Cernunnos

***The Horned One***

**Also known as:** Kernunnos

**Pantheon:** Celtic

**Title**: The Horned God

**Authority**: Male Principle

## Information

Cernunnos is the Latin name given this mysterious Celtic deity. Cernunnos is usually translated as “the horned one” and derives from an Indo-European root word ker meaning “growth” or “to become large and hard.” It may be a name, or it may be a title: the word appears on an altar found at Notre Dame together with his image.

On the Gundestrup Cauldron, a highly ornamented silver vessel, discovered in a Danish peat bog in 1891 and dated to the first or second century BCE, Cernunnos sits cross-legged surrounded by forest animals, holding a ram-horned serpent in one hand and a torc in the other. In a relief from Reims, France, Cernunnos sits cross-legged with a stag and bull at his feet. He has a large sack from which he distributes what may be coins or grain.

Cernunnos associated with the hunt and with fertility, has dominion over nature, animals, and abundance. He dispenses and distributes wealth. He was sometimes portrayed with serpent’s legs, a man’s torso and the head of a bull or ram; or he was shown with stags or wearing stag antlers. Cernunnos was ruler of the underworld or otherworld, the opener of the gates between life and death. He also was worshiped by the Romans and Gauls, who sometimes portrayed him as triple-headed. The name Cernunnos means simply “the horned.” He is the Lord of Souls, Celtic Lord of the Underworld, the dead, healing, and wealth.

Cernunnos’ image appears throughout Celtic Europe, from Ireland to Romania. The oldest surviving image is from the fourth-century BCE Italian Alps, which were then Celtic. He remains beloved in the Neo-Pagan community, where he may be associated with the Green Man. In Wicca and Paganism, the Horned God is often addressed as “Cernunnos” in rituals.

**Manifestation:** Cernunnos has a man’s body and sports stag’s horns, although this may be shamanic ritual garb. Sometimes his legs are snakes.

**Iconography:** Over thirty surviving depictions exist. He is sometimes triple-headed or triple-faced and may be accompanied by a female consort.

**Attributes:** Sack filled with treasure; a torc, Celtic emblem of power and nobility

**Animals:** Ram-horned snakes and regular snakes; bull; boar; stag

**See Also:** Green Man; Pashupati

## A Solitary Pagan

Cernunnos, meaning ‘horned one’, was a generic term for the various Horned Gods of the Celtic tradition. The god dates back to the shamanic figures portrayed on cave walls. Cernunnos was lord of winter, the hunt, animals, death, male fertility and the Underworld, and was sometime portrayed as a triple or trefoil god, an image later assimilated by St Patrick with his emblematic shamrock.

Other forms of the Horned God include Herne the Hunter, the Greek Pan, god of the woodlands, and Dionysus, Greek god of vegetation and the vine, whose ecstatic mystery cult involved ritual dismemberment and resurrection.

Cerunnos’ importance has been in his continuing presence as the Horned God, the male principle in witchcraft through the ages, in modern Wicca and other neo-pagan faiths. He is also invoked for prosperity, fertility, instinctive power and knowledge of when it is necessary to hunt, whether to find employment or a home, and as protection against predators of all kinds.

Cernunnos The Horned God of the Celts, associated with the hunt and with fertility. He was sometimes portrayed with serpent’s legs, a man’s torso and the head of a bull or ram; or he was shown with stags or wearing stag Witches stirring up brew in cauldron (Abraham Saur, Ein Kurtze Treue Warning, 1582) antlers. Cernunnos was ruler of the underworld or otherworld, the opener of the gates between life and death.

He also was worshipped by the Romans and Gauls, who sometimes portrayed him as triple-headed. The name Cernunnos means simply “the horned.” The famous Gundestrup cauldron, a large, gilt silver cauldron dated ca. 100 b.c.e. and recovered from a bog near Gundestrup, Denmark, depicts a stag-horned Cernunnos in several scenes: as an antlered man attended by animals, including a boar, and grasping a ram-headed serpent; and grasping a stag in each hand. The cauldron is believed to be Celtic in origin, though some scholars say it is Gallic. In Wicca and Paganism, the Horned God is often addressed as “Cernunnos” in rituals.

## Smite Lore

Standing upon the edge of the wooded realm of Cernunnos, one can feel the invitation and the threat. "Come and feast," it calls. "Nature provides an abundance of crops and wild game." Yet, the same voice turns dark. "Treat everything with due respect," it warns. "This is not your home." And, should one peer intently enough through the shadowed branches, a figure can be seen, horned as a stag, clothed in moss and leaves, eyes burning like untended embers. Cernunnos is master here, and although he has much to offer, he will not tolerate greed.

Time turns on the Sacred Wheel, Spring to Summer, Summer to Autumn and Autumn at last to Winter. Cernunnos was there at the shaping of the wheel, born of the womb of the All Mother before Gods were Gods and the land was shapeless. This wheel is not of his making. He is both master of it and slave to it, transforming with the seasons like the world beneath his feet. He bears a heaving metal torc around his neck as a permanent pledge of loyalty to this cycle of life and death that only he can drive.

Once, it was said, there was no break between his realm and this world. They were the same. Perhaps a time will come when the world shall once again be his. Then, all can walk among the whispering leaves. So long as they remain humble. For the arrogant, Cernunnos hunts.

## Appearances in Modern Media

From SmiteFrom Rangers of OblivionFrom Blood BrothersFrom Sid StoryFrom Age of IshtariaFrom Kamihime Project
## Information Source

Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses by Judika Illes

The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca by Rosemary Guiley

A Solitary Pagan