Hi.

Does anyone have any theories on the significance of the sycamore trees in Twin Peaks? I mean, why that particular type of tree? Here is a crazy idea: "sycamore" sounds like "sick amore" which means "sick love". One theory discussed on this site is that Cooper gained access to the lodge through his love for Annie (fear and love open the doors) but it ended up making him "sick". I would love to hear other ideas/theories. There is also the sycamore tree song which may contain some clues. I will need to look into that.

Christian

I think you are wrong. The way Cooper says "sycamore trees" in that final episode - for instance at the sheriff's station - it sounds as if he is trying to find some deeper meaning. And since David Lynch was involved in this episode (and knowing his other works), I think very little is left to chance.

Sick and amore could also refer to the two lodges, black and white, instead of referring to Cooper specifically.

I googled King Arthur and found one interesting poem, where a princess surveys the burial site of King Arthur as she expresses grief for his death:

The Churches of Bassa are his resting

place...

I shall mourn till I enter my oaken

grave...

I shall mourn till I enter the steadfast

earth...

I shall mourn till I enter the circling

staves...

I shall mourn till I enter the field's

surface...

I shall mourn till I enter Travail's

acre...

I think the bit about circling staves is interesting w.r.t. the circle of trees in Twin Peaks. Also, the burial ground of King Arthur was once known as the island of Avalon. Remember from Cooper's dream that a mound of dirt is surrounded by 12 candles (there are 12 sycamore trees - and, perhaps less significant,  both Pete and Windom Earle refer to Pete's 12 rainbow trouts in the final episode). Could this mound of dirt symbolize the island of Avalon? It's interesting because Avalon has been described by Isidore as "bearing all good things, as if happy and blessed in the abundance of their fruits". Could this be the white lodge? It fits very well with Windom's description of it. Perhaps the candles blowing out in Cooper's dream signify the fall of the white lodge. In the final episode, instead of the mound of dirt we see a pool of oil, which is associated with BOB. This could signify that the black lodge has taken over, as Windom also tells Leo in an earlier episode. One confusing part of this though is that BOB creates a mound of dirt before killing Laura. Why would he do that if it symbolizes the white lodge? Maybe to allow her soul to go to the white lodge so that BOB can take over her flesh? (something similar may have happened to Leland - he was possessed as a boy and the boy magician could represent his child soul that has escaped to the white lodge)

Another detail about King Arthur and Glastonbury Grove: according to some chroniclers, monks found a coffin with the inscription "Here lies buried the famous King Arthur with Guinevere his second wife in the isle of Avalon" and Guinevere is described as his queen. Again, this is interesting w.r.t. the final episode of Twin Peaks. Annie is described as the queen and can be regarded as Cooper's second "wife" (the first one being Caroline). We are told at the end of the final episode that Annie is in the hospital but perhaps her soul is still in the lodge with the good Cooper and in the real world she is possessed by BOB. So they would be still be together in Avalon. Or perhaps Laura is the queen; the king (Cooper) and she are together in the FWWM finale.

Part of the legend is that king Arthur is wounded and goes to Avalon to heal his wounds. According to a belief he is not really dead and will one day return. Is Cooper King Arthur returning in 25 years when his wounds have healed?

Christian

Yes, you do have a point there, lol.

I found the original script from the final episode, written by Frost, Peyton, and Engels. I'm sure many of you have seen it already but let me give the link to those who haven't:

http://www.lynchnet.com/tp/tp29.html

I know some of you prefer to avoid scripts containing elements not in the show/FWWM but still I think it is interesting in connection with my post above on King Arthur. I need to read it more carefully but there was something about Windom Earle wanting to be king.

I have to say that I prefer the final version over this script.

in my twin peaks world, sycamore trees is something i vaguely tried to interpret by linking it to 2 things, which are

1) oil, olive, oil tree, which is a thing which plays a part in many mythologies and religious stuff and so. and the circle of sycamores is the entrance to the black lodge and the black lodge is some kind of eternity, though it's a black eternity, an eternity of lies

2) the word "sycophant". since sycamore is compounded of sycos "fig" and moros "mulberry" ... it's just "syco-" both times. and sycophant may be translated as something denoting someone who accuses someone falsly, for gaining a profit. and that kind of behaviour is something leland and benjamin horne are used to and i guess, when acting like a sycophant becomes a habit, it may open up a space, a world which is centered around lies. i think laura was forced to live in such a world in her last days, though she herself was not guilty of anything and that coop, when entering the black lodge, enters that world. well, but that wasn't the question.

sycamore trees: it's a circle of sycophants, it's a world that open ups when standing within a circle like that and it is something related to eternity and understanding of eternity (oil, olive tree in mythology). that's how i "understand" it, that is to what i came while trying to understand this wonderful moving picture painted by all those actors, directors, writers and whoever worked at twin peaks.

That is a very interesting theory. Thanks for sharing it. Both points make good sense to me, especially the one about oil since that is what is associated with BOB (scorched engine oil) and thus with "the evil that people do".

By the way, I seem to recall some blue colour on one or more of the sycamore trees. I can't remember if it was in the final episode or in FWWM. Anyone noticed that and if so, what could it mean? Maybe there was just something wrong with the colours on my tv or with my eyes when I saw it, hehe. I need to check it again.

Christian

at the end of fwwm, when leland enters the circle, there is a blue light shining out of the circle in the middle and there is one blue spot on one of the trees, though i doubt it has a meaning. and i'm not into biology but i guess, these trees there aren't sycamores at all (and they're not 12). after writing what i first wrote i looked a bit into wikipedia and under sycamore tree there was stated that "sycamore" may also denote something inferior, because the fruits of that special tree should be "inferior" (no explanation for this). whatsoever, it was just some thoughts i had, in order to not stand that naked, without any interpretation in front of the film.

 sorry, by the way, that i didn't even mention your king arthur-stuff. i always took the lines relating to king arthur just as hints of strokes of a brush of a painter, like sketch-like scribblings, denoting something, well, with king arthur, with the holy grail and stuff. never cared much about it. a thing vaguely having to do with king arthur would be parcival. i always thought of andy (brennan) being some kind of parcival (the dumb guy, derided by everyone, who, because of his pure heart would be able to, well, to "solve the puzzle", like andy does in owl cave.

I don't know so much about Percival either so I will need to read about him. It seems to me that the original script for the final episode is much more related to the legend of Arthur. For instance, there is something about one of the characters being handed a sword and a shield through the entrance of the lodge. I need to read it again to remember the details.

I wonder what that blue colour means. Lynch seems to like it, also in Mulholland Drive with the blue box and the blue-haired woman in the end. And there is also the Twin Peaks song with the lyrics "Questions in a world of blue". In Mulholland Drive, I associate the colour with passing between the dream world and the real world (through the blue box). The same could perhaps be said about the lodge. "We live inside a dream" as said in FWWM. Anyway, this is rather vague so I would like to hear other views on this.

Are you sure the number of sycamore trees is not 12? I just checked the last episode. It's difficult to see because it's dark and some of the trees are close together and not perfectly aligned in a circle. But I count 12 of them, just like the number of candles in Cooper's dream and the number of rainbow trouts in Pete's car in the final episode. I haven't checked FWWM though.

The number 12 is interesting in connection with King Arthur. According to a Welsh historian, Nennius, King Arthur fought 12 battles during his lifetime.

Incidentally, one of the battles was fought at the river Dubglas, which sounds similar to Dugpas (sorcerers bent on evil, as said by Windom Earle). Ok, that is maybe stretching the search for clues/patterns a bit but I thought I would mention it anyway.

in fwwm / leland-scene there are 6 "trees" surrounding the inner circle, in episode 29 i guess there are just 4? but of course one could try widen the circle, counting the other scrubs or whatever they are, too. i don't know.

the color blue ... i always took it as meaning "spiritual knowledge", since blue is often used with that meaning. it also is the color of the cherubim. and, btw, one dictionary i like told me that douglas would be derived of an gaelic personal name ~"dubhglas" meaning "dark blue".

I looked at the final episode, just after Cooper looks up at the owl, where all the trees can be seen (I think). Also, I looked at the first view of the trees in FWWM. In both cases, there seem to be 12 or 13 of them (but you are right, there is also an inner circle of fewer trees). I googled and found a number of references to Twin Peaks and 12 sycamore trees. However, when I googled for 13 sycamore trees, I did not find a reference to Twin Peaks but something else that I find very interesting indeed, namely a page about special areas near Edinburgh. There are references to a Northern part called Arthur's Seat as well as this:

---

North was linked to the World of the Dead. In some cultures, the sacred mountain to the north was sometimes called “Storehouse of the Dead”. The twin-peaked hill between the temple and the “Everlasting Stars” of the North was thus considered to be a way-station to “Heaven”. Perhaps the two peaks were compared to two “pillars”, marking the entrance to the World of the Dead, where St. Peter greeted the dead with the key to heaven. And what about the two pillars of freemasonry?

---

Many interesting things there, such as a "twin-peaked hill". And here is part of the description for the Southern part:

---

Directly to the South is the impressively named “Mount Lothian”. It is, however, “merely” a low hill. The hill is crowned by a grove of thirteen sycamore trees, the thirteenth being set off-centre. In the centre of the grove is the ruin of a 14th Century chapel, dedicated to St. Mary. Mount Lothian marked the western outpost or gate of Balentradoch, the Templar headquarters of Scotland. It was the location of a Cistercian abbey, to which the chapel belonged. The chapel is now in ruins, but once, it was the place where William Wallace was knighted - the scene made famous in the 1995 Academy Award winning movie “Braveheart”.
Sycamores were often considered to be sacred trees. Their life-span is approximately 250 to 300 years, so the trees there now could not have been present during that knighthood. However, local farmers have discovered tiling in the adjacent field, as well as debris of dwellings that make ploughing impossible. The name “Mount Lothian” also suggests it is an important place, the primary mountain for Lothian and therefore possibly the location from which the ruler of the Lothians ruled."

---

Here is a link to the site where I found it:

http://www.philipcoppens.com/rosslyn_meridian.html

well, in the end, i do not understand where you are heading with that sort of things ...? if you want to map out possible sources of inspiration for this or that picture the writers of twin peaks used in order to tell their story, then that's a thing one may do. but i guess it won't help with finding a key to an understanding of the plot of twin peaks. i guess the key to understanding twin peaks like the key to understanding anything is to look closely at the different persons that appear and the way they interact, with the main question being "is x trying to manipulate y?". and if yes, is it a "definite" manipulation, meaning a manipulation with borders, a "you can't talk in this room, if you want to talk, please go outside" or is it an "indefinite" manipulation, meaning a manipulation that is trying to evoke a totalitarion, well-defined world the manipulator knows and which with necessity commands the manipulated one to do this and that or to think this and that. is it a manipulation that wants to eat up the other's will or is it just a maybe awkward but not malevolent try to help?

twin-peaked hill ...? twin peaks ... i mean, it's a peak, it's the top of a mountain, you can see a lot when standing on top of a mountain, it's a picture of knowledge. and it's a mountain, there's not much to do on top of a mountain, there are not many distractions, like in a desert, ther's not much distraction, too. it's something about eternity, i guess.

and twin peaks... twin ... it's two and those two are really close together, are linked to one another. it's about the evolving of a young man, in my opinion. it's something about a way of a young man who's pure at heart. the principle is love, is empathy. and he is young and naive ... and empathy is empathy for everyone, also empathy with the liars, which's lies the naive is not able to fend off clearly. so there comes a point where he (the young man) is totally sucked into the lies of the liars, totally lost within those lies, even not being able to tell anymore if those lies are to be derived from him or from whatever place else. that's the first peak. and when he becomes able to fend off clearly the lies of the liars that first peak flips around, becomes inverse, changes into the second peak. well ... that's my meaning of "twin peaks".

yes, douglas "dark blue" ... don't know. there are a lot of dictionaries and a lot of opinions. also blue = spiritual knowledge ... there are other opinions and contexts. but, btw, if you look up "blue flower" in wikipedia, there's even twin peaks mentioned.

For me it's quite obvious what the point was with that link I gave. There are references to Arthur, 13 sycamore trees in a grove (as in Glastonbury Grove), the land of the dead is mentioned, there are two peaks, it all fits well with Twin Peaks. And it's interesting to look into such things I think since those places/legends may be where inspiration was gathered by Frost, Lynch and the others involved. Going back and studying them may shed some light on the meaning (or at least part of the meaning) of the show. Looking at characters in Twin Peaks and their interaction is also relevant but I don't think it will ever give a complete picture.

By the way, I found this one on the net: River Dubglas is modern Douglas, meaning "black water"

So it's different from the definition you found. I don't know which one is right but black water is interesting to me as it makes me think of the pool of oil in Twin Peaks.

I have to say I've always had exactly the same so it's difficult for me to try and read things into the King Arthur burial place and so on. Obviously the 12 candles represented the 12 sycamore trees, and obviously the 12 trouts were there as a link to the same. It's possible that King Arthur's 12 battles were a kind of an inspiration as well. More tell I cannot :-)

Still it's a very interesting discussion going on, thanks!

Bobi 1 Kenobi

B. Beware
O. Of
B. BOB 

Here is some of my take on the 'sycamore' and how it relates to mythology...particularly Egyptian.

 In the meantime, the body of Osiris in its coffin floats out to sea and comes ashore in Byblus, where a sycamore tree sprouts and encases the coffin. Isis hears of this and goes to reclaim her husband's body, which -- after some trouble -- she succeeds in doing. She hides his remains and goes to find their son, Horus, but in the meantime Set finds the body and, fearing the new healing powers of Isis, cuts it up into 14 pieces and scatters them far and wide.

(a tradition kept alive in masonry...'lodges'...the intitiate is encased in a coffin to re-enact this symbolically  death/rebirth 'The 3rd Degree' etc...the legend of hiram abiff/osiris)

Note...that the tree here is Acacia and relates to Horus, who is born out of Osiris symbolically. Isis impregnates (somehow!!!)...and bares Horus. (very virgin maryesque)

Eventually, Isis is able to recover 13 of the pieces, leaving a shrine at every place she found one. The 14th piece -- his genitals --(symbolised by the obelisk, you got one in DC, its a symbolic penis) was, however, eaten by fish. (a rainbow trout lol) Still, Isis manages to reassemble Osiris and, with the help of Anubis and Nephythys, does manage to resurrect him, at which point he becomes the God of the Underworld, or God of the Dead, and takes his place in the heavens as the constellation Orion. At the time, Orion set at sunrise on the winter solstice, thereby symbolically entering the Underworld, to be reborn as he rises heliacally on the summer solstice.

According to the Book of Dead, twin sycamores stood at the eastern gate of heaven from which the sun god Re emerged each morning. The sycamore was also regarded as a manifestation of the goddesses Nut, Isis, and especially of Hathor, who was given the epithet Lady of the Sycamore. (Miss Twin Peaks) Sycamores were often planted near tombs, and burial in coffins made of sycamore wood returned the dead person to the womb of the mother tree goddess.

Hathor is commonly depicted as a cow goddess with head horns in which is set a sun disk with Uraeus. 

Lady of the Sycamore...Hathor.

Annie (Miss Twin Peaks/Queen) could be a lady of the sycamore (for obvious reasons) played by Hathor Graham. As a Queen, she could also symbolically represent the queen of the underworld aka Isis)

Major Briggs encounters a cow whilst studying a tree (watch him)...the cow with Windom & Leo inside! Where he finds the 'mark of choronzon' on his neck...but that's another story!

The Egyptian’s Holy Sycamore stood on the threshold of life and death, connecting the worlds.

"One chants out between two worlds"

Lol...One chants out between two worlds...Fir (as in Douglas) walk with me!  (sorry couldn't resist!)

It can be seen as the 'tree of life' and therefore conversely, death!  (life/death...white lodge/black lodge)

Tree of life = sephiroth   tree of death = qliphoth....kaballa folks.

Also the sycamore can be viewed as a rendition of Isis...in art she was sometimes portrayed this way.

Isis 'suckling' as a Sycamore.

The King Arthur stuff is interesting....Avalon, according to a certain scholar could be a phonic echo of Afalon...deriving from welsh for apple.  Which puts it into the realms of Eden, for obvious reasons.

Back again to the tree...the tree of knowledge Genesis...or Gene of Isis, if you prefer.

Geoffrey of Monmouth called it in Latin Insula Avallonis in the Historia. In the later Vita Merlini he called it Insula Pomorum the "isle of apples". The name is generally considered to be of Welsh origin (though an Old Cornish or Old Breton origin is also possible), derived from Old Welsh abal, "apple", or aball, "apple tree" (in later Middle Welsh spelled aval, avall; now Modern Welsh afal, afall).

Re: Arthur....have a look at this from Comyns Beaumont, found in his work The Riddle of Pre-Historic Britain.

Relating Arthur to Osiris.

Hey Mr Bozia....get your hands on some Beaumont material (although it is difficult) you'd love it...especially the stuff relating to mythology and etymology!   Sure, it's crazy in places...but aren't we all, I know I am?

Re: Glastonbury/Glastonbury Grove (Grove as in Druid's Grove, tree worshippers)

Now you know why there is a pyramid stage at the yearly festival.

It all makes symbolic sense.

Templars/Druids etc are believed to be forerunners of modern Freemasonry (but you probably know that already), so no surprise to find sycamores being venerated....very interesting find though!

Lothian/Lot-hian....Lot King of the Orkney's from the Arthurian legend.

In respect of the numbers 12 or 13...

12 Knights of Arthur...could easily relate to the zodiacal signs...the missing 13th sign being ophiuchus...the serpent bearer.  The 'round table' can only add to this zodiacal allusion.

You get the same sort of thing with the 12 labours of Hercules (one which directly relates to apples) and various other things etc etc etc.

Without doubt...there is certainly an overlap with the myths of Arthur & Osiris...one that bears greater study.