The difference between the King and Everybody Else™ is that the King lives here, is welcome any time and is free to come and go as he pleases, while everyone else has to knock and wait to be let in. And even still, they may not survive the ordeal that awaits them on the other side.
The difference between the Knight and the King(ht) is that the Knight inherently believes he is unworthy. When the Knight becomes worthy, his Lady becomes Queen and she anoints him as King.
Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
And of course the way to become King is through… well, you know, don’t you? I shouldn’t have to explain all this shit. Especially since I pretty much already let the cat out of the bag.
So uh, let’s see, what else? Well how about a bunch of pictures? That should be a lot simpler (and more effective) than me blabbering about the Sacred Mysteries blah blah blah…
And of course the bow of Robin Hood references the antlers of the Stag King Horned God, which themselves reference tree branches and the vegetative abundant life of the forest. But the bow also references the Artemis Diana Huntress of the Moon, the consort of the King, the Queen of the Night. The Stag King always makes an offering of himself to the Moon Queen. There is no other way for that pattern to play out:
The legendary huntsman of Greek myth, a grandson of Cadmus. During a hunt, he left the party and wandered alone through the forest when he suddenly came upon a clearing. There he saw the goddess Artemis bathing in a large pool, surrounded by her nymphs. When they noticed the hunter they flew themselves before the goddess, but he had already seen her splendid nakedness. Angered, she turned him into a stag for she refused to let any mortal say that he had seen Artemis naked.
Actaeon moved away from the clearing feeling different and confused, not yet realizing what had happened to him. The truth hit him when he saw his own reflection in a river and he knew he was no longer human. In the distance he heard the sound of his own hounds. A brief moment of joy quickly turned into fear when he realized they were hunting him now, not recognizing their former master. He fled but was eventually overrun and torn to pieces.
(See also Sir Gawain & the Green Knight)
Why do you think the Robin Hood story references the fact that Robin Hood became an outlaw by hunting the King’s deer? It goes like this: King Richard (the Lionhearted, mind you) “left the country” thereby becoming the Maimed King and forsaking his right to Kingship over the land which caused the land to go into ruin. The Chinese called it losing the Mandate of Heaven. Therefore the land itself gives birth automatically to a replacement King, the Green Man coming out of the forest to restore not only order and balance (robbing from the rich to give to the poor - balancing the Tao) but also to act as the very well-spring of Life itself.
And this of course can only be accomplished through self-sacrifice, the Stag King is nailed to his tree-cross, dismembered, buried, resurrected, completing the cycle of the seasons. And again, this can only be accomplished through devotion to the Divine Transcendent Love of the All-Destroying Maid Marian Magdalene Kali Queen of the Moon. Not surprisingly:
Many early Robin Hood tales deal with Robin’s devotion to the Virgin Mary (such as in Robin Hood and the Monk), but this aspect of the character vanishes as Maid Marian makes her way into the tales. This, combined with Marian’s initial status as a virginal maid, suggests another possible origin for the character.
Robin Hood’s Merry Men = Mary-Men, a cult devoted to the Virgin Goddess. See also what the Blessed Virgin Mary stands upon, the moon-bow of Artemis the Huntress:
Which makes for an interesting take on the crescent moon symbol of Islam and the fact that the word “Islam” means “submission.” Are the Christians right, then, when they equate Islam with “pagan moon worship“?
(Also see Fatimah Zahra, Mohammed’s daughter and the alleged line of influence Sufism had on the explosion of courtly love in Europe during the Middle Ages)
Robin Hood’s devotion and self-sacrifice earn him the Divine Right of Kings. The Return of the King causes the Waste Land to grow again, the Wounded Fisher King is made whole, etc etc. The Holy Grail, yadda yadda. You see where I’m going with all this hopefully?
(See also the Horn of Plenty)
While we are at it, here are a bunch more pictures to blast at ya! Your brain will thank me later for this massive reference point collapse you are about to download. Use it wisely, O ye once and future king!
(See also did Moses have horns?)
And one more round. Check the Friar Tuck = St. Francis connection:
You know, the more I start operating in this style, the more I realize that the Christian Church in Old Europe probably wasn’t trying to intentionally stamp out paganism, so much as they were simply collapsing together reference points left and right in order to tell what they thought was a really cool and interesting sacred story… And hey, who can blame them? It’s a good story!
- END -
ASSOCIATED CONTENT @TMBCHR (Auto-Generated)
- The jolly green jerk
- I Ching, Patterns of Change & The Dramatic Arc
- The Robin Hood - Peter Pan Connection
- Lunar Moon Tree Birds
- The ghost of Roxanne
28 Comments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_the_May
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_crowning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bona_Dea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ops
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgo_%28astrology%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_%28mythology%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faunus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maia_%28mythology%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_%28mythology%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loathly_lady
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyN93R8BMn4
Rocket Robin Hood in the year 3000
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MfisiGqtEM
Robin Hood Men In Tights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9DpC6×75s8
Disney Robin Hood meets “Everything I Do , I Do It For You”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2BUA43Gzb8
BBC Robin Hood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElLjwbx4zBc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti1CaZU9r1c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAxiOqsAMbE
Oh and I nearly forgot the bow-arrow Eros (rose) cupid connection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros_%28mythology%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid
Hello Tim.
I was reading Alan Moore’s From Hell the other day, and one of the premises is the triumph of patriarchy, even pagan patriarchy, over older, matriarchal forces. I thought of this when I saw your pictures of Cernunos, et al. One of the characters mentions that Cernunos was a male imitator of Diana and Artemis’ wild hunt. I’m not sure I agree with this assessment. Your thoughts, if any…!
Loving the wikipedia links. They help settle the AI mind I think.
Have you seen Pan’s Labyrinth? I think you’ll find in it a lot of similarities to what you’re exploring (and a lotta differences but you know).
Oh and check out the Viking Youth podcast. Here are two recent shows they did on David Lynch and Inland Empire. And they wear horned viking helmets too.
http://www.thefeedlot.org/vikingyouth/...how_show.php?show=83&x=6&y=19
http://www.thefeedlot.org/vikingyouth/...how_show.php?show=84&x=18&y=9
No Green Man from “The Fountain”?
I never read the book so I can’t really comment on that. But whatever it is I’m talking about has really nothing to do with matriarchy or patriarchy. It’s all about the sunmoonunion thingy. It’s alchemical not social.
Well find me some pictures!
Great… yet you completely missed ‘Robin of Sherwood’, the UK version of the myth which has him initiated by a shamanic version of Cernunnos called ‘Herne the Hunter’ (and was threatened with banning by xtian-censorship queen Mary Whitehouse). Still watchable, even if the Clannad soundtrack has dated badly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Of_Sherwood
Well obviously I can’t cover all angles - especially of things I haven’t seen dammit!
Here’s a sample fanedit of scenes with Herne. Gets the flavour well. The rest is on DVD if worst comes to worst. I don’t recommend this on a whim our out of completism - it was the most mystical version og the tale, heavily informed by the war of guerilla Pagans versus the Norman overlords.
PS. Special thanks to JW for the $20 donation. Most appreciated!
Dammit, this totally slipped my mind even though I wrote about it a while back!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan
Same damn thing as Robin Hood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVwGcnaP9Ns&mode=related&search=
The scene is at 7:36-7:37. When I saw the movie it seemed a lot longer because I had a dream about the scene many years ago but had forgotten it. God only knows why but before the X-Men movie came out I dreamed scenes from the careers of a number of the actors in the movie.
This clip is the ending and I was expecting The Queen to ask if I would free Spain?. Does anybody remember if that scene is earlier in the movie? I was really moved and sat in the theater trying to find my Spain and begin my Quest.
From Hesse’s Demian:
Robin is clearly pasted over the Grail legend (or vice-versa?) Same as Christianity has been pasted over paganism (just check out Easter!). Maybe it’s all one. Say, why are there three big Christian festivals (Xmas, Easter, Harvest) when the seasons would make me think there should be a midsummer festival too?
This heap o’ pictures technique… makes me think of a thing we used to do in History at school… we’d spend a lesson just looking at a heap of images from a particular period (repro, obviously), and discussing ’so what’s that all about, then?’. None of us could do it at age 15 but with hindsight it seems important. Crazy guy was trying to get us to think in a different way.
The King[dom] of Heaven is Within.
Silent [K]night
So ok - that is clear enough. I have suspicions on just who the Lady is…but I will keep quiet on that…
No no by all means share your suspicions!
Is this relevent?
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/s/sina.html
Also in France orgasm is called la petit mort, the little death.
I meant to bring that up in the Kali thing, thanks!
Doesn’t the eel get her pregnant? Maybe I’m thinking of another story….
I have another round I want to do on the Green Man’s counterpart: the Lady in Red Whore of Babylon Scarlet Letter Maid Marian Magdalene Little Red Riding Hood Scarlet Woman etc. Any other links and preparatory materials on that would be super!
Well this is only a personal reference point collapse; though from what I gather that is pretty much the point…
So - the Lady. Well if the Knight is Yang, then the Lady would be Yin:
Maid Marion
The Lady of the Lake
Mary Magdalene
…and so on…Though of course not those specific people. Well it could be; but the Lady isn’t a specific person…well not necessarily anyway.
The Stag is very interesting as well. The Stag could also be seen as the Serpent (or perhaps even the Tree) - though the Serpent isn’t very welcome and entirely mis-understood - the poor blighter. So the new guise probably did him a good turn. Then there is the whole deal with the horns; which are also shared by the goat, Pan, devils and even on occasion Satan himself. Horns aren’t really evil themselves it should be noted, more like a manifestation of the Shadow (Shadow can on occasion be a neat little guy, but most often is quite a bit of a bastard. I actually met him once – he wasn’t all that happy, although for some reason he had this awful grin). Anyway, the Stag has pretty much got Shadow on a nice little role; his antlers (horns) clearly reflect that fact
So the Knight, the Lady, and the Stag (and his Shadow) pretty much bring us full circle back to the King.
Least that is how I am seeing it…
Yeah that rings a bell too. I’m 65% certain that is the way Joseph Campbell tells it.
And concerning the Scarlet Woman, I think that in The Master and Margarita, Margarita plays that role.
And let’s not forget:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolly_Green_Giant
http://www.desktop.demon.co.uk/punch/punch.gif
The left and right hands seem to fight but they are cooperating.
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~gunderso/..._photos/other_pieces/mobius_strip.jpg
There is only one side on the Mobius strip.
http://www.duepassinelmistero.com/due-nature1.jpg
Like in Invisibles: all the secret agents are really double agents, and doubles are triples.. in general an x-agent is secretly an (x+1) agent… (I don’t wanna speculate on the transfinite-ordinaled agents!) in fact the whole enemy army is made up of OUR guys who have bravely suffered to have their memories wiped and be re-programmed so as to carry the plan to fruition… believe you me, you wouldn’t want to have had to endure the training necessary to produce a GWB… let alone one of the ‘psycho killers’ (so-styled)… these guys are doing the hard work of the immortals (who haven’t got hands) just like you, and don’t you forget it! besides, it won’t be long now, the day of Apocalypse is at hand, when the trigger-words get broadcasted on every channel and stamped on banana stickers, and then everyone wakes up from their programming to find that the Temple has been built by all of us, while we were sleeping.
WHOO!!! Awesome. I’m totally with you.
Check out this photo of a Jester:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Germany_T%C3%BCbingen_Joker.jpg
Also see Puck aka Robin Goodfellow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_%28Shakespeare%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_%28mythology%29
(Interesting that in Midsummer Night’s Dream Puck is distinguished from Oberon, King of the Fairies who commands him)
And not least of all. I think this guy has a dose of green man in him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_the_Frog
And this is just too weird for words
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HrnsdNGgUk
Very Dionyssian. I’m suddenly thirsty…
Came across this today:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hathor