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| Gods & Goddesses
Cernunnos
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Image Copyright (C) Sabrina - used with permission. |
CernunnosHerne the HunterPantheon: Celtic Element: Earth Sphere of Influence: Prosperity and Fertility Preferred colors: Green, Gold Associated symbol: Horns Animals associated with: Stag, Ram , Bull, Horned Serpent Best day to work with: Sunday Strongest around Ostara Suitable offerings: Peridot Associated Planet: Mercury |
"The Horned One" is a Celtic god of fertility, life, animals, wealth, and the underworld. The Druids knew him as Hu Gadarn, the Horned God of fertility. He was portrayed sitting in a lotus position with horns or antlers on his head, long curling hair, a beard, naked except for a neck torque, and sometimes holding a spear and shield. Virility, fertility, animals, physical love, Nature, woodlands, reincarnation, crossroads, wealth, commerce, warriors. | |
Additional Information on Cernunnos from WikipediaInformation is unedited and uncheckedCernunnos from the Pilier des nautes, ParisCernunnos was an important deity of the Celts, essentially a nature god associated with produce and fertility. He was called the "Horned One" (a literal translation of his name) or the "Horned God", and was one of a number of similar deities found in many ancient cultures. He was worshipped over a wide area of Europe, from Romania to Ireland, as evinced by various representations found in around thirty different sites across the continent. The earliest known depiction of Cernunnos was found at Val Camonica in Italy, dating from the 4th century BC, while the best known depiction is on the famous Gundestrup cauldron found in Denmark and dating from the 1st century BC. His name is known from the "Pillar of the Boatmen" ("Pilier des nautes"), a monument now displayed in the Musée national du Moyen Age in Paris. It is believed to have been erected as an altar by Gallic sailors in the early 1st century AD and was found in the foundations of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris on the site of the Celtic settlement of Lutetia. It depicts Cernunnos and other Celtic deities alongside Roman divinities, providing an illustration of the way in which Celtic gods were absorbed into the Roman pantheon. Indeed, Julius Caesar associated him with the Roman god Dis Pater, while other Roman sources associated him with Mercury (mythology)|Mercury. The Pilier des nautes provides the only written record of the deitys name. It is not known whether the name Cernunnos (given as Kernunno) was a local name bestowed by the Parisii tribe (from whom Paris got its name). The structure of the name suggests otherwise. The word Cornu means "horned" in modern French language|French and the cognate Celtic Cern_ means much the same. Whether or not the name differed from place to place, the depictions of Cernunos are strikingly consistent throughout the Celtic world. His most distinctive attribute are his stags horns, and he is usually portrayed as a mature man with long hair and a beard. He wears a torc, an ornate neck-ring used by the Celts to denote nobility. He often carries other torcs in his hands or hanging from his horns, as well as a purse filled with coins. He is usually portrayed seated and cross-legged, in a position which some have interpreted as meditation|meditative or shaman|shamanic, although it may only reflect the fact that the Celts squatted on the floor and did not use chairs. Cernunnos is nearly always portrayed with animals, in particular the stag. He is also frequently associated with a unique beast that seems to belong only to him: a serpent with the horns of a ram. This creature appears to have been a deity in its own right. Less often he is associated with other beasts, including bulls, dogs and rats. Because of his frequent association with beasts scholars often describe Cenunnos as the "Lord of the Animals" or the "Lord of Wild Things". Because of his association with stags in particular (a particularly hunted beast) he is also described as the "Lord of the Hunt". Interestingly, the Pilier des nautes links him with sailors and with commerce, suggesting that he was also associated with material wealth. The worship of Cernunnos was particularly vehemently opposed by early Christianity, which saw him as an unacceptable symbol of paganism. Illustrations of Cernunnos-like figures were used to symbolise demonic and anti-Christian forces, and it may be presumed that shrines to Cernunnos were targets of early attempts to root out paganism. Even so, traces of the god survived well into Christian times. The literary traditions of both Wales and Ireland contain allusions to him, while in Brittany the legendary saint Korneli (or Cornély) had attributes of Cernunnos. It has also been suggested that the English myth of Herne the Hunter is an allusion to Cernunnos, though this seems doubtful. In the modern Neopaganism|Neo-Pagan movements, of which Wicca is the most notable, the worship of the Horned God has been revived. Whether or not these religious groups are actually surviving cults or modern reconstructions, the adherents generally follow the life-fertility-death cycle for Cernunnos, though his death is now usually set at Samhain, the Celtic New Year Festival usually associated with October 31. ==See also== * Horned God This text is made available under the GNU Free Documentation License Agreement. The full text of this article is available for download here. (Cernunnos) | |