T’was
a year or so later that I spied a little white man of the same
sort of proportions in a largeish painting at Phoenix Barn...and
following this discovery, I was drawn to look more closely at a
smaller painting that also depicts a white figure - but more like
the shape of a child. Andrew told me that the paintings were by
Ben, and I told him about the little white man in the gorse bush…Another year or so later, at the Phoenix Barn Burn’s Night party of 2022 (well whi-skye-d), I sat in the porch for a while with Ben, where he showed me some geometrical art works that he had been creating…They involved (as I recall) overlaying two L-R symmetrical stars of different shapes, and then, through subsequent pictures, symetricaly moving the points around (lines attached). - So in each picture there are different intersections/shapes/figures...I thought, felt, and said at the time, that the images are very beautiful - especially as a developing series...And as I write this, I wonder about this continuing – perhaps breaking with the symmetry, like a figure dancing...Anyway, t’was then that I asked Ben about the little white man in the gorse bush...To which he answered with a wily smile.
Meanwhile, it seemed that little white man in the gorse bush was gradually washing away in the rain...but, on closer inspection, I have found him still there – revealing a green inner self – or different self – or elf. Also meanwhile, maybe sub-consciously combining the little white man with the star pictures, I was reminded of the ‘littl shynin man’ in ‘Riddley Walker’ by Russel Hoban. - A novel about a budding philosopher artist shaman in the environs of Canterbury cathedral, a thousand years or more after a nuclear holocaust - and narrated by the protagonist in the morphed language of that time...In his world a particular cultural confluence of history, mythology and theatre has formed around the concept of splitting the ‘addom’ – which conjures up both the atom of physics and the Adam of religion/creation mythology – as an expansive Adam – also a Christ figure - the ‘littl shynin man’…
This book uses symbols from Christianity due to the setting, but uses them in a way that transcends religion. Rather, it presents a way to study symbolism; what works and how it works; to what extent a symbol might have a shared meaning or meanings for us; to what extent different images/icons/idols may have equivalent meanings. - For instance, the Adam and Christ combination is very similar to the Atman and Brahman combination that is one meaning of ‘Om’* [which may be indicated by the presence of ‘om’ in the name Addom]….They both seem to have connotations of consciousness [Adam/Atman] of ultimate reality [‘the cross of radiating lite’/Brahman].
Becoming more aware of helpful symbols and metaphorical values is part of a larger theme in the book about divination/intuition/analysis/deduction and signs in general. - About how to ‘read’ things and situations, how to be more aware of the circumstances in which we necessarily take part. This is spoken of quintessentially by Riddley as ‘what tells for you’ and ‘what it tells for you’…which brings us to purpose...Where the term ‘ultimate reality’, as well as refering to the energy/matter of the Universe, can also be used to refer to a state of having sufficient understanding of facts/context/cause and effect to be able to make choices that can produce what we ultimately want.
Presumably this is a call for us to be more aware of, and to develop our star nature, by which we unite as a presence for peace and prosperity – a call which is a star man, star woman, star human activity in itself...Without re-reading Ridley Walker right now, I think it is important to note that the message of compassion that comes with the Christ symbol, and is also present in other religions/ideologies/sets of principles, seems to be taken for granted in the book.
But we have fallen into systems that tear us apart, and the same symbols that show our wonderful potential are also poignantly used to show the catastrophe of unhealthy separation, of unhealthy divisions between us and our environment, between each other, within ourselves, although we are called ‘individuals.’ - The divisions between science and art, science and humane ethics, analysis and intuition, rationality and love for one another. The implication in the book is that the loss of healthy wholeness in our culture results in the devastation of all life on Earth – in this book by nuclear war; along with warnings that this sort of destruction can be repeated.
...Riddley also encounters and saves a Mr Punch puppet – another old symbol, and in this case a cautionary character, that by performance, by play, can warn us of our potential for insanity and violence. Finally, he encounters a stone carving of the Green Man in the crypt beneath the ruins of the cathedral, which connects I think with his observation nearer the end of the book, that every year the forest is growing. Although the green man’s presence in a Christian church shows the enduring, if some what occulted strength of pagan cullture, we have to wonder I think, if the disaster would have been avoided by revering him, and a green woman, equally with the Jesus and Mary figures.
If the littl shynin man is both about the stuff of the whole universe and/or consciousness of this, and about conscious compassion for each other (and ourselves personally), then the greenery, the cornucopia of the Green man, is about the abundance of nature – in the sense of the biosphere - about the Earth as essential for providing for life (thus providing for us to be conscious)...and the human form of the image is about conscious appreciation of this.
Russel Hoban has written that one of his core inspirations for Ridley Walker was the story of St Eustace - especially the saint's vision of a little Christos between the antlers of a stag (so like gorse branches). The stag is referred to in the book as the ‘Hart of the Wood’ and appears bearing the Addom in the stories of torn humanity and split particles. But there is another story...in which the Hart brings the shynin man to meet the Green man, which may symbolise the realisation that they are both aspects of ourselves; and that for healthy development, they have to develop together, interactively, providing for each other. - Because what is good for one can be checked by assessing if it is good for the others. Because, in this way we can learn how to love – how to use our consciousness to learn, to heal, to help to make a humane, abundant and beautiful world.
“Seed of the little
Seed of the wyld
Seed of the berning is
Hart of the chyld
Out goes the candl
Out goes the lite
Out goes my story
And so Good Nite”
― Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker
“Stoans
want to be lissent to. Them big brown stoans in the formers feal
they want to stan up and talk like men. Some times youwl see them
lying on the groun with ther humps and hollers theywl say to you,
Sit a wyl and res easy why dont you. Then when youre sitting on
them theywl talk and theywl tel if you lissen. Theywl tel whats in
them but you wont hear nothing what theyre saying without you go
as fas as the stoan. You myt think a stoan is slow thats becaws
you wont see it moving. Wont see it walking a roun. That dont mean
its slow tho. There are the many cools of Addom which they are the
party cools of stoan. Moving in ther millyings which is the girt
dants of the every thing its the fastes thing there is it keaps
the stilness going. Reason you wont see it move its so far a way
in to the stoan. If you cud fly way way up like a saddelite bird
over the sea and you lookit down you wunt see the waves moving
youwd see them change 1 way to a nother only you wunt see them
moving youwd be too far a way. You wunt see nothing only a
changing stilness. Its the same with a stoan.” ― Russell Hoban,
Riddley Walker After reading this extract, I thought of some other titles for ‘Ben Praying at Boscawen un’ - ‘Ben moving as fast as a stone’ and ‘Ben dancing like a stone’
*[Om is] found in ancient and medieval era manuscripts, temples, monasteries, and spiritual retreats in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.[1][2] As a syllable, it is often chanted either independently or before a spiritual recitation and during meditation in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.[3][4]. In Hinduism, wherein it signifies the essence of the Ultimate Reality (parabrahman) which is consciousness (paramatman),[5][6][7]Om is one of the most important spiritual symbols.[8][9] It refers to Atman (Self within) and Brahman (ultimate reality, entirety of the universe, truth, divine, supreme spirit, cosmic principles, knowledge). Wikipedia ..
However,
I now know that she was reporting facts as well as creating a
story - the Littl Shynin Man is still climbing through the furze,
although he now resembles Greanvine [The Green Man] much more, and
it is not only Lyla who had seen him: Joza also remembers the
white figure in the gorse on the edge of St Just... 
I wonder if this is all linked? Is there a
connection between the Littl Shynin Man and Ben's little figures
in his paintings? Did Ben make the little white man in the furze -
in the heart of the wood (Hart of the wud) - the construction is
of green covered wire like the wire used for the gabions at
Phoenix Barn. And Greanvine is wired to the hart of the wud,
and will be there as long as that furze bush remains.