The Horned One

Wicca focuses on the worship of a horned god, as well as a goddess who wears the horns of the moon, but what is the symbolic significance of horned gods? During the Middle Ages, horned animals were symbolic of lust, sin, and the devil. In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice says "There will the Devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head." A cuckold is a man who shares his wife, for which he would be publically shamed by wearing a horned crown. Antlers were often used as an allusion to the mating habits of stags, who forfeit their mates when they are defeated by another male. A man who was known to have an adulterous wife might be paraded through the village wearing a crown of antlers. The horned hand gesture was used as an insult, to suggest that someone was a cuckold. This hand gesture is still considered an insult in some parts of Europe:

To make this hand gesture is referred to as putting horns on someone. In Croatian and Serbian, the word "rogonja" meaning "horned one" and the phrase "nabiti rogove" meaning "to put horns on somebody" is used. In Czech and Slovak languages, the word "paroháč" meaning "antlered one" is used, along with the phrase "nasadit parohy" meaning "to put antlers on somebody". In Estonian the phrase is "sarvi tegema" meaning "to make antlers to somebody". In Greek, the term is "κερατάς" meaning "horned one". In Hungarian, the term is "felszarvazni", meaning "to put horns (on somebody)". In Polish, the word "rogacz" meaning "horned one" is used, along with the phrase "przyprawiać rogi" meaning "to put horns on somebody". In Portuguese, the terms "corno" and "cornudo" are used to spite or mock the cheated male partner. In Romanian, "încornorat" means "wearing horns". In Russian, the word used is "rogonosets", literally "one who carries horns", and the act of being unfaithful is termed "nastavit' roga", meaning "to attach horns". In Spain, one who cheats on their partner is said to "put the horns on" or "poner los cuernos", and the person who has been cheated on is described as "cornudo". 

(Ca. 1815 French satirical illustration showing both men and women wearing antlers, placed upon them by an adulterous queen)

What this suggests is that the God and Goddess of Wicca are not a monogamous couple. The Horned God wears the antlers of a stag because his partner gives her love to all. This is the "free love" of the sexual revolution. Our Lady is the Goddess of Love and she is shameless. She is the Sacred Whore, the one who desires. Unlike some religions, Wicca does not place shame upon sexuality. All acts of love and pleasure are in worship of the Lord and Lady, so be it fully consenting. We salute our gods with the horned hand, not to insult, but to praise. At this time of year, as the stags fight each other and herd their females together for mating season, the Lord shakes the trees with his antlers and makes the leaves fall. The Lady places horns on her lover to say that he cannot possess her and keep her for himself, for her law is love unto all beings.

Invocation to the Horned God, by Doreen Valiente

"Witchcraft For Tomorrow" pp. 190-191

By the flame that burneth bright, O Horned One!

We call thy name into the night, O Ancient One!

Thee we invoke by the Moon-led Sea,

By the standing stone and the twisted tree.

Thee we invoke, where gather Thine own.

By the nameless shore, forgotten and lone.

Come where the round of the dance is trod,

Horn and Hoof of the Goat Foot God!

By moonlit meadow, on dusky hill,

Where the haunted wood is hushed and still,

Come to the charm of the chanted prayer,

As the Moon bewitches the midnight air.

Evoke thy powers that potent bide,

In shining strea, and the secret tide,

In fiery flame by starlight pale,

In shadowy host that rides the gale.

And by the ferndrakes, faerie haunted,

Of forests wild and woods enchanted.

Come, O Come! To the heartbeat's drum!

Come to us who gather below,

When the broad white Moon is climbing slow.

Through the stars to the heavens' height,

We hear thy hoofs on the wind of night!

As black tree branches shake and sigh,

By joy and terror we know thee nigh.

We speak the spell thy power unlocks,

At Solstice, Sabbath, and Equinox!
Word of virtue the veil to rend,
From primal dawn to the wide world's end,
Since time began -
The blessing of Pan!
Blessed be all in hearth and hold,
Blessed in all worth more than gold.
Blessed be in strength and love,
Blessed be wher'er we rove.
Vision fade not from our eyes,
Of the pagan paradise.
Past the gates of death and birth,
Our inheritance of the Earth.
From our soul the song of spring,
Fade not in our wandering.
Our life with all life is one,
By  blackest night or noonday sun.
Eldest of gods, on thee we call,
Blessing be on thy creatures all.