54 § The Tree and the Vajra

In 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 simul-taneously 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_.

It could nevertheless be asked if the comparison thus established between two such seemingly different things as the tree and the symbol of the thunder-bolt admits of being carried further than the single fact of this axial signi-ficance, 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 'illumi-nation', 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 ^[1]