From ancient times the tree was man's birthplace:
It [the tree] is therefore a source of life. The alchemists called both the vessel and the bath the “womb.” The cloven or hollow trunk bears out this interpretation. The King's bath is itself a matrix, the tree serving as an attribute of the latter. Often, as in the Ripley Scroll, the tree stands in the nuptial bath, either as a pillar or directly as a tree in whose branches the numen appears in the shape of a mermaid (= anima) with a snake's tail
CW14 ¶ 75SNAKE-LIKE MERCURIUS
AS A TREE NUMEN
The analogy with the Tree of Knowledge is obvious. The Dodonian oak was the abode of an oracle, the anima here playing the role of prophetess. The snake-like Mercurius appears as a tree numen in Grimm's fairytale of “The Spirit in the Bottle”
CW14 ¶ 75According to Hegemonius,Jesus was the paradisal tree, indeed the Tree of Knowledge, in Manichaean tradition: “The trees which are [in paradise] are the lusts and other temptations that corrupt the thoughts of men. But that tree in paradise whereby good is known is Jesus, and the knowledge of him which is in the world: and he who receives this discerns good from evil.” Here the Tree of Knowledge is regarded as a remedy for concupiscence, though outwardly it is not to be distinguished from the other (corrupting) trees ( Acta Archelai, p. 18 )
CW14 ¶ 75