“Cernunnos the Mighty, thou art the gray mist
Cernunnos, thou art the forests of green Cernunnos,
Lord of the creatures of the earth
In thee is the sacred victory seen
Cernunnos! Cernunnos! Cernunnos!
At the Sacred Centre, in the Grove of all Worlds, He sits with legs crossed beneath an ancient Oak. Entranced, connecting the three worlds of Earth, Sea, and Sky and the worlds behind the worlds, the God and the Great Tree are One. Immense limbs widespread, stretching into distant sky and starry space. His massive trunk, spine of the Middleworld, is the heart of the Ancient Forest around which all Life, all worlds turn. His limitless root web grows deep into secret earth and Underworld.
Above him the great turning circles of Sun, Moon, and Stars. All around Him subtle movements of the leaves in melodious, singing air. Everywhere the pulsing, gleaming Green awash in drifts of gold and shimmering mist. Beneath Him soft moss creeping over the dark, deep, moist of spawning earth. At His feet the great Cauldron from which the Five Rivers Flow.
Through the forest stillness they come, whispering wings and secret glide, rustling leaves, and silent step, the first Ancestors, the Oldest Animals, to gather around Him: Blackbird, Keeper of the Gate; the Stag of Seven Tines, Master of Time; Ancient Owl, Crone of the Night; Eagle, Lord of the Air, Eye of the Sun; and Salmon, Oldest of the Old, Wisest of the Wise, leaping from the juncture of the Five Springs.
He welcomes them and blesses them, and they honor Him, Cernunnos of the nut brown skin and lustrous curling hair. The god whose eyes flash star-fire, whose flesh is a reservoir of ancient waters, His cells alive with Mystery, original primeval essence.
Naked, phallus erect, He wears a crown of antlers limned in green fire and twined with ivy. In his right hand the Torq of gold, testament of his nobility and his sacred pledge. In his left hand the horned serpent, symbol of his sexual power sacred to the Goddess. Cernunnos in His Ancient Forest, His Sacred Temple, His Holy Grove, Cernunnos and His children dream the Worlds.
Cernunnos, a nature and fertility god, has appeared in a multitude of forms and made himself known by many names to nearly every culture throughout time. He is perhaps best known to us now in his Celtic aspects of the untamed Horned God of the Animals and the leaf-covered Green Man, Guardian of the Green World, but He is much older.
Cernunnos worked his magic when the first humans were becoming. Our prehistoric ancestors knew him as a shape-shifting, shamanic god of the Hunt. He is painted in caves and carved everywhere, on cliffs, stones, even in the Earth Herself. Humans sought to commune with Him and receive his power and that of his animal children by dressing themselves in skins and skulls, adorning themselves with feathers and bones, by dancing His dance.
Yet, He is older still. In the time of the dinosaurs, the great swamps and subtropical forests of cycads, seed ferns and conifers, and later in the time of the deciduous plants and flowers, when the pollinators came and the first tiny mammals were creeping up from beneath the ground, Cernunnos was the difference and diversity of life, the frenzy and ferment of evolution.
But, He is much older still. He is oldest of the Ancient Ones, first born of the Goddess. At the time of First Earth, Cernunnos grew in the womb of the All Mother, Anu, waiting to be born, to come forth to initiate the everlasting, unbroken Circle of Life.
The Many Faces & Natures of Cernunnos
Cernunnos, as The Horned God, Lord of the Animals, is portrayed as human or half human with an antler crown. Though he wears a human face his energy and his concerns are non-human. He is protector of animals and it is Cernunnos who is the law-sayer of hunting and harvest.
While He is recognized most often through his connection to animals and our own deeply buried, dimly recalled, instinctual animal natures, Cernunnos is also a tree, forest, and vegetation god in his foliate aspect of The Green Man, Guardian of the Green World. His branching antlers symbolize the spreading treetops of the forest as well as his animal nature.
As Master of the Sacrificial Hunt, His is the life that is given in service of new life. His wisdom is that the old must pass away to make way for the new. In his Underworld aspect Cernunnos is The Dark Man, the god who dwells in the House Beneath the Hill, the Underworld. He is the one who comforts and sings the souls of the dead to their rest in the Summerlands of the Otherworld.
Cernunnos, as Master of the Wild Hunt, who pursues the souls of evil doers, is not associated with a biblical or even modern morality, but with the protection and continuance of the Land and Nature and the spirits that dwell therein. Pan, lusty Satyr god of the Greeks is another aspect of the Horned God. “Pan is a proud celebration of the liberating power of male erotic energy in its purest and most beautiful form.”(5) He is portrayed as playful and cunning, but He also has a darker, dangerous nature. The panic or terror often associated with Pan is not related to human violence, but to the Life and Death of the natural world. In this form he is called the “All Devourer.” However, Pan, as Protector of the Wilderness and as a god prone to fits of madness and violence, can induce panic or wild fear in those who threaten his domain.
Cernunnos appears in Elizabethan England, and is mentioned by Shakespeare, as Herne the Hunter, the demon and guardian of Windsor Forest, the Royal Wood. In this aspect it is said that he appears as Guardian of the Realm during times of National emergency and crisis.
In modern times he is often called the God of the Witches and embodies uncorrupted masculine energy. A masculine energy that is fully-developed and in balance with the natural world.
Cernunnos & the Sacred Wheel of the Seasons
We celebrate and honor Cernunnos as the Green Man in spring and summer, the light half of the year, and as the Dark One or the Dark God in autumn and winter, the dark half of the year. He appears in spring as the young Son, child of the Goddess, embodiment of the budding, growing, greening world. In summer He is the Green Man, vibrant, pulsing with life essence, the consort of the Green Lady Goddess. But, it is in autumn, the dying time, that perhaps we see the Horned God most clearly. He is the sacrificed one, who, wounded unto death begins his journey to the Underworld, returning to the Earth from which he was born and where the seeds of light released from his decaying body will quicken Her womb with a new Son/Sun once again.
The path to Cernunnos is both through the natural world: seeking out the wild places and a deep understanding of the processes of growth, bounty, decay, rest, and rebirth, and through Otherworld journeys to the Middleworld forest of which he is guardian. One may experience this both actually and symbolically by following the path that disappears over the horizon into the distance and moves away from the “civilized” world and into the heart of the Wild Wood.
Often experienced as traveling away from the centre to the perimeter, this is in actuality a return to the Centre. When the seeker reaches the God’s forest the track ends, and her/his pathways are found by other means. After entering the Wildwood the seeker cannot be followed, nor can s/he follow another. Whatever pathways are discovered disappear in passing, and the Wood is trackless once again, for each one’s way is different. In the Forest of Cernunnos there is a stillness, an otherworldly feeling, as if one has passed out of time. Here the mind is not supreme. It is instinct, the innate wisdom of the body that guides us to Him.
The way of Cernunnos is the way of the shaman or any person who truly seeks Communion with the Land. Yet, one cannot speak of Cernunnos without speaking of Anu or Don, the All Mother who gave Him birth. The way of Cernunnos is through the One. Like Her, Cernunnos is a Being or Power that existed before time and before the Gods, the Shining Ones. Together they are First Mother and First Father, All Mother and All Father who brought the Gods into being.
Limitless and everlasting, His energy permeates Her matter through every aspect of life to the sub-atomic. As Lord of the Dance He is present in the billions and billions of infinitely small movements that make up the seemingly chaotic Dance of Life, the Dance of Making and Unmaking. He is truly the Life that never, never dies, for even as nothingness he is self-originating. He is triple as She is triple. He is Cernunnos: Father, Son, and Wild Spirit.
Stag Horned Hunter, Hunted One
Greenwood Lord of Life and Death
Herne and Pan and Every Man
Cernunnos Guided Meditation
This guided meditation is intended to bring you closer to the essence of the God, and bring away a tool of personal power.
In addition to your normal altar tools, you will need a symbolic weapon. This needn’t be large or elaborate. A small stone pendant shaped like an arrow can be used. Even a pointed stone would do, or a small stick with the point sharpened. Several Celtic excavations have uncovered ritual shafts in which worshippers offered miniature versions of real weapons as gifts to the gods. If the subject of weaponry interests you, you may wish to try to craft a small replica of a Celtic sword or spear out of wood, metal, clay or bone. Place your symbolic weapon upon the altar. Prepare also a chalice or cup of cold water, which will serve to connect you to the physical world amid intense meditative work.
To start, perform the Creating Sacred Space rite through to calling the Spirits of Nature and of Place. Do not perform the usual God Invocation however. Instead, begin theCernunnos Guided Meditation here:
Remain standing before the altar. Set down your staff and light the incense and candle. Pick up your symbolic weapon. Hold it in both hands as you invoke the god:
“Cernunnos the Mighty, thou art the gray mist Cernunnos, thou art the forests of green Cernunnos, Lord of the creatures of the earth In thee is the sacred victory seen Cernunnos! Cernunnos! Cernunnos!”
Stand in meditation, visualizing before you the figure of a horned warrior. He may seem frightening or foreign, but you should not be afraid. He may appear sitting cross-legged on the ground or on an altar, and is frequently joined by one or more animals.
Hold out your weapon to him:
“Cernunnos, ancient god Accept this gift in thy honor May my actions be swift and true As the arrow of the hunter”
Remain in meditation for a moment, concentrating on the forest surrounding you. Hold your sacred weapon in your dominant (power) hand (for most people, the right), with the point facing outward and your arm extended. Turn slowly all the way around, noticing where your weapon is pointed as you repeat:
In your mind, try to fully enter into the mind of a hunter of old, killing not for joy but for survival. Use all the intelligence and knowledge at your command to track your prey, becoming as one with the forest surroundings, perhaps wearing the skin of a deer to disguise your scent. You may find yourself walking or running about your circle, or sitting in silent readiness. Take some time to experience this mental state.
Let your unconscious, guided by the god you have invoked, show you the end of the hunt. Perhaps you merely glimpse the prey and are left hungry and unsuccessful. Perhaps your weapon shoots home, and you experience the smells and sights of the bloody conclusion, and the knowledge that you have sustained the life of your tribe.
Remain in this visualization for several minutes. When you are ready, return to yourself and to the place where you are. Take a drink from the chalice of water.
If you wish to do the second part of this rite at this time, take a moment to groound and center. Otherwise, you may choose to end the ritual here, after thanking the god, and perform the next part on another occasion.
Put your symbolic weapon in your non-dominant hand, with the point facing toward yourself. Take a few steps backward, and with each one repeat:
Visualize yourself as a forest animal, the target of hunters. You can be any animal (though a deer would be best); choose one of whom you have some knowledge and feel some understanding.
What do you do to preserve your life? This depends largely on the nature of the animal you have chosen. Perhaps you remain perfectly still, trusting the wind to carry your scent away. Perhaps you flee pall-mall, or plot a careful strategy to disguise your flight. As prey, you must think on your feet, drawing on your knowledge of the land and on your own strengths and defenses.
Take some time to experience the sensations of this situation. What strengths do you find you have, when the emergency creates a need? These are the gifts of Cernunnos
This time, do not let your unconscious decide the outcome. Decide that you will escape from the hunters, and visualize yourself doing so. (Why do I not recommend that you allow yourself to experience the death of the prey? First, because I believe death is an unknowable experience. Second, because the ritual enactment of a death can in my experience lead to tragic consequences for the one who takes on this role.)
When you are ready, return to this world and place your sacred weapon on the altar. Take a drink from the chalice of water. Then take your weapon in both hands and offer it to Cernunnos once more.
“Cernunnos, Forest King, thy mystery is great Thou art the Hunter with courage and strength And the Hunted with swift intelligence Thou art both I offer this weapon to thy service Hail and farewell!”
End your ritual by performing the Clearing the Sacred Space rite.
If you wish to embody the energies of Cernunnos in some part of your daily life, you may want to carry your symbolic weapon with you, or fashion it into a piece of jewelry. Otherwise, offer it to Cernunnos by burying it in a wooded place
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