The Untouchable Tree: An Illustrated Guide to Earthly Wisdom & Arboreal Delights

by Peter C. Stone

Overview

An artist shares his love of trees with his brilliant paintings and thoughtful words. According to Peter Stone, "any book about trees can't help but be a book about people," and so his book is about our connection to the magnificence, the transcendence, and the essential nature of trees. Throughout human history, they have served as shelter and as symbol. And today, more than ever, our destiny is tied to theirs. The Untouchable Tree is a unique exploration of our relationship with these amazing plants. It covers everything from our exploitation of trees for material gain to our unique love of woodlands, parks, and forests. Peter C. Stone is an artist in the best sense of the word. His paintings and his words remind us of why we love trees and forests—and why they are important. 30 color illustrations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628732023
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	10/17/2008
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	30 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Peter C. Stone's contemporary tonalist landscape paintings have been described as "luminous spiritual journeys" that celebrate nature and native lands, from New England to the Antarctic. He lives in Marion, Massachusetts.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

BLOSSOMS

When the seed dies, the earth is wounded.

But only in resurrection.

For soon a small green sprout springs forth, round as the moon, another axis of this bountiful, troubled planet.

If anything, that is good.

BLACKCHERRY (PRUNUS SEROTINA)

Black Cherry (Prunus serotina): An emblem of immortality in Chinese lore, the blossoms are associated with maidens, while the wood is thought to ward off malevolent spirits. In other traditions, the naked cherry (in winter) represents deception, possibly because its fleeting seasons of alluring flower and fruit turn frigid so quickly. In the foreground, the forked tree often symbolizes the conflicts within us as well as the mythical Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Its delicate scattered petals are a beckoning motif in this context, one that entices us to embark on a new journey by following the watery path of the sacred feminine.

If you look into the distance, the serpentine stream rises up as the subtle head of a snake. Water is linked with fertility and life, while the snake appears in most traditions — although with a wide range of negative and positive connotations. It is intimated here for its connections to the powers of rejuvenation and healing, and for its knowledge of mysterious things. White, blue, yellow, red, and black are splattered throughout the landscape because they are linked with the "endless" snake found in Navaho sand paintings, klish-do-nuti'i, who is daubed with these sacred colors tied to the cardinal directions for many indigenous peoples of North America.

The mythological adventure always begins with an inner calling, a whisper, a blooming of awareness, even a curious stream that summons us to break away from the safety of a well-trod path. Streams beget rivers, unrivaled cross-cultural symbols of journeys and characterized by movement and stillness, representing the temporal and eternal aspects of our lives. The river, rejoices Kenneth Grahame in The Wind and the Willows, is a "... babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth ..." "What it hasn't got is not worth having, and what it doesn't know is not worth knowing ..."

Who knows how and where its descendants may travel?

Do we welcome them?

Its children waltz off like cherry blossoms on the wind.

Rambunctious cousins join the sweet circus of wild pears, the apple orchards' deft ballet.

COMMON APPLE (MALUS COMMUNIS)

Common Apple (Malus communis): I've painted many old rchards in the spring, when the crests of distant hills, like one's dreams, no longer seem so unattainable. But visions such as this one, and certainly dreams, are able to access "... a mythological past that still exists parallel in time to present-day ordinary reality ..." It is a past and present familiar to aboriginal cultures around the world. To indigenous Australians, for example, it is aptly known as "the Dream Time."

During this particular afternoon, the leaden skies broke apart as sunlight splashed down upon the fertile green grass through the laughing blossoms that might denote one's uplifted sentiments. (If you look closely into the foremost tree, the luminous shadows become a delighted profile.) With the enormous diversity of apples available today (about 7,500 varieties around the world, a third of which are grown in the United States), those delicate blooms and their mysteries may also represent a fascinating blend of art and science, and the meaning of horticulture: "The science or art of cultivating fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants."

But should we be wary of how we apply our sciences, often using specialized technologies to reap short-term rewards from natural resources? Why bother questioning how we treat a simple orchard?

Consider pesticides, for example, and the bees that pollinate this grove; without them, the trees would bear no fruit. "Bees play an integral role in the world food supply, and are essential for the pollination of over ninety fruit and vegetable crops worldwide, with the economic value of these agricultural products placed at more than $14.6 billion in the U.S. In addition to agricultural crops, honey bees also pollinate many native plants within the ecosystem."

Yet, for many years, our industrial agricultural system has been pumping large amounts of antibiotics and pesticides into the air, soil, water, and trees. And not just in the United States. Almost five decades ago, chronicles journalist Laurie Garrett, "The Green Revolution — a World-Bank-backed scheme to improve Third World economies through large-scale cash crop production ..." transformed "... thousands of acres offormerly diversely planted and fallow land into monocultured farms for export production of coffee, rice, sorghum, wheat, pineapples, or other cash crops ..."

"When an area had very diverse plant life, its insect population was also diverse and no single pest species generally had an opportunity to so dominate that it could destroy a crop," Garrett continues. "As plant diversity decreased, however, competition and predation among insects also declined. As a result, croplands could be overwhelmed rapidly by destructive insects. Farmers responded during the 1960s with heavy pesticide use, which often worked in the short term. But in the long run pesticides usually killed off beneficial insects, while crop-attacking pests became resistant to chemicals. A vicious cycle set in, forcing use of a wider assortment of insecticides to protect crops."

The result was a boon to pesticide and fertilizer manufacturers, a plausible reason why "... the collusion between U.S. agencies and the big businesses ...," in the terms of author John Perkins, has carried on to the present, at home and abroad. Meanwhile, the local farmers have been left to contend with the often disastrous long-term consequences. "In some Third World countries," assesses Paul Hawken, "pesticides kill more people than do major diseases."

Spherical in form, the apple is a classical symbol of totality.

Looking back to this orchard, could some of the antibiotics and pesticides we use in United States also end up in the bees, contributing to the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that is wiping out bee colonies around the country? Among the likely factors first suspected of causing the disorder are "... mites and associated diseases, some unknown pathogenic disease and pesticide contamination or poisoning."

"We're asking a lot of our bees," concludes author Michael Pollan. "... That seems to be a hallmark of industrial agriculture: to maximize production and keep food as cheap as possible, it pushes natural systems and organisms to their limit, asking them to function as efficiently as machines."

If the stresses on the bees lead to stresses on the apple trees, do we need to rethink our agricultural practices? "What agrarian principles propose," writes Wendell Berry, "... is a revolt of local small producers and local consumers against the global industrialism of the corporations. Do I think that there is hope that such a revolt can survive and succeed and that it can have a significant influence upon our lives and our world?"

Berry answers himself with a hopeful "Yes."

To rethink or revolt, we can start by asking what we should see and hear in a healthy grove, by observing the whole interconnected system and remembering what kind of environment bees must have for vigorous productive colonies. We might even look for the symbols of that healthy environment growing right before our eyes.

In this orchard, the dominant palette is fittingly built of whites and blues and greens, inspired by direct observation of nature. It is no coincidence that these hues are viewed as feminine by indigenous cultures of North America, while red, yellow, and black are viewed as masculine.

Then there's the apple itself. Spherical in form, the apple is a classical symbol of totality. It has long stood as an emblem of love in numerous traditions, predating its fame as the sweet food of temptation in the Garden of Eden or a dream symbol of sexual pleasure. But its connotations include that of knowledge in Celtic lore and the representation of eternal youth in Norse mythology. Perhaps these are reasons why, from Europe to Asia, blossoming fruit trees were used in ancient fertility ritual and treated with the concern and tenderness accorded a woman expecting a child.

Does any being really know?

The lindens seem to. They buzz with the gossip of bumbling bees, of staggering butterflies drunk with pollen, each upon its blissful path.

Swamp maples laugh gaily with choirs of peepers, chirruping swallows, worming red robins and nesting brown wrens.

RED MAPLE, SWAMPMAPLE, WATERMAPLE (ACER RUBRUM)

Red Maple, Swamp Maple, Water Maple (Acer rubrum): Bright as scarlet roses and ablaze with the color of vitality and desire, these fiery maples form a threshold through which anyone might follow a path that reflects the heavens or some hallowed feminine voice. Even if it leads through one's personal morass, the species is often considered one of reserve. The ground may be damp, but water is the unifying element depicting our emotional nature, just as blue represents wisdom and clarity in many cultures, a hue that might lead to Truth.

"The blue of changing skies," reflects the eloquent stained glass master craftsman, Charles J. Connick, "of deep pools, of tiny brooks, waterfalls, glaciers, and the great oceans themselves have an ever-increasing charm for me. Prophets, priests and poets have announced and preached and sung in terms of blue." By example, he mentions the English poet, John Keats (1795-1821), who celebrates the hue this way: "Blue, 'tis the life of Heaven!"

As with all symbols, we must keep in mind that there are multiple meanings for colors, depending on cultural (and psychological) associations or natural associations, although colors found in nature have timeless implications.

Any color, so long as it's red Is the color that suits me best, Though I will allow there is much to be said For yellow and green and the rest.

— Eugene Field (1850-1895), "Red"

Throughout the landscapes in this book, the significance of the chosen palette is fundamentally natural, followed by its psychological symbolism for enhancing the impact of a painting. Thus, the water here reflects the calming color of a clear blue sky, and may also imply the cross-cultural search for an understanding of the Mystery.

What was all this before creation? Was there water? Only God knows, Or perhaps he knows not....

— Rig Veda X, 12927

For example, the use of blue paint is sacred for rituals of the Sioux: "... the power of a thing or an act is in the understanding of its meaning. Blue is the color of the heavens, and by placing the blue upon the tobacco, which represents earth, we have united heaven and earth, and all has been made one." It fits well in the triangular patch of sky between the trees, a shape that is symbolic of equality, inner knowledge, and sensitivity for many indigenous peoples. Here, it gives rise to an innocent upturned face, a window on our own sense of wonder.

There are two sides to every view, however, and some may scoff at this visage because of their own interpretations in the same way countless scientific "discoveries" have been ridiculed before being accepted; the observations of Darwin, Galileo, and Heisenberg all met resistance. Yet in exploring the unified field of energy and matter, neuroscientists and quantum physicists concur with the adepts of the science of consciousness developed thousands of years earlier (known in India as brahma-vidya, "the science of the Supreme").

"The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science."

— Albert Einstein

This should be no surprise, for scientists now know that the so-called "solid" atoms in stones, wood, or the cells of our bodies are comprised of "more than 99.999 percent empty space," making them "proportionately as void as intergalactic space." The Yoga Vasishtha of ancient India's Solar Dynasty foretells this with the observation, "In every atom, there are worlds within worlds," implying that physics and mysticism explore the same realms. As physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) famously says, "The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science."

Still, it is incredible to think how many sacred rituals tied to an intrinsic knowledge about living with the land were demeaned as foolishness or destroyed by the overtaking "Christian" cultures, especially considering their anthropocentric biases in biblical terms. "Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

How many were arrogantly branded as "Paganism"?

... the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan.

— Gertrude Simmons Bonnin [Zitkala-Sa] (1876-1938) Dakota Sioux

CHAPTER 2

THRESHOLDS

Dogwoods flutter their ivory petals like eyelashes, beckoning us to cross our next threshold.

FLOWERING DOGWOOD (CORNUS FLORIDA), BLACK OAK (QUERCUS VELUTINA), RED PINE (PINUS RESINOSA)

Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), Black Oak (Quercus velutina), Red Pine (Pinus resinosa): This architectural gate is no less a threshold for the next stage of one's journey on the Way, though easier to recognize for eyes less tuned to untouched forests. It is a pair of opposites, (like the cherubim with a flaming sword at the entrance to the Garden of Eden, or the terrifying figures guarding some Buddhist temples); one side is in shade and the other in sun, signifying both sides of all our experiences. The crescent moons of transformation atop the pillars also represent the feminine energy needed to balance the masculine energy of the sun, an equilibrium represented in East Asia by yin and yang. But the woods (strewn with this flowering tree representing the crucifixion in Christian traditions — versus "glamour" and "refinement" in Celtic symbolism) are dappled with dogwood blossoms suggesting hardiness in many cultures, even though they give a determined traveler little clue about which direction to take, what challenges await, or how long one must endure.

The very same questions were faced by King Arthur's Twelve Knights of the Round Table, a symbol linked with "the signs of the Zodiac" and consistent with the Chinese symbol of the sky and the sea or the Dalai Lama's "round council." As Arthur's knights discovered, treading in the footsteps of others creates expectations and may only lead to disappointment or failure on one's quest. The answers come from the truest decisions made within, from one's pure intuition about following one's own path.

For at least 13,000 years (and by some estimates, possibly 14,000 to 35,000) before the Europeans, these woodlands whose white "petals" or bracts caught my eye were managed, hunted, selectively cleared, burned, and thinned by indigenous peoples. "Traditionally, conservationists have regarded people as the problem: people kill animals, eat plants, and in general destroy habitat. But indigenous peoples have spent lifetimes coexisting with the forest, living off the forest while at the same time sustaining a fragile ecosystem by not overhunting its creatures or exhausting its soil."

The answers come from the truest decisions made within, from one's pure intuition about following one's own path.

The Abundant Forests Alliance states that, because of reforestation efforts in the United States, "... our forest inventory has grown by 39% over the past half century." This is a good sign, no matter how deforested the country had become since the 1600s when "... forests covered about one billion acres, or approximately 46 percent of the United States," according to the American Forest & Paper Association, compared with about "... one-third of the nation — or 747 million acres — ... still forested today."

The AF&PA goes on to say, "Forest growth has continually exceeded harvest since the 1940s, and today, growth exceeds harvest by 47 percent. Improved forest protection has also made an important contribution to the abundance of forests." ... we do possess the technologies and know- how to alter our demands for forest products.

Let's be honest with ourselves, though. How many of these "forests" are really vast monocultures with diminished biota and diversity in every kingdom that once composed the original natural forest, tracts of single species that we shower with pesticides and herbicides to keep down "pests" and "weeds" in the name of economic profits? Is there another way to perceive our idea of "abundance"? Whether or not one views forests as things that belong to us, can we continue to renew them in the face of rampant development and population growth and an economic system that creates imbalance in its wake? Can we really regain the balance that once existed here?

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Untouchable Tree"
by .
Copyright © 2008 Peter C. Stone.
Excerpted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Title Page,
Dedication,
Copyright Page,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS,
AUTHOR'S NOTES,
FOREWORD,
BLOSSOMS,
THRESHOLDS,
THE JOURNEY,
DREAM TIME,
TEACHERS,
AUTUMN,
DARKNESS,
STILLNESS,
AWAKENING,
APPENDIX I - Sample Questions for Discussions and Activities,
APPENDIX II - List of Paintings by Common Name (Genus species); Title,
APPENDIX III - List of Pen and Inks by Chapter and Title,
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY,
ENDNOTES,