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Welcome
to "About the Green Man"
The Quest for the True "Spirit of the Green Man"
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For lots more information about
"Jack in the Green" Festivals
and Green Man Links please click Here
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JACK
IN THE GREEN
"The sun is half up and betokens the hour
When the children arrive with their garlands of flowers
So now let the music and the dancing begin
And toast the good heart of young Jack in the Green"
- Martin Graebe
(Listen
to Dragonsfly version of "Jack in the Green")
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Cleeve
Abbey Green Man
(Thanks to English Heritage)
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The Green Man & Robin Hood
Etymologically Robin comes from the
Norman ‘Robert,’ a form of the Germanic Hrodebert and it
originally meant ‘famous’ or ‘bright’ or even and more
pertinently ‘to shine.’ This is and has always been an
indication of one who has achieved illumination or enlightenment.
Robin Hood is therefore the
‘Bright Hood,’ a similar name to the Naga serpent worshippers or
deities of India, with their illuminated serpent or cobra hoods. As
many have previously stated there are strong links between the
origins of Robin Hood and the Green Man, who is also the ancient
Egyptian god Osiris and the Greek-Roman god Dionysus/Bacchus, and so
we should hope to find something of interest in the many stories
surrounding this enigmatic character.
There are elements of the Robin
Hood myth that relate to other legends. The ‘tree of life’ is
seen as ‘Robin’s Larder Tree,’ supplying all that could be
required like the ‘Horn of Plenty’ or the ‘cauldron’ of
Celtic folklore.
Robin’s link with the ‘Horned
God’ is also telling as he is Lord and Master over the human
‘animals’ of the Forest and they are guardians of their stolen
treasure, like the hoarding, serpent Nagas of Hinduism. They do good
deeds for those who deserve them and dastardly deeds to those who do
not. The horned element is also telling, as the horns were symbolic
of enlightenment or illumination, just as Moses is often depicted
with horns whereas the meaning is simply ’shining.’ We must also
remember that Moses was taught in Egypt, the home of the Green Man
Osiris, and that Moses was the one who raised the Brazen Serpent in
the wilderness to heal the people of Israel.
In the connected tales of Robin
Goodfellow, the ‘trickster of the woods’ also known as Puck,
there is also the link of Sib, the fairy who lives in the hillside
and is linked as being a ’serpent spirit’ of healing. Robin
falls in love with his lady of the waters or Queen of Heaven (a
title also given to Isis the sister/wife of Osiris and also a title
given to Guinevere) later to be known as the Maid Marion
(Marion/Mary coming from Mer = Sea/water/wisdom) and in many ways is
undermining the new Christian world that forced itself upon this
ancient mixture of paganism.
Puck incidentally is thought to
have a much older pedigree, being traced back to an Irish Pan-like
deity known as Pouka. Indeed, Robin Goodfellow is said to be born of
a human mother and a god-like father in the form of Oberon (king of
the fairies and Ob meaning serpent.) He is also green like the
‘Green Man,’ which is the special healing color attributed to
many things surrounding the serpent cult — such as the Emerald
Tablet, the color of initiation into Gnostic mysteries associated
with the Masons, and the Green Glass of the Grail.
What we also find however in some
of the earlier tales is that Robin Hood and Little John - like Jesus
and John the Baptist - were equals. Walter Bower, in the 15th
century, said that Robin Hood together with Little John and their
companies rose to prominence. This in itself points out that both
Robin and John were seen to each have their own followers very much
like Jesus and John. They are therefore and must be the ‘twins’
of Gnosticism, like Castor and Pollux - the duality and balance.
Tammuz, Adonis and Osiris are
vegetation gods of greenness. Indeed Osiris himself in the Pyramid
Texts at Saqqara is called the ‘Great Green’ and often appears
green skinned as a symbol of ‘resurrection and life.’ The battle
between Osiris and Set seems all the more familiar now in the
struggle that ensues between Robin and his archrival the Sheriff of
Nottingham. Osiris becomes Horus when resurrected and we find that
it is Horus who is protected by the Wadjet snake — the green
snake. Even in the way he dies there are links with older mysteries.
Robin is ritualistically bled to death like the ancient pagan
sacrifices. The deed is done by the Abbess of Kirklees, who acts as
the priestess in some ancient pagan ritual. Could it be that the
tales of Robin are more ancient than previously believed? Could they
really be tales of ancient Egypt and even Sumeria? Passed down over
millennia and altered by time?
ps:
Temuujin Chingis Khaan was born on 25 dec 1166.
A blog by videokit.org
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The mysterious yet omnipresent Green Man is already an icon. He
links us with England's pagan past and reminds us of our deep and
sacred relationship with the natural history of these islands. He
represent the spirit of the ancient forests, at once terrifying and
protective, and the natural cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
As
old as time himself, he has become a familiar image to us all.
Adopted by medieval stonemasons, this elemental pagan image peers at
us from the roof bosses and columns of hundreds of our oldest
churches and from the T-shirts of young festival goers, a witness to
the changes of centuries, yet as unchanging as the very earth from
which he springs.
He is Jack-in-the-Green, Robin Hood, Herne The
Hunter and the Celtic god Cernunnos. An icon for respect for our
beautiful country and its past, but also perhaps a unifying champion
for the coming environmental battle for its future.
T L Coltham
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Who is the Green Man?
The
Green Man has always been around us, he stared down at us, the face
with the foliage pouring from the mouth in Churches and Cathedrals
for centuries. The first recorded references to the Green Man go
back to the second century,
but his origins are lost way back in
time.
The Green Man is believed to symbolise the cycle of life, death and
re-birth. The symbol of Godhood within the male and its
relationship with the transcendent life force our Goddess, the
female expression of divinity. He is a Pagan symbol who
heralds Spring after a long winter and the renewal of lush vegetation.
The Green Man is also known as The "Jack in the Green" and
is connected with the "Green Knight"
of Arthurian Fable and "Robin Hood" . Unfortunately
much of the significance of the Green Man
is no longer widely known, but he was a very importance being to our
ancestors. Please visit my "Links"
page for information about surviving "Jack in the Green"
Festivals.
If you walk within a forest of ancient woodland and get the feeling
you're not alone, the chances are he is with you. He's been with
mankind from the start and now is around us more than ever helping
us to make contact with our natural environment and stop destroying
our ever fragile world.
Perhaps
the importance of ancient treescapes in our history accounts for their
depiction in the places of worship.
The
Green Man has connections with the "Jack in the Green" a wild
and sometimes comical figure who follows the
dancers in seasonal celebrations. This is a man who is decked in
leaves and branches from the Forest.
He is indeed a figure to be honored.
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“Robin
Hood was a species of fairy derived ultimately from the old Celtic
and Saxon fertility god or vegetation deity, the so-called Green
Man, while in popular folklore Robin Hood was interchangeable with
Green Robin , Robin of the Greenwood, Robin Goodfellow,
Shakespeare’s Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, who, at at
the summer solstice, presides over fertility, sexuality and
nuptials. The Robin Hood legend provided, in effect, a handy guise
whereby the fertility rites of ancient paganism were introduced
back into the bosom of nominally Christian Britain. Every May Day,
there would be a festival of unabashed pagan origin. Rituals would
be enacted around the May Pole, traditional symbol of the archaic
goddess of sexuality and fertility. On Midsummer’s Day, every
village virgin would become, metaphorically, Queen of the May.
Many of them would be ushered into the greenwood where they would
undergo their sexual initiation at the hands of a youth playing
the role of Robin Hood or Robin Greenfellow, while Friar Tuck, the
Abbot of unreason, would officiate, blessing the mating couples in
a parody of formal nuptials. By virtue of such role-playing, the
borders separating dramatic masque and fertility ritual would
effectively dissolve. May Day would be, in fact, a day of orgy.
Nine months later, it would produce, throughout the British Isles,
its annual crop of children.”
(from
the temple and the lodge, by michail baigent and richard leigh).
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John Barleycorn
In English folklore, John Barleycorn is a
character who represents the crop of barley harvested each autumn.
Equally as important, he symbolizes the wonderful drinks which can
be made from barley -- beer and whiskey -- and their effects. In the
traditional folksong, John Barleycorn, the character of John
Barleycorn endures all kinds of indignities, most of which
correspond to the cyclic nature of planting, growing, harvesting,
and then death.
Although written versions of the song date back to
the reign of Queen
Elizabeth I, there is evidence that it was sung for years before
that. There are a number of different versions, but the most
well-known one is the Robert
Burns version, in which John Barleycorn is portrayed as an
almost Christ-like figure, suffering greatly before finally dying so
that others may live.
In The Golden Bough, Sir
James Frazer cites John Barleycorn as proof that there was once
a Pagan cult in England that worshipped a god of vegetation, who was
sacrificed in order to bring fertility to the fields. This ties into
the related story of the Wicker
Man, who is burned in effigy. Ultimately, the character of John
Barleycorn is a metaphor for the
spirit of grain, grown healthy and hale during the summer,
chopped down and slaughtered in his prime, and then processed into
beer and whiskey so he can live once more.
Source About.com/paganism
I
am keen to collate any news and information about the
Green Man and would appreciate any contributions
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The Holly King as a Green Man
The Holly King is a speculated archetype of English
folklore, who has been popularised in some Neopagan
traditions. Robert
Graves proposed in The
White Goddess that two mythical figures, the Holly King
and the Oak King, representing two halves of the year, perpetually
strive for superiority, the Holly King triumphing over the Oak
King at midwinter
and the Oak King triumphing in turn at midsummer.
Graves identified a number of paired hero-figures who he felt were
variants on this myth, including Lleu
Llaw Gyffes and Gronw
Pebr, Gwyn
and Gwythr,
Lugh
and Balor,
Balan
and Balin,
Gawain
and the Green Knight, the robin and the wren, and even Jesus
and John
the Baptist.
These pairs are seen as the dual aspects of the male Earth
deity, one strong in the summer, the other strong in the winter.[citation
needed]
Stewart
and Janet
Farrar, following Graves' theory, gave a similar
interpretation to Wiccan
seasonal rituals.[1]
According to Joanne Pearson, the Holly King is represented by holly
and other evergreens,
and personifies the dark half of the Wiccan
Wheel
of the Year.[2]
He is also seen by some Neopagans as an early inspiration for the Santa
Claus legend.[3]
Source Wikepedia
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How
can we use the Green Man
There
are many uses that come to mind, apart from the purely decorative value to
your house and garden.
*A perfect gift - This is a thoughtful gesture, which shows originality and
consideration.
Many of our Green Men are used as very successful gifts.
*In the garden or home, you could also incorporate into an area of rest and
reflection - a "Green Shrine".
This helps to acknowledges our connections with the natural world.
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Thanks for viewing this page, my intention is to add lots more information
on the Green Man over coming weeks.
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