The Modern Faces of the Horned God

The horned god, whether as hunting deity, wild huntsman or forest spirit will always be with us. He is a part of us. He can be ignored or spurned, but he will not go away. Even after so long he still finds new ways to appear.

Modern paganism encompasses a very broad range of gods and ideas, but at the centre of the European tradition is the idea of the two prime forces of nature and their embodiment as the goddess and the god. Most European pagans hold these two archetypes somewhere in their personal mythology.

The Triple Aspected Goddess is the goddess implied in ancient European mythology, who appears (sometimes simultaneously) as the maiden, the woman warrior and the crone. She is known in the Irish tradition as Danu. (The Irish Celtic gods were known as the "Tuatha de Danaan", or the tribe of Danu.) A similar figure appears in the Norse myths as the three fates, and the folk image of the three witches appears everywhere from Greek myth right up to Shakespeare's "Macbeth".

To accept all of her aspects is to accept all of nature, youth and age, growth and decay, life and death. She is the generative power of nature and the female principle: the supreme deity.

She is served by her consort The Horned God. He is the horned god of the hunt and of the forest, lord of the sabbat and of the underworld. He is the embodiment of wild nature and the male principle.

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Paganism is considered to be an eccentric faith in the West. Christianity is the accepted norm, and even its ancient enemies such as the other patriarchal monotheisms of Judaism and Islam are treated with greater respect than witches and druids, who at the very best are held to be harmless cranks.

For centuries Christianity has equated the horned one with the devil, the Christian god of evil. So in such a hostile world, where would we expect to find the horned god today ?

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Saint Cornely

When the Christians were not demonising the old gods, they were quietly recruiting them.

Carnac in Brittany, France, is a small town famous for its proximity to hundreds of menhirs placed in neat rows, several miles long, during the bronze age. Although now a Christian community there are records of ancient pagan rites being performed amongst the stones by the local villagers as late as the end of the 19 th century.

In the centre of the town is a catholic church dedicated to Saint Cornely. He is the patron saint of horned beasts.

Saint Cornely of horned beasts? The town of Carnac ? Cernunnos the horned god of the hunt ?

The old pagan deity has been picked up, cleaned up, dressed up, de-horned and canonised.

This is more common than you might think. When Christian priests found that the heavy approach was not working and that the local villagers were still worshipping pagan gods, then they fell back on plan B. Catholic versions of the old gods were created, and the villagers could painlessly transfer their attentions from one to the other. Cernunnos must have been very popular around Carnac for the Christians to build a church dedicated to him there.

There is no way of knowing how many Catholic saints were created out of pagan gods. There were a lot of pagan gods, and there are thousands of saints.

Even the goddess herself found a disguise in the new religion. Technically speaking, the virgin Mary is never worshipped; she is only venerated, because she is not a god. But in many European Christian churches she is venerated a good deal more than Christ is worshipped. And what is the difference ?

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The Green Man

The Green Man first appeared hidden away high up in the corners of medieval cathedrals, a disembodied human face sprouting foliage from every folicle and even out of his mouth. His original significance is lost, but he was probably a pagan nature spirit smuggled into the newly constructed Christian temples by the stone masons who built them. He could be mistaken for an indoor gargoyle, and this is probably how he was explained to the priests.

Also known as Jack-in the-Green he is common through out Europe, and clearly represented an idea that was very widespread. The collumns of Christian cathedrals are reminiscent of tall groves of trees, and he is depicted as if peering down out of the upper branches, such as this example from the nave of Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire, England, dating from about AD 1400.

He is highly popular amongst modern pagans, who have adopted him as the personification of the forest itself, subtly different from Cernunnos who is the god of the beasts of the forests. Often the two are combined into a single image with both foliage and horns, representing both the flora and fauna of nature. Although this is a common image today, this author is aware of no such combination being depicted before the latter half of the twentieth century.

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The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance

This famous dance is performed in and around the village of Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire every year, on the Monday following the first Sunday after the 4th of September. A hobby horse, a bowman, a fool, a boy with a triangle, a musician, Maid Marian (played by a man, on the left of the picture) and six men bearing antlers perform a spiral dance at certain places on a circle 20 miles across. The dance finishes in the centre of the village, whereupon the antlers are returned to the church where they are kept until next year.

This was originally a Winter solstice ritual performed at Christmas, New Year's Day and at Twelfth Night. Its origins are so ancient that they are forgotten. But Old Horney must have something to do with it.

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Robin of Sherwood

In 1983 HTV (a British television company) decided that it was time to do Robin Hood yet again. The result, Robin of Sherwood was unlike anything that had gone before.

Written by Richard Carpenter, Robin the Hooded Man became not only a champion of the poor and the oppressed but also a champion of Herne, an enigmatic horned shaman who lived in a secret cave in the greenwood. Many of the stories had a very strong supernatural element, and Herne was clearly intended to be a mortal man who gained supernatural powers and who, in an act of transubstantiation, became the horned god when he donned his stag headpiece.

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Slaine

Pat Mills made him a super hero in his long running series of stories for the British comic book 2000 AD. The story of Slaine began in1983, and was originally intended to be a run-of -the-mill barbarian story like Conan, but at the suggestion of Mills' wife (who also illustrated the first episode) it was from the very start located firmly in the mythic Celtic world of The Land of the Young. The Celtic influence gave the story its destiny, and over the years it evolved into something quite unique in comics, as the character of Slaine himself evolved, and Mills used the character (based on the mythical Celtic hero Cuchulainn) and the strip to present his own ideas on paganism, natural law and human destiny.

The strip is still running, detailing the saga of an iron age Celtic berserker and his gradual development from exiled wanderer, to king, to manifestation of the horned god, to his current role as hero of the goddess, fighting her enemies across time. So far he has been revealed to have been pivotal during the The Great Flood of something BC, the rebellion of Boudicca in AD 60, the events following the death of King Arthur around AD 510, the battle of Contarf in AD 1014, and general Norman Christian nastiness in AD 1140.

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Finn

In 1988 the editors of 2000 AD produced a new comic for the purpose of telling stories that had political, sexual or violent content unsuitable for children. This ground breaking comic was Crisis. The first story was Third World War, built on the premise that the West is already at war with third world using various coverts means such as the IMF. The rambling storyline followed various characters and their adventures in the near future, and one recurring anti-hero was Finn, another creation of Pat Mills.

Finn is the alter ego of an ex-squaddie and taxi driver, an eco-terrorist fighting the good pagan fight against the evils of corrupt, polluting trans-national corporations. He is also a witch, but the stories had no supernatural content.

When Crisis finally folded Finn eventually re-appeared in 2000 AD, this time as a real witch with supernatural powers fighting against a race of aliens intent on ruling the galaxy. Earth had become a battleground between the forces, not of good and evil, but of the patriarchal aliens and the forces of the goddess. Between the forces of order and the champions of nature. Finn was essentially doing the same job as Slaine, but in the present. Instead of a horned battle helmet, Finn wore a horned gas mask, and as a real witch he was a champion of the goddess.

Interestingly, the hero was a champion of darkness, and his enemies were the forces of light.

Similar ideas were also at the centre of other characters created by Mills. Nemesis the Warlock was a horned alien fighting an inquisitorial Earth dictatorship across the galaxy in the far future, and the ABC Warriors gradually mutated from robot mercenaries into champions of chaos.

Before another comic called Toxic folded in 1991 Mills created yet another horned hero of nature in a strip called The Fear Teachers.

There is a strong common idea in Mills' stories, that history is not a battle between good and evil, but a battle between those who accept the supremacy of Nature and those who fear nature in all its forms and wish to control and ultimately defeat it. Between those who worship the goddess and those who worship the unnatural creations of order. Christianity is always portrayed as an unnatural force, terrified of both the feminine principal (the goddess) and of wild nature (the horned god).

Pat "Dark Satanic" Mills has gone on record to say that he writes for comic books because he is writing propaganda for the post-literate generation.

In Mills' stories the Horned God is always the champion of The Goddess, and of wild nature, and Mills is that champion too.

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There is a battle being fought for the body, heart and soul of the world, between two utterly opposed camps.

One one side are the technophiles, the natural enemies of nature, eager to explore and make real every possible invention of accelerating technology. Their research and development has given us medicine, transport, housing and these computers that would have seemed godlike only a thousand years ago.

But it has also given us genetic engineering, corporate control of mass communication, pollution and wholescale destruction of the Earth's wild places.

Not far from Man's grasp lies the power to eliminate absolutely from the planet every last trace of wilderness, and to replace it with order and concrete. The motives for this are simple: the destruction of nature and its replacement with man-made order will place the ancient power of the gods within the hands of the leaders of that new order, be they national or corporate. Real physical immortality will become a reality within a very few decades, reserved, inevitably, for the very rich and powerful.

To continue down this path can have two possible outcomes.

If successful the world will become as sterile and tidy as an office block, and its "human" inhabitants will have been altered by whatever means necessary to be able to live within it; whether by means of drugs, genetic engineering or new technologies yet to be imagined. There may yet be a technological fix for the ancient problem of free will. Whether you find this possibility (and make no mistake, it is a distinct and approaching possibility) appealing or apalling is simply a matter of personal taste.

If unsuccessful we will have destroyed the mechanisms of nature and replaced them with artificial mechanisms that do not work. The degree of consequential devastation can only be guessed at. At the very least we will find ourselves in a new world in which we can still survive but has become horrible to us, at the very worst the planet may have changed so much that even our technology can no longer enable us to live upon it.

In the opposing camp are those who can see the two ends of the path and behold each with equal horror. Each means the destruction of the wild nature that has been a part of mankind's soul since he was born into the world, and even for a new Homo Technicus to live placidly in a world made tame would seem to them to be the equivalent of putting our entire brain-dead species on a life-support machine for ever.

The technophiles hear the arguments of the champions of the wilderness and they hear sentimentality and nostalgia from the usual crowd of Luddite bleeding-heart liberals.

The champions of the wilderness see the logical conclusion of the technophiles' accelerating progression and they see the death of the soul of mankind, and of the soul of the world. Whether they know it or not they are fighting for the goddess, and whether they see him or not at the head of their scattered bands is the horned god.

Whose side are you on?

Blessed Be

Frank

So my wife and I's Initiation, is comming up Feb.1st (Imbolc) after our year and a day of learning, in the Celtic/Eclectic tradition. We spent most of Sunday braiding or cords (red, white, and black)and designing the ritual, with our teachers. Theres also two other women in our class going thru this also. As you can imagine im pretty nervous. Ive never had a spirtual path before, and since ive been on the path of the "Old Religion" i've NEVER been so happy, and i belive this Initiation will help me with that empty void i had for most of my life, in re-ussuring me of my faith on this path to the Goddess. The people in this coven are really, really, awsome. We all take turns doing rituals for the Sabbats, and also the Esbats, and theres never a dull moment. Theres talk of "hiveing" off another group, because of the number of people. Greenheart Grove is growing! Its been an amazing year. Ive never learned so much, in such little time. we learned Tarot, Magick'al ethics, History, had 2 book reports to do, Herbs, Stones, Crystals, Gems, designing and presenting rituals, and sooo much more. We met every other Sunday, for the whole year, and i have to say, i always looked forward to going to class. Anyway i know i had some spelling errors, and i apoligize...Ill stop rambling now, and keep every one posted on everything going on.
Blessed Be
Frank

To activate your third eye and perceive higher dimensions, the pineal gland and the pituitary body must vibrate in unison, which is achieved through meditation and relaxation. When a correct relationship is established between personality, operating through the pituitary body, and the soul, operating through the pineal gland, a magnetic field is created.

Visualization exercise is the first step in directing the energies in your inner system to activate the third eye. The magnetic field is created around the pineal gland, by focusing the mind on the midway point between the pineal gland and the pituitary body. The creative imagination visualizes something and the thought energy of the mind gives life and direction to this form. You can practise the visualization exercises in my book.

The third eye development, imagination and visualization are important ingredients in many methods to separate from the physical form. Intuition is also achieved through the third eye. Knowledge and memory of the astral plane are not registered in a fully wakened consciousness until the intuition becomes strong enough. Flashes of intuition come with increasing consistency as the third eye is activated to a greater degree, through practice

Everybody sees images or shapes after closing their eyes although most do not pay attention to the images, because they are not programmed to look at images. The images can come from your higher self, your spirit guides or other spirit friends. These images can take time to understand but there is no hurry.

Many native traditions and mystical practices refer to the ability of seeing or being aware of energy fields at higher levels. This abstract awareness is much more subjective and does not involve the normal level of mundane consciousness, which is mostly concerned with self identity. This seeing refers to the sight of the third eye.

The third eye is an organ of the light body which may be referred to as the energy or etheric body. When the third eye is opened it has access to the layers or dimensions of the soul. I refer to the soul as the memories of the light being. These memories contain the past, future and present dimensions of what some people might define as time. The third eye is the gateway or portal to the dimensionality of space which may be described as space or time. You can enter through a portal to another dimension in order to travel. Many people have experienced this partially via dreams and visions. Tuning the third eye allows an individual more freedom of choice and clarity.

Tuning of the third eye is similar to cleaning the lenses of a camera. In this way the third eye is freed from blockages and debris left from past, present, future and life traumas. Once the third eye is activated it is a direct perceptual communication organ between the light body and the physical body.

Traditionally the third eye is used by people that are interested in working towards planetary peace. All of the work is guided by your spirit guide.

The third eye is super sensitive and therefore can be easily affected by moods, food, drink and drugs. Those people whose third eye is constantly open have a tendency towards being over stimulated. These people may find that noise such as television or radio and other electromagnetic equipment causes them irritation, in these cases the third eye is jammed open due to over activity-sensorial overload. This stresses the body as it distorts the communication system of the soul.

Once you have connected with your third eye you will have a sense of floating in a sea of energy. This sense is cultivated via many practices within many cultures meditation, relaxation and sport. However it is not the activity that generates the sense of the third eye it is the third eye that generates the sense of balance, focus, attention, co-ordination and flow of the your performance. The third eye is responsible for the freedom of choice to intend movement of the light body. Therefore the freedom of individuality and creativity is controlled by the third eye.

The Third eye is the gateway to the future of our civilization. As a culture we will be faced with accepting our light bodies as the part of the soul that is responsible for taking care of the planet earth.

Here is an exercise you can try.

Sit quietly clear your mind of diversions and clutter take a few slow deep breaths and start to focus on the screen in your mind.

Colours should start to come into view. Keep watching the colours relax and breathe deeply and slowly. The colours will now turn into a shape that you may or may not recognize.

If you do not see anything this could be because you are not relaxed or you are nervous. If this happens just go back and try again a little later in the day.

Blessed Be

Frank

Since the earliest spell bottles were created for protection, it seems fitting to begin
with one made for this purpose. Ideally, such a bottle will be walled up in a new home
under construction, or placed under the floorboards. If this is impossible, simply
place it in a position of importance somewhere in the home. Items needed:
1 glass jar with cork stopper or lid (a small canning jar is fine)
1/2 to 1 cup salt (depending on size of the jar)
3 cloves garlic
9 bay leaves
7 TBS dried basil
4 TBS dill seeds
1 TBS sage
1 TBS anise
1 TBS black pepper
1 TBS fennel
1 bowl
In the morning, ideally on a bright and sunny day, assemble all items.
Place the salt into the bowl and say:
Salt that protects, protect my home and all within it.
Add the cloves of garlic to the bowl and say:
Garlic that protects, protect my home and all within it.
Crumble the bay leaves, place in the bowl and say:
"Bay that protects, protect my home and all within it."
Add the basil and say:
"Basil that protects, protect my home and all within it."
Add dill and say:
"Dill that protects, protect my home and all within it."
Add the sage and say:
"Sage that protects, protect my home and all within it."
Add the anise and say:
"Anise that protects, protect my home and all within it."
Add the pepper and say:
"Pepper that protects, protect my home and all within it."
Add the fennel and say:
"Fennel that protects, protect my home and all within it."
Mix together the herbs and the salt with your hands. Through the movement of your hands
and fingers, lend energy to the potent protective items. Visualize your home
as a shining, safe, guarded, secure place of sanctuary. Pour the mixture into the
jar. Seal tightly and place in your home with the following words:
"Salt and herbs, nine times nine
Guard now this home of mine.
It is done."

Blessed Be

Frank

The Great Horned God
The consort of the Goddess and symbol of male energy in the form of the divine, The Horned God reigns. He is the lord of the woodlands, the hunt and animals. He provides for the tribe through the hunt and is honored or rewarded for his deed by being permitted to copulate with the Goddess through the Great Rite.

The Horned God is is the lord of life, death and the underworld. And is the Sun to the Goddess' Moon. He alternates with the Goddess in ruling over the fertility cycle of birth, death and rebirth. He is born at the winter solstice, unites with the Goddess in marriage at Bealtaine, and dies at the summer solstice to bring fertility to the land as the Sacred King.

He is not just a Celtic representation of the God, nor does he solely belong to Wicca, as he has been associated with many deities throughout the world.
Cernunnos, The Celtic God of fertility, animals and the underworld.
Herne The Hunter, a specter of Britain.
Pan the Greek god of the woodlands,
Janus the Roman god of good beings.
Tammuz and Damuzi, the son, lover and consorts to Ishtar and Inanna.
Osiris, the Egyptian Lord of the underworld.
Dionysus, the Greek god of vegetation and vine.
The Green Man, the lord of vegetation and the woodlands.

 

 

The History Of The Horned One
Paintings discovered in the Caverne des Trois Freres at Ariege, France provides evidence of the first views of the Horned One. Depicted as a stag standing upright on hind legs with the upper body of a man, the figure is celebrating what appears to be a hunt and wooing a woman.

From some of the earliest myths come the union between the fertile Goddess and the triumphant phallus hunter, the Horned God. The more successful the tribal hunter in providing for his people, the greater his stature became. The more likely he would be the one chosen to impregnate the "Mother" of the tribe. Often seen as the High Priestess or at least a tribal woman who was touched by the goddess because of her prowess at becoming pregnant and extending the life of the tribe. Something that was needed during the days of ancient man, as life spans were short and death by illness or disease was common.

Many legends describe fertility celebrations occurring at the spring gathering and again in late fall. Each of these coinciding with a spring hunt to bring food to the tribe after a cold desolate winter. And in the fall to provide meat for the tribe during the winter months. The most successful hunter won the prize of sleeping with the "Goddess", most often before the Tribe watching. Something that is seen as repugnant today, in ancient times, it was a spiritual event and is revitalized in what we see as the Great Rite of today.

During these rituals, the Hunter would appear dressed or cloaked in the skin of his kill with the horns of the stag resting victoriously upon his head. Some legends describe the blood of the beast engulfing both the Horned Hunter and the Goddess, believing the life taken from the animal is transferred to the womb of the fertile Mother, thus providing life.

To the Celts as Cernunnos, the Horned God was more than just a fertile being. He is found throughout the Celtic lands and folklore as the guardian of the portal leading to the Otherworld. The name Cernunnos is known only through damaged carvings found at Notre Dame. In these carvings, a deity with short horns carries the incomplete inscription 'ERNUNNO'. In his earliest of days he was probably the fertility god to the Gauls. But as time progressed and his legends grew, he became associated with wealth and prosperity. He was such an important deity to the pagan Celts, that his image and prowess became a major target for the early Christian church. It is his image that is believed to have been adopted for their mythos of the Devil 'deo falsus' or the false god. His status as the god of Hell would coincide with the view of the pagan Celts as the guardian of the Otherworld.

As Herne the Hunter, the British version of the Horned God; he is seen as the leader of the Wild Hunt. As an antlered giant, he is rumored to still survive and live in the forests of Windsor Great Park. His longevity is owed to the cult of Cernunnos, who have also linked his generosity to provide for the tribe to the legend of Robin Hood. Some suggest that Herne was the father to Robin of Loxley; which is probably more an association since Herne is a much older figure in legend and myth. In this ability to provide for the tribe as the great Hunter of the wood, he is forever linked to the Horned God.

As the Greek deity of pastures, flocks and herds, Pan was half man and half goat. With the legs and horns and beard of a goat. He is the offspring of Hermes, but his mothers lineage is in question. Either he is the result of Hermes and Dryope daughter of King Dropys, who's flocks he tended. Or Hermes and Penelope. His cult is centered around Arcadia where he is reported to haunt the woodlands, hills and mountains. Sleeping at noon and then dancing through the woods as he played the panpipes, which he is credited with inventing. He is the lusty leader of the satyrs (woodland deities), and continually chases the nymphs (the beautiful nature goddesses). During rituals, his essence is invoked to for fertility of the flocks or for an abundant hunt. Associating him with the legends of the Horned God.

As Osiris the Egyptian god of the lower world, he is seen as the judge of the dead. Linking him to the concept of Cernunnos as the guardian of the gate to the Other World. He is the brother of Isis, but he is also her husband. Isis as the goddess of fertility her status as the Mother is propagated by the services provided her by Osiris. Once again linking his image with that of the Horned One.

 

 

As the Green Man he is the God of the woodlands and vegetation. He is also known as 'Green Jack", "Jack in the Green" and "Green George". He represents the spirits of the trees, plants and foliage who has many powers over nature that promote growth. He has the power to make it rain and foster the livestock with lush meadows. As Green George he has been represented as a young man cloaked head to foot in greenery. In early depictions, the green vegetation emphasized his phallic symbol of fertility as he lead processions through tribal lands. As the Green Man he shares his woodland home with the forest fairies often called "Greenies" or "Greencoaties". What today we call Nature Sprites. The Green Man is depicted as a horned man peering out from a mask of foliage, connecting him to the image of Horned God.

Blessed Be

Frank