The Wiccan Gods.

[Lilith333]

I'm interested in learning about your Gods. I've heard some about the Goddess but very little about The Horned God. So I would appreciate it if someone could tell me a little bit about him. From what I understand your Horned God has been mistakenly labeled as the Christian Devil but he's not. He's a different God all together. Is this true? If not I'm cool with that too. I've been a Satanist most my life. My parents got me into Satanism when I was young as that was their faith.

[RosieMoonflower]

Hello Lillith! I see no one has responded so I will, although I will warn you I am new to paganism and have never formally studied Wicca. Please anyone correct me of I state any misinformation.

Traditional Wicca is usually dualistic, with a God and Goddess. The Goddess usually portrayed as the mother Goddess and the horned God as mentioned. These two deities are sometimes viewed as facets of a greater pantheistic godhead.

However, Wicca isn't defined by one set of standards or rules. Some Wiccans are polytheistic or even monotheistic. Some monotheistic Wiccan traditions promote the male God over the female Goddess or the other way around. Many polytheistic Wiccans incorporate gods from other ancient pantheons into their traditions, such as Greek, Egyptian, Celtic, and others.


Some people believe all the Goddesses are one Goddesses and all the Gods are one God. I see this as being the many different personalities of them. While others believe the Mother Goddess and the horned God are the supreme deities over the others. Some believe all these Gods and Goddesses are real individual beings. Some believe that are just part if a collective consciousness that everyone can access.

So you see, there is no set way for Wicca, unless you follow a certain tradition then that tradition may set some ground rules. If you choose what you want to believe in on your own it is considered eclectic. I believe the tradition that reveres the Horned God and Mother Goddess above all else was set in place by Gerald Gardner. He chose the British isle Gods (the horned God and the Mother Goddess) from the traditions of the British Isles. This may be why many choose to worship and/or honor other God/Goddess that relate more to their ancestry than the British isle Gods do.

I hope that helped some! Sorry I don't have too much information on the Horned God like you had asked for. I call the male/female dual polarity deities Mother Earth and Father Sky. To me, because of my upbringing, I see the father as in the heavens, watching over and protecting and the Mother is on earth, helping life flourish. So, it really just depends on what you believe and what works for you.

Rosie Moonflower [HIBISCUS]

[Vesca]

You may want to take a look at this thread:

http://everythingunderthemoon.net/forum ... 27774.html

We do have a recommended reading list somewhere (I don't have time to dig it out this moment, but doing a search in the forum should reveal it).

Here's one of the books I like : http://www.amazon.com/Horns-Power-Manif ... horned+god

The answer to your question will change drastically depending on who you ask, and not everyone on this forum is Wiccan (myself included).

The identity of the horned god will depend on who you ask, the perception of his characteristics, interactions, and his history regarding Christianization will vary too depending on who you ask and where they draw their information and understanding from.

To be very fair, the process of Christianization throughout history generally involved the demonization of every deity or supernatural creature of the folk beliefs. So to say that "the" horned god was confused with "the" devil is a pretty fluid statement. I'm sure some drew that alignment, I'm also sure that many of those Christianization efforts didn't give the supreme deity of folk beliefs that much power in the minds of their followers. It depends on the region, the time period, the political and economical situations of those regions, the people involved, the specific villages, families, etc... To put a blanket statement over the religions of world history is really not going to help anyone broaden their understanding.

And yourself, with your distinct background and understandings, are also likely to have a different perspective on these things as well.

[Lilith333]

Thanks for both your posts and I'll look into that book.

[Lord_of_Nightmares]

According to Gardner it was Aradia for the goddess and Cernunos for the god. But these names can be different depending on the coven.