Theophany

Mohawk Valley Fine Arts

NOTE:

Ohio Woodland Theophany, "Collected Works"section I. will be provided to the reader at this site; the entire work will be available at the MVFA store later this year.

OHIO WOODLAND THEOPHANY

"Divine Pleasures are found in a free Solitude."

--William Penn, 1669.

Joseph E. Donnelly

2002

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reproduced in any fashion without the expressed written permission of the author.

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"In front of the cabins..., the ground seemed

alive..., with children, playing in the...sunlight....

The air was pure and bracing; nature calm and

peaceful and it seemed as though the very spirit of

liberty dwellt here in the wilderness...."

-- "Travelling Notes" on

the Ohio Territory in

Historical Collections of Ohio

by Henry Howe, Vol. II p.380

(emphasis mine)

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CONTENTS

I. The Colonial Yankee: Individual Liberty

II. The Woodland Indian: Inalienable Rights

III. The Canopy of Nature: Self-Determination

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Ohio Woodland Theophany

"...the happiest man is he who learns from

from nature the lesson of worship."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1836.

The untutored, churchless environment of the Ohio Frontier served

as a Natural Cathedral where God was manifest through Nature and the joint

participants of the Sacrament were the sanctified Yankee and the Mystic

Indian.

The essence of this unswung censer is the root of all that is uniquuely

"American."

THE COLONIAL YANKEE: INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY.

"Let every man prove his own work"

--St.Paul the Apostle, Galatians VI:iv.

The American Pioneer typified the desire to "break away" from the

dry rigidity of "Eastern Society," to experience "first hand" what his formal

education had taught him. It was not enough to merely read and learn of what

others had said, felt, thought or done-- he himself would be the Thinker and the

Doer.

Much like the Pilgrims of Plymouth who preceded him, who escaped the

tyranny and religious oppression of Europe and embarked upon a "new frontier,"

the Connecticut Yankee sought a "virgin beginning" in Ohio-- a world where

spiritual illumination superceded rigid dogma, and universal "good-will"

replaced government.

As yet another "pilgrim," Etienne Brule, who entered the "Erie Lands"

in 1615; or as LaSalle, who upon forsaking the comforts of his Gallic estate,

discovered the "Oyo" or what he declared, "la Belle Riviere"-- every

freedom-loving Rufus Putnam must take to his "Mayflower," must sail the

Ohio. The Pioneer of every age must forsake his "society," must leave his

limitations and stake his claim as "Marietta."

There is no other alternative for the soul that is filled with "wanderlust."

The chill of the morning's air. The call of the meadowlark, and the Wood Thrush

in its darker haunts. The rolling hills and promontories above a wide and distant

River-- an ushered course, leading deep into the forest, where rays of sunlight

spot the leafy floor, where every rock is covered green with moss.

He is a new man, in a new land. Gone is the "box" into which others had

placed him. Gone are the petty quarrels & "societal categories" of rank and caste.

He finds the air free; the Rivers and Forests likewise. He knows that in this

"society," Nature is no "respecter of persons." He will live and die according to

her Liberty.

THE WOODLAND INDIAN: INALIENABLE RIGHTS

"...these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves."

-- St. Paul the Apostle, Romans II:xiv

Liberty of Conscience and Yankee Self-sufficiency are best personified

by the Original Natives who were as indigenous to the fields of America as

were the Forests in which they hunted game, and the Rivers on which they

paddled their canoes. No other group of People best personified the "Spirit

of America." Their simple rules and loose, informal government were the

forerunners of a Democracy where societal responsibility rested squarely on

the shoulders of each individual.

It was not the priest or "sachem" who alone knew God-- each and every

one of them were at liberty to "seek and know," to contemplate and experience

God "first hand," to "haply feel after Him and find Him" since he was "not far"

from any one of them (Acts of the Apostles XVII: xxvi-xxvii).

In the life of an Indian there was only one

inevitable duty... the duty of prayer.... Each

soul must meet the morning sun, the new sweet

earth, and the Great Silence alone." -- Ohiyesa

Hence, given common access to the Divine, there existed no need for a

"divine right"-- nor a "higher right" or privilege than the Common Right of

all. No bending of the knee, no doffing of the hat, no acts of servile prostration

before Royalty or Clergy-- all foreign to Nature. Foreign at birth. A Divine

"spark" of inherent worth having been given to all-- in equal measure.

Given the recognition of a "Great Creator" who established Human

Equality and the free Exercise of Liberty, the Founding Fathers formed a nation

which would respect this Divine act-- not diminish it. For given this truth which

they confessed "self-evident," they quickly recognized that all men were "created

equal" and were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.

If the Natives who preceded them enjoyed such "natural" rights, existent

prior to the advent of the European-- the Founding Fathers well understood the

obvious: it is the place of government to secure such rights-- not to deprive

men of them.

For as was true for the Woodland Native, such rights were inborn--

not "permitted privileges" allowed by a select few, nor "granted favors" by

some foreign power-- they were wholly inalienable.

"I shall consider man in a state of natural

being, as a free-born subject under the crown

of heaven, and owing homage to none but God

Himself." -- John Wise, A Vindication of

Government of New England

Churches, 1772.

THE CANOPY OF NATURE: SELF-DETERMINATION

"...the Most High dwelleth not

in temples made with hands."

--Acts of the Apostles, VII:xxviii.

Truly, the Separated Yankee, armed with nothing more than an axe, a rifle

and "The Golden Rule"; and the Woodland Indian, exemplifying the "Spirit of

Liberty" at its best, met on a level plane where without the help of any other,

"worked out their own salvation." And this, whatever form it may have taken,

was as solid and true as the great oaks under which they sat-- as permeating as

the kinni-kinnick that circled from their pipes.

The self-made Yankee, the Quiet Quaker, the Benevolent Moravian, and

the Wandering Jesuit-- all entered fellowship with the Native "Philosopher"; who,

together, honed their true mettle as True Men, as humble Dependents upon the

Divine. And this they did unmindful of other men, of other systems and orders of

thought, or what their peers had imposed upon them-- for within their grasp were

the tools of their own destiny.

Thus so equipped, they had no need of a teacher to teach them,

"saying 'know the Lord' "-- for "each did know Him from the least to the

greatest" (Book of Hebrews VII:xi).

The leafy canopy of the Elm, the virgin soil of the "Ohio," the sun-lit

depths of the Woodland Primeval were no less sacred than the stained-glass

window, the white-washed pillar, or the lofty spire of the churches of the Eastern

seaboard (cf., Acts of the Apostles XVII:xxiv-xxv).

As it were "in the days of Samuel" prior to the establishment of a "King

in Israel," so it were once again in the untouched land of the "Ohio."

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Connecticut is dead. Her soil has been depleted of its nutrients; her

forests have been shorn of her hills. A thousand barristers, clerics & pedants hover

over her corpse. What was once Truth-- delightfully elusive-- is now creed; Charity,

business; and Good Will, a weight of legislation. The Institution has rendered all

subservient. (Its very fathers would not be able to endure what they have

engendered.)

It is Society's shallow predeterminations, its short-sighted assignment of

worth, its ultimate control of wealth & circumstance (its judging of men by their

employ) that has stunted the growth of our Colonial Wanderer. He has sought

relief by turning his eyes westward. New England is behind him. The Allegheny,

the Shenango, the Mahoning, the Muskingum-- they beckon him.

He is a Yankee turned Frontiersman-- a "woolynig" that defies the trapper's

art. He has caught the scent of the Sycamore in September and will scarcely return

to the schools of Hartford, or the sanctuaries of Salem.

Tutuored Conformity admits little Liberty. The Pioneer must have the

freedom to think through his own beliefs and then likewise act accordingly.

His doing so is to be true to himself. As Emerson would agree-- all else is

borrowed and artificial.

"Ye cannot serve both God and Mammon."

-- Gospel of Saint Matthew VI:xxiv.

The "Self-sufficient Yankee" is self-sufficient only to the degree that he has

liberty to exercise his Liberty. His apprenticeship must eventually become mastership.

Yet, in a land where no more masters can be admitted-- what more can he do?

Hence, it is to the "Ohio"-- to the Appalachian Eden-- that his oxen, driven

by an unseen hand, carry their canvas-covered load. He takes to the Mohawk Valley

Road to the Land of the Erie; he steers his rig as a ship on the sea. The Mohawk

Lake Trail pushes to the Cuyahoga and here on its eastern bank, beneath the

woodland canopy-- he finds solace in solitude.

New wine cannot be put into old wineskins. Growth must begin from

within. An old skin will no longer suit.

"The valley holds its breath, no leaf

Of all its elms is twirled:

The silence of eternity

Seems falling on the world."

--John Greenleaf Whittier, 1876.

Here, amidst the timbered lands, where flocks of geese fly overhead,

where bogs lie rich with cranberries and limbs are draped with wild grapes--the

"promised Land," the Original Garden, the presence of the Divine

is to be found.

The "Meetinghouse" so prominent "upon the green" is wholly

within us. It is that of God in the soul, "to meet & sup" in the cool of the midst

of the morning-- as it were "in the beginning."

It was for the Garden that Man was created; and to the Garden he

must return. The city is too much with us: its scurry of wagons and hustled feet,

its endless "buying and selling." The endless pedantry of needless caste and

system has tended to the "outer" man, while leaving the "inner" man both

barren and friendless.

The bliss of wealth, unattained, is an illusion to the poor; the wealthy

know its pursuit to be vain, ever more taxing in their care to retain it.

Living "to make a living," or tithing to build a temple in which to

tithe are but shallow pursuits. "Eat therefore to live, and do not live to eat,"

admonishes the elder Penn.

The craftsman "works with his hands" to make a product which all

others rally to market; and each time this "work" is sold, a personal tax is

added thereto (by which each salesman earns his supper), until the price

of it can no longer support the whole of it. A House must have a foundation:

it cannot be made of cards.

The "professions," likewise, have added to this weight. They

have become perfunctory and are no longer the child of altruism. Their Ionic

pediments crumble at the base; their marble statuary roost but pigeons.

Society serves itself in the cheapest possible manner. We are

indentured to be "politically-correct" but not sincere in our service; we are

"professional" but not human in our care for the well-being of others. We long

for something far greater than ourselves; but we cannot reach beyond mere

"form."

Unbeknownst to us, our spirits are overtaxed. At best, we are

children-- in need of something above and beyond to lift us from our

"un-real" estate. Something of eternal value-- something of significance.

The Caughnewagas on the Walhonding stood and wondered at

the Settlers' encumbrance. The Delaware near Goshgoshing were curious of

Bouquet's Bagpipes.

"I beg thee now to believe that, all miserable as

we seem in thy eyes, we consider ourselves nonetheless

much happier than thou, in this that we are very content

with the little that we have...." -- Micmac Chief, 1676.

Thus again, we turn to the "O-hee-yo," the "Land of the River Beautiful."

Every Pilgrim, every Native, every Colonial Wanderer turns his face at eventide

to the "Garden," the Woodland Canopy of the Ancients. For it is here we find the

Presence in the Midst, the Voice of the Divine, the calling of our name.

It is here that our every thought and action proceed from within, where

nothing outward is known, where no "ought" nor "should" weighs our spirit.

Here, the "burden is light; the yoke, easy." Reform is inspired, never imposed.

Worth & Wealth come from within & are never assigned from without.

Nothing of Society can reach the Native-Pioneer. None of its

Institutions can legislate that benefit of refreshment that the Fountain of Life

alone can afford.

Along the fertile shoreline, this Eternal Seed takes root and flourishes,

bearing fruit on all its branches.

All the world is artificial. Its fruit & foilage is fixed from without. Scarcely,

is found that Original Man who dwells from within, who will sink himself deep into

the soil of his own existence.

When the Native felt the wind, he felt the hand of God; when he heard the

thunder roll, he heard his voice. The trees were the clothing of the Divine; the

animals were his prophets. All was near and close to him. No Greek metaphysics

nor clerical scholasticism clouded his pristine sanctuary.

Our Colonial Wanderer yearned for this "house not made of hands," for

a "temple whose builder and maker was God," for he knew that the House of

Suffield was full of suitors and Penelope awaited her Ulysses.

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To the New Englander looking West, the "Ohio Territory" might very well

have been defined as the place where the Yankee Pioneer met the Woodland

Indian in a persuasion of unity, under the canopy of Nature. From this rudiment

all else proceeded-- both public & private.

Liberty of thought and action; inherent worth in each person regardless

of rank, station, race or creed; a "home" to opportunity, conscience, growth,

and self-determination-- hallmark the best of what is truly "American."

It is a Log Cabin whose shutters are not vinyl, whose walls are no mere

paste-board. Its stone is no facade.

Where its foundation is laid in the heart of man, it is profane to violate this

sacrament-- it is an Ohio Woodland Theophany.

No portion of this document is to be reproduced in any fashion without

the expressed written permission of the author.

A Public Reading of Ohio Woodland Theophany, Part I., during the 2003 Bicentennial Events

held at Mohawk Valley Fine Arts, September 20th. (J. Donnelly)

Text: "A Log Cabin...laid in the heart of man...."

The above document was written by artist Joseph E. Donnelly (2002) in celebration of Ohio's Bicentennial (2003). It is a philosophical work which addresses the idyllic archetypes which define "America."

The artist shares these ideals with his Ohio patrons -- not only in celebration of the State's bicentennial; but also, as a "working model" for the Nation at large.

"Every generation of citizens should periodically reflect on America's original ideals," states Donnelly. "All too often, our government leaders (& those who elect them or serve under them) are remiss in their understanding of 'individual liberty' and their responsibility to ackowledge the 'inherent worth' and 'unalienable rights' of all peoples (as originally expressed by the Quakers in Philadelphia who advocated 'that of the Divine in every person')"

If you would like to order Ohio Woodland Theophany: An Anthology of Collected Works by Joseph E. Donnelly, please consult the store for availability.

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All Content, Images, and Documents Copyright 2009 Mohawk Valley Fine Arts, Joseph Donnelly