The Green Man

[Johoanna Boykin]

The picture above is Card 0 "The Green Man" from my Sacred Circle Tarot. Card 0 is the first card in the Major Arcana.

I will copy what is said in the Sacred Circle Tarot guide book as it is very interesting.

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The Green Man is the vegetation spirit of the wildwood. Perhaps the most tenacious Pagan god of all, his image survives in church carvings and pub signs all over Britain, in which he is usually depicted in the form of a severed head with branches and leaves emerging from the mouth. A strange figure - half man, half tree.

At one time, most of Britain was covered with forest, and there are many legends of forest spririts called wood woses, faery wildfolk, green men, or wild men. Those who saw them described them as green people, powerful spirits who could sometimes be appealed to for help and had to be placated if they were angered - their elf bolts or flint arrows were deadly. The wise ones knew that forest spirits used certain natural features of the landscape as pwer places to manifest themselves - such as particular wells, streams, rocks, and trees - and would leave gifts at these places for them. The Green Spirits represent the raw, untamed, primal force of nature - a somwhat frightening concept to the modern mind, which prefers nature safe, controlled, and "civilized".

The green-clad wildmen passed into lore as fairies, often given the name of Hob, Robin, or Robin Goodfellow; this is the real Pagan origin of Robin Hood, who has far more mythological significance than the outlaw who robbed the rick to give to the poor and fought the evil sheriff of Nottingham. The clues to his identity lie in his name, his green clothing, his forest home, and his deadly arrows; he was the nature god of the ordinary people who could seek him in the forest. A depiction of Robin and his men at the fourtheenth-century chapter house at Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire shows them as twelve green men merging with various sacred plants such as hawthorn and ivy. In the Traditional Craft, the Lord is often addressed as Robin and the Lady as Marion.

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There are other stories that contain the Green Man in British folklore.

Blessed Be
Johoanna

[sage_rainbowmamma]

thank you for the interesting post Johoanna