When out and about researching the old ancient tracks of the beautiful landscape of our British isles, I can not help thinking about a Goddess who is not a well known Goddess, but one that our ancient ancestors would of known but maybe not by the name we know her by today. This Goddess is the Goddess of the old tracks, the track of the deer, the old and new roads, the invisible tracks of the Ley Lines, the antlered Goddess we know today as Elen of the Ways.
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| Elen of the ways |
There are path ways leading us through the seasons of change, which are guided by Elen of the Ways, the Goddess who rules the roads and tracks of our lives both physically and spiritually, who has been around through the ages. Our ancestors followed the reindeer herd using them for food, clothing and shelter. some of our ancestor etched the image of the Mother Goddess into the cave walls. We no longer have reindeer in the British isle but there are still traces of Elen existing today in place names, track ways and rituals.
The Old Way marked in red with the
Pilgrims Way marked in orange,
key locations in the Anglo- Saxon
Chronicles are labelled black
The Harrow (the old way) Way in Middlesex with some sections that predate man started out as reindeer tracks. A stone road in Wales named Hwylfar Ceirw (the high deer road) and the ritual of the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance which is an English folk dance. the dance takes place each year in Abbots Bromley a village in Staffordshire. The modern version of the dance involves reindeer antlers which after a carbon analysis discovered that they where used in the dance dating back to the 11th century. The use of antlers suggest an Anglo-Saxon origin along with other native Anglo-Saxon traditions that have survived into the modern times, It has been speculated that the dance originated in the pagan period and was connected with the ruling dynasty of Mercia, based some 15 miles away at Tamworth, who owned extensive hunting lands in Needwood and Cannock Chase surrounding Abbots Bromley.
Pilgrims Way marked in orange,
key locations in the Anglo- Saxon
Chronicles are labelled black
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| Hwyifar Ceirw |
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| Abbots Bromley Horn Dance |
The Sami people are an indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting Sapmi, which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula.
These are the reindeer herders, In northern Sami the word for herd of deer is 'eallun' - pronouced Elun. The deer people, who arrive on these lands before we became an island, carried with them the spirit of their beloved reindeer herds (Eallun).
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| Sami |
These are the reindeer herders, In northern Sami the word for herd of deer is 'eallun' - pronouced Elun. The deer people, who arrive on these lands before we became an island, carried with them the spirit of their beloved reindeer herds (Eallun).
Leaving her image in their art at Creswell Crags, their Shamanic antlered headdresses at Star Carr and her name "Eallun" (Elun) - Elen.
Perhaps there is more to Elen as the Goddess of the Ways, maybe she could be the Goddess to the other wild things of the woods. We have to remember that the people that stayed on these isle when the seas flooded and followed the deer would of had Shamans within their tribes that followed the track ways that do go through wooded areas where such creatures seem to inhabit today, creatures that the old Shamans may of summoned to be guardians of places, these guardians today could be creatures
which in the near past were given such names as the Woodwose,
who we commonly know today as Bigfoot, or other worldly creatures like the guardians of church yards known as Black shucks with their large red saucer size eyes and guardians of ancient burial mounds with the name of Dogman (werewolves).
which in the near past were given such names as the Woodwose,
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| Woodwose |
who we commonly know today as Bigfoot, or other worldly creatures like the guardians of church yards known as Black shucks with their large red saucer size eyes and guardians of ancient burial mounds with the name of Dogman (werewolves).
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| Shuck |
There seems to be a correlation between Ley Lines, paranormal events and the cryptid creatures we hear about, I can not help thinking the energies that flow through our landscape are helping these events, making the veil between worlds thinner so sometimes we get a glimpse of these wonderful creatures and events. My partner Carolan and I leave offerings often on our adventure when we go out in the field and go investigating these events, be it for the Goddess Elen, the cryptids and the spirits of the places we visit, and with doing this we have had many a very pleasant and interesting events happen to us.
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