Pagans Only! How old is the belief of a goddess and god (Goddess and the Horned one etc)?

Question

im really into dates, i like to know how far back can i date this belief?

Answer 1

If you are talking about Wicca, it was legally recognized in England in the late 40's... it came to America during the early 60's. As for a single religion that held a belief in "The Goddess" & "The God", there wasn't one. The Horned God, as depicted by Wicca, is a generalization of many different Horned Gods of different faiths. The closest thing in the Celtic beliefs is Herne the Hunter. Herne is sometimes mixed with the Green Man, but there isn't anything in history to show that the Green Man was an actual God that was worshipped, but more of a concept of Wild Nature itself. There is Pan from the Greeks. But none of these were worshipped as THE Horned God over all other Gods. The concept of the Horned God the way we see it today is a fairly modern "invention" - As We See It Today. That doesn't mean there was never Horned Gods that were worshipped though. Generally, in Wicca, they believe that All Gods and Goddess' of all the different Pagan Religions are reflections/images of The God and Goddess - and The God and Goddess are the Masculine and Feminine aspects of a Single Divine Entity (this, in essence, makes Wicca Monotheist - if the Christians can claim they are Monotheist and believe in a Trinity, then it must hold true for this concept as well).

This is not meant to make Wicca look like it isn't a valid path... I believe it is. But you wanted actual dates for the belief itself and this is what I have found through study.

Pagan - not Wiccan

Answer 2

If you are talking about the Wiccan concept of a Goddess and a Horned Consort, it's only about 60 or so years old which is about how far modern Wicca can be traced back with positive proof. Now that's if you're talking about Wicca. If you are talking about worship of Goddesses and Gods with horns or antlers in general, well look at all the different cultures who worship Goddesses. There are thousands and thousands of Goddesses, some dating back thousands of years. There is no proof that there was ever a universal Goddess religion or that there was a worship of one Great Goddess but there are scattered cults around dedicated to various Goddesses of various cultures. And some of the Gods who have cults as well happened to have had horns too (Pan, Bacchus/Dionysous, Cernunnos, etc). These Gods though had separate cults all their own and were not paired with any Goddesses...rarely, if ever, they might have been associated with being a lover of a particular Goddess but they were not seen as mere consorts.

Answer 3

There are cave paintings in France that are approximately 20,000 years old that depict an antlered male figure and a pregnant female figure. Some anthropologists believe that this is the God and Goddess. Others believe this depicts a shamanistic tradition to bring sucess in the hunt.

The Minoan culture based on the island of Crete during the period of approximately 3000 BCE to 1100 BCE had already established worship of a Mother Goddess but there seems to be less information on the worship of a God in Minoan culture.

The Egyptians of the same time period had an involved system with many Gods and Goddesses, as did the Chinese, the Indians, and the Mesopotamians.

Answer 4

I classify as a pagan. Pagan is an umbrella term. It is not a religion. Just as monotheism is not a religion. Today is it is used to cover a range of religions other than the big three:- christianity, Islam and Judaism. Pagan comes from the Latin paganus, generally meaning country folk, rustic, farmer etc. It was an insult used by christians as the country folk were the last to convert. Witchcraft is ceremonial magick, and has very little to do with religion at all. Some confuse it with Wicca, but not all Wiccans are Witches and not all Witches are Wiccan. Satan is a christian concept and has nothing to do with paganism. Satanism generally refers to the philosophy of Anton Le Vey and has nothing to do with the mythological christian figure of Satan. There is also the misconception that all pagans are tree-hugging hippies. They are not. Most have a respect for the planet, but not all worship the Mother Earth / Great Goddess Deity. As for my beliefs, that's between me and my deity.

Answer 5

Depends exactly what you're looking for. Gods and goddesses are ancient. Gods with horns are ancient. A religion focused on a specific horned god and goddess pair ala Wicca only dates back to the 20th century. Pairings with some commonalities to the Wicca arrangement are dotted throughout history, depending how vague or specific you're wanting it to compare with Wicca. But the teachings of Traditional Wicca are really less than 100 years old according to all currently available evidence.

Answer 6

The Horned one is a celtic god; the goddess and god may be as old as religion itself; we can only make limited guess on prehistoric artifacts.

Wicca dates from the 1930s at earliest estimates; however like ?most ?all religious traditions they consider their religion to be founded on older or even ancient practices and wisdom. What constitutes continuous practice for ANY religion (including Christianity, Judaism, Muslims, Buddhists and even aboriginal religions) is truly debatable; how do we know? But also - why question? History is never facts, it is the stories and significance we create. Does human participation in creation of a story invalidate it, make it less meaningful or true?

Not all pagans are Wiccan.

Answer 7

Depends on exactly what you mean.

There's references to male and female deities going back thousands of years. There's cave paintings of female and male figures - some of the males with antlers or horns - that could be deities, going back to caveman times. There's stories that survived to today, of Pan, of Cernonnus, etc.

If you're referring to the neo-Wiccan "The Goddess" and "The Horned God", those are fairly recent - within the past century.

Answer 8

The duo-theistic concept dates back all the way to the days of tribal religion. Early civilizations usually worshipped a fertility Goddess and believed that she was impregnated by a "horned" male deity and gave birth to the world.

Answer 9

My beliefs are follow those of the Druid and the Celts which predate the Romans/Greeks Civilization. Which by the way is where Wicca originated! I do wish people would not say it originated in the 1900's. People took credit for it then, but it dates back to the Celts! In general it predates Christ back to the caveman times and the start of civilization!

Answer 10

I believe the horned god is Celtic in origin, but I could be TOTALLY wrong. I'll star you and see what you can get. I have about 20 different trads on my contact list.