The Green Man and His Ways
By Abby Willowroot
Deep in the ancient forests and field of Europe, the Green Man has
long roamed, free and splendid. The ways of the Green Man are the ways
of wild nature and the seasons of the Earth. He is present wherever
crops are grown and harvested. He is there when animals mate and give
birth. He is there when the seasons change and the Sun shines.
Recognition of and reverence for him, and for the energy of vegetation
and nature, was universal.
During the Middle Ages, stone masons carved the Green Man's likeness
into the walls and arches of the finest cathedrals; there are
thousands of Green Man heads carved across Europe. By the time of the
Renaissance, European indigenous religions were under constant attack
by the newly powerful Catholic Church. This was also an attack on the
Green Man and his magic. Still, thier cathedral presence of the Green
Man was a constant source of strength to the people. The Green Man's
image silently echoed the spirit of nature. His vigorous masculine
energy was at once mysterious and familiar. As the dying and returning
god of vegetation, he was similar to Jesus. In his way the people of
the Middle Ages blended their traditional folk beliefs with the new
religion of Christian Catholicism.
The Green Man's wisdom is that of the eternal truths, cycles, and
passages. We all are born, grow, age, and die, each in our own time.
It is this deep and sacred truth that is echoed in the figure of the
Green Man. The Green Man is a magical bridge between nature and us
Human in form, he is also vegetable and animal at the same time. His
mysteries are the secrets of all growing things. He is present in all
natural foods - vegetables, salads, broccoli, corn, and the grains and
fruits of the Earth. He lives in all crops and in all things green and
growing.
The Green Man is as much a part of us as we are of him. His energy
fills the trees that make the oxygen we breathe. The Green Man gives
us the breath of life. At harvest, he surrenders his essence at the
height of his magnificence. Though he dies as a plant, he is born anew
in the cells and tissues of animals and humans. Here he nourishes us
and grows, until in time, we cease to be and his energy is released
again into the earth. There it springs forth again as crops or plants
in the never-ending cycle of death and rebirth.
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