| By :
Mark Etinger
The term "Tree of Life" can mean a lot of different things to different people. It's been around for thousands of years, and has evolved throughout time and been adopted by multiple cultures. The term has a number of religious, scientific and social connotations. For Judeo-Christians it's a tree in the Garden of Eden. In the Book of Genesis it's planted by God and said to grant immortality to those who eat its fruit. Along with the Tree of Life in Eden is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, though it's been disputed that these two are in fact the same tree. The details about the Tree of Life usually vary among the different branches of Christianity throughout the world. Those who practice Kabbalah see the Tree of Life as a mystical symbol which describes the path to HaShem, or God, and how he created the world from nothing. The tree has been used to portray a map of Creation; the literal image maintains the basic shape of an actual tree but looks more like a chart. The tree of life also greatly resembles the Christian Gnostic idea of Pleroma, a term coined to describe the sum of emanations of divine powers. The theory of Pleroma is that each emanation is more powerful and complex than the one before it, creating a splintering effect from each emanation. Conversely, a scientist might hear "Tree of Life" and think of Charles Darwin, the first person to create an evolutionary tree of life. He used the phrase as a metaphor for phylogeny, or the "evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms," and drew one of the first diagram in his book On the Origin of Species. The phrase has been updated and is now called the Phylogenetic Tree. Much like the Kabbalists' Tree of Life, the Phylogenetic Tree is a tree-shaped diagram, though some older versions by Ernst Haeckel are detailed drawings of actual trees, with labels at the branches. The scientific tree of life is still used today, though not as widely as it was in Darwin's time. The term has cropped up over and over in the media, in books, TV, movies; next year Brad Pitt and Sean Penn will star in a movie called The Tree of Life; it's used in the game Dungeons & Dragons; there is also a 14-story, 50 feet-wide sculpted "tree of life" serving as icon and centerpiece of Disney's Animal Kingdom, with all of the animals that can be seen around the park sculpted into the bark. Tree of Life engraved wall installations are often used by hospitals and schools as memorials or a way to honor contributors and donors. They come in dozens of different styles and sizes and are the perfect way to immortalize your gratitude for those who have helped you out.
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