This page is to share some information and musings about an image that seems to have followed us down from our dark and far distant past, and continues to persisist today even in the face of scientific rationality and consumeristic cynicism.

The mystical side of nature, once an intrinsic part of the human psyche, continues to allure and satisfy particular needs within the human mind. As a race we appear to need to have part of our lives open to a 'mysterious' or mystical element - something to explain what can't be explained, or humanise the knowledge what scientific study has deconstructed down to molecular level. The 'Green Man' along with the concept of 'Mother Nature', is one of these anthropomorphic explanations of the cycles of nature. He is a very prevalent figure - its presence can be found in folklore, religious art, and sacred architecture from the earliest medieval times' and similar figures are found worldwide. So what does this Green Man represent? Well, the simple answer is that he illustrates the irrepressible nature of life and he shows the unity that exists, or used to exist, between human-kind and the world of nature from which we originally came, the once secret governing laws of Nature, fertility, and the wild though uncategorisable symmetry that is inherent in nature. He is definitely a 'male' personage - the 'male' side of Nature, and from whom fruit, or seed issues forth. He is a development of the Celtic god Cernunnos, the consort of the Earth goddess. He is the spirit of the green wood, fertility, life and death - an anthropomorphic representation of the cycles prevalent in nature.

He fills the same roles as other pagan figures such as the Roman God Priapus and more. He has many appearances, but in all of them, he is universally, a symbol of renewal and continual rebirth - as is the prime function of nature. His most typical incarnation, is that of a human head, immersed in, or peering out of foilage, at our world from his green world. There can sometimes be what appear to be roots or stems coming from his mouth, eyes, and ears. The leaves on these stems / roots surround and enfold his appearance, so that what exactly he is made up of is sometimes uncertain. This 'blending' is no doubt to illustrate the unity, the viewer unable to discern what is truly human and what is not, This points to one of the main messages of this figure - composite unity, it is from the natural world he peers, it is from his mouth that the natural world issues forth and therefore the connectivity between human and nature is underlined and illustrated. It makes the point in a clear, almost pointed way that human-kind is an intrinsic part of the natural cycle and not separate from nor nature's master.

It is widely assumed that the beginnings of the Green Man are far older than the Christian era and stretch far back into prehistory, where the cycles that surrounded earlier humans were understood in a more human way. Indeed along the historical timeline he seems to fade in and out of popularity; he seems to be reborn at certain times, maybe times of stress, and after human-kind seems to have forgotten him.The Green Man is not only a form recogniseable in western Europe or the Mediterranean figures corresponding to the general form appear in India and the Far East - in fact many places where societies are connected in a real sense to the natural cycle. The European model, with its main representation as a disembodied head sprouting life, could be percieved as a relic of the Celtic veneration of the head, but nevertheless he does exist in similar form in many other cultures. He is not the amusing, grotesque figure that many today in today's, modern Western world see him as. Rather he is an intrinsic part of a world view incorporating a celebration of mystery which the modern world has rejected for scientific fact. Also, many see him as merely a surviving relic to the old, decayed Pagan traditions and 'quaint' superstitious folk customs, viewed by organised and powerful religions as evil or a threat to their tenets. These attitudes do nothing but demean what is an overwhelming symbolic structure, which acts as a metaphor for our relationship and position within Nature itself. Although an essentially 'pagan'(in the real sense of the word meaning 'rustic' or 'agricultural') figure, he is paradoxically written deeply into the fabric of Christian art, though the earliest sulptors of this tradition may have been imposing a 'failsafe' into the fabric of the 'new' churches - the later ones providing popular images which the population would have understood, or providing a view of conquered set of opponents for the strengthening Church. It is interesting, however, that he is mainly found in a Christian context - not a secular one. My own personal theory is that it is perhaps a physical representation of the creation myth - the 'word of God'. We have nature coming forth from his mouth, the very moment of creation itself. A powerful image portrayed in a form that connected past with their present, in a form or vocabulary that was obviously familiar or described the function perfectly for them.

The Green Man has survived though the centuries using many forms, from a 'pixie-like' persona to foliate head, sometimes smiling sometimes stern even angry and heard by many names - 'Jack o Green','The Burryman', 'The Hooded Man','the Green knight' 'Hearne the Hunter' and is also known as the 'Horned God' etc., and has changed from the fertilitising element to that of warden, or protector. He has even been linked with the Ballads of Robin Hood. Even in this modern bustling world, the 'male role survives in the ancient rites of fertility; Morris dancing (though the Morris tradition is very much more 'modern' than Greenman dating from perhaps the 15th century) and the 'Day of the burryman' held in Scotland on August the 14th, are but two but all reflect the male role in the natural cycle. There are, however, in this politically correct age groups, of dancers within the Morris tradition who are now women, who although having an inalianable right to partake in such dances, must surely miss the actual point of them.

An interesting note is that he his depicted on no less than thirty pubs in the vicinity of London alone, some 400 throughout Britain, and some with histories stretching back into antiquity where the role of brewer was dominated by women. A contemporary incarnation can be seen in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, in the figure of Tom Bombadil, along with a Gaia-like figure, his wife, an obvious allusion by Tolkien to these form of nature spirits and their role as wardens of Nature.

As we go further into the so-called 'post-modern' period, so interest in such deities and concepts increase for people who feel that they are, or wish to be, separated from the modern world, look for an avenue or figure to express or describe how they feel about their relationship with the earth. At this stage in our time on this planet, with all the environmental problems facing it is probably a good thing that we actually re-engage our relationship with the Earth before we lose both feorever. The Greenman therefore acts as a focus, a reminder for us to reinitiate our connection with the natural cycles of which we are part.

If you have any interesting comments or information on the Greenman, feel free to mail me

GREEN MAN IN THE GARDEN by Charles Causley