Forests and Mountains as Original Libraries | Poetry of Mankh |Axisoflogic.com

 “Climate control centre for the world 
Ancient cord of coexistence 
Hacked by parasitic greedhead scam”

- from the song “If A Tree Falls” by Bruce Cockburn

During the Occupy Movement at Zuccotti Park in 2011, the New York City police trashed many of the makeshift-library books into a dumpster[1] and at Standing Rock front-loaders destroyed the Oceti Sakowin prayer camp in 2017. Both of those images and instances came to mind when seeing video of the destruction of a wooden structure with small library at the base of Mauna Kea where the Native Hawaiians are protecting their culture's sacred mountain from yet another telescope[2] and the belligerence of those who want it built.

As for libraries, there's a history of the Thought Police long before Orwell's time; here's a small sampler revealing how the world's been dumbed-down for some time:

With regard to Mayan codices of the Yucatan, 16th century: “Bishop De Landa, a Franciscan monk and conquistador during the Spanish conquest of Yucatan, wrote: 'We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they (the Maya) regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction..”

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“1193 AD: Nalanda University complex (the most renowned repository of Buddhist knowledge in the world at the time) was sacked by Turkic Muslim invaders under the perpetrator; this event is seen as a milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India.”

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“England 1530s: The monastic libraries were destroyed or dispersed following the dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII.”

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“Library of the Serapeum, Alexandria, ancient Egypt, 392 AD, perpetrator: Theophilus of Alexandria: The library was burned and looted at the perpetrator's decree, who was ordered to do so by Theodosius I.”

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“Library of al-Hakam II, Cordoba, Al-Andalus , 976 AD,
Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir & religious scholars: All books consisting of “ancient science” were destroyed in a surge of ultraorthodoxy.”[3]

Forests are burning. Books are made of paper from trees, not that there's a direct connection with the Amazon rainforest and book production, though a big irony as Bezos' Amazon began with the selling of books, destroying many a book store yet also assisting new jobs for online sellers. But Bezos didn't care about book knowledge, rather a kind of mad scientist attempt to control virtually all book knowledge – and make some bucks off it – because the technology began to make that possible.[4]

Bolsonaro, the President of Brazil, has encouraged burning of the Amazon for, in part, cheap- shit agriculture and then some, at the direct expense of the Indigenous Peoples and all of Mother Earth. Brazil was already infamous for huge swaths of GMO soy, soy being one of the hottest (no pun intended) items on the trendy market.

Wiseness of the woods
Yet there's a deeper connection with forests, books, and libraries. For examples, the word “druid” is from “deru- weid-” or tree wise, tree seer, tree knower, and one of the original meanings of the word “library” is “the inner bark of trees.”

“The earliest known references to the druids date to the fourth century BCE,”[5] which at the very least proves that smarts with trees goes back a ways.

The Haudenosaunee “Great Law of Peace” begins with (translation) “I am Dekanawidah and with the Five Nations' Confederate Lords I plant the Tree of Great Peace.”[6] Plus traditions worldwide, including Hebrew mysticism's Kabbalah, consider world and personal evolution as interconnected with the Tree Of Life.

In an article titled "“Sustainable Development” is a Lie,” Derrick Jensen writes: “When you think of Iraq, is the first thing that you think of cedar forests so thick that sunlight never reaches the ground? That’s what Iraq was like before the beginnings of this culture. One of the first written myths of this culture was of Gilgamesh deforesting the hills and valleys of what is now Iraq to build great cities.”[7]

That's one of the great divides, a fork in the consciousness road which has come home to roost, as the road of book knowledge coupled with so-called civilization was exalted over direct participation with, in this case, trees!; and what a god-awful thing that there's such a word as “deforesting.” If a kid stomped into a library and after seeing the fish tank cried out, 'I want to de-water that!' he'd be considered a danger. Because of the history of such thinking and subsequent actions, we live in dangerous times.

The word “civilization” comes from “citizen of the town, city” and is posited as the opposite of barbarian or savage, yet barbarian is simply “foreign, of another nation or culture” and “savage” is actually “‘wild, undomesticated, untamed, strange, pagan,’ from silvaticus ‘wild,’ literally ‘of the woods,’ from silva ‘forest, grove.’”[8]

Modern English language often reflects negatively on the wilderness with such phrases as: what you say to someone to go away and stop bothering you, 'Take a hike!'; and when someone is still in trouble, 'He's not out of the woods yet.' Well that's precisely how a good chunk of the world's dire situations started, when consciousness got out of the woods!

A trail back to the mountain 
A crucifixion is the nailing of someone to, you guessed it, pieces of wood akin to a tree. Huge swaths of humanity claim to be guided by Christ and his wise ways, yet how many of those people can say the same with regard to trees?

I'm no biblical scholar but I do recall that the Sermon on the Mount is quite popular, with lines such as: “Blessed are the merciful... Blessed are the pure in heart... Blessed are the peacemakers...”

Whatever one's tradition, natural habitats such as mountains, forests, tundras, and so forth have always been an integral part of what a People hold and care for as sacred, with Original Peoples having the longest track record of doing so.

With the various mentions of the destruction of books, I'm reminded of the ending of the movie “Fahrenheit 451” directed by François Truffaut and based on the novel by Ray Bradbury, the title being “the temperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns..."

Spoiler alert..... The last scene[9] is of a community in a woodsy area where people have escaped to because of the book burnings; individuals memorize a particular book, walking around reciting it to themselves so that some day the memory and recitation will allow for the book to be printed again. My interpretation is that aside from the literal topic of books, each of us is a carrier of innate wiseness based on direct experience with the surroundings, learnings from teachers, family, and friends, as well as from personal experiences. The more that inner libraries are brought forth and the more that outdoor libraries are protected, the less destruction there will be.

NOTES:
[1] “Of the approximately 3,600 books seized that night, only 1,003 were recovered. Of that number, 201 were so damaged while in the possession of the City of New York that they were made unreadable. Thus, at least approximately 2,798 books were never returned or were damaged beyond repair.” from ““The Dregs of the Library”: Trashing the Occupy Wall Street Library”

[2] While the destruction of the structure/library served as a prompt for this essay, it's worth noting:

“One group of demonstrators did most of the work assembling the building over the Labor Day weekend, but the Royal Order of Kamehameha I issued a statement Tuesday saying it does not “endorse or sanction” the building. The Royal Order established the puuhonua, or place of refuge, at Puu Huluhulu that is serving as a hub of the protest activity.

“While we remain steadfast in our commitment for the pu‘uhonua to be a safe haven for our people until we are sure our mauna is protected, we have no intention of establishing a permanent village within this refuge,” the order said in the statement.

“We have informed the individuals building the structure that neither the Royal Order of Kamehameha nor Pu‘uhonua o Pu‘uhuluhulu endorse or sanction the construction of immobile structures. We remain committed to maintaining only a temporary presence and a light footprint within the boundaries of the Pu‘uhonua.”

from “2 arrested as crew tears down illegal protest structure near Mauna Kea camp” &  “Crews bulldoze unpermitted structure at Mauna Kea, sparking new cries of desecration”

[3] List of destroyed libraries  

[4] “Jeff Bezos Talks Amazon, Blue Origin, Family, And Wealth”

[5] Druid

[6] “The Great Law of Peace – Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Constitution”

[7] See here.

[8] See here.

[9] “The Book People of Fahrenheit 451” François Trauffaut's 1966 film, "Fahrenheit 451" (4.5 minutes)

Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet at Axis of Logic. In addition to his work as a writer and small press publisher, he travels a holistic mystic pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. See his new book of nonfiction with a poetic touch, “photo albums of the heart-mind”.

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