The Spirit of Things: The Green God

The Spirit of Things: The Green God

21st Jan 2:18pm

It is a strange thing, but for all the churches i have entered, i have never seen such beauty as that which I have glimpsed through this window. And I find myself frequently wondering, whether man in his attempt to harness and capture the spiritual within such places as churches, mosques, temples or synagogues, has done a disservice to the spiritual and had it wrong from the very beginning?

For didn't Moses see, meet and engage the spirit in a burning bush and receive his directions atop a Mountain? So why have we restricted the spiritual between walls and separated our ourselves from nature? Where would God prefer to rest? Would you find him, or her, or the Alpha and Omega beneath the shade of a tree or laying upon or beneath an altar, or inside a tabernacle, at rest and complete without a view of the stars in their night sky, or a view of the rising or setting sun and the travelling and changing moon - would God give up such things? I doubt it. As William Wordsworth had written:

I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And tolls through all things (Tintern Abbey 93-102).

No, I doubt whether the wind that moves through the trees would ever advocate being locked away and enclosed. So why has man taken it upon himself to lock away the spirit, why did he walk away from the green altar and its testimony of moving, swaying, shading and life giving leaves?

The Black Cockatoo and the Gathering of Crows

The Black Cockatoo and the Gathering of Crows

11th Jan 2008 1:43pm

White-tailed black cockatoo continue to inhabit the pines. I occasionally hear their rasping call when they are roosting and their call 'ngoolyaark-ngoolyaark' when they are on the wing in flight. Their calling is mostly faint - hard to hear through the glass - but I can still hear it. Also, magpies continue to visit the patch of red petals outside my window. Willy wagtails likewise continue to make sorties across the surface, and they are given to flicking their elongated tails hoping to disturb and scatter insects therein gathered. And on occasions crows continue to gather and mud larks come close on their heels.

I also had another thought about the seed pods. Perhaps they open at the time of flowering when the heat is most concentrated. Or, perhaps the pods and seeds availability at the time of flowering and the crows association to the seeds and pods is singularly that of chance.

Red Petals, Black Pods and Yellow Fruit/Seeds.

Red Petals, Black Pods and Yellow Fruit/Seeds.

10th Jan 2008 12:15am

Amid the fermenting petals I have noticed several seed pods. Have they always been there? I hadn't noticed them before, and only took notice when I saw two large crows attempting to dislodge the yellow seeds from the pods, which following their apparent success they quickly ate. Does the Brachychiton enable its seed pods to loosen and fall with the fall of its blossoms? Or is it that the seeds and their black pods are most nutritious and most noticeable surrounded by the red burgundy platter of fermenting petals? Does the tree think or know to capitalize on the fall of its petals in attracting the spread of its seeds, which, I suspect, are carried and spread in bird droppings some distance from the parent tree?

Scarlet: The Sweet Scent of Fermentation and Fertility.

Scarlet: The Sweet Scent of Fermentation and Fertility.

10th Jan 11:00am

The flowers petals from the Brachychiton have begun to rot beneath it. The area has turned a deep burgundy to scarlet red and the area has attracted a number of birds. Yesterday I saw a number of crows, magpies and willy wagtails. Others birds included several wattle birds and a few singing honey eaters. The rotting petals have no doubt attracted many insects, which in turn have attracted the birds. And it was only the day after that it registered in what I was seeing. And I wonder whether the birds know to expect it or whether they watch each other's movements and make their way to plentiful food sources when they are found. Or, has the tree's petals found another way of fertilizing itself and the many Brachychitons around it. Does the gathering of insects and birds beneath it encourage and increase the possibility of its fertilization? And I am wondering whether the Brachychiton located in its native state and locality interacts with the fertility of other tree and animal species?

Green Butterflies

Green Butterflies 8th Jan 2008 10:45am

Platanus doolyar waarlitjabin waar-koorliny - nyaarng-korl baarng, bordak-ngat, daardj maarngka-waariny, red flowers, hanging suspended, and below the spent carcasses of their kill - these birds of prey leaves of the affray seldom resting, tossed and twisting in the thermals bending - green butterflies that allure the eye, green oxygen givers I watch them fly.

doolyar: large leaves

waarlitj: eagle

abin: becoming

waar: flying

koorliny: going/moving

nyaarng-korl baarng: this way and that

bordak: close

ngat: near

daardj: meat

maarngka: branches

waariny: hanging

Ngaarngk: The Noongar Sun

Ali Ngaarngk: The Noongar sun beyond. 7th Jan 2008 4:09pm
Dooytj is the heat. Ngay is the breath, and conspiring with the heat - kaalanginy - on fire, and dookeniny, the heat and breath cooking in the sun, the full sun, the ngaarngk yirraa karlmin kaalanginy, ngaarda djinanginy.
The sun, the mother above looking down and burning all below it, and me, safe in this my postgraduate's cell, under the airconditioner's spell. Meanwhile, the world whizzes by, and the heat, beyond my window, knows not where to find me, or the sun to blind me. I am hiding in the shadows looking out.

The Philosophy of the Tree-Like Gardener

The Philosophy of the Gardener 4th Jan 11:50am (Written from my room with its view of the platanus orientalis).

Gardening is a philosophy, for gardeners practiced in the arts of seeing know that one has to think and do as a tree. One needs to spread their leaves equally so as to harness the best chances of engaging and utilizing the sunlight.

Like leaves, the gardener must learn what plants/trees need to be planted where. They need to learn like the leaves and spread of foliage, what plants are going to excel in relation to others, so as not to impede their growth but to encourage the growth of others.

Gardeners must also understand what they cannot see, and only feel. Intuitively, like the roots of trees, they must search deeply of themselves to know where and what sources of nourishment can best be located. They must also think laterally and vertically with roots that seek sources of nourishment where ever they may be found.

Like the tree the gardener knows that her/his trunk must be strong enough to carry the weight of his arms which in turn carry the weight of his growth and years and crown. And with feet deeply rooted in the soil of his community, s/he must know how deep to extend his searching and probing.

Then having acquired such things that a tree knows and does, a gardener can rest in his shade and provide protection and nourishment to those growing and searching around him.

Cyclone Melanie

It's 8pm with daylight saving, and the remnants of cyclone Melanie are still drifting over the platanus. Her leaves are grey and sombre. The heat has driven most of the red coral flowers of the Brachychiton: the belle flame tree to shed, and gradually her bright petals are being consumed by the woodchips beneath them. Opposite, watching from beyond, the orange jasmin rests deep green beneath and light green above - is it an optical illusion or the arrival of new stems and shoots? I suspect the latter. And the sky, high clouds blue roan, steel grey or is it Melanie at play, or deceased? But the weather has changed, El Nino is no more and the eastern seaboard is awash with storms and we, in the west, the tail end of cyclones.