54 § The Tree and the Vajra
I N the last chapter there was a reference to the schema of the tree with three branches and three roots, which is based on the general symbol of analogy and can thus be looked at in the two opposite directions. We will add to this some complementary remarks which will make clearer the close connection between apparently different symbols of the World Axis. In fact, as it is easy to see from the figure below, the schema in question is fundamentally identical with the figure of the double vajra, the two opposite extremities of which likewise
Figure 18
reproduce the analogical symbolism in question. Already, with reference to the vajra, we have pointed out this correspondence in connection with the triplicity that is often to be found in axial symbolism in order to represent simultaneously the central axis itself and the two accompanying cosmic currents of the right and of the left, a triplicity of which certain representations of the World Tree provide an example. We remarked that 'in this case, the double triplicity of the branches and roots recalls even more exactly that of the two extremities of the vajra' which, as is known, are in the form of a trident or trishula. [1]
It could nevertheless be asked if the comparison thus established between two such seemingly different things as the tree and the symbol of the thunderbolt admits of being carried further than the single fact of this axial significance, which is obviously common to both. The answer to this question is to be found in what has been said about the igneous nature of the World Tree, with which Agni himself, as Vanaspati, is identified in Vedic symbolism, and of which the 'column of fire' is consequently an exact equivalent as representation of the axis. It is likewise obvious that lightning is of an igneous or luminous nature; moreover, lightning is one of the most common symbols of 'illumination', understood in the intellectual or spiritual sense. The 'Tree of Light', of which we have spoken, traverses and illumines all the worlds; according to the Zohar passage cited in this connection by Ananda Coomaraswamy, 'the illumination begins at the summit and extends in a straight line through the entire trunk'; and this propagation of light can easily evoke the idea of lightning; generally speaking, the World Axis is always regarded more or less explicitly as luminous. We have already had occasion to recall that
Plato, for example, described it as a 'luminous axis of diamond', and this is yet another direct link with one of the aspects of the vajra, which means both 'thunderbolt' and 'diamond'. [2]
There is still something else to be said: one of the most widespread designations of the axial tree, in the different traditions, is that of 'Tree of Life'. Now, it is known that the traditional doctrines establish an immediate relationship between Light and Life; [3] we will not dwell further on this at present, having already treated this question elsewhere; [4] we will only recall once again, as relating immediately to our subject, the fact that the Hebrew Kabbala unites the two notions in the symbolism of the 'dew of light' emanating from the 'Tree of Life'. Furthermore, in other passages of the Zohar that Coomaraswamy cites in the course of his study on 'The Inverted Tree', [5] where there is question of two trees, a higher one and a lower one, therefore as it were superposed, these two trees are respectively designated as the 'Tree of Life' and the 'Tree of Death'. This recalls the two symbolic trees of the Earthly Paradise, and is moreover particularly significant for the completion of the correspondence that we now have in mind, for these meanings of 'life' and 'death' are in fact also attached to the double aspect of the thunderbolt, represented by the two contrary directions of the vajra, as we have previously explained. [6] As we said then, what is really involved, in the most general sense, is the double power of production and destruction of which life and death are the expression in our world, and which is related to the two phases of 'expiration' and 'inhalation' of universal manifestation. The correspondence of these two phases is clearly indicated also in texts of the Zohar to which we have just alluded, for there the two trees are represented as mounting up and descending, each as it were taking the place of the other in a way analogous to the alternation of day and night.