TITLE: Pan - The Great God's Modern Return
AUTHOR: Paul Robichaud
PUBLISHER: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 9781789144765
PODCAST EPISODE: Book Club 23
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Pan, the enigmatic and cloven hoofed god, has inspired musicians, artists, and writers ever since he first graced the fields of Arcadia. Sometimes worshiped as the omnipotent god of all, and at other times deemed the very inspiration behind the current well-known image of the devil, he has proven to be one of the most paradoxical figures in mythology. Nevertheless, he fascinates all who read the paradoxical stories of him or see his smiling visage. After all, he remains the only god within the Greek Pantheon to die and remain dead. When reading this book, one can imagine the goat hooved, bearded, and horned figure in repose or playing upon his pipes – the reed that was once his would-be lover waving in the wind. With such vibrant stories to his name, it only seems fitting that a poet undertook the task of deconstructing how our perception of Pan has shifted over time.
Paul Robichaud’s Pan: The Great God’s Modern Return, published by Reaktion Books, tracks the god from his origins as a guardian of Arcadian shepherds to his modern forms of trickster god primarily in the young adult genre of fiction. Along the way Robichaud examines the artwork, poetry, literature, and even music with Pan as the central figure. His prose paints a gorgeous picture of the misunderstood god and how changes in societal norms have erased or enhanced various aspects of the god over time.
Of particular interest to folklorists is the attention that Robichaud pays to the occult history of Pan. Robichaud traces the conflation of Satan and Pan to a misinterpretation of Elphias Levi’s image of Baphomet. Margaret Murray’s Horned God hypothesis – that Pan is the original God of All and that cults worshiping him have survived into modern day – is acknowledged as being inaccurate in its scholarship. More importantly, the author asks why the theory remains so popular today in both fiction and nonfiction. . Why does the idea of an ancient Horned God cult worshiping in secret for millenia remain so persistently lodged within the modern mind?
This book will awaken the great god in the mind of anyone who reads it, fitting for a figure so beloved by Jung, and after finishing the book readers will come away with a bit of suspicion that perhaps around the corner that laughing god will be waiting. After all, many who spent their time writing hymns to Pan did end up seeing him. Robichaud writes of these encounters with respect and wonder, neither proclaiming them to be hoaxes nor literally true, but acknowledging the profound impact on those who perceived Pan – and how often the encounters were eerily similar in tone and context.
It seems a rather cruel joke that a book about Pan should be published in the midst of a pandemic, a fact that the author wryly comments about in his afterword. In another way, however, the coincidence is fitting. Pan – whose name is now understood to mean all and often encompasses all and nothing – in his modern guise seems singularly focused upon environmental renewal. What better time to tend to your garden than now, with a tip of the hat to nature’s laughing protective spirit?
AUTHOR: Paul Robichaud
PUBLISHER: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 9781789144765
PODCAST EPISODE: Book Club 23
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Pan, the enigmatic and cloven hoofed god, has inspired musicians, artists, and writers ever since he first graced the fields of Arcadia. Sometimes worshiped as the omnipotent god of all, and at other times deemed the very inspiration behind the current well-known image of the devil, he has proven to be one of the most paradoxical figures in mythology. Nevertheless, he fascinates all who read the paradoxical stories of him or see his smiling visage. After all, he remains the only god within the Greek Pantheon to die and remain dead. When reading this book, one can imagine the goat hooved, bearded, and horned figure in repose or playing upon his pipes – the reed that was once his would-be lover waving in the wind. With such vibrant stories to his name, it only seems fitting that a poet undertook the task of deconstructing how our perception of Pan has shifted over time.
Paul Robichaud’s Pan: The Great God’s Modern Return, published by Reaktion Books, tracks the god from his origins as a guardian of Arcadian shepherds to his modern forms of trickster god primarily in the young adult genre of fiction. Along the way Robichaud examines the artwork, poetry, literature, and even music with Pan as the central figure. His prose paints a gorgeous picture of the misunderstood god and how changes in societal norms have erased or enhanced various aspects of the god over time.
Of particular interest to folklorists is the attention that Robichaud pays to the occult history of Pan. Robichaud traces the conflation of Satan and Pan to a misinterpretation of Elphias Levi’s image of Baphomet. Margaret Murray’s Horned God hypothesis – that Pan is the original God of All and that cults worshiping him have survived into modern day – is acknowledged as being inaccurate in its scholarship. More importantly, the author asks why the theory remains so popular today in both fiction and nonfiction. . Why does the idea of an ancient Horned God cult worshiping in secret for millenia remain so persistently lodged within the modern mind?
This book will awaken the great god in the mind of anyone who reads it, fitting for a figure so beloved by Jung, and after finishing the book readers will come away with a bit of suspicion that perhaps around the corner that laughing god will be waiting. After all, many who spent their time writing hymns to Pan did end up seeing him. Robichaud writes of these encounters with respect and wonder, neither proclaiming them to be hoaxes nor literally true, but acknowledging the profound impact on those who perceived Pan – and how often the encounters were eerily similar in tone and context.
It seems a rather cruel joke that a book about Pan should be published in the midst of a pandemic, a fact that the author wryly comments about in his afterword. In another way, however, the coincidence is fitting. Pan – whose name is now understood to mean all and often encompasses all and nothing – in his modern guise seems singularly focused upon environmental renewal. What better time to tend to your garden than now, with a tip of the hat to nature’s laughing protective spirit?