Interesting and diverse takes on Deer Medicine culled from Wikipedia and Slavic Folklore & World Dreaming - Przemek Sokół - Krayina Mriy - Дреамер
Slavic Folklore & World Dreaming - Przemek Sokół - Krayina Mriy - ДреамерDeer, Elk, Moose, Reindeer & Cernunnos Folk
Deer and Reindeer is the symbol of Sacrifice. Humans who have this medicine for a lifetime or a period of time in their life, must learn to eventually experience pain with dignity and grace. Its a very difficult medicine for humans to learn. The same is true for rabbit medicine or any other nourishment for predators such as raptors (hawk, eagle, condor) etc. Once you learn how to structure such sacrifices made in life, through loss, deaths and rebirths, then mother earth can show you her power and her magic.
TOTEM:
A Look at the Symbolic Meaning of the Deer - When we encounter the deer in the wild, our breath catches - we are transfixed by their graceful features and delicate movements. The tender beauty of these beasts has not gone unnoticed by our ancestors.
The deer is linked to the arts, specifically poetry and music in ancient Celtic animal lore due to its graceful form. The Celts also believed that deer were associated with the fairie realm, and would lead troops of fairies - hundreds of them trailing behind them as the stag cut a path through the forest.
Both Celts and Native Americans observed the deer to be savvy when it came to finding the best herbs. These earth-bound peoples would follow the deer to prime herb patches - many of which proved to be highly beneficial in their medicinal purposes. A quick-list of animal symbolism of the deer may offer a great deal of insight as you are working with the spirit of the deer in your life.
How does this translate into our own life experience? - Just as the deer has an uncanny sense of where to find the green freshness earth provides, we can ask the deer within ourselves to seek out our inner treasures. In meditation or day dream, go on a spiritual hike with the deer. See yourself walking in the woods with the deer leading you into amazing depths within your soul. Each step you and the deer take will lead you deeper into your spiritual knowing, and to limitless treasure within.
The deer (particularly the doe, females) has the capacity for infinite generosity. Their heart rhythms pulse in soft waves of kindness. Match that graciousness by offering your trust to her. She will reward you by leading you to the most powerful spiritual medicine you can fathom.
SCANDINAVIAN - Finnish forest reindeer (R. tarandus fennicus), found in the wild in only two areas of the Fennoscandia peninsula of Northern Europe, in Finnish/Russian Karelia, and a small population in central south Finland. The Karelia population reaches far into Russia, however, so far that it remains an open question whether reindeer further to the east are R. t. fennicus as well.
Migratory woodland caribou (R. tarandus caribou), or forest caribou, once found in the North American taiga (boreal forest) from Alaska to Newfoundland and Labrador and as far south as New England, Idaho, and Washington. Woodland caribou have disappeared from most of their original southern range and are considered threatened where they remain, with the notable exception of the Migratory woodland caribou of northern Quebec and Labrador, Canada.
The name of the Cariboo district of central British Columbia relates to their once-large numbers there, but they have almost vanished from that area in the last century. A herd is protected in the Caribou Mountains in Alberta. The above quoted range includes R. tarandus caboti (Labrador caribou), R. tarandus osborni (Osborn's caribou – from British Columbia) and R. tarandus terraenovae (Newfoundland caribou). Based on a review in 1961, these were considered invalid and included in R. tarandus caribou, but some recent authorities have considered them all valid, even suggesting that they are quite distinct.
An analysis of DNA in 2005 found differences between the caribous from Newfoundland, Labrador, south-western Canada and south-eastern Canada, but maintained all in R. tarandus caribou.
AS MEDICINE:
CHINESE - Velvet antler refers to the whole cartilaginous antler in a pre-calcified stage, rather than the velvety "skin" on growing antlers. It is an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. Deer velvet antler can be divided into sections, each of which are used for different medical purposes in traditional Chinese medicine. The upper section, called a wax piece, is used as a growth tonic for children. The middle section, called a blood piece, is used to treat adults with arthritis and related disorders. The bottom section, called a bone piece, is used for calcium deficiency and geriatric therapies.
The tip is the most expensive and sought-after part of the antler. Moose, elk and deer produce new antlers yearly (primarily males, except in caribou/reindeer). The stags are not harmed or killed for the velvet antler. Traditionally, in Asia, the antler is dried and sold as slices. These slices are then boiled in water, usually with other herbs and ingredients, and consumed as tea. In the West, antler is dried and powdered, and consumed in capsule form as a dietary supplement.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND - Deer are subject to local anesthesia and restrained during antler removal, and the procedure is supervised by licensed veterinarians. Typically, the antler is cut off near the base after it is about two-thirds of its potential full size, between 55 to 65 days of growth, before any significant calcification occurs. The procedure is generally done around June in the Northern Hemisphere and December in the Southern Hemisphere.
CELT - The Insular Celts held deer as supernatural animals, "fairy cattle" that were herded and milked by a localised and benevolent fairy giantess (a bean sìdhe) in each district, who could shift shape to that of a red deer;[1] in the West Highlands, she selected the individual deer that would be slain in the next day's hunt.[2]
In Ireland, An Chailleach Bhéarach, "The Old Woman of Beare", an island off the coast of County Cork, takes the form of a deer to avoid capture; to Beare come characters from the Land of the Dead to visit Ireland.[3] Other Celtic mythological figures such as Oisin, Flidais and Sadb were given connections to deer.
Cernunnos was a god in Celtic mythology that possessed two deer antlers on the top of his head. He was known as The Horned One or The Horned God despite having antlers and not horns. Cernunnos is also known as The Stag Lord, The Horned God of the Hunt, The Lord of the Forest, The Lord of the Hunt, and The Lord of the Animals.[4] However, it is impossible to know exactly because there is no one particular myth concerning him.
RELIGION (Christianity - taken from previous Shamanic Cultures of the Goddess) -
Saint Giles, a Catholic saint especially revered in the south of France, is reported to have lived for many years as a hermit in the forest near Nîmes, where in the greatest solitude he spent many years, his sole companion being a deer, or hind, who in some stories sustained him on her milk. In art, he is often depicted together with that hind.
In the founding legend of Le Puy-en-Velay, where a Christian church replaced a healing a megalithic dolmen. A local tradition had rededicated the curative virtue of the sacred site to Mary, who cured ailments by contact with the standing stone. When the founding bishop Vosy climbed the hill, he found that it was snow-covered in July; in the snowfall the tracks of a deer round the dolmen outlined the foundations of the future church.
St Hubertus / St Eustace in a 13th century English manuscript (Biblioteca Marciana)
Saint Hubertus (or "Hubert") is a Christian saint, the patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians and metalworkers, and used to be invoked to cure rabies. The legend of concerned an apparition of a stag with the crucifix between its horns, effecting the worldly and aristocratic Hubert's conversion to a saintly life.
In the story of Saint Hubertus, on Good Friday morning, when the faithful were crowding the churches, Hubertus sallied forth to the chase. As he was pursuing a magnificent stag the animal turned and, as the pious legend narrates, he was astounded at perceiving a crucifix standing between its antlers, which occasioned the change of heart that led him to a saintly life. The story of the hart appears first in one of the later legendary hagiographies (Bibliotheca hagiographica Latina, nos. 3994–4002) and has been appropriated from the earelier legend of Saint Eustace (Placidus).
Later in the 6th century, the Bishop Saint Gregory of Tours wrote his Chronicles about the Merovingian rulers, were appeared a Legend of the King Clovis I who prayed to Christ in one of his campaigns so he could find a place to cross the river Vienne. Considered as a divine sign, a huge deer appeared and showed were could the army pass across.
In the 14th century, probably keeping some relation with Saint Eustace's legend, the deer again appears in the Christian Legends. The Chronicon Pictum contains a legend, where the later King Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary and his brother the King Géza I of Hungary were hunting in a forest and appeared to them a deer with numerous candles on his antlers. As the saint Knight said to his brother, that wasn't a deer but an angel of God, and his antlers were wings, the candles were shining feathers. And as Ladislaus added, the place where the deer was standing was where it was meant to be built a cathedral in honor of the Holy Virgin.
Islam
OTTOMAN Empire - Turkic peoples that converted to Islam brought with them from the Eurasian Steppe their beliefs and cults involving horns, deer, antlers, hides, etc. (Not entirely without precedent: The pre-Islamic Kaaba itself had ram’s horns mounted on its walls). In the Ottoman Empire, and more specifically in western Asia Minor and Thrace the deer cult seems to have been widespread and much alive, no doubt as a result of the meeting and mixing of Turkic with local traditions. A famous case is the 13th century holy man Geyiklü Baba, ‘Father Deer’, who lived with his deer in the mountain forests of Bursa and gave hind’s milk to a colleague (compare with Saint Giles). Material in the Ottoman sources is not scarce but it is rather dispersed and very brief, denying us a clear picture of the rites involved.
GERMANIC - An Anglo-Saxon royal scepter found at the Sutton Hoo burial site in England features a depiction of an upright, antlered stag. In the Old English language poem Beowulf, much of the first portion of the story focuses on events surrounding a great mead hall called Heorot, meaning "Hall of the Hart".
In the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál the four stags of Yggdrasil are described as feeding on the world tree, Yggdrasil and the poem further relates that the stag Eikþyrnir lives on top of Valhalla. In the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, the god Freyr is having once killed Beli with an antler. In Þiðrekssaga, Sigurd is presented as having been nursed by a doe.
Andy Orchard proposes a connection between the hart Eikþyrnir atop Valhalla, the hart imagery associated with Heorot, and the Sutton Hoo scepter.[8] Sam Newton identifies both the Sutton Hoo whetstone and the hall Heorot as early English symbols of kingship.[9] Rudolf Simek says that "it is not completely clear what role the stag played in Germanic religion" and theorizes that "the stag cult probably stood in some sort of connection to Odin's endowment of the dignity of kings."
GREEK - In Greek mythology, the deer is particularly associated with Artemis in her role as virginal huntress. Actaeon, after witnessing the nude figure of Artemis bathing in a pool, was transformed by Artemis into a stag that his own hounds tore to pieces. Callimachus, in his archly knowledgeable "Hymn III to Artemis", mentions the deer that drew the chariot of Artemis:
in golden armor and belt, you yoked a golden chariot, bridled deer in gold.
One of the Labors of Heracles was to capture the Cerynian Hind sacred to Artemis and deliver it briefly to his patron, then rededicate it to Artemis. As a hind bearing antlers was unknown in Greece, the story suggests a reindeer, which, unlike other deer, can be harnessed and whose females bear antlers. The myth relates to Hyperborea, a northern land that would be a natural habitat for reindeer. Heracles' son Telephus was exposed as an infant on the slopes of Tegea but nurtured by a doe.
HINDUISM - In Hindu mythology, the goddess Saraswati takes the form of a red deer called Rohit according to the Aitareya Upanishad. Saraswati is the goddess of learning so learned men use deer skin as clothing and mats to sit upon. A golden deer plays an important role in the epic Ramayana. While in exile in the forest, Rama's wife Sita sees a golden deer and asks Rama and Lakshmana to get it for her. The deer is actually a rakshasa called Maricha in disguise. Maricha takes this form to lure Rama and Lakshmana away from Sita so his nephew Ravana can kidnap her.
HITTITE - The stag was revered alongside the bull at Alaca Höyük and continued in the Hittite mythology as the protective deity whose name is recorded as dKAL. Other Hittite gods were often depicted standing on the backs of stags.
JUDAISM - The Tribe Naftali bore a Stag on its tribal banner, and was poetically described as a Hind in the Blessing of Jacob. In Jewish mythology - as discussed in the Talmud (חולין נט ע"ב) - exists a giant kind of stag by the name "Keresh". He is said to live in a mythical forest called "Bei Ilai".
SCYTHIAN - The Scythians had some reverence for the stag, which is one of the most common motifs in their artwork, especially at funeral sites. The swift animal was believed to speed the spirits of the dead on their way, which perhaps explains the curious antlered headdresses found on horses buried at Pazyryk.
SLAVIC - In Slavic fairytales, Golden-horned deer is a large deer with golden antlers. HUNGARIAN - In Hungarian mythology, Hunor and Magor, the founders of the Magyar peoples, chased a white stag in a hunt. The stag lead them into unknown land that they named Scythia. Hunor and Magor populated Scythia with their descendants the Huns and the Magyars. To this day, an important emblem in Hungary is a many-antlered stag with its head turned back over its shoulder.
MEXICO - Huichol - For the Huichol people of Mexico,[12] the "magical deer" represents both the power of maize to sustain the body and of the peyote cactus to feed and enlighten the spirit. Animals such as the eagle, jaguar, serpent and deer are of great importance to the Mexican indigenous cultures. For each group, however, one of these animals is of special significance and confers some of its qualities to the tribe.
For the Huichol it is the deer that holds this intimate role. The character of the Huichol tends to be light, flexible and humorous. They have avoided open warfare, neither fighting against the Spanish nor Mexican governments, but holding to their own traditions. The Huichol hunt and sacrifice deer in their ceremonies. They make offerings to the Deer of the Maize to care for their crops, and to the Deer of the Peyote to bring them spiritual guidance and artistic inspiration.
SHINTO - Japanese, Deer are considered messengers to the gods in Shinto, especially Kasuga Shrine in Nara Prefecture where a white deer had arrived from Kashima Shrine as its divine messenger. It has become a symbol of the city of Nara.
