A SHRINE TO CERNUNNOS
"He divided his realm. It lay there like a dream. An ancient land, full of strategy. Ramparts of compost pioneered by red-helmeted worms. Hemlock in ambush, night-soil, tetanus. A wasps’ nest ensconced in the hedge-bank, a reliquary or wrapped head, the corpse of Cernunnos pitching dayward its feral horns. [...]
And it seemed, while we waited, he began to walk towards us; he vanished
he left behind coins, for his lodging, and traces of red mud."
Cernunnos is a complex God: He is liminal, a passenger and a guide, walker of both wild and civilized paths, man and beast, holy and chthonic, living and dead, this world and Other. In some ways He is wilderness, the ritual ecstasy that leads His followers to wisdom, greatness, and madness. In other ways, He is the progenitor, giving grain and coin to His people, a bringer of plenty. He is the psychopomp, walking the line that is the gate, and He is the guide through the Otherworld, showing spirits how to pass through and return unscathed. He is the God of thresholds, of peace and violence, of wilderness and civilization, of the hunter and the prey. Holy torc in one hand, chthonic horned snake in the other, He keeps the balance, a gentle mediator between the light and the dark.
Know Him, and pray:
Know Him, and pray:
Hail, Cernunnos, your gentle hand in the dark,
your breath on my back, your words-without-words.
Keeper of travelers, of wanderers and the spirit-bothered,
liminal God, hear my prayer:
I am but of man, I am
nothing if not of contradiction and strife;
take me in, Cernunnos, as one of your own,
as an endless seeker, as a transient soul.
Hand in the dark, breath on my back,
guide me through strife, hold my hand through
the in-between places.
Art is "Cernunnos" by Valerie Herron.
Poem is from Mercian Hymns by Geoffrey Hill.
Prayer is by bloodyboneshaker.
Poem is from Mercian Hymns by Geoffrey Hill.
Prayer is by bloodyboneshaker.