Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is a mystical concept alluding to the interconnectedness of all life on our planet. This tree, in the form of ten interconnected nodes, is an important part of the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah. A representation of a tree is used in genealogy to distinguish familial relationships and in biology to group animals into related units. The scientists who first employed this arboreal motif may have been on to something. When greatly magnified, the twisted helix structure of DNA, which carries our genetic identity, appears to have the solidity of a tree trunk.

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The Journey

In this work, a running human figure from an aboriginal petroglyph is situated within an illustration depicting planetary phases relative to the Sun. The figure is on a journey through life, pulled along as if attached to a puppeteer’s strings. In the background can be seen characters from the language of the Micmac, a large Native American tribe that lived in Canada and the Northeast United States. A European missionary invented the pictographic script, which is structured similarly to Egyptian hieroglyphics.

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Problema X

Much advanced scientific work in the past few decades has been focused on macrocosmic questions about the underlying structure of the universe, such as how it all came into being and what our ultimate fate might be. While the three-dimensional world we can observe seems governed by established physical laws, such equations break down in the face of infinitesimally small objects like quarks or infinitely powerful ones like black holes.

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Origins

The question of how the universe came into being is addressed in nearly every world religion. Some Taoists believe a creator god broke forth from the Cosmic Egg, spilling forth light and darkness, expressed graphically as the yin-yang symbol. Numerous other creation narratives posit an omnipotent being as an architect of all existence. Many physicists such as Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, and Stephen Hawking have worked on establishing a grand theory of everything that would unify the fields of electromagnetism, space-time, the nuclear forces, and gravity.

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Final Causes

The earliest illustrations by humans on cave walls were likely made from directly observable phenomena. The Egyptians made a conceptual leap with their ability to artistically represent abstract ideas, such as their pantheon of gods. Before the scientific revolution began around 1500, priests, astrologers, alchemists, and philosophers all claimed to have the answers to the workings of the universe. One might argue that in illustrations of real or imagined experiences one can find a broader understanding of the natural world and the final causes of all things.

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Emanations

The universe is filled with a very faint glow of radio waves that astronomers believe are the fingerprints from the Big Bang. For some time after this cataclysmic event, all of space was filled with light. Over eons, these photons, while still observable, have grown steadily fainter, leading scientists to dub them “relic radiation.” Japanese tradition holds that anyone who bathes in the energy of the multi-limbed deity Quanwon will vibrate in harmony with the universe and experience a less complicated life.

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Diaspora

Ever since our forebears learned to walk upright in Eastern Africa nearly four million years ago, voluntary or involuntary migration has been a part of our life. A population that has been separated from its ancestral homeland is considered to have undergone a diaspora. Often these people carry their language and cultural traditions with them to their new location. The earliest historical mention of a diaspora is found in Deuteronomy 28:25, in reference to the Jewish colonies settled outside the holy land following the Babylonian exile.

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Beneath the Surface

Devotees of astrology assert that our lives are governed by the positions of the planets and stars in relation to Earth. They also believe the precise location and time of our birth provides the key determination for many of our actions. While scientists reject such claims, there is evidence that suggests our biology and psychology are connected to the broader environment in ways that might seem inscrutable or illogical to our rational senses.

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Aerial Navigation

In 1783, two brothers named Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier inaugurated the era of human flight with a 3,000-foot high balloon ride near Paris. The following year, a fellow Frenchman named Jean-Pierre Blanchard invented the dirigible, a steerable balloon that was a forerunner to blimps and Zeppelins. The twentieth century saw a boom in aviation, from the 1903 historic flight by the Wright brothers to the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing. The lattice of the silver-bearing mineral stephanite, seen here in light blue, is reminiscent of navigational maps.

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Above Reason

Science is a system of knowledge concerning the physical world and its phenomena. It is based on empirical observations of the natural world and the conclusions drawn from those observations. Despite this rigorous process of question and analysis, the majority of the world’s population seeks answers to questions that are beyond reason or rationality. Since science cannot provide answers to inquiries of a purely philosophical nature, this quest for existential truth assumes sometimes sublime and sometimes ridiculous proportions.

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