Horned God 14318 225681955 2008-07-14T21:45:41Z Fuzzypeg 705906 Probably clearer if we make this plural. "A horned god" -> "Horned gods" '''Horned gods''', with [[horn]]s or [[antler]]s, appear in various cultures. The "Horned God" is a modern term for a [[syncretism|syncretic]] god of late antiquity, the merging of [[Cernunnos]], a horned god of the Celts, with the Greco-Roman [[Pan (god)|Pan]].<ref name="LuckArcana">{{cite book |authorlink=Gerog Luck |last=Luck |first=Georg |year=1985 |title=Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Collection of Ancient Texts. |location=Baltimore, MD |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |pages=pp. 6-7}}</ref> This combination of gods produced a powerful deity, around which the [[Pagan|''pagani'']], those refusing to convert to Christianity, rallied.<ref name="LuckArcana"/> This deity provided the prototype for later Christian conceptions of [[Devil|the devil]], and his worshippers were cast by the Church as witches.<ref name="LuckArcana"/> In [[Wicca]], the Horned God and his counterpart the [[Triple Goddess]] are the main gods worshiped. The "Horned God" is still worshipped by some modern [[Neopagans]], particularly [[Wicca]]ns, who have linked him with a wide variety of male [[nature god]]s from various [[mythology|mythologies]], including the [[English mythology|English]] [[Herne the Hunter]], the [[Egyptian mythology|Egyptian]] [[Osiris]], the [[Hinduism|Hindu]] [[Pashupati]] and the [[Roman mythology|Roman]] [[Faunus]]. All of these male deities are seen as having horns and an association with [[nature]]. A number of figures from [[British folklore]], though normally depicted without horns, are nonetheless considered related: [[Puck (mythology)|Puck]], [[Robin Goodfellow]] and the [[Green Man]]. The syncretic figure of a Horned God, central to a cult of witches, was first suggested by [[Jules Michelet]] in ''La Sorcière'' (1862); these ideas were expanded by [[Margaret Murray]], in ''The Witch-cult in Western Europe'' (1921).<ref name="MurrayWitch">{{cite book |authorlink=Margaret Murray |last=Murray |first=Margaret |title=The Witch-cult in Western Europe |year=1921}}</ref> Since then important aspects of Murray's thesis have been discredited, and the idea of a highly organised pagan underground resistance persisting into the [[early modern period]] is widely regarded as a fantasy. Despite widespread condemnation of her scholarship, certain intuitions of hers are now considered correct,<ref>{{cite book |last=Ginzburg |first=Carlo |authorlink=Carlo Ginzburg |title=Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath |pages=p. 9}}</ref><ref> "Other historians, like Byloff and Bonomo, have been willing to build upon the useful aspects of Murray's work without adopting its untenable elements, and the independent and careful researches of contemporary scholars have lent aspects of the Murray thesis considerable new strength." — J. B. Russell (1972) ''Witchcraft in the Middle Ages''. Cornell University Press. p. 37.</ref> and most witchcraft historians agree that beliefs and practices originating in paganism survived into the Early Modern Age, and that the conflict between these beliefs and Christianity helped precipitate the [[Witch trials in Early Modern Europe|European witch-hunt]]s.<ref>[[E. William Monter|Monter, E. William]] (1976) ''Witchcraft in France and Switzerland''. London: Cornell University Press. p. 112.</ref><ref>Midelfort, Erik (1972) ''Witch-hunting in South-Western Germany''. pp. 15-19; Henningsen, Gustav (1993) "'The Ladies from Outside': An Archaic Pattern of the Witches' Sabbath", in Ankarloo & Henningsen (eds.) ''Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries''. Oxford University Press; Ankarloo, Bengt (2002) "Witch Trials in Northern Europe 1450–1700" in Ankarloo, B., Clark, S. & Monter, E. W., ''Witchcraft and Magic in Europe''. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 60; [[Keith Thomas|Thomas, Keith]] (1971) ''Religion and the Decline of Magic''. Weidenfeld and Nicholson; Wilby, Emma (2005). ''Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic''. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. pp. 14-16; [[Éva Pócs|Pócs, Éva]] (1999) ''Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age''. Central European University Press.; J. B. Russell (1995) ''A History of Witchcraft, Sorcerers, Heretics, and Pagans''. Thames and Hudson.</ref> One notable opponent of the idea of a pagan Horned God associated with witchcraft is the historian of [[Neopagan]]ism, [[Ronald Hutton]],<ref>[[Ronald Hutton|Hutton, Ronald]] (1999) ''Triumph of the Moon''</ref> who holds that pagan beliefs had died out long before the era of the witch trials, and believes that the Horned God figure is a modern syncretic invention of Michelet and Murray. ==Development of an idea== [[Image:Goya le sabbat des sorcières.jpg|thumb|right|[[Francisco de Goya]]'s ''Sabbat'' (1789).]] [[Image:Baphomet.png|thumb|right|[[Eliphas Levi]]'s illustration of [[Baphomet]], in his ''Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie'', 1855, accompanied the first suggestion of an ancient horned god driven underground by the spread of Christianity.]] Throughout history, many different [[pagan]] gods and folkloric figures were depicted as having horns and animalistic, [[goat]] or [[stag]]-like features. A Paleolithic cave painting called [[The Sorcerer (cave art)|The Sorceror]] was found in [[France]] depicting a half man, half stag figure, though it may depict a [[shaman]] performing a ritual. The [[Celtic polytheism|Celtic god]] known as [[Cernunnos]] by the Gallo-Romans had the horns of a [[stag]] and was associated with fertility. The horned character in [[English folklore]] known as [[Herne the Hunter]] may have originated with Cernunnos. In [[ancient Greece]], the goat legged god [[Pan]] was worshipped, and he became [[Faunus]] of the [[Roman pantheon]]. In India, a horned god called [[Pashupati]] was seen as an epithet for the god [[Shiva]]. 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]], originally developed in the fashionable 19th-century [[Occult]]ist circles of England and France.<ref name="Wood">Juliette Wood, "[http://www.juliettewood.com/papers/Tarot.pdf The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Traditions: A Study in Modern Legend Making]": ''Folklore'', Vol. 109, 1998</ref> [[Eliphas Levi]]'s famous illustration of [[Baphomet]], in his ''Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie'' (1855) (based on [[Goya]]'s Witches Sabbath painting, 1789) 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 ''[[The Devil (Tarot card)|Diable]]'' card of the 17th and 18th century [[Tarot of Marseille]]: the bat-winged, horned and hoofed figure with female [[breast]]s, 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 [[moon (mythology)|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. [[Margaret Murray]] took up this suggestion and blended it with an adaptation of the [[cultural anthropology|cultural anthropologies]] of [[James Frazer]] to define a pan-European fertility god. Where Frazer saw modern folklore and folk customs as the echoes of forgotten agricultural rituals, authors such as Murray and her contemporaries at the [[Folklore Society]] saw it as evidence of the survival of an esoteric [[Fertility rite|fertility cult]], a secret tradition driven underground and suppressed by Christianity. Margaret Murray selected and heavily edited sources in order to forward the position that witches meeting in the woods with Satan were actually representatives of a pan-European fertility cult worshiping a Horned God <ref name="Murray-1">Murray, Margaret, ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20411 Witch-Cult in Western Europe]'' 1921</ref>. These themes shaped both the popular image of the Devil and the modern concept of the Horned God revered by some neopagan groups (such as [[Wicca]]) today. Murray's theories have subsequently been discredited due to her selection of evidence<ref name="Oates">Caroline Oates and Juliette Wood : A Coven of Scholars: Margaret Murray and Her Working Methods. Folklore Society Archive Series, no. 1, 1998. ISBN 0 903515 16 54</ref> yet her influence, in part by having authored her theories in the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', persists. ==Associations== ===Wood, animals, hunting=== Margaret Murray associated the Horned God with [[Woodland|woods]], [[wild animal]]s, and [[hunting]].<ref name="Murray-1" /> He has also been associated with [[virility|male virility]] and [[Human sexuality|sexuality]], mainly [[heterosexuality]] but also [[homosexuality]]. <ref>Hutton, Ronald. ''Triumph of the Moon'' pp.48</ref> ===Satan=== The image of [[Satan]] as a horned and hoofed goat-like monster is common throughout depictions of [[Sabbath (witchcraft)|Witches Sabbaths]] from the [[Middle Ages]] (see illustration) to the 17th century (e.g., in the illustrated ''Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais anges et demons'' by [[Pierre de Lancre]] of 1612), alongside other more varied depictions of the [[Devil]] where he was often described as a man dressed in black, a dog or sinister 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.. The addition of the trident which often accompanies modern images of the Devil did not become popular until the 19th century.<ref name="Triumph">{{cite book |last=Hutton |first=Ronald |authorlink=Ronald Hutton |title=The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft |isbn=0192854496}}</ref> According to Murray, after the reign of Henry VIII it was a common accusation against political enemies that they were in league with "the foul fiend" who appeared to them in human form horned like a bull or a stag.<ref name="Murray-1" /> [[Image:Hexensabbat.jpg|thumb|288px|Representation of Sabbath gatherings from the chronicles of [[Johann Jakob Wick]] (1560–1587).<!--This description came from caption in German article on Witches Sabbaths -->]] ==Wicca== In the religion of [[Wicca]], first publicised in 1954, the Horned God is revered as the partner and/or child of the Goddess (commonly described as the [[mother goddess|Great Mother]] or the [[Triple Goddess]]). According to [[Gerald Gardner]] Wicca is a modern survival of an ancient pan-European [[Paganism|pagan]] religion that was driven underground during the [[witch trial]]s. As such the Goddess and Horned God (the "Lady" and "Lord") of Wicca are the supposed ancient tribal gods of this faith.<ref name="WitchcraftToday">Gardner, Gerald ''Witchcraft Today''.</ref> However, there is little evidence to support claims that the religion originates earlier than the mid-20th century,<ref name="Triumph"/> and Gardner himself states that he had reconstructed the rites from fragments, incorporating elements from [[English folklore]] such as Murray (see above) and contemporary influences such as the [[Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn]].<ref name="WitchcraftToday"/> In [[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<ref>Janet and Stewart Farrar, ''The Witches' Bible''.</ref>. Some Wiccans have attempted to reconcile the lack of historical precedence of their beliefs, as scholar and Medieval history professor, Jenny Gibbons states: <blockquote> We Neopagans now face a crisis. As new data appeared, historians altered their theories to account for it. We have not. Therefore an enormous gap has opened between the academic and the "average" Pagan view of witchcraft. We continue to use of out-dated and poor writers, like Margaret Murray, Montague Summers, Gerald Gardner, and Jules Michelet. We avoid the somewhat dull academic texts that present solid research, preferring sensational writers who play to our emotions ... <ref>Jenny Gibbons [http://web.archive.org/web/20051029023619/http://www.cog.org/witch_hunt.html Studying the Great European Witch Hunt] The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies #5 Summer 1998 </ref> </blockquote> ==See also== *[[Horned helmet]] *[[Gundestrup cauldron]] *[[Triple Goddess]] ==References== {{reflist|2}} [[Category:Hunting gods]] [[Category:Nature gods]] [[cs:Rohatý bůh]] [[da:Den Hornede Gud]] [[fr:Dieu cornu]] [[pt:O Deus]] {{Template:WiccaandWitchcraft}}