Meadow of the Goat

Two Headed Master: clutch the Cup with me; Let it be your blood Within
Jaunicot of two oaken faces, Let the lamp between your Horns blaze Forth:
The flame-door is open! The horned moon sees us! Come now the Lord of Glory!
Come, Lord who taught artifice, Winged Goat who delivers from darkness and guilt
Come, Iaun, Come, Hobb-Buck, Come, Basaiaun, Come, Iu, Come Witch-father,
Come, Grand Master of our Hidden Rite and open wide the shadow-door of the Akelarre!

"In some countries, he was called the Wild Hunter, in others, the Black Woodsman- He is Scratch, Master Skrat, Old Hobb, Iu-Hu or Hou; Janicot; Jaun, Jauna, Yona, or Iaun (meaning "Lord"); the Goat or the Puck/Bucca was especially associated with Him in conjunction with the title "Lord". He was and is the Two-headed and Crooked-Horned One; He dwells in perpetuity as the Grand Master of the Witches who hold communion with him and with the Old Powers in the secret places of the night-veiled world.

In the Basque countries he was called by the name "Basaiaun" or "Basa-Jaun", this meaning "Lord of the Woods", but Basajaun was the Azaelian spirit who taught man agriculture and forging. Other names could be construed, including "Akeraiaun" or "Akhera-Jaun", meaning "Goat Lord" and "Beliaun" or "Beliajaun"- "Bel-Jaun", the "Black Lord".

"Jaunicot" could have meant "Lord who is called" or "Lord God" (Jaun + Cot or 'God'). Janicot, when taken as a purely Basque name, is translated as "Blessed" in one old witch chant. Some say that "Janicot" stems from Dianus or Janus, the Latin Two-headed God of the Oak Tree. His name in this case would derive from "Ianua", meaning "Door". He is the Door God, The God of the Hidden Portals into the Netherworld, and the "portal" or gate between one time and the next, of the old year and the new, and of course the threshold between, which is the hidden "third" condition, the transcendent.

A god with two heads, looking into the seen and into the unseen, or into life and death, always implies this invisible "center", the mystical "between-ness" or threshold- and the threshold-reality, which transcends the duality of old and new, left or right, inside or out, this world or other, is symbolized by the Lord of Mantic Mystery-Illumination that emerges from the primary fatherly reality of wholeness- this is the goatish dionysian Son of the Great Oak-Father. The Father opens the door for the coming of his Son, the shining and mercurial teacher of craft and artifice to mankind, and bestower of Illumination and the Mysteries by which humans are saved through realization of the Divine.

In Janicot we see perhaps a more 'senior' figure to the goatish lord, a primary spiritual reality that emanates the active transcendental reality represented by the Goat-Master- in Janicot, we can see a darker Cthonic and Saturnian reflex of the 'Great God' (and Janicot or Janus was associated with the Voor or the Fore-Void, the great Chaos of the Beginning, also called "Misrule", again playing up his Saturnian connections) whereas the Goat Lord was a solar, mercurial, logos-like or 'active' manifestation, but still possessed of many dark, cthonic qualities.

It is discerning to realize that the Goat-Angel or the Goat-Master was such a symbol of illumination, the True Witch teacher and Witchfather, while still bearing all the "cthonic" hallmarks and essential nature of his origin- the Goat is often associated with darkness, materiality, carnality, and winter, among other things. This is another hint to the paradoxical nature of the hidden truths encapsulated by these figures; the Goat is the Illumination within Matter, the Fire in the Land, which is simultaneously free and pure and immortal, bestowed from perceptually "outside" the Land, though in reality, there is no seperation; all is one and whole. The Darkness in the Light, the Light in the Darkness, these things show full integration and wholeness, defying the dualistic logic that truly limits the higher thinking of mankind.

It could help to use the "son" model- the Goat who is the son of the Oak; the dense overlap between father Gods and their logos-sons, such as God the Father and Jesus from christianity, and Zeus and Dionysos, is well attested to. Zeus, in common with both his Semitic equivalent El and his Son Dionysos, had oaks as sacred to him and wore Bull's horns at times. This was the Janicot who bore light to the Witches of Northern Spain and France between his horns, that light representing his logos, his tutelary spirit or son, the "He-Goat Above", whereas the father was the "Horned Beast below", the Saturnian nature god.

It is important to see the Grand Master of the Witches in terms of a Saturnian power, over-arching, integral to all of Nature, and darkly, strongly present in all of Nature, in the brooding and "white" omniscient sense, as well as manifest in the goatish and cunning Logos/Light-bringer and tutelary Master, for these two ancient streams cannot be seperated.

Some witches also called him Iu, Iasus, Iasu, or Iesu. His wife was Basa-Andre, the "Lady of the Wood' or 'Wild Lady', or just Andred, the "Lady"- also called "Benzozia". Her association with forests makes her very much appear in the mold of the Witch-Goddesss Diana-Holda or Herodias, alongside Janus or Dianus.

All of these powers were worshipped on the "Field of the Goat" or the "Meadow of the Goat"- which in the older language was called the "Akelarre". Of course, it is the opinion of many of those faithful to the Goat-Lord that the true "field of the Goat" is not a field of earth, but a field of mystically inspired and timeless awareness in which the Old Powers are met and interacted with on an inner level.

* * *

The Altar of the Old One was variable: it was the flat stones of the hearth, the bare ground in the graveyard or forest, the old soggy stump, the boulder or great stone laying on its side. On these altars, the skulls of goats or stags were set, surrounded by tapers or candles. People would dance, walk, and run against the sun, carrying sticks and brooms and pitchforks and stangs, all going counterclockwise around or before these hallowed places- around and around they went, to call up His spirit- or were they reversing themselves so that they would come into his presence? Maybe it was both.

Either way, they went around and around, hissing and chanting different words and sounds, including "Hu", "Iauna-cot", "I-O", and "Bok", but the reality of the "witch song" was simpler, at heart- it was a constant yearning hymn for the Master, constantly asking him to "come..." Any of his names could be used: "come lord, come goat, come Hu; come Old Master Puck, come bucca, come Iaun, come Master, come Iaunicot... for those worshippers who knew their cultic lord as Azael or Lucifer (The refulgent solar and mercurial light-bringer, who is still associated with cthonic regions and beasts), few other names were needed.

An old witch chant to summon the Old One goes:

Har har hou hou!
Eman hetan! Eman hetan!
Har har hou hou!
Janicot! Janicot! Janicot! Janicot!
Har har hou hou!
Yona Gorril, Yona Gorril,
Akhera Goiti, Akhera Beiti.

It is translated:

Worm worm hou hou!
Look old! Look old!
Worm worm hou hou!
Blessed! Blessed! Blessed! Blessed!
Lord the Red, Lord the Red,
The Goat in the heights, The Goat below.
The Goat has come

Notice the association of "worms" with Hou or Hu- "Worm" here could also refer to serpents or snakes- all deeply cthonic creatures. The Song begins by invoking the Lord Hou-Janicot, and ends calling upon the Goat, not unlike christians invoking God the Father and his son... who, incidentally, are thought to be "one", one a perfect manifestation of the other, the manifestor and mediator to humans and all creation of a greater, more mysterious power. The Goat and the Goat Master is to the Witch what the Christ is to a christian.

The witches went counterclockwise, against the sun, making their invocatory pleas and calls, their chants and songs, and they didn't take their eyes off of the white skull illuminated there on the altar, and when they did, they eagerly turned their eyes back, before finally stopping before the altar and falling forward, locking their eyes with the dark sockets of the skulls of those beasts- his beasts- and silently praying for his spirit to be there.

They said you could always tell when he was there, because the altar felt "alive", and the skull of the beast on it seemed to watch you- cups of strong drink were filled and turned, in the left hand, three times counterclockwise, before being raised to the Master and drained- Owld Goatish King, bless this draught!... some of the liquid had to be poured onto the skull on the altar, or on the altar or around it. "Drinking with the Goat" was the sacramental sharing that formed the bond between witch and witch-master.

That same shared libation became the Devil's own baptism water, useful for washing away the christening or christian baptism, and for "enlivening" little clay and straw dolls that were then named and treated as the witches wished their Master to treat the person whom they represented. Circling the altar against the sun, praying mantras and chants that the God would cause changes to occur in the world (in conformity with the desires of those making the rounds) was the heart of the old magic of the cult.

To lay there, clutching the stave or broom or stang you carried around the altar, united to the Master's spirit by prayer and by sharing the Goat's cup with him and the others- to lay there, eyes closed, waiting for his Spirit to lift you into the flying trance, that was the main point of these gatherings. The dreams that followed this old communion were thought to be not mundane dreams, but experiences had through the spirit liberated by the hand of the Old One and sent journeying through another reality..."

* * *

"Simple bonfires could be his altars as well, but they were made with woods considered sacred to Him, and an effigy of a horned animal, made of some wood crudely tied together, was mounted at the top of the unlit pyre, and the great anti-sun walk was taken, along with the holy chants, as the fire blazed up. Sometimes the bonfires were true "bone fires", containing bones from his beasts. They always contained flat pieces of unleavened bread or small cakes impressed with his symbols, at times perhaps stolen and violated communion wafers... and these great blazes had the contents of the libational cups cast into them, as they cracked and burned.

His worshippers sought his face and other signs in the blaze; a great golden door it was to them, through which the spirit and presence of the Grand Master could hear and see them, and they Him if they prayed and stared upon the blazing God long enough... he was the source of their light and power.

For those who wished to fly away by the power of their God, the rising flames and smoke carried the aetherial body of the hopeful Witch, just as the upward indicating flames and smoke carried the prayers and requests of the gathering... even the weather could be commanded using the rising smoke-roads from the sacred fires of the Witch-god, and rags soaked in the libational fluids could be struck against stones in the Master's Name, and hurled into the sky, to bring down rain..."

Site last updated: November 2, 2005