Greenman Workshop developed by Wyrmwood (January, 2001) **please feel free to use this workshop outline for your own and adapt where necessary**

Intent: to foster an awareness of the earth energies / bush energies and gain a greater understanding of the Greenman

note: the word 'forest' can be substituted for 'bush'. 'bush' is an Australian term. This workshop is to be done in a quiet bush setting.

1. statement of intent: background on Greenman (see Greenman fact sheet) talk about the Greenman in culture, as bush energies, in rites of spring and fertility.

2. focus (optional): Do a cleansing using a smudge stick, or, get each participant to find a leaf, bit of bark, rock, etc that stands out to them. Get them to use their bit of bush as a focus for the following meditation.

3. Greenman meditation

Close your eyes. Consciously slow your breathing and relax. All your fears, worries about the day, all your uncertainties, let them go. Relax. Feel the air on your skin, feel the sun on your face. Listen to the sounds around you - the sounds of the bush, of other people in the distance. Relax. Breath deeply, in, and out. Smell the air and the scents of the bush that it contains and relax. Still your mind and enjoy the moment. *pause* Now feel a pillar of glowing white light travelling through your spine, from your head to the base of your spine. Breath in, breath out. Relax. Now feel a sphere of while light in your solar plexus, in the base of your stomach. Imagine it, a glowing white ball of light. Picture it slowly expanding, some of it passing through you, growing larger, until you're sitting in a sphere of white light. This is your circle, your sacred space. Here you feel at peace. *pause*

You choose to become a tree in the forest, this forest around you. You feel the earth beneath you, and your feet go down into it. Your body remains above the surface, but you are up to your waist in the soft brown earth. You feel your feet stretching into the soil, becoming roots, growing down into the cool, nourishing earth. Now your arms begin to stretch out and up, becoming the branches of a tree, spreading out all around you. Feel the energies of the earth rising up through your roots and into your body. Now feel the energies of the sun giving energy to your leaves and coming down through your branches into your body. You can sense the oils evaporating from your leaves and feel your branches sway in the breeze. *pause*

Now let your awareness move out, out to the forest around you. You can sense the other trees in the forest, rustling gently in the soft breeze. Your senses pick up animals in the forest. Some sleeping in burrows, others lying down in the shade, some moving about. Energy from the earth and sun is flowing into you, and flowing out into the forest. You feel connected, a part of the forest, and rejoice at that connection. *pause*

You stretch your awareness out further, searching. You sense something. Something different from the forest. It seems familiar, and energy you have always known. It is the energy that flows through all things. It is the Greenman

Your soul calls out to him. He hears your call. He comes. Your leaves shake gently in greeting as the ancient presence of the Greenman stops in front of you. You wait expectantly, then there in front of you, as if he had always been there, is a man dressed in a green tunic. He is older than the forest, older even than the rocks, but the smile he gives you is of a man of 30. There is a sparkle in his eye. His face is bearded, but if you don't look directly at it, it looks like leaves and vines. His bare feet crunch on the leaves and bark on the forest floor as he steps right up to you and touches your trunk. His touch is soft and there is a warmth to it. He smiles and his smile is joy.

He talks with you for a while. You speak with him. He gives you a message and a gift. The gift he hangs from your branches. *long pause*

He leaves, and you feel his loss, with only the essence of his presence remaining. But you know how to find him now. You remain a tree for a while longer, thinking about the Greenman's message and gift. *pause*

When you are ready, you may return to human form again. You slowly take your roots back into your feet, disengaging from the soil. Your leaves move back into branches that become your arms once again. Your trunk becomes your body and you are human once more. A human sitting on the forest floor. This forest. You are back to where you started. You may open your eyes when you feel that you can.

Welcome back!

4. Ground with God-shaped biscuits, gingerbread men, nuts or biscuits with a man's bearded face on it (preferably home-made), and a cup of springwater passed around. Bless the food and drink in honour of the Greenman.

5. To pick the energy back up, and to show your participants how to connect with the Greenman on the physical plane, you can teach them a male god chant. Connecting with the Greenman on the physical plane can be done through drumming, chanting and stamping (eg American Indians, Australian Aborigines). The following chant can be used or make up your own.

Greenman chant

"Greenman be here right now, show us your spark Greenman your essence lives, here in our hearts" (the beat goes: Doom dumpa dumpa doom, dumpa doom doom)

If you wish to use this workshop, I would be honoured if you let me know that you are planning to use it, and let me know how it goes. If you have any other ways of connecting to the Greenman, I would be interested in that also.

Thanks and blessings,

Wyrmwood