Common Wicca God Symbol

What is the meaning behind each Wicca god symbol?

This list will introduce you to some of the most common symbols of Gods found in Wicca.

(For Wicca Goddess symbols, click here.)

Some Common Wicca God Symbols

Antler
Bull
Eye of Horus
Gold
Holly
Horn

Maypole
Oak
Stag
Sun
Sun-Antlered Stag

Antler

Antlers symbolize the pagan Horned God, the sacred Stag. They are almost symbolically interchangeable with Horns.

Antlers represent the God who is a symbol of all wild creatures, especially those virile creatures who give themselves away to serve the life of the people.

Witch Tip If you choose to use antler, bones, feathers, or other animal parts, be sure to read the precautions at Preparing Your Wiccan Ritual Tools before using them or placing them near your altar!

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Bull

The Bull is an ancient symbol for the power of the God, specifically as a devotee of His Goddess-Mother.

In ancient Crete, women would dance around and leap over bulls in sacred rituals. The Bull survives in many mythological forms, even today. The Minotaur is probably the most well-known example.

The Bull owes this association in part to the shape of its horns, in part to its connection with the Sacred Cow-Goddess, and in part to its power and virility. A single bull will produce a herd of calves, which creates prosperity for the people.

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Eye of Horus

The Eye of Horus is a God symbol that conveys ultimate protection. (Although originally it was seen as the Eye of Maat.) It was thought, because of this power of protection, to aid one in reincarnating.

This Eye is sometimes seen as two-fold. A right eye for the feminine — the Moon — is called the Eye of Horus or Thoth, and a left eye for the masculine — the Sun — is called Ra.

Naming this symbol after Horus may have evolved to simplify communication, since Horus — the Sky — contained both the Sun and the Moon as His eyes.

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Gold

Shining like the warm Sun, gold is a symbol of the God in general, and the Sun God in particular. Gold is a yang metal.

Gold is also a symbol of spiritual pursuit and purity, because it does not tarnish or rust. Gold is incorruptible, as is the Divine.

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Holly

Holly is the Winter God symbol, the Green Man in his winter guise. He is the complement of the Oak King, the Summer God.

As an evergreen, Holly is revered as a symbol of eternal life. The red berries, reminiscent of Persephone's pomegranates, reinforces this meaning.

The Holly King represents life that lives on, beneath the surface. On the surface, the God is dead; the Green has given way to white snows. But this death is an illusion. The God, this symbol promises, will rise again. Holly is the promise of that.

Horn

Horns are an ancient God symbol. Horns have been associated with worship of the Divine perhaps since the dawn of human consciousness. Stone Age art everywhere depicts men wearing horns and antlers.

One obvious reason for this correlation is the visual similarity between horns and the Crescent Moon. The first is a symbol of male virility and spiritual power, and the second is a symbol of the creative power of the female.

Thus the curved horn, such as a bull's horn, can simultaneously signify the God and the Goddess, specifically the God as lover and child of the Goddess.

This explains the Bull's ancient power as a spiritual animal.

See also Stag, Antler, and Goddess Symbols - Crescent Moon.

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Maypole

The Maypole is an ancient phallic God symbol, representing the generative power of the God.

The Maypole would be set into the Earth at Beltane (May Eve). This symbolically fertilized the Earth Mother to produce new life in the Spring.

Then women and men danced around this sacred union, women widdershins and men deosil. As the lines wove in and out, ribbons tied to the head of the Maypole interlaced into a colourful sheath along the Maypole.

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Oak

Oak is associated with Wicca because it was particularly sacred to the Druids, from which Wicca was said to have evolved.

The word Druid may in fact come from the same root as the word for Oak. It is from oak trees that sacred mistletoe was gathered.

Oak is associated with the masculine divinity. The Oak King is the Green Man in his summer aspect: growing, powerful, virile.

Stag, Buck

The stag is a symbol of the Horned God. This is the God of joyful virility, radiating Power and life force. It is He who gives Himself away so that others can live.

The stag is not only a Wicca symbol, but also widely used in Neopaganism.

See also Sun-Antlered Stag, Antlers, Horns.

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Sun

European tradition has the Sun as male, so any image of the Sun is, in Wicca, a God symbol.

The God in Wicca symbolism is connected with the cycles of the Sun: the birth, growth, failing, death, and then rebirth of the sun and the seasons of nature that are tied into this cycle.

This is a symbol of the God who gives himself away, so that His people can live. And in this way He preserves His immortality . . . for after death, He can be again born of the Goddess.

The Sun King, who was the God's representative on Earth, would similarly reign for a year, or another symbolic period of time, and then would give his life for the good of all.

See also Gold, and Wicca Symbol - Bonfire.

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Sun-Antlered Stag

The image of the Stag with the sun cupped in his antlers is a symbol of the masculine aspect of the Divine, the Great God.

This God symbol shows both the worldly God and Highest God united as one. The God who is manifest in a physical body, yet retains knowledge of his true Self.