The Tree of Life

The concept of a tree of life as a many-branched tree illustrating the idea that all life on earth is related has been used in science, religion, philosophy, mythology, and other areas. A tree of life is variously;

1.     a motif in various world theologies, mythologies, and philosophies;

2.     a metaphor for the livelihood of the spirit.

3.     a mystical concept alluding to the interconnectedness of all life on our planet; and

4.     a metaphor for common descent in the evolutionary sense.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the tree of knowledge, connecting heaven and the underworld, and the tree of life, connecting all forms of creation, are both forms of the world tree or cosmic tree. According to some scholars, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, portrayed in various religions and philosophies, are the same tree.

^. The Tree of Life concept is sacred to most cultures. Its significance transcends conscious reality, touching the subconscious and beyond the undefinable. Even if the original meaning is obscured, the symbol retains an unconscious link with our primeval memory and becomes a source of strength.

Symbols have multi-level significance. They may be personal, such as those occurring in the use of language, imagery and in the doodling and dream motifs of an individual. They in turn are derived from symbols, which are part of the social group and overall tradition. Secondly, there are interpretations, which are linked with cultural history. Finally, there are universal symbols, which transcend time and space and seek out deeper reality, expressive of the universal consciousness. They are part of what analytical psychologist Carl Jung calls our "collective consciousness".

The Cosmic Tree symbol occurs in practically all cultures. Its roots plunge deep into the nether world; branches reach upwards towards heaven and support it. The trunk is the means of ascending upwards and reaching beyond, thereby connecting three worlds.

In Shamanistic ritual, the priest ascends up the tree, step by step, calling out at every stage the visions that come to him until he reaches the seventh step, the highest. Among the Bhil tribes in Western India, a dead ancestor's soul is ritually appeased by the priest as he climbs the steps cut into the tree or a pole.

Once he reaches the seventh stage, the soul is released and the purified spirit rests with God. The tree is seen as a point of contact or an antenna, which reaches out to the beyond. The Tree of Life not only stands for growth, proliferation and regeneration; it is associated with the inexhaustible abundance of life, reflecting immortality and the cyclic ebb and flow of cosmic life.


The presence of a tree signifies water, growth, and fecundity — hence it is seen as the Tree of Life.

The straight tree that survives the cyclic movement of seasons, bending with the wind, unscathed, is seen as the strong and truthful warrior who overcomes all vicissitudes and remains steadfast. The trunk is the physical being planted firmly on earth, its roots embedded in the dark unknown unconscious and the branches reach out heavenwards towards the spiritual truth, which unite him with the Eternal Light and make him a part of the all-permeating formless essence of cosmic life.

(The writer is a textile historian jasleendhamija@airtelmail.in )

Symbolism in Art

Fallen Angel

Odilon Redon

Symbolism originated in France, and was part of a 19th-century movement in which art became infused with mysticism. French Symbolism was both a continuation of the Romantic tradition and a reaction to the realistic approach of impressionism. It served as a catalyst in the outgrowth of the darker sides of Romanticism and toward abstraction.

 The term Symbolism means the systematic use of symbols or pictorial conventions to express an allegorical meaning. Symbolism is an important element of most religious arts and reading symbols plays a main role in psychoanalysis. Thus, the Symbolist painters used these symbols from mythology and dream imagery for a visual language of the soul.

Not so much a style of art, Symbolism was more an international ideological trend. Symbolists believed that art should apprehend more absolute truths which could only be accessed indirectly. Thus, they painted scenes from nature, human activities, and all other real world phenomena in a highly metaphorical and suggestive manner. They provided particular images or objects with esoteric attractions.

There were several, rather dissimilar, groups of Symbolist painters and visual artists. Symbolism in painting had a large geographical reach, reaching several Russian artists, as well as American. The closest to Symbolism was Aestheticism. The Pre-Raphaelites, also, were contemporaries of the earlier Symbolists, and have much in common with them. Symbolism had a significant influence on Expressionism and Surrealism, two movements which descend directly from Symbolism proper. The work of some Symbolist visual artists directly impacted the curvilinear forms of the contemporary Art Nouveau movements in Europe and Les Nabis.

The Persistence of Memory

The Persistence of Memory (Spanish: La persistencia de la memoria; Catalan: La persistència de la memòria) is a 1931 painting by artist Salvador Dalí, and is one of his most recognizable works. The painting has been in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City since 1934. It is very widely recognized, and is frequently referenced in popular culture.

The well-known surrealist piece introduced the image of the soft melting pocket watch. It epitomizes Dalí's theory of "softness" and "hardness", which was central to his thinking at the time. As Dawn Ades wrote, "The soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order". This interpretation suggests that Dalí was incorporating an understanding of the world introduced by Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.

Although fundamentally part of Dalí's Freudian phase, the imagery precedes his transition to his scientific phase by fourteen years, which occurred after an atomic bomb was dropped in 1945.

It is possible to recognize a human figure in the middle of the composition, in the strange "monster" that Dalí used in several period pieces to represent himself – the abstract form becoming something of a self portrait, reappearing frequently in his work. The orange clock at the bottom left of the painting is covered in ants. Dali often used ants in his paintings as a symbol for death, as well as a symbol of female genitalia.

The figure in the middle of the picture is symbolized as a "fading" creature, as which, when one often dreams he or she cannot pin-point the exact form and composition of a creature. The iconography of this famous painting is that of a dream that Dalí had experienced. The clocks symbolize the passing of time that one experiences in a dream state.

Nurture The Ego Ideal ~ Ego is not a dirty word

The unconscious/subconscious aspects of the individual have long held fascination for many.

This blog is tilted the Ideal Ego in recognition of  the Ideal Ego’s  role in symbolic identification. While I await a potential offer in a Masters of Art therapy, I plan to share my thoughts, interests and internal framework that will help shape my experience of learning should I be successful in gaining a place in the course.

This simple extract encapsulates the way Lacan reads Freud (I much favour Lacan’s interpretations and understanding of Freud, than Freud). Freud uses three distinct terms for the activity that drives people to act ethically: he speaks of ideal ego (Idealich), ego-ideal (Ich-Ideal) and superego (Ueberich).

Lacan introduces a precise distinction between these three terms: the "ideal ego" stands for the idealized self-image of the subject (the way I would like to be, I would like others to see me); the Ego-Ideal is the agency whose gaze I try to impress with my ego image, the big Other who watches over me and propels me to give my best, the ideal I try to follow and actualize; and the superego is this same agency in its revengeful, sadistic, punishing, aspect. The underlying structuring principle of these three terms is clearly Lacan's triad Imaginary-Symbolic-Real: ideal ego is imaginary, what Lacan calls the "small other," the idealized double-image of my ego; Ego-Ideal is symbolic, the point of my symbolic identification, the point in the big Other from which I observe (and judge) myself; superego is real, the cruel and insatiable agency which bombards me with impossible demands and which mocks my failed attempts to meet them, the agency in the eyes of which I am all the more guilty, the more I try to suppress my "sinful" strivings and meet its demands. The old cynical Stalinist motto about the accused at the show trials who professed their innocence ("the more they are innocent, the more they deserve to be shot") is superego at its purest.

Through the modality of experiential creative therapy I hypothesise should the Ego-Ideal be nurtured..... it will learn to ignore the superego and finally be free of harsh cruel criticisms and allow the person to live in the moment freely.  

What do you think?