THE SEED OF LIFE POTENTIALS OF CREATION

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree; in cocoons,

a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!

In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,

unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

Natalie Sleeth*

TU BISHVAT – The Arboreal New Year

In Jewish tradition, we celebrate Tu BiShvat (15th of the month of Shvat) as the New Year of the Trees. In the dead of the winter, usually in January or February (the Jewish calendar in Lunar).

It is the time of year that most of the last years’ crop has already been picked, the trees are bare, just before the almond trees start to blossom harbingering the arrival of the spring.

Since the middle ages, it is customary to have a sort of a ceremonial fruit meal to celebrate the holiday. Since it is winter, apart from citrus fruits, all the others come in their preserved form, or as seeds – dates, raisins, carobs, olives, figs, nuts, almonds, barley, wheat, etc.

So why has the Jewish tradition placed the holiday of the trees when they are all asleep, and not say in the spring when everything is in bloom?

Tu Bishvat is about celebrating POTENTIALS. The potentials that are contained within the seed. A seed is the starting point for life holding all the information for it to blossom, coded into its DNA, so minuscule that the human eye cannot perceive it. 

When you plant the seed in the ground, it has the potential to grow into a tree, a vegetable, or a field crop. With the help of water and the sun, it manifests itself in the physical world.

So while it represents beginnings, it is also indicative of the growth, transformation, and expansion that will take place, eventually reaching completion.

The SEED OF LIFE

The Seed of Life is one of the basic patterns of Sacred Geometry. The concept of Sacred Geometry is a modern New Age one, which observes how geometrical forms are manifested in the natural world around us, thus providing us with an understanding of the process of Creation itself. 

Artistically it can be found in many cultures from Ancient Egypt, the Hittites, Ancient Greece, to India and Mezzo America.

This pattern consists of 7 overlapping circles of equal radius. One surrounds the Bindu and 6 intersect it.

7 is considered to be a sacred or a magical number. It is a prime number that can be divided only by itself or 1.

As the Seed of Life pattern is considered to be a symbol of Creation, it gives us a blueprint of the Universe. Evidence of this blueprint can be found throughout all of nature and our world. It is represented in the 7 days of creation, 7 notes of the musical scale, 7 colors of the rainbow, 7 chakras, etc.

The ancients counted the “7 Wonders of the World”, 7 gates of the underworld, and the 7 attributes of the Goddess Inanna, just to name a few. In ancient Jewish laws and customs the number 7 was to be found in all aspects of life – from counting the weeks of harvest (between Passover and Pentecost), 7 branches to the lamp of the temple, freeing of the slave on the 7th year, to the 7 blessings said during a wedding ceremony. 

Working with the pattern

We regard the Seed of Life pattern as an expression of potentials. In Mandala painting the point in the middle, the Bindu representing the cosmos in its unmanifested state i.e the point from which Creation begins.

That is why when we start our Mandala Healing journey with the basic Seed of Life pattern, we actually have a chance of getting in touch with all our potentials, with the DNA of our soul. We start our own Creation from the Bindu and proceed outwards to create our own cosmos.

If you haven’t done so yet, I invite you to download the Free Seed of Life tutorial and begin your journey.

    *”In the Bulb there is a Flower” by Natalie Sleeth