What do you think?
Rate this book
The Book of Cernunnos
Who is Cernunnos? For some, he is the Horned God of Wicca. For others, he is the Lord of the Animals and the Lord of the Hunt. Still, others see him as a God of Liminality and of the Underworld.
Yet for all our ideas, research, and experiences of Cernunnos, we know very little about him. His name is recorded only once, on the Pillar of the Boatman, a Latin and Gaulish sculpture near Paris that dates to the early first century CE. Many of us believe it is Cernun-nos who is depicted on the Gundestrup Cauldron, but we have no way to know for sure.
The lack of lore and history has done nothing to keep Cernunnos from becoming one of the most popular deities in modern Pagan-ism. It is time he has his own devotional anthology.
Yet for all our ideas, research, and experiences of Cernunnos, we know very little about him. His name is recorded only once, on the Pillar of the Boatman, a Latin and Gaulish sculpture near Paris that dates to the early first century CE. Many of us believe it is Cernun-nos who is depicted on the Gundestrup Cauldron, but we have no way to know for sure.
The lack of lore and history has done nothing to keep Cernunnos from becoming one of the most popular deities in modern Pagan-ism. It is time he has his own devotional anthology.
- GenresSpirituality
189 pages, Paperback
Published June 4, 2023
2 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
John Beckett
28 books40 followersI grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God.
I’m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, and a member of Ár nDraíocht Féin. I served 12 years as the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and 3 years on the Board of Trustees of CUUPS Continental. My first book The Pagan of Paganism was published in 2017 by Llewellyn Worldwide.
I’ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals since 2003. I live in the Dallas – Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.
I’m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, and a member of Ár nDraíocht Féin. I served 12 years as the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and 3 years on the Board of Trustees of CUUPS Continental. My first book The Pagan of Paganism was published in 2017 by Llewellyn Worldwide.
I’ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals since 2003. I live in the Dallas – Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 20, 2025
As someone who semi-recently discovered Cernunnos and his general characteristics/traits as a Celtic deity, I got this book to hopefully learn more and expand my horizons, so-to-speak, and I'm glad I did. This book begins with more informative and historical contexts, proceeds into numerous short stories and anecdotes, and finishes with poems and rituals one can cite or practice.
For me, reading all the different people's stories about and encounters with Cernunnos was fascinating, and it reminded me of my own seemingly coincidental instances where "someone" or "something" could've been trying to get my attention. While I am neither a firm believer nor nonbeliever, I still take notice of things and find them interesting, much like similar matters of a spirit realm or ghosts/spirits in general. As humans, we have really no certain way of proving or disproving that these entities exist aside from anecdotal accounts and very old archeological artifacts, so I am open-minded when it comes to experiencing or reading about these things, and this general idea is expressed in multiple people's stories within this book.
Although the anecdotes come from both similar and vastly different people, as well as from multiple geographic locations (some quite far away from others), the overarching ideas and traits of Cernunnos are the same; he is a deity that is nature-driven at his core and holds nature to be sacred, a balance of both life and death and what lies between, naturally androgynous but also exudes quote divine masculinity, and many more overlapping statements.
It was also a very inviting book to read, per se, because they did include so many experiences from very different people, as they included ones from queer, trans, and autistic individuals, as well as ones from numerous people who fit the socially constructed "norm," which adds to the warm and welcoming aura that Cernunnos is described to have. There was one in particular where the author was a gay man, and he was worried about a potential lack of acceptance or desire from Cernunnos that would make him not want to "work" with the author. This belief was quite quickly extinguished when Cernunnos was described to have welcomed the man openly and proved how heterosexuality was not a defining trait of the deity; rather, Cernunnos finds mating (sex) to be a sacred part of life that should not have barriers or binaries to it, and that he himself does not have an ideal for that aspect of life.
My only grievance is that there are multiple noticeable writing or editing errors made throughout the book, whether it was a relatively minor issue with spelling or an issue that is likely the fault of a printing error. Regardless, I don't find this to be such a bad issue for me to dock a star off the rating, as you can still read it and understand what was meant.
For me, reading all the different people's stories about and encounters with Cernunnos was fascinating, and it reminded me of my own seemingly coincidental instances where "someone" or "something" could've been trying to get my attention. While I am neither a firm believer nor nonbeliever, I still take notice of things and find them interesting, much like similar matters of a spirit realm or ghosts/spirits in general. As humans, we have really no certain way of proving or disproving that these entities exist aside from anecdotal accounts and very old archeological artifacts, so I am open-minded when it comes to experiencing or reading about these things, and this general idea is expressed in multiple people's stories within this book.
Although the anecdotes come from both similar and vastly different people, as well as from multiple geographic locations (some quite far away from others), the overarching ideas and traits of Cernunnos are the same; he is a deity that is nature-driven at his core and holds nature to be sacred, a balance of both life and death and what lies between, naturally androgynous but also exudes quote divine masculinity, and many more overlapping statements.
It was also a very inviting book to read, per se, because they did include so many experiences from very different people, as they included ones from queer, trans, and autistic individuals, as well as ones from numerous people who fit the socially constructed "norm," which adds to the warm and welcoming aura that Cernunnos is described to have. There was one in particular where the author was a gay man, and he was worried about a potential lack of acceptance or desire from Cernunnos that would make him not want to "work" with the author. This belief was quite quickly extinguished when Cernunnos was described to have welcomed the man openly and proved how heterosexuality was not a defining trait of the deity; rather, Cernunnos finds mating (sex) to be a sacred part of life that should not have barriers or binaries to it, and that he himself does not have an ideal for that aspect of life.
My only grievance is that there are multiple noticeable writing or editing errors made throughout the book, whether it was a relatively minor issue with spelling or an issue that is likely the fault of a printing error. Regardless, I don't find this to be such a bad issue for me to dock a star off the rating, as you can still read it and understand what was meant.
July 5, 2023
A very moving collection of stories of encounters with Cernunnos, together with an analysis of what is known about him from history and archaeology. I’m glad people are willing to share such deep personal experiences, as it gives such a depth to books like this.
Intriguingly, if you piece together everything that is known about Cernunnos from historical sources, he is the Lord of Animals, a liminal figure between life and death, and a semi-aquatic figure (hence the boy on the dolphin on the Gundestrup Cauldron).
We were lucky enough to see the Gundestrup Cauldron when it was in the British Museum exhibition about the Celts. It was a very powerful experience, as Jason Mankey mentions in his introductory piece in the book.
August 2, 2023
Overall a good compilation of reflections on Cernunnos.
February 15, 2024
Brilliant compilation of stories, essays, and prayers written by those who have encountered the Horned God.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews