In honor of Pride month, let’s remember that Cernunnos is NOT a god of sexuality and masculinity. He was never historically associated with those things.
Historically he was the god of liminality, a mediator between realms, a traveler, a merchant.
His name was appropriated from the Gauls by Wiccans who falsely conflated him with Pan, who does represent sexuality and masculinity.
If if you want a sexual, masculine horned god, you want Pan.
Signed,
Your local non-binary asexual, worshipper of Cernunnos, who is Tired of seeing him portrayed in a sexual manner when that was never one of his attributes to begin with
Okay that’s great you worship Cernunnos a certain way. And if you want if you want more non sexual art of Cernunnos cool. And there needs to be more respect of nonbinary and asexual people
But don’t come here and gatekeep how I worship my gods.
What happened to people will see gods in different ways and we need to keep our noses out of other people’s altars? This isn’t like appropriating a closed culture where using the traditions and practices of that culture could make it more difficult for those people to retain their identity due to the massive amount of discrimination and historical erasure they have experienced.
My experiences with Cernunnos are different than yours and I’m bisexual and Genderfluid. Don’t try and belittle and mock that. Because at the end of the day, if we worship the gods exactly how history shows them, all the male Greek gods would be rapists, most of the female Greek gods would be rape apologists or victim blamers. Celtic and Viking gods would be demanding human sacrifice as well as slavery.
Signed,
A individual left the Christian faith exactly because of this attitude so if that’s how you’re gonna be, go sit next to them. You don’t get to go into people’s lives and decide things like this, that is so arrogant and entitled and rude, and just downright disrespectful. You don’t want Cernunnos to be sexual in your religious practices? Great but DONT YOU DARE try and shame me for what I do and things I have experienced and the relationship I have with my gods , because you are just turning around and doing the exact same bullshit that all these religious extremists have been doing.
I understand where you’re coming from with each person worshipping differently. But the main problem I’m seeing with the general perception of Cernunnos is that he is constantly listed as a Celtic god of fertility, masculinity, sexuality, and hunting when that has never been historically attributed to him at all.
You can call Hades the god of flowers, or Zeus the god of kittens, or Ra the god of skateboards, but just because you personally associate a god with something doesn’t mean that’s who that god is.
Cernunnos was never historically depicted with an erect phallus. And yet when I try to look for statues or images of him to put on my altar, 4 out of 5 will have a phallus. And I don’t think it’s appropriate to take a god out of their historical context to fit your personal idea of how they should be.
This is simply a fact. You will never find a Gaulish depiction of the Gaulish god Cernunnos that connects him with sexuality. And I think it is disrespectful to any god to ignore their attributes and decide to give them new ones.
Signed, one of many people who have done extensive research into historical facts about who Cernunnos was
Please refer to the extensive and thorough research done by @thebloodybones if you disagree with these facts
This post isn’t about shaming others for how they worship gods. If you are Wiccan or ascribe to Wiccan beliefs, I will respect that! The problem here is that this interpretation popularized by Wiccans (that Cernunnos is Irish, or a god of Fertility, or The Green Man, etc etc) is so overesaturated in the community that it makes it difficult for the rest of us to find historical or academic resources with credible information on him. I understand how the OP might come across as gatekeeping, but I do ask that you try to look at it from our perspective.
@Limimal-dualities is correct when they claim there is no solid concrete proof to link Cernunnos with Fertility. This is a trait projected onto him in the last century or so, most sources claiming these claims always trickle back to the same regurgitated rhetoric originally pitched in the 40’s. I don’t think there is anything wrong with worshipping an alternate interpretation of a god, that’s not my issue. Relationships with deities are personal and sacred, i would never tell anyone that their interpretation is wrong if it was important to them. My issue is people will be passing this information off as indisputiple historical fact, when in reality the gauls never wrote anything down so there just isn’t enough context to prove much of anything. It makes it so hard to find credible information.
If you would like to learn more about who the Gaulish Cernunnos originally was, and what information we do have about him, I highly recommend “Cernunnos: Not Your Mother’s Horned God” (Google with quotations will lead you to the essay, i would be happy to hunt it down for you of you can’t find it). There’s also a pretty well-researched video essay on YouTube that’s titled “Cernunnos: Looking Every Which Way”. I don’t consider either of these sources indisputable, but they’re both constructed with a sincere attempt to remain historically accurate and have good historical sources and context for their research.
I detest the term “lazy witchcraft”. It’s the same bullshit language that condemned those as-seen-on-tv gadgets that were designed for disabled folk.
It’s both insulting to call us lazy because of a need for more accessible practice.
AND it’s insulting to assume that all disabled folk need some kind of muted version of witchcraft. You don’t know what we are capable of. Do not speak for us.
Our practices are tailored to us. They are not “lazy”. We do not need to be spoon fed. We are fucking tired of the patronizing language that able bodied folk use to refer to what they deem is fit for our practices.
So many able bodied folk talk to us like children under the guise of allyship, but we don’t need that kind of bullshit.
We know what we can handle. You don’t. If we need help or advice on making something accessible for us, WE WILL ASK.
Even those of us that are chronically bedridden are still capable of much more than you think. Our physical/ mental abilities may have different limits than yours, but it’s not an excuse to patronize us. Don’t pretend “lazy witchcraft” is good for disabled people. You don’t get to pretend you’re helping us while you call us lazy and mock our practice.
THIS!!!! If you want to tag stuff that’s not terribly energy consuming, “low spoon witchcraft” is great! (At least imo I don’t speak for the entire community obv)
There will probably be overlap with other app posts. I’m not trying to say I’m the first to discover these apps or anything of that nature. I’ve included some brief descriptions of why/how regularly I personally use them/how they could be useful and how the app functions.
Amazon Kindle: I have some digital witchcrafty books. If you have your own amazon account, it may be an especially good idea for the discreet witch. Digital versions of encyclopedias are also much easier to carry in-pocket this way.
Angel Cards: The free version only has 2 options, “Message of the Day” and a “Past, Present, Future” spread. The app’s cards are splayed out (face down) for you to scroll through and choose from when you do a spread, and that’s why I use the app despite its lack of free features.
Angel Tarot: The free version of this app is much more substantial than the previous app mentioned. It has a card of the day function as well as 5 spreads built into the app. This app’s divination function also has a user input into the randomization through tapping the touchscreen to shuffle the deck and then choosing the top card with a slide whenever you’re ready. It also allowed you to save your spreads/results to review at a later through a “Journal” function. It does not allow you to take notes on the spread, just archives the result itself.
Cards of Courage: This is a free app that doesn’t offer the entire deck until purchased. There is a Daily Card function, and 1 card, 2 card, and 3 card spread functions. With this app, it chooses a card without any user input (no shuffling/scrolling through cards), but it has not negatively affected its accuracy in my personal experience. This app also has four guided meditations I have not tried to use for it does not interest me.
Crystal Oracle: This is a free app that sort of functions as a magic 8 ball. It takes user input to begin ‘pulling’ an answer. The answers vary from the typical yes/no/ask later. I’ve had varied success with this app.
Galaxy Tarot: A free app with an upgrade option that adds a journal and additional card associations among several other things. This app does not utilize user input for the daily card, but it allows the option for the 6 spreads available.
GardenAnswers: A free app I feel would be very useful for identifying local flora. If a photo of a flower is input into the app, it attempts to match it from a database. It also has a function to ask a horitculturist for advice identifying a plant or treating a plant issue. I have not used this app much, so I can’t vouch for or against it.
Golden Thread Tarot: Cards are generated without user input. The app has a physical deck that can be used in companion. The app offers a journal function that allows the user to input how they feel about the result of the reading when they save it. The app has a daily card function, and offers three spreads for various categories (ex. Love, career, general).
Horoscopes: A horoscope app I use mostly for entertainment. The app has a sign compatibility function that only has m/f options. It also has decent graphics of the constellations which could function as a nice reference.
Inkboard: A simple drawing app I use to create sigils.
Labyrinthos Academy: A fun app that teaches Tarot. The user is allowed to pick between a girl, boy, and nonbinary option for their “player character.” I’ve heard it is very useful for learning the Tarot card meanings, but I have yet to try it much.
MagicBall: An app that requires users to shake their phone to get an answer. It seems about as accurate as the Crystal Oracle app.
Memo: Any note-taking app will do. I’m pretty sure all phones come with one pre-installed. I’ve heard Evernote works well, too. Basically anything that you can use to save your notes even when you’re on the bus or otherwise on the go.
myNoise: This app is made by the same person who has the myNoise website! I 100% recommend this app (and the website which is fairly mobile-friendly) for anyone who needs background noise during spellwork, meditation, divination, or even sleep. Truly amazing stuff.
Phases of the Moon: An app that tracks the moon phase and what sign it’s in. It also has a (relatively unstable) function to set the moon phase as your lock screen/background that is useful for keeping a constant eye on the moon phase.
Planetary Times: An app that tracks the astrological time. It explains what planet’s time it is at the moment and also supplies some horoscope capabilities. It also explains the correspondences and associations of the planets.
Spellcaster: Offers a few basic tarot reading options that do not take user input for card choice (bar selecting a reading). It also has a few spells from the creator’s grimoire, and a daily horoscope. There are more features, but the ones I’ve listed are the free ones. I honestly don’t find myself opening this app much.
Uni Tarot: This app has several decks from which to choose, and the user “stirs” the cards with their touch screen before selecting a card or cards for the spread. It has a large amount of information on the cards, and has a journal function.
Viridi: A calming, meditative digital succulent gardening app (there is also a viridi for the computer) where you weed and water a potted arrangement of succulents.
White Noise Generator: The one I have is an actual stream of white noise. Could be useful for drowning out loud surroundings for meditation or ease in hearing spirits.