Blasphemy?

[Explorer]

I usually consider myself a most tolerant and liberated person when it comes to religions.
In my (atheistic) view, all religions are human constructs to deal with the absurdities of life and paradoxes of (human) nature. And they all have something sweet and naive. Including druidry.
This has nothing to do with some of their followers who have lost perspective in a destructive way, and who need to be taken out of the game according to our modern moral. Like priests who rape children or suicide bombers who blow up everything that moves. I don't think that has anything to do with their religions, just with human nature.

But this weekend I did experience some religious anger. I was hiking and approached a mighty tree right in the middle of a crossroad of 5 roads. A guardian, a manifestation of the spirit of that place. I was a little saddened to see how her branches had been cut off, but she would live. But when I passed the tree I saw a bright white cross nailed to the tree, with a sign saying "everybody who passes, remember who created this land". I was a insulted by this. I'm totally fine with chapels and crosses along the path, but I'm not painting pentagrams on churches either am I? A bit of respect please.

When I looked over my shoulder I saw how she looked defiant. Showing her vagina like a proper sheila-na-gig, big enough to swallow the little annoying figure with cross and all, hah! And she even appeared to give everybody the finger. I'm usually not very militant, but if I could have reached it I would have removed that cross.

http://uilennest.net/pics/blasphemy.jpg

ps: The location in Google Maps. If you go to street view and look behind you, you can see what she is giving the finger...

[Aylyn]

I can understand your anger, I would have felt the same way I guess. Although mine would be less directed at the cross - I consider people who feel the need to nail crosses to trees similar to you: Vandals who have no real sense of dignity and need to mark their territories like pissing dogs.

What really upsets me is the idiots with the chainsaws who are taking care to mutilate every tree in sight. Why they call themselves "Tree surgeons" I have no idea, they have as much in common with a surgeon as a mass-murderer. Trees are thankfully a lot more resilient, but damage like this is not easy on them. This is IMO the real blasphemy, and I always feel the urge to take a chainsaw and have a go at THEIR limbs....

[Turtle]

Hi,

That's a feeling I can relate to. I get it sometimes when I see names and signs carved in trees or - to a lesser degree, but still - on very old places of power. I also got it when I got to Tara and stumbled on a big white monument for St. Patrick. Now maybe I got that all wrong, but that really did feel as adding insult to injury!

The tree, even with her brances cut off looks so proud still. I hope she grows lots of green shoots from them. Thát would really be giving all and everything the big finger.

Turtle

[Frog]

I can understand your anger, I would have felt the same way I guess. Although mine would be less directed at the cross - I consider people who feel the need to nail crosses to trees similar to you: Vandals who have no real sense of dignity and need to mark their territories like pissing dogs.

What really upsets me is the idiots with the chainsaws who are taking care to mutilate every tree in sight. Why they call themselves "Tree surgeons" I have no idea, they have as much in common with a surgeon as a mass-murderer. Trees are thankfully a lot more resilient, but damage like this is not easy on them. This is IMO the real blasphemy, and I always feel the urge to take a chainsaw and have a go at THEIR limbs....

I have to agree with Aylyn - the people who put it up are at fault. It is frustrating that someone (or a group) felt that it was OK to put that sign up the tree. But hey, some groups' beliefs are that they hold dominion over everything else anyway...

One comment though - the tree surgeons would have been hired by someone and paid to work, so there is a need to be careful where we hex. Whilst it is a more labour-based job, there is normally at least on qualified arborialist (if that is the right word) to make sure that the tree is properly trimmed.
In the case of this one, if it was to get too big it could cause a hazard for the people passing by the road. Additionally, and this knowledge is based upon when I kept Bonsai trees, by trimming the top the tree will put more effort into the leaves rather than the roots - and in this case would not create problems on the road that passes it.

As with so many things in life, somethings are not straightforward.

[Explorer]

I have to agree with Aylyn - the people who put it up are at fault. It is frustrating that someone (or a group) felt that it was OK to put that sign up the tree. But hey, some groups' beliefs are that they hold dominion over everything else anyway...

One comment though - the tree surgeons would have been hired by someone and paid to work, so there is a need to be careful where we hex. Whilst it is a more labour-based job, there is normally at least on qualified arborialist (if that is the right word) to make sure that the tree is properly trimmed.
In the case of this one, if it was to get too big it could cause a hazard for the people passing by the road. Additionally, and this knowledge is based upon when I kept Bonsai trees, by trimming the top the tree will put more effort into the leaves rather than the roots - and in this case would not create problems on the road that passes it.

As with so many things in life, somethings are not straightforward.

I agree with you Frog. The tree is probably trimmed for a good reason.
My annoyance comes from the cross nailed to the tree like that. It radiates an ignorance about other ways of thinking, which is rude and thoughtless.

[Corwen]

I agree, often taking the bigger branches out is the only way to save the life of a tree which has become weak at the roots and is in danger of blowing down, or where some of the branches have died back and become rotten and present a danger to people below.

My award for most blatent blasphemy goes to a standing stone we saw in a Spanish churchyard, it had an ugly concrete Madonna cemented to the top!

[Aylyn]

One comment though - the tree surgeons would have been hired by someone and paid to work, so there is a need to be careful where we hex. Whilst it is a more labour-based job, there is normally at least on qualified arborialist (if that is the right word) to make sure that the tree is properly trimmed.
In the case of this one, if it was to get too big it could cause a hazard for the people passing by the road. Additionally, and this knowledge is based upon when I kept Bonsai trees, by trimming the top the tree will put more effort into the leaves rather than the roots - and in this case would not create problems on the road that passes it.

As with so many things in life, somethings are not straightforward.

Yes and no, after a few years in London (and you must know that as well) I found that many trees are pollarded like this precautionary - if a branch fell, somebody couul sue, so they take off all larger branches. not for the tree, simply for the risk avoidance. And while it may be advisable in some trees, it is not so in all. I remember coming back one evening to our already depleted neighbourhood and see that the trees werew mere stumpos, it made me mad as hell.

I also grow Bonsai, and small wounds heal easy and might actually benefit the tree. But if the wounds are too big, and those branches look awfully big, it takes years to heal, during which the tree is in danger of becoming infected with funghi. Which is the real blasphemy for me: putting a live tree at risk for the sake of a road or a lawsuit...

[Explorer]

Which is the real blasphemy for me: putting a live tree at risk for the sake of a road or a lawsuit...

That sounds pretty fanatic, almost fundamentalistic, especially the chainsaw comments. A tree is not a person, or even an animal. And clipping a tree is not like they're cutting down the rainforest. I wonder, could it be that you lost some perspective by talking to trees a bit too much?

[Aylyn]

Fanatic, me???? NOOOOO

I am just so sad to see so many trees been mutilated for the sake of money. Especially in a city like London which has already lost a large amount of trees, it becomes a real tragedy, and when you leave a nice green suburb in the morning to come back to something that looks like a wasteland, it hits twice.

I was doing a guided walk around Kenwood House one day (A nice old house with a large garden in the North of London), and noticed that a lot of the beautiful old beeches had been cut back just as badly, right there in the garden area. As I asked the head gardener leading the walk for the reason, he told me this story:

It is usually not an accessible area for the public, as the garden is surrounded by a large wall and this part is off-limits. However, folks still sneak in for a picknick under the trees. As the trees are old, some of the branches are unstable and could fall, hurting whoever is below. And it makes no difference to the law whether people were trespassing: The owner is still liable for any damage. Which is why the gardeners took action and cut the trees back. And to tell you that, it looks horrible.

Maybe I have spent too much time talking to the trees, but I find them more important. And maybe a single tree is not the rainforest, but is it not the general attitude that works on both? If one tree is not worth saving, what makes you think that 1 million is more worthy? Is it not the real expression of our beliefs how we treat our surroundings, be that by nailing crosses to a tree or cutting it back?

[Coryllus]

Well, blasphemy too, is a construct of the human mind, however you cut it. The cross on the tree is just the territory marking, micturition, of a frightened animal. It must be very uneasing to believe that there is an omniscient overlord, with a bad history of emotive overreaction watching your every; move with a critical, punishing eye. Unsuprising that those who buy into it, take every reckless opportunity to wheedle to it in praise. When the indoctrination is firmly hard wired in, rationale and respect for anything outside the box, cannot obtain.
Alternatively, it may be the handiwork of someone who hasn’t really ever bought it completely, trying to resell it to themselves by picketing the delusory comfort zone. A common enough syndrome.
More to be pitied in either case, however annoying.

[Explorer]

Well, blasphemy too, is a construct of the human mind, however you cut it. The cross on the tree is just the territory marking, micturition, of a frightened animal. It must be very uneasing to believe that there is an omniscient overlord, with a bad history of emotive overreaction watching your every; move with a critical, punishing eye. Unsuprising that those who buy into it, take every reckless opportunity to wheedle to it in praise. When the indoctrination is firmly hard wired in, rationale and respect for anything outside the box, cannot obtain.
Alternatively, it may be the handiwork of someone who hasn’t really ever bought it completely, trying to resell it to themselves by picketing the delusory comfort zone. A common enough syndrome.
More to be pitied in either case, however annoying.

I don't know that their reason is.
But you know what? I looked up which church that was and (politely) e-mailed them my grievances and asked them to remove it. They probably won't, but at least it may give them some awareness that there are others out here also.

[Lily]

Guys, this is called pollarding.

Has been done for ever on trees. it is a way to manage their growth. Perhaps if the tree would be left to grow, it might become unstable (looks like a poplar to me). So it is a way to make the tree live longer.

I'm all for honoring trees and against blasphemy, and the cross thingy is certainly seriously annoying - but you are committing the pathetic fallacy on that tree. Says the skeptic.

[treegod]

Really I don't agree with pollarding. Like you say it can make the tree unstable. In fact what happens is that, if left to grow without further pollarding the new shoots become "trees". So you have trees growing on trees. Which is a very stupid think to have, and makes it very weak, unless you are commited to keep its growth stunted. In urban areas it's beneficial, it keeps the branches from interfering with the surrounding buildings. But really I think it's very bad business and most trees should be left to grow up.

On the land where I live there are lots of trees that were pollarded or were cut on top for hedges but have since not been maintain in the same way. Their growth patterns are unhealthy and dangerous and will probably need cutting down at some point before they damage themselves and the area around them.

In general I'm more horrified by trees getting pollarded than graffiti. The tree will ignore the cross graffiti, only human minds will notice that, and feel offended. But the tree won't be able to ignore getting its natural upward growth stunted.

But general pruning of the tree I have no problem with. But there is a way to do it in harmony with the tree's shape. "Sympathetically" as an ex-workmate used to say. That's the way I've been taught. It looks awful otherwise.

[Coryllus]

I applaud you Explorer. It is becoming increasingly important that we make those who promote such activity, aware that there are alternative views, held by people who also have rights. And have the right to have their views respected.

[Explorer]

Guys, this is called pollarding.

Has been done for ever on trees. it is a way to manage their growth. Perhaps if the tree would be left to grow, it might become unstable (looks like a poplar to me). So it is a way to make the tree live longer.

I'm all for honoring trees and against blasphemy, and the cross thingy is certainly seriously annoying - but you are committing the pathetic fallacy on that tree. Says the skeptic.

Heh Lily.. long time no see.
I agree with you. I have no problem with pollarding, it is even part of the typical dutch landscape.
My issue is the lack of respect for others by stuffing that cross in my face like that. But I was more annoyed by the sign: "everybody who walks through this landscape, remember that I created all this". And by putting it on a tree, and talking about the land, it is like taking dominion over nature. And that comes close to blasphemy for me.
They can have their churches, chapels and rituals. And I don't mind the sound of church bells on sunday morning, or the sight of church spires all over the place. But hands off of nature please.

[Corwen]

Trees were pollarded in the past for good reasons, because people needed the supply of thin shoots that it provided for firewood, basketry or as animal fodder. Its an alternative to coppicing which keeps the shoots out of the way of cattle and deer (unlike coppicing where the new shoots grow at ground level). Once pollarded the tree needs to be kept that way. Pollarded and coppiced trees often live longer than those not pollarded, and ultimately it replicates a natural process of coping with grazing. Pollarding street trees is a sensible way of keeping them in bounds and making sure they are never top heavy enough to blow over and its also a good sustainable way of generating firewood. Its a great way to manage willows on riverbanks, the canals are lined with old pollarded willows and their spooky shapes are a real feature.

Interestingly in the New Forest here trees were pollarded routinely until about 1700 when timber quality was judged more useful than the supply of withies, and pollarding became illegal. So if you find an old pollarded tree round here you know it is at least 300 years old, like the oak tree my caravan used to be under. There are just a few patches of old pollarded beeches left, now coming to the ends of their lives (they live to about 350), they are quite distinctive.

[Druid Faqir]

The tree suffers the cross,
A warning to all who pass,
Yet a reminder to be gentle.

An apropriate haiku...

[skydove]

'The tree suffers the cross"
The cross is made from the tree
Cross tree suffering

[badgerbadger]

Pollarding can actually cause weak branch growth ironically..and Beech do very well cut in to hedges..but like pollarding, has to be done properly!

[Ghostrider]

X... I.. feel... an ... urge.....

Perhaps.. we should have a drum-circle some day... Round THAT particular tree.... prefferably on a SUNDAY...
We could even hang some ribbons on her... on a certain particular area... I'm just sayin....

Looks like as a good a place as any to have a little grounding ceremony... perhaps evoking some ancestors who were here LONG before J.C. even HEARD of the Netherlands!