Daily Deity #169 Cernunnos

This Celtic forest god is pretty much the prime example of the Horned God and often functions as one half of the power couple for Wiccans.

Cernunnos has a lot of history to him, but none of it really has anything to do with mythology. Like a vast amount of gods in the world, Cernunnos isn't said to be related to anyone else in his pantheon. Perhaps it's better that Cernunnos doesn't have to worry about family, as he has a lot of roles in the Celtic pantheon.

Before we get into what he does, it's best to get a description of what this god looks like. As I said above, Cernunnos is a Horned God, and that does mean that he has antlers growing out of his head. Massive ones. Ones that would make a perfect ten point buck jealous. Sometimes these deer qualities extend beyond the antlers, and he is sometimes said to have the lower half of deer as well, complete with hooves and fuzzy legs. Commonly, this nature god is also said to possess a fairly magnificent beard and that reminds me of the wise old man who travels through the forest, freely giving advice to whatever passerby he meets.

He actually has a striking similar appearance to a very ancient image. The image is of a man with tall antlers, long deer-like ears, an owlish face, and a lower half that reveals furry legs and a small deer tail. This image is called "The Sorcerer" but once you know what Cernunnos looks like, or the images of other horned gods (and there are quite a few) it's pretty hard and a bit unreasonable to believe that Cernunnos doesn't have a long history through Europe.

But, back to what Cernunnos does. First and foremost, Cernunnos is a nature deity. He acts as a protector of the forest and master of animals, but also functions as a god of the hunt. That's honestly a nice balance for each other, since it means that he knows when to trim down a population so it won't cause major problems for an ecosystem. But he is mainly a protector of the forest and the animals within, and in this aspect of him there is no denying how much Cernunnos sounds like the Green Man, another nature based deity in Celtic lore.

Actually, Cernunnos also connects with another Celtic god, and that is Herne the Hunter. These two, both linked with nature, with the hunt, with protecting the forest and animals even though they are hunters... well, it's understandably that quite a few people have speculated that they are the same god.

He also functions as a god of fertility. This is mainly in the area of agriculture, as he is the one who assists in a good crop for the year. When you add together this aspect of him with his role as a god of the hunt, Cernunnos basically becomes responsible for everything that would have been in someone's pantry a few hundred years ago. Which is only one of many reasons to not get on this god's bad side. If you do, there might be a chance that you're not going to be eating too well until you fall back into his good graces.

However, fertility can also extend beyond the field. Much like the great god Pan of Classical mythology, Cernunnos also had some dealings in the fertility of women. Specifically one woman in particular, and she's not as much a woman as she is a goddess. He and the Goddess, every year, come together to spring forward the seasons and the natural rhythms of the Earth.

This is what often relates to Cernunnos being a god associated with death and the Underworld. Every year he is said to die towards the end of fall, and then be reborn in spring, coinciding with the seasons and how plants function during the seasons. You really have to give it up to a god that this willing to die every year in order to keep the world functioning as it does.

So thank your resident god of nature, it's Earth Day after all!