Tag: Celtic Horned God

Celebrating Other Spirituality 365 Days A Year – Helston Furry Dance

Dragon Comments & Graphics
Helston Furry Dance

 

One of the most famous of all traditional British festivals is Floral or Flora Day or more correctly as the “Furry—from the Cornish “fer” (Latin feria), a fair, rejoicing holy day. The date of the festival coincides with the feast of the Apparition of St. Michael the archangel. Helston’s patron saint. The legend recounts that the first furry was danced to celebrate Michael’s deliverance from a boulder hurled at him during an altercation with Satan. However, it is quite possible that some of the fair’s activities are linked to far older celebrations that honored the Celtic Horned God in the guise of Robin Hood.

From the street dancing that takes place on this day, it is clear that the festival has become inextricably intermingled with May Day. The procession begins at noon with the furry dance. One hundred and fifty couples participate in the dance, which winds through the streets of town, gardens, and even homes that have left their doors open for the dancers. In the past, it was believed that the dancers would bring good luck and good fortune to the household as they passed through.

Reindeer Folklore

Reindeer Folklore

Santa’s reindeer most probably evolved from Herne, the Celtic Horned God. Eight reindeer pull Santa’s sleigh, representative of the eight solar sabbats. In British lore, the stag is one of the five oldest and wisest animals in the world, embodying dignity, power and integrity. From their late Autumn dramatic rutting displays, stags represented strength, sexuality and fertility. As evidenced by multiple prehistoric excavations of stag antler ritual costumes, the wearing of stag antlers in folk dance recreated the sacred male shaman figure called Lord of the Wild Hunt, Cernunnos, or Herne the Hunter, among others–he who travels between worlds, escorting animal spirits to the afterlife and sparking wisdom and fertility in this world. Likewise, the stag’s branching antlers echo the growth of vegetation. In America, the stag represents male ideals: the ability to “walk one’s talk,” and powerfully, peacefully blend stewardship and care of the tribe with sexual and spiritual integrity.

In Northern European myth, the Mother Goddess lives in a cave, gives birth to the sun child, and can shape shift into a white hind, or doe. Therefore, the white hind was magical, to be protected and never hunted. In myth, graceful running women of the forest–who were actually magical white hinds–brought instant old age or death to hunters who chased them.

To the Celts, all deer were especially symbolic of nurturing, gentle and loving femaleness. White deer hide was used to make tribal women’s clothing. White deer called “faery cattle” were commonly believed to offer milk to fairies. In Britain amongst the Druids, some men experienced life-transforming epiphanies from spiritual visions or visitations by white hinds, balancing and healing their inner feminine energy. In Europe white hinds truly exist, and are many shades of warm white cream-colors, with pale lashes–otherworldly in their peaceful and modest behavior. To many Native American tribes, deer are models of the graceful and patient mother who exhibits unconditional love and healthy, integrated female energy.