Dreaming of Green Man
By Colin E. Davis
(originally published on Facebook 5-18-2016)
In my dream, I was walking around the edge of a park, in an urban area like Manhattan’s lower east side. I was attracted to an event which was going on in a building at the other side of the park. As I walked, the sidewalk started to erupt, as if powerful tree roots were bursting out. There was an insane homeless man who also saw this and he was wondering what was happening. What emerged, was the gigantic face of what I now know to be Green Man, a little known archetype of western culture.
I walked over the bumpy face of Green Man to the place I was attracted to. There was what looked to be a music venue on the first floor of the building, and the event had spilled out onto the street. There were a number of men performing a ritual there. They had swords, and perhaps statues or other ritual items present. They were bowing and performing their ritual and I heard the open cries of men grieving.
That was the end of the dream. I woke up and recorded my recollections into my phone’s audio recorder. Melissa thought it was the Wicker Man, but when I looked online I found pictures of Green Man. That is him. That is him as clear as can be. As soon as I saw him on the computer screen I cried because I knew it was him. I have had a life long relationship to Green Man, although I didn't know him particularly. He has been quietly speaking to me for years, But it is only now that he could show up directly like this. That is because I have made room for him. These last several years of shadow work that Melissa and I have been doing has been clearing the way.
I don't yet know a lot about the history of Green Man in western culture, but I know that he has been hiding, repressed, showing up hidden in architecture and in odd places. It occurs to me that he is the Animus of Gaia, the Earth Goddess. He is the masculine personification of our connection to the Earth. Obviously we are moving into a more balanced relationship with the Earth, and the feminine in general, and our cultural sensitivities and political policies show this. The shift could not come fast enough for some, but its happening in its own time. Green Man seems to still be present in Europe, but he never really made it to America .
When I began my inner work in ernest, about 15 years ago, I was attracted to Jungian ideas, to intuitive sciences and subjects that balanced masculine and feminine energies. I have always had a good relationship with women in general, partially because I have a deep relationship with my mother. But I was finding difficulty in becoming a more mature man, while embracing the feminine because I didn't have an external model that fit me. I have seen androgynous men, like Prince or David Bowie, but they are not me. I have been feeling my heart and that feminine energy flow through me more as my inner work has gone on, but where was my external mirror for this energy? Now I know, his name is Green Man.
Green Man is strong, but very kind. He has a huge heart. He is usually smiling. He is king of the forest, over which he reigns cooperatively with Gaia. Perhaps he is Gaia’s Animus. Author William Anderson has apparently written a book where Green Man is called the “archetype of our oneness with the earth”.
Many men need Green Man now, although they may not know it yet. If my experience can be extrapolated, men have to do the inner work to open their hearts first. Green Man cannot operate in a psyche where the heart energetics are blocked. Men need Emotional Clearing. Comment below for more details on this. Becoming balanced in the feminine does not mean physically becoming a woman for most men. It doesn't mean taking on a woman'’s roles. It means finding a a place where the Lover archetype within all men can operate freely. Green Man may not be the motif that fits best for all men coming into their hearts, but I seem to think that we will be seeing him show up more and more. Green Man is back. :-)