The wonderful BBC News website reports on the sighting of a rare white stag in the Scottish Highlands...
Births of white animals are associated in some cultures with the End Times...in particular the White Buffalo Calf prophecies of Native Americans (Hopi I think, must check on that).
But in Celtic mythology, white or albino animals are not seen as portents of future trials, but expressions of magic and mystery, strange and rare occurrences to be seen as powerful and unique phenomenon. I believe there are stories of several heroes who see white deer and are given power towards their quests...
I have a friend named "Whitedeer" who got his name after an odd experience in the forest. As an angst-ridden teenager, he decided to commit suicide by "dying of exposure." Little did he know, this would take some time. So after several days of hunger, cold and impatience (not to mention boredom), he had made up his mind to go home when, awakening in the dawn mist, he saw a herd of female deer around him, some of them lying close by his side. After a few moments marveling at them, he realized that a herd this large must have a buck somewhere near. That is when he saw a huge stag...a solid white one. And it was apparently angry that my friend was cavorting with his females!
It is heartening to learn there are still white stags being sighted in Great Britain. Especially since last fall there was a horrifying story of a white stag killed and beheaded by poachers and left hanging from a tree in the Forest of Dean...the story link is here.
5 comments :
A very cool story. Not an April Fools I hope, lol...
Wow. Your friend had quite the totem animal slap upside the head. Very cool.
Near where I used to live, in the Finger Lakes of New York, there's a whole herd of white deer (actually there's the occasional standard color one, but there are far more white than not). The live inside an old, all but abandoned military installation, and because they've lived for decades in a fenced in, restricted property, there's been nothing to weed out the white genes. Plus apparently the military only allowed brown deer to be shot after the base was constructed, so that further enriched the white gene frequency.
Seneca White Deer
That is really interesting, Evil Fruit Lord. I grew up in the Finger Lakes Region (Elmira) and have never heard about this; where is it?
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