The darker aspects of the Horned God are sometimes played down in contemporary forms of Paganism because our modern sensibilities feel uncomfortable with them. Modern society after all shies away from this taboo subject, preferring fantasies of cryogenic immortality. Our ancestors however faced reality and paid their respects to the death powers with both reverence and fear. The Black Master may be terrible but it is only natural to feel fear in His presence -- He is in fact the terror of death itself, continually testing, teaching, and initiating us. We must all face the Horned Guardian of the door and pass through the darkness in order to approach the renewing radiance of the Goddess. Intimations of His approach can perhaps be sensed in dark windswept woods in early winter, when the roar of the gale shakes the treetops and the cloud-rack scuds over the cold stars -- it is then that one truly knows the He is hunting and that no living thing can ever escape the airy hosts of the Horned One.