In a previous post on harmony and contrast I spoke of how we perceive, ‘read’ and appreciate relationships by our faculty of emotional perception. Here I want to develop this concept a bit more, in regard to plants and how we ‘read’ them.
Every plant is a unified creation with all its parts rising from the same source. The same patterns that appear in the branching appear also in the leaves and flowers. The design of each part is evinced in the whole and the whole is an expression of that basic theme or themes evident in each part and from which all the parts arise.
This could be put in mathematical terms, expressed, for example, in ratios and proportions and fractiles. Or, you could say that every plant is a sort of idea or concept expressed in the parts and overall appearance.
This is why plants affect us by their various perceivable attributes in quite specific ways. We ‘read’ them, generally unconsciously and have a response to them, that may not reach our conscious awareness yet determines how we ‘feel’ about them.
We may have a personal relationship to a given plant, based on our own experience or preferences, for example if a given plant was a pleasant part of one’s childhood, but in this case our relationship to such a plant is by association, not direct perception.
On the other hand, there are relatively universal responses to specific plants. Consider the rose. It seems to have had pretty much the same effect on most people throughout history. Why is that? Is it knowable? Is there a language that transcends verbal communication by which we may apprehend the ‘meaning of a plant? Actually, yes, how the rose and any other plant affects us and why can be understood and expressed. This post is about that.
For the most, we will be speaking of entire plants but let’s start here with the most loved flower on the planet (at least in Western cultures).
If a plant or a part of a plant expresses meaning, how is that meaning read, and in what language? That is the question I intend to answer.
And I propose, that a plant expresses meaning through evinced relationships within itself and we perceive those relationships through that one faculty whose sole purpose is exactly that, the perception and expression of relationships – Emotion.
The rose is so overt in its expression of sensuality, sexuality and femininity it nearly makes one blush. The velvety petals unfurled just enough to reveal hidden recesses, their gracefully wavy form, the soft, seductive feel of them – both silky and velvety, and the sheer abundance of them.
The wild rose with its only five petals has not nearly the same effect as this we see here. Abundance, lushness,
softness, grace, indeed, sublimity- yet more still…
The form is so elegant with each petal tucked tenderly between others, harmonizing in line with all the other petals around it, forming toward the center almost perfect form, so recognizable we have the word, ‘rossette’, and at the very center, the baby bud, while the overall form is generally circular yet in the most beautiful of roses, that circularity is interrupted by a wayward petal or two.
The almost perfect form is important. The freedom of form, the inexactness, the asymmetrical quality tells us this is not some mechanical wonder but a living, growing, no two the same creation, so we know that this beautiful creation is linked to us by virtue of being alive and we value it all the more than if it were some man-made creation. It matures into a voluptuous thing of beauty with a perfume that is heady, alluring and so deliciously intoxicating. Everyone who sees a rose stoops to inhale its fragrance, so beguiling it is.
What about entire plants? Can they be read through a perception of their attributes and the relations between those attributes? Consider the Wisteria.
Is it expressing anything? Does the Wisteria have a meaning, an impact, does it create an emotional response? If it does create an emotional response in you, then it is expressing something, and you are perceiving it.
Certainly in bloom as shown here it is beautiful, but why? What makes it so? Here are some of my responses. It is lush, so bespeaks of abundance, of bounty and generosity. (A woman’s breasts are emblematic of generosity nurturing and givingness so I see this as a feminine quality). It is graceful, scintillant and soft so the quality of femininity is enhanced. It is pendulous in both leaf and blossom, and in both leaf and blossom the colors are slightly muted, giving a sense of vulnerability and sensitivity, yet wayward in its vigorous habit, conveying a quality of strength and wildness—of pagan-ness. All this tells my emotional perception that this is the quintessential romantic plant, full of charm and mystery, of softness and sympathy and vitality. It is the perfect setting for a loving seduction, and that’s not even considering the intoxicating scent. It makes you want to be near it, under it, in it.
More to follow…
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