Herne and Aradia...?

[Cirrus Mystallow]

I was just reading an Internet Book of Shadows at www.sacred-texts.com and in the Invocation of the Great Gods he/she first invokes Herne, Then invokes Aradia, then Cernunnos as the Horned God and then Habondia as the great mother and I was just wonder what Aradia and Herne have to do with the religion. I'm not Wiccan (And this Person states it's a Wiccan ritual) but I was just wondering if Herne and Aradia were like Children of the God and Goddess in their religion or what importance they have (As he then goes on to actually invoke the God and Goddess) unless this information is oathbound or do they infact not have any importance at all and this person is just picking and choosing what he/She thinks sounds nice...

PS - I am fimiliar with Aradia (The Gospel of the Witches) by Leland.  

[Deoridhe]

I believe the usual assumptions, if this is Wicca, is that those names are stands ins for who was really being discussed. Since the identities of the dual gods is an oathbound secret, any outer court released material can be assumed to be in code.  

[Nomad of Nowhere]

Herne is often taken to be a Saxon god. The story says that he was a hunter who was killed by a white hart, and then brought back from the dead. Somehow the ritual gave him antlers, and now he hunts for eternity. He seems more like a spirit than a god.  

[Deoridhe]

Teague the Druid

Herne is often taken to be a Saxon god. The story says that he was a hunter who was killed by a white hart, and then brought back from the dead. Somehow the ritual gave him antlers, and now he hunts for eternity. He seems more like a spirit than a god.

The words "spirit" and "god" are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  

[patch99329]

I reckon herne was only elevated to deity status because of robin hood. ninja
The only lore I can find about him otherwise is the mention of a dead hunter.  

[Deoridhe]

patch99329

I reckon herne was only elevated to deity status because of robin hood. ninja
The only lore I can find about him otherwise is the mention of a dead hunter.

Given the Wild Hunt aspects of him, he could be friends with the other hunt leaders, like my Old Man.

I think if we're going to start talking who or what is a deity and who or what is not we need to define cultures and terms, though. A lot of the British Isles specific stuff was lost in a way that (thank the gods) the Norse and Germanic was not, too, which effects the debate.  

[Nomad of Nowhere]

Deoridhe

Teague the Druid

Herne is often taken to be a Saxon god. The story says that he was a hunter who was killed by a white hart, and then brought back from the dead. Somehow the ritual gave him antlers, and now he hunts for eternity. He seems more like a spirit than a god.

The words "spirit" and "god" are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

No, you're right. It does strike me rather poignantly that he doesn't sound like a terribly important figure, though it's possible his prominence was dimmed by time. It's also noteworthy to me, though, that he dies and is brought back to life in the story.