FAQ: How are Cernunnos and Aradia connected?

FAQ: Cernunnos and Aradia are associated together so much. I'm a bit confused why. Cernunnos is Gaulish and Aradia is Italian. I have seen these names used together in a few chants, like one that says: "Eko Eko Cernunnos/Eko Eko Aradia" and in other places. How are Cernunnos and Aradia connected?

Answer: I wondered about that back in my mid 1980's salad days.

The names "Cernunnos" and "Aradia" are indeed found together in early Wiccan versions of the "EKO EKO Chant."

See EKO EKO Chant on "Yet Another Wicca Site."

Janet & Stewart Farrar's book, A Witches' Bible, The Complete Witches' Handbook, Phoenix Publishing, Inc., copyright 1981, 1984, orginally published as two volumes Eight Sabbats for Witches, 1981 and The Witches' Way, 1984. Throughout this book "Cernunnos" and "Aradia" are used as the God and Goddess names.

Later in 2004, Janet Farrar with her second husband Gavin Bone, shared some interesting information:

Janet and Stewart [Farrar] were originally taught [by Alex Sanders] there were only two true deities of witchcraft, Aradia and Karnayna. Aradia is Italio-Etruscan in origin, and Karnayna, often thought by Stewart to be Alex Sanders' mispronunciation of Cernunnos, was in fact an egotistical joke: it was the name given to Alexander the Great by the Carthaginians on his reaching godhood. After moving to Ireland, Janet and Stewart changed the god name to Cernunnos, a more generic term of Gaelic/Latin origin meaning simply "horned god." The dogma of only two true names for the God and Goddess continues today among some hard-liners of Alexandrian and Gardnerian Wicca.
--Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone, Progressive Witchcraft (2004), p. 79

Below is a speculation of why an Italian Aradia and Gaulish Cernunnos might be invoked together:

Modern Wicca was created/re-created/founded/popularized by Gerald B. Gardner (1884--1964) in the mid 20th century. (Please pick your preferred verb for the former sentence.)

The truth is we don't know why these two deity names have been used together, but I can provide some facts and some speculation.

What facts are public knowledge about the Gaulish Cernunnos? We know the name "CERNVNNOS" was found in an inscription on a French-Roman bas-relief discovered under the choir of the Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris in the 19th century. We know a litho was published in Les Arts au Moyen Age, in 1873. We know this photos of the actual bas-relief of Cernunnos are sourced to the Musée National du Moyen Age, Cluny, Paris, which show the head and shoulders of an antlered-man; two Celtic torcs hang from the figure's two antlers. We know that depictions of an antlered or horned figure, holding or wearing torcs and often associated with animals was found in all parts of Gaul and in other Celtic area. We know that Julius Caesar wrote in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico that the Gauls considered "Dis Pater" to be their ancestor. Caesar had re-identified a foreign divinity to what he thought was the closest Roman counterpart. We do not know what God that Caesar was speaking about, but 20th century scholars often identified Caesar's comments about "Dis Pater" as refering to "Cernunnos," as both have been associated with prosperity and the underworld/afterlife.

What facts are public knowledge about the Italian Aradia? We know that 1800's, the folklorist, Charles G. Leland, supposidly received some folklore, a "vanglo" from an Italian woman, which he published in 1899 under the title of Aradia or the Gospel of Witches; Leland had speculated that the folklore connected to Aradia ultimately had roots in ancient Etruscan mythology and that she might be an anicent Etruscan Goddess. We know that Leland identified Aradia with Diana as a Witch Queen in medieval Italian folklore and that Leland also identified Diana with Hecate, the Greco- Roman Goddess of witchcraft/sorcery.

We know that both Gerald B. Gardner and Doreen Valente (1922--1999) had each read Leland's Aradia before meeting each other and that Gardner had used some of Leland's material in his BOS (Book of Shadows). We know that Valente, with Gardner's blessing, rewote much of the BOS. We know that, when Valente was contacted by Janet and Stewart Farrar, she explained that she had no idea where the God name "Karnayna" came from as it was not used in the BOS whe she was there --she speculated that it might have been a garbled form of Cernnunos. Aradia and Cernnunos were probably the secret names of the Goddess and God in Gardnerian Wicca (if they were, they have since been changed).

Besides the above facts, we have an awful lot of speculation about what Gardner might have thought. Here are two paragraphs of almost pure speculation.

The ancient Etruscan civilization was located in area corresponding roughly to Tuscany in Northern Italy--towards the Italian Alps, wihich over lap France. The Gauls resided in France. Therefore, it is possible that Gardner, or someone else he talked with, speculated that their may have been some ancient deity-swaping across the Alps, and that these two deties were therefore known to the Gaulish Celts and likewise were known to the Celts of the British Isles.

Gardner was also famliar with the theory proposed by Margaret Murray (1863--1963) about a Dianic witch-cult featuring an antlered or horned God, which existed through-out Europe up into the time of the Renaissance. Perhaps, the pairing of an Italian name and a Gaulish name may have had to do with Margaret Murray's theory, because Gardner, or someone he talked with, speculated these two secret ancient names were preserved in folkore or stone in different locations.

In any case, an example of a "Full Moon Ritual for a Coven" invoking the Goddess and God names of Aradia and Cernunnos can be found on "Yet Another Wicca Site."

The folklore from the 19th century Leland wrote about--as well as earlier folklore which surrounds Aradia personally fascinates me. For those who are interested in my passion, Dr. Sabina Magliocco wrote an excellent article back in 2002, Who Was Aradia? The History and Development of a Legend, The Pomegranate: The Journal of Pagan Studies, Issue 18, Feb. 2002. More links are below, if anyone is interested.