Originally Posted by 1 Antique
What is a Green Man?
A foliate face - a face with foliage coming out from nose, mouth, ears, or foliage instead of hair; any face or body where leaves and sometimes branches are part of the whole. There are very many types of design. Nobody knows the real significance and yet everybody who really sees a Green Man understands without knowing that he represents something very deep and important. Perhaps he reminds us of our interconnectedness with nature and the greening power of trees and plants.
The Green Man is an image of a face, usually male, associated with foliage. As an image, it appeared first about two thousand years ago, since when it has emerged spontaneously in different places, in different cultures, and in different times. As an idea, it is much older, arising from the earliest of mythology. Fraser, the "The Golden Bough" describes many myths connecting a man with a tree...there has been a wide recognition that all of these have the same origin in human psychology, an archetypal idea inherent in our mentality that bonds us to the natural world. This is the function of an archetype, a mental structure that assist us in life. The image has returned to public awareness as a sign of our recognition that our relationship with nature has been flawed, and that we are damaging our world, something which has become even more apparent recently.
excerpts from
Goucester Cathedral.
"The legend of green men is associated with Robin Hood or Herne the Hunter of the Greenwood, and also with Merlin - and has a strong connection with the gypsy tribes who enjoyed special protection at Rosslyn. While they have come to be associated with British pantheist traditions, few people realise they are a universal motif also found in Egyptian and Hindu temples."
Scotsman Heritage
Love and Light
Allen
What is a Green Man?
A foliate face - a face with foliage coming out from nose, mouth, ears, or foliage instead of hair; any face or body where leaves and sometimes branches are part of the whole. There are very many types of design. Nobody knows the real significance and yet everybody who really sees a Green Man understands without knowing that he represents something very deep and important. Perhaps he reminds us of our interconnectedness with nature and the greening power of trees and plants.
The Green Man is an image of a face, usually male, associated with foliage. As an image, it appeared first about two thousand years ago, since when it has emerged spontaneously in different places, in different cultures, and in different times. As an idea, it is much older, arising from the earliest of mythology. Fraser, the "The Golden Bough" describes many myths connecting a man with a tree...there has been a wide recognition that all of these have the same origin in human psychology, an archetypal idea inherent in our mentality that bonds us to the natural world. This is the function of an archetype, a mental structure that assist us in life. The image has returned to public awareness as a sign of our recognition that our relationship with nature has been flawed, and that we are damaging our world, something which has become even more apparent recently.
excerpts from
Goucester Cathedral.
"The legend of green men is associated with Robin Hood or Herne the Hunter of the Greenwood, and also with Merlin - and has a strong connection with the gypsy tribes who enjoyed special protection at Rosslyn. While they have come to be associated with British pantheist traditions, few people realise they are a universal motif also found in Egyptian and Hindu temples."
Scotsman Heritage
Love and Light
Allen
Last edited by Violet on Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:37 pm; edited 1 time in total