Trees at Mount Ecclesia
Palm
On entering the grounds at Headquarters, one first notices the stately palms that border Ecclesia drive, planted in 1914. This tree was used by the Christian as a symbol of martyrdom, although it may easily have had a deeper meaning: the triumph of life over death.
"Palms", as Corinne Heline notes in her seven volume study of the Bible, "were planted around temples, for, as in Chaldea, these trees were called 'Trees of Wisdom' and represented the eternal life principle of man. They are the earthly representatives of the symbolic Tree of Life, an honor also shared by cedar, pine, and fir, which like the palm are ever green".
According to legend, one day in the springtime Prince Solomon was sitting under a palm tree in the royal garden when a Man of God came to him, having a date in his hand. "Behold", he said, "what will become of this". Then he made a hole in the ground and covered it over. When he withdrew his hand the clods of earth opened and Solomon saw two small leaves coming forth. But scarcely had he beheld them when they joined together and became a stem; and the stem grew thicker and higher before his eyes.
Then the Man of God took water in the palm of his hand and sprinkled the small three times, and lo! branches unfurled into green fronds so that a cool shade spread above them and the air was filled with the perfume of flowers bursting and hanging in clusters.
Prince Solomon was about to speak but a gentle breeze scattered the petals around them. Scarcely had the falling flowers reached the ground when fruit hung beneath the leaves of the tree. The Man of God disappeared.
The prince was filled with amazement but he seemed to hear a voice saying: "Behold in thy father's gardens thou mayest see the unfolding of wonder trees. Doth not this same miracle happen to all growing trees? They spring from the earth, they put out branches and leave, they flower, they fruit - not in a moment, perhaps, but in months and years. But canst thou tell the difference betwixt a minute, a month, or a year in the eyes of Him with whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day?
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ROSE CROSS - A Quarterly Rosicrucian Online Magazine
#7 SUMMER 2004
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EDITOR & WEB MASTER :Alexandre David