Green Man

 

God of Spring and Summer

The Green Man is often perceived as an ancient Celtic symbol. In Celtic mythology, he is a god of spring and summer. He disappears and returns year after year, century after century, enacting themes of death and resurrection, the ebb and flow of life and creativity. The Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain, The Green Knight, is a notable image of the Green Man from the Middle Ages. Gawain had a green helmet, green armor, and green shield... even a green horse. When he was decapitated, he continued to live. ¹

For our ancient ancestors, many spirits and deities were associated with nature, wildlife, and plant growth. After all, if you had just spent the winter starving and freezing, when spring arrived it was certainly time to give thanks to whatever spirits watched over your tribe. The spring season, particularly around Beltane, is typically tied to a number of pre-Christian nature spirits. Many of these are similar in origin and characteristics but tend to vary based on region and language. In English folklore, few characters stand out -- or are as recognizable -- as the Green Man.

Strongly connected to Jack in the Green and the May King, as well as John Barleycorn during the fall harvest, the figure known as the Green Man is a god of vegetation and plant life. He symbolizes the life that is found in the natural plant world, and in the earth itself. Consider, for a moment, the forest. In the British Isles, the forests a thousand years ago were vast, spreading for miles and miles, farther than the eye could see. Because of the sheer size, the forest could be a dark and scary place.

However, it was also a place you had to enter, whether you wanted to or not, because it provided meat for hunting, plants for eating, and wood for burning and building. In the winter, the forest must have seemed quite dead and desolate... but in the spring, it returned to life. It would be logical for early peoples to have applied some sort of spiritual aspect to the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. ²

The Green Man is connected with the god Fionn where he is known as the Derg Corra or “man in the tree”. He is the symbol of wisdom, closely connected, like Fionn, with the stag. He is described as a curious character who sometimes goes about “on the shanks of a deer,” but is described in the tale of Fionn as seated in a tree, with a raven on his shoulder and a deer at his feet. He carries a bronze cup containing a salmon and shares among his companions' various fruits of wisdom. ³

Source: ¹ Ancient Symbols; ² Pagan Wiccan About; ³ The Book of Celtic Myths

Image: Green man

Shared from Celtic Bard Jeff on FB