The Green Man is the ever-returning energy of vegetation (Spring rebirth) and wild Nature. His magic is celebrated throughout the world, but he is most often associated with northern Europe and Celtic cultures.
The deity we know as the Green Man has a long worldwide history. In the Indus religion he is the ‘Green Thing’, in ancient Babylon myth he bears the name, Tammuz. Elsewhere in the Islamic faith he is Ilyas, in Greece, Dionysus; in Sweden, the Pfingstl; ‘Green George’ is his European name and locally, in the British Isles, he is known variously as Green George, Jack-in-the-Green or Jack-in-the-Bush; the Green Man, Lord of the Forest and Robin Hood. He also has strong connections with Herne the Hunter, Cernunnos, and also in the stories of King Arthur as the fearsome Green Knight who Gawain encounters. In the late Iron Age this deity was known to the Celtic population of Britain as Erriapus and on the continent of Europe as Esus. Under both names, images of this deity have been found on Celtic stone and metalwork as a head emerging from foliage.
His face stares down at us from the roofs, pillars and doorways of the great cathedrals and churches of Europe, he appears on second century Roman columns in Turkey and in Jain temples in Rajasthan. He is found all over England, some parts of Wales and Scotland and a few rare places in Ireland. On the continent he has been seen and noted in Germany, France, Italy, Holland and is said to be found in Spain, Hungary and Poland. India and Malaysia have their own Green Man.
His roots may go back to the shadow hunters who painted the caves of Lascaux and Altimira and may climb through history, in one of his manifestations through Robin Hood and the Morris Dances of Old England to be chiselled in wood and stone even to this day by men and women who no longer know his story but sense that something old and strong and tremendously important lies behind his leafy mask. (Source: Clearnetworks.com.au)
The deity we know as the Green Man has a long worldwide history. In the