ADORNED AND ADORED: SACRED TREES
Louise Fowler-Smith
Foreword
Carole M. Cusack
In the twenty-first century the place of human beings in nature is arguably more fraught and less honoured than in any previous era. The damaging consequences of the industrial revolution and the seemingly endless human desire for material goods and a secure place in the affluent late developed world, the attainment of which is dependent upon environmental devastation, has given many reflective people pause. More than fifty years have passed since historian Lynn White Jr’s ground-breaking “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” was published in Science(1967), one of the world’s top academic journals since it first appeared in 1880. In this article, which became his most-cited research output, Lynn White Jr argued that Western science and technology, which he understood as products of Christianity, were the cause of the chasm between modern humanity and nature. White traced the story of economic exploitation of the earth to the monasteries of medieval Europe, and calendars and other texts that portray and teach that humanity and nature, while both created by God, are radically different because humans are made in God’s image and given dominion over nature.
In contrast to this instrumentalist, exploitive, extractive (non)relationship, White argued that in “Antiquity every tree, every spring, every stream, every hill had its own genius loci, its guardian spirit. These spirits were accessible to men, but were very unlike men; centaurs, fauns, and mermaids show their ambivalence. Before one cut a tree, mined a mountain, or dammed a brook, it was important to placate the spirit in charge of that particular situation, and to keep it placated. By destroying pagan animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects”. This contention is borne out by much evidence from Greek and Roman mythological and ritual texts, and the range of divine and semi-divine beings associated with natural phenomena. These include hamadryads (female tree nymphs) whose lives ended if the trees they inhabited were felled, and the spirit beings called naiads that occupied bodies of water. Similarly, there were gods of the rocky mountain peaks (the Ourea in Greek, the Montes in Latin), and of the winds, and stars. The great gods of the Greeks and Romans were similarly embedded in the natural world, with deities like Helios, the sun god, Selene the moon goddess, Eos the dawn goddess, and Poseidon the sea god, all ruled by Zeus, the sky god, whose great shrine at Dodona, in Epirus, was a grove of oak trees. Zeus himself was believed to lodge in one particularly aged tree, and messages from the god to pilgrims were received in several ways, including: casting lots; interpreting the rustling of the trees; and interpreting the sounds of the sacred spring deep within the grove.
Louise Fowler-Smith’s Adorned and Adored: Sacred Trees serves to remind readers that these attitudes of respect, reverence, and awe toward nature, and in particular trees, have survived to the present, and that the religious traditions of India are an inspiration to those seeking spiritual nourishment from a renewed appreciation of nature. This beautifully illustrated study explores the remarkable positive impact that connection to trees brings humans; it considers the beauty and aesthetic appeal of trees, and the immense losses that the severance from it have visited upon the citizens of modern cities. The book’s focus is India, which Louise Fowler-Smith has researched for more than a decade. There are separate chapters covering sacred trees of fertility and marriage, sacred trees of healing and personal protection, and trees that are revered by communities other than Hindus, such as Buddhists and Muslims. The Hindu tradition is revealed in all its variety and local nuance, and the Adivasi (Indigenous) perspective is respectfully discussed. Individual trees are lovingly described, and sacred groves are also considered.
Religious traditions are cultural products, and the acts of veneration that Fowler-Smith records are the result of complex interactions between nature and culture. Deities associated with trees are both male and female, but the devotional focus is very often on women, who seek protection from sacred trees at crucial stages of life, including marriage, getting pregnant and becoming a mother, and coping with the socially risky and fraught status of widowhood. Fowler-Smith describes the rituals attendant upon sacred trees, such as: adornment with fabrics, ribbons, bells, and flower garlands; making offerings of food and jewellery; anointing with holy water and other liquids; and on occasion the sacrifice of animals. Adorning and Adoring: Sacred Trees is both an informative study of tree worship in India, and a personal memoir of Louise Fowler-Smith’s creative engagement in popular religion during her travels in India, and how it inspired her artistic practice as a photographer, painter, and teacher of art. The book is relevant and powerful for a contemporary readership, living on the brink of ecological disaster and the loss of biodiversity, and seeking a renewed relationship with nature. Trees are kin to humans, and the richness of human interactions with trees is encountered on every page. It is my privilege to recommend Louise Fowler-Smith’s beautiful book to readers around the world.
Carole M. Cusack
Professor of Religious Studies
University of Sydney
