symbols · old marks
Tree of Life 🌳
roots below, crown above
A tree whose roots and branches mirror each other — the picture nearly every culture independently drew when it wanted to say 'everything connects'. Below, the hidden and the ancestral; above, the growing and the possible; in the trunk, you.
Where it comes from
There is no single source, which is the point: Norse myth grew Yggdrasil, the ash holding nine worlds; Kabbalah mapped creation as ten linked spheres and called it Etz Chaim, the Tree of Life; Assyrian palace reliefs, the Bo tree of the Buddha's awakening, the Garden of Eden's twin trees — the image recurs wherever people looked at a great tree and recognised a diagram of existence.
What it means
The core reading is connection across levels: roots (origins, the unconscious, the dead), trunk (the living self), crown (aspiration, spirit, descendants). It also carries growth's honest mechanics — visible flourishing requires invisible rooting — and family in the widest sense: the genealogical 'family tree' is this symbol wearing office clothes.
How people use it today
People wear it as pendants and tattoos to mark rootedness after upheaval, family bonds, or personal growth; it hangs over cradles and desks alike. As a journaling frame it's quietly excellent: draw one, label your roots, trunk and branches honestly, and you have a self-portrait most questionnaires can't match.
A note of respect
Because the image belongs to many traditions, name the one you mean when it matters — a Yggdrasil tattoo and a Kabbalistic Etz Chaim carry different libraries, and their keepers appreciate the distinction.
The cat ascends the real tree, surveys all worlds, refuses to descend: 'Roots are for others. I am crown.'
Symbols carry the meanings people have poured into them. We tell that story with respect — history first, promises never.
More trees of life around the world
Beyond Yggdrasil and the Kabbalistic Etz Chaim, the image grows in many other places:
- Judaism: “Etz Chaim” is also the name for the wooden rollers of a Torah scroll, and the Book of Proverbs calls wisdom “a tree of life to those who hold her”.
- Maya cosmology: a great world tree, often identified with the ceiba, links the underworld, the earth and the heavens.
- Mexican folk art: the clay árbol de la vida sculptures of Metepec, crowded with figures and flowers, began as scenes of Adam and Eve and now tell all kinds of stories.
- Modern art: Gustav Klimt’s swirling Tree of Life, made for the Stoclet Palace frieze in Brussels in the early 1900s, inspired much of today’s jewellery.
The “Celtic tree of life” sold in knotwork pendants is largely a modern design, even if sacred trees were genuinely important in early Irish culture.
Choosing a tree of life pendant, tattoo or wall hanging
- Decide which tree you mean. A round wire pendant reads as general connection; ten circles joined by lines are the Kabbalistic diagram, which belongs to Jewish mysticism and deserves to be worn with that knowledge.
- Roots matter. Designs with visible roots mirroring the branches emphasise ancestry; trees without roots read more as growth.
- Make it a family piece. Birthstones in the branches for each child, or initials in the roots for grandparents, turn a common design into an heirloom — see birthstones for colours.
- At home, a tree of life wall hanging by a dining table or family photos keeps the meaning where the family gathers.
Reflection: what feeds your roots?
Draw a simple tree and write in three places: in the roots, the people and places that fed you; in the trunk, what holds you upright now; in the branches, what you are growing towards this year. Then ask the question that the symbol quietly poses — is the crown I want supported by roots I am still tending? If the answer is “not quite”, one phone call or visit is a good first watering. For a seasonal frame, the wheel of the year pairs well with this exercise.