ARBOR VITAE, TREE OF LIFE.

CHANGE OURSELVES TO CHANGE OUR WORLD

ARBOR VITAE, TREE OF LIFE.

Change ourselves to Change Our World.

In the Vedas, the Ashvattha Tree is the Peepul Tree, the sacred fig of the Bodhi and related to the Mulberry.

The Ashvattha Tree is a vital tree amongst trees, uniquely delivering oxygen both day and night and it grows in two different directions. According to mythology and early religion, Brahma lives in the roots, Vishnu in the trunk and Shiva in the leaves and seeds.

In the Sanskrit, the Ashvattha is the Ficus Religiosa, the Tree of Knowledge and of Life itself. The Bow for Brahma to give to Arjuna for self-control and precision is crafted from the wood of this tree, also for the bow of Rudra, which causes the accuracy of Love to fly into the heart.

Across the Cosmos, in Vedic Astronomy, the Ashvattha stretches from the North Polaris (North Star or Pole Star) to the South Polaris (Sigma Octantis). These two stars are our stability in the night sky, appearing almost motionless, all other stars rotating around them, the compass points of our galaxy. They are seen respectively above Greenland and below Australia, used always for shipping directions. Birds use them for their flights of migration.

The world tree grows upward and also downward, like the related bodhi tree and banyan tree and also has similar traits to the yew tree. It is believed to stretch across the universe in both directions.

Strangely enough, while living in Florida, a Banyan tree had literally climbed the wall between our home and the house next door, setting down great thick branches that re-rooted into the ground.

Robin’s personal assistant set his bicycle against the tree and practically forgot about it, driving around in his new jeep instead. The tree threw down a couple of branches that pinned the bicycle firmly into the tree. It is against the law to cut down these trees or chop them in any way, and so to this day, Uncle Bob’s bicycle is still trapped in the Banyan tree.

It is said that the Buddha found his enlightenment under such a tree, and I can truly believe that. There is something very powerful and special about these trees, like our famous Yew trees in England, often found in churchyards and thousands of years old. They also throw branches down to re-root the tree. The Yew hedges that are so popular in grand estates are rows of these Yew trees, clipped and manicured that stand the test of time, many pairs of birds building their nests and sheltering inside them year after year. I have a Yew tree that houses little chattering wrens to greet me every morning.

The curious Ashvattha Tree seems suspended across our milky way in a series of stars known to those who wrote the Vedas, with Earth suspended in the middle. It is quite rightly regarded as the Tree of Life, because we are aware only of life in existence upon this planet until proven otherwise.

In the Southern hemisphere, the Southern Crab Nebula was imaged by NASA’s ‘Hubble telescope’ on April 24th 1990. It showed the structure of Shiva’s Damru drum in a whirling form of stars. This drum, like a figure eight, is a small drum held in one hand and swivelled back and forth with a wrist movement to make beads on two strings strike each end in turn. It is used in many spiritual practices symbolizing the expanding and collapsing Universe, the two sides representing the duality of existence, creation and destruction, life and death, not as opposing forces but as complimentary elements that sustain the universe.

It also represents the heartbeat of the earth, the intake and outbreath of oxygen and carbon dioxide that keeps the core of life and the heart and lungs going to give life.

The damaru or damru is known as a power drum that can raise spiritual energy. NASA does not necessarily believe in the spiritual mythology, yet the images cannot lie from the telescope, and it is obvious to anyone who knows about the ‘drum’ that this is where the image originated in the cosmos.

The North Star is also a curiosity in that the Hubble Telescope confirmed that the Polaris is possibly five times greater than the size of the Sun and it has dark spots upon it. It is a Cephid that lights up and dims in its rotation. It looks like a triple star with a close companion adding to the light according to NASA. A study of it was published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Because of this remarkable Tree of Life and Knowledge I added the ARBOR VITAE to the Vedic Tarot as 0-8 appearing before number 8 Justice. The middle row of the Major Arcana, 0-8 and 8 through to 14, I see as the eight powers of the Soul.

Soul Power: Tolerance related to pure Love. The image is a tree, and even if the tree is kicked, it still gives fruit freely to the assailant.

Key: Movement and Growth.

Path: Souls and the Cycle of Time.

Regalia: Breath, Medicine, Sound, Poetry, Singing, Weaving.

DIVINATION:

The querent sincerely seeks to know their role in life and how to participate in the Great Work. Through learning and insight we become an expert. The nurturing of the planet is crucial to understanding the way of healing those who live in this world of matter. All the senses are used to ‘see’ what is needed to prevent waste and to store knowledge. What the soul knows cannot be destroyed even with the leaving of the body. Soul memory is different from brain memory in that it is beyond the world of matter and has divine knowledge rather than just gathered knowledge.

The power of Tolerance is used not to overreact to the destruction and blood sacrifice, the terrible scenes that we witness at this time, but to be loving and quietly do what is useful to relieve the pain and cruelty around us, to make the relevant changes. Nature will also help us and protect us as we protect her, the Mother. As the blinkers are removed, new consciousness emerges that enables us to use different powers of communication between us, a strengthening of quiet determination and truth as a spiritual warrior. To sustain life, we can use the medicine of Light and Might in our thoughts, speech, and actions, to lessen our own karma. Each person who takes responsibility like this will cause a gentle revolution and evolution within the species across the world because of the interconnected nature of matter. Undoing the wrongs with right action and right thought is the greatest medicine of all. One tiny change in conscience of one person can have the effect of greater change throughout the world if done with ‘soul’ purpose and heart consciousness and not ‘ego’ but with humbleness. Sudden illumination of the mind makes major changes and new patterns then have to emerge.

I could go into the Sanskrit and the Hebrew and Ogham in my book, and all the ancient alphabets of other languages, if I knew them all, but if you have a copy of the Vedic Tarot, I explain some of them in there. There is spirituality and psychic awareness everywhere and extra senses are available to us if we work on them. We just need to read the silence within ourselves to awaken them. This is the lesson of all the yogis and spiritual teachers in the world. The ancestral teacher is within each of us and divine help is there when we need it. We have all the archetypes and have lived them many times, not just in this life. The research can start within our own minds. It is up to us to change ourselves little by little, and in doing so, with love and caring, change our world through our own transformation.

Dwina***

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