If you go down in the woods today...

I have spent much of my leisure time in the countryside and many of my working years too. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that we physically need to have nature around us - trees, the seaside, a park or even an overgrown footpath between buildings. However, in all my time spent out in wild places, I have only ever found two antlers. Technically, I didn't find this latest one, my devil dog truffled it out of some mud but he has no interest in blogs so I'll also claim the second find.

This was a charming red deer antler and I was lucky that it's in almost perfect condition as they're usually heavily chewed by mice, squirrels or deer. There was a domestic creature that was thoroughly looking forward to doing just this. Our beautiful red deer cast their antlers in February and March so it's a good time to look for them.

Now on to mythology - meet Cernunnos or the Horned God plus the very localised diety, Herne the Hunter. Here, he is fabulously portrayed on the Gundestrup cauldron, which is thought to date between 200 BC and 300 AD. Bloody gorgeous or what?

He is often described as Lord of the Animals and you can see that he is surrounded several varieties here, including a dog - perhaps my devil dog in a previous reincarnation?

It will come as no surprise that deer antler is a vital ingredient in Tradional Chinese Medicine and has very many benefits. BUT, I'm not promoting it here as the poor creatures are usually anesthetized to remove the velvet, which the antler at it's earlier stage.

Of course you can make a wand out of an antler tine, and a very precious thing it is too. It's not particularly common to find antlers in the wild but in our strange modern times, they can be easily purchased from most pet shops. And yes, I bought two at the weekend for my devil dog and his older sister as I felt so guilty stealing his prize.

There is a LOT of folklore and magic surrounding deer. Antlers are a perfect and powerful addition to an alter as they can represent both the male and female. A charming Staffordshire traditional dance still occurs today. I particularly love this old photograph of the troop below.

Abbots Bromley Horn Dance troop (Benjamin Stone) 1906.

And so to a special Norfolk connection - a shrine with a difference. The shrine resided in pit 15 of Grimes Graves - the amazing neolithic flint mine in Breckland, dated from 3000 BC. Wow! Our lovely ancient red deer provided the tools with which to mine for an even more proficient ancient tool. Worked flints have been found that are sharper than a surgeon's scalpel. At Grimes Graves an altar of flint lumps with a chalk bowl at its base and antler picks piled around was discovered. It also comes complete with a mystery. In front of the altar had been placed a Venus figurine of chalk, a chalk phallus and some chalk balls but were these modern fakes? What they need is Louis the Seer to do a spot of Psychometry on them. Case solved.

So keep your eyes peeled if you go down to the woods today. You might just be lucky and find a shedded antler, possibly even a full pair. Now wouldn't that be a big surprise?

Have fun!

With love, Annie x

© Norfolk Psychics 2016.

#antler #deer #alter #cernunnos #folklore