Stag's head misericord, Cawston

I came across this misericord carving of a stag's head last week in St Agnes Church, Cawston, a village ten miles or so north of Norwich. My first reaction was that it was a beautiful piece of craftsmanship; the stag in mediaeval Christian art is symbolic of purity and religious aspiration, a notion which probably stemmed from the author of Psalm 42:-

As a deer longs for running streams

So my soul longs for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for the living God.

However, the thing that struck me about it was that it didn't look very holy - there's something slightly ungodly, almost pagan about it, and like the green men in the rafters of the church above us, it spews forth foliage from its mouth, and seems to have leaves growing from the crown of its head.
Perhaps it's not meant to have any Christian significance. As well as symbolising purity, the stag also represented earthly, fleshly male lustiness (as in stag nights, etc), so it may be that this carving is meant to represent not godliness, but the regenerative carnality of creation - something which religious leaders have tried to suppress throughout the ages.