The Erntebock (Harvest Goat) is a treacherous spirit. Sometimes he's accompanied by his better half, the Habergeiß or she-goat. In European folklore, goats represent mischief and trickster energies. They're also associated with fertility and virility. Most German and other European homestead farms included goats, hardy and easier to keep than cattle.
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The Harvest Goat has demon traits much like the Korneber or Grain Pig and other powerful entities such as the nefarious Hafermann. The Erntebock relates to Greek Pan, Roman Faunus and fauns and satyrs of nature myth. In the north, the chariot of Norse Thunder God Thor is pulled by two goats.
In Eastern lore the Year of the Goat is also named for the Ram or Sheep. It's a time of creativity and prosperity. From Norway, the fairy tale 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff' spotlights the cleverness of the goats as they outwit a nasty bridge troll. In animal spirituality goats can embody qualities of intelligence, strategy, discovery, trickery and stepping out with confidence.
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The goat's rectangular, horizontal pupils give a broad range of sight and sharp peripheral vision. Goat eyes can rotate in the head to stay parallel with the ground. Mountain Goats can see up to a mile (1.6 km).
Goats have a wider scope of hearing than humans and react to stimuli people can't see or hear. A goat's sense of smell is six times that of a human. It's almost impossible to sneak up on a goat, let alone a demonic one.
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In early times Goat Buck or Ram Sheep was a common spring sacrifice. He corresponds to astrology sun sign Aries, the first sign of the zodiac (Mar 21 - Apr 19). Aries the Ram was the original sacrificial bearer of the Golden Fleece sought by Jason and the Argonauts in Greek mythology.
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With his curved horns, cloven hooves, cryptic eyes, sexual energy, heightened senses and clever mind, the Goat as well as mythical goat-human hybrids satyrs and fauns became linked to the Christian Devil. It's easy to make the jump.
Fauns and satyrs take part in the Wild Hunt, a European supernatural tempest of mythical gods, heroes and creatures. In pagan lore, the Goat relates to the lascivious nature god Pan, who often accompanies Dionysus (Roman: Bacchus), god of wine, theater and madness, and attends the Bacchanale. In Wicca he's one of the deities equated with the Horned God. Others include the Celtic Cernunnos and the Hindu Pashupati.
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A virile deity, Pan is half humanoid with the hindquarters, horns and hooves of a goat. God of fields, groves, forest glens and sex, his season is spring, and he relates to the fecundity of the land and its denizens.
He has no constructed temple and his worship takes place outdoors. He's the son of Hermes (Roman: Mercury) another lusty god, though the identity of his mother is unclear. The cry of Pan in thickets or meadows was said to cause panic.
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In Germanic harvest myth, the Goats are among the spirits who fertilize fruit trees during the Yule season. Fruit trees supply plums, cherries and apples for baking and preserves. They might also be inhabited by tree spirits.
In Scandinavia and northern Europe goat ornaments are customary decorations at this time. The Yule Goat corresponds to Capricorn (Dec 22 - Jan 19), the first zodiac sun sign after the Winter Solstice; the lengthening of days, and upcoming time of abundance. Today the Yule goat is usually made of straw.
Yule goat figures are traditionally created from the last stalks of grain or corn. Harvest spirits of various kinds would flee into those stalks as the crops were cut. They were brought into the house and made into dolls or other ornaments. Over winter the spirit rested in comfort, and in spring the remaining grains were symbolically sown to return the Geist to nature.
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The goat-headed entity Baphomet, linked to duality, was said to be worshipped by the Knights Templar. The name appears in medieval sources of the Second Crusade in the 12th century. Baphomet is a symbol of balance in occult traditions, though sometimes considered a deity or a demon.
The Latin words on his arms are SOLVE (dissolve) and COAGULA (coagulate). He also carries a caduceus in his lap, related to alchemy before its modern affiliation with medicine. The pentagram points upward to a symbol of light. He indicates both dark and light crescent moons. Part male and part female, half human half animal, half good and half evil, Baphomet has hooves of a goat and wings of flight. He's a harmonious interaction of opposites.
In Germanic myth, demon qualities of Harvest Goats attune to elemental energies of Fire, provoking aggression and attack. A Geist doesn't need physical contact. It can cause accidents, bring bad weather or, if demonic, start fires. The Erntebock is especially fond of smacking unwary people with his horns. An injury in the fields might be attributed to this spirit. Both Haferbock and Habergeiß steal, hit or kill children.
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The Habergeiß has strong powers of her own. Apart from physical kicking or head-butting with or without horns, she throws cut grain into neighboring fields during thunderstorms. When she cries out in spring, bad luck will follow. In fall, her cry heralds a long hard winter.
She scratches at windows and hits anyone who looks out. The sight of her can be a premonition of death. In paganism she participates in the Wild Hunt. After the spread of Christianity she's ridden in the Hunt by the Devil, as a demonic steed.
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