The first thing I wanted to point out is that Nephi’s vision in chapter 11 is given only after a few pre-requisite conditions are met. These are:

1. He had a desire to know the things that his father had seen in vision.
2. He believed the words of his father and that the Lord was able to make them known to him as well.
3. He was pondering those things in his heart.

It seems to me that these are some of the basic requirements, in both ancient and modern accounts, for receiving inspiration or revelation from God.  I have read quite a lot lately about revelatory experiences in the ancient world, and there is a lot of literature that describes how visionary episodes were supposed to be brought on by some “artificial” (I say artificial for “man-made” inducers of visionary experiences, as opposed to divinely-induced) means, including sensory deprivation, consumption of hallucinatory agents such as psychoactive plants, narcotics, breathing in hydrocarbon or other gases in caves, and so on. While I have little doubt that such methods have been used throughout human history to bring individuals into a psychedelic trance that they felt allowed communication with the Beyond, it is interesting to note that there is no mention of anything of this sort here with Nephi.  All we get is that he was pondering in his heart, and suddenly he was “caught away  in the Spirit of the Lord.”

Like so many ancient accounts of visionary experiences, Nephi is caught up into a high mountain, the ideal place for a meeting between God and man.  The Spirit here (and I’m assuming that this is the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Godhead), serves as Nephi’s angelus interpres, the “interpreting angel” that usually accompanies the visionary in similar accounts, explaining to him what he is seeing.  In verse 11, we are told that this Spirit, who is the Spirit of the Lord, “was in the form of a man.” If, as it would seem, this figure is the Holy Ghost, then, according to Nephi, although He is a spiritual being, He is “anthropomorphic.”  There are a good number of ancient texts that support this view, as a number of recent studies have pointed out (see my early posts on this topic here and here). Following on ancient Jewish traditions, many early Christians believed that the Holy Spirit was an angel that stood by the throne of God. Of course, being “angelomorphic” is essentially the same as being anthropomorphic.

The Spirit explains to Nephi (verse 7) that after he sees the object of his desire, the Tree of Life which his father saw, he would be given a “sign” — he would see a man descending out of heaven, who the Spirit identifies as the Son of God.  Apparently, the Spirit means for Nephi to see the Son of God as parallel to the Tree of Life.

However, when Nephi actually asks for an interpretation of the Tree (v. 11), he is shown a virgin who was “exceedingly fair and white” and “most beautiful and fair above all other virgins” (vv. 13, 15).  The virgin, then, is another parallel for the Tree. Note how Nephi’s description of the virgin compares to his description of the Tree: “the beauty thereof was fare beyond, yea, exceeding of all beauty; and the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow” (v. 8). Nephi is told that this virgin that he saw “is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.” In verse 20, Nephi sees this virgin mother carrying the holy child, the Lamb of God, in her arms.

Now the fact that parallels are made between the Tree of Life and both the Son of God and his Mother is very significant. As I’ve mentioned before, Margaret Barker picked up on the significance of this symbolism when she read these passages from the Book of Mormon. Barker, who is an expert in the religious culture of Jerusalem at the time Lehi and Nephi would have been there, explained in a speech at a conference held at the Library of Congress in 2005:

…[A] text discovered in Egypt in 1945 described the tree [of life] as beautiful, fiery, and with fruits like white grapes. I don’t know of any other source which describes the fruit as white grapes, so you can imagine my surprise when I read the account of Lehi’s vision of the tree whose white fruits made one happy; and the interpretation of the vision, that the virgin in Nazareth was the mother of the Son of God after the manner of the flesh.

This is the Heavenly Mother (represented by the Tree of Life), and then Mary and her son on the earth. This revelation to Joseph Smith was the exact ancient Wisdom symbolism, intact, and almost certainly as it was known in 600 BCE.

From my own studies, I have been intrigued to find that in ancient Israel, the Tree of Life was understood to represent both the King of Israel and also the Queen Mother (the king’s mother). (See also, on this topic, Daniel Peterson’s great article on this topic here) As I have pointed out before, there was a common ancient image of the Tree of Life, as a mother goddess, nourishing the “new born” king.

This image is paralleled by the many ancient images we find of the mother goddess holding and nursing the young god/king.

Besides the symbols of Mother and Son of God, it is interesting that the Spirit identifies the Tree with yet another idea. When He asks (v. 21) Nephi, after giving two symbols already, what he thought the Tree stood for, Nephi, without hesitating, answers that “it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.” For Nephi, it seems that this was the obvious message being communicated by the vision of the Tree, the virgin and the Divine Son. It all represented the love of God for his children on Earth. I don’t know if that is the conclusion that I would have automatically come up with, but this is what the clear meaning was for Nephi. Perhaps the cultural and religious environment of 600 BC would have prepared Nephi to attach these symbols together to lead him to understand this great truth.

What helped me understand these connections a bit better as I read them this time around was pondering as well the comparable thoughts found in John 3:16:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son (through the favored and chosen virgin, Mary), that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

This is the Tree of Life! This is the fruit that is “desirable above all things” and “the most joyous to the soul” (vv. 22, 23)! To know that God loves us all so much that he was willing to send his most beloved Son, by means of a precious and pure young woman, into the world to save us — to share with us Eternal Life! There is no greater or sweeter gift that we could possibly ask for!

Chapter 11 of 1 Nephi, along with the following chapters, contain many more amazing examples of ancient religious thought, some of which I have pointed out in previous posts. However, I felt very strongly about these points as I read over these verses, and wanted to share them here. May we all hold fast to that iron rod that leads to the precious Tree and endure on until we can eat of that most desirable fruit, and share the journey with those we love.

The following are my notes from Dr Margaret Barker’s presentation, which served as an introduction to the use of the holy anointing oil from the time of the First Temple period. Please excuse the incompleteness of the notes, and my apologies to Dr Barker if I misrepresent any of what she communicated in her paper. The following are my own notes, supplemented by the very helpful outline (indicated in bold) she provided as a handout.

The Messiah, the Christ, was the Anointed One, and so the holy anointing oil is central to Christian identity. It gives the Christians their name.

Those anointed in the Holy of Holies became sons of God and were blessed with the company of the Holy Ones (angels). (See my recent post relating to this topic)

Christians are: sons of God, Rom. 8:14; the saints, e.g. Rom. 1:7; raised with Christ, Col. 3:1; passed from death to life 1 Jn 3:14; anointed by the Holy One and know all things, 1 Jn. 2:20, 27; Name on foreheads Rev. 22:4.

Moses was instructed by God to reproduce what he saw in his heavenly vision on Sinai. The holy oil must have been an imitation of a heavenly reality that he had seen.

The oil was meant to be very sacred — it was not to be used on foreigners or the unworthy.

Christian teaching concerning anointing is a conscious continuation of the ancient temple teaching.

The oil was understood to impart holiness — whatever touches the Holy of Holies becomes holy. The oil was kept (in a flask or jar) in the Holy of Holies. It was part of the secret teaching of the high priesthood.  (See: Anointing oil, Exod. 3:22-25. Imparted holiness, Exod. 3:29; Myrrh, Dionysius Eccclesiastical Hierarchy 473B, 476C, 477C; Secret teaching, Num. 18:7, LXX Num. 3:10; Ignatius of Antioch, Philadelphians 9; Clement Miscellanies 7:17, 5:10. Also Clem. Homilies 19:20. Origen, On John 19:22; Basil of Caesarea, Holy Spirit 66).

The anointing with oil was a part of the “secret teaching” passed on to Christianity from Christ through the apostles.  Clement of Alexandria claimed that Christians had unwritten traditions, mysteries into which they “enter in, through the tradition of the Lord, by drawing aside the curtain” (Miscellanies, Book VII, Ch. XVII). This is how the Christians gained sacred knowledge.  Basil of Caesarea said that the anointing was one of the doctrines “we have received delivered to us ‘in a mystery’ by the tradition of the apostles” (On the Holy Spirit, Ch. XXVII, Sec. 66).

The true oil of the Holy of Holies was lost in the time of the reforms of King Josiah. 2 Kgs. 23 — The oil was connected to the Asherah (translated as “the grove”), which Josiah removed and burned. Traditions state that the oil was hidden away when the Ark was removed from the Holy of Holies. (Oil and temple furnishings lost in seventh century BCE, to be restored in time of Messiah: Babylonian Talmud Horayoth 21a; Numbers Rabbah XV:10; Rev. 11:19; 22:2).

In Rev. 22, we read of the Tree of Life restored to the temple.  This is the True Menorah, likely the Asherah that was removed. The Christians knew the ancient Holy of Holies and what it had contained. John, in his vision, saw the true Holy of Holies. He saw the great woman, clothed with the sun, giving birth to a son. John saw what the anointing represented: the son of God born in the holy of holies when he was anointed with the myrrh oil. In John’s vision the woman clothed with the sun takes the place of the oil. Presumably the oil represented this woman. Rev. 12:1–6. This birth in the Holy of Holies represented incarnation/theosis — the human becoming divine.

Ps. 110 also describes the birth of the Divine Son in the Holy of Holies.  The Hebrew of this psalm is difficult to translate. Vs. 3 probably read something like “On the day of thy birth in the glory of the Holy Ones, I have begotten you with the dew (oil) from the womb of the Morning Star.”  Compare this with Ps. 2:7, “the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” See also Isa. 9:6, Pope Leo Sermon VI Epiphany.

One of the best representations of this process is 2 Enoch 22 (Enoch anointed, perfumed dew. Also, see: Isa. 11:3, perfumed anointing; 1 Jn. 2:20, 27; 2 Cor. 2:14) Enoch was anointed with “dew”, clothed, and transformed into an angel. He was taught the heavenly secrets and given a new name.  In 3 Enoch, we learn that the great angel Metatron was Enoch on earth. He had been raised up to a throne and had become “wise.”

The anointing was said to bring wisdom.  Wisdom is personified as the Great Lady of the temple. In later Christian understanding, this female figure became associated with Mary (Eusebius on Psalm 110 “born from Mary”). The “womb” of Ps. 110 is similar, semantically, to the name Mary (Miriam) — it was understood that this verse referred to Christ being born of Mary in the Holy of Holies.

Anointing was key to being “lifted up” — ascent/resurrection. Messiah was, by definition, resurrected. In the tradition of Melchizedek in Hebrews, he is “raised up” to the priesthood.  In the Isaiah scroll from Qumran, the “suffering servant” is not “marred” but anointed, raised up and given knowledge — “transfigured”.  In Ps. 45, the king (who is a Melchizedek high priest) is addressed as divine (v. 6). Solomon sat on the throne of Yahweh and was worshipped (1 Chron. 29:20, 23). Was the king an incarnation of Yahweh — his divine son? (Raising up as resurrection/ new birth: Ps. 89:19–20, 26–27; 2 Sam. 23:1; Heb. 7:11–17; Ps. 45: 2, 6–7; 1 Chron. 29:20, 23)

Eusebius informs us that Moses’ vision included a view of the heavenly sanctuary, which he was supposed to imitate in building the Tabernacle (Proof of Gospel IV: 10, 15). The high priests were “christs” — they represented Yahweh by being anointed and wearing name “YHWH” on forehead.  The anointing oil came from the Tree of Life (true menorah, Asherah; see Clem. Recognitions, 1:45-46; Prov. 3; ben Sira 24:10-34). In the Second Temple, there was no anointing of high priests, only vesting (Zech. 3:3–5, 4:14).

Prov. 3: 13, 18 — Wisdom equated with Tree of Life and true happiness. There is a play on words in the Hebrew. Hebrew ashar means “happiness.” Ashar is similar to Asheratah/Asherah, who was the Queen of Heaven, personified by the Tree of Life (see my post on “Tree of Life as Nurturing Mother“).  Wisdom = Happiness = Tree of Life = Heavenly Mother, represented by high priestess of the temple.  She was represented by asherah tree in the temple. This was the true menorah in the Holy of Holies — the menorah of the Second Temple was not the true menorah — contained no “wisdom.” The oil from the true menorah was said to come from above — when the tree was lost, so was the oil. Second Temple high priests were not anointed. (Anointed ones as lights: Exod. 27:20-21; Zohar Exodus 148a and Zohar Leviticus 34b)

Enoch saw the Tree of Life, a fiery tree (represented by menorah) — he saw the tree removed and then transplanted back to temple — this is what John saw in his vision.  When the tree/Wisdom was abandoned, the priests could no longer “see” — there had been an anointing of the eyelids to be able to “see”. Ps. 19: 7–8 (Perfumed tree of fire: 2 Enoch 8:30; Mishnah Aboth 3:10, also Jn. 8:12; Matt. 5:14; Menorah forbidden: Babylonian Talmud Menahot 28b; BT ‘Aboda Zara 43a; BT Ros Hashanah 24ab; Lost oil as lost vision: 1 Enoch 93:8; BT Horayoth 12a)

Philo wrote that when the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies, he was not a man, but a divine “Logos”. His Father was God and his Mother Wisdom.  Christians thought of themselves as children of God and Wisdom.  (Child of Wisdom: Philo Flight 109-110; Rev. 12:17)

In an earlier post, I discussed the idea that the fountain of living waters (in the Orphic tablets identified as the waters of the goddess Mnemosyne), from which the soul must drink in order to secure its salvation, was also to be considered equivalent to the white tree, the Tree of Life. This connection is made explicit in the vision of Nephi (1 Ne. 11:25), where he explains:

And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God; and I also beheld that the tree of life was a representation of the love of God.

In Egypt, the Tree of Life was often depicted as a goddess, or having a goddess within it, that nursed or poured forth living waters (or perhaps milk) to individuals.

In Nephi’s vision, remarkably, we also see this connection between the Tree of Life and the virgin mother.  In 1 Ne. 11, Nephi is shown the exceedingly beautiful and white tree that his father had seen in his dream. When Nephi asks the Spirit for the interpretation of the tree, he is immediately shown a rather unusual (to us) image — he is shown a virgin as beautiful and white as the Tree of Life.  This virgin, who we know as Mary, is presented to Nephi as “the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh” (1 Ne. 11:18).  Mary had the baby Jesus in her arms, and although we aren’t given this detail, was conceivably nursing the Child.  In response to his inquiry about the tree, this is what Nephi is shown — and he understands these images to represent the love of God.  It is amazing how this Book of Mormon vision fits so perfectly the ancient conception of what the Tree of Life represented.

Old Testament scholar Margaret Barker, who is an expert in the religious culture of Jerusalem at the time Lehi and Nephi would have been there, noticed the amazing similarity of the Book of Mormon account to her understanding of how the ancient Israelites would have pictured the Tree of Life. In her speech at the Worlds of Joseph Smith conference held at the Library of Congress in 2005, Barker expounded:

The Tree of Life made one happy according to the Book of Proverbs, but for other detailed descriptions of the tree we have to rely on the non-canonical texts. Enoch described it as perfumed, with fruits like grapes. But a text discovered in Egypt in 1945 described the tree as beautiful, fiery, and with fruits like white grapes. I don’t know of any other source which describes the fruit as white grapes, so you can imagine my surprise when I read the account of Lehi’s vision of the tree whose white fruits made one happy; and the interpretation of the vision, that the virgin in Nazareth was the mother of the Son of God after the manner of the flesh.

This is the Heavenly Mother (represented by the Tree of Life), and then Mary and her son on the earth. This revelation to Joseph Smith was the exact ancient Wisdom symbolism, intact, and almost certainly as it was known in 600 BCE.

(To read Margaret Barker’s full speech, see here. Also see here her speech given at BYU that touches on similar topics.)

Another great resource on this topic is Daniel Peterson’s article entitled “Nephi and His Asherah.” After discussing the image of “the Mother of the Son of God” and the Tree of Life in 1 Nephi, Peterson goes into a very informative discussion of how modern scholars have found much evidence for the worship of a Mother Goddess in Ancient Israel.  We know of the existence of this goddess from the Bible itself, which mentions the occasional purging of the “Asherah” (usually translated as “grove”, see 2 Kgs. 23:4–15; Judg. 6:25–30; 2 Chr. 34:3–7; 2 Kgs. 17:10) from the worship practices of the Israelites.  The grove, or asherah in Hebrew, was apparently a wooden pole, or more likely, a stylized tree that was set up or “planted” in holy places, often next to an altar. Peterson notes that the rabbinic authors of the Jewish Mishna (second-third century AD) explain the asherah as a tree that was worshipped.

This religious symbol represented the Tree of Life and also the goddess named Asherah.  We learn from the Canaanite/Ugaritic texts that the goddess Asherah was the consort (wife) of the high god ‘El.  She was the Mother Goddess, the Queen of Heaven–but like her counterparts in other cultures, she was also called the Virgin.  She was often depicted as nursing her divine offspring.  The sacred tree was her symbol.

Many scholars now believe that Asherah was worshipped legitimately in Israel for centuries, despite the Bible’s description of her worship as foreign custom to be abhorred.  The Bible does tell us that Abraham “planted a grove” and called upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 21:33).  Some have calculated that an asherah stood in the Temple of Solomon (perhaps even in the Holy of Holies) for a full two-thirds of its existence.  We know that the asherah wasn’t permanently removed until the time of the Deuteronomistic/King Josiah’s reforms (see here and here), which we read about in 2 Kings 23.  Furthermore, archaeologists have found thousands of small clay figurines in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas that are believed to have represented Asherah, the Mother Goddess. These figurines often depict a woman nursing a child and generally have what appears to be a tree trunk for the lower half of the body.

(For more on the archaeological evidences for Asherah worship, see William G. Dever’s book Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel)

Daniel Peterson concludes that “Belief in Asherah seems, in fact, to have been a conservative position in ancient Israel; criticism of it was innovative.”¹

Margaret Barker goes into this topic in many of her books. For her, the asherah tree in the Temple of Solomon was likely the true menorah (see, for example, her book Temple Theology: An Introduction, p. 78, 90-91). According to Barker, it had originally been located in the Holy of Holies next to the Cherubim Throne. In one ancient version of Psalm 96:10, it apparently read: “The LORD reigns from the tree” (Justin Martyr, Dial.Trypho 71). A number of ancient texts describe the Throne of God in the Garden of Eden as being next to the Tree of Life. The asherah/menorah in the Holy of Holies also represented Wisdom and had cups of olive oil with flames continually lit. The Zohar (Lev 34b) describes the relationship between Wisdom, the oil, and the Tree of Life:

Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments. Rabbi Hiya quoted here the verse: ‘For with thee is the fountain of life, and in thy light we see light’ (Ps. 36:9). The fountain of life, he said, is the supernal oil which flows continually and is stored in the midst of the most high Wisdom, from which it never separates.  It is the source which dispenses life to the supernal tree and kindles the lights. And that tree is called the Tree of Life because it is planted on account of that source of life.

The asherah in the Holy of Holies would have represented the Tree of Life, Wisdom, and the Mother Goddess. She was (at least originally) the Wife of El-Elyon, God Most High, and the Mother of the LORD, Yahweh.  From her flowed living waters, the fountain of life, the holy oil that gives eternal life. This is all very much in line with the beliefs of the Egyptians and Greek/Orphic traditions discussed earlier.

As Barker alludes to in her Library of Congress speech, the wickedness that Nephi refers to in the beginning of 1 Nephi, and which Lehi preached against, very well could have been King Josiah’s purge of the Temple, and the removal of its sacred objects, including the asherah. The Tree of Life was removed from its position alongside the Throne of God, and was smashed and burned. The Queen of Heaven had been rejected. The holy anointing oil, which was used to anoint both kings and high priests, was lost. Lehi and Nephi would likely have been against these reforms, desiring to preserve the more ancient traditions.

These traditions were preserved in many texts of the intertestamental period, including the Enochic literature and many apocalypses. The imagery was still alive in early Christianity. The book of Revelation, a vision which takes place in the heavenly Holy of Holies, sees the Tree of Life again placed beside the Throne of God (Rev. 1:12; 2:7; 22:1-2,14). Peterson mentions a Coptic version of the record called the Apocalypse of Paul, which relates a vision that, in this detail at least, strikingly resembles the vision of Nephi: “And he [the angel] showed me the Tree of Life,” Paul is reported to have said, “and by it was a revolving red-hot sword. And a Virgin appeared by the tree, and three angels who hymned her, and the angel told me that she was Mary, the Mother of Christ.”

The Catholic Church, of course, continued to emphasize the importance of this view of Mary as the Mother of the Son of God. In that tradition, Mary virtually becomes the Mother Goddess of ancient times. Not surprisingly, she is often depicted as nursing the divine child.

Peterson further explains:

But Nephi’s vision goes even further, identifying Mary with the tree. This additional element seems to derive from precisely the preexilic Palestinian culture into which, the Book of Mormon tells us, Nephi had been born.

Of course, Mary, the virgin girl of Nazareth seen by Nephi, was not literally Asherah. She was, as Nephi’s guide carefully stressed, simply “the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.” But she was the perfect mortal typification of the mother of the Son of God.²

The recognition of a Mother Goddess was an integral part of most ancient religions. She was almost always connected to the Tree of Life and/or Waters of Life and was responsible for giving eternal life, immortality, and godhood.  In the Bible, although her symbol was repeatedly condemned and desecrated, largely due to late reform movements with rather dubious intentions, she was also remembered as Wisdom, God’s helper in the Creation.  She was seen as the Mother and Nurturer of the gods. While many tried to extinguish her status and importance, righteous people longed for the return of the Tree of Life to its rightful place beside God’s own throne.  While there is much, much more that could be said on this topic, I just wanted to share some thoughts which I hope are helpful.

1. Daniel C. Peterson, “Nephi and His Asherah,” in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 9:2 (Provo, UT: Maxwell Institute, 2000) 16-25
2. Ibid.

In this post I will share the contents of these inscriptions and comment on their significance. I will subsequently discuss the importance of the Goddess Mnemosyne, the personification of Memory, who is featured as a major character in the tablets. Apparently, the Orphic tradition believed memory, or specifically the ability to remember certain key concepts, to be essential to one’s journey towards immortality.

Arrival in the Subterranean World

The four main tablets discussed in this chapter (those from Hipponion, Entella, Petelia, and Pharsalus) read very similarly. They start out describing what one sees as soon as he/she enters the realm of the dead. Interestingly, it appears that the initiate who is on his death bed should see these things before he dies, as something of a preview of what will happen, and that he should remember this vision and get it engraved in gold as a type of memory cue for when he actually dies.

Currier and Ives -- "Tree of Life", Public Domain Image

Upon arrival, the soul sees the great palace/mansion of Hades (god of the Underworld). I will quote directly from the English translation of the tablet from Petelia:

You will find, to the left of the mansion of Hades, a fountain, and next to it, a white cypress erect. You must not approach this fountain, not even a little! But on the other side, from the lake of Mnemosyne, you will find water flowing fresh.

And very nearby there are some guardians. Say: “I am the son of Earth and starry Heaven, but my race is heavenly: know this you too. I am dry with thirst and dying. Give me quickly then water from that which flows fresh from the lake of Mnemosyne”. And they will give you water to drink from the sacred fountain and afterwards you will reign with the other heroes.

This is the work of Mnemosyne. When a hero is on the point of dying, let him recall and get this graved on gold, lest the murk cover him and lead him down in dread (pp. 10-11, originally formatting altered here, emphasis mine).

The opening description is striking and strangely reminiscent of Lehi’s dream in 1 Nephi 8, in which he sees a large field, a great and spacious building, a river and fountain, and a great white tree. When Nephi is granted the same vision, he provides some further details:

16 And the angel spake unto me, saying: Behold the fountain of ^afilthy water which thy father saw; yea, even the ^briver of which he spake; and the depths thereof are the depths of ^chell (1 Ne. 12:16–17)

And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me: Look! And I looked and beheld a tree; and it was like unto the ^atree which my father had seen; and the ^bbeauty thereof was far beyond, yea, exceeding of all beauty; and the ^cwhiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow (1 Ne. 11:8).

And it came to pass that I beheld that the ^arod of iron, which my father had seen, was the ^bword of God, which ^cled to the fountain of ^dliving waters, or to the ^etree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God; and I also beheld that the tree of life was a representation of the love of God (1 Ne. 11:25).

Although the descriptions are very brief in the Orphic tablets, and differ somewhat one from the other, it appears to be safe to say that they describe two fountains/rivers/lakes. One was to the left of the white tree while the other was to the right (called the “fountain of eternal flow” and sometimes described as being right next to the tree). Apparently, the arriving soul is warned not to drink from the one on the left, but is then encouraged to persuade the guardians to give them to drink from the one on the right. The spring on the left is likely to be identified with the Spring of Lethe (forgetfulness), and the one on the right is the Spring of Mnemosyne (memory). The soul should desire to drink of the flowing waters of memory, which leads to life¹. In the Greek tradition, forgetfulness is linked to sin and death, whereas remembering is linked to life and immortality (this basic idea is also common in Book of Mormon thought).

Perhaps, as in 1 Nephi, the Orphic tradition conceived of a filthy river or fountain (in both the tablets and in 1 Nephi, the two words are used interchangeably), and also a fountain of clean or living (meaning flowing) water alongside the white cypress. Scholars have called the Orphic tree the “Tree of Life”². The focus in the 1 Nephi vision is on the tree and partaking of its fruit. However, the focus in the tablets is on drinking from the living waters. Interestingly, the Nephi account makes eating from the tree and drinking from the waters equivalent (in Egyptian texts, the water often comes from the tree, sometimes by the had of a goddess located inside it).  The tablets specify that drinking from the fountain of memory starts the soul on the “sacred way” that the other initiates have gone which leads to glory, immortality and the right to “reign with the other heroes.” On the other hand, the tablets agree in giving a stern warning not to drink from the first fountain. It is interesting to note that the oldest of the tablets found (from 400 BC) nearly dates to the time of Lehi.

There are many other interesting ideas in this introduction to the journey of the Afterlife. The presence of preliminary guardians (there are others who follow) who ask questions and demand a particular answer is noteworthy. These beings are mentioned in many traditions — for example, in the Genesis story of the Cherubim who guard the way to the Tree of Life.  In the Orphic tablets, they are to be told that although the soul is a son/daughter of the Earth, he is also born of Heaven and is of the celestial race. The Entella tablet, although the last lines are hard to decipher, seems to say that the guardians, after receiving this response, will consult with the Goddess Persephone (queen of the dead), and then either give or require certain passwords. This encounter with these first guardians is not the end of the journey, but only the beginning.

The Essential Role of Memory

The tablets take care to mention that they are “the work of Mnemosyne.” As previously mentioned, the Goddess Mnemosyne is the personification of Memory. Mnemosyne was a daughter of Uranus, wife to Zeus, and mother of the Muses (the inspiration of the poets). The text of the tablets was the work of Mnemosyne because they were something to be remembered. This is one of the reasons the inscriptions are in verse — to facilitate its memorization (p. 15). The responsibility of the Muses was to help poets remember their poetry. The authors of Instructions to the Netherworld expand on the role of Memory:

The goddess takes care that the initiate recalls what he must do, and the instructions that have been revealed to him while alive (probably in the course of initiation), thus becoming the protectress of souls and the guide of his journey (p. 15).

One of the main purposes for seeking the waters of Memory, then, is for those who have been initiated into the mysteries while alive to be able to remember the details of those rituals when they die and have to use them practically in the Afterlife. The authors explain further:

What is hoped for from Mnemosyne is that she may make the initiates remember the ritual, probably that of initiation. At an elementary level, one has recourse to Mnemosyne in order to prevent an unexpected lapse of memory in a moment that is crucial for the initiate: that is, when he presents himself before the guardians and confronts their obligatory interrogation (p. 16).

Beyond this, the authors suggest that some Greek philosophers consider memory as “an instrument of salvation.” While tied by them to the concept of reincarnation, this concept is quite enlightening. The Greeks believed that if you drank from the river Lethe/Forgetfulness, you would forget your previous life and be forced to live another lifetime without progressing. However, if you could remember the lessons learned in your previous live(s) (i.e, because you drank from the fountain of Memory), you could move on to immortality and glory. Those who forget the mistakes of the past will not progress. With the memory of his previous faults, the soul can bring the cycle of destiny to a close and, by paying the price for his injustices, be liberated from the world and death (p. 17).

In Greek, the very concept of “truth” means, etymologically, the “absence of forgetting.” To remember therefore also means “to know” (p. 17). The authors note: “Whereas Forgetfulness is the water of death, because no one can approach the realm of shadows without having lost memory and consciousness, Memory, by contrast, is the fount of immortality, since he who conserves the memory of things in Hades transcends the mortal condition” (p. 17). The general path of the soul is to forget/lose consciousness/die — drinking from the waters of life cause one to take the higher path of memory/knowing/life. As Christ taught, “And this is ^alife ^beternal, that they might ^cknow (remember) thee the only true ^dGod, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast ^esent” (John 17:3). Perhaps this is why the Scriptures tell us so often to remember — 212 times in the Bible and about 120 times in the Book of Mormon.

While a whole post could be written on the subject of memory and its significance, I want to briefly mention a few items for those interested in this topic. My father, David R. Larsen, is the director of Advanced Memory Dynamics, an educational consulting company, and has extensive resources for those interested in learning how to preserve your brain and improve your memory. To learn more, I highly recommend visiting his website at www.4abettermemory.com.

David R. Larsen is also the author of a series of books developed to coincide with LDS Gospel Doctrine annual readings on how to remember scripture: How to Remember Everything in the Old Testament, New Testament, Boof of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Church History. You can go to http://www.cedarfort.com/kahuga/gallery.jsp and enter “How to Remember” in the search window on top for a short review of each volume. These books are full of practical insights for improving memory and also memorizing the scriptures. Also, you can buy any or all of them directly from the author for 20% off the list price. Just e-mail him at: ServgU@aol.com.

1. In his 1982 BYU Studies article, “The Book of Mormon as an Ancient Book,” C. Wilfred Griggs analyzes these arguments in greater depth
2. Griggs, p. 9

The Apostle Paul, by Rublev

Paul’s writings were written before the Gospels–have even more apocalyptic thought than they do.  Many scholars have analyzed this trend in Paul. Paul is the visionary extaordinaire in the New Testament. 

2 Corinthians 12:

1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

We should understand that the man spoken of is Paul himself.  Most scholars interpret this as Paul being taken up to third heaven, which, as he seems to indicate, is Paradise. The third heaven as paradise shows up in Enochic literature, as well.

Throughout Paul there are many apocalyptic themes: we get the cosmic battle, Satan/Belial, 2 spirits, secret knowledge or wisdom, “seeing,” angels, eschatological end to the age, Adam and Eve, Satan transforming himself into angel of light, and many others that show up in Jewish apocalyptic works.

The theme of the transformation of the visionary–a long tradition throughout apocalyptic literature–is not passed up by Paul.  Paul mentions (2 Cor. 3) Moses being transformed (resulting in his shining face) after his vision of God on Sinai — a topic that, while not fully treated in the Bible, is popular in the non-canonical apocalyptic literature.

On the transformation of humans into divine beings in apocalyptic literature:

• Adam becomes mightier than all angels of Creation–Adam is worthy of worship
• Enoch becomes angelic and is made chief of all angels
• Righteous, as they die and ascend to heaven, will be likewise transformed–change can also happen here and now

When Adam transgressed, he lost the divine spirit–that is why there is a necessity to return to Adam’s initial glory–we know have only animal soul, and we need to gain, be restored to, divine soul (this is how some apocalyptic texts describe mankind’s predicament).

–Adam and Eve don’t just lose garments of light, they lose the Holy Spirit

etz hayyim = tree of life–its not just a plant! John (Revelation) depicts Christ as the tree of life– the Holy One is a tree–sacred oil comes from his head (like an olive tree). The tree of life is the Deity himself–sefirot tree of Kabbalah represents this idea. Genesis Rabbah says that the tree of life is large that it requires a 500 year journey to cross it; compare to Shi’ur Qomah on the size of God’s body.

The Apocalypse of Abraham depicts Azazel (Satan) as the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Arboreal methaphors are common for divine entities — In Enochic Lit., Giants see dream of fallen trees that are actually fallen angelic beings.

In the Adam and Eve literature, God sets his throne next to the tree of life — the Garden of Eden is a temple

In one tradition, the Tree of Life is what Moses sees on Mt. Sinai — he brings down a branch of the tree

1 Cor. 15:35–41 ma’aseh be’reshit–Creation–this is how the creation unfolds–Philippians says that righteous will shine like the stars–Zohar means shining–the shining of Adam–in the resurrection there are different degrees of shining

1 Cor 11:6 — Shows that Paul was familiar with the Watchers tradition (of 1 Enoch) — Rebellious angels look down and desire mortal women

There is much evidence that Paul knew Jewish apocalyptic tradition well and used it seemlessly in his own writings, likely with the assumption that his Christian audience was well-familiar with these themes as well.