The Horned God

[WinterTree]

Ok, I know I've been asking a lot from all of you lately, but I need a bit of help again. I've developed an interest in the Horned God ever since I was introduced to Paganism. I am always very intrigued when I read about him, and when I visualize the The God, I imagine him with the horns of a stag. I am hoping to learn more about The Horned God, and am wondering how many of you out there are close to him or worship him.

Okay, slap me for being naive, but don't Wiccans worship the Horned God? I have read in several books (one of Vivianne Crowley's books most recently) that Wiccans honor both the Goddess and the Horned One/Herne/Cernunnos (some form of him).

Apologies if I'm incorrect :bigredblu

[Aidron]

Wiccans do honor a balanced force, which is sometimes referred to as the Lord and Lady, the God and Goddess, The Lunar Lady and The Horned One/God, and so forth. So, to be clear, Wicca does not promote Goddess worship alone and if you do not honor both forces you are technically not Wiccan by the original definition since it was built upon a foundation of a balanced divine force.

The Horned God has had many speculations made. Some claim it was taken from images of Pan and other horned deities, such as Cerrunos. Often he appears referred to as Lord of the forest, animals, vegetation, and the hunt. Now, if we want to get into common sense explanations, he was probably associated with such and viewed as such because man so often views God as being in his image. I'm sure long ago hunters and tribesmen adorned horns after, during, or before hunts, from the shaman, to the hunter, to young boys. It was a symbol of power and manhood for them. Of course this could not be true, it seems likely. Then again, a lot of reasons or explanations seem likely or 'logical' which is why it is up to you to decide.

Many do not believe that the Horned God has three facets, from my experiences with speaking to them. He is just 'the God', whereas the Goddess is Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Now that, in my opinion, tends to annoy me, especially when done by Wiccans. That's not balanced and seems to be derived from feminist propoganda that women hold more power or are superior in some way to men, which is as untrue as men being superior to women. We all have stages in our lives, so why not the God? This is why if I, when speaking in Wiccan terms (and I am not Wiccan by the way) view the God as having three stages. Lad/Son, Father, Sage.

The God is often associated with governing the sun and the elements of Fire and Air, which are considered masculine or 'active' elements. Water and Earth being feminine or 'passive' elements. This is not to denote that females are passive and mean aggressive, just to differentiate between the two in the energies they display and consist of. Like Yin an Yang, one dark, one light, two active, two passive. However, in many cultures male deities are associated with the sun and female deities (one in particular from Japan's culture) being associated with the sun.

Yet another thing I dislike about Wiccans is that they refuse to acknowledge dark and light. Most believe Wicca is founded on light, happiness, and peace. Sorry, the key for Wicca was balance. Dark exists with light, evil with good (which are manmade concepts in my eyes). So it is to be said that both the God and Goddess have dark and light sides of their own, each displaying them in different ways. Just as elemental Fire has the power to maim and destroy us, so to it keeps us alive (without the sun, we would die) and warm. So it serves to reckon that both the God and Goddess have dual natures, dark and light within them from an older Wiccan perspective instead of what seems to be perpetuated mostly these days.

From a Wiccan perspective, if you want more info, try reading up on the various Sabbats, as they include a great deal of lore and stories concerning the male aspect of divinity. Yule is a very obvious example of this. The stories may help spark your interest further and attune you more to that which you have such a fondness for.

[WinterTree]

Thanks for clearing the whole Wiccan/Horned God thing up for me. *sighs* I still have much to learn....The info is wonderful and I will certainly do some good researching.

I hold both the The God and The Goddess equally in my heart and that is why I am trying to promote my interest in the male aspect of the divine as well as the female.

[Wolffang]

I had to admit before I did pay attention to the goddess alot when I first started learning wicca...but usually I really wanted to go focus on the goddess and god....and the god don't want to be forgotten...so one day when I was just watching tv I all of a sudden had dome kind of vision of him saying not to forget him...and that was the same god that was with the goddess diana when I first met her in my dream...so I always find more information about him and gotten really close to him ever since...

[CaitrionaMorgaine]

Many do not believe that the Horned God has three facets, from my experiences with speaking to them. He is just 'the God', whereas the Goddess is Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Now that, in my opinion, tends to annoy me, especially when done by Wiccans. That's not balanced and seems to be derived from feminist propoganda that women hold more power or are superior in some way to men, which is as untrue as men being superior to women. We all have stages in our lives, so why not the God? This is why if I, when speaking in Wiccan terms (and I am not Wiccan by the way) view the God as having three stages. Lad/Son, Father, Sage.

Yes! It's so nice to see another person who views male deity the same way I do, as a three-fold as well. You should see the strange looks I get for that sometimes.

I have come to know the Horned God more intimately in recent months, and I am grateful for his presence in my life. For me he is very much the wild aspect of nature and of man. He is very much in tune with the cycle of Life, Death and Rebirth.

I wrote the following Charge of the Horned God while learning about Him.

The Charge of The Horned God

Listen to the words of the Lord Hunter,
He who is also known as the Horned God
And Cernunnos, Lord of the Animals
I am the protector of all things wild and free
See my face in the shadows of the forest and
Hear my song in the howl of the wolf
Feel my embrace in the arms of your lover
For I am the consort of the Lady
I am the Hunter and the Hunted
I am the King Stag that will be sacrificed and reborn
For there are no endings, only beginnings again
Before Spring, there must come Winter
I shall return to the Earth once again
As my seed has been spilled upon it
With the first flowers and the last harvest
Know that I am all around you
Those who wish to know my mysteries
Should look not around themselves, but within
I am found in the wisdom of self and
The pursuit of understanding
I am the Seeker and the Gatekeeper

Copyright Rhiannon Solana, 2003

However, I also can see the God in the Sun God aspect. He is the nurturing male aspect, shining down upon us, encouraging us throughout the day.

I suppose I almost see the Sun God as the more fatherly aspect, whereas the Horned God fills the other two roles for me as Young Man and Sage.

For some information on various faces of the God, I would like to suggest the following book: Lord of Light & Shadow: The Many Faces of the God by D. J. Conway

I found it used and it was quite helpful when I was first learning about the God and his place in my path. I wish you the very best on this pursuit...May He change your life for the better, as he has mine.

Blessings, ~Rhiannon

[Nantonos]

Yes! It's so nice to see another person who views male deity the same way I do, as a three-fold as well. You should see the strange looks I get for that sometimes.

I don't see a problem with a three-fold horned god, after all there are several historical examples of threefold Cernunnos statues. As an example look at

http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/240496
Cernunnos from Les Bollards

Also some discussion on 'the three faces of Cernunnos'
http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/326630
http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/329329

[WinterTree]

Thank you so much for the book title, Rhiannon! It sounds perfect! I need a good bit of summer reading anyway, since school won't be taking up all my time. :)

[Aidron]

Yes! It's so nice to see another person who views male deity the same way I do, as a three-fold as well. You should see the strange looks I get for that sometimes.



I suppose I wasn't clear, my mistake. If I were to view the male aspect of divinity in Wiccan terms, that's how I would see it, as you do. However, I am not Wiccan and my religious view points are entirely my own, stemming from no religion or spiritual path for the most part, where as my craft does have many influences, my beliefs do not in terms of divinity. I also so rarely speak of my own beliefs since I consider it unimportant to do so. They're mine, I need no one to justify or validate them, so I keep them to myself.

It's simply been a pet peeve of mine to hear Wiccans (and there are so few these days that are actual Wiccans and not suffering from the 'make your own religion up as you go and call it Wicca' syndrome) proclaim the Goddess in all her glory and when you ask of the God, they reply "Huh?" Even those who don't do this never even think or bother to apply three facets to the God. Hardly what I would expect from a religion based on balance.

[Stang]

I suppose I wasn't clear, my mistake. If I were to view the male aspect of divinity in Wiccan terms, that's how I would see it, as you do. However, I am not Wiccan and my religious view points are entirely my own, stemming from no religion or spiritual path for the most part, where as my craft does have many influences, my beliefs do not in terms of divinity. I also so rarely speak of my own beliefs since I consider it unimportant to do so. They're mine, I need no one to justify or validate them, so I keep them to myself.

It's simply been a pet peeve of mine to hear Wiccans (and there are so few these days that are actual Wiccans and not suffering from the 'make your own religion up as you go and call it Wicca' syndrome) proclaim the Goddess in all her glory and when you ask of the God, they reply "Huh?" Even those who don't do this never even think or bother to apply three facets to the God. Hardly what I would expect from a religion based on balance.
I suspect that the "Wiccans" you've been talking to who seem to ignore the God are people who have self identified as Wiccans after reading a book that purports to describe Wicca, but they haven't actually had any Craft training and haven't been initiated. Some of us wouldn't consider these people to be Wiccan, even though they seem to greatly outnumber those of us who actually are Wiccan. Your idea that Wiccans only think in terms of bunnies and sunshine would apply to the self-described Wiccans, rather than initiatory Wiccans.

Wiccans do sometimes talk about the idea of a Triple Goddess, especially when they're trying to relate to a specific Celtic or Greek Goddess. But most Wiccans agree that there are actually four aspects, including the Goddess of the Underworld. And the God also has four aspects, the Young Lord, the Father God, the Old One and the Dark Lord, who is the God of the Underworld. Notice that there is some overlap between aspect and function in these descriptions. Most Wiccans don't seem to worry too much about this sort of distinctions, as long as they are able to explain what sort of Divine Energy they're talking about.

Many Wiccan initiates are reluctant to discuss the darker aspects of Wicca with Pagans who aren't Wiccan initiates, especially if those Pagans are young. That's because there are a lot of Ann Rice fans out there who want to equate the Wiccan Dark Lord with christian deities like satan, and we just get tired of explaining that the two have nothing to do with one another. After awhile, it just seems easier not to bother explaining our beliefs to others.

[Theres]

my absolute favorite description of The Horned God (in this case Pan) is from Kenneth Grahame's wonderful children's book 'Wind in the Willows'. it's in chapter 7, called The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (http://wyllie.lib.virginia.edu:8086/perl/toccer-new?id=GraWind.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=7&division=div1). if you follow the link, scroll down to just before page 154 to read it for yourself.

[Theres]

Wiccans do sometimes talk about the idea of a Triple Goddess, especially when they're trying to relate to a specific Celtic or Greek Goddess. But most Wiccans agree that there are actually four aspects, including the Goddess of the Underworld. And the God also has four aspects, the Young Lord, the Father God, the Old One and the Dark Lord, who is the God of the Underworld.

this Wiccan doesn't agree with that at all. i've never understood why people try to cram Him into Her mold, but i guess that's just me (and most other Wiccans that i know).

[WinterTree]

I read that Wind in the Willows bit and Pan is described absolutely beautifully, what a great writer! I think maybe I'll pick up a copy of that book.

[Theres]

I read that Wind in the Willows bit and Pan is described absolutely beautifully, what a great writer! I think maybe I'll pick up a copy of that book.

yep, it's a gooder alright.
i used to take an old paperback copy of that book to Beltane each year, and on the last day of the festival, when all the parents were trying to pack up, i'd take all the children over to the fire circle and read that passage to them.
it was a good way to keep them out of the way, but what was even cooler was seeing the looks on their faces when Ratty and Mole first see Him standing there. one year the sun broke through the clouds right on que, and all the kids starting pointing up at it an smiling HUGE smiles!

ahhh, those are priceless memories for me. :)

[Stang]

this Wiccan doesn't agree with that at all. i've never understood why people try to cram Him into Her mold, but i guess that's just me (and most other Wiccans that i know).

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. It is a fact that both the God and the Goddess are part of the Wheel of Being, like everything and everyone else. So we can see four basic aspects in both of them, IMO. That doesn't mean that one is being fitted into the other's mold. I realize that there are other ways of looking at the nature of Deity, but that's the perspective I find is most common among the Wiccans that I know. We may sometimes talk about the Triple Goddess and the dual aspect of the God, but that doesn't preclude an awareness of the four basic aspects, it's just a different way of talking about it, I think.