I would be interested to know what experiences you had with this celtic god.
J
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Yes I have, what type of experiences are you curious about? I have worked with him many times as he is of Celtic origin and so am I, so I connect more closely to Celtic gods/godesses. He is considered to be, by Irish and Scotish mythology, a Celtic version of the horned god. He can help you connect to animals, help you more effectively learn an animals behavior and mannuerisms to communicate with that animal and sympathize with its needs. He can teach you about earth, nature, animal, and faerie based magick including magick involving the 4 elements.
He is the very essence of earth. Depicted as a tall god half man half buck with a wardrobe made of leaves and twigs as he is one with nature. He is the ultimate go to for anything earth based. You can also ask him for help if doing outdoor rituals, especially in the forest or woods, and he will come to you and aid you in your working making it more potent. He will act as a translator for any animal, to help you understand what that animal is thinking as he understands the language of all earth bound creatures.
All that aside, the obvious stuff many people already know. Here is the fun part. Cernunnos, being a god who specializes in the affairs of the earth, he can help you tap into power that you never knew you had in order to manifest your earthly desires. He will show you things, little tips and tricks about your ascension, how to hold focus during meditation better, how to go into a deeper trance state as he believes the only way to connect with the earth and to your power is to become ONE with it. He can show you how to better do this. At first his exercises may seem to be unrelated to ascension, but keep evoking him, asking him to teach you, and after just a few short weeks you will notice a big difference and will be able to attribute it directly to him.
Many people don’t know this about him, they see him as just some forest dwelling god who oversees animals and trees. Not true. He can also help you with trees, if you are interested in tree of life magick, the Celtic tree wheel, etc. Not sure what term to use for that one as I have not looked into the Celtic tree wheel very far. But I have some books on it.
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So there’s an Insular Celtic expression of Cernunnos? I had believed him to be only attested in Gallic and Celtiberian culture. If he’s truly Celtic in origin one would think to find him also in the Isles, but so far the Gundestrup Cauldron with its famous images is guessed to have originated in Thracia, with its iconography possibly attesting Anatolian or even Indian influence.
I guess what I’m asking, is: which part of Scots/Irish mythology?
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Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and Gaelic culture, they all stem from the same thing. Celtic culture has more than one branch and one of them is Gaelic which originally included Irish, Scottish, People of the Isles, and to some extent Welsh. Over the years the Scottish folk got tired of being placed into groups with the Irish as they have their own distinct cultural differences so later on the Scottish removed themselves from the Gaelic grouping. Now Gaelic is thought to be referring to strictly Irish, Welsh and the Isles although some would disagree that Welsh even falls into that category. It’s really subjective to opinions too, but it’s confusing to many people as there are so many conflicting opinions.
But technically, Irish and Gaelic cultures are practically one in the same. Some Irish people speak Gaelic. But I have seen him depicted in Irish folklore and magick books surrounded by Celtic knot working. Also, you must know about me that I refer to everything Celtic in nature as Irish, just a loose term which may be too vague but it makes things easier for me when describing them because like me, other people seem to have the same confusion about the differences and similarities of Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Gaelic, etc. It may not be Irish perse, but the history of Cernunnos in mythology can be traced back to the same roots.
I don’t know how to describe what I’m trying to say. This is one of these things that is hard to convey in words, and needs to be read about instead. So half of what I just said probably makes no sense at all.
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Ok, yeah, I get you about the Scots being Gaelic colonists from Ireland and about Gaelic and Brythonic coming from the larger Celtic family. It was your personal terminology that lost me. So yeah, Scots/Irish is definitely Celtic, but as far as I know Cernunnos is attested only really solidly at all among the Gauls and Celtiberians, -maybe- the Belgae which would if true provide inroads into some of the Brythonic tribes. Unless you did mean that there are attestations of Cernunnos specifically in Scotland or Ireland?
Sorry to nitpick so relentlessly but this really interests me.
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Michael Enright, in Lady with a Mead Cup, makes a compelling argument that the Gundestrup Cauldron, while indeed crafted in Thrace, was made to specification for a Gaulish noble. I like to think it’s similar to American Christmas ornaments being made in China. Regardless, that only underscores your point about the Continental origin of Cernunnos.
One could make the argument, however, that the Welsh figure of Myrddin Wyllt shares a number of traits with Cernunnos. Vita Merlini, which is believed to be a Latin translation/adaptation of a lost Welsh original, even has him riding towards his rival on a stag, then pulling the antlers off his mount and throwing them into his rival’s heart.
Leaving scholarship, I would hypothesize that Myrddin Wyllt is or can act as an aspect of Cernunnos. I would also mention that Cernunnos is a god with antlers, not a horned god. The distinction being, of course, that antlers fall off in the appropriate season, then regrow, while horns are constant. Hence, the seasonal character of this god, and the way he can teach the development of internal power as well as the outward manifestation of that power.
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I am sure he probably has his own special name between many cultures that changes based on language differences, sort of like why some people see him as the verdant green man and others swear the green man is a completely separate god, while others remain neutral and say same god just different cultures.
From what I have been reading Cernunnos is present in every part of Celtic culture, but in some places he is more respected and well known than in others giving the impression that he is not even perceived as a god amongst the Isles. He is, just not very often. In fact, many European cultures recognize him but I guess it just depends on where you live, the educational materials you have access to, your family influence. Like the idea that a certain singer becomes popular in Europe, Canada, U.S., Puerto Rico, and everyone knows of that singer, but you talk to someone from Germany about that singer and they’re like who the hell is that? and you are shocked that they did not know about that singer, the one with over 3 millions fans that you thought everyone knew about. Similar concept. I call this the informational gap, LOL.
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Oh yeah, and people confusing him with Pan or the horned god, or even the devil in some instances. Seriously? Cernunnos doesn’t even have horns!
During my time as a supporter of a Wiccan coven (I was dating the High Priestess, so ended up participating in the Sabbats), I got to know Cernunnos to a certain degree, having invoked him a handful of times. In addition to RavensAscent’s experiences, which I can corroborate, I found him a god of the hunt par excellence. He had particular rules for the hunt, however, and saw the sacrifice of the hunted animal as a gift for the worthy. There was also a strong idea that the sacrifice of the hunted was given to increase life, connecting him with fertility. Indeed, on this point he is very similar to the Norse god Frey (note especially that Frey gave his sword up as a courting gift, and, at Ragnarok, will face Surt armed with only an antler). Like Frey, Cernunnos is also a god of sacral kingship, mediating between the material welfare of the tribe and the respect of the spirits inhabiting the land the tribe occupies. In Roman times, he was sometimes represented with a coin purse - I was given to understand that this was all connected up with his role as a fertility god, seeing wealth as another form of the abundant harvest or successful hunt.
There is a fascinating Gaulish bas relief sculpture of him with holes where his antlers would be - Alexei Kondratiev suggested that small antlers would be placed there for half the year, then removed for the other half. If anyone seriously wanted to work with this god for an extended period of time, I think that would be a fantastic thing to recreate!
EDIT: I almost forgot - something I wouldn’t have guessed before invoking him is his association with death. He seemed to me not so much a god of the dead as of death itself, holding open the door between the dead and the living and moving back and forth (perhaps another manifestation of his antlered, seasonal nature). In this, he again seems similar to Frey, who, as ruler of Alfheim, is associated with the alfar, which in at least some parts of Scandanavia, were believed to be the form male ancestors eventually took, especially in areas where mound burials were common.
So, a god of death but also rebirth, in all the literal and metaphorical forms of those concepts.
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Myrddin Wyllt, huh? Holy hell, that is fascinating. So if that’s a valid instance, that would be the Brythonic link. But is there any actual Gaelic incarnation?
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None that I’m aware of. There are a couple similarities, IIRC, with An Dagda, such as an obscure reference to him having antlers once, an idea of a seasonal king, and so on, but I think that what we have there is, at most, a cultural influence on the archetype (or the astral form the god inhabits) rather than the same figure.
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[quote=“Arkhilokhus, post:9, topic:5648”]During my time as a supporter of a Wiccan coven (I was dating the High Priestess, so ended up participating in the Sabbats), I got to know Cernunnos to a certain degree, having invoked him a handful of times. In addition to RavensAscent’s experiences, which I can corroborate, I found him a god of the hunt par excellence. He had particular rules for the hunt, however, and saw the sacrifice of the hunted animal as a gift for the worthy. There was also a strong idea that the sacrifice of the hunted was given to increase life, connecting him with fertility. Indeed, on this point he is very similar to the Norse god Frey (note especially that Frey gave his sword up as a courting gift, and, at Ragnarok, will face Surt armed with only an antler). Like Frey, Cernunnos is also a god of sacral kingship, mediating between the material welfare of the tribe and the respect of the spirits inhabiting the land the tribe occupies. In Roman times, he was sometimes represented with a coin purse - I was given to understand that this was all connected up with his role as a fertility god, seeing wealth as another form of the abundant harvest or successful hunt.
There is a fascinating Gaulish bas relief sculpture of him with holes where his antlers would be - Alexei Kondratiev suggested that small antlers would be placed there for half the year, then removed for the other half. If anyone seriously wanted to work with this god for an extended period of time, I think that would be a fantastic thing to recreate!
EDIT: I almost forgot - something I wouldn’t have guessed before invoking him is his association with death. He seemed to me not so much a god of the dead as of death itself, holding open the door between the dead and the living and moving back and forth (perhaps another manifestation of his antlered, seasonal nature). In this, he again seems similar to Frey, who, as ruler of Alfheim, is associated with the alfar, which in at least some parts of Scandanavia, were believed to be the form male ancestors eventually took, especially in areas where mound burials were common.
So, a god of death but also rebirth, in all the literal and metaphorical forms of those concepts.[/quote]
I am getting an eerie feeling that Cerunnos may be related,somehow,to the Slavic god Veles,one who has been calling me(because of my heritage and black magic)and a tie that is indubitably supported by both Djehuty and the Crone.
I mean,I love Baba Yaga. She’s…harsh,but has my best interest in mind…
Discussions of the Horned God fascinate me. There are so many deities worshipped in witchcraft circles as the Witchfather, Cernunnos among them. I always wonder whether they are the same deity ultimately, due to them all being part of the witchcraft phenomena, or if they’re all different entities working the same role for the same goal.
The witchfather has been invoked as Lucifer/Satan, Cernunnos, Pluto/Hades, Pan, etc.
Euoi, when you speak of witchfather are talking about this.
I have heard many wiccans state that Cernunnos to them, is the male opposite of Gaia. Instead of a mother earth figure, he is more like a father earth figure.
Witchfather is a term used to describe the male God of the witches.
Typically, Celtic wiccan covens use Cernunnos as the God and Ceridwen as the goddess. Gaia is a Greek goddess. They don’t sound like very intelligent wiccans.
The usage of the name Gaia limits the witch goddess to the earth, and she’s so much more than that.
Okay I wasn’t sure. They have some pretty crazy ideas on this other forum. I hardly ever go there anymore, usually just to poke and prod the crazy I’m always right trolls with my ideas and theories. They hate to be challenged because no one over there ever does challenge them.
Someone could say “I am a werewolf and I have telekenetic links to all the aliens and I’m also half blood witch, born and raised into a very powerful family so I am a natural witch by birth too and I had 2 kids with the archangel Michael.” and they all tell me “Don’t say she is wrong and imagining things no one is wrong here, everyone just has different experiences.”
Which usually ends with me stating something like “Yeah, well my father is half unicorn half bear and I have a vacation condo on the moon where I spend my time getting drunk with Sassafrassatron the rainbow colored alien king.”
Thanx people interesting replies. May i highlight that the word celt is perhaps from the greek word Keltoi meaning barbarian and as such not a very nice word. I prefer to call myself Brythonic we blue eyed freckled people that ARE what they call the Celts. May I also add that the whole of our lands, which includes france, are our native lands.
We are a specie of human but not scandinavian. We are the most persecuted specie on earth I hasten to add and soon we will be no more.
I will try to contact Cernunnos, I feel no affinity with the Judaeo Christian pantheon to be honest, but as a metaphysical atheist I also cant bear to allude to the word God. God to me is a metaphysical concept, where god merely refers to universal superiority in a moral sense.
I will refer to him solely as Cernunnos I feel, but with my initial imploration to the superior more virtuous beings of the super cosmos.
J
J
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Maybe certain depictions of him do have horns but most depictions have antlers. There is a difference between horns and antlers. I have never studied into what horns and antlers are actually made of, but they both seem to be a bone based material. I do feel though that there is a strong Celtic link to Cernunnos, I know that is not his associated origin but I read a book several years back about this, it would take some serious memory recall on my part to remember the name, it was a library rental but it further explained the cultural link. The link may have just been from a small group of people in Ireland who had chosen to work with him closely and have tailored some aspects of that god to themselves. As someone else stated, antlers fall off, horns do not. You also have to keep in mind, many books we read are based on the author’s personal and cultural experiences. I personally, have always seen him with antlers.
Bingo, As for the word Celtic, I did not mean any disrespect. I am Irish, pale skin, light eyes, my hair used to be a deep auburn red but over the years it turned dark. My family has many Scottish folk too. In fact, I seem to be the only one in my family that did not have marry into another Irish family. So I guess you could say my family is trying to preserve their heitage because all of my relatives these days are having children with red hair, blue eyes (sometimes green), and freckles. So this new generation of children in our family are the very stereotypical package of what an Irish person is expected to look like, even though that’s not always the case, many Irish people have brown hair and hazel eyes.
But I won’t go into a cultural discussion of this sort as it leads to mixed feelings amongst others.
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Please teach me how to evoke Cernunnos