(via hoodoothatvoodoo)
Statue of Pan in Painswick, Gloucestershire
The Cotswold village of Painswick has an interesting past. In the 18th century a nobleman named Benjamin Hyett took up residence outside the village and decided to create an annual procession dedicated to the Greek god of nature, Pan, in which a statue of the deity was carried through the village from the church to the woods. Once amid the trees, the villagers would indulge in Dionysian revelry. The tradition has since died out.
Unrad / Jordan Clark. La It Tall Bah Al Err Een Ahhh.
(via hoodoothatvoodoo)
The Lusty Month of May: A Time of Celebration For The Horned God ~
In ancient times, it is believed the time correlating with today’s calendar week falling near the 19th of May celebrated the Feasts of the Horned God - Cernunnos or Herne (as antlered) in Celtic/Britonnic tradition and Faunus/Pan (as goat-horned) in Graeco/Roman tradition.
Interconnected observations of the Horned God in his multi-manifestations may occur nowadays for many who claim him as their patron. The Horned One is known as the primeval God of male sexual vitality. In Celtic locales, Cernunnos’ feast was thought observed at 18 May where virility was celebrated among men. In Graeco-Roman culture the week-long festival of Faunus/Pan, called “Panalia” occurred.
Festivities were a paean to male sexuality and masculinity. Various reports convey that men may have observed these times by dancing nude - sometimes while wearing gigantic, stuffed or specially-fashioned phalli for emphasis. It is also surmised they celebrated with a variety of sexual activities - including masturbation as Pan was the God of the act and with potentially androphilic pleasures as the emphasis was on the masculine aspect. Ithyphallic (erect) statues were especially popular.
These events are further evidence of what has lyrically been called the “lusty month of May” which starts with the fests of Beltane, May Day and others. The phallic celebrations of the Panic feasts correlate with contemporary designations for May such as its being declared “Masturbation Month” in recent times. With the full Moon in Scorpio which is opposite the Sun in Taurus. The month potentially owes some of its sensuousness to the Moon in the sign that rules sexuality, at the same time that the Sun is in the sign ruled by Venus. Alchemically and esoterically, the Scorpionic power of rebirth and transformation, beginning at the Full Moon, combines with the earthy tenacity and drive of Taurus and the sheer beauty of Venus to lend this season its uncommon juice, stamina and eroticism.
The emphasis during this time was/is the manly element in life - relationships of brotherhood, celebration of virility, male sexuality, prowess and bonding wherein the Horned One is recognized as a protector of men, the giver of potency and the progenitor of the masculine divine in life…