Curly Tree of Life

Click image(s) to see the larger version(s).

This very pretty tree comes from the Flickrstream of Three Little Cupcakes and is listed under a Creative Commons license.

This nifty tattoo was created by Amanda Cancilla at Artistic Skin Designs in Indianapolis, IN. The original Flickr page says that the owner's son's name is in the roots, but I can't quite make it out. UPDATE: Clare picked out the name in the comments section: it's Sawyer!

The Tree of Life is a title that features in many ancient cultures; what follows is a small sampling. In the Bible the Tree of Life grows alongside the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden of Eden. In Persian mythology the tree of life, Gao-kerena, has roots that reach into the world ocean called Voura-kasa. Its seeds can not only resurrect the dead but grant immortality to people who eat them! In Sumatra and Indonesia it is called Djambu Baros and grows in the topmost heaven. On each leaf a word is written such as: joy, prosperity, etc. Each soul must acquire one of these leaves before it can leave the Earth and whichever leaf it obtains decides the fortunes of the souls future incarnation. The most popular Tree of Life, among most neopagans, is the Celtic Tree of Life. This tree has its roots in the Otherworld, its trunk resides into our waking world while its topmost branches reach into the heavens and was believed to bestow blessings upon the living. When tribes cleared land for settlement they were known to leave one large tree in the area and it was known as their own local Tree of Life. (More on the Celtic reverence for trees in a few days.) In the tradition of Kaballah the Tree of Life is interpreted as a map of reality and equated, by some, as the same Tree of Life from the Bible (and the beginning of this paragraph). This concludes my summary of the Tree of Life and its significance in various cultures and mythologies.