GREEN MAN GATHERING

Published in Avalon Magazine, June 2001

‘The Green Man at Glastonbury’ was a gathering for men which took place at the Assembly Rooms over the weekend of May 5th/6th 2001.

The event had originally been conceived as a ‘Green Man Conference’ – a counterpart to the successful Glastonbury Goddess Conference and a showcase for speakers, artists and workshop leaders. But, according to the organisers, “The Green Man himself has other ideas. The process of organisation and raising energy has brought us face to face with our own issues of power and control as men, has led us to look at new ways of working together, and has helped to initiate change in our individual lives.”

“Our process so far has led us to drop the trappings of a formal ‘conference’, to acknowledge that our hearts rather than our heads are the driving force for our evolution, and to go after our own authentic, feeling, creative selves as the true expression of the Green Man.”

This process, based around a year-long cycle of sweatlodge ceremonies held at the dark of each moon, carried through to the gathering itself and was remarkably successful. Although the number attending was not huge, most of those who did come – from all parts of the country – left feeling genuinely inspired.

The event was both a men’s workshop – dealing with contemporary male issues including fatherhood, sexuality and emotional expression – and at the same time a magical event, a two-day wiccan ritual.

It worked on both levels. As such it was the first event of its kind held in Glastonbury – and perhaps anywhere. The weekend finished with a strong feeling that a new seed had been sown, and that the Green Man Gathering would be repeated and would grow, year by year.