The Green Religions and their seasonal Ceremonies are now all but lost and forgotten, and yet the figure which came to symbolise their strengths, the Greenman , continues to hold a fascination for us.

The power and importance of the Greenwood upon the humble man is too strong to be ignored or suppressed. The power of the Greenwood , and of all things that grow, is still held to be a thing of reverence.

The 'Greenman', the embodiment of this growing life force, is an ancient concept occurring throughout history and cultures from Ancient Greece to the present day. He was seen as the irresistible Force of Nature - weakened and killed by Winter and yet born again in Springtime: renewed and virile. He was the personification of the seasonal cycle and the struggle for life and his many incarnations became the focus for worship and sacrifice throughout the pre Christian world. He was Immortal.

He embodies the Life Force of Rebirth: that Spring must return and bring with it the Sun and Growth and Plenty. The life of medieval man had few certainties and comforts: the longing for a good Harvest and belief in the power of the Greenman over all growing things may well have been too strong for the arrival of Christianity to suppress. Thus he appears in almost every church in England - if one knows where to look.

The Greenman, as he is most commonly seen today - as a stone or wood-carved image within a church, dates from the flourishing of the elaborate Gothic style of architecture in the late 12 th . Century

Why should such an ancient symbol appear in the place of Christian worship?

The medieval church was decorated with elaborate carvings of weird & wonderful beast, grotesque faces, fables & scened from moral tales. Faces divine and grotesque, mocking and humorous these snapshots on the medieval mind and wit amuse and puzzle us still.

What do these creatures mean?

Why are such profane and grotesque images found in such places of reverence? There are many hypotheses - but few firm answers. Perhaps it was no more than an attempt to keep a congregation amused during long services & sermons held in Latin.

But why did the Greenman appear so frequently?

The church was once a much earthier place - with an agrarian congregation more rooted in the seasons than today . A preoccupation with images of growth and fertility had ,meaning for such people & were tolerated if not encouraged as a way of reaching out to a superstitious and rural populace.

The idea of the Sacred Tree and Sacred Grove haunts the imagination of the temperate western world and this is reflected in the 'Greenman Oak'. The 'Greenman' can possibly be seen as a motif for the Spirit found in the Cult of Tree worship, an ancient religion dating from the late Stone Age.

It is interesting to note that until relatively recently many villages possessed a 'Dancing Oak' around which the populace would cavort on seasonal celebrations, (originally as a preamble to a communal mating!).

There is also a possible connection with the Celtic 'Cult of the Head'.

During the Bronze Age it was believed the soul and spirit of a person resided in the head and thus could be captured - the severed heads of vanquished enemies were placed in niches of barrows & fougous (underground chambers) and revered and consulted. Greenmen are sometimes shown 'Disgorging' - with foliage emerging from their mouths (see 'The Greenleaf Man') - possibly indicating that through sacrifice & burial (of the head) new life would be born.

So much which is written about the Greenman is hypotheis & speculation - for such ancient beliefs were held by an illiterate population and were thus never recorded. Ancient religions were transmitted orally - but with the death of the last of the Druids at the hands of the Romans on the Isle of Anglesey in AD62 the roots of belief were lost forever.

However the subject of the course and development of religions from their origins in primitive earth and fertility magic to the customs and traditions of the present day, in so far as they are known, are thoroughly documented in Sir James Frazier's 'Golden Bough'.