The Horned God of the Witches Page 11
Great Cernunnos, watch over my beloved (name of animal companion). May you keep them safe from harm in this world and embrace them in the next. When their animal nature comes to the fore, may I see the natural world and your mysteries reflected within it. Bless my relationship with this creature, and may your protection of it bring us closer together. So mote it be!
At this point, add whatever else you desire to your devotional altar, being sure to verbalize the purpose of each item you place on it. When you have everything set up as you see fit, take a step back and look at your altar. Does anything feel out of place? This could be Cernunnos asking you to rearrange things slightly, so be aware of any messages he might be trying to send to you. When you are sure that Cernunnos is comfortable with what you have built, dedicate everything to him one last time and pour him an offering:
I have built this altar to further my relationship with you, great Cernunnos. May it serve as a place of strength for us both and as a space to facilitate our communication. I ask that you share your mysteries with me here and help me to connect with you and your wonders. As I dedicate this altar to you, I pour you this libation [pour an offering], freely and happily given. May my offering strengthen our bond and give you power to bring change to my life and this world. Great Cernunnos, be welcome in this place. So mote it be!
How to Use Your Cernunnos Altar
The easiest way to use your Cernunnos altar is as a focal point for interacting with the god. I think prayer is sometimes a dirty word in Witchcraft circles, but prayer is really just speaking with (or to) a deity, and that type of communication is a great way to build any relationship. Having that kind of interaction at a specific spot also makes it more focused. I can chat with Cernunnos anywhere, but doing so in front of my altar links the act more specifically to my Witchcraft practice. Using your altar as a place to talk to Cernunnos is the most important function it will serve.
Pouring libations to the gods in my life is very important to me, and this is probably the second most important part of a devotional altar. I believe the gods want to know that we are thinking about them, and sharing some whisky or wine with them is a good way to show that acknowledgment. Many of us who actively give our gods offerings do so continuously, on a daily or weekly basis. (And when we forget for a day or two, we often break out the “good stuff,” such as twenty-one-year-old single malt, as a form of apology.) Others reserve offerings for special occasions, such as the sabbats or after a positive life event they think the deity helped them with. Anytime you ask a god like Cernunnos for assistance with something, it is customary to pour a libation as a thank-you. It’s the least we can do!
On my devotional altars, I tend to just leave liquid gifts, generally alcoholic ones, but you should use what you are most comfortable with. Clean spring water is a fine libation, provided it is given with reverence and it means something to you. Unlike an offering of food, which will eventually rot and attract bugs, liquid offerings will typically evaporate on their own. However, unless you are leaving only water to Cernunnos, whatever you pour out to him will eventually leave a sticky residue in the bottom of your bowl. Because of this, you should wash your bowl every couple of weeks. No one wants a gift in a dirty bowl.
While a devotional altar is primarily a place to grow closer to deity, it can also be used for magickal purposes. Not only are the things I have on my Cernunnos altar there in honor of him, but almost all of them have magickal significance as well. Specifically, the items on my Cernunnos altar are representative of the idea of sympathetic magick, or “like attracts like.”
Leaving coins to Cernunnos on his altar is a way of attracting wealth into my own life. Every time I leave Cernunnos some spare change, I say:
For the god, may your material blessings fall upon me.
When I find myself (or a friend) in dire financial need, I’ll take what I’ve collected in my bowl and give it to charity, hand it directly to someone in need, or leave it in a place where I feel it will do some good. As I do so, I ask that Cernunnos allow wealth to return to me (or whoever else):
As I share with the world, may the world also share with me. Let my needs be met and keep me from want. I make this sacrifice in the name of Cernunnos. So mote it be!
There’s an old adage that says, “It takes money to make money,” and giving money to the gods is a way to receive it in return.
When job-searching or simply trying to get my next book picked up by my publisher, I will often write down those desires on a piece of paper and place them in the dish full of arrowheads on my Cernunnos altar. While doing so, I’ll say:
Let my will fly true as I begin the next project in my life. Illuminate the way and bring to me that which I currently seek. So mote it be!
I’ll repeat that little mantra every day until I obtain my desire or realize I don’t want what I originally asked for. Yes, the latter sometimes happens, which is why the mantra begins with “Let my will fly true.” Sometimes we are wrong about what we most desire! When what I want has manifested or I’ve moved on, I then take the piece of paper and either throw it away or burn it to ashes. Then I pour Cernunnos a libation.
I often use my Cernunnos altar as a focal point for working with my beloved dead. I usually begin by placing Cernunnos upon the altar’s pentacle and visualizing the star in the pentacle’s center opening like an eye. That opening signifies an entryway into the realm of the dead. I then think of the person I wish to feel close to again, visualizing them in my mind’s eye and conjuring up memories of their voice. I then invoke Cernunnos:
Open wide the gates between this world and the next! Let me feel the presence and the power of those who reside in the realm of the dead. May I feel them close to me once more in this, my time of need. I ask these things in the name of Cernunnos. So mote it be!
I then talk to those I’ve lost, much like I talk to Cernunnos at his altar. Other times I’m simply still, feeling the energies of those I’ve lost close to me again while being aware of any communication they might be trying to share with me. When I find myself frightened of death, I sometimes ask this boon of Cernunnos just as reassurance that there’s an existence on the other side of the veil.
When I’m feeling disconnected from nature, I visit my Cernunnos altar and touch the item I’ve placed there to represent the natural world (in my case, a pair of antlers).103 Holding those antlers in my hands allows me to feel the power and awe of nature, all without having to leave my office. It’s an especially powerful piece of magick when I’m trapped inside my house or even just my suburban neighborhood for days on end. It’s easy to become separated from the wild pulse of the world; having an anchor to that energy (and having it blessed by Cernunnos) is one of the most important pieces of magick in my life.
I do not think that Cernunnos is a god of health or healing in a traditional sense, but since I believe he looks over domesticated animals, I do ask him to watch over my cats on occasion. The Cernunnos statue on my altar has the god in his traditional sitting posture, and when I worry about one of my cats for whatever reason, I place the object I use to represent my cats on Cernunnos’s lap. This is a direct message to the god that I’m looking for assistance and that I trust him with my precious fur-babies. When working magick for my cats, I’m rather direct with Cernunnos:
Great Horned Lord, I ask that you look after (name of animal companion). Keep her healthy, keep her safe, and keep her free from harm. Watch her as you watched the animal companions of old, offering assistance and care now when it’s needed most. So mote it be!
Needless to say, I always pour Cernunnos a libation after such a request.
Sometimes, though, all of the prayers and the magick cannot overcome death. Our animal companions will die and move on to the next world, and when they do, I always ask Cernunnos to watch over them:
Cernunnos, into your care I place the spirit of my dearly departed (name of animal companion). Welcome
her into your other realm and give her the comfort she needs in this time of transition. Through your cauldron, may she be able to continue to feel my love and affection, and may I feel all that she might offer me. Great god of the living and the dead, give us both solace and peace in this time of transition. So mote it be!
When my longtime cat Princess died, I kept a picture of her cradled in Cernunnos’s lap for almost a year.104 On a near-daily basis for many months, I shed my tears at Cernunnos’s altar while thanking him for taking care of my dear one in this next stage of her existence. It’s the best use I’ve ever made of my Cernunnos altar, and he really was right there with me the entire time.
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While the altar written about in this chapter was designed specifically for Cernunnos, with a few changes you can use it as a template to build a devotional altar to the larger Horned God, or specific deities such as Pan or Herne. The only adjustments you’ll really have to make involve swapping out the things on the altar that are specifically for Cernunnos and replacing them with different items to represent the deity you wish to work with, if applicable. If I was building a devotional altar for Pan, for example, I would add something phallic or sexual, a pan flute, and a token representative of his nymphs, while removing the coins, pentacle, and anything else suggestive of death.
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100. Mankey and Zakroff, The Witch’s Altar, 48. It always feels really good to be able to cite my own work in the books I write. This particular book has a long chapter on pentacles, including information on how to build one quickly and easily.
101. Beloved dead refers to the dead who were family and friends but were not necessarily Witches or Pagans. The term mighty dead is used to designate those who are dead and practiced the Craft. It’s possible for our beloved and mighty dead to be the same in some instances.
102. The Witch’s Altar has complete instructions for cleansing an altar if you’re looking for more detail.
103. Much of this book was written at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. I have very much missed nature during this time of sheltering indoors.
104. Princess was Siamese, so her name was fitting. She really did believe she was royalty, and so did I.
Chapter Nine
The Green Man
There is a tendency among Pagans and Witches to assume that every deity we might honor during ritual is old—not just centuries old, but millennia old, and dating back to pagan antiquity. But the world is a complicated place, and there are several gods that fit into the Horned God mythos who are probably just as much a product of the modern age as they are of antiquity, but I don’t believe this makes them any less potent as gods or goddesses.
There are purists out there who will argue that a deity first discovered or named in the twentieth or twenty-first century is made-up or fictitious, and in my more pretentious days I was probably one of them. However, every deity starts somewhere, and I like to believe that there are always reasons specific deities make themselves known to us. Much of what we know and believe about gods like Pan and Cernunnos is also tied in to our modern sensibilities and interpretations, so why should other deities in the horned pantheon be any different? The Horned God reveals himself in a variety of ways.
The imagery attached to deities such as the Green Man, Elen of the Ways, and Herne is often very old, even if their myths might be of a more recent origin. Images that resemble the Green Man are nearly two thousand years old, as are statues of antlered goddesses (as we saw with Cernunnos in Chapter Seven ). The god Herne wasn’t written about until nearly the year 1600 CE, but even that is over four hundred years ago now. If something speaks to us, it speaks to us, and it doesn’t matter if that something was first honored three thousand years ago or three weeks ago.
Green Man Adventures
My wife, Ari, and I had been in the UK for only thirty-six hours when we began gazing at the images of the Green Man in St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland.105 Upon entering the church, we found ourselves in a state of hushed awe (we just love old religious places), and it took us a while before we even contemplated that the Green Man might be around. But eventually it dawned on me that there was probably an image of him in a 650-year-old church, so I took out my phone, did a quick google search, and found out that there are dozens of images of the Green Man at St. Giles’.
The following day, we arose early and took a bus to Rosslyn Chapel (famous for being the alleged burial spot of the Christian Holy Grail in books like The Da Vinci Code). I had read extensively on Rosslyn over the years and knew ahead of time that the chapel contained images of the Green Man. Our entrance to the chapel included a small pamphlet pointing out the most famous images at Roslyn, including a rather impish Green Man that’s often included in pictures of the chapel. But even with my pamphlet guiding me, I had trouble finding the Green Man in the chapel. Taking pity on me, my wife eventually helped me spot him.
Though I had been reading about the Green Man for years, the written material on the subject does not always do him justice. I had expected majestic, easy-to-spot images of the Green Man smiling pleasantly from atop church walls. The reality was something altogether different. At both St. Giles’ and Roslyn, the images of the Green Man are small and often in unexpected places. He is far more ornamentation that main event, and the most well-known Green Man image from Roslyn Chapel is no bigger than a bar napkin; high on the ceiling, he was truly hard to spot! Green Men appear on the sides of church pews, on structural corbels (a type of bracket), and as decorative motifs where wooden support beams come together (known as a ceiling boss).
The Green Man in History
For me, the Green Man has always been symbolic of nature. With his leafy face, he’s the power of the natural world that radiates from forests, hills, and streams. On mountain hikes, I can often see his visage in craggy rocks and peaks. I have called to him while indoors performing Spring Equinox rituals, and I have seen his smile as the Oak and Holly Kings do battle on the Summer and Winter Solstices. While the armchair scholar in me recoils at some of the bad history I’ve read about him over the last thirty years, the Witch in me still embraces it, because much of it represents the truth of how he appears to me and also those I love and practice with.
However, the historical Green Man written about in Pagan books is more fantasy than reality. One of the first Pagan books I ever read that devoted extensive space to the Green Man connected him to ancient Greece and the cults of Pan and Dionysus, and eventually Cernunnos.106 In her entry on the Green Man in the book Lord of Light and Shadow, writer D. J. Conway lists other names for the Green Man, including Arddhu, Atho, and the Horned God. She concludes the entry with “see Cernunnos,” implying that Cernunnos and the Green Man are in fact the same deity.107
The truth of the matter is that we don’t know very much about the images that today we call the Green Man. Let me stress the word images here, because representations of the Green Man are exceedingly variable. The majority of them look nothing like the Green Men we encounter in art related to Modern Witchcraft; the expressions are far more agonized in appearance, and some are scary-looking. One of the words once used to describe Green Man images in British churches was grotesque, due to the rather sinister appearance of many Green Men.108
Up until 1939, the name generally used to refer to images of the Green Man was foliate head, a reference to the plant material that can often be seen spewing from the mouth of many Green Men. The name Green Man in reference to foliate heads comes from a paper submitted in 1939 by Julia Somerset (1901–1971), more commonly known as Lady Raglan (she was the wife of the 4th Baron Raglan), to the Folklore Society in London. Raglan’s paper was based on previous work by Margaret Murray (there’s that name again!) that had suggested that foliate heads were Pagan fertility figures placed in Christian churches by still devout Witches looking to
honor the old religion in the cathedrals of the new.109 The term Green Man was then adopted by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner and included in his 46-volume Buildings of England series, which helped to popularize the term.110
Not surprisingly, there are a whole host of issues with such an assumption, the first being that the heyday of the Green Man occurred while Christianity was ascendant in Europe. The Green Man really only became a fixture in Christian churches during the late Middle Ages and into the early modern period (from 1200 to 1500 CE or so), though references in Christian materials dates back to the tenth century.111 If the Green Man was meant to be a quiet Pagan prayer hidden above the church pews, it was one that went underground for hundreds of years. It’s not completely out of the question that Green Man images are in some way related to ancient paganism(s), but considering the era, it’s a difficult case to make.
So if the Green Man was not originally a relic of the Pagan past, what does he symbolize? Christian sources are just as quiet on that count as any alleged Pagan ones. The most logical explanation for the Green Man (and remember, many of these images do not look friendly) is that the figure represents a soul entangled in sinful behaviors, or perhaps a soul stuck in purgatory. Other less than hopeful interpretations suggest that the figure might represent a decaying corpse, illustrating the consequences of sin and the snares of the Christian Devil.112
But not all Green Man images are negative-looking. There are some that are quite inspiring and truly suggest our modern interpretations of him. In a Christian context, those images might represent immortality, salvation, resurrection of the body after death, or something to do with love.113 They could also be representative of something agrarian, such as the yearly return of life in the spring or the beauty of the green earth. Christianity has very little that expresses the wonder of the natural world, so the beautiful Green Men could be a remedy for that.