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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in Herne

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs

b2ap3_thumbnail_OghamOak.jpg
Traditionally, oak symbolizes strength, prosperity, protection, and overall blessings. 

 

Oak is a standard wand for witches, druids, and others, since it represents power.

 

Lore tells us oak is a door to Faerie realms and their mysteries. The name of the Ogham letter that corresponds to oak is Dair.  To the best of my knowledge, Dair relates to the English word door

 

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Lord of the Trees

“No, hold,” said the sergeant-in-arms to the crossbowman. “First let them watch their god die.”

 

He sat on the great stone in the clearing.

Arriving, we went first to greet him: to kiss his hand, and receive his blessing.

When all had gathered, he rose and raised his arms: so naked, so tall. Between his antlers, constellations wheeled.

The bolt took him just below the breastbone.

He fell like a star out of heaven.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Quotable Herne! So many to choose from. Herne: "There is no end and no beginning; it is enough to aim."
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Mr. Posch, "I am Herne the Hunter, and you are a leaf blown by the wind..." Brings back some great memories! Best. Robin Hood. E
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Oops... I looked it up on IMDB. The correct phrase was, "Driven by the wind", not 'blown by the wind'.
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    To misquote the Talmud: "One who correctly cites quotations hastens the Return of the Goddess." Herne bless us all this Lammas-tid
  • J'Karrah
    J'Karrah says #
    Love that series! And that was one of my favorite episodes. Now I need to pull out the DVD's and watch them again

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Nothing is Ever Forgotten

 “Nothing's forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten.”

(Robin of Sherwood)

“New ink,” I say.

It's the annual Beltane cookout, something of a family reunion here in local Pagandom. Catching up with a friend, I notice two staves of ogham on his forearm.

I can read nine different alphabets, including Phoenician, but (alas) my ogham is rusty.

He helps me out.

“'Nothing's forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten.'”

I know the quotation, of course. It's the tag line from Robin of Sherwood, the BBC's overtly pagan iteration of the Robin Hood mythos, the 1980s series that brought Herne back to Sherwood.

“It's for N,” he tells me, naming a beloved and much-missed local priestess, now with the ancestors.

It's a fitting tribute. She loved the series well, and in fact came into the Craft because of it. (Discussing it with a friend at work one day, she happened to remark: “...but what's with the guy with the antlers?” “Ah,” said her co-worker, “I think I can help you out there.”)

Our conversation continues, but through the days that follow, I find myself thinking again and again of those words, the words of (among others) Herne.

Nothing's forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten.

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Recent comment in this post - Show all comments
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    +1 for the ROS reference. That show rocked. By the way, I very much agree with your comments.

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Robin of Sherwood: An Appreciation

12th century England, the yeomanry crushed beneath the heel of their Norman overlords. Shooting a deer to feed your family is a capital offense. The people cry out to their ancestral god to free them.

And Herne, ancient god of the forest, hears his people's cry. He calls a dispossessed young English nobleman, Robin of Loxley, to be his son and to lead his people in their struggle against Norman oppression.

This is the heady premise of Richard Carpenter's landmark Robin of Sherwood, which aired in the UK from 1983 to 1985, the first television series to be shaped by the newly-emergent paganisms of the West. In the process, it transformed forever both the Robin Hood mythos and modern paganism itself.

That's a lot to say for one TV series.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Well, I don't usually endorse non-pagan businesses, but...um, there's this company named for a large South American river.... Loo
  • Anne Newkirk Niven
    Anne Newkirk Niven says #
    Steven, where the heck did you get ahold of the series? I've been looking for it on DVD or Blu-Ray for ages, to no avail.

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