There’s a mix of good and bad information here—not at all surprising, because researching Cernunnos can often be like treading through a metaphorical minefield of potentially inaccurate sources.
The problem is really that there are two deities that use his name. One is the original Gaulish god (since this one came first, I’m going to use the name Cernunnos to refer to him). The other is the more modern Horned God, who is a bit of an amalgamation of several ancient deities and spirits, with extras thrown in. The latter originated, from what I’ve seen in my research, in the 1950s, when early Wiccans used Cernunnos’ name to refer to their Horned God; that same god was also associated with Herne the Hunter, Pan, etc. (I will refer to this one as The Horned God. This is a literal translation of ‘Cernunnos’, differentiated for the sake of clarity.)
Celtic god of fertility, life, animals, wealth, and the underworld. Also called Herne or The Horned One. Worshiped as “the lord of wild things”.
This is really a mashup of both the aforementioned deities, so let’s straighten it out a bit.
Cernunnos is indeed associated with life/death, wealth, and certain animals. Specifically, he is usually depicted with bulls, stags, dogs, and snakes with rams’ horns. The snake represents healing and victory (the rams’ horns being the latter part), and the bull/stag/dog part shows that he is associated with both the wild and the tame, both the hunter and the hunted. He is a god of boundaries.
The Horned God, on the other hand, is associated with fertility, animals/wild things in general, and Herne the Hunter (a British spirit who leads the Wild Hunt).
Typically depicted with antlers like those of a stag, Cernunnos was widely worshiped in Gaul and later His cult spread to the regions of modern-day Britain. His origins possibly date back to the Paleolithic era in modern-day France, as there have been found cave drawings of an upright stag or a man dressed as a stag, similar to the depictions of Cernunnos. The oldest depictions of Cernunnos were found in modern-day Italy in regions under Celtic occupation from around 400 BCE.
Most of this is about Cernunnos, with the exception of the ‘spread to Britain’ part. I’ve never seen any evidence that Cernunnos was worshipped in Britain.
Herne the Hunter, on the other hand, is an originally British spirit; since he is considered part of the Horned God, it’s fair to say that the Horned God has some kind of origin in Britain, as well as continental Europe.
Cernunnos is said to be born at the Winter Solstice and to die at the Summer Solstice, marrying a goddess in between these dates at the festival of Beltane. During the Winter and Summer Solstices, He reigns over life and death and is replaced by a moon goddess during the time between the Summer to Winter Solstices.
It’s true that Cernunnos is associated with life, death, and the boundary between them. However, the death-rebirth cycle, the associated dates, and the association with a goddess are all part of the Horned God, not Cernunnos.
He is known by many names to different groups of people. The Druids would call Him “Hu Gadarn”, meaning Hu the Mighty in Welsh. Some cultures viewed Cernunnos as a three-headed deity, possibly alluding to a connection between Cernunnos and two other deities, forming a triad.
A quick search on Hu Gadarn shows that he is a specifically Welsh figure associated with the invention of ploughing. He may be associated with the Horned God (to be honest, I’m not sure); however, I can say for a fact that he is not associated with Cernunnos.
As for the ‘three-headed deity’ part, three-headed deities are actually fairly common in Gaulish imagery; they are thought by most scholars to represent the great wisdom and knowledge of the deity, not a triad of multiple deities. Cernunnos is not closely associated with any other deities, to my knowledge.
http://www.manygods.org.uk/articles/essays/Cernunnos.shtml
http://www.ceisiwrserith.com/therest/Cernunnos/cernunnospaper.htm
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