Tree of Life

The owl in this image can be found on thaneeya.com

The "Tree of Life" has always been fascinating to me. I remember we had a beautifully embroidered but rather faded "Tree of Life"
that would hang in the living room, when I was a child. Everytime I would pass by that wall-hanging a sense of mystery and intrigue would find me. It wasn't till much later that I learnt the significance of "The Tree of Life" that has emerged through time, inspiring some of the most amazing art and literature that we possess today.
Trees in general and the "The Tree of Life" in particular have a spiritual and mystical resonance in all world cultures. According to the Encyclopedia of Myths, "in myths and legends from around the world, trees appear as ladders between worlds, as sources of life and wisdom, and as the physical forms of supernatural beings". No wonder then the number of stories we have heard as children about different trees. One of my favorites from childhood was on how the Parijat came to be. While I have forgotten the details here is my version of it.

A beautiful apsara once lived in the Sun's court. He fell passionately in "lust" with her. Of course he made a pass at her and well who could refuse the Sun God?! So they had a torrid affair. Eventually this God (who seems rather human) got bored. He dumped this gorgeous and intelligent apsara. Unfortunately she had quite fallen in love with this idiot! (so maybe she wasn't so smart), and her heart was completely broken. But after a rather painful period of grieving for this worthless man she was filled with anger and rage at her humiliation. All she thought of was how she could get back at him somehow, while also renewing her self-esteem. So she went to the Moon and asked his help to put in action a plan she had.

The thing is like most women everywhere, the apsara believing that this man she had fallen in love with loved her in return, for the person she was, had quite forgotten to think about herself. As they say "she let herself go", which by the way only made her more beautiful, but only someone who thought with his head (and not with his dick) and talked to a woman's face (instead of at her breasts), would have been able to see that. So part of the apsara's plan now was to make some changes, both internal and external to who she was. She asked the Moon to give her a makeover, which did involve some violence in the sense that first she'd have to die. The Moon granted her this wish, and buried the dead apsara on earth. From that soil grew a tree which bore the most beautiful and fragrant white flowers with orange centers. The flowers blossomed each evening after dusk and fell each morning at dawn.
The Sun still wishes he could meet this beautiful and intriguing Parijat, that everyone seems to talk about, but no matter how early he rises the Parijat is always gone.

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When I work with groups one of the exercises I do with almost everyone is the "Tree-As-Self" exercise. This is a drawing (painting) exercise in which the participants are asked to draw themselves as a tree - any kind of tree, with as many colors, and in any shape that they choose to. I often find that in a group there are only a couple of participants who can wholly visualize themselves as a special tree. I did this exercise recently with a group of young women I work with, and found that out of thirty-six girls there was only one who drew a tree without anything else on the sheet. All the others drew a small tree (in the center or side of the sheet) and filled up the rest of the sheet with hills and gardens and houses. While the paintings were beautiful yet they said so much more about the group. I realized that these young women are unable to see themselves as individuals and this has huge ramifications on the choices they are making or will make in their lives. This exercise is usually repeated in between and towards the end of the project, and many arts-based therapists use it as an evaluation tool. Since one of the project's goals is to help the women to become more self reliant (both in terms of livelihood as well as emotionally and mentally) and have a larger stake in their own lives and the decisions they take, I hope that we shall find that the "tree of their own life" will be more complete, evergreen, with stronger branches and deeper roots and providing shade more, than receiving it.