The Horned God

On Wednesday I took a trip with my mother to the British Museum in London. She has always been very interested in history and archaeology and can read ancient Greek and Latin. Throughout my childhood she took me to visit interesting archaeology sites to see the ruins of ancient castles and temples for myself. There were also many family holidays to various countries where we could immerse ourselves in different cultures and learn about their way of life. The British Museum has to be my favourite place to see the artefacts of many ancient religions all under one roof. I took the following photo of an image I had never seen before, of the Greek god Dionysus:

I am absolutely in love with this image because it appears to embody the Green Man that I often paint with vines and grapes, but also the bull horns are shown, which is rare in depictions of Dionysus. In ancient mythology he is often described as a Horned God and can take the form of an effeminate youth or a bearded sage. The following is another photo I took of Dionysus at the British Museum:

Here we see the head of Dionysus is adorned with a garland by a young woman. The body of the god takes the form of a pillar, and what is not shown in the photo is that half way down the pillar his genitalia are shown with an erect penis. There is something very powerful about this symbol of essential vitality. Another image of Dionysus that I saw featured the god holding an egg, clearly a symbol of new life. 

Dionysus was worshipped along with Artemis and Pan by The Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, founded in 1916 England. Some have speculated that the Order provided the basis for the New Forest coven, and through that the religion of Wicca. The founder of the Order was Ernest Westlake, who worshipped Dionysus in the form of the Green Man. The first ceremony of the Order was held on the northern edge of the New Forest, on Lammas 1921. A sacred fire was lit by four people dressed in colours that represented the elements of each quarter, bringing greetings from the elemental powers in succession from north round to west.Westlake believed that paganism and Christianity could work in harmony, and that through embracing paganism one could come to a better understanding of Christ.

After Westlake's death in a motoring accident in 1922, the role of British Chief of the Order fell to Harry Byngham, who subsequently changed his name to Dion, short for Dionysus. He promoted paganism, naturism and phallic worship as a veneration of Nature's life force. Between 1922 and 1927 the rituals of the order continued to evolve along Masonic and quasi-Masonic lines, adopting elaborate titles and ritual equipment. Byngham started publishing an Order periodical called The Pinecone, which including an image of a nude Dionysus on the cover of one issue, a photograph of a nude Byngham and his semi-nude girlfriend in Grecian dress, and a verse play by Victor Benjamin Neuburg, who also introduced Byngham to the ideas of the famous occultist Aleister Crowley. All this brought Byngham into strife with many of the Christian members of the Order. In 1924 Byngham was replaced as editor and in 1925 he was suspended from the Council of Chiefs after posing nude with his girlfriend for press photographs to promote nudism. In 1928 a compromise was accepted between the pagan and Christian members whereby the order would promote both the sanctity of Nature and the ethics of Christianity, while criticising "repressive" aspects of Christianity. By 1930 however there were only 400 members remaining. When reading the Gardnerian Book of Shadows there are indeed references to Christ which may suggest a link to the The Order of Woodcraft Chivalry. The fact that they were practicing nude Masonic rituals in the New Forest seems too close to Wicca to be a coincidence.
 
In the second century BCE, Dionysus and Pan were syncretised with Bromios, Erikepaios, Eros, Metis, Phanes, Protogonos, and Zeus, when Orphic and Stoic themese were harmonised in the Hieronyman Theogony. The syncretic Horned God of the mysteries emerged as Phanes from the Orphic Egg as a primordial being. He sprang to life as the personification of love and light, with golden wings to fly through the sky and enlighten the world.

The image above shows Phanes emerging fully grown from the primordial egg, surrounded by the zodiac. As Christianity gradually replaced Orphism, the figure of Phanes became Christ surrounded by the zodiac. Now we can understand why The Order of Woodcraft Chivalry syncretised Christian and pagan beliefs. Christianity inherited the philosophies of pagan Europe, so that Christ was none other than the syncretic god of the mysteries.

 (Such images of Christ surrounded by the zodiac are not uncommon)

As the centre of the zodiac, he is a solar god, and from the 3rd century Christ was known as the "Sun of Justice". The 12 disciples of Christ were often correlated to the 12 signs of the zodiac. Jewish synagogues of the Byzantine era were also decorated with sun gods surrounded by zodiacs, as seen below:

 (Beit Alpha Synagogue mosaic floor, Heftziba)

The zodiac has the names of the twelve astrology signs in Hebrew. The sun god in the centre rides a chariot with four galloping horses. The four women in the corners of the mosaic represent the four seasons. When archaeologists began uncovering zodiacs in synagogues, they were naturally surprised and shocked. This indicates just how Christianity emerged as a result of Hellenised Judaism. Hellenism had a strong influence throughout the Levant, even among conservative Jewish communities. Worship of the Greek saviour god Dionysus spread to Palestine with Hellenism after Alexander's conquest in 332 BCE. The Greek historian Plutarch asserted that the Jews worshipped Dionysus in Symposiacs, iv, 6.

The “Testament of Orpheus” (third-first centuries BCE), is a Greek poem probably from the Jewish community in Alexandria. They described Orpheus as a disciple of Moses who eventually converted to Judaism on his deathbed. This story was later used by Jewish and Christian apologists. The Orphic Hymns, a cycle of eighty-seven short hymns, were composed in the late Hellenistic or early Roman Imperial age, and are the most complete Orphic texts that have survived to the modern day. 

Orphic Hymn XXIX

Bacchus [Dionysos] I call, loud-sounding and divine, 

fanatic God, a two-fold shape is thine:
Thy various names and attributes I sing, 

O, first-born, thrice begotten, Bacchic king:
Rural, ineffable, two-form'd, obscure, 

two-horn'd, with ivy crown'd, euion, pure.
Bull-fac'd, and martial, bearer of the vine, 

endu'd with counsel prudent [Eubouleos] and divine:
Triennial, whom the leaves of vines adorn, 

of Jove [Zeus] and Proserpine [Persephoneia], occultly born.
Immortal dæmon, hear my suppliant voice, 

give me in blameless plenty to rejoice;
And listen gracious to my mystic pray'r, 

surrounded with thy choir of nurses fair.