Dearly beloved friends:
I am pleased to send you this illustration that was baptized with the name…
…TREE OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS
First of all, appreciated reader, we must say that this illustration appears in the book entitled Studium Universale, written by Valentine Weigel, who was a German philosopher, writer and mystic from Saxony and, according to some, a precursor of Theosophy. This occurred between the years 1533 and 1588. The full title of the first edition of the book, from 1618, is Studium Universale, das ist, alles dasjenige, so von Anfang des Welt biss an das Ende je gelebet, gescrieben, gelesen, order gelernet werden möchte.
Translation: ‘Studium Universale, that is, all that which, from the beginning of the world to the end, is ever wished to be lived, written, read, or learned’.
Before our eyes we clearly see a hand that is extended from the sky to pierce through the clouds and indicate for us a tree that bifurcates. This is the hand of the Theomegalogos. The tree on the left is an apple tree, the one on the right seems to be a fig tree. The apple tree has, allegorically, for centuries been a symbol of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil –sexuality─. It is associated with the angelic fall and, here in Gnosis, it represents sexuality taken to the point of fornication with the loss of our seminal liquor.
Biblical tradition tells us that ADAM AND EVE, after their expulsion from paradise, discovered that they were naked and covered their sexuality with the leaves of a fig tree. It is curious that the fig tree is the Elemental who applies karma to fornicators, according to what the V.M. Samael tells us.
Between both trees we see a countless number of stars around a great sun. Those stars are the Monads that are to come to Earth, and the sun represents the solar dynasties that watch over the development of creation.
Below this sun, where the sun ends, we observe a half sphere representative of the earthly world or place of the human races. There, in the center of that half sphere, can be glimpsed the Star of David or Seal of Solomon, because it is in the human kingdom where we can achieve triumph in the Great Alchemical Work, always symbolized by the two intersecting triangles.
Then there are two large spheres and each one shares some roots. The sphere containing the roots of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil shows us these roots as clean and full of luminous radiation.
The other sphere, containing the roots of the fig tree, are twisted and surrounded by immense darkness. Such is the fate of divine sterility, the absence of divine values, the lack of animic strengths, etc., etc., etc.
Very curious are the arms that are either picking apples, or taking leaves from the fig tree. In total there are six arms, all of which reminds us of Arcanum 6 of the Kabbalah: Indecision. Let us remember that we have the free will to choose the path of sanctity or that other of perdition.
Between both spheres that contain the roots of the two mentioned trees, we can contemplate many eyes. Those eyes show the presence of God, who sees everything and feels everything, both abominable and ineffable things.
I give you now some sentences so as to enter into reflection:
“If chastity is not a virtue, it is, nevertheless, certainly a strength.”
Jules Renard
“A moment of clemency in no way diminishes the severity of the duty we have to fulfill.”
Moliere
“True clemency is spontaneous in itself, it falls like sweet rain on Mother Earth.”
Shakespeare
“Clemency is a part of justice.”
J. Joubert
FAC, QUOD FACIENDUM EST.
─‘Do what must be done’─.
KWEN KHAN KHU
