CHAPTER XXV

THE TREE AND THE SERPENT

If we now return to the symbol of the serpent coiled round a tree, about which a few words were said earlier, it will be observed that this figure is exactly that of the helix traced round the vertical cylinder in the geometrical representation we have been studying. Since the tree symbolizes the “World Axis”, as has been said, the serpent will depict the series of the cycles of universal Manifestation^[99]; and this accounts for the fact that the traversing of the different states is represented in some traditions as a migration of the being in the body of a serpent^[100]. As the traversing can be envisaged in two opposite directions, either upwards towards the higher states or downwards towards the lower, the two opposed aspects of the serpent symbolism, one beneficent and the other maleficent, thereby explain themselves^[101].

The serpent is found coiled not only round a tree, but also round a number of other symbols of the “World Axis”^[99], and especially the mountain, as is seen in the Hindu tradition in the symbolism of the “churning of the sea”^[100]. Here, the serpent Shésha or Ananta, representing the indefinite of universal Existence, is coiled round the Méru, the “polar mountain”^[101], and is pulled in opposite directions by the Dêvas and the Asuras, who correspond respectively to the states that are higher and lower than the human; we thus obtain either the beneficent or the maleficent aspect, according to whether the serpent is regarded from the side of the Dêvas or that of the Asuras^[102]. Again, if the meaning of the latter is interpreted in terms of “good” and “evil”, we then get a clear correspondence with the two opposed sides of the “Tree of Knowledge” and the other similar symbols that have already been examined^[103].

There is yet another aspect of the general symbolism of the serpent in which it appears, not precisely as maleficent (which necessarily implies the presence of the beneficent correlative, for “good” and “evil”, like the two terms of any duality, can only be understood by reference to each other), but at any rate as to be dreaded, in so far as it represents the being’s attachment to the indefinite series of cycles of manifestation^[99]. This aspect belongs for instance to the function of the serpent (or the dragon which is then an equivalent of it) as the guardian of certain symbols of immortality, the approach to which it forbids. Thus we find it coiled round the tree with the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides, or the beech tree in the wood at Colchis on which the Golden Fleece hangs; these trees are clearly further forms of the “Tree of Life”, and accordingly they also represent the “World Axis”^[100].

For the being to realize himself totally, he must escape this cyclic concatenation and pass from the circumference to the centre, in other words to the point where the axis meets the plane representing the state in which he is at present situated; the integration of this state having first been thus achieved, the totalization will thereafter take place, starting from that plane as basis, in the direction of the vertical axis. It should be noticed that while there is continuity between all states envisaged in their cyclic course, as was explained before, the passage to the centre essentially implies a discontinuity in the being’s development; in this respect it may be compared to what from a mathematical standpoint is the “passage to the limit ” of an indefinite series in continuous variation. In fact the limit, being by definition a fixed quantity, cannot as such be attained in the course of the variation, even if this is pursued indefinitely; as the limit is not subject to the variation, it does not belong to the series of which it is the term, and one must go outside that series in order to reach it.^[99] Similarly, it is necessary to go outside the indefinite series of manifested states and of their mutations in order to attain the “Invariable Middle”, the fixed and immutable point which commands movement without participating in it, just as the entire mathematical series, in its variation, is ordered by relation to its limit, which thus gives it its law but itself stands outside that law. Metaphysical realization cannot be carried out “by degrees”, any more than can the passage to the limit, or the integration which is really only a sort of particular case of it; it is like a synthesis which cannot be preceded by any analysis, and in face of which all analysis would indeed be powerless and strictly nil in its results.

In the Islamic doctrine there is an interesting and important point in connexion with the above. The “straight path” (es-sirâtul-mustaqîm) which is spoken of in the fâtihah (literally “opening”) or first sûrat of the Qoran, is the same thing as the vertical axis taken in its upward direction, for its “uprightness” (identical with the Te of Lao-tze) must be envisaged in a vertical direction as is indicated by the root of the word that denotes it (qām, “to raise oneself”). Thus the meaning of the last verse, in which this “straight path” is defined as the “path of those on whom Thou pourest forth Thy grace, not that of those on whom Thine anger is, nor of those who are in error”. Those on whom the Divine “Grace”^[100] is, are those who directly receive the influence of the “Activity of Heaven”, and who are led by it to the higher states and to total realization, since their being is in conformity with the universal Will. Again, “anger” being in direct opposition to “grace”, its action must also be exerted along the vertical axis, but with the opposite effect, which makes it travel downwards, towards the lower states^[99]; this is the “infernal” way opposed to the “heavenly” way, and these two ways are the lower and upper halves of the vertical axis, starting from the level corresponding to the human state. Lastly, those who are in “error”, in the proper etymological sense of the word, are those who, as is the case with the vast majority of men, drawn and held fast by multiplicity, err or wander indefinitely in the cycles of manifestation, represented by the convolutions of the serpent coiled around the “Tree in the Midst”.^[100]

In this connexion it should again be recalled that the proper meaning of the word Islam is “submission to the Divine Will”^[101]; hence it is said, in certain esoteric teachings, that every being is muslim, in the sense that there is clearly none who can elude that Will, and accordingly each necessarily occupies the place allotted to him in the Universe as a whole. The division of beings into “faithful” (mūminīn) and “infidels” (kuffār)^[102] thus merely consists in the fact that the former consciously and voluntarily conform to the universal order, whereas among the latter there are some who obey the law only against their will, and others who are in pure and simple ignorance. Here again, then, are the three classes of beings that have just been envisaged; the “faithful” are those who follow the “straight path”, which is the place of “peace”, and their conformity to the universal Will makes them true collaborators in the Divine Plan.