Blessed Bees * last updated May 4, 2000

Horned One

He doesn't have a name to me, although he's known by many names. Herne. Hunt Lord. Cernunnos. Lord of the Wild Hunt.

I first encountered him when I was a solitary witch.  I was working out a lot, doing Yoga and I'd discovered a dance club called Barefoot Boogie.  The place was in the Mission district of San Francisco.  It was a dance studio and people of all shapes and sizes showed up in workout clothing to dance.  No smoking, tables, pickup lines, or booze.  Just honest dancing.

I parked farther away than normal one night, in an alley.  As I walked toward the studio, I encountered a brightly painted mural covering the cinderblock of a corner building.  I was caught and pulled in to the picture.

Purple and smoke and woods and wine.  The tastes and textures flooded me as I gazed at the mural.  The mural itself was a surreal landscape, depicting hills and woods and sky in broad primary tones.  Standing proud on the foremost hill was a stag painted in startlingly realistic colors.

I had just bought a new athame and was wearing it all the time under my clothing.  The handle of the athame is the foot of a deer.  I felt it press reassuringly against the small of my back.  And I knew the horned one.

He's the beasts and the life and the swirling energy that is free and wild.

Links to some of his faces:

Shrine of the Horned Gods: Ancient Faces
The Horned Lord