Tree of Life

Tree of life

The tree of life is a fundamental archetype in many of the world's mythological, religious, and philosophical traditions. It is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life which appear in Genesis' Garden of Eden as part of the Jewish cosmology of creation, and the tree of knowledge connecting to heaven and the underworld such as Yggdrasil, are forms of the world tree or cosmic tree, and are portrayed in various religions and philosophies as the same tree.

Tree of life (Kabbalah)

The Tree of Life is a symbolic diagram used in Jewish mystical traditions, especially in Kabbalah, to describe divine structure, creation, and the spiritual path of ascent. It is usually referred to as the "kabbalistic tree of life" to distinguish it from the tree of life that appears alongside the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Genesis creation narrative as well as the archetypal tree of life found in many cultures. It serves as both a conceptual framework and, in later Kabbalistic texts, a schematic diagram linking the sefirot, or divine emanations, to cosmology and human spiritual development.

Tree

In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only plants that are usable for timber, or only plants above a specified height. Wider definitions include taller palms, tree ferns, bananas, and bamboos.

Life

Life is the capacity in matter, formed of one or more units called cells, for processes such as cell signalling, homeostasis, metabolism, cell growth, adaptation, response to stimuli, and reproduction. All life eventually reaches a state of death. Many philosophical definitions of living systems have been proposed, such as self-organising systems. Defining life is further complicated by viruses, which replicate only in host cells, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life, which could be very different from life on Earth. Life exists all over the Earth in air, water, and soil, with many ecosystems forming the biosphere. Some of these are harsh environments occupied only by extremophiles. The life in a particular ecosystem is called its biota.

tree of life

Noun

1. A kind of tree, the arborvitae; an individual thereof.
2. A metaphor used to describe the phylogenetic relationships between organisms, both living and extinct; a diagram that shows those relationships, with a treelike appearance.