[160], Many other Rodnovers deny or downplay the racist and Nazi elements within their community, and claim that extreme right-wingers are not true believers in Slavic Native Faith because their interests in the movement are primarily political rather than religious. It connects the feminine energy to the lunar cycle, the menstrual periods, and brings to women health, fertility and protection from conspicuous eyes and evil spirits. [437] In Poland, the Slavic Native Faith outnumbers other Pagan religions, although both are represented in the Pagan Federation International's Polish branch. Kupalo Kupalo is the Slavic god of the summer solstice. [408] Physicists were particularly well represented; in this Aitamurto drew comparisons to the high number of computer professionals who were present in the Pagan communities of Western countries. [387], The Ynglist Church was prosecuted in the early 2000s for ethnic hatred according to Russian laws, and its headquarters in Omsk were dissolved. From demons of an old and scary looking witches, banes, night demons . Most Slavic people worshipped in natural circles and groves; and it plays a large part in all kinds of magic. [323] A Serbian Native Faith group known as the Slavic Circle (Slovenski Krug) existed during the 1990s and 2000s, merging historical Slavic religion with a ritual structure adopted from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. [392] The locution "Slavic hill" refers to the kurgan, warrior mound burials of the PonticCaspian steppe. [119], Rodnovers express their anti-Christian views in various ways. Concerted efforts by the communities of Moscow and Kaluga led to the establishment of the Union of Slavic Native Belief Communities in 1997, characterised by nationalist views. Sventovit is the Slavic god of war. [380], The Way of Troyan ( , Tropa Troyanova; where "Troyan" is another name of the god Triglav, regarded as the patron god of Russia), incorporated as the Academy of Self-Knowledge ( ) and the All-Russian Association of Russian Folk Culture ( ), is a Rodnover psychological movement founded in 1991 by the historian and psychologist Aleksey Andreev (pseudonym of Aleksandr Shevtsov) relying upon a thorough ethnographic fieldwork, especially focused on the Ofeni tribe of Vladimir Oblast. [11], Some involved in the movement avoid calling their belief system either "paganism" or "religion". It was believed that Rod could be personified through all living beings as he presented fate and destiny. [410] A high proportion were also involved in specialist professions such as engineering, academia, or information technology, and the majority lived in cities. The Pagan ritual of Dodola is still practiced in parts of Northern Europe and the Baltic States, in which a young boy or girl sings and dances through the village, collecting money that will be spent on a feast in honor of Perun (the god of thunder), for whom Dodola is a wife. [138], The belief systems of these Slavic communities had many affinities with those of neighbouring linguistic populations, such as the Balts, Thracians and Indo-Iranians. I personally feel like these are more like good general pagan symbols rather than anything too specific. [147], The political philosophy of Rodnovery can be defined as "nativism", "nationalism" and "populism", all of which render the Russian word narodnichestvo. [176], Some Rodnovers interpret the veche in ethnic terms, thus as a form of "ethnic democracy", in the wake of similar concepts found in the French Nouvelle Droite. [213], Christians have also been responsible for opposition to Slavic Native Faith, for instance through the establishment of social media groups against the movement. A new Pagan belief system, Rodnovery, has arisen in recent years, claiming to be a continuation of the ancient Slavic beliefs that Christianity replaced in the middle ages. [312], In Poland, the Wrocaw-based publishing house Toporze reissued Stachniuk's works and those of his disciple Antoni Wacyk. [38], According to Ivakhiv, despite the intense efforts of Christian authorities, the Christianisation of the Slavs, and especially of Russians, was very slow and resulted in a "thorough synthesis of Pagan and Christian elements", reflected for instance in the refashioning of gods as Christian saints (Perun as Saint Elias, Veles as Saint Blasius and Yarilo as Saint George) and in the overlapping of Christian festivals on Pagan ones. the kolovrat represents the endless cycle of birth and . The staff has to be treated accorting to certain rules, and rubbing oils with spells, and hanging claws, fangs, amulets and other objects attached to threads are, considered to accumulate power within a staff. Koliada is the God of the new year and of the rising of the new sun each day. In doing so, pre-Christian belief systems underwent a rehabilitation. [65] For instance, one of the earliest branches of Rodnovery is known as "Peterburgian Vedism". [323] During the 1990s and 2000s, a number of groups were established in Bulgaria, namely the Dulo Alliance, the Warriors of Tangra, and the Bulgarian Horde 1938. The locution "Slavic Neopaganism" has been used within the academic study of the movement but it is never used by adherents themselves, who reject it for the connotations of both "new" and "pagan". [258] Rodnover rituals and festivals often include martial arts displays; these sometimes symbolise seasonal change, such as the victory of spring over winter, or can be regarded as manifestations of bravery, strength, and honesty. Air is associated with communication, wisdom or the power of the mind. Her symbol, or star, serves as protection against negative energy or dark forces. [162] Moreover, there has been an increasing de-politicisation of Rodnovery in the twenty-first century. Many Rodnovers regard their religion as a faithful continuation of the ancient beliefs that survived as a folk religion or a conscious "double belief" following the Christianisation of the Slavs in the Middle Ages. [356] The North Caucasian Scythian Regional Fire is a Scythian Rodnover organisation in the North Caucasus region of Russia and eastern Ukraine that operates under the aegis of the Ancestral Fire of the Native Orthodox Faith. [165] Schnirelmann similarly noted that there is a loose boundary between the explicitly politicised and less politicised wings of the Russian movement,[144] and that ethnic nationalist and racist views were present even in those Rodnovers who did not identify with precise political ideologies. [273], In Poland, Jan Stachniuk (19051963) established the Zadruga magazine in 1937, which gave rise to the movement of Zadrugism. [285] In 1979 he published the Maha Vira ("Great Faith"), a book which he claimed chronicled the ancient history of the Ukrainian people. 024-657-834 (CC0), Pixabay. They are used to surround evil or protect oneself from it. [14] Laruelle has emphasised that Rodnovery "cannot necessarily be defined as a religion in the strict sense"; some adherents prefer to define it as a "spirituality" (dukhovnost), "wisdom" (mudrost), or a "philosophy" or "worldview" (mirovozzrenie). [180] Many Rodnovers magnify the ancient Slavs by according to them great cultural achievements. Add to Favorites 31 Slavic Beings of Myth & Magic, an Illustrated Folklore Book by Alex Kujawa - Slavic mythology and folklore, now in COLOR! He represents virility. [177] Aitamurto has defined the Rodnover idea of the veche as a form of grassroots democracy, or, using the term preferred by the Ynglists, as a samoderzhavie, that is to say a system of "self-power", "people ruling themselves". [225], A number of Rodnovers have expressed their religion through visual arts, with Svyatoslav I of Kiev being one of the most popular historical subjects among Rodnover artists. [117] Rodnover ethics consist in following Prav, that is "seeking, finding and following the natural laws", which results in strengthening and being aware of the principle of retribution (actionreaction; or karma). The Ossetians endonymously call the religion Watsdin (Ossetian Cyrillic: , literally "True Faith"), and practice it in large numbers. [167], The scholar Dmitry V. Shlyapentokh noted that it is the Russian right-wing in general to have identified itself with Paganism, due to the peculiar political climate of benevolence and cooperation with Jews and Muslims of the contemporary Russian government and Orthodox Church. [151] Some blame many of the world's problems on the mixing of ethnic groups,[152] and emphasise the idea of ethnic purity,[153] promoting ideas of racial segregation,[154] and demanding the legal prohibition of mixed-race marriages. [297] In 1986, Viktor Bezverkhy (19302000) established the Saint Petersburg-based Society of the Mages (Obshchestvo Volkhvov), an explicitly white supremacist and anti-Semitic organisation; it was followed by the Union of the Veneds, founded in 1990. Vladimir Istarkhov, in the book "The Strike of the Russian Gods", predicts that in the era of Aquarius there will be a revival of the pagan gods, and the "Aryan power" will triumph over the "Jewish devil. [36], In crafting their beliefs and practices, Rodnovers adopt elements from recorded folk culture, including from the ethnographic record of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. [130], Within Rodnovery, gender roles are conservative. [13] The usage of this term suggests that the religion is restricted to a particular ethnic group. [233] The structure of these Syenkoite rites is modelled on those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. She was also exquisitely honored through numerous rituals and ceremonies. Air is the element of the East, connected to the soul and the breath of life. Glory to Dazhboh! [290], Russian Rodnovery originated in the Soviet dissidents' circles of the 1970s,[291] as intellectuals became concerned for the eradication of traditional Russian culture and identity. [301] That same year, a group called Ancestral Fire of the Native Orthodox Faith was established; in contrast to the anti-Russian slant taken by Sylenkoism, it embraced a pan-Slavic perspective. [349] Koliada Viatichey refutes any non-Slavic influence in their religion, including the label "Vedic" and Vedic literature, influences from Eastern religions, influences from Roerichism and esotericism, and also the Book of Veles. [269] He turned to recorded Ukrainian folklore to find what he regarded as the survivals of the ancient Slavic religion. [203] Some Rodnovers also take a hostile stance towards Judaism, which they regard as having spawned Christianity,[204] or believe that Christianity has led the Slavs under the control of the Jews. [71] When using English language terms to describe their religion, some Rodnovers favour "Heathen", in part due to a perceived affinity with the contemporary Germanic Heathens who also commonly use that term. [41] The movement of the Old Believers is a form of "folk Orthodoxy", a coalescence of Pagan, Gnostic and unofficial Orthodox currents, that by the mid-seventeenth century seceded from the Russian Orthodox Church (the Raskol, "Schism"), channelling the "mass religious dissent" of the Russian common people towards the Church, viewed as the religion of the central state and the aristocracy. Air is one of the four classical elements and is often invoked in Wiccan ritual. In the modern day, some ancient Slavic rituals persist in Eastern and Northern Europe. In some versions of the mythology, Svarog is the creator of many of the other gods, and a slayer of dragons. [290] An intellectual circle that cultivated themes of Slavic indigenous religion formed as a wing of the predominantly Orthodox Christian samizdat nationalist journal Veche (19711974). [130] Many Rodnovers espouse socio-political views akin to those of the French Nouvelle Droite,[145] and many of them in Russia have come close to the ideas of Eurasianism. [248] In Rodnovery, the priestly staff represents the axis mundi, the world tree, the invisible "pillar of strength", of the spiritual power of creation, and it is considered the vessel of one of the two parts of the soul of the volkhv or the representation of their own self. [300] The collapse of the Soviet Union and its official policy of state atheism resulted in a resurgence of open religious adherence across the region. [313] The 1940s Zadrugist movement inspired the establishment in 1996 of the Association of Native Faith (Zrzeszenie Rodzimej Wiary; now simply called Rodzima Wiara, "Native Faith"),[314] whose founder Stanisaw Potrzebowski wrote his doctoral thesis on the pre-war Zadrugism in German. and is used in modern neo-paganism (see " In modern countries "). 4.5 out of 5 stars (584 . It will not come as any surprise that most of the demons in Slavic mythology took the form of women. [366], Yagnovery (Ukrainian: ), Ladovery (), and Orantism () are other branches of Rodnovery that have their focus in Ukraine. Among the most common myths is that of Belovodye (the esoteric kingdom of "White Waters"), deriving from eighteenth-century Old Believers' culture. [77], By the mid-1930s, the term "Neopagan" had been applied to the Polish Zadrugist movement. Gods may be subject to functional changes among modern Rodnovers; for instance, the traditional god of livestock and poetry Veles is called upon as the god of literature and communication. [223] Ritual practice makes use of mythology, symbolism, codified chants and gestures. [269] Particularly interested in the idea about an ancient Aryan race that were popular at the time,[272] he subsequently began promoting what he called a "pan-Aryan renaissance". [79] They regard themselves as restoring the original belief system rather than creating something new. [195] For instance, in 2002 Serbian Rodnovers established Svevlad, a research group devoted to historical Slavic religion which simulated academic discourse but was "highly selective, unsystematic, and distorted" in its examination of the evidence. Polish demonology Water nymphs source: liveinternet.ru. Rodnover ethical thinking emphasises the good of the collective over the rights of the individual. [205] As an alternative to the "mono-ideologies" and the world of "unipolarity" that they created, Rodnovers suggest their idea of "multipolarism". Bog Hors is a god of the sun and the sunlight. [361], In Ukraine, there are currents of Rodnovery which are peculiar to the Ukrainians. [45] According to her, the case of Russia is exceptional compared to western Europe, because Russia neither lived the intellectual upheavals of the Renaissance, nor the Reformation, nor the other movements which severely weakened folk spirituality in Europe. The Way of Great Perfection is actually conceptualised as an overcoming of both the right-hand and the left-hand paths. [324] In Slovenia, a group called the Svetovid Parish of the Old Belief (Staroverska upa Svetovid) was established around 2005 through a union of an older group, Ajda, with the followers of the military historian Matja Vratislav Anur. Vasilyev's art is widely celebrated within the Rodnover community. Their settlements are known as "kinship homesteads" ( , rodovoye pomest'ye), and are usually grouped in broader "ancestral villages" ( , rodovoye poseleniye),[373] where an extended faily, a kin, may conduct a harmonious autonomous life in at least one hectare of land of their property. [7] The interplay with the gods and the cycle of nature which they represent is displayed through large-scale ceremonies which Aitamurto defines as "aesthetically lavish", vectors of a great deal of creativity. [193] The Rodnover movement claims to represent the return to a "Golden Age", while the modern world is seen as having entered a stage of meaninglessness and collapse; Rodnovery heralds the re-establishment of the cosmic order, which cyclically dies but then revives in its original form, either by returning to the lifestyle and life-meaning attitudes of the ancestors (retro-utopia), or by radically restructuring the existing world order on the principles of a renewed primordial tradition (archeofuturism). [223], Most Rodnover groups strongly emphasise the worship of ancestors,[224] to continue and cultivate the family, the kin and the land,[126] as the ancestors are those personalities who effectively generated presently living offspring. [393] The original federation of Belov splintered many times over the years giving rise to other distinct groups of military Rodnovery; Belov, however, continued to remain a central figure for the movement as a whole. Such idea that Russians may derive, at least in part, from Scythians is popular in many Rodnover circles. the kolovrat is one of the most respected and most powerful protective pagan symbols and is a symbol of the god, svarog. [257] In the 2010s, Rodnovery entered the mass market culture of Slavic countries by promoting ethnic clothing, ethnic hairstyles, ethnic tattooing, by creating and disseminating its own systems of symbols and images, but also genres of music, cinema and fiction. [412] Rodnovery has also contributed to the diffusion of "historical themes"particularly regarding an ancient Aryan raceto the general population, including many who were Orthodox or non-religious.[413]. [61] By the early 2000s, the term was widespread across Slavic countries. [14] In 2002, six Russian Rodnover organisations issued the "Bittsa Appeal" (Bittsevskoe Obraschchenie), in which, among the many topics discussed, they expressed the view that "Rodnovery" should be regarded as the foremost name of the religion. [166] Rodnovers of the settlement of Pravovedi in Kolomna, Moscow Oblast, reject the very idea of "nation" and yet conceive peoples as "spirits" manifesting themselves according to the law of genealogy, the law of the kin. Equally important to the Slavic mythology was the worship of ancestors, though the tribes did not keep ancestral records. [261], The origins of Slavic Native Faith have been traced to the Romantic movement of late eighteenth and nineteenth-century Europe, which was a reaction against rationalism and the Age of Enlightenment.