The Green Man

There is a tradition that is universal around the world and it involves a mysterious figure that is known in both Europe and the Middle East as "the Green Man." His visage appears all over Europe, above doorways in churches, chapels and cathedrals. He is not as well known in the Americas, except by native people where he is called, Coyote, Raven, and Kocapelli. Very mysterious indeed. In Islam he is known as al-khidr, translated as the Green Man. But he has an even older name in the Hebrew tradition, Melchizedek. Rumi says of him:

There is no one like him in either world.
He's neither secretive nor open, neither up nor down.
He has no peer.
Every arrow is shot from his bow,
Every subtle word that has ever been spoken
Comes from his mouth.

We need to renew the work of this figure in our own lives. Yeshua calls him "the Paraclete," or Sacred Spirit. It is interesting how distant that term has become.