A Charge of the God
“Listen to the words of the Horned God, The Guardian of all things wild and free, and Keeper of the Gates of Death, whose Call all must answer: I am the fire within your heart... The yearning of your Soul. I am the Hunter of Knowledge and the Seeker of the Holy Quest; I who stand in the darkness of light; I am He whom you have called Death. I am the Consort and Mate of Her we adore, call forth to me.’’Heed my call beloved ones, come unto me and learn the secrets of death and peace. I am the corn at harvest and the fruit on the trees. I am He who leads you home. Scourge and Flame, Blade and Blood these are mine and gifts to thee.Call unto me in the forest wild and on hilltop bare and seek me in the Darkness Bright. I who have been called; Pan, Herne, Osiris , and Hades, speak to thee in thy search. Come dance and sing; come live and smile, for behold: this is my worship.You are my children and I am thy Father. On swift night wings it is I who lay you at the Mother's feet to be reborn and to return again.Thou who thinks to seek me, know that I am the untamed wind, the fury of storm and passion in your Soul. Seek me with pride and humility, but seek me best with love and strength.”When writing about the Horned God there is woefully little to use as reference. Most everywhere you may read that the Horned God is a natural-fertility figure. He is Oak King and Holly King, the complementary twins seen as one complete entity. He is a vivid expression of the son/lover of Mother Earth - swift-moving, wide-roaming, concupiscent, ever free. He is a hunter and yet he is respectfully killed to feed other creatures. And although he dies, he eternally reappears as strong and splendid as ever. He is that which impregnates the earth, and shepherds and defends her creatures. His is the true wisdom of cosmic and terrestrial law. He is truly Lord of the Dance, for he represents the rhythms of life, growth, death and rebirth. But mostly he is the "Horned" God who reminds us that divinity and nature are not separate. His very appearance teaches us this by combining animal and human aspects.The Oak King and Holly King are twin gods that represent the cycle of fertility. Each of them rules for half a year, fights for the favour of the Goddess and dies. Yet the defeated twin is not truly dead; he merely withdraws during the six months of his brother's rule into Caer Arianrhod, the Castle of the ever-turning Silver Wheel. The Oak King, who is the light twin, rules from midwinter to midsummer. He represents expansion and growth. His tree, the oak, obviously symbolises strength and longevity; its acorn is expressively phallic; and its roots are said to extend as far below ground as its branches do into the air - showing that the god has dominion over Heaven, Earth and the Underworld. The Holly King, who is the dark twin, rules from midsummer to midwinter. He represents withdrawal and rest. His tree, the holly, has leaves that are evergreen and its bright berries glow red when all else is bare of fruit. Thus while his reign is one of withdrawal culminating in apparent lifelessness, his symbology reminds us all the time that he is his brother's other self and holds life in trust while it rest.The Sun-God rules the sky during our hours of activity. His rising and setting effectively mark the time in which we can work because we need his light to see by. He is also the Sky Father whose light fertilises the earth and the hostile sun that makes the desert barren. In Wicca we trace his life through the seasons. At Yule, he is born as the embodiment of innocence and joy, of a childlike delight in all things. His is the triumph of the returning light. At Candlemas his growth is celebrated, as the days grow visibly longer. At Ostara or the Vernal Equinox, He is the green, flourishing youth who dances with the Goddess in her Maiden aspect. On Beltane, he is the young man who has fallen in love and takes the Goddess as his bride. Their marriage is celebrated with maypoles and bonfires. At Summer Solstices he consummates the marriage in a union that is so complete it becomes a death. He is named Summer-Crowned King instead of Winter-Born, and the crown is of roses: the bloom of culmination coupled with the stab of the thorn. He is mourned at Lammas, and at the Autumnal Equinox He sleeps in the womb of the Goddess, sailing over the sunless sea that is her womb. At Samhain, he arrives at the Land of Youth, the Shining Land in which the souls of the dead grow young again, as they wait to be reborn. He opens the gates that they may return and visit loved ones, and rules in the Dream world as He too grows young, until at Yule He is again reborn.If you conduct a search anywhere on the Internet or at a book store, you can find literally hundreds of books and articles about the Goddess and her many guises. But what about the God? Positive images of male deity are difficult to come by, and require a good bit of digging and research. Most of the gods in the Greek and Roman pantheon have had negative human characteristics such as the rape of mortal women attributed to them, so it's sometimes hard to pick positive images from these cultures. And just as old women were vilified hundreds of years ago, the main image of God in pre-Christian Western Europe, the Horned God, has been demonised as well.What most people don't realise is that there was a horned god who was not evil or worshipped with animal sacrifice and who did not force women to have sex with him as was believed. Instead, the Horned God was the lord of the forest and the animals. He is a gentle lover, a compassionate hunter, a loving father and a strong warrior. He is the lord of wild things, the life force that runs through us all, men and women alike.He has been called the Greenman, Cernunnos, Osiris, Pan, Ra, Dionysus, Neptune, Jesus, and Buddha. He is a positive male force that we can all call upon, and reminds us of the beautiful balance between male and female that is positive in a world free from stereotypes of male behaviour. Take a moment to connect with His strength and tenderness, and remember to remain open to the lessons He has to offer to us.Whether you are male or female you can connect with the Horned God, dance, meditate, hunt. Take few moments and in your notebook under the heading "Horned God" write one sentence that personifies what you think of the god and send it to us.