Who is Pan?
A representation of Pan as I see him is to the left.
Many things have been written about the mystical creature known as Pan, and I am sure that more than a few of these legends are true.
I personally find Pan charming, witty and most of all always available when I call. This, no matter what kind of being he is, is reason enough to be fond of him. I guess the legends of his amorous encounters and his magical origins have always intrigued me, so when I first encountered him, or should I say heard him, I was surprised. The fact that I could hear him was a shock.
At the time, I was climbing the path to the Power Point behind Cluny Hill College in Scotland. I wasn’t alone but with a friend, so it wasn’t just my imagination. Of course, I heard what you would expect Pan to be playing, the flute. Isn’t this the old cliché from every story you’ve ever heard about Pan? So of course I didn’t believe it. I figured it had to be someone from the college who was practicing their flute and somewhere in the area. This of course turned out not to be the case.
I also learned that I was not the only person to hear Pan in the woods behind the college but in fact, he was heard quite often by many of the residents and visitors who came to study. Still, I was impressed that I had actually heard him. I had been allowed to step into that world of magic and legend. Having spoken to the plants and trees, this shouldn’t have seemed all that surprising. Yet somehow it was. It was as if the Elemental Kingdom, the whole Elemental world, had accepted me as their partner in sharing their messages with our world.
Since that time I have heard, felt, or seen what Pan needed me to learn, not only in Scotland but even in my own backyard.
I have come to realize that he follows the orders of only one other being and that is Mother Nature herself. Like he said, “I am a part of (Mother) Nature and I will follow her until she no longer exists. Only through her have you become what you have become, and that is everything.”
With a right hand man like Pan and an enlightened view of the Elemental Kingdom on our side, we might just make Pan’s wish come true. His wish that once again we could return to a time when Man and Nature lived together, all things were free and everyone knew their part in the world.
That is my wish too.