Chapter 69. The Thelemic Tree
The occult Cutting of the Elm ritual at Gisors Castle represented a significant event that separated the Knights Templar from the Priory of Sion organization, and perhaps something more like a genealogical split. The Family Tree, the Genealogical Tree, or Phylogenetic Tree is generally depicted as a giant umbrella tree, an elm tree that likely came about as an arcane merging of Isaiah 11:1’s stem/trunk or tree of Jesse, “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow from his roots” with Giovanni Boccaccio’s family tree of gods in On the Genealogy of the Gods of the Gentiles (c. 1360) funded by King Hugh IV Lusignan king of Cyprus, Hugh II King of Jerusalem.
The Family Tree is an allegory for the occult Tree of Life and the tree often depicted as the World Tree. The Family, Genealogical and World Trees are represented as deciduous trees symbolizing reincarnation because they shed their leaves but return to life, while evergreen trees represent immortality because most never lose their needles. Accordingly, the hierarchy of secret societies and genitive organizations is represented with the evergreen tree. Royal masonic orders dwell at the apex functioning like Invisible Ones through their lower trunk organizations. Imagine the western secret society hierarchy like a giant cedar tree with a tall, straight trunk/stem consisting of several central secret societies, all with branches angled down from their trunk positions. Place the Thirteen European Families’ trunk secret society at the treetop. Immediately below is the trunk Council of Thirty-Three (families), then the Committee of Three Hundred, the Rosicrucian order, the Illuminati, and the Freemason order at the bottom of the trunk organizations. Just as the World and Phylogeny Trees receive their life, genealogy, authority, and alleged reincarnation from the roots extending into the earth, so does the secret society evergreen tree receive its power and authority from within the earth, from realm of Hades and underworld gods.
