The Stag God

He was the God of the Celtic Druids, know as Cernunnos the stag God, lord of the beasts however there is evidence for a world wide reverence of this God which is very ancient and surprising. The stag god is often depicted surrounded by animals (being lord of the beasts), holding a snake which has rams horns, he often has neck rings (known as torc to the Celts) and having antlers/horns on his head.





Above San Rafael Swell Utah rock art images, the stag God is shown holding a snake in left hand, surrounded by swimming animals, the snake has ram's horns, the God has stag horns and is surrounded by ring objects, the top ring on the left is clearly a neck torc as the two end caps/balls can be seen.



Image almost identical to one above but from Val Camonica are located in the Province of Brescia, Italy.
The God is seen with stag antlers, snake on left and ring on right arm.



Above the Celtic God Cernunnos as depicted and worshiped by the Druids, this image is from the Gundestrup Cauldron. The God is shown holding a Ram horned snake in left hand, a ring torc around his neck and in right hand. He is surrounded by animals and is seated in an almost yogic pose with stag horns on his head.



Above Shiva Pashupati (the god who would later evolve into the God Shiva) is seen seated in yogic pose, surrounded by wild animals, rings on arms, horns on head. This image is from the Indus Valley Civilization.


Above image of cernunnos from the Pillar of the Boatmen France, shown with stunted stag horns and wearing neck ring



Above Cernunnos (France) He wears a torc at the neck and on the chest. Two snakes with ram heads encircle him at the waist. Two cavities at the top of his head are where antlers were once inserted.



Another from France

"O Spectre of stags* of great knowledge, O Man whose sight is in visions of Ireland of many byred calms, God of requests beside me, O Stag*, hooves sharp as swords to antler-points white-silver, pig* of the wilds fresh green terrible, fair cow* of red-speckled* ear-points, the trinity who do not scrutinize, cow* and great pig* of keen sight, fierce stag* of divine possessions, glorious, free of the restraint of crowds, who sing together, have advanced together to our harbour of complete attentions. O father of mine, pledged to his people forever, The veils are removed, by the source of great wisdom keenly seen, upon song from out of the magical mists of prophecy. "

Above an Irish Druid prays to the stag god calling him "O father of mine".

Did the Celts travel allover the globe spreading this religion, were the Celts in America LONG before Christopher Columbus?

LUXUS
Did the Celts travel allover the globe spreading this religion, were the Celts in America LONG before Christopher Columbus?

I think everybody and their brother were in America before Columbus.

Thank you for an interesting read. I've also seen the similarities over the years too and have wondered about these myself.

Very interesting. The Stag God somehow reminds me of the stickman. If you would like to read more interesting stuff about it, please go here:

www.quofataferunt.com...

Use google translate to translate it from Dutch to English. But it actually is very interesting. It is a lot of info, but once you are reading, it will unfold itself as a very interesting study with lots of material referring to other interesting information.

reply to post by LUXUS


Ha ha, especially in your first picture, the Stag God looks like a really fun God
I wonder if the antlers eventually evolved into horns seen on Satyrs or such.

SLAYER69

LUXUS
Did the Celts travel allover the globe spreading this religion, were the Celts in America LONG before Christopher Columbus?

I think everybody and their brother were in America before Columbus.

No kidding, that certainly seems to be the general trend. Mainstream Europe was just behind the times, apparently. And didn't Columbus discover America accidentally?

Did Christopher Columbus Discover America?

Funny thing about that he didn't. He was trying to find a short cut to India and got lost. He landed in America thinking it was India but it wasn't (obviously) and claimed he discovered a new land but the thing about that is there were already people living here. They'd been living here since the time after the Ice Age. Those people were the Native Americans or Indians. They came from Asia because after the Ice Age the ocean was frozen and Canada, America, and Asia were all connected and you could walk back and forth.

Link

Ha ha - you have to love this guy's argument about why Columbus didn't discover America - "[he] claimed he discovered a new land but the thing about that is there were already people living here."

the 2 original photos in the op of the tall, tree looking stag horned guy, reminds me of an inca story about how the earth use to be populated by walking trees. my first solution to the riddle, combined with the information regarding cochina dolls and the very cubic looking inca statues, was that the walking trees were an attempt to describe huge robots who were powered by sentient occupants.

also note the one from the side of the cauldron is holding a ring in his hand, in the same position as the inanna statues from iraq. something very suspicious going on here

Makes me wonder if the stag god, wasn't around before the druids? Maybe called something else? Pretty interesting that he seems to have been worshiped on every continent.

Thanks OP, I love these types of threads!

The rock art images are extremely ancient, what I want to know is what were those neck rings supposedly made of back then because according to historians we did not use metal back then!

LUXUS

Did the Celts travel allover the globe spreading this religion, were the Celts in America LONG before Christopher Columbus?

edit on 5-12-2013 by LUXUS because: (no reason given)

Cernunnos (or at least the concept of the horned god) is persistent throughout all of those cultures because he is imminent much like the goddess.

Keep in mind that you are asking about "spreading a religion" but they did not all share a common religion; they shared a common deity. There is a difference. There are many many many cultures who revere and work with Cernunnos under various names.

You will find his influence globally and from pre-Abrahamic eras. This makes it a reluctant subject for archaeologists and Christians alike with the former scrambling to fit journeys with cultures no matter how far-fetched and with the latter simply turning him into "Satan" so it wouldn't discredit their own historical efficacy.

He's real. Whether you believe in him as a deity with a personality or if you simply believe in the more Jungian concept of a collective sub-conscious, many people globally know of and understand the nature of the horned deity without any suggestion or influence.

reply to post by Cuervo


It's too specific to pass it off as just a horned deity worshiped without connection in various country's. The deity is always associated with neck/arm rings and a ram headed snake. If for example we take a closer look at America we will find the native Americans have in their oral story telling myths about tall white people with red hair which lived in their land. The maya have story's about white blond haired, blue eyed Gods and to cap it off one of their pyramids is called the pyramid/temple of kukulcan who is the famous warrior in Irish myths. We know that the tarim mummies in Asia were Celtic due to their language and clothing (tartan) so we have evidence for ancient migrations of Celts who could have spread their religion to other lands. In south India we have story's about Maya Danava who escaped a cataclysm and traveled to India. Danava means descendents of Danu who are well known among the Irish as the Tuatha Dé Danann (peoples of the goddess Danu).

A Stag? Interesting...

Expecto Patronum!

LUXUS
reply to post by Cuervo

 

It's too specific to pass it off as just a horned deity worshiped without connection in various country's.

The Stag god also shows prominent in Sumerian cylinders. Its an aspect of Nimrod as king of the forest, chief of Shamans ect.

Santa or Shanta as he is also known, lord of stags. You will also note the worldwide presents of animal/human pornography most notably stags or deer in general.......right out of the Sumerian world and recorded on the cylinders as well.

Logarock

LUXUS
reply to post by Cuervo

 

It's too specific to pass it off as just a horned deity worshiped without connection in various country's.

The Stag god also shows prominent in Sumerian cylinders. Its an aspect of Nimrod as king of the forest, chief of Shamans ect.

Santa or Shanta as he is also known, lord of stags. You will also note the worldwide presents of animal/human pornography most notably stags or deer in general.......right out of the Sumerian world and recorded on the cylinders as well.

Funny I was just looking through the cylinders from a Thread Kantzveldt did.

As I recall a stag headed god (not just a horned one)...but it seems to be eluding me...

reply to post by LUXUS


The Tartan Mummies you mention are 4000 years old. They were found in a plaid similar to Scottish tartan and they had blonde/red hair.
It seems almost certain (to me at least) that the Celts, Picts and their forefathers were travelling globally wayyy before we think they were. There are too many similarities in many ancient tales.
There's a story in the recesses of my memory about a creepy tribe of big eyed, white skinned, blonde people in some state in America of whom the locals were afraid (not a very helpful anecdote, admittedly!) centuries ago. It would be a very strange story to last through generations if it had no basis in truth, or no reason to persist.

S&F, I enjoyed your thread.

Scythian "Altai Princess" 2500 years old tattoo