The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I know, I know; everyone's going to say there's hardly any thing known about him in regards to rituals and worship and such like. Or at least, there's nothing like that found and documented by academia.
 
Thing is, I'm not looking for for that. I've already researched most of it - been at it for months since he smacked me, and smacked me hard. Actually he's sort of been around since I can remember, I just never really noticed or paid attention, and I guess he got tired of it?
 
Anyway, I'm looking more for UPG. What other people have done for rituals/worship, how it worked, what happened, experiences with him in general. Anything would be awesome, really!

Anyway, I'm looking more for UPG. What other people have done for rituals/worship, how it worked, what happened, experiences with him in general. Anything would be awesome, really!

 
I haven't really done any "work" with him exactly, but I have had a couple of dreams. He was a very large, dark man. I could never make out his face, and he was quiet - he made his thoughts known through actions rather than words. A very calm personality.

Unfortunately I can't go into much more detail than that, as the content of the dreams was very personal. But you're free to ask anything you like, and I'll see if I can answer.

I know, I know; everyone's going to say there's hardly any thing known about him in regards to rituals and worship and such like. Or at least, there's nothing like that found and documented by academia.

 
Ive been being "pinged" lately and Im pretty sure its Cernunnos because satyrs and the hunt, and forest scenes, music and some raw vivacious mischief have been the solid core of my thoughts since it started.
if your looking for the more particular, hard to find stuff like i am, there is digging and anthropology involved.  first off I find a lot of refference to the Horned God as a Celtic god, THE celtic god. this is largely irrelevant. some of the oldest surviving cave etchings are of the horned god, basically unchanged in the imagining through time, from culture to culture.  I would say the latest european heyday for worship of cernunnos  is in the ancient black forest tribes and further east into the balkans. its very possible that He would find the best ritual/ offering, to be those based on the oldest human spiritual practices you can find. that is my feel for it. he is a god as old as man, maybe born the very same time as the first homo sapien, maybe before that.

Well, I can't say with whom you have dealings, but it doesn't sound very much like Mylord.

'Mischief' was never among the things I've felt from him and satyrs simply don't belong in the cultural context of Cernunnos either. Tho' a certain sexually permeated energy can be involved.

To the rest of your post, I can only agree on one thing: He is very old. And it is most likely that he was (maybe) a pan-celtic deity. But there is no proof on this at all. It might as well is possible that there was a class of deities that fall under 'horned'.

 
On the other hand, that energy reminds me a lot of the Pan I know - who in Neo-pagan circles tends to be conflated with Cernunnos. (The one I know is very definitely not Cernunnos though.) Sex, satyrs, the hunt, music oh so very much, mischief.. well he's a lively fellow with an excellent sense of x-rated humor at least...

I don't have dealings with Pan, but I thought about him too, reading that description.

 
I guess this all leads me to a better question. Im used to researching this kind of thing myself, going over a bunch of books and anthropological articles and essays. whats really fouling me up with the horned god is that theres a slavic version, nearly identical to the black forest german version, then theres The master of the hunt  and pan.
as an incarnation of the horned god feel pan is kinda specialized. he was the first horned god looking from the out side, civilization, onto barbarism, the natural and primal. I kinda view pan as the god of male fantasies(not just the dirty ones), and general freedom. what Im saying is I dont clump pan in with really ANCIENT gods. and thats what im looking for.
I want to know what horned god is closest to the original? what is the oldest incarnation in the west?
whether its your from research or just intuition id like to hear your point of view

I think I don't understand what you want.
You are aware that Pan connects with goats and that the goat is one of the oldest domesticated animals?

Cernunnos as usually pictured and known is connected with the Hart. Which gives a totally different symbolism. (Antlers are shed each year, for ex.)

I really don't understand what you mean with 'original'.

 
I'm with Tana on this one. I'm not sure what you're getting at.

I wanted to share a bit of my UPG concerning Cernunnos and Pan. I would hope I won't have to censor myself too much on a Pagan forum but I will keep it PG-13.

My interactions were Pan have always been light, playful and flirty. It was about enjoyment and freedom. Cernunnos, however, has always come on really strong. In my interactions with Him, His masculine energy has always been overwhelming. There is a wildness to Him, a base darkness that drips of sex and sexual pleasure, of indulging the id. It's nothing, at all, like my interactions with Pan, despite the fact they may both be classified as Horned Gods. Even now, typing this, the memories of my interactions with Pan make me smile warmly, while the memories of Cernunnos... do other things to me

All UPG, of course, but I still wanted to share in case it helps you pin down your Horned God.

I guess this all leads me to a better question. Im used to researching this kind of thing myself, going over a bunch of books and anthropological articles and essays. whats really fouling me up with the horned god is that theres a slavic version, nearly identical to the black forest german version, then theres The master of the hunt  and pan.
as an incarnation of the horned god feel pan is kinda specialized. he was the first horned god looking from the out side, civilization, onto barbarism, the natural and primal. I kinda view pan as the god of male fantasies(not just the dirty ones), and general freedom. what Im saying is I dont clump pan in with really ANCIENT gods. and thats what im looking for.
I want to know what horned god is closest to the original? what is the oldest incarnation in the west?
whether its your from research or just intuition id like to hear your point of view

 
A good Deity to research at this point is Herne the Hunter. He is one of the older Horned Gods in the UK.

I think I don't understand what you want.
You are aware that Pan connects with goats and that the goat is one of the oldest domesticated animals?

Cernunnos as usually pictured and known is connected with the Hart. Which gives a totally different symbolism. (Antlers are shed each year, for ex.)

I really don't understand what you mean with 'original'.

 
Pan is Hellenistic. meaning that this manifestation of the horned god can only be as old as the culture, at the very most, as old as when that group of people entered the area. Hellenistic cultures may have an old world rawness but they are without a doubt civilized. people lived in cities and concerned themselves with the matters within those cities or on their roads, not the hills and forests.  Goats would have been the obvious choice for a Grecian man-animal god. shepards were the link in their society to their past, the way they were before, when their societies were born.  The Hart is an animal a more natural or primitive people would be associated with. that is an animal that would be respected by a hunter gatherer culture, or at least one not far removed from the ideology of one.
there is evidence that the horned god, yes changing to fit each land he was brought to, has been with humanity as long as sharpened stone. Personally, I believe that the closer we get to that instinctual knowledge the closer we get to the truth of things.
I see it as, each time a culture accepts a god they change it slightly to fit their society. so what we have now is the end result of a couple telephone game. the farther back we can see the closer we get to the gods we know in the form and function they first came to humanity with
I hope that explains what Im trying to do