Well, there are only a few days left until the biggest adventure of my life  begins. I had a ton of pictures from a lot of different events on my iPod and have just finally uploaded them to my desktop. So rather than making multiple posts, I’ll just make one big one.

The beginning of the Summer was pretty slow at first. The Circle of Towering Trees struggled through a Beltaine ritual, and with the conflict of schedules and minds, most of us decided that though we’d most certainly remain friends, it was time for the circle to go. Whilst pondering what to do and how to tell the others of the group that we wanted to leave, Mark and I happened to see a duck swimming in the pond next-door to his house. Now, Mark has a smart phone, so he happened to look up the symbolic meaning of the duck totem.

What we found was that the duck represented grace needed to get through emotional tangles, seeking comfort, and developing a stronger sense of self. One source (http://spiritlodge.yuku.com/topic/932#.UcB-IOcsmSo) offered this insight as well:

Most ducks pair only for a season. Those with this totem often find that long term relationships are difficult to maintain and restlessness within the relationship is common. Learning how to take flight and spread ones wings without destroying the foundation of that relationship is one of their greatest challenges.

Ducks come in a variety of shades from iridescent to bold colors. It is important to understand the significance of this. Iridescent colors represent a fine line between reality and imagination. Bold colors are solid and hold the qualities of strength and perseverance. If your personal duck has iridescent colors examine your emotions carefully. Are you getting lost in the imaginative side of self and creating more chaos than necessary? If strong and bold it is time to take charge of your life and become the master of your emotions.

How absolutely perfect for the given situation was the duck’s message? We watched it for a few hours, enjoying the cool evening. We even managed to get close enough for a few pictures.

So, communication wasn’t in our favor right away, but we’ll get to that later. Following the beautiful encounter with the duck, we had a long bout of thunderstorms- some of which produced absolutely stunning rainbows.

We were worried it was going to rain the entire weekend of our camping trip- which had PLENTY of ups and downs in the final planning stages. We ended up going not to Ossineke, Michigan, but to the State Park only a five minute drive from my home. We spent almost an entire week there from Wednesday (June 12th) to Sunday (June 16th). After our tent was up and our supplies sorted out, we set the wards around our campsite, sprinkling a protective herb mixture around the perimeter and smudging with sage and mugwort bundles. We set up a small group altar next to the tent and settled in for a week of spiritual work.

The first evening was a fairly quiet one, spent cooking ourselves dinner, and enjoying time with each other around the bonfire. Once it got really dark, we went into the tent for some tarot readings and card games, but not before snapping a pic of our altar a glow in the night.

That night, as I was drifting off to sleep, I thought I saw Herne, my patron, approaching me through a forest glade. I was ready for a message from him when my phone woke me up and completely screwed up my focus. Luckily, I was able the next morning to hear what he had to say with an oracle reading, using The Druid Animal Oracle.

I drew The Swan, representative of the threshold of the Otherworld and Otherworldly inspiration; The Dog, showing me a loyal companion, fierce protector, and un-yielding love and loyalty- a guide and friend on my journeys; and The Raven, my spirit animal, a sign of initiation and prophecy, a transition into a new phase of life. What I got from this reading was this:

As I transition from working with the Circle of Towering Trees into the training programs of the ADF (as well as continuing my personal studies of the Wylde Hunt), Herne will remain my guide and patron on my path. I also felt that it was sign that there is much still in store for me. My new journey along the path of life will lead to new experience, change, and ultimately what will be best for me, and Herne will be by my side each step of the way. It was a wonderful way to start the day, and left me feeling confident for the things we had planned for that afternoon.

Around noon, Mark and I went to a small clearing used for larger organizations’ camping activities in the woods. It was empty and peaceful, the sun casting a golden glow through the tall trees surrounding it. There, we performed a practice ADF rite (for a look at the ritual outline check here: http://www.adf.org/rituals/celtic/general/sol-template-art.html ). We called upon our own patrons and did some spell work for completing our summer goals. The rite itself went well, we learned some valuable lessons in preparing more carefully for things, and came to the conclusion that we need more work in visualization and meditation- something I’m bound to work on through my studies in the ADF.

From there, we had the bug invasion. We had not only large mosquitoes (Bay City Michigan is marshland, mind you) but a huge population of mayflies that simply would not leave us alone. During the muggy hours of the day, we took to hiding in the tent to avoid being eaten alive!

Despite that, we were able to get more meaningful readings finished, and prepare things for the evenings when we could safely spend time around our fire and enjoy the cool evening air.

On the final night, Mark, Morgan, and I (the only three remaining at the end of the trip) each performed a small self-blessing rite to attune ourselves with our specific patrons. Though, we had all certainly considered Brighid, Athena, and Herne (respectively to name order above) our patrons, we had never really acknowledged it in ritual or took the time to talk solely to them yet! So, one by one, we used the site space to perform a little rite.

It was the perfect way to end our adventure. As I finished up my turn with the bonfire and altar, rain started to patter down from the rustling trees. Absolutely a peaceful and magical moment.

Now, we’re at the final week. I started it out by going to the graduation party of a very close friend of mine. Like Aaron is not the typical person, his party was not the typical party. He had his senior showing at the State Theater in downtown Bay City, and to celebrate his acceptance into the musical theater program at Western Michigan University, he put on a little show for us.

He really does have an amazing talent, and I wish him all the best in his future.

I really wish this picture had turned out better! But this is Aaron with our mutual friend, Katie.

And now, back to the spiritual things. I received all of my confirmation e-mails and letters from the ADF and have started my Dedicant Path program. For the path, each participant is expected to pick a Hearth Culture with which they wish to align themselves in ritual. Now, since my own personal work is rather eclectic, this posed quite the challenge.

Ultimately, I ended up deciding upon the British / Welsh culture. With the trip to Britain only days away, my patron being a British deity, and all of the classes I have next year focusing on Europe, it seemed only appropriate that I choose this culture. I’m also blessed with many friends over on Celtic Moon that are knowledgeable in the folk lore of Avalon, King Arthur, and the like. I’m sure they can offer a helping hand as well.

So here it begins, the next chapter of my life as a Pagan and as a college student. To say I’m not nervous about the course work I’ll be doing in the UK would be a complete lie. But I think the challenges will all be worthwhile. I can’t wait to see where it all takes me.

Brightest Blessings,

Brenna Adaira

Ancient God of the Wild hunt.

From the earth Mara bursts forth
Great and Terrible, He blots out the sky with his form
Time to show my worth

On the legs of squirrel I race
Unafraid and secure with Herion behind me
Like Rattatask, up the summit I make fevered haste

The Great Wisdom of Compassion guides my hands
My thunderbolt strikes my foe holding him in place

Two terrible wills meet
Will of Samsara fights
Will of Truth triumphs
In the moment the spear finds the mark

Pierced to the Heart,
The beast howls in anguish
When the hilt and hand strikes flesh
I see

The only beast I fought
Was Me

(I do not own and did not create this fabulous picture)

Stag Lord found in Surrey Garden – photo- Mani Navasothy 2013

Here’s the story of this garden sculpture..   Last year, summer time, due to various wrangles…I had the extreme misfortune and sadness to prune/ cut large amounts of the Willow Tree and other tall ever green trees in the  garden. But I promised myself every piece cut off will be used.. So these sculptures are now surfacing ..

Stag sculpture – Art of Mani-co-uk

and here are the photos I used for the composite image above.  I used the software `Photoimpact 11′  (no longer supported by Correl I think.. I really must get going with Photoshop Elements..  It’s been in my laptop for 3 years..)

stag lord in surrey – photos used for composite graphics (c)MN13

check more of my art & eco sculptures at www.ArtofMani.co.uk

Here they continued to practise their craft in secret, worshipping in an ancient temple used by the Wicca (wise ones) for over 800 years.  The temple was later hidden beneath a house and accessed via the basement for rituals.

In 1978 Alex Sanders who inherited the title King of the Witches from his grandmother was interviewed in that Selmeston cottage and recorded by Robert Armstrong for broadcast on independent radio.

Sanders shared many of the secrets of the Wicca in this candid conversation and gives an insight into what he calls “Britain’s oldest religion”.

Listening to it from today’s perspective, it’s possible to make links with other religious traditions and practises from across the world and it gives an insight into the value of ritual and mythology in our understanding of the world within, around and beyond ourselves.

The full audio recording is available here for you to download.

Serendipitously, I also happened to stumble across a blog post by The Enchanted Mirror this morning, relating to the story of The King O’ The Cats.  To me, there seemed to be an uncanny connection between the two.

Enjoy

Today Cath made our Horned God ointment – prepared during the solar eclipse, with the sun and new moon in Taurus.

A little bundle of snake skin, wood betony, willow, patchouli and oak moss was placed within the infused hellebore root oil, then blended with with bee’s wax and mugwort infused oil. The hellebore root was black, but surprisingly the infused oil was quite light in colour and fragrance.

Here are the balms, not yet set.

This ointment can be used for underworld workings or shape shifting magic. It is also protective and may help you to avoid unwanted attention.

And the final product with pathworking tunnel… Down the rabbit hole we go…

Both magical I hope.

My family and I had a nice dinner together. I made roasted hen, pea salad, macaroni salad, “doubled eggs” and rainbow bread. The rainbow bread was by far the fave of the witchlings.

I set up the table as an altar, though less conspicuously due there being small children, so the actual sexual tones of the Sabbat were symbolic, i.e- tall vase with rose as fallace/Horned God and a short, round vase as womb/Goddess.

We ended up moving this to our deck instead so we could enjoy the May Day feast. In my home there is another very important aspect of Beltane. The Fae. We never forget the Fae. Usually we leave a gift of milk and honey and my children draw them a picture on a small square of paper. We place these on the stone altar under the Oak. This time we wanted to do something extra special, as a thank you for the amazing addition we found in our Faery Garden. A colony of young Ladybugs. Just out of larva stage.

I found this the morning of Beltane- such a lovely sight. We chose to give these little honey and herb pellets I made it with herbs and flowers that are traditional or sacred to this sabbat to me. The are very simple to make. Grind your herbs and flowers in a mortar or a coffee grinder works just as well. Set your intention to one of gratitude. Add honey-( I used local raw honey cause thats what i had on hand- though maple syrup or molasses would work too) and mix very well then let it rest about thirty minutes in the sun, pinch and shape as you wish or roll into pellets.  My girls offered on of their tea party plates for them.

Unfortunately where we live we could not have a bale fair, so we ignited the fires within our soul. We celebrated the turning of the wheel and the harvest that is to come because of it.

In those spooky BBC murder stories you see on TV,  for example New Tricks, where a group of white witches explain that the ancient, sardonically grinning horned god became the utterly evil devil of christianity, simply by means of a rewrite. Likewise the great festivals of matriarchal lunar culture became important christian feast days; unnecessary to supply details, Wiki does a great job there.

What caught my attention, however, on seeing the Roman jewel becoming sanctified, was the process of conversion and what it entailed. The proselytising christians were not possessed of great generosity when they rewrote culture. Mary the Magdala was transformed from possibly the most advanced follower of Jesus, even his wife, some would argue, to a prostitute who repents of her former life; when Peter became the head of the early church, his authority needed no female rival.

Likewise, the reinterpretation of festivals and the remaking of pagan artifacts; the early church was invested with a keen sense of sin, and would have been incapable of refashioning a pagan festival or object if its character was irredeemably sinful. The only conclusion that can be drawn from these cultural transformations was their expediency, that is to say, the conversion from pagan and disdained to christian and prized was that the change simply increased the power and authority of the early church. Any consciousness of the sinfulness of the original object would be a secondary consideration, if at all.

Imagine the sentiments of the newly converted, used all their lives to celebrating a pagan festival, to suddenly be told it had great christian significance. I think they would have sighed: plus ca change. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The same power, just a different bloke wielding it. 

Thought I’d shake things up and do a poetry post this week!

The Hunter’s Horn

Can you hear the Hunter’s Horn,

Sounding in the forest deep?

Can you hear the pounding of hooves

When night creeps in and people sleep?

In the dark night can you feel

That rush of wind- that fleeting chill?

Standing in the night-time wood

What will be his latest kill?

Examples of what I will post about: Astral, dragons, witchcraft, paganism, Huntwitch, Athene, Cernunnos, Jesus, nature, hunting, and all that jazz.

“Hello, I’m just starting to learn about paganism. I’ve only ever been to one winter solstice event and it was lovely. One question that’s been nagging me for a while: (and I honestly mean no offense, i’m only curious) Is the greenman/horned god a loving god? When i say loving….how do i put it? It’s just that our society has turned that image into the devil for so long, not that i believe it, but….i’m a particularly shy individual who is tentative to worship “masculine” energy because i’ve had a lot of emotional trama with men from a young age. I’m still thinking about what exactly i wish to worship. I had an experience with him once, though, i think. Sorry if it’s really personal- I was “thinking” about sexual things one day alone, and worries were coming up about being treated well. But somehow i got to thinking about the image of pan and stopped fussing. i ended up thinking or feeling about everything but nothing at the same time and well, it went well. Are there people you know of who see him as fatherly and a healthy thing, not just a negative stereotype of aggressive males? It’s hard for me to not worry about things like that. But i’d like to believe people want to believe in deities of god things and love. Thank you, Allie”

Your question resonates with me. I grew up in a family full of women, a matriarchy de facto as men failed to stick around for family making; my own father was Army, so he was never around to be a father figure. I also experienced sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted boyfriend as a teenager. That said, I have *always* had an issue with masculinity and God.

However, I can tell you this: God, be he horned or green, is awe-inspiring. The Horned God is actually the Wiccan view of masculine divinity; he is all gods in one representation, like a diamond with many different facets. He is a god of the Sun, the hunt, harvest, wildness, and fertility. As the Horned God, he is seen with antlers as many prey animals would have; meanwhile, as the Greenman he has a face and body made of or covered in leaves, showing his interconnection with nature and growth. In both cases, the God is seen as dying in the form of plants and animals as a sacrifice to feed us and keep us alive.

In a less Wiccan-focused view, God is what he is. Not all men are aggressive or hyper-sexual beings; neither are all gods the same. I worship within the Greek pantheon, and I see all gods and goddess as individuals (as opposed to the facets of a diamond). That means that I recognize Zeus’ tendency to take what he wanted from women, while understanding his constant attempts to keep mankind safe. Apollo was a woman chaser, but he was usually spurned or accepted gladly (i.e. he didn’t rape as Zeus often did); Apollo also remained strongly protective of his twin Artemis and his mother Leto, as well as watching over the sick as both giver and remover of diseases. The mythology is complex, just as humankind is; no god is always loving or always violent, not even Ares as the god of war.

Essentially, you need to research and reflect for yourself on God. Who do you connect to him? Who is he to you? When you find those answers, you’ll know where your worship will focus.

Larissa Lee
Guest Writer

A Fox News segment about the University of Missouri recognizing Wiccan holidays sparked controversy after many were offended by the words and attitudes of the Fox reporters. The same reporter later apologized after the news channel received many phone calls from upset viewers. Witchcraft. You see it in movies and your read it in books, but what are the Wiccans all about?

Wicca is a modern, Pagan witchcraft religion that was developed by Gerald Gardner in the 20^th century in England. Wicca is called “The Craft” or “The Craft of the Wise.” The name derives from the Old English masculine term for ‘sorcerers.’ The religion is derived from an ancient Pagan religion and is one of the many earth-based religions. The original religion was just called witchcraft until the 60s and 70s when the name Wicca came into use.

While there is no authority figure, and most Wiccans believe in a deity that is largely unknowable that they call “The All” or “The One.” Most Wiccans worship a god and goddess called the mother goddess and the horned god. These two different gods are viewed as viewed as the two sides of a pantheistic godhead. The goddess is regarded as the Triple Goddess of the moon, stars, and fate. They also believe in a Horned God that is associated with forests, animals and the realm beyond death. These two god heads are also sometimes called the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine. They are complementary opposites. They can be called the Divine Couple and are seen as both lovers and equals.

The religion is divided into different branches called “traditions.” Each tradition has its own organizational structure, but many traditions have a similar set of beliefs.

Wiccans celebrate rituals that involve direct encounters with the God or Goddess rather than through a priest. The Wiccan baptism is called a Wiccaning service, but unlike the Christian baptism, Wiccaning does not obligate the infant into the religion. Wiccans are encouraged to make their own decisions once they are old enough.

They also celebrate initiation rituals when a person becomes a Wiccan. The rituals are performed by a Wiccan group called a Coven. These rituals can take many forms like casting of a circle or closing of the circle. The rituals can also include magic, spell casting, dance, readings and singing. Many rituals are used during celebrations which often take place during full moons. Rituals begins by casting a magic circle. Once the is made, Wiccans perform a seasonal ritual and prayers are said and rites are read. The rites often include a magical tools such as a athame, a wand, a pentacle, a chalice, candles, incense and a broom. When rituals are finished the Wiccans thank God and close the cirlce.

Wiccan traditions and celebrations follow the seasons. They have eight seasonal festivals called Sabbats and collectively called the Wheel of the Year. Wiccans also celebrate weddings called handfasting which is a European ceremony that involves tying the hands of the two people with ribbon. A common vow for Wiccans is “for as long as love lasts.”

The number of Wiccans worldwide is uknown, but the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey estimated that there were about 134,000 American who identified themselves as Wiccans.

Most Wiccans believe in reincarnation. The High Priest Raymond Buckland said most Wiccans believe that they are reincarnated into the same species over time in order to learn lessons and advance spirituality. Wiccans believe: “once a witch, always a witch.”

“If you take the Christian Bible and put it out in the wind and the rain, soon the paper on which the words are printed will disintegrate and the words will be gone. Our bible is the wind and the rain.”

-Herbalist Carol McGrath (as told to her by an unidentified Native-American Wiccan)

My A to Z Challenge theme is Wiccan Reads.
To learn more about why I chose this subject, go here.
All excerpts are from my current WIP:

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H IS FOR HORNED GOD

HORNED GOD: The consort of the Goddess, God of both life and death, the masculine aspect of the duotheistic All. With the change of seasons, the Horned God moves between his dark and light aspects in a repeating cycle of life, death, and rebirth. He is associated with the life cycle, but also with nature, sexuality, vitality, and the hunt. Think Celtic Cernunnos or Greek Pan but not the devil..

Horned God: Roman Mosaic AD160 by Cathedral City Guide (flickr)

…

EXCERPT . . .

Liam removed one of the plaques from the wall and held it up to Mercy. “This devil mask gives me the creeps.”

“That’s not the devil. It’s the Goddess’s consort—the Horned God, Lord of the Hunt.”

“Yeah, well, it looks like the devil to me.”

“There is no parallel in Wicca to the Christian devil. The Horned God is the God of Nature, and he can be as cruel or tender as any facet of the natural world. He evolved—not sure that’s the right word—from old pagan nature deities. Pan may have been a lustful drunkard, but he wasn’t evil.”

“You’re saying Wiccans don’t believe in evil?”

“Of course we do. But like I said before, we hold the man or woman who perpetrated the evil responsible, not some unseen devil.

…

Let’s hear about your challenge!
Time to advertise your “H”!

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NATIONAL DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE APRIL 7–14, 2013.

Never Forget.

…

Dreamy Image of Fallen Conifer Around Which the Doe Raced.

I’ll begin by retelling the brief story.  We looked out of our window and in the stillness of that early wintry morning saw a group of five Roe Deer standing in the field.  There was some gentle head butting.  Then one of the does started to race round a fallen conifer, at considerable speed.  A buck was standing a bit higher up the slope of the hill, with his head raised, and muscles tensed.  Each time the buck came round the tree, she hurtled past, close beneath him, almost brushing his jaw.  We, of course, felt privileged to witness this intimate scene.  The Doe’s circling of a Tree of Life, felt like a ‘showing’ for the Winter Solstice, which was less than forty eight hours away.

Some months later we stopped seeing them in the wood, and then heard that someone had found discarded deer parts in a field.  ‘Our’ deer family had evidently been shot.  Later, in October 2009, a woman friend who was staying with us, and had not heard this story, dreamed that a deer kid came out of a wood and sat on her lap.  A Doe and Buck were watching from the edge of the wood, so she took the fawn over to them and walked away.  Given what had happened, and having seen very young Roe Deer kids at close quarters a couple of times -they are incredibly beautiful!-  the sharing of this dream meant a lot to me.

So to ruminate.  Firstly, in terms of the natural history, since Roe Deer courtship normally occurs in July and August, I’ve been puzzled by the timing of what we saw that morning.  Marc Baldwin, the naturalist I asked about this, was quite jealous.  Apparently, only a handful of other people have witnessed what biologists call the false rut.  This is a less intense version of what goes on in the summer, and usually occurs between late September and late October.  Though it has been seen as late as January, Marc could only find one reference in the U.K literature to a record in December, and that was in 1985 in the New Forest.  The false rut is thought to involve sexually precocious kids (immature females), and yearling bucks that reach their annual sexual zenith later than mature males, in whom spermatogenesis usually ceases by September.  One theory is that it might be throwback to a time when Roe Deer used to rut in the autumn like other species of deer.  I don’t get particularly excited by rarity per se, but was pleased to be able to contribute a useful record.

As I was mulling this over I came across a video of a talk about the symbolic significance of deer, well stags and their horns actually!  Oxford historian Diane Purkiss spoke on ‘the Undomestic Witch; Scottish Witches, Fairies, and Old Religion’, to the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy.  Her argument is that although most of those convicted – and horribly executed- as witches in Scotland, were caught up in low level neighbourhood aggravation, the testimony of a small but significant minority -the undomestic witches- includes consistent references to pre-Christian beliefs, apparently surviving alongside Catholicism.  In particular, a figure known as Christ’s Sunday, a shape-shifter who took the form of a Stag, is described in one testimony as coming ‘out of the snow’.  Diane Purkiss interprets this as rising up from the underearth, an image of fertility and potency in the winter landscape, and reminds us that Celtic stag deities were linked to the Sun.  She regards the Stag as the ‘sponsor’ of these undomestic witches.  (The other figure consistently mentioned is the Queen of Elfland).

Purkiss gives a vivid sense of the political ecology of the Royal forests.  This was a period when wild land, the haunt of vagrants, outcasts, and other marginal figures, was subject to enclosure and improvement and Deer poaching was a common form of rebellion.  There is a strong sense, then, in which spiritual beliefs are shaped, often for political purposes, within a particular cultural context.  For example, the story is told of the twelfth century Scottish King, David the First, that he encountered and chased a magical white Stag.  The animal turned and frightened his horse, causing him to fall off.  He was about to be gored by the Stag, but when he reached out towards its antlers they changed into the Cross of Christ, and the Stag trotted away. Similarly, in the poem, the Dream of Rood, the story of the crucifixion is told from the point of view of a talking tree that becomes the Cross, or rood.  This is thought to have been a way of telling the Christian story in an animistic idiom that would be familiar to an Anglo-Saxon audience.

Ronald Hutton gave a talk on the Horned God at an OBOD (Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids) event, that also relates spiritual beliefs to their historical and political context.  Hutton notes that cultural references to Pan began to appear around the year 1800, co-inciding with the advent of the industrial revolution.  Not surprisingly, wild nature was being venerated for the first time, and various romantic poets worshiped Pan as a kind of Green Jesus figure.  Some Christians came to regard the Goat god as a significant threat, and duly produced an image of Satan with goat’s horns in response.

Pan is also evoked in literature as a god of sexuality, of course.  Hutton ponders his twentieth century disappearance, and re-emergence as an ‘archetype’, a common image with many names, and acknowledges that the Horned God as a ‘male force of nature’ remains a problematic figure.  Writers such as Starhawk, and John Rowan have nevertheless portrayed him as  a post-patriarchal consort of the Goddess.  The former wrote that ‘He is: ‘gentle, tender, and comforting, but He is also the hunter.  He is the Dying God -but his death is always in the service of the life force.  He is untamed sexuality -but sexuality as a deep, holy, connecting power’.   Like many ‘new’ animists, I’m not particularly deity oriented, and my exposure to postmodern thought makes me wary of universal/unitary God or Goddess figures.  I’m more comfortable with Celtic depictions of shape-shifting Deer, Stags that communicate with humans, mediate between humans and gods, or transform into a hybrid Stag/human-diety (Cernunnos).  Such figures feel more accessible, more amenable to dialogue.

As a double Capricorn, I should perhaps declare an interest in Goats!  One of the advantages of this birthright is that I’m a natural record keeper.  I just like doing it.  So, to return to those five Roe Deer in the field beside our house.  At the time we were not that interested in pursuing historical ideas about symbolism, let alone deities.  We were content to stay in the moment.  Looking back at my diary however, I see that their appearance, at what for us has always been the most important seasonal festival, came at the end of a year when we had put a lot of effort into protecting their wood, and had been reasonably successful in mitigating the considerable damage that might have been done by a development proposal – that has also closed off access to a beautiful and once peaceful place, for us.  If they had wanted to say ‘thank you’, there could hardly have been a better way of doing it, especially given that Stags were once regarded as companions of the Sun god.

The Winter Solstice is, of course, a time of death and rebirth.  Although I didn’t make the connection at the time, several days after the appearance of the deer, I heard that a close friend’s father had died on the day we saw them.  He had been very good to me when I was a young man, so this was a death that touched me.  I don’t want to force a connection, but on that cold silent morning, those deer, engrossed in their dance of renewal, did seem slightly magical, otherworldly.

Sources

Richard Prior, The Roe Deer, Conservation of a Native Species, Swan Hill Press, 1995.

Ronald Hutton, The History of the Pagan Horned God, OBOD Druidcast No 4, August 2007.

Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, Harper and Row, 1979.

John Rowan, the Horned God, Feminism and Men as Wounding and Healing, Routledge, 1987.

Miranda Green, Animals in Celtic Life and Myth, Routledge, 1992.