🌳 🌳🌳 Merry Men of the Greenwood & 🌳 🌳
the Sherwood Saxon Tradition 🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳
Welcome to Merry Men of the Greenwood, an initiatory fraternity of men practicing Saxon Witchcraft and Wyrd Shamanism. Gay, bi-sexual and heterosexual biological men are all welcome. In contrast to other all male Witch traditions such as the Minoan and Gala traditions - both of which work with Mediterannean based deities - we are consciously Anglo-centric, folkish and populist. Our initiatory and seasonal rituals are loosely based on those of the Saxon Witchcraft tradition as written by our Faeder in Seax-Wica, Raymond Buckland, and our initiatory lineage also comes from Seax-Wica in a direct line from Raymond Buckland himself and through him back to the New Forest Coven. As is usual in the Seax-Wica tradition, we honour deity in the two principle forms of Woden and Freya but being polytheists we also work with other Saxon and Celtic deities and woodland spirits on occasion or according to personal preference. We also have a connection to the Pickingill Old Craft through our Gnostic succession from Aleister Crowley, who allegedly was initiated into that tradition in East Anglia in 1899.
Our Magister and founder, Wayland, has been a Druid initiate and shamanic practitioner for 27 years as well as a Liberal Catholic/Celtic priest/bishop for 23 years. Our members may be Pagan or Interspiritual (ie. Pagan & Christian, or Pagan and another faith tradition).
We meet regularly online for ritual, teaching and shamanic journeying and when circumstances are favourable we also meet in person, especially for initiations, which need to be performed in person either in Europe (Spain & Switzerland) or the USA. The Merry Men of the Greenwood (M.M.G.) is envisaged as a fraternity, in which a genuinely warm companionship on the magical way is a primary objective.
M.M.G. is the initiatory heart of the Sherwood Saxon Tradition just as the original Merry Men of Sherwood Forest were the heart of resistance to injustice in their own time and a rallying point for the wider Anglo-Saxon community. Similarly, individual members of the MMG today may be called upon as Priests of the Saxon Craft to start unisex covens and/or Outer Court groups among family and friends. Whilst not being members of M.M.G. members of these covens and groups are also considered part of the wider Sherwood Saxon Tradition. Do send us a message on the contact form below, if you are interested in joining!
Our Magister and founder, Wayland, has been a Druid initiate and shamanic practitioner for 27 years as well as a Liberal Catholic/Celtic priest/bishop for 23 years. Our members may be Pagan or Interspiritual (ie. Pagan & Christian, or Pagan and another faith tradition).
We meet regularly online for ritual, teaching and shamanic journeying and when circumstances are favourable we also meet in person, especially for initiations, which need to be performed in person either in Europe (Spain & Switzerland) or the USA. The Merry Men of the Greenwood (M.M.G.) is envisaged as a fraternity, in which a genuinely warm companionship on the magical way is a primary objective.
M.M.G. is the initiatory heart of the Sherwood Saxon Tradition just as the original Merry Men of Sherwood Forest were the heart of resistance to injustice in their own time and a rallying point for the wider Anglo-Saxon community. Similarly, individual members of the MMG today may be called upon as Priests of the Saxon Craft to start unisex covens and/or Outer Court groups among family and friends. Whilst not being members of M.M.G. members of these covens and groups are also considered part of the wider Sherwood Saxon Tradition. Do send us a message on the contact form below, if you are interested in joining!
For more about the foundation of the Merry Men of the Greenwood and the Sherwood Saxon Tradition please see the article HERE!
Herne - inspired by "Robin of Sherwood" (artwork by "morgan.marginalia") .....
"Like Ceridwen, therefore, he (Herne the Hunter) is essentially a literary figure whom modernity has back-projected into the pagan past. Equally, it is possible both to argue that this back-projection cannot positively be disproved and that literary creations can have a spiritual life of their own, or even ‘channel’ the hitherto unsuspected presence of actual divine powers." (Prof. Ronald Hutton - Pagan Britain)
Cover illustration from a Robin of Sherwood fanzine from 1995.
It depicts Robert of Huntingdon as the god Baldur. Art by- Jae
Wayland's Smithy
On the Craft & the Church
"The Nine do NOT renounce Christianity. All the People were (and many still are) regular church-goers. It is a good cover! The Old Crafters know many churches are on former sacred sites. They also have their own understanding and perception of Christianity. The Old Craft is not anti-Christian. It recognises that dogmas are perverted truths. In rural villages the People are pillars of respectability and punctilious church-goers. Nothing is said or done to attract attention to themselves."
from "The Secrets of the Nine Covens" by W. E. Liddell (Pickingill Craft)
from "The Secrets of the Nine Covens" by W. E. Liddell (Pickingill Craft)
