"The suppression of Cernunnos was and is one [the] greatest psychological calamities. Had we continued to be religiously hospitable to him, he might have evolved into a gracious theranthropic, divine Patron of integration."
____ John Moriarty, "Turtle Was Gone a Long Time"
Cernunnos (Ker-NUN'nos) is an antlered god surrounded by beasts and vibrant summer leaves like a shamanic, Celtic Orp0heus, lord of the animals and master of life. Neither quite deer nor entirely man, his theranthropic animal-human nature crosses a bridge that few divine manifestations achieve in our own time. Because he is horned and holds a snake, he was expressly demonized by early Christianity, although medieval Europe could not entirely shake off his abiding figure who also mediates between the two natures.
In many depictions, Cernunnos holds the torc or neck-ring of human achievement in his right (conscious) hand; he grasps the ram-headed serpent of animal wisdom in his left (or unconscious) hand. His eyes are closed in an inward-looking attitude of meditation or ecstasy. For the Celtic world, this was the image of the guardian of life: not a macho or retributive deity, but one of quiet strength, an icon who protected the vital power of all living beings and mediated the powers of spiritual insight and enlightened knowledge. Cernunnos may have been excluded from mainstream religion, but he remains a wellspring of dynamic mediation among those who follow the old ways. He enables us to appreciate and be obedient to our dual nature: as human beings with the power of the mind, and as evolved animals with the power of the body. He stands between the worlds, visible at forest's edge and twilight, tide-turn and dawn, as a patient and protective figure in the borderlands of consciousness.
"Meditate upon your human and animals powers."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
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