page_title: Horned God
section_title: Theories of historical origins
hierarchical_section_title: Horned God / Theories of historical origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Star Carr collection at Yorkshire museum - mesolithic headdress made from deer skull. From the earliest known post glacial settlement in England
context_page_description: The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in Wicca and some related forms of Neopaganism.
  The term Horned god itself predates Wicca, and is an early 20th-century syncretic term for a horned or antlered anthropomorphic god partly based on historical horned deities.
  The Horned god represents the male part of the religion's duotheistic theological system, the consort of the female Triple goddess of the Moon or other Mother goddess.
  In common Wiccan belief, he is associated with nature, wilderness, sexuality, hunting, and the life cycle. Whilst depictions of the deity vary, he is always shown with either horns or antlers upon his head, often depicted as being theriocephalic, in this way emphasizing "the union of the divine and the animal", the latter of which includes humanity.
  In traditional Wicca, he is generally regarded as a dualistic god of twofold aspects: bright and dark, night and day, summer and winter, the Oak King and the Holly King. In this dualistic view, his two horns symbolize, in part, his dual nature.
context_section_description: Many horned deities are known to have been worshipped in various cultures throughout history. Evidence for horned gods appear very early in the human record.  The so-called Sorcerer dates from perhaps 13,000 BCE.  Twenty-one red deer headdresses, made from the skulls of the red deer and likely fitted with leather laces, have been uncovered at the Mesolithic site of Star Carr.  They are thought to date from roughly 9,000 BCE.  Several theories have been created to establish historical roots for modern Neopagan worship of a Horned God.
caption: A red deer headdress from Star Carr.  Many of the 20 other headdresses have more complex sets of antlers.
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