For those of you who are unfamilar with the Tree of Life I will now fill you in on some of the basic facts about it. The tree image is associated with the legend of the Fall of the Souls from the Throne of God to the Earth. In ancient Philosophy and Cosmology, the fall is said to have occured through a sucession of stages, such as those depicted by Dante in his Divine Comedy.

In general, the stages were associated with the planetary spheres, and follow the pre-Ptolemeic ordering of those. The fall was understood to have begun at the Throne of God and to have proceeded to the Zodiac, then to Saturn, then Jupiter, Mars, The Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon and then to the Earth.

If you look at the following image of an astronomer, you can see the different spheres depicted on the back of his chair, beginning with the zodiac at the top down to Mercury at the bottom; he is holding the Earth in his hand, and the Moon is in the sky above him.

On the Tree of Life, each sphere is associated with one of these spheres; 1 is the Crown (the Throne of God), 2 is the zodiac, 3 is Saturn, 4 is Jupiter, 5 Mars, 6 the Sun, 7 Venus, 8 Mercury, 9 the Moon and 10 is associated with the Earth. You may notice in the image below that moving up the center of the tree, we go from the earth, to the moon, the sun, then the throne.

Note the structural similarity of the above image to this hexagram.

Note also the difference between the position of Saturn at the top of the hexagram and on the tree image.

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If we draw a line from sphere to sphere, following the progression of the souls fall, we see that it presents to us an image that we have come to recognize as a lighting strike. As a matter of fact, the souls descent is generally referred to in images of lightning strikes of stars falling to the earth from the heavens.

I direct your attention to the sixth chapter of the book of Revelations in the Bible, where we see all the elements of the fall depicted, except for Saturn. In verse 13 we read, "And the stars from heaven fell unto the earth", in verse 12 we read of both the sun and the moon.

[You might also consider the hexagram image above, with the planets, as you read Revelations Ch 1 where it speaks of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks, Spirits and stars. In verses 12 and 13 we reaD, "I saw seven candlesticks: And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man". In verse 16 we read "And he had in his right hand seven stars...and his countenace was as the sun shineth in his strength."]

But if we go back to the sixth chapter and the opening of the seven seals, we see at the opening of the first seal "a white horse: and him that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given to him". Now, recalling that these figures are referred to as the four horsemen, we can see that a horse/man with a bow might depict the astrological sign of Sagittarius, which is ruled by the planet Jupiter, who could well be symbolized by a crown.

Continuing to the second seal we find a red horse, and to him that sat on him was given power and "a great sword". Considered astrologically, the sword would represent Mars the war god, which rules Scorpio.

You may note that it doesn't say scorpions in Revelations 6, but rather it says power is given to the rider, and in Rev. 9:3-5 we read "there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power... that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a sxcorpion, when he striketh a man. [Each zodiac sign is visible for 5 months in the night sky.]

As you can see, we are moving backwards through the signs, and the next one would be Libra, which is ruled by Venus. In 6:5 we read of "a black horse; and he that sat on him had apair of scales in his hand"; the scales being the symbol for Libra, which marks the autumnal equinox, when the day and nightimes are equal.

The last horse is pale horse with a rider called Death, who is followed by Hell; symbolizing Virgo ruled by Mercury, the mythological figure that quides the souls.

Looking again at the hexagram we see that what is being depicted is the four planets, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury which surround the sun, not unlike the Greek image of the sun being led across the sky in a chariot by four horses. This same imagery waqs used at the Circus Maximus in Rome, which would be opened by a charioteer being pulled by horses of four different colors.

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