The Antlered Goddess: a review of Elen of the Ways
Elen of the Ways by Elen Sentier is a valuable addition
to my shamanic library. Sentier is an awenydd,
that is a spirit keeper and tale weaver in British native shamanism. What's that? You didn't know the native
shamanic tradition still existed in the UK? That's why you need to read this
book. It is the one I have been seeking for years.
Elen
of the Ways, for whom the author is named no doubt,
is the reindeer goddess of the northern forests that circle the world. She is
the Antlered Goddess, a reindeer or caribou, predominant at a time when people
belonged to the Land, practiced gift economics and worked cooperatively. Her
forests have diminished but in the north they still exist. The hunter gatherer
societies are fewer and fewer but they still exist.
Critics will say Sentier paints an unrealistic
vision of what life in a pre-agricultural society was like. Her women and men
shared tasks; both hunted; they worked fewer hours a week; they had fewer
diseases. Certainly what she describes
belies the images we have been taught, but she has some facts at hand. In
Numibia women track for the men hunting big game. In the Phillipine back
country the Aeta women and men hunt the same animals. Could the modern view of
our ancestors be skewed by our own egotistic belief we have created a good
thing with our farming and technology? About our technical age Sentier says
"We have lost our way...we no longer follow the deer trods." (page
9).
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| photo by Russel Wills 2009 Georgraph.org.uk |
I suspect she is correct. I loved how Sentier brings
us around the world in this book with stories, legends and artifacts about the
Sacred Deer Goddess. Artemis and the Ceryneain Hind, the flying deer stones in
Mongolia, the wild hunt across Europe, the fairy sidhe and their cattle who
were deer, sacred apples of the sacred isle which cause alters to grow have a
magic link. Sentier weaves these pieces of memory together as a proper awenydd so we can see how the Antlered
Goddess connects us all.
In addition to telling the stories, Sentier travels
to places in Scotland as she folllows the deer paths. These are wild places the
deer know. Sentier chides us: "We are often afraid of the ways of Earth."
(page 40) She is not. She shapeshifts and becomes the deer. She is unafraid of
death. She embraces the wilderness. She dares the caves as
initiation and rebirth.
I resonate with Sentier. I am a deerkin. There is
synchronicity in my experience that pulls me into the book. I have heard a doe
choose herself for the hunter. I have sung a protection song against
trespassers and coyotes for deer who choose to live. I have seen a new born
fawn cared for by his aunt as the mother doe births his twin. I have watched
male elks perform for their mates and heard them bugle at night. My own mate
has spoken to them. They are our kin.
This book is from the heart, from the soul. It will lead you deeper if you have
wisdom to know how to find the deer tracks and how to long for them.
