The Spiritual Centre of Woden's Folk.

 

I have said in the past that the area of the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex was a kind of 'Time-Clock' set to be awoken by the Hale-Bopp Comet in the Spring of 1997. At this time I had a profound Mystical Experience and Woden Initiation in which the Mysteries of HelgiH were revealed, and also an understanding of what I was to do came to light. Woden's Folk was founded one year later on April 23rd 1998. This came directly from this Mystical Experience, and the role of Woden as The Great Initiator was made clear - Woden is The April Fool in this role. The link with the Hale-Bopp Comet (Bab Komet) was clear, and just east of the Long Man figure is a comet-shaped Long Barrow called Hunter's Burgh, no doubt hinting of Herne the Hunter, an aspect of Woden. 

Just above the hill-figure is a phallic-shaped Long Barrow where 8 Ale Bottles were later buried in the form of a Swastika on August 10th 1999 to herald the Solar Eclipse and the Resurrection of Ingwe on August 11th 1999. These bottles were of Millennium Ale showing Old Father Time holding a blond-haired blue-eyed baby, a significant symbolism. The Long Man is orientated North, and the two staffs can be seen as the Gateway to Thule. 

This may not be the only importance of this area, which I am going to go into now, since this is an important theme to follow. S.F. Annett has suggested that the area centred around Windover Hill is the setting for an episode in the Petit Saint Graal which is a story about Peredur, son of Evrawc. Peredur is the Welsh version of Parsifal. To save time and space I am going to list these with bullets, each part of this story being in italics, with the 'answers' in the normal print -

• Peredur is on a Graal Quest when he comes across a castle with no inhabitants. Burlough Castle nearby is a low mound without any kind of masonry.
• In the hall he finds a chessboard on which the pieces are playing by themselves. Peredur takes sides and loses, throwing the chessboard out of the window into a river. The 'Chessboard Castle' is found in many Graal Sagas, and Burlough Castle fits this aspect too, since it is near the River Cuckmere and is said to be the 'last home of the fairies' in Sussex.
• A furious maiden enters the scene and rebukes Peredur, telling him that he can make amends by going to the nearby wood and beheading the White Hart that frequents it. There is a small wood-grove in which is Lullington Church, an unusual site for a church. This was built upon a Heathen Site and mound. Hunter's Burgh may also be seen as linked to the hunting of the White Hart. There is also a Hindover Hill overlooking the Cuckmere Valley.
• After beheading the White Hart a mysterious knight appears, seizes the head, and carries it off. The Long Man is said to have a Golden Knight buried above it. 
• As a punishment for his failure, Peredur is sent to a mound beneath which is carved the figure of a man. There he recites a spell and a huge black man springs out of the mound, prepared for battle. Peredur defeats him, and the black man disappears back into the mound. The hill-figure is obviously the Long Man, the mound above is the Windover Hill Long Barrow, and the 'Black Man' is a kind of Wild Man of the Woods figure. 

At the time of the Mystical Experience I had back in 1997 I was told that the Hale-Bopp Comet had been 'sent by Morgana'. This is interesting in that the Chessboard is often linked to Morgana in some of the Graal Legends. The details of this Graal Legend certainly seem to fit the area of the Long Man, and it has got to be of some importance that this has been set here. The author of the book The Wilmington Giant (Rodney Castelden) in which this is quoted, linked the 'Black Man' to 'Herne the Hunter.' The obvious here is that the Archetype of Herne the Hunter is clearly linked to this particular area, and arises anew in different eras, as suits the continuation of the Archetypal Myth and the role of the Archetype. The tale is woven into the Graal Mythos, and thus the Archetype is preserved in some form and passed on into the future. Morgana here is merely a Celtic form of Wyrd - one of the Three Sisters of Wyrd.

That is not to say that the whole purpose of this tale is to preserve the figure of an Archetype, since it clearly preserves the whole area's importance to something even more important - and hidden. Burlough Castle, the 'castle' with no walls, is clearly linked to the Elves rather than the Victorian idea of 'Fairies', though the term 'fairy', if linked to 'Fate', can be seen as having a hidden meaning. The true importance of the area around the Long Man came to light when the 'Time-Clock' awoke the archetype of Woden as the Great Initiator. 

Before I moved down to Polegate, some 2 miles east of the Long Man, I lived in Snowdonia, North Wales. My wife had a recurring dream that I was to move to the Long Man to do a special ritual - which did happen since 'synchronicity' intervened and I was offered voluntary redundancy, enough to make the move to the South of England. This was in 1993, the year in which I was given The Hooded Man Prophecy in Horam; we moved from Horam to Polegate just after this. 

In the nearby churchyard at Wilmington there is a 1,600 year old Yew Tree which figures as the Tree of the Helmetted Waeldal since Waendal is a by-name here of Woden, and the figure clearly once had a Horned Helmet.

Various bracteates, and a belt-buckle from Finglesham, Kent, show the figure of Woden with a Horned Helmet and Twin Spears, which the 'staffs' on the hill-figure would once have been. 

The Wilmington Yew-Tree

Clearly the Yew-Tree is here linked to Woden, but that does not imply that Iggdrasil is a 'Yew-Tree' in particular. Since Yggdrasil, at one level, is symbolic of the White Race, who descend from 'Ash and Embla', then at this level it is an Ash-Tree. The Old English Rune-Poem suggests the 'Ash-Tree' as used for building the Stapule (Irminsul), and under the AEsc-Rune this also suggests the 'Ancestors', thus linked to the Ash again. But here the Long Man, as an aspect of Woden, is linked to the Yew-Tree. We have also 'Wotan's Oak' mentioned in Germany, and Herne the Hunter is associated with the Oak-Tree. Woden has many aspects as All-Father. 

What does seem rather strange is the link here to Woden who is clearly the figure of the Long Man. Over in West Sussex we have the White Stone of Ing which is linked to Ingwe, and which brought to light his being a God of Fire and Light, something not recognised by many. It is strange that no connection has been made, since the clash of RAGNAROK shows like fighting like, and here Ingwe-Frea fights against Surt, the Fire-Giant. He is also seen to have fought and slain Beli, again associated with Fire. Whatever the case, we have Woden-Ingwe here linked to Sussex, one of the last places in England to give way to Judaeo-Christianity. 

The Legend of Cuthman is the Legend of Ingwe, as told in the Old English Rune-Poem, since he travels eastwards pushing his 'mother' in a barrow (wagon). Cuthman is here seen as Ingwe and Krist, which once again is strange in that it is also a connection that the Goths made, as Ulfilas shows. In the above 'Cuthman' carries the Main Beam of the church, the 'halo' (Glory of Light) can be seen around his head. Note the garters shaped as Ing-Runes.