A Challenge to Pagan Artists
Horns are (so to speak) evergreen, antlers deciduous.
So does the Horned God shed his antlers?
Here in the US at least, the Horned is most frequently depicted with antlers. This is unsurprising. In large part, his contemporary iconography draws on the Antlered Gods of ancient Western Europe. Deer are by far the most popular game animal in the States, and a beloved icon of the natural world in American eyes. One should add that modern pagans have for the most part been at pains to distinguish their patron god from the “Devil,” most frequently conceived of wearing either bull's or goat's horns; hence the preference for the divinely antlered.
There's another reason for this iconographic preference, and an important one. Unlike horns which, once the horned animal has reached maturity, cease to grow, antlers are shed and regrow annually. In se, antlers embody the Year, the Cycle, Death and Rebirth.
Of course, you wouldn't guess as much to look at contemporary pagan art, in which the Antlered is depicted as permanently antlered.
In part, this is because modern pagan iconography is still in a process of formation. As it reaches maturity, one would expect to find images of the Antlered that better reflect the true cycles of the natural world.
(In part, let it be admitted, it reflects the fact that, claims of “Nature religion” aside, most modern paganism is actually pretty ignorant of the realia of the natural world.)
In future pagan art, expect cycles depicting the Antlered's birth, growth, and maturation, His antlers (or lack of such) reflecting such. One could, of course, draw up a Wheel of the Year based on antlers alone. May we all live to see it.
Being god of all Red Life, the Horned may wear horns of any kind, or none. But antlers are unique: in their embodiment of the Year, they demonstrate an overt nearness to the Green Life of plants as well. Here the Red God comes nearest his twin brother, the Green.