The branches are the abilities, directions and many facets we develop in life—varied and yet all connected in the common life process of our being.
The tree can also symbolise new growth, stages of life and death, with its spring leaves and blossom, then the falling leaves.
The top of the tree, or the ends of the branches, are our aspirations, the growing vulnerable tip of our personal growth and spiritual realisation.
The leaves may represent our personal life which may fall off the tree of life (die) but what gave it life continues to exist.
The tree is our whole life, the evolutionary urge which pushes us into being and growth. It depicts the force or process which is behind all other life forms —but seen as it expresses in our personal existence.
In some old manuscripts pictures show a man lying on the ground and his penis growing into a tree, with fruits, birds, and perhaps people in its protective shade. This illustrates how one’s personal life energy can branch out from its source in the basic drives, and become creativity, fruitfulness, some- thing given to others.
The tree can also represent the spine, and the different levels of human experience—physical, sensual, sexual, hungers, emotions, relatedness, communication, thought, awareness.
Example: ‘I was about eight years old when I had this dream. In it I was sitting in a large garden. I believe there was a big house nearby which was our family house—not our real house. With me were other members of my family, and there was a baby boy too. Nearby was a laige tree. We climbed this tree, the baby as well, to see what was at the top.
The baby fell out of the tree. We climbed down and took the baby to a room and lay it on a bed. It seemed to be asleep and didn’t wake up. Later we went back to the room to see the baby but it had gone. In its place was a bluebird. As we looked the bluebird flew away’ (told to author on LBC radio programme).
The tree in this dream depicts the child’s sense of her life as it might develop or grow in the future. Climbing it shows her exploring what it might be like to grow up. At about eight most children unconsciously develop a philosophy which enables them to meet the difficulties of meeting the growth of self awareness, which includes the knowledge of death at the end of life.
The dreamer looks at this by having the baby fall out of the tree. Death is seen as the bluebird which flies away.
Example: ‘I flew low over small trees which were just coming into leaf. They had beautiful soft green leaves. I knew it was autumn and the leaves were only just coming out because it had been a cloudy, overcast summer. I felt the leaves would have time to mature because the sun would be out in the autumn, and the trees would not die’ (Colin C). Colin dreamt this in his early 50s, at a time when he felt frustrated by not being able to achieve a regular source of income or, more important, feel satisfied with what he had achieved in life.
The flying shows him taking an overview of his situation.
The poor summer is his feelings that the years of his life which should have been most productive had been poor—literally, the sun had not shone on his endeavours. But he feels encouraged because he senses that his personal ‘summer’ is still to come, and his many endeavours—the trees—would not prove unproductive.
A wood, collection of trees: the natural forces in one’s own being, therefore one’s connection with or awareness of the unconscious, other people’s personal growth and connection with self. Dead tree: past way of life; something which was full of life for you in the past, but is now dead; dead relative. Falling tree: sense of threat to one’s identity, loss of relative. Christmas tree, other evergreen: the eternal aspect of our transitory experience. Human, animal hung on tree: personal sacrifice; the death of some part of self so further growth can occur—death of dependence so independence can arise; the pains and struggles, the sense of crucifixion occurring in the maturing process. Oak: strength, masculinity. Flowering tree: fertility, femininity. Idioms: top of the tree; family tree; bark up the wrong tree.
See death and rebirth and the self under archetypes; second example in wife under family; fifth example in flying.
See also individuation.