The Lord Herne

This is the picture and mental image that I have of the Lord Herne.

My good friend Sabrina of Mystical and Magickal Art by Sabrina was kind enough to give me this picture and the companion to it, Rhiannon and I want to thank her very much for this. These images are in a treasured place on my altar.

Now, since this work is copyright Sabrina, I hope you won't try to steel this. It's a beautiful picture I know, but she is working to make these affordable to everyone. I did put a watermark on this picture for her, and I cut it into little slices that should make it impossible for someone to get them all and reassemble them. This is because I don't want to contribute to image theft. I have a number of artist friends, and this is taking food out of their mouthes, just as surely as walking into a bookstore and taking a book without paying for it is theft of literature.

There is not a lot of information I have on specifically Herne. I see him as the Animal Lord, the Lover of Rhiannon, the Father and so on. Here is an interesting piece that I wrote about the Lord. The Encyclopedia Mythica has information on Herne listed saying that he is the leader of the Wild Hunt and often associated with Cernunos. One page on Pagan-Home, A Cyber Community has a lot of good info and links to other works.

This is taken from Terry McCombs, and he has an updated version of this information at "The Horned God"

Herne, Herne the Huntsman

by Terry McCombs

NAME: Herne, Herne the Huntsman, Master of the Hunt, Lord of the Wild Hunt, Cernunnos.

SYMBOLS: Stag horns, Hounds, Hunting Horn.

USUAL IMAGE: A large man with the horns of a stag (picture), sometimes show with midnight black skin and glowing green eyes.

HOLY DAYS: The whole of the winter months, like most Celtic 'horned' gods, Herne was said to rule the cold months. The Goddess ruled during the summer months.

PLACE OF WORSHIP: The wild wood.

MAJOR TABOOS: Escaping.

FORM OF WORSHIP: "All heads turn when the hunt goes by."

SYNODEITIES: Silvanus (another Celtic God), Pan (Greek/Roman), Buffalo (Native American), Mielikki (Finnish).

DETAILS: Herne is the silent master of the Wild Hunt, a legend that is found in most Celtic lands. Herne is also one of a number of horned gods that are found in Celtic tales. Like the others he was a symbol of the life force. Herne, like the Greek Pan, was a symbol for a wilder form of that force. Just as Pan's pipes drove people to pan-ic, Herne also had a highly effective horn. Only his did not drive one to panic but called all who heard it to joint he wild hunt and be filled with an uncontrollable lust to hunt down and rip to shreds what or whom ever was unlucky enough to become the object of this hunt. He was always aided in this by a number of large hounds.

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The URL of this document is http://davensjournal.com/herne.xhtml