
"We
have needed a Father Nature for a long time, and never more urgently
than now, when all over the planet, armored men, in or out of uniform,
terrorize each other, women and children, and what remains of the
wildwood."
Daniel C. Noel, Ph. D.
Who Is the Green Man? An Ancient Pagan Icon Offers Visions of a Time We Cannot Remember
Who said the old deities are dead? The Green Man has only been sleeping for the last few millennia but he’s about to wake up and, once he sees the troubled state of the earth and our careless treatment of his fair Mother Goddess, he’s likely to get a bit hot under the collar!
Appearing as characters in the pantheon of pagan gods and goddesses, from Freya to Baphomet to Mammon, each of whom have their own take on the condition of the planet, the Green Man advances his argument:
Destroy the old! Create the New! Yet the Goddess remains fond of this flawed world and seeks to lull her cranky companion back to sleep so she, and all of us, can carry on.
Powerful in message, playful & sensual in form, Awakening the Green Man seeks to converse with the audience about the importance of the earth and the value of the ancient deities through the eternal beauties of song, dance & story.
Will Gaia continue to reign, will the Green Man become victor – or will they join forces to give the planet another kind of future entirely ?
From
Brass Monkey Productions, the company that brought you the popular
musical version of Charles Dickens’ classic tale, The Christmas Carol Project.
Contributors:
John Armstrong
is an artist and producer who lives in Edmonton, Alberta. Whether
he's laying down bass with
a roots band, manipulating Theremin and other electronic instruments or
staging a guerrilla-style, community folk festival, John is all about
musical
interactivity. John is the creator and producer of the Christmas Carol
Project, which has been presented since 1996 across Western and
Northern Canada and exists as both a CD (2004) of songs from the show
and an award winning television production (2006) and DVD.
Kevin Cook
This long, lean guitar picker from Alberta conjures up his own brand of
raw folk voodoo. Critics unanimously agree, Cook's obvious ace is his
lyrics. From haunting ballads to edgy country blues his songs often
reflect his western roots. Cook tours as a solo artist as well as
working with a rockin' four piece band. Recently he's been exploring the
world of film, scoring the music for the documentary "One More Mile".
His new recording "Calahoo" has just been released.
kevincookmusic.com
Tophie Davies
Tophie Davies is a
multi-instrumentalist who specializes in piano / keyboards, guitar and
flute. He is a recent grad of the acclaimed Grant MacEwan music program
where he studied guitar performance and will be continuing to study
composition. He is also a singer songwriter and has produced two
albums, “Playing in the Backyard” (2005) and “Taking Notes” (2008).
Sherry-Lee Heschel
Sherry-Lee Heschel has been making music in Edmonton and around the globe for over 20 years. Starting out on bass, she's played and toured with many bands including Po' Girl, Jerry Jerry & the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra, Luann Kowalek, Fat Dave Johnston, Hookahman and many more... for the last 5 years she's moved to the centre stage to perform her own songs.
Drawing on old-time traditional, 60's pop music and her punk rock roots to bring to life songs of love and heartbreak, banjo and acoustic guitar are her weapons of choice. Her music is most often compared to Lucinda Williams, Martha Wainwright, Bob Dylan and sometimes Mazzy Starr.
Catherine Owen is a Vancouver poet and writer. She's published nine trade books of poetry and prose to date, including Frenzy (2009) which won the Alberta Book Award. She's also had her work nominated for the BC Book Prize, the Earle Birney & Fiddlehead awards, the Re-lit and George Ryga prizes. Her work has been translated into three languages and toured across North America. She's also played bass in the blackmetal band, Inhuman and the doom band Helgrind. Currently, she's working on a new musical project Medea, while collaborating with photographer Paul Saturley on Pandemonium and multimedia artist Sydney Lancaster on Nest.
compelling songwriters in town." She has performed at many Canadian folk
fests and toured throughout North America. Terry has 4 CD’s of original
music to her credit and is featured on a number of compilations
including a Smithsonian Folkways Collection of Alberta Songwriters. Her
music is played on CKUA, CBC, numerous college stations across Canada as
well as radio stations in Europe and the USA. Her voice is rich and
deep, her melodies, rhythm and lyrics, strong and uniquely her own.
www.terrymorrison.net
Tom Roschkov
Based out of Edmonton, for the past twenty-five years Tom Roschkov has been a constant face on the western Canadian music scene. He began by fronting a number of rockabilly ensembles, such as, the Screamin’ Roosters and Charlie Don’t surf. Over the years, Tom has moved on to explore a variety of styles such as rhythm and blues, soul, folk-rock, country and experimental jazz. He is mostly recognized for his work with the Swingin’ Ya Band and the Stone Merchants. He has a long list of recordings to his credit.
Jenika Watsonjenika pretends to be a musician as well as a yoga instructor, trail guide, and teacher and facilitator, but really she's an elf-ninja who communes with animals and nature while advocating for a radically free and loving society. she is not at all surprised to find herself among the cast of a pagan rock opera as it provides yet another medium to spread magic and inspire humans to love and care for this beautiful little planet.
The Lyrics
Ready To Erupt - Vulcan (Armstrong)
My blood is boiling, lightning fills the sky
The rain keeps falling, steam is rising high
I’ve finished toiling at the fire
I’m ready to erupt
My mind is restless and searching from within
My body arches and quakes will begin
This time, you’re paying for your sins
I’m ready to erupt
Feel me, I’m the heat beneath your feet
See me, I’m the fire that cooks your meat
Free me, and start to make your peace
‘cause your world will turn to cinder and your end will be complete
I’m ready to erupt
My hands are idle, but my intentions are good
If I cause destruction it’s not because I’m rude
Fire and brimstone are my food
I’m ready to erupt
There’s some disruption in my function
mechanical contraptions, provoking my reactions
I love the Lady who rules in May
I’ll clear the path, she’ll have her way
And then we’ll start a brand new day
I’m ready to erupt
Change Will Come - Oya (Armstrong & Roschkov)
Although the end is now in sight
I fear the time is not quite
right
For now, my gentle winds will
blow
Hush My Lord, Change Will
Come
Hush My Lord, Change Will Come
Clouds are fast over the land
Weather’s stranger every day
That’s just our planet’s
ancient way
Chorus
Change is a constant thing
you know
Only certainty will flow
Old will eventually go
Chorus
Destroyer of Worlds - Shiva (Armstrong, Owen & Roschkov)
Like the Phoenix I am born with the ashes of fate
I spring from what is burned and what blossoms again
I seek no death for death’s sake but for life
To soar from all pain, from the wreckage of gain
As if I were evil,
Destroyer of the Worlds
you will rise and fall without me
as your Destroyer
With fierce wild robes
and a beast at my side
With my half open eyes
I can see a new sky
As if I were evil,
Destroyer of the Worlds
you will rise and fall without me
as your Destroyer
The Garden is Overgrown - Gaia (Armstrong & Morrison)
Yes my love I know that you're not evilyou only strive for change
this ship, it isn't sinking
the deck chairs can still be re-arranged
Have pity on my creations
they've worked hard to stake their place
Show a little cheer for them
as they near the end of the race
They really are noble creatures
who aspire to my goals
suffer the little humans
as they try to wield control
Too little, too late. We might as well wait
The garden is overgrown
Can you feel the satisfaction
as they fashion their own doom ?
Just a little more rope
and the end is coming soon
It's not what they intended
they're only trying to get by -
misguided and mismanaged,
with stars in their eyes
They really are noble creatures
who aspire to my goals
suffer the little humans
as they try to wield control
Too little, too late. We might as well wait
The garden is overgrown
Suicide
Seeds - The Green Man (Armstrong, Owen & Watson)
has weighed the earth with pain
making saccharine & styrofoam
and even Agent Orange
They also specialize
in bovine growth hormone
and hey I hear they're breeding pigs
that only they will own
Give them your cow, give them your land
they'll sell you a bag of beans
give them your hard earned money
they'll sell you suicide seeds
Destroying other species
poisoning the soil
reaping massive profits
while the farmers toil
They've taken over the food supply
with GM seeds for crops
You get sued if you don't buy them
who will tell the bastards STOP !
Give them your cow, give them your land
they'll sell you a bag of beans
give them your hard earned money
they'll sell you suicide seeds
Playing with fire - Baphomet (Cook)
Welcome to the underworld, leave your conscience at the door
Information is leaking, all over the floor
Just a fallen angel, a spark of sacred fire
Divine and depraved, greed and desire
Greed and desire
Chorus
Rules were made to be broken, the livings easy down below
Lead us into temptation all we want is your soul
Messing with the chemicals
Playing with fire
Some might call it criminal
Greed and desire
Greed and desire
Chorus
The mystery of mystery
A spark of sacred fire,
divine and depraved
Greed and desire
Greed and desire (repeat)
Gods of Love - Freya (Davies, Owen & Watson)
You think I've not known hate
but I have, I have
my spouse vanished after the wedding night
I thought he was dead then found him turned into a monster
no longer at my side
I know these feelings of revenge
but this is not how we will thrive
I sing you this song to still your hearts of war
there is nothing that cannot be healed
the Gods of Love are everywhere
You think I've not known sorrow
but I have, you know I have
when he disappeared in the darkness
I wept for many years
riding through the night
crying tears of gold
I know these feelings of despair
but this is not how we should rule
Chorus
You think I've not been crucified
by enmity or shame
but I've known the pain of shunning
I've felt the sting of names
for being magically apparelled
for being desired by all
I know these feelings of hurt
but with them we will fall
Chorus
Man is Greed - Mammon (Davies & Owen)
Well I agree that humanity has gotta see it’s own insanity
but for me I’d rather cash in for myself
I didn’t ask to be a deity, I didn’t want all this authority
But if you were me, I think you’d like the perks
I wanna start a corporation that makes cheap junk
And hire some nice south asian kids
Or better yet I’ll buy a bank and when the profits are down
The government pays for my vacations
I don’t care how much money I make
As long as I make more money than you
I really care about every tree, that’s why I cut them down efficiently
Cuz when I look at forests, all I see is green
They say a dog is a man’s best friend, and that’s because we’re all richer than them
And we all like to be better off than someone
I don’t care how much money I make
As long as I make more money than you
Yeah, they call me Big M, the god of green
And by green, they mean moula,
Not the grass and the trees –
Monsanto, McDonald’s, it’s all
Mammon if you please – so you
Stupid human race, get down on your knees
And pray to the deity who rules the world –
Who makes good slaves of your boys & your girls
By telling them BLING is what the whole thing’s
About – no they can’t live without it, they can’t live
Without their Gap and their Nikes, their Gucci
& their Fuel, their Diesel & their Levis – that’s
What rules the world – if you doubt it for a minute,
Just take a look around – my face is plastered everywhere,
The Green Man’s nowhere to be found –
No, it’s Mammon this, and Mammon that, man we
Love that Mammon guy – yeah I’m the reason earth is turning,
I’m the who & what & why – so don’t think that with your Bandaids,
Your eco this and eco that, you’re going to stop Mammon from growing,
From getting huge and stinking fat, cuz the dollar is your collar
And the bill is your sweet pill –Mammon’s got you cornered,
He won’t ever let you get your fill. So they call me Big M,
I’m the god of green, M-A-M-M-O-N yeah, pleased ta meet ya,
Now you’re mine.
The Reluctant Devil - Satan (Owen & Roschkov)
Transformed into this
hellish thing of evil
When I was at the side
of the great majesty
The fire beneath their feet
The way they've created
the lake of fumes
and the flames beneath the burning world
Transformed into this
hellish thing of evil
When I was at the side
of the great majesty
I am but a symbol
of what everybody just might be
a slanderous image
of their own fea
When they cease to heed
the pulsing of the land
for the Reluctant Devil
is not a paragon of evil
Transformed into this
hellish thing of evil
When I was at the side
of the great majesty
The Wild Life - Dionysus (Cook)
She's a thing of beauty, she's tragic art
Her vines are tangled around my heart
The wine reveals the heart of the man
Every thing for those who live the wild life 2X
Chorus
Join the feast, taste the wine, there's wild women
And you can dance to the music
She goes to my head, she makes me stagger
I'm a honey bee, she's the sweet, sweet nectar
The wine reveals the heart of the man
Every thing for those who live the wild life 2X
Chorus
Repeat 1st verse
Every thing for those who live the wild life (repeat)
Moonshine & Moonbeams - Morpheus (Heschel)
Moonshine and moonbeams lay waste darling, to dreams
That stir you to wake too soon
And lock you up in those little rooms
Sleep, sleep my little love, your day has just begun
Wake, wake, to the greatest of fakes
a moon dressed up as a sun
See the dream be the dream all it is just a dream
Dream the dream, all you’ve seen all it is what you dream
Sensible, reprehensible we’ll leave behind the nonsensical
All you thought you knew, you knew was nothing but a backwards tune…
So sleep, sleep my little love those days are gone and we’ll start with love
Wake wake to the greatest of fakes
A moon dressed up as the sun…
Moonshine and moonbeams, our bed shall be simplicity
The lies, the lies we’ll watch them die
And kiss the sun when we rise
And
kiss the sun as we rise
Vulcan is the Roman god of fire and volcanoes (known to the Greeks as Hephaestus). The fires of Vulcan are considered to be both destructive and symbolic of male fertility. He is cited as the father of a variety of men, monsters and gods. The origins of Vulcan likely go back the Cretan god Velchanos, a young god who had a mastery of fire and was consort to the great goddess. Through later Roman and Greek mythology, Vulcan was also married to Maia, eldest of the Pleiades, and Venus, Roman goddess of love and beauty (originally a goddess of vegetation). Vulcan is often depicted with a thunderbolt and is considered to be a master blacksmith. His forge is located deep in the bowels of the earth.
Oya is an orisha of the Yoruba religion of Nigeria,
Benin and Togo. Oya is a warrior
spirit who represents wind, fertility and magic. She also represents change as the guardian of the
gates of death and the keeper of the cemetery. She was the first wife of Chango, orisha of fire and
thunder, and she stole his power over fire by drinking some of his magic potion
when he was away at battle. As
such she is also associated with thunder and lightning. In Santeria, a syncretic religion of
West Africa and the Caribbean, Oya is identified with Our Lady of the Candelaria
(a Spanish word meaning conflagration or large, destructive fire).
Shiva
is a pan-Hindu deity celebrated for his, or perhaps her, extremely
attractive attributes. His name means kind and auspicious, he was
inordinately handsome and eternally young, his powers stretch from
creation all the way to eradication and he was even a dancer of note.
Shiva is also associated with other powerful Vedic deities such as
Brahma and Vishnu. Shiva has hermaphroditic qualities, sports a
crescent moon on her head, five ornamental serpents wrapped around his
ash-smeared body and, in some depictions, a third eye that he uses to
burn away desire and thus retain a pure form. Her other name is Rudra
which highlights more ferocious qualities; however Shiva the Destroyer
is actually a misnomer - Shiva the Transformer would be a more accurate
name for this god who is both ascetic and spouse, tiger and lamb,
ambivalence and yet deep and searing truth.
The Green Man, our titular hero, epitomizes the shape-shifting nature of pagan deity figures. He is also known as Green George, Green Jack or Jack in the Green and is directly related to the figures of Cernunnos, the Horned God and Pan as a woodlands deity. The name, Green Man, wasn't even coined until Lady Raglan’s 1939 article, “The Green Man in Church Architecture.” Prior to this date, these images carved in stone of a male face surrounded by ivy or leaves were known as “foliate masks” in architectural discourse. They were also more luridly and precisely called “disgorging” or “bloodsucker” heads, depending on whether their mouths were stuffed with foliage or if they were sprouting vegetation from every facial orifice. The Green Man has been carved into holy edifices since the 11th century, an image that likely traveled to Britain from India. He reappears with vigour during the Renaissance on many Gothic buildings and has had a 20th and 21st century rebirth in everything from kimono designs to sculptures to tattoos. Curiously, The Green Man, like a mythic Hugo, Man of a Thousand Faces doll, is connected with a range of traditions and their deities, from the Mesopotamian Tammuz to Jesus to the Norse god Odin to even Peter Pan and Father Christmas. Pretty wild.
I love troubadour culture and so what’s initially cool about Baphomet is that the first mention of this god surfaced in a Occitanian poem from 1195 called "Senhors, per los nostres peccatz" by the troubadour Gavaudan. Later on, in the 13th century, the order of the Knights Templar were persecuted for supposedly worshipping Baphomet but no one could torture a consistent description of what this god looked like out of any of the knights. Centuries later though, Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774-1856) uncovered a series of carved or engraved images found on a number of supposed 13th century Templar artifacts (such as cups, bowls and coffers) and claimed that this was indeed the Baphometic idol. Only in the 19th century, in the drawings of Eliphas Levi, did this powerful mythic figure assume the shape we associate with it today, its image closely tied to Satanic beliefs of self-containment. It is usually depicted as a half male-half female or hermaphroditic being with goat horns, a pentagram on its forehead and with its hands pointing in alternate directions: one to the white moon of Chesed, and the other to the black moon of Geburah. Sometimes its arms are also emblazoned with the words, Dissolve & Congeal, designed to represent the dichotomous yet conjoined forces this deity holds. Although this figure has become associated with the evil powers of the Christian devil, Satan, in fact, this god was originally supposed to represent the fusion of mercy with justice, man with woman, human with beast; in other words, a perfect being. Baphomet appears in the writings of Freemasons and in the text of the Gnostic Catholic mass. As a source of contained, unified energy, Baphomet is a potent figure in the mythic realm of earth-dwelling gods.
As a strong female figure in Norse mythology, first appearing in the 13th c. Poetic Edda, Freya is
both gifted and cursed. A great beauty who is associated with love and
fertility, she is also haunted by the regular disappearance of her
husband Oor for whom she weeps tears of gold. Associated with the
powers of nature, due to her ambivalent moral attitudes and her fiercely
productive energies, as well as the fact that she is pulled in a
chariot by two blue cats and keeps a boar companion, Freya is a
beautifully threatening mythical being. Although many plants were named
after Freya, the early Christian church aimed to efface this natural
goddess by re-naming them after Mary instead. Freya however prevails.
Mammon is a fairly self-explanatory and one dimensional deity when it comes down to it. Stemming from an Arabic term for wealth or perhaps even, ironically, “that in which one trusts,” Mammon was a term in the Bible that evolved, through the course of the Gospels, into a personification of evil or Beelzebub.
When we
think of Mammon though, we more commonly imagine him in his literary
incarnation, such as that from Spenser’s Faerie Queen or Milton’s Paradise
Lost. Associated with the Greek God Plutus, Mammon in any form is opposed to
all manifestations of the Green Man, simply serving as the embodiment of cold
hard cash in its most domineering guises.
Satan has the worst rap of all these deities. Many Christians believe that he was a prideful angel cast down from Heaven by God and condemned to burn eternally in the Lake of Fire. Actually, the Christian Church created the figure of Satan from a range of pagan sources such as The Horned God and The Green Man, thus making Satanism, in its prior form, one of the world's oldest religions. The Christian Satan however is basically your all-purpose bad guy. Supposed to have done everything from tempting Eve to sin in the Old Testament to encouraging Judas to betray Jesus in the New Testament, Satan is depicted with horns, wings, a tail and often as a serpent or dragon. Satan’s name means Enemy, Rebel or Evil; he is also known as Lucifer or, in Arabic cultures, Shaitan. Although he is associated with an anti-Christian sect called Satanists, actually very few of these people worship a figure called Satan. Instead they adhere to principles associated with the positive side of his purported darkness; namely informed individualism, connection to nature and an honouring of the primal forces in humanity.
The CastJohn Armstrong - Theremin & fx
Robyn Bright - vocals
Kevin Cook - vocals & guitar
Tophie Davies - vocals, flute, guitar, keyboard & dance
Sherry-Lee Heschel - vocals & banjo
Kelly Pikula - drums & percussion
Tom Roschkov - vocals & guitar
Jenika Watson - vocals & dance
Rod Wolfe - bass
Here are a few songs recorded at the debut performance of Awakening the Green Man at North Country Fair on June 24th, 2012. Many thanks to Natalia Stoll & Corey Matsumoto for the video work and to Angus at Findlay Productions for the edit and mix !
Ready to Erupt - Vulcan (Armstrong)
Shiva: Destroyer of Worlds (Armstrong, Owen & Roschkov)
The Garden is Overgrown - Gaia (Armstrong & Morrison)
Suicide Seeds - The Green Man (Armstrong, Owen & Watson)