Yule Stag Visualisation
by Blayze, Craig and Liz. Adapted from Terry Pratchett's "The Hogfather"

Close your eyes…breath….remember…feel the passage of years

Breathe…

It’s the things you believe which make us human. Good things and bad things… its all the same…

Go into the mists…they are heavy , thick and cold …you walk , back to when the stories were different, back to the time when midwinter was harsh and cold…

As you walk you can feel the pull of centuries of legend and tradition…layers and layers of fairytale and bedtime story…as you walk , the stories become harder and carry the scent of blood….

Blood on the snow…

The mists part and it is dark. .the cold light of the stars is above you , the frozen soil at your feet… sharp peaks are below you lit by the glow off the snow.   The cold, cold world pulling all heat towards it, down into the earth

Look down…small dark shapes move across the whiteness… running in pursuit…they run desperately …they know this chase could mean their survival… see the prey… a movement in the snow, a blurred dark shape dodging and skidding and never clear. 

You can see the hunters clearly now as you descent towards a snow covered plain. Their quarry is blurred  as it, dodges amongst snowdrifts, keeping  to the cover of the snow laden bushes. A drift explodes… something big and heavy and proud rises through the snow …you see antlers as the king stag pushes out and away from the men 

The hunters follow …go down and join them…experience the exhilaration, the fear, the knowledge that this is the hunt and the sacrifice that will mean another year…

Run, you run with the hunters, you are one with the hunters…they need you as you need them to succeed in the hunt, so you can eat…and stave off the growing, gnawing emptiness in your gut…

Flying through the forest, your lungs are burning as you draw in harsh and desperate breath…you legs move as it of their own volition…your shoulders ache with the weight of your great hunting spears …your skin stinging  from the switch of whipping branches…

The cries of the hunters and the baying of the hounds ring in your ears….moving to the front of your fellows you can see the stag, flinging up snow and ice behind it…cold clods of  earth  flying out from under its hooves…

Looking at the beast you see, for an instance, one of its eyes…and you know that this is no ordinary animal…in its eyes is an intelligence and knowledge of the sacred play that is being acted out tonight…

You are caught in its gaze, and running toward it, you become one with the stag…

Your spears fall from your fingers…you have no need of them now…

Your human clothing falls from your body….you have no need of them now…

Now you ride the stag… and you are the stag…

You are the hunted that will feed the starving in the winter….to see them through the cold…to ensure that the sun rises again…

Feel the different gait of four legs not two….feel the pull and weight of your antlers…the cold through your thick coat….and the excitement of the run through your forest…

Hear the cry of the hunters and the baying of the hounds 

They are calling for you…

You run, and the blood sings in your ears as you continue down your path, following the icy winds…

Ahead of you….the forest ends…nothing but blackness and stars…hooves skidding on the ice and rock…

The dogs and the hunters are behind you….you can feel their approach…hear drum of their feet on  the path…

The hunt is coming to a close…..pull back, away from the stag…

Pull back away from the hunters, away from their dogs…

See the completion of the sacred hunt

OPEN YOUR EYES!

('HUNTERS' AND 'STAG' COME THROUGH, 'STAG' IS KILLED)

Close your eyes….breath….remember….feel the passage of years…

You have been the hunters…you have been the stag…you have seen the completion of the hunt…the hunt that brings life for the new year…the stag…the king reborn in the sun….

Follow the story of the king down through the years…see the layers of legend and fairytale…

See the stag and smell the blood, the blood that is freezing on the snow…

Look at the stags open eyes…you can see the life ebb away…and fly to the stars where it pulls the sun back to people, for another year…

You look back to the stag, and it that instant light fills the world…sparking of ice and snow on the trees…covering everything you see with a bright gold glow…

Where the stag was, now lies a man…bleeding from where the hunters had caught him

Naked except for an animal skin loincloth…he groans…his hair is plaited and so matted with grease and blood it look like felt…he is tattooed…covered in blue whorls and spirals haunt his skin…under the blood…

He opens his eyes and stares at the sky…

You see him sit up, still injured and haul himself upright….

He coughs…something caught in his throat…he coughs and coughs again….he spits out a small black bean…it lands in front of him…

The earth seems to shift and now the man is different

Clothes now, and heavy furs…hood, boots…he carries a stone tipped spear….he is much stronger…he is further away from death now….

A quick dark shadow passes through the forest…a white hare darting past your vision…

Look back to the man…he is different again…..he is older, wisdom is in his eyes….he wears thick white robes….he has the look of a priest…

A bird trills and he has changed again…

Big heavy boots…red suit, white trim…a big white beard….

Over to the side, a big sleigh, the shadows of powerful animals harnessed to it…

The world shifts…look to the man…see him as he truly is…there is no one face…he wears all faces at one time…what you see depends on how you look…recognise him for what he is….stag…sacrifice… priest….midwinter king…

See the layers of story legend and fairytale that cover him…and see the layers of truth….

It’s the things that we believe that make us human…

Pull away from the forest…up into the mists and the fog….feel them close around you…walk back to yourself…through the tug of centuries…out past the stories and the fables…

Breath…..breath….feel your heartbeat…let it pull you back…..breath…..feel your body…breath…come back  to yourself…feel every part of  your body …feel it tingle…breath deep

Open your eyes