Symbols - What does heaven look like
Inverted tree
Generally speaking this is the Tree of life.
I have provided a number of observations that show an inverted tree rather than a tree with its branches above and the Tree of life explanation describes why. It is worth mentioning, however, that the inverted tree is by far the preferred symbol for the Tree of Life. Example writers and philosophers who have used the symbolism of an inverted tree include
- Plato – the Timaeus described the hierarchy of beings as a heavenly tree growing with its root upward
- Hebraic esoteric teaching
- Islam and Sufism
- Dante [in Paradiso]
- Federigo Frezzi in Il Quadriregio
- Finnish and Icelandic folklore
- Wiradjuri Yuin and Kamilaroi [Australian] tribal myth
The inverted tree also links with tree symbolism. George Chapman wrote
"So in our tree of man, whose nervie rootSprings his top."
Observations
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- Cirlot on the Inverted tree
- Gaudi - Professional work - 04 The Sagrada Família
- George Harrison - While my guitar gently weeps
- Gershom Scholem – On the Kabbalah and its symbolism - Sefiroth
- Louis Ginzberg - Legends of the Jews
- Mircea Eliade – The Zohar and the Tree of life
- Shaikh Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani - Irshad al-‘awamm - Inverted trees
- Tzu, Lao - Attain to utmost Emptiness
- Upanishads, the – Commentary by Mircea Eliade