Thuja is beautiful plant archetype. Plant archetypes reveal the enigma and mysteries of life in a very suggestive and meaningful way. Plants have intimate relationship with human life. Human life depends on plant life. What is most fascinating and charismatic about human life? Unity in diversity and diversity in unity is essence and substance of human life. The progress or evolution of life depends on dialectics of life.
Dialectics is dynamism of life. It is the driving force of life. In the absence of dialectics there would have been no life. Life is harmonious synthesis of opposing and contradictory forces of
nature. All probability of life depends on dialectics. The life is life because of its polarity. It is polarity that makes the life beautiful. The landscape of life does not only contain beautiful scenes and sceneries it also contains bands of deserts in its lap. Life is composite culture of pains and pleasures. Polarity is pre-requisite and very existence of life.Our life, our mind, nature, matter all are having polarities and paradoxes hidden within. The dichotomy of life is the very basis of life. The paradoxicalities and dichotomies of life and matter are leading us to eternal synthesis i.e. truth. Truth is that in which all dichotomies/ paradoxicalities of form and nature are dissolved. The polarity, the dichotomy, the paradox of life has been revealed and presented by various motifs and symbols of mythology.
Life and death are two polarities of life. One is leading to the other. Every minute life is decaying every minute and every minute life is taking rebirth. The Hindu philosophy beautifully describes this dichotomy of life and death through the motif of reincarnation. According to this philosophical doctrine the life or soul never dyes. After death soul or mind takes its new birth. The death is like shedding of the old skin of a snake. The snake of life and the tree of life go on shedding their skin and bark. The snake and Thuja (called tree of life) have been repeatedly used in mythology to show this pattern of life.
The primitive mind discerned and acknowledged the polarity of life and nature from the very beginning of life when life started originating on earth planet. The aboriginal mind represented this dichotomy of life through both the symbols of Thuja and Snake. It is very interesting that the aboriginal mind and medieval mind selected one symbol from plant life and
other from animal kingdom. It also shows the continuous and spontaneous evolution of life and man from plant life through animal life.
The mythology of tree of life or Thuja reveals two aspects of life the life and death beautifully. Genesis reveals the presence of two sacred trees in Eden. The tree of life is paralleled by tree of death facing each other. The ascent and transcendent of man.i.e man ascends from its lower animal nature to emancipation, liberation, self realization or universal consciousness is denoted by tree of life. Release from the circle of life and death and its rebirth through the tree of knowledge. It is very fascinating that the descendant of man or its reverse journey is represented by tree of knowledge.
The tree of knowledge
The tree of knowledge is very big archetype. The descendant or fall of man comes through the “Tree of knowledge”. It seems very enigmatic, how the tree of knowledge is responsible for the decay of a man? The tree of knowledge is human ego principle. Through tree of knowledge man descends into matter and bondages of matter. It is the negative consciousness of self or ego that binds man into materialism. The two trees seem to be different but these are parts of the same supreme reality. The tree of life is growing and evolving aspect of nature and life and the tree of knowledge is degrading and decomposing aspect of nature.
Unity in diversity
Though the two trees seem to be standing in contention, but the two trees are one and the same thing. These are two aspects of the same supreme reality or consciousness. These aspects are inseparable. These are two sides of the same coin. These represent the same idea of transmigration of souls. Life is being transformed into death and death is being transformed into new life. It is only by the death of mortal beings (ego personalities) that the immortality can be achieved. This is the archetypal essence or idea of Thuja. So Thuja tree represents the polarities of life.
