path” through time towards reunion with our Source.
See in the diagram below how the Zodiac unfolds in sequence up the 12 diagonal paths of the Tree. The 6 “feminine” (Earth & Water) signs are all on the left side; the 6 “masculine” (Air & Fire) signs are all on the right. Thus the serpent “slithers” up the Tree in alternating sign genders, a pendulum-like motion that brings progressively difficult “bad cop/good cop” challenges from increasingly powerful archetypes as we climb.
The Quest for the Elixir series tells of the Hero’s Journey we take on the Serpent Path in greater detail.
Each month we celebrate the segment of the Journey corresponding to the current Sun sign. To learn more about (or to review) the part of the story we are celebrating now, find the current Sun sign in the list below and click on its Quest post:
The Path of The Garden = TAURUS = the 31st Path (between the Earth and Mercury). Life emerges from a seed or womb (Earth) to behold the various details (Mercury) of a new world.
The Path of The Fool = GEMINI = the 29th Path (between the Earth and
Venus). Exploration of the immediate environment.
The Path of The Guardian = CANCER = the 30th Path (between the Moon and Mercury) Prohibitions, fears, and associations with bad memories serve to protect us from danger and trouble.
The Path of The Lovers = LEO = the 28th Path (between the Moon and Venus) Encouragement, hope, and associations with good memories serve as guides to success and fulfillment.
The Path of The World = SAGITTARIUS = the 20th Path (between Jupiter and the Sun)
Here’s the way the Major Arcana cards associated with the universal story appear on the diagonal paths of the Tree:
The Ladder to the Stars
The ladder on each of the Tree images below highlights the 10 vertical and horizontal paths on the Tree of Life. They are not segments of the Hero’s Journey, but rather are ‘signposts’ of inner development along the way up the Tree. 4 of them are associated with influences of the 4 Elements, 3 of them with states of consciousness, and 3 with transitions from one stage of life to another. Like the 12 phases of the Journey, they have correspondences in the Major Arcana of the tarot.
The rails of the ladder are like the black and white pillars mentioned above. On them are the paths related to the 4 Elements.
The Left Rail
This is the “feminine” rail of forms, both imaginary (Water) and physical (Earth).
The Watery Path of The High Priestess is the 18th Path (between Saturn and Mars), The Witch of Fate.
The Earthy Path of The Empress is the 23rd Path (between Mars and Mercury), Mother Nature. Desire for physical life (Mars) connects with the skills needed to raise and maintain it (Mercury).
The Right Rail
This is the “masculine” rail of forces, both spiritual (Fire) and mental (Air).
The Fiery Path of The High Priest is the 16th Path (between Uranus and Jupiter), The Wizard of Free Will.
The Airy Path of The Emperor is on the 21st Path (between Jupiter and Venus), Father Culture. Beliefs about life (Jupiter) connect with society and the arts (Venus).
The 3 Rungs
The rungs are all transitions, steps up from one stage of life to another.
The Path of The Chariot is the 27th Path (between Mercury and Venus), Coming of Age. Left-brained, analytical intelligence (Mercury) connects with right-brained, contextual intelligence (Venus) under the control of an adult intuitive mind (the Sun).
The Path of Justice is the 19th Path (between Mars and Jupiter), Initiation.
The Path of The Wheel of Fortune is the 14th Path (between Saturn and Uranus), Destiny.
The Ascent
The ascent up the center of the Tree is the straight route consciousness takes, as in stages it grows brighter in response to experience.
The Path of The Moon is the 32nd Path (between the Earth and the Moon), Childhood. The physical body (Earth) connects with memories & feelings (Moon).
The Path of The Sun is the 25th Path (between the Moon and the Sun), aka the Yellow Brick Road. Adulthood. Memories & feelings (Moon) connect with individual awareness (Sun).
The Path of The Star is the 13th Path (between the Sun and Neptune/Pluto), Elderhood.
The Chariot, or Coming of Age
on the 1st Rung of the Ladder, the 27th Path (between Mercury and Venus).
Left-brained, analytical intelligence (Mercury) connects with right-brained, contextual intelligence (Venus) under the control of an adult intuitive mind (the Sun).
A young charioteer sets out for a drive over an open plain. He leaves behind him the walled city from whence he has come (Earth), and the water he has just crossed (Moon) to arrive at this bright, open space. It is a passage analogous to a birth.
The young man’s personal circumstance is solid; his chariot has the appearance of a grey stone block. He no longer needs the protection of the walled city, for he travels within a protective ‘wall’ of his own and fitted to himself, as betokened by the golden square on his breast. The ‘hood ornament’ on the front of his chariot is comprised of a fertility symbol (opposites united to generate life power) surmounted by a winged sun (the power thus generated and rising in flight). The chariot is further fortified by posts at its four corners, his ready access to each of the Four Elements.
The charioteer is attired as a warrior, prepared for whatever challenges may lie ahead of him. He has enough experience of the seasons and cycles of physical life ‘under his belt’ for his lower body to be rightfully girded with the Zodiac. His spaulders are Waxing and Waning Moons, the increasing and decreasing tides of feeling (Water) that he has known; now he ‘shoulders’ the duty of managing his own feelings, while submitting them to the influence of the central heart they protect via the attached breastplate. The heart is associated with the Sun, the intuitive individual sovereignty being claimed by the young man in this image.
This is a young king, and the significance of the crown he wears is dual. The laurel wreath encircling his head is a symbol of his victory over his moon-like dependency on the ‘sunlight’ of others for survival. The golden Sun at the summit proclaims his self-rulership as the ‘driver’ of his own personal life.
The only thing above the charioteer’s Solar crown is a canopy of Stars, which bears witness to the transcendent Higher Power to which, like all individuals, he is personally accountable. At this present stage, the Sun has yet to gain awareness of his true place among those Stars. The gain in awareness that refines the Sun’s quality is the purpose of the Chariot journey that begins now with his coming of age.
“You become mature when you become the authority of your own life.” ― Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
How does that work? In terms of this image, the young man must take and maintain control over the two Egyptian sphinxes (strength of a pharaoh) that pull the Chariot from their places before its two wheels, both of which require adequate exercise. He must keep their powers in balance, lest the vehicle be overturned to one side or the other in a life that “goes sideways”. In doing so, he is assuming conscious control of the human powers by which adults controlled his life during his childhood and adolescence, while he was still developing the capabilities necessary to control them himself.
What are the sphinxes? The black one, like the black left pillar of the Tree of Life, alludes to the challenges of life, with which we all must deal. We need it in order to establish and maintain our material needs (food, clothing, shelter) from Mother Nature’s supply, and our emotional needs for safety and security. But if we allow it too much power, it draws us onto an overly materialistic sidetrack on which we desperately fear loss and death. That leads to overcontrol, insatiable greed, and endless bleak, utilitarian drudgery, all because we have discounted and neglected the uplifting aesthetic values of harmony, beauty, and spiritual thought. Meanwhile, the neglected white sphinx races onward without guidance towards impractical insanity.
The white sphinx, like the white right pillar of the Tree, represents the rewards of expanding life experience, our opportunities for joy and further development. We need it in order to share in the variety of spiritual, social, and aesthetic values developed by Father Culture, which enriches our lives with pleasure and meaning. But if we allow it too much power, it draws us onto an overly intellectual or idealistic sidetrack of false superiority and overconfidence. That leads to irresponsibility, complacency, and superficial pastimes ironically devoid of both pleasure and meaning, all because we are ungrounded and failing to relate our ideas to “common sense” in the direct human experience of living on Earth in a real physical body of flesh and blood. Meanwhile, the neglected black sphinx races onward without guidance towards wanton destruction.
Each of these two mighty movers can move in many different ways, but they don’t direct themselves. The Sun is the Fiery, intuitive master who coordinates them to function together for a healthy and satisfying ‘drive’ through life. He does so with his personal decisions and choices, which are not determined by external cues or ‘programming’, but rather are based on his own character — spontaneous awareness of who he is as an individual. Note that the charioteer controls the sphinxes not by the use of reins, but rather by the power of a wand, which is a symbol of intuition.
What are the twin human powers that the Sun controls in terms of the planets? They are the mental powers of Mercury and Venus at the feet of the Tree’s pillars, whose physical orbits are conveniently close to the Sun. Their energies are the Airy faculties of human thinking that operate in personal life according to each individual Sun’s intuitive will. One is a knowledgeable, analytical problem-solver; the other an aesthetically aware influence for harmony, beauty, and peace.
So what does this important milestone in human development mean overall? We can see the answer by shifting our focus from the Chariot’s specific path to the whole lower part of the Tree of Life.
In the above illustration, the the lower part of the Tree is superimposed over the image of the Chariot to show the spiritual influences within the image.
The Sun (individual intuition & will) is over the charioteer’s heart.
Mercury and Venus (personal thinking faculties) are over the wheels and the sphinxes.
The Moon (‘programming’ from the past, which plays out automatically unless/until ‘updated’ by the charioteer) is over the chariot’s “hood ornament”.
The Earth (manifestation) is on the open ground under all.
The Paths linking the spheres show the influences that flow naturally between them:
Below the horizontal Path of the Chariot (between Mercury and Venus) we see the 4 diagonal paths on which those two energies have influenced the young man’s story thus far:
Connecting Mercury and Venus with the Earth are the Path of the Garden and the Path of the Fool, on which, in early childhood, he learned something about the properties and possibilities of the objective physical world around him.
Connecting Mercury and Venus with the Moon are the Path of the Guardian (The Devil) and the Path of the Lovers, on which, in later childhood and adolescence, he was immersed in the subjective emotional world of bad and good feelings.
From that foundation, during adolescence, he advanced up the vertical Path of the Sun to discover and develop his individual Solar identity, by which to make an independent, autonomous life through mental competency. Now, on that path, he has come to a crossroad at the Path of the Chariot, the threshold of a major life transition to the adult state of reliable mental management.
The position of the adolescent on this path is similar to that of a child transitioning from a tricycle to a two-wheeler. He starts with the support of training wheels on the bike, and there’s an awkward period of dependency on them until a new inner sense of balance kicks in and it’s time to remove the extra wheels. C.G. Jung calls the psychological equivalent individuation. COMING OF AGE IS THAT TIME. There’s no need to be an Olympic cyclist, but for this transition one must be able to ‘ride a bike’ in life.
Throughout all his younger years, someone else — some authority, usually one parent or the other — always had the ultimate role of the Sun in his life. The Solar intuition of someone else controlled the Mercury/Venus thinking and decisions that shaped his experiences on those 4 diagonal paths around the Moon below. His material needs, transportation & education, discipline, and recreation were all provided and managed by someone else with control over his personal life, for better and/or worse, and his juvenile Lunar self could only adapt and remember. From this moment on, no one else will control those things. They’re all up to him.
The ascent of this First Rung on the Tree, which takes us over the threshold into adulthood and autonomy, is not a step to be taken thoughtlessly. An immature person who rushes onto it while still unready to handle it will soon crash and burn like Icarus of the Greek myth. But when the time is right, it’s a glorious coming of age, in which a person takes over the steering of his own twin mental powers, claiming his rightful Solar sovereignty over his own personal life and the lives of any immature others for whom he may become responsible.
In the above illustration, the image shows no reins by which the charioteer can control the balance of the sphinxes. But we can see the spiritual ‘reins’ in precisely the appropriate positions on the Tree, as diagonal paths connecting Mercury and Venus with the Sun. They are the Path of Proficiency (Strength) and the Path of Harmony (Temperance), on which the adult will hone his abilities through his ongoing story and, hopefully, become an even better master at maintaining the balance of his mind and his life.
In divination, I read The Chariot as autonomy: taking or maintaining rightful control over one’s life or situation, and managing it well.
If it’s reversed, I read it as losing or failing to take control over one’s life or situation. For whatever reason, one is out of balance and not in control. “Going sideways”, or some sort of accident.
A Rite of Passage to The Chariot
"Society has provided [children] no rituals by which they become members of the tribe, of the community. All children need to be twice born, to learn to function rationally in the present world, leaving childhood behind." — Joseph Campbell
Campbell refers here to society in general. There are some cultures in which coming of age is indeed recognized by particular criteria and celebrated with formal rites of passage, but only among their own communities. It seems that the closest thing most young people in general society have to such a celebration is the graduation from a school that qualifies them for a job. Although we can’t throw a party here, we can celebrate personal transition to adulthood with this simple tarot version of a rite of passage.
It’s time to claim your autonomy as a full-fledged adult! Are you ready to turn this Chariot upright, take control of it, and take off? Or is there some problem with your intention that could keep you out of balance? To find out if you need to make any adjustments before setting out in the direction you have in mind, check both of the Chariot’s wheels.
The Virgo Files
More to enjoy whenever the Sun is in Virgo
The Mystical Tree
A Table of Contents
See all the parts of the Ladder