So I was hanging out on Yahoo! Answers tonight, just looking at the questions that had the words "Wiccan" or "Pagan" in them, and I saw this;

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080407110853AARrwCx

For Wiccans?

Why is it that the god you worship has horns, but, the goddess you worship does not?

All the Answers given latched onto the obvious -- "Because He is Male, She is Female, and in nature the Males generally have the horns" -- but none of them went much deeper than that, into the meaning of this symbolism, and the principles that our Deities embody. They were, in short, too cought up in the gender of the deities, thinking of the Goddess as literally Female and the God as literally Male. But on a deeper level, these embodiments of our deities are symbols which express the nature of the God and Goddess, their function in the Universe, and how they relate to us. They are the forces of Life, the cycles of Nature, the creative and sustaining principles of the Universe.

So I wrote my own answer, which I felt was a brilliant piece of spontaneous writing. But, when I tried to post it, the question was already closed. Damn, I hate when that happens! So, not wanting a brilliant brain fart to go to waste and become a creative abortion, I am posting it here, for your reading pleasure;

It's all in the symbolism of what the Lord and Lady represent. The Goddess is the Earth, the Moon, the cycles of Nature, the physical Universe itself, Mineral -- the Womb. The Horned God is the Sun, Life itself, Animal and Vegetable, the Enlivening principle of the Universe -- the Phallus. In His animal aspect, He is the Horned God, taking on the characteristics of wild and/or domesticated animals (antlers or horns). In His vegetable aspect, He is the Green Man, ruling the waxing half of the year as the Oak King, and the waning half of the year as the Holy King. So, the horns represent His Animal aspect, and all the wildness and unpredictability of Nature.

But the Goddess also has horns. The waxing crescent moon is sometimes called the "horns" of the Goddess. In Her Lunar aspect, the horns represent the crescent moon, and She is often depicted with a crescent moon on her forehead. This iconography comes from the Roman goddess Diana, the Greek goddess Artemis, and other similar goddesses. The Egyptian goddesses Isis and Hathor are also depicted with horns -- bull horns with the lunar disk between them. In some Wiccan traditions, the High Priest wears a head dress with antlers or horns, and the High Priestess wears one with a lunar disk.

There is, of course, another reason why the God of the Witches is a Horned God, one that I didn't want to get into in that particular forum. Modern Wicca grew out of the "Witchcraft as a Religion" movement in England and the United States in the 1920's to 1950's -- Gardner, Cochrane, etc. -- and this movement was inspired by the theories of Dr. Margaret Murray. According to Ol' Maggie, the "witches" that the Church were barbecuing during the Middle Ages were actually practicing an underground, pre-Christian Pagan religion. While they were accused by the Church of worshipping the Devil, they were actually worshipping a Horned God of Nature. The Church based their images of the Christian Devil on this Pagan Horned God. So, the God of modern Wicca has horns because the Witch God of Gardner, Cochrane, Sanders, and other Witchcraft revivalists had horns. The Horned God of the Witchcraft Revival was based on Murray, who based it on the Christian Devil as described in the records of the Witchcraft Persecutions. And, of course, the Christian Devil was based on Pan and other pre-Christian fertility Gods. And then there are those interesting cave paintings of dudes with antlers or horns that look a lot like much later Gods such as Pan and Cernunos. . . . .

But now I'm begining to babble, so I'll leave it there. That is why the Horned God is so Horny.

The Legemeton, or Lesser Key of Solomon is a colletion of four, or five (sometimes six) Grimoires -- the classic Medieval texts on Magick -- with the Goetia being the most famous. These books contain lists of spirits -- both angelic and demonic -- that a magician can conjure, and instructions for doing so. I will talk more about spirit evocation and its uses in my next blog entry. I will also go into more detail about these particular books. Here, I would like to provide the texts. These can be found on www.liquidrealities.net/downloads.php. Here are the books, in pdf format (right click to download);

1. Goetia -- This is the most well known of the Medieval Grimoires. It contains detailed descriptions of Seventy-Two demons which, according to legend, King Solomon had sealed in a vessel of brass. Each of these spirits has a very specific function, such as returning stolen property, curing illness, or making girls want to take their clothes off and dance naked (yes, it's in there!) Some of these spirits seem to be demonized Pagan gods and goddesses, based on a comparison of the names and descriptions. For example, Astaroth seems to be a corruption of Astarte, Buer seems to be very much like the Greek Centaur Chiron, and Phenex is the Phoenix.
   
2. Theurgia Goetia -- This book is similar to the Goetia, though the descriptions of the spirits are not as detailed. It is another list of spirits that can be conjured, their seals, and the seals of their subordinates.
   
3. Ars Paulina -- While many of the Medieval Grimoires claim Solomon as their author, the Ars Paulina (Pauline Art) was supposedly written by Paul the Apostle. It contains a list of angels for every hour of the day, and for each degree of the zodiac, astrological seals, and a Conjuration of the Holy Gaurdian Angel into a crystal.
   
4. Ars Almadel -- Like the Ars Paulina, this book also deals with summoning Angels by means of scrying -- in this case with incense and a waxen device called the Almadel.
   
5. Ars Nova -- This seems to be a list of divine names, and does not appear in all of the manuscripts.
   
6. Ars Notoria -- A collection of orations and prayers. This book is also sometimes omitted.