What is the mystic green man?

Question

Pagan. something to do with a tree?

Answer 1

It's not the mystic green man, but you're close. It's the Green Man. He is a very important deity. Here you go!

http://altreligion.about.com/library/glossary/symbols/bldefsgreenman.htm

Answer 2

Actually, nobody knows. It's an image that was carved on alot of ancient cathedrals that some folks have decided is a throwback to ancient Paganism and have adopted as a modern God. But there is really no evidence to support this. Why on Christian temples? I have no clue. It's entirely possible that it IS an ancient Pagan deity, and entirely possible that it was just a fashionable image of the time that didn't really mean anything. One day I imagine some pseudo archaeologist will decide that those obnoxious yellow smiley faces are some Pagan image and a whole religion will crop up around them.

Answer 3

The Green Man is the spirit of the forest. He's pagan because the forest existed long before Christianity, and becaus pagans tend to worship nature. A lot of famous literary characters have been connected to him, like "The Green Knight" in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and even Robin Hood. Some people think of him as a manifestation of the forest god.

Answer 4

"Superficially the Green Man would appear to be pagan, perhaps a fertility figure or a nature spirit, similar to the woodwose (the wild man of the woods), and yet he frequently appears, carved in wood or stone, in churches, chapels, abbeys and cathedrals, where examples can be found dating from the 11th century through to the 20th century.

To the modern observer the earlier (Romanesque and medieval) carvings often have an unnervingly eerie or numinous quality. This is sometimes said to indicate the vitality of the Green Man, who was able to survive as a symbol of pre-Christian traditions despite, and at the same time complementary to, the influence of Christianity. (Rather than alienate their new converts, early Christian missionaries would often adopt and adapt local gods, sometimes turning them into obscure saints.)

Whatever his original significance may have been, many modern churchgoers characterise the Green Man as "the archetype of our oneness with the earth". The symbol is also popular with modern Wiccans and other Neopagans because it depicts an earth-centered concept of male divinity."

Blessed Be

Answer 5

The Jolly Green Giant!

Answer 6

Someone already did your research, so I'll limit my answer to - there was a pretty good movie by that name starring Albert Finney. Quite naughty in a British way.