The God With No Name, or that is to say Many.

THE GUNFIGHTER: (Demigod hero, Travelling Spirit) Here we have the first of the third tier of American deities, the most human of all, they are touched by divinity, but still basically human, though always with more then human elements under the surface. Son of The Man in Black and a mortal woman. As he is depicted in thousands of novels, short stories, movies, and television he never lived, but is master and protector of a Golden Age that never was. Like Hercules he takes part of himself from the gods and part from common mortals, and throws his lot in with the human half. He was first known as Buffalo Bill, a fictional character who was virtuous, sober and always stood for the right, at least what was perceived as right at that time, he later was portrayed by a man who at first was accepted by the public and then himself as being the `real' Buffalo Bill. The Star Spangled father of American brand BS. He was also the sanctified version of dozens of other men, some criminals, others thugs, or simple lawmen, opportunists or outright psycho. Such as Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Wild Bill, Armstrong Custer, the Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday and others who's real lives were mostly discarded for the fictional or mythic creations that replaced them. Later to be replaced by an even more purified `fictional' manifestation of the being baring such names as the Lone Ranger, The Man With No Name, and all those characters that channelled themselves through the medium who assumed the pseudonym of John Wayne. As the world changed so that the fantasy of the Golden West was no longer possible the spirit of the Gunfighter took on the more "modern" guise of the Hard-Boiled Detective again shifting from form to form while keeping the same basic underlying soul.

The Wildman

The Wildman: (The Green made flesh) Do you see the Wildman in the picture above? No doubt he's there. In the American Pantheon the Wildman has served as a sort of home-spun Greenman. Always of the Earth, but also somewhat not of it as well. Like the Greenman of Anglo-Saxon lore the Wildman of America has tended to be rather nebulous. Sometimes seen as the Mountain Man, Some times as the Naive American, at others even as Bigfoot. This diety shows how important the Land is to the spirit of America, his difficulty to be found shows that to a large extent many have been more than a bit uncomfortable with that knowledge.

The Playboy

The Playboy: (The Blonde Bombshell's Only Begotten Son, and minister on Earth.) If the Man In Black can sire an avatar / son with a mortal why not the Blonde Bombshell? After all this IS America you know. Being only divine on his Mum's side the Playboy in his manifestations had a rough go of it at first. He had to be snuck onto the American stage with the help of the Fureigner. While would go a long way in explaining Valentino. He was later followed by hundreds of Lounge Lizards in the 20's. At first never fully trusted, there was just to much of the foreign and most deadly of all the feminine about him. But he did persist, and at last was able to divest himself of his foreign elements with the ministry of his most devoted apostle Mr H. Hefner. He later lent his force to others such as the Chairman of the Board, The Candy Man, and two guys in Miami with bad shaves who pretended to be followers of the Gunfighter but are really the Playboy's very own. Today the White Goddess' only begotten son is more prominent then ever.

Your Demons will be born beyond the Sun.

The Foreigner or more to the point the Fureigner: (The Adversary) Well! You didn't expect the devil of the American Pantheon to BE an American did you? As mythos are a living every changing thing within a society the Adversary, just like the more heroic members of the American Mythos such as the Gunfighter, Man In Black & Blonde Bombshell, has appeared in many different guises. There is one common thread that runs through all of them. He is a person from `else-where.' The first Foreign Devil was the Native American, who was afforded foreign status as after all if they were `real' Americans would not have been so.... Indian! Along with the Indian as prima evil in the early stages of the American mythos the Fureigner also took the forms of the Willie Red Coat, the Sneaky Mexican and the Inscrutable Chinaman. With the coming of the 20th century the American view was broadened so that there were a number of other forms for the Fureigner to take such as the Blood Thirsty Hun and most powerful of all The Godless Red. In the last few years we have seen a few masks of the Father of Inescapable Death Traps melt away. So that the Native American has been reassigned to the care of the Wildman. At the same time others have just disappeared. Leaving only Middle-Eastern Terrorists and Englishmen as the two main incarnations of the Foreign Devil. It may seem odd that a nation that is made up almost in it's entirety of people who came from elsewhere would make it's manifestation of evil a person who was also from another land. But I don't explain `em I just point them out.

Happy Trails To You!

And that dear people and gentle readers is my take on the American Pantheon. There is much that has been left out. The dying king myth that has been lain over J.F.K., the Golden Age / Happy Hereafter that is found in American Science Fiction, the UFO Grays as the little people of America. Elvis...etc...etc... I know there has to be a lot of disagreement on my take on this, but that's a mythos for you, ether it's alive and changing or it's dead. Terry Keith McCombs Magentashadow@webtv.net