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For the first thread in the religion and spirituality section, I thought I would talk about Kabballah.

I always understood the tree of life in Kabballah in terms of Plato’s theory of forms, but not as an epistemology as we undertand it today, it’s describing an ontology. It’s divided into four ‘worlds’ – Atziluth, Briar, Yetzirah and Assiah. They bare a stricking similarity to the forms as Atziluth and Briar are mental in quality and archetypal, abstract; they are pretty much the creative potentials and possibilities, where as Yetzirah and Assiah are the active forces of creation on the material plane.

The best analogy I have heard is the description of a chair. The idea of ‘rest’ floats around in the mental and abstract plane, then the chair comes into being. Ifyou compare this image of the four worlds to Plato’s divided line, they look exactly the same and have the same properties.

Watch this awesome video for a better explanation.

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4gVl4XHoLg[/video]

Many philosophies have various metaphysical takes on forms, which one you take to personally will vary greatly. Some see the Atziluth and Briar worlds as transcendental or immanent. Some see them as transcendental idealist, some see it as entirely idealist (all mind and no matter) and some dualist. There are even possibilities for a materialist view of Kabballah, monism, or a dialectical monism.

The main influence that I have seen on Kabballah, based on historical progression in the House of Wisdom (Translation Movement) to the first European Renaissance (see Moshe Ben Shem Tov), is Gnosticism from neo-Platonism and Manechaeism (a form of Zoroastrianism), which are disputed to be either dualist or idealist, panentheist, or monotheistic. They are both transcendental however, explaining that everything emanates from The One.

Trees are always different, they are individual and yet they are all part of the same group. Philosophy and mysticism starts with the problem of universals and particulars. how do you define a corpse of trees? Philosophy started out in the woods with Plato, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_Academy among a few olive trees. Trees also have roots that connect to other forms of life, they have a submerged world that feeds into the visible world of the tree and a tree that is close to a river will flourish the most, hence the old expression ‘be as a tree close to a river’ http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/17-8.htm .

So I would say that the tree of life can be understood philosophically first and foremost. Also, trees reach towards the heavens and so they are a fitting metaphor for mystical beliefs.

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