Frey's Stars: The Ploughman

Frey's Stars

The Ploughman or Goatherd, whom the Greeks called Bootes, is Frey's constellation, or so He told me. It is a kite-shaped constellation with two short legs, and the brightest star in it is Arcturus ... placed right at the "crotch" of the constellation. Yes, really, that's Frey's fertility-dispensing magical cock. The ancients were not as prudish as we were about such things; Frey poles routinely had the large cock protruding from them, so that people could touch it and gain a blessing.

Arcturus, which we can now claim as Frey's Cock, is a golden star - appropriate for the Golden One. Bernadette Brady says that is represents the transition from hunter-gatherer to herder-cultivator, which also echoes Frey (some people feel that he is linked to the earlier Green Men or Horned Gods if one goes earlier). Frey's Cock is a sign of leading the way from one state to another. It bestows prosperity from work and especially agriculture (Frey the Fertility God), strong desires perhaps even leading to excess (Frey the Sex God!), an enterprising spirit (the wooer of dangerous Gerda), and being a protector (Arcturus is supposedly the protector of Spica, which would make Frey the protector of his mother Nerthus).