"Earth, 114 million years ago, one morning just after sunrise: The first flower ever to appear on the planet opens up to receive the rays of the sun. Prior to this momentous even that heralds an evolutionary transformation in the life of plants, the planet had already been covered in vegetation for millions of years. The first flower probably did not survive for long, and flowers must have remained rare and isolated phenomena, since conditions were most likely not yet favorable for a widespread flowering to occur. One day, however, a critical threshold was reached, and suddenly there would have been an explosion of color and scent all over the planet-- if a perceiving consciousness had been there to witness. Much later, those delicate and fragrant beings we call flowers would come to play an essential part in the evolution of consciousness of another species. Humans would increasingly be drawn to and fascinated by them…Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature. The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in evolution of human consciousness. The feelings of joy and love are intrinsically connected to the recognition. Without fully realizing it, flowers would become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves. Flowers, more fleeting, more ethereal, and more delicate than the plants out of which they emerged, would becomes like messengers from another realm, like a bridge between the world of physical forms and the formless. They not only had a scent that was delicate and pleasing to humans, but also brought a fragrance from the realm of spirit. Using the world "enlightenment" in a wider sense than the conventionally accepted one, we could look upon flowers as the enlightenment of plants."
-Eckhart Tolle A New Earth
I believe that one of the best ways to understand the evolutionary plan for humans on Earth is to observe the evolution of one of its most ancient creations, the plants. It's a story that follows the progression and evolution through survival-->integration--> independence-->partnership-->creation.
Before the dinosaurs began roaming this Earth, it was the plants that populated this vast planet. Having evolved from ancient eukaryotes from the sea and aquatic algae, the earliest land plants appeared about 470 million years ago. These plants were tiny and pretty much like mosses and liverworts. Overtime, about 40 million years later, they were able to evolve and grow taller (known as vascular plants). But their evolution didn't just stop with their ability to grow into complex shapes and sizes, it also occurred in their ability to protect themselves against an ever evolving planet. As Earth itself evolved, so did the plants. Amongst changes in Earth's temperature, atmosphere, oceans, soils, continental changes, radiation, droughts, floods, ice ages, volcanic eruptions, and even mass extinctions, plants have had to adapt in a plethora of complex ways. Even before Earth was populated with the dinosaurs and insects, some plants' chemistry began to change in ways that gave the plants a more defensive edge. These changes would then go on to evolve in physical ways that discouraged being fed on by the new herbivorous creatures that now roamed the earth. Over hundreds of millions of years, plants defenses became remarkably elaborate. They were able to defend themselves with physical barriers, like bark, thorns, tough leaves, etc. They produced chemical weapons like alkaloids, tannins, terpenes, cyanogenic compounds, and compounds that interfere with digestion. They even developed alarm signaling; when insects chew a plant, the plant can release volatile chemicals that communicate danger to neighboring plants and attract predators of the herbivore feeding on it. Some plants can even change their physiology in response to damage. Over immense stretches of time, we're talking millions of years, plants have evolved and changed incrementally, ensuring their ability to reproduce and survive. In the face of so many challenges, threats, and consistent changes, they were able to not only survive this vast terrain, but thrive. This inherent ability to survive led to their next progression in their evolutionary story; integration.
Any time an organism undergoes immense change in their makeup, whether that be physically, mentally, chemically, emotionally, the ways in which that organism takes form or operates in the world also changes. In this "integration" phase, because plants had evolved in a way that made them taller, stronger, and more resilient, the first enormous forests began to develop. And forests…changed the planet. At this level, plants were no longer simply colonizing patches of land. They had moved beyond merely adapting to Earth's conditions. They were altering those conditions. They were becoming ecosystem architects. They created new habitats. They influenced atmospheric chemistry, altered erosion and water cycles, provided habitat for animals, and created food webs. Large forests extracted huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, produced oxygen, and contributed organic matter to soils. If we observe this phase from a macro level, a key take away from these plants integration into an already established and developed ecosystem, is not only the harmonization between them and the environment but the added benefits of what they were able to provide to it. If we observe their integration phase from a micro level through the lens of an evolutionary process, I think the question for us humans is, what does life look like for us beyond survival and what would our integration into these already created societies be?
What happened next is a quite remarkable part of plants' evolution journey. The independence and expansion arc. This is where the development of seeds and pollen occurred. Before seeds, many plants depended heavily on water for reproduction. Their reproductive cells needed a film of water to reach one another. The evolution of the seed changed that. Seeds gave developing plants protection, stored resources, a way to survive unfavorable conditions, and the ability to disperse. That meant reproduction became much less dependent on wet environments. Plants could increasingly move into drier environments, farther from standing water. This is quite powerful when we observe this phenomenon through the lens of the power of independence and authority. Plants' ability to survive and reproduce was once dependent on its proximity to some type of wet environment, but through their evolution they gained the ability to be able to play a more active and authoritative role in their ability reproduce and expand to new terrestrial habits. The seed represents the plant becoming more independent from its environment. In our human world, ideas and doctrines surrounding freedom, self governance, authority, and sovereignty, personal power have been explored, debated, preached about and fought over for millennia for the sole reason that these themes remain an intrinsic part of human code. And the fact that plants (immobile organisms), whose whole anatomy is tethered and rooted deep into the ground, has still undergone an evolutionary process where the theme of autonomy has made a noteworthy appearance is extremely meaningful and quite poetic.
And with their newfound independence they were able to expand their reach on Earth, and they moved into their next phase of evolution, partnership. Obviously, plants mere existence, from their anatomy to their physiology, is one of partnership, interdependence and exchange with its environment, but at this level in their evolution, the ways that they were able to do this became more elaborate and sophisticated in ways than they previously had. They had become deeply involved in networks of exchange and ecological interdependence. Plants and fungi already had a special relationship dating back millions of years before forests and plants began developing seeds. The relationship was mainly based on the premise of exchange. Plants had the ability to capture carbon from sunlight, but the soil was difficult to exploit for water and minerals. Whereas, fungus could explore the soil extremely effectively, but it couldn't photosynthesize and therefore needed carbon. So they were able to exchange these materials. But, as plants evolved and developed forests, they weren't isolated individuals anymore; they were becoming parts of large biological systems involving plants, fungi, decomposers, microbes, and animals. The forest essentially developed a circular economy. In the human world, we would call this--building community.
And then came the flowers. I must admit I'm a bit biased when it comes to this phase of the journey. The sheer beauty and magnetism of flowers make them exceptional creations. The creation of flowers emerged as part of a radically different reproductive strategy. Of course this new strategy utilized other organisms in their ecosystem to carry out this task, through recruiting insects, birds, bats, and other animals. But what makes this new found way of reproduction so special is what the flowering of the plant represents. Which is creation itself. Up until this point, plants already had a successful way of reproducing. The flowering of the plant wasn't a method of survival or defense. Flowers are innately and objectively beautiful. They produce scents that draw things to them. They produce nectar, a sweet, sugary liquid that attracts animals that help pollination. Plants original reproductive process was heavily water dependent. The sperm were typically motile and needed a film of water to swim to the egg. This changed during the "independence" phase of the plants' evolution. Fast forward to the flowering of plants. This beauty, this nectar, the scent, are signals. It is these signals that attract pollinators. I think it's quite extraordinary that in its last stages of evolution (that we know of) the theme of creation is being reintroduced but now from an angle of attraction. Just from a state of being (a flower), flowers are able to project signals that magnetize in exactly what they need so that they can create. I believe we humans, call this, manifestation. I think a beneficial question to ponder is what are using as signals to magnetize in our wants and desires.
If humans could begin to look outside of themselves and the form that we take, we could see that the roadmap home to our true and most evolved selves stand graciously beside us. They can be the teachers and healers that we seek, if only we are to quiet ourselves enough to hear their wisdom.
-Shemsut