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In
looking through the book, Green Man: The Archetype of Our Oneness with
the Earth, I found myself mildly interested in the ideas and the
examples of the Green Man motif in Medieval and Renaissance churches and
cathedrals, a Pagan symbol enfolded in Christian architecture. But when I
saw the Bamberg Green Man, an acanthus-leaf mask functioning as corbel for
the Rider of Bamberg, I knew I had to explore this theme in my own work.
William Anderson, the author,
explains of the Rider, "On an allegorical level he stands for just
government." Of the Green Man and its placing, he adds, "He is Natural Law
which should guide and support human government. The ferocity of his
expression is one of warning against neglect of Natural Law."
It was under the precepts of
Natural Law that Thomas Jefferson included, "We hold these truths to be
self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable rights," into the Declaration of
Independence of the United States of America.
The father of the philosophic
view of Legal Positivism, Jeremy Bentham, called this "self-conceit and
tyranny exalted to insanity." From the Legal Positivist's point of view,
rights are derived from the Sovereign or State.
Continuing my trip through
Wikipedia in search of a name for my Green Man, I discovered an eleventh
century monk from Bologna called Gratian, the jurist who authored The
Concord of Discordant Canon, a groundbreaking work aimed at resolving
natural, divine and common law. I loved that idea, the concord of discord
as a responsibility of a mature mind. |
