This one was easy for me picture-wise because I had found a great photo at Anna Ruby Falls. I LOVE moss and was walking along the path when I saw this tree with moss on it.
It was the GREEN MAN!
So naturally I took a photo of it and knew I would use it for one of the challenges.
I'm doing something different today. Instead of using it as a writing prompt, I'm using it as a learning opportunity!
The Green Man:
Taken from: http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/beltanemayday/p/Beltane_History.htm
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.
Folklorist James Frazer associates the Green Man with May Day celebrations, and with the character of Jack in the Green, who is a more modern adaptation of the Green Man. Jack is a more specifically defined version of the nature spirit than the earlier Green Man archetype. Frazer speculates that while some form of the Green Man was probably present in a variety of separate early cultures, he developed independently into a variety of newer, more modern characters. This would explain why in some areas he is Jack, while in others he is Robin of the Hood, or Herne the Hunter in different parts of England.
Likewise, other, non-British cultures seem to have similar nature deities.
The Green Man is typically portrayed as a human face surrounded by dense foliage. Such images appear as far back as the eleventh century, in church carvings. As Christianity spread, the Green Man went into hiding, with stonemasons leaving secret images of his face around cathedrals and churches. He enjoyed a revival during the Victorian era, when he became popular with architects, who used his visage as a decorative aspect in buildings.
Legends connected to the archetype of the Green Man are everywhere. In the Arthurian legend, the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a prime example. The Green Knight represents the pre-Christian nature religion of the British Isles. Although he originally confronts Gawain as an enemy, the two later are able to work together - perhaps a metaphor for the assimilation of British Paganism with the new Christian theology. Many scholars also suggest that the tales of Robin Hood evolved from Green Man mythology. Allusions to the Green Man can even be found in J.M. Barrie's classic Peter Pan - an eternally youthful boy, dressed in green and living in the forest with the wild animals. Today, some traditions of Wicca interpret the Green Man as an aspect of the Horned God, Cernunnos.
Now I will leave you with an awesome song by Type O Negative called "The Green Man" off the October Rust Album.
For those of you who like music trivia (like me) I thought I would let you all know that the lead singer of Type O, Peter Steele, was nicknamed The Green Man. Steele used to work in the Parks Department in Brooklyn and the kids called him The Jolly Green Giant (he was 6'-8"!), his truck can actually be heard in the beginning of the song. He also used to wear green shirts and black pants A LOT! That talented man is surely missed.
It was the GREEN MAN!
So naturally I took a photo of it and knew I would use it for one of the challenges.
I'm doing something different today. Instead of using it as a writing prompt, I'm using it as a learning opportunity!
The Green Man:
Taken from: http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/beltanemayday/p/Beltane_History.htm
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.
Folklorist James Frazer associates the Green Man with May Day celebrations, and with the character of Jack in the Green, who is a more modern adaptation of the Green Man. Jack is a more specifically defined version of the nature spirit than the earlier Green Man archetype. Frazer speculates that while some form of the Green Man was probably present in a variety of separate early cultures, he developed independently into a variety of newer, more modern characters. This would explain why in some areas he is Jack, while in others he is Robin of the Hood, or Herne the Hunter in different parts of England.
Likewise, other, non-British cultures seem to have similar nature deities.
The Green Man is typically portrayed as a human face surrounded by dense foliage. Such images appear as far back as the eleventh century, in church carvings. As Christianity spread, the Green Man went into hiding, with stonemasons leaving secret images of his face around cathedrals and churches. He enjoyed a revival during the Victorian era, when he became popular with architects, who used his visage as a decorative aspect in buildings.
Legends connected to the archetype of the Green Man are everywhere. In the Arthurian legend, the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a prime example. The Green Knight represents the pre-Christian nature religion of the British Isles. Although he originally confronts Gawain as an enemy, the two later are able to work together - perhaps a metaphor for the assimilation of British Paganism with the new Christian theology. Many scholars also suggest that the tales of Robin Hood evolved from Green Man mythology. Allusions to the Green Man can even be found in J.M. Barrie's classic Peter Pan - an eternally youthful boy, dressed in green and living in the forest with the wild animals. Today, some traditions of Wicca interpret the Green Man as an aspect of the Horned God, Cernunnos.
Now I will leave you with an awesome song by Type O Negative called "The Green Man" off the October Rust Album.
For those of you who like music trivia (like me) I thought I would let you all know that the lead singer of Type O, Peter Steele, was nicknamed The Green Man. Steele used to work in the Parks Department in Brooklyn and the kids called him The Jolly Green Giant (he was 6'-8"!), his truck can actually be heard in the beginning of the song. He also used to wear green shirts and black pants A LOT! That talented man is surely missed.