Lord and Lady of the Green Woods

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This image is shown with the DA watermark.
The watermark is not present on the printed image.

This poster is titled "Lord and Lady of the Green Woods." Copyright, 2012, by Lilipily Spirit and L.O.Hennig.

The lord and lady are the 'a la Celtic' pagan Mother-Father God, or Cernunnos and Danu. Also known by many other names in their many modes and aspects.

The models in the poster are my friends. Lord Cernunnos has just celebrated his 80th birthday on Planet Earth, and still looks sprightly! The poster was originally a gift for him.

Featured elements are the noble deer in the mist; three flying cranes; Cernunnos with a serpent headed staff, and torcs hanging from his antlers (and a squished version of the Ardagh chalice); and Danu holding the apple with its secret pentacle of seeds inside, and a lunitsa dangling at her brow.

Many thanks to all contributors of the elements in this poster:

Cernunnos Body and Clothes = [link]
Cernunnos Face and Hair = Lilipily Spirit personal photography stock (my friend, Nev)
Cernunnos Antlers = [link]
Head of Staff = [link]
Head of Staff = [link]

Danu Body and Clothes = [link]
Danu Hair = [link]
Danu Face = Lilipily Spirit personal photography stock (my friend, Jo)
Fawn = [link]

Other elements = [link]

Background -
River and Forest = [link]
Deer in Fog = [link]

Ancient artefacts and clothing elements = [link]

***

Cernunnos, or Kernunno, "The Horned One" - Lord of the Forest, Leader of the Wild Hunt - is a god associated with life, fertility, wealth, lust, power, masculine energy, vegetation, trees, death, dying, the underworld, fealty to the realm, and the guardianship of royalty. He is often portrayed with a beard and shaggy hair, and sometimes carries a purse filled with coin - but he also has an aspect as the Green Man, protector of the forest. Cernunnos is his most common name today, but he was known as "Uindos" in Old Ireland, and as "Hu Gadarn," consort of the Great Goddess, (Father God to Mother Goddess), and God of the underworld and astral planes, to the Druids. He is also sometimes called "Finn," a hero in the ancient stories about the "Fianna" or warrior bands of Old Ireland. Other names include Herne, Pan, and Pashupati. The ancient Romans portrayed him with three cranes flying above his head, and other images show him either holding a torc in his hand, or with small torcs hanging from each horn. The torcs were symbols of nobility, strength, status, and hierachy within the clans, and also of intuition, metamorphosis, emotion, creation, and transformation. In the cycle of Celtic, Druidic and Wiccan pagan seasons, he has great importance. At Yuletide, in winter, he is the god of death and dying, as the vegetation of the land becomes dormant. He lives in the Otherworld at this time, as his worldly body dies, and it is this connection that enables him to sing to the dead to guide them to the realm of spirit. At Imbolc, at the end of winter, his body is resurrected to new life as the vegetation of the land reawakens. By the time of Ostara, in spring, he has grown in strength and lust, bringing new growth and hope to the land. He finally marries the fecund mother Goddess at Beltane, in summer, and their sexual union brings prosperity to all for the year ahead. At Litha, in midsummer, their marriage and its offspring brings all bright blessings, and the harvest of these is enjoyed at Lughnasadh, or Harvest Home, at the end of summer. By the time of Mabon, in early autumn, he is again feeling the call of the Otherworld, and ponders his magic and the blessings of life as he prepares to die and be reborn in another year. That process begins with a fight to the death between his old and his emerging new body, at the feast of Samhain (All Hallows Eve), the Celtic New Year, in late autumn. The new body is victorious, but sleeps through the winter until the light of life returns, at Imbolc.

On the ancient Gundestrup Cauldron, he is depicted seated cross-legged, with antlers on his head. His hair is brushed straight back, and he is (unusually) clean-shaven, and wears a torc around his neack, holding a second one in his right hand. He is clad in a tunic and bracae (Celtic trousers), covering him from wrist to knee, and also wears a patterned belt and sandals. In his left hand he holds a ram-horned serpent. He is surrounded by a stag, almost touching horns with him, a dog, two ibexes, three lions, and a boy on a fish, interspersed with simple patterns of vegetation.

Although Cernunnos is a God of the Underworld and has horns, he is not the devil, as christian fundamentalists often believe. The celtic Underworld is not Hades or hell. The Roman Hades or christian hell are places of endless horror, whereas the Celtic Underworld is a maze of caves and tunnels inhabited by divine energies and travelled through by those on quests in search of spiritual truth.

*

Danu, the Great Mother Goddess - Lady of the Wind, Magick, the Fae, Wisdom and Fertility, nourisher of the Sacred Oak - associated with reincarnation, rivers and flowing waters. She brought into being the Tuatha de Danann (The Children of Danu), who were said to be a magical race of gods that originally ruled Ireland in the time of the Fir Bolg (1897 B.C.E.) until they were driven underground by the invading Milesians around 1,700 B.C.E. There they remain today in Tir-na-noghe, the "Land of Eternal Youth," as the Aes Sidhe, an invisible race of magickal beings. It is from them that all Gaelic faery folk come. In India’s Rig Veda the Goddess Danu is associated with "stream" and "waters of heaven." She is also known as the Great Goddess Diana of Roman origin. Danu is the fertile aspect of the Triple Goddess.

***

The text on the poster says, "...He whistled and He sang till the green woods rang and he won the heart of the Lady..."

This is an excerpt from an 1800s folk song that was rewritten in the 1950s to reflect a concept that the 'gypsy' was actually the Lord of the Green Woods (as above). The original song was, however, much less romantic, and told of a noble lady who left her husband and home to run away with a gypsy. In the 1960s, the Seekers reworked the song again, and did away with the mention of the Lord, returning the song to a simply gypsy story. I loved this ballad when I was a kid, and that was well before I'd ever heard of the Seekers singng sensation. So it suits me and my pagan modes to use it to reflect the passionate wooing of the Goddess by the Green Man.

Blessings to all!

Oh, and here are the words to the 1950s version:

The Whistling Gypsy

Gypsy rover, come over the hill
Down through the valley so shady
He whistled and he sang til the green woods rang
And he won the heart of a lady

Ah dee doo ah dee doo da day
Ah dee doo ah dee day dee
He whistled and he sang til the green woods rang
And he won the heart of a lady

She left her fathers castle gate
She left her own fine lover
She left her servants and her state
To follow the gypsy rover

Ah dee doo ah dee doo da day
Ah dee doo ah dee day dee
He whistled and he sang til the green woods rang
And he won the heart of a lady

Her father saddled up his fastest stead
Roamed the valleys all over
Sought his daughter at great speed
And the whistling gypsy rover

Ah dee doo ah dee doo da day
Ah dee doo ah dee day dee
He whistled and he sang til the green woods rang
And he won the heart of a lady

He came at last to a mansion fine
Down by the river Clady
And there was music and there was wine
For the gypsy and his lady

Ah dee doo ah dee doo da day
Ah dee doo ah dee day dee
He whistled and he sang til the green woods rang
And he won the heart of a lady

He is no gypsy, my father, she said
But lord of these lands all over
And I will stay til my dying day
With my whistling gypsy rover

Ah dee doo ah dee doo da day
Ah dee doo ah dee day dee
He whistled and he sang til the green woods rang
And he won the heart of a lady

(Is the tune ringing in your head, now?)