It is now 5:30AM, that's how long this took

[unamaga]

Hey, hey, people who are cool and watch Supernatural! Hey, come look! Dean's amulet!

 
Okay, so this little baby has been creating quite a stir in that absolutely no one can find the true mythological background of it and Kripke won't crack and tell. However! The end of our fruitless searching is neigh! From what I and my trusty research buddy have gathered, the name of the diety is Pashupati (who is also known as Rudra-Shiva) of the Hindu tradition.


According to Wikipedia:

Pashupati (Sanskrit: "lord of cattle/livestock") is a name of Rudra-Shiva in the Atharvaveda (the Rigveda has the related pashupa "protector of cattle" as a name of Pushan). Lord Shiva is widely known as Pashupati in contemporary Hinduism. The name has also been interpreted as meaning as "lord of creatures" more generally, compare the biblical "good shepherd" metaphor of e.g. Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd". 

The name has also been applied to a figure, probably a god, depicted as sitting among animals, discovered in the context of the Indus Valley Civilization. This god has been suggested as an earlier form of Rudra. Parallels have also been drawn with the Celtic Cernunnos.

 

 
The picture is included in the article itself, and I think it's one of the closest I've ever seen to the amulet itself. There have been other gods and bull-creatures, such as Mithras, which I've seen talked about in relation to the show and the charm, but really, none of them were ever shown with human features or the proper kind of horns. 

From another source, Rudra is, "a storm, the hunt, death, wild nature and a wind god. He has arrows which cause disease in whomever they hit, god, human or animal. With Diti, he is the father of the Maruts. Rudraw is another name of Lord Shiva, the lord of destruction, according to Hinduism."

I'm not quite sure what to think in terms of the significance within the show, but it is very interesting to think about.