The Tree of Life Legend

The Legend of the Tree of Life 

from the Bird Park, Iguaçu

The tree of life grows strong and beautiful in paradise.  From its roots emerge the waters of a fountain, the fountain of wisdom.  A young god approaches.  He sacrifices one eye to drink from the water of wisdom.  With his sword he cuts out of the tree of life a piece of wood and covers a lance with is.  In its shaft he engraves the lasws of the earth.  With it he rules and dominates the earth: humans, giants, dwarfs, animals. But the world ash tree, due to its injury, dies slowly.  The water of wisdom dries up.  Th tree catches fire, which spreads across the earth and destroys all of life.  Big waters rise and flood the surface of the earth. Gods, men, giants disappear.  Out of the floods nature emerges, and the cycle of life starts again.

" Conservation is to try and acheive global sustainability.  Parque das Aves uses its lorikeet aviary to illustrate a story from mythology.  This ancient legend remind us of man's self-imposed threat towards 'his' planet earth and it speaks the ultimate truth: 

Nature does not need us but we need nature"

I was struck by this legend presented by this Tree of Life grotto at the entrance of the Parque das Aves by the Iguaçu Park.  The big question in  my mind was why did the god feel the need to cut the tree in the first place, once he had already been allowed to drink from the waters of wisdom?  Hmm...??  

The legend's ending at the beginning of the cycle of life had me thinking again of Clarissa Pinkola Estes wonderful book Women Who Run with Wolves, and her deep exploration of the life-death-life cycles which she identifies as intrinsic to all life, and also to human relationships.  And it left me wondering how her theories relate to the life and death cycles of nature - are man made destructive interventions also somehow a 'natural' part of the cycle?  

Something in this legend (perhaps the god and his cutting?) left me feeling that this is a male-dominated myth to me.  Then for some reason I was reminded of this wonderful creature of a tree from Florianopolis, the Figueria, and Estés' idea of the female as a continually growing and flowering being. A tree left to grow of its own accord will naturally go through many life-death-life cycles with each passing season as it buds, flowers and drops.  But this kind of cyclical nature seems somehow much gentler than that portrayed in the legend, whose aggression perhaps reflects more accurately our current environmental situation. 

I am left with a lot of wondering in mind.  I hope that here in 2013 we are moving away from the destructive part of the cycle and towards the creative again in terms of our environment.   

For Amelie and Lily, guess what? Finally, I have seen real live toucans! :-) They are surprisingly forceful wee chaps... they have an interesting sideways bounce-hop that they use to nip along these bracnches, and they seem to enjoy eating nrightly coloured berries which they hold in the end of their beaks, then toss in the air as they tip their necks back to swallow.  Warning:  don't apprach too close as they are eating their berries, they get very defensive, with an agressive back-of the throat gargle and a fierce stare of the eye!

What a peaceful couple of days at Iguaçu.  

A spot which has left me feeling grateful for the beauty of life.

:-)