Horned God
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Horned God is a modern syncretic term used amongst Wiccan-influenced Neopagans, which unites numerous male nature gods out of such widely-dispersed and historically unconnected mythologies as the Celtic Cernunnos, the Welsh Caerwiden, the English Herne the Hunter, the Hindu Pashupati, the Greek Pan and the satyrs, and even the Paleolithic cave painting "the Sorcerer" in the Cave of the Three Brothers in France.
A number of related British folk figures have been incorporated as well: Puck, Robin Goodfellow, and the Green Man.
Contents |
[edit] Development of an idea
The idea that all such horned images were of deities and that they represented manifestations of a single Horned God, and that Christianity had attempted to suppress his worship by associating him with Satan, developed in the fashionable 19th-century Occultist circles of England and France. Eliphas Levi's famous illustration (right) of Baphomet in his Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1855) accompanied the first suggestions to this effect. Levi's image of "Baphomet" is reflected in most depictions of the Devil made since. Symbolism is drawn from the Diable card of the 17th and 18th century Tarot of Marseille: the bat-winged, horned and hoofed figure with female breasts, perched upon a globe; Levi added the caduceus of Mercury at his groin, moved the flaming torch to crown his head and had him gesture towards lunar crescents above and below.
This was not an evil figure, Levi contended, but a god of the old world, driven underground and condemned as a figure of witchcraft by hostile Christianity. Figures such as Aleister Crowley and Margaret Murray took up this suggestion and blended it with an adaptation of cultural anthropologies such as that of James Frazer. Where Frazer saw modern folklore and folk customs as the echoes of forgotten agricultural rituals, authors such as Murray and other members of the Folklore Society saw an esoteric fertility cult, a secret tradition driven underground and suppressed by Christianity. Margaret Murray suggested that Christian reports of witches meeting in the woods with Satan were actually pagans with their priest wearing a horned helmet to invoke their Horned God (Murray 1921). These themes shaped the modern concept of the Horned God revered by some neopagan groups today.
Sacred horned or antlered animals that signalled the numinous presence of a deity were ubiquitous in the ancient world, and certain scholars have criticised worshippers who blur "the very important distinctions between a god named, described, represented, and worshipped in animal form, a real animal worshipped as a god, animal symbols and animal masks in the cult, and finally the consecrated animal destined for sacrifice." (Burkert 1985 p 64). Many sacred bulls and goats, sacred stags and ibexes serve as examples. Not all horned gods and their priests were male; Astarte and Isis (borrowing an attribute from Hathor), for example, were sometimes depicted with horns.
- Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion 1985.
- Frazer, James, The Golden Bough
- Murray, Margaret, God of the Witches 1933.
- Murray, Margaret, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe 1921.
[edit] Associations
The Horned God is associated with woods, wild animals, and hunting. He is often also associated with sexuality or male virility. As a symbol of sexuality, the Horned God represents one of the most elemental forces in Nature, and is therefore complementary to female fertility deities known collectively as the Great Mother.[citation needed]
Another name for the Horned God is The Hunter. He is a symbol not only of the giving of life, but the taking of life too, in what is seen as a great and eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. He sometimes carries a bow. [citation needed]
[edit] Image
The Horned God is always portrayed with horns or antlers, which are his distinguishing feature. The God's horns are considered symbols of male potency, strength and protection. Sometimes they are seen in a sense as phallic symbols. The horn has been a religious symbol for thousands of years. An altar made entirely of stag horns was built in the temple of Apollo at Delos, and temples to the Goddess Diana usually contained horns as well. The horn is also seen as a symbol of fruitfulness and bounty, as in the Horn of Plenty.
He is often portrayed with an erect phallus. The phallus is itself a symbol of the power to create life. Another symbol of his sexual prowess and virility is the occasional presence of cloven hoofs or the hindquarters of a goat. The goat itself is considered a symbol of sexuality.
It is worth noting that the wizard Merlin was also sometimes associted with the Horned God, perhaps due to an older origin before the two developed their eventual and individual identities. He was often seen in the company of stags, and himself was sometimes described with stag-like attributes. Futhermore, in at least one account he interrupted a wedding by riding into the assemblage atop a great stag, drunk and very belligerent[citation needed].
[edit] Satan
The depiction of Satan as a horned and hoofed goat-like monster holding a trident is a 19th century invention, probably becoming popular as a response of Christian morality to the growing popularity of the Greek god Pan in the art and literature of the time. Previous depictions of the Devil were much more varied, and he was often simply a man dressed in black, or a dog or goat. When depicted as a composite animal/human figure, the Devil often had bat's wings, the talons of a bird of prey, and so on.[1]
The Horned God does not share Satan's attributes either: while the Christian Satan is described as a fallen angel and is essentially evil, the pagan Horned God is believed to be a force of nature, neither entirely benevolent nor entirely malevolent: In his role as Father, he is said to give life, but in his role as Hunter, he is also said to take life. Positive aspects of the Horned God have more recently been re-attributed to Satan by the Church of Satan and similar branches of modern Satanism.
[edit] Post Christian depictions
European common belief in and worship of the Horned God waned almost to extinction by the 19th century, although vestiges remained in local customs, particularly in the countryside. English ghost stories of Herne the Hunter and the reverence of St. Comus may have been the strongest surviving remnants of the Horned God until the neo-Pagan or Wiccan revival. However, the Horned God makes a late appearance in art in the moonlit last act of Verdi's final opera, Falstaff.
[edit] Wicca
In the religion of Wicca, the Horned God is revered as the partner and/or child of the Goddess (commonly described as the Great Mother or the Triple Goddess). According to Gerald Gardner, who first publicised the religion in 1954, Wicca is a modern survival of an ancient pan-European Pagan religion that was driven underground during the witch trials, and the Goddess and Horned God (the "Lady" and "Lord") of Wicca are the ancient tribal gods of this faith. However, there is little evidence to support claims that the religion originates earlier than the mid-20th century, and Gardner himself admitted that he had reconstructed the rites from fragments, incorporating elements from English folklore and contemporary influences.
In modern Wicca, "The Horned God" may refer individually to any of a multitude of localized gods of different cultures (such as Cernunnos or Pan), or to the universal archetype many Wiccans believe such gods represent. In the latter context, he is sometimes referred to as the "Great God" or the "Great Father", who impregnates the Goddess and then dies during the autumn and winter months and is reborn in spring.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Juliette Wood, "The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Traditions: A Study in Modern Legend Making": Folklore, Vol. 109, 1998
- Walter Burkert, Greek Religion 1977 (1985) Cambridge:Harvard University Press)
- The Horned God in India and Europe.
[edit] External links
- Pretanic World - Animals The Horned God in Ancient Art, its Religious Symbolism and Modern Vestiges
