Hi, my name is White Deer, and I’ve been chosen to embody the Green Man for Beltane this year.

I’m so filled with gratitude and excitement to take on this role. I have so much love for this community, and I love having the opportunity to channel my creativity into these grand events. I can’t wait to work with Alix to create something truly magical this year!

My connection to the Green Man goes way back.

Prior to moving to Scotland 3 years ago, I was owner/operator of a small town music store called Green Man music. To our little community I was the green man, giving music lessons, doing instrument repairs, and supporting local and regional touring artists. Touring the U.S. Pagan festival circuit for several decades with various bands in the summer months and in the off season working as a farm hand, fruit picker, and logger, harvesting trees downed by storms. I’ve spent a lot of time in nature, several years with little to no human contact. The hard lesson for a reclusive introvert, was how much I needed people to maintain my sanity (such as it is…)

Im also a father of 5 and grandfather of 5, so I have given a lot of thought to modelling positive male behaviour.

The Green Man represents our spiritual connection as humankind to the greater spirit of all life.

I see him as threefold;

He is guardian of the forests, protector of the land, water and air, the plants and animals and even the tiny wee beasties. He is the protector of the downtrodden and outcast.

As Cernunnos, he represents not only the animals, but also the wealth that comes from the Earth, the metals, precious and rare elements, the soil that we all rely on for sustenance. He is all about abundance, nature overproduces but never wastes. He pours out this abundance freely, but it is up to us to treat this wealth as a common resource, to be sustainably received with gratitude.

He is the also the force of decay and ferment, a source of wisdom and madness. He recycles all life into the the great wheel of existence.

He is the deep potential of Earth, matter and substance, sleeping without his May Queen to give movement and energy.

The Green Man reminds us of our dependence on the biosphere to keep us alive. He has the vitality of the plant world bursting forth from his eyes, nose and mouth. He sings with the call to the pollinators, the voice of the Earth. Nature’s greatest strength is its diversity, and the resilience that provides. We are all interdependent.

I see this as an opportunity to try to bring hope and inspiration to participants in this sacred ritual of connection . If we can inspire people to see our relationship with nature in a new and healthier way, then we will have done the good work