Notice: New Facebook Page

Dear Friends,

I now have a new Facebook page for The Pagan Wildwood. All are welcome.

http://www.facebook.com/ThePaganWildwood

This will provide another place for the wondrous world of the Horned One to be brought to life. Sometimes that page will feature some (but not all) of the blog posts posted here but there also will be other new materials and discussions featured there. This will in no way impinge on the Blog here or vice-versa. They will be separate yet co-existent aspects of the Sacred Grove.

Blessed Be. Love and Light to you all.

Music - "The Hunter/Cernunnos" by The Moors

I have recently been researching the various songs and music in which Herne/Cernunnos are an influence and have found various wonderful tunes ranging from folk to rock songs. I shall periodically share some of these tunes with you. Today I ...feature a dark rock song from the 1990s rock band "The Moors". The song is called "The Hunter/Cernunnos". The video is very interesting and interprets the lyrics very well. In the video we see a woman dressed in goth-hippy style invoking the spirit of Cernunnos in the woods. We see Cernunnos running between the trees a scarf with Ogham script hangs around him. By the time the ritual is over the woman is dressed in a simple jerkin, her face covered in Celtic tribal style markings/tattoos with tree branch designs rising across her brows - the Spirit of Cernunnos is in her soul. The shaky black and white camerwork gives a primal feel to the whole affair. Musically it has an early goth feel reminiscent of early Dead Can Dance or Siouxsie and the Banshees with a psychedelic Hawkwind-esque style of guitarwork.....and the singer at times has an almost Stevie Nicks style of delivery. Wonderful stuff.

Here are the lyrics:

When in the wooded place I be 

Then in the sacred grove is he
The god of hunters, king of creatures all
His horned head I see

   

I sit beside him on the ground
As those in Gaul of bird and hound
His name is written but once, my Cernunnos
And still I know the sound

He rules life and death
And guards the Otherworld
From where all forces flow
And all events doth know

 

I know he will come
I've done the dances 

Stay beside me now
Lord of the antlers, come...

   

Oh, when the sun and moon
They rise up on yonder hill
He will rise inside me and
So shall ever be, (shall) ever be.

A Belated Happy Solstice and Festive Greetings

My dear friends I hope you all had a joyous and peaceful Solstice and are having a fun festive season. I shall be back soon (over the next few days) with some new and (hopefully) interesting posts to share with you.

This was a great song that I was listening to on Friday to capture the atmosphere of the day, "Noon of the Solstice" by the great Damh the Bard:

The Great Wheel begins a new cycle. "Cernunnos, I'm Pan and I'm Herne"

Blessed Be )O(

Hauntingly beautiful music of the fair folk

Just a short post today. This music has been running though my head all day long. Such melancholic beauty in it. The music is from a scene in the extended version of "The Fellowship of the Ring" when Frodo and Sam watch a troop of wood elves passing towards the Grey Havens.......leaving Middle Earth. In the scene Sam says "I don't know why, but it makes me sad"......

It is said that Tolkien in part based his elveson the Sidhe of Celtic mythology. I shall look in depth at both races in future posts. Just as Tolkien's Middle Earth is spiritually poorer for the departure of the Elves, so is ours poorer for its lost connections with the likes of the Sidhe and the Tuatha de Danaan of old.

Until next time my dear friends- Blessed Be )O(

A little Pagan Folk music.....

Hello dear friends. Today I would like to share with you the wonderful Dutch band Omnia. Omnia are a pagan folk band headed by husband and wife team Steve "Sic" Evans van der Harten  and his wife Jennifer. The band have been around since the latter half of the 90s. Their music is very much based in the world of Celtic Pagan folk with an at times very playful and humourous twist. There is much joy and energy in their performances and their live performances are full of power and foot-stomping fun. An interesting addition to the otherwise Celtic sounds of harp and Bodhran are the inclusion of instruments such as the didgeridoo and the use of a hurdy-gurdy by Jenny on some songs gives a distinctly Gallic and Breton feel to some numbers.

I am very fond of this band who manage to be both traditional and experimental at the same time. I first discovered them whilst browsing through Youtube one day where I came across a recording of their performance at Bibelot. Here's a sample of that concert and a taster of what this great band are about, this is a very energetic performance of the song 'Fidhe Ra Huri":

That song always makes me wish to be dancing in a woodland clearing by moonlight.

I can strongly recommend that if you haven't yet discovered this talented group of musicians it is well worth buying a CD or two.

Blessings of the Horned God and the Goddess be with you all.

)O(

Fantasy Inspirations

During my younger years I dabbled in the worlds of table top gaming and RPGs...do I hear cries of "geek"? Yes 'tis true........but for me this was just an expression of something older and deeper within me, a way my young mind could express itself and for that very reason I was always drawn to the wood elves more than any other race.

There is something about the idea of this race of immortals, clad in green, at one with their forest home that appealed to me. In the early days of the 80s the portrayal was simply of blonde pointy eared types wearing a green hooded cloak and dodgy green tights......all very Errol Flyn Robin Hood I suppose. Over the years however the image of the wood elf has (thankfully) become much rawer and embraced much of Celtic/Pagan spirituality and mythology. This was first brought through by the now defunct Grenadier Miniatures and their Fantasy Warriors game in the late 1980s which included a very Celtic influenced range of figurines by the designer Mark Copplestone. Nowhere has this change of image become more apparent in modern times however than in the famous strategy battle game "Warhammer" by the famous company Games Workshop. The elves are now a far more dangerous race......all tribal woad tattoos and whirling Celtic wardances worshipping a very familiar figure......a horned forest god of the hunt they call ....Kernuos.

The king of the elves Orion (hah hah....the hunter.....not very subtle Mr Games Workshop games designers LOL) is an avatar of this deity and is accompanied by his faithful hunting hounds.

In times of war, when the forest itself is under threat, the forest spirits themselves will fight alongside the elves in the form of the ent a-like treemen and the dryads.

It is great to see the imagery being used in such a strong way in a popular game.....I just wonder how many of those who game actually know the mythological influence at play in their hobby. We can but hope that some of these gamers are curious enough to dig deeper and uncover the wonders of the ancient Lord of the Hunt. I know that it was my interest in Herne/Cernunnos and all things connected with the woods and the Celts that drew me to this gaming race.....now could some young gamers do that in reverse and now be drawn by the game to all things of the Horned One and the Wild Wood?

I leave you with some more of the artwork and some splendidly painted miniature figurines from this game.

It is funny the places where the influence of our culture can be found. Maybe these gamers would find fellowship with the Pagan/Celtic community? After all, are not both groups treated with vague suspiscion and misunderstanding by the mainstream herd of sheep-le?

Blessed Be
)O(

....hmmm.......now where did I store my old paints and paint brushes....looking at these new miniatures has got me wanting to buy a few :)

.....and you are a leaf driven by the wind.

I remember the first time I came across the Horned One. I was just a (relatively) normal kid in the 1980s. A little bit "different" but not too much......I loved Star Wars and had all the toys, played with Lego, watched all the UK kids TV shows that were out at the time, etc. If there was one thing that was different about me it was my love for the countryside and nature. I always felt a different energy when surrounded by trees and animals. During school breaktimes and lunches, when the other kids would be out playing soccer, I would be going to a quiet corner of the school playing field that had a small copse of trees and a tiny raised hillock. Some special energy would flow through me there.....like an unstoppable force.....but it did not have a name or a face......until THE TV show started in 1983 on Saturday evenings..........that show was Robin of Sherwood.

I shall share my thoughts on and review individual episodes later in this blog. For now, however, I would like to share with you the impact this show had on me.........and particularly the relationship between Robin and the wild, stag headed Shaman who embodied everything I felt when I was in woodland.......Herne!!!

In one early scene, Robin has just escaped from the dungeons of Nottingham castle and is fleeing into Sherwood. Suddenly, mystical music started to play and mists swirled between the trees......and then it happened.......this tall silhouette of a stag-headed man came through the mist.....regal antlers moving forward. Robin is perplexed....this figure speaks as if a god....yet looks like a man and he is told "They are all waiting. The blinded, the maimed, the men locked in the stinking dark all wait for you. Children with swollen bellies hiding in ditches wait. The poor, the dispossessed, they all wait. You are their hope. You cannot escape. So must it be. Robin in the Hood!". At first Robin feels from this godman.....this forest apparition......but eventually he visits Herne and discovers his destiny.....to be Herne's "son".

Throughout the series, Robin and the merries venerate Herne, the Lord of the Trees......and this was something I could understand......this being represented everything I believed in, everything I felt to be true, everything vital and natural in the seasons, in the trees and plants and in all living things. I was to learn more of this being and his many names over the years and develop my own relationship with him just as Robin does......and with the Goddess, so inextricably linked to him.

For now, I hope you enjoy this trailer I found on Youtube with an accompaniment of the music from "The Last of the Mohicans".....although the Clannad soundtrack for "Robin of Sherwood" is in its own right absolutely stunning music, and something I shall return to in later posts. For me, this was where it all began:

Blessed Be. )O(

Come join me in the Wild Wood

Hello and welcome to a new blog celebrating all things Pagan connected with nature. I shall share my own insights; review books, music, movies and TV shows; discuss various aspects of spiritual matters in nature; have lots of fun discussions about nature and wildlife; and generally just have a fun time sharing these things with you all.

For me the journey began at an early age on numerous nature rambles as a small child. This was fortified with my first encounters with the writings of Tolkien from the tender age of 6, but really accelerated and grew during the early-mid 80s with my first introduction to the Horned God, through two wonderful TV series that began at that time: first was "Robin of Sherwood" and the other was the seasonally appropriate "The Box of Delights". Both shows introduced me to Herne and the magick was worked on my young fertile mind..............and from that point on I have been an unabashed nature loving, tree-hugging, Goddess and Horned God worshipping happy wee soul.

I am looking forward to us having a fun journey.

Blessed be! )O(