Talk:Tree of Life

I laughed at the Mel Gibson quote, but isn't the caption a bit much? Antisemetism shouldn't be a laughing matter even as pathetic as it is. The Tree of Life is a universal metaphor afterall, even if the map shows a clear Kabbalah parallel. Alientraveller 19:27, 7 September 2010 (EDT)

That wasn't a Mel Gibson quote, it's just what people have been saying for thousands of years.

And this isn't a Kabbalah 'parallel.' The names, colors, and philosophical meaning, and even path through the Sephirot is lifted directly from the Kabbalah version. Check it out. He starts at sphere 10 and simply counts down (er, up...) to one. The names he gives for the speheres are literal translations of the Hebrew names.

It's this verbatim lifting of the concept with no attempt to create a 'regionalized' version of it better suited to Transfomers that earns Skir such bile, and combined with his universe-breaking "I just thought it'd be nice if the heroes didn't used guns" initiative and ham-fisted application of a "technology is evil, nature is good" plot to a species of sentient robots has resulted in his work on TF being dismissed as new-age hippyism. Correction-- shallow new-age hippyism. I've been one of those critics. That said... my attitude towards the Sephirot has softened over the years. I still desperately wish we'd gotten a more regionalized version of the concept instead of a 1:1 port.

Re-reading this story I saw apparently-unnoticed references in it to the wider universe. One probably intentional, the other accidental but perfect, plus a few more incidental dovetails. This has broken down my resolve to keep treating the Tree of Life concept as 'separate' from the rest of TF canon. (Plus, I think it can be used to tidy up a few loose ends about the distinction between spark and soul.) Also, you know, it's pretty much Rhinox's canonical religion, and isn't even inconsistent with "The Spark".

Anyway... yeah. The reason "I bet the Jews are responsible for this?" Because that is the Jewish Tree of Life, verbatim. It was indeed created by Jews. (Thus the phrase is ironic, because it's simply an accurate observation, not a damning accuzation.)

...is Bob Skir Jewish? Because that would invite confusion. If Skir's Jewish I'd prefer to dump the caption rather than offend. (I always pegged Skir's religion was "Mendicant Hippie Who Can't Get Served at McDonalds.") -Derik 20:30, 7 September 2010 (EDT)

According to his Myspace page, his religion is indeed Jewish. --ItsWalky 20:33, 7 September 2010 (EDT)

Well shoot. That takes all the fun out of the caption-- a malappropriate use of a normally-offensive phrase is no good if it can reasonably be mistaken for actually offensive, especially since my ire for Skir's work is well-documented. I'll dump the quote in the next page edit... I'm sure we can come up with something better.

FYI Walky, I plan to go pretty straight-on gnostic w/ this page, taking the material as it's straightforwardly presented. (I assume Rosicrucian can check me on the details, probably others.) The One is related to this concept, using Blake's model of "Gnostic emanations to resolve internal conflict" so the two articles will probably end up tied together. I'm cautiously optimistic that everything can be stitched together the way it's 'supposed' to go without straying beyond the TF source material.

Anyway just a heads up. Any contamination from Derik's Crazy Ideas shouldn't stray beyond this page, and the community can veto me if things get too wacky, as per usual. -Derik 21:07, 7 September 2010 (EDT)