Learning to Read Nature
A short tract on trees
I am writing a volume about trees and forests, and am often in the woods nearby, researching — and photographing. Currently, I am looking at how trees communicate underground with each other, because they do through their roots. In effect, there is strong evidence to suggest that older trees impart ‘knowledge’ of the forest to younger, new trees, even at some distance away, and sometimes even of different species.
This involves very complex — but worthwhile study and experimentation, and suggests that the brain, or mind, is not the only form of intelligence or even cognisanse.
In the evenings and late at night I am often at the computer, going deep into the dark net, uncovering what different civilisations have known or supposed about trees. Much wisdom in ancient times has been lost, and when I look at images of the symbolic Tree of Life and World Tree, and dwelve into the significance of trees within various cultures, I see a lot of rediscovery needed. Trees appear on a number of flags of the world; a good place to start.
The flag of Chuvasia, a small republic of two thousand rivers and four hundred lakes within the Russian Federation is a good example of this. It took as late as from 1650 and 1850 to convert the Chuvash to the Russian Orthodox faith — yet the flag retains an iconic Tree of Life with three mystical suns. What could the meaning be?
Of course the best part of the writing process is the tramping around through the woods. The chance to spend so much time among trees has only beneficial effects. In fact some days just being in the forest without carrying out any specific scientific tasks seems to be the most enlightening at all.
when sunlight touches trees
even in winter’s darkest days
my forest glows
