From one witch to another. He is a god of thunder, lightning, and war, and is often associated with the oak tree. [350] Yet, they espouse Russian nationalism, ancestrality and ecology, and oppose Christianity (but not folk Orthodoxy, which is regarded as a continuation of Russian indigenous religion) and the Western "technocratic civilisation". Perun is heavily masculine, and is representative of the most active parts of nature. [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. [94] Cosmologically speaking, Rod is conceived as the spring of universal emanation, which articulates in a cosmic hierarchy of gods; Rod expresses itself as Prav (literally "Right" or "Order"; cf. [190] In claiming an Aryan ancestry, Rodnovers legitimise their cultural borrowing from other ethno-cultural groups whom they claim are also Aryan descendants, such as the Germanic peoples or those of the Indian subcontinent. [111] Sylenko acknowledged that the ancient Slavs were polytheists but believed that a monotheistic view reflected an evolution in human spiritual development and thus should be adopted. Other symbols such as animals, geometric shapes, and ancient Slavic runic writing, are considered to be associated to specific gods, and the prayer to their image is considered to intercede with these gods. They are those responsible for holding rites for worshipping the gods and leading communities and religious festivals. By using terms of mile Durkheim, Aitamurto says that what Rodnovers reject is "egoistic individualism", not "moral individualism". Slavic Pagan Design. In 1999, the communities of Moscow and Obninsk left it as they refuted nationalism, and established another umbrella organisation, the Circle of Veles led by Ilya Cherkasov (volkhv Veleslav), which is one of the largest and administers communities also located in the territory of Ukraine. [225], According to Aitamurto, rituals play "a central role in defining, learning and transmitting the religion", and thus they constitute an important complement to Rodnover theology. [6] The scholar of religion Adrian Ivakhiv has defined Rodnovery as a movement which "harkens back to the pre-Christian beliefs and practices of ancient Slavic peoples",[10] while according to the historian and ethnologist Victor A. Schnirelmann, Rodnovers present themselves as "followers of some genuine pre-Christian Slavic, Russian or Slavic-Aryan Paganism". [402], According to Laruelle, the most politicised current of Rodnovery has given rise to organisations in Russia including the Church of the Nav ( ), founded by Ilya Lazarenko and inspired by German Ariosophy; the Dead Water movement and its parties which participated to the State Duma elections in 2003; Aleksandr Sevastianov's National Party of the Russian Great Power, which has had links with politicians close to the former mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov (19362019); and the Party of Aryan Socialism led by Vladimir Danilov. In 2013, Simpson noted that Slavic Native Faith remains a "very small religion" in Poland, which is otherwise dominated by Roman Catholicism. [111] A number of senior followers broke with Sylenko during the 1980s, rejecting the idea that he should be the ultimate authority in the religion; they formed the Association of Sons and Daughters of the Native Ukrainian National Faith (OSID RUNVira) and secured legal control of the temple in Spring Glen. [175] The Anastasians too organise their communities according to their interpretations of the veche, regarded as the best form of "self-government", where everyone expresses his opinion which is taken into account for the elaboration of a final unanimous decision; this process of unanimity arising from multiple opinions is seen as manifesting the divine law itself, theologically represented as the manifoldness of reality which is expression of the singularity of God. [22] Textual evidence for historical Slavic religion is scant, has been produced by Christian writers hostile to the systems being described and is usually open to multiple interpretations. It was believed that dead ancestors existed within the same spiritual plane as the Slavic deities. [119] Although some Rodnovers aspire to paradise, they argue that retribution is not deferred to a transcendent future but realised in the here and now; since gods manifest themselves as the natural phenomena, and in people as lineage descendants, Rodnovers believe that actions and their outcomes unfold and are to be dealt with in the present world. [253] Similarly, Schnirelmann noted that the founders of Russian Rodnovery were "well-educated urbanised intellectuals" who had become frustrated with "cosmopolitan urban culture". [429] The political scientist O. Kravtsov has called for making Druva the national religion of Belarus. Mokosh is associated with destiny and fate, particularly the destiny of women. [60] In 1996, the non-compound form was adopted by a Polish group, the Association of Native Faith (Zrzeszenie Rodzimej Wiary) and in 1997 by the Russian Union of Slavic Native Belief Communities ( ) led by Vadim Kazakov,[62] while the portmanteau Rodnoverie was widely popularised in Russia by volkhv Veleslav (Ilya G. Cherkasov) by 1999. [381], Ynglism (Russian: ), institutionally known as the Ancient Russian Ynglist Church of the Orthodox Old BelieversYnglings, was established in the early 1990s by the charismatic leader Aleksandr Khinevich from Omsk, in Siberia. Slavic mythology or Slavic religion is the religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century. Short version: the Kolovrat, as a modification of the swastika does have some evidence of use going back into ancient & medieval times. To the early Slavs especially, the stork was seen as good luck, but there is a more sorrowful side to many birds as well. [9], The earliest known usage of this term was by the Ukrainian emigree Lev Sylenko, who in 1964 established a mimeographed publication in Canada that was titled Ridna Vira ("Native Faith"). [16] In the Russian intellectual milieu, Rodnovery usually presents itself as the ideology of "nativism" (narodnichestvo),[17] which in Rodnovers' own historical analysis is destined to supplant the mono-ideologies whose final bankruptcy the world is now witnessing. [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. For some Rodnovers, the Orthodox cross is another Slavic version of the swastika. [105] Different Rodnover groups often have a preference for a particular deity over others. [286] Three years later he reported sociological researches suggesting Ukrainian Rodnovers to be 90,000 or 0.2% of the population. The Svarozhich (or Svarojich) is the symbol of Svarog. [166] Historiosophical narratives and interpretations vary between different currents of Rodnovery,[179] and accounts of the historical past are often intertwined with eschatological views about the future. [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. "" - slavic sun wheel - "kolovrat" means "spinning wheel" in a number of slavic languages. Some Russians have embraced Watsdin by virtue of the fact that most of the ancient Scythians were assimilated by the East Slavs, and therefore many Russians wish to reclaim Scythian culture by naturalizing into the Ossetian religion. The staff is covered with cuts which are vertical lines if masculine and associated with the power of Rod, while a spiral or circle cuts if feminine and associated with the goddess of the Earth. [213], Christians have also been responsible for opposition to Slavic Native Faith, for instance through the establishment of social media groups against the movement. [63] The term was originally also applied to the modern Pagan religions of non-Slavic groupsfor instance, in the Polish language Lithuanian Romuva has been referred to as Rodzimowierstwo litewskie ("Lithuanian Native Faith") and Celtic Paganism has been referred to as Rodzimowierstwo celtyckie ("Celtic Native Faith"),[63] however, "now, especially if you write [it] with the capital letter, the term is understood, first of all, as a designation of the Slavic Native Faith". [374] In his writings, Megre identifies the ideal society which the Anastasians aim at establishing, based on its spiritual ideas, as an ancient Slavic and Russian "Vedism" and "Paganism", and many of his teachings are identical to those of other movements of Rodnovery. [277] He was nevertheless labelled a neopoganin ("Neopagan") by the Polish popular press, a term that he embraced as a self-descriptor in later life. ), represent the thunder god Perun or the supreme God (Rod), expressing itself as power of birth and reproduction, in its various forms (whether Triglav, Svetovid, Perun and other gods) and were still carved in folk traditions of the Russian North up to the nineteenth century. Mjolnir - Thors Hammer, Drawing In Celtic Knot Design, And Norse Runes Circle, Isolated On White, Vector Illustration. [4] They also characterise it as a new religious movement. [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]. [146] A number of youth subcultures have been identified as introducing people to Rodnovery, among them heavy metal, historical re-enactment, and the admirers of J. R. R. [118] According to Rodnovers, justice and truth have to be realised in this life, so that "turning the other cheek", waiving agency and intervention in the things of this world, is considered immoral and equivalent to welcoming wrongness. [230], Rituals of initiation include a formal renunciation of Christianity (raskrestitsia)[231] which entails the baptism with a Slavic name (imianarechenie), the ritual of entry into a brotherhood (bratanie), and rituals of marriage and death. The symbols in this category predominantly originate from the pre-Christian period and are related to the gods (bogs) of the Pagan Slavic mythology. [133] Aitamurto and Gaidukov noted that "hardly any women" in Russian Rodnovery would call themselves feminists, partly due to Rodnover beliefs on gender and partly due to the negative associations that the word "feminism" has in Russian culture. [317] Two groups were founded in those years, the National Front of the Castists (Nrodn Front Castist, where "Castists" was created as a neologism from Latin castus, meaning "pure"[318]) and the Radho group, founded by the Naples-born anthropologist and professor of Slavic languages Giuseppe Maiello (whose Slavic name is Dervan) among the students of the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University in Prague. Also, Saint Leontius of Rostov is appropriated as a native god. He is a source of wealth, sometimes translated as wealth-giver, and represents justice and well-being. They propose a political system in which decisional power is entrusted to assemblies of consensually-acknowledged wise men, or to a single wise individual. [290] Vedism was also explicitly espoused within more official Soviet circles; Apollon Kuzmin (19282004), leader of the neo-Slavophile historiography, did so in his 1988 book "The Fall of Perun" (Padenie Peruna), in which he supported indigenous Slavic religion while criticising Christianity as the cause of the Mongol yoke (which led to the incorporation of Kievan Rus' in the Golden Horde from 1237 to 1480). In Slavic mythology, Perun is the god of the sky and of thunder and lightning. [270][271] One of the most influential Ukrainian Rodnover ideologues was Volodymyr Shaian (19081974), a linguist and philologist who worked at Lviv University. [130] Other Rodnovers are openly anti-Semite,[156] a category which for them means not only anti-Jewish but more broadly anti-Asian, anti-Christian and anti-Islamic, and anti-Byzantinist sentiment,[157] and espouse conspiracy theories claiming that Jews and Asians control the economic and political elite. [126] A festival that is believed to be the most important by many Rodnovers is that of the summer solstice, the Kupala Night (June 2324), although also important are the winter solstice festival Karachun and Koliada (December 2425), and the spring equinox festival Shrovetidecalled Komoeditsa or Maslenitsa (March 24). Also, you could find special charms for love, fertility, and wellbeing. The goddess Mara, sometimes Marzanna, in Slavic Paganism represented the death and rebirth of nature, particularly the end of winter and the beginning of spring. 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. [91] Rod is also "Time" (Kolo), scanned by the cycle of the Sun, ad reflected in the turning of the hours, the days, the months, the seasons, and the year. [205] As an alternative to the "mono-ideologies" and the world of "unipolarity" that they created, Rodnovers suggest their idea of "multipolarism". [290] The journal attracted various personalities, including Anatoly Ivanov, the artist Konstantin Vasilyev (19421974), and Nikolay Bogdanov, among others. [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. The cultural center "Vyatichi" in the "Russian Pagan Manifesto" of 1997 (Nikolai Speransky - Velimir and others) on the threshold of the third millennium announced the end of the "night of Svarog" and "the morning of the new great day of the gods. He also espouses a form of elitism, by recognising shamans (poets and mystics) as people characterised by greater intelligence and power devoted to the realisation of a better future for mankind. Perun - The Slavic god of thunder and war Probably the most famous Slavic deity, Perun is the chief deity in most Slavic pantheons. The Belobog symbol represents light, goodness, well-being and happiness (the white god). However, there are more closed groups that require more stringent commitment from their adherents, and emphasise esoteric teachings and practices, including complex initiation rituals, reference to systems similar to Jewish Kabbalah, prayer and magic. [23] Both in Russia and in Ukraine, modern Rodnovers are divided among those who are monotheists and those who are polytheists. [19] In this way, Slavic Native Faith has been understoodat least in partas an invented tradition,[20] or a form of Folklorismus. [74] Indeed, many Slavic languages have two terms that are conventionally rendered as "pagan" in Western languages: the aforementioned pogan and yazychnik. The word Koliada is derived from the Slavic word for wheel or cycle. [223] The Anastasians also celebrate the Day of the Earth on July 23 with characteristic rituals prescribed in their movement's books. Ynglism meets widespread disapproval within mainstream Rodnovery, and an international veche of important Rodnover organisations has declared it a false religion. The four points of the star represent faith, freedom, righteousness and honor, while the circle represents the Sun. "our own language craft", "Gentility"), but it is infrequent. In the Slavic mythology, Veles (or Bog Veles) is the guardian of the Heavenly Gates, which separate the spiritual world from the physical world. In Slavic mythology, Stribog was the god of air, wind and storms. [51][52] According to Laruelle, Rodnovers believe that it is a symbol of "accession to the upper world". 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. [337], In August 2015, during the 3rd Polish Nationwide Rodnover Congress, the Rodnover Confederation (Konfederacja Rodzimowiercza) was formally established. [130], Within Rodnovery, gender roles are conservative. [106] Some Rodnover groups espouse the idea that specific Slavic populations are the offspring of different gods; for instance, groups relying upon the tenth-century manuscript The Lay of Igor's Host may affirm the idea that Russians are the grandchildren of Dazhbog (the "Giving God", "Day God"). Long before Russia adopted Christianity in the 10th century, folk tales, songs and rituals existed as an established art form. [53] Rodnovers generally present their symbols in high-contrast colour combinations, usually red and black or red and yellow. [85], Monotheism and polytheism are not regarded as mutually exclusive. There are, otherwise, Rodnover groups that intertwine with forms of religion and spirituality which are not immediately related to the Slavic Native Faith (this is the case of Ivanovism, Roerichism and Anastasianism). In religious terms, there is a development of a number of movements focused on the "re-creation" of ancient Slavic paganism. Lada is the Slavic goddess of beauty and fertility. [262] In 1818, the Polish ethnographer Zorian Doga-Chodakowski (Adam Czarnocki; 17841825) in the work O Sawiaszczynie przed chrzecijastwem ("About the Slavs before Christianity") declared himself a "pagan" and stated that the Christianisation of the Slavic peoples had been a mistake. [192] Such morphology of time is otherwise describable as "spiral". and is used in modern neo-paganism (see " In modern countries "). [249], According to Rodover cosmology: the top of the staff of the volkhv represents the overworld, Prav, and is either carved as an anthropomorphic face representing the patron deity of the volkhv, or as the symbol of Rod, and is associated with Rod itself, the "God of the gods", representing the unity of the generated gods in the universal Rod, or with his visible manifestation, Svarog; the middle part of the staff represents Yav and Perun, and is carved with the symbols of the powers that the volkhv "commands" in the real world; the bottom of the staff represents Nav and Veles, and is burnt in fire to symbolise the infernal forces of the underworld. The Slavic Font comes together with a family of 24 symbols from Slavic symbolism. [211] In 2015, the movement was observed to be small but well connected with romantic intellectuals and nationalist political circles,[425] and with the debate about the ethnic identity of the Belarusians. [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". ",[210] while in 1996 an Orthodox Christian cathedral was desecrated in Minsk by Rodnovers who covered it with graffiti, including one which read "Christians, go away from our Belarusian soil!". [348], Koliada Viatichey (Russian: ) is a Rodnover faction that emerged in 1998 through the union of the group named "Viatiches", inspired to the homonymous early East Slavic tribe of the Viatiches, which comprised well-educated Moscow intellectuals and was founded by Nikolay Speransky (volkhv Velimir) in 1995, and the community named "Koliada". [140], There are, nonetheless, recurrent themes within the various strains of Rodnovery. [40], The concept of double belief is especially significant in Russia and for the identity of the Russian Orthodox Church[41] and the folk Orthodoxy of the Old Believers;[42] in that country, it is an oft-cited dictum that "although Russia was baptised, it was never Christianised". [266] This organisation was a government-recognised entity until 2010, when it was unregistered and became an informal association due to disagreements between the Castists and other subgroups about whether Slavic religion was Indo-European hierarchic worship (supported by the Castists), Neolithic mother goddess worship, or neither. The symbol of Rod is identical to the swastika symbol with four points and rounded edges. Today, the swastika is officially used by Baltic neo-pagan organizations such as Romuva and Dievturiba. This was changed with the promulgation of a law "on freedom of conscience and religious organisation", backed by three deputies professing Rodnovery, whose members organised the pro-Russian Svarozhich Battalion (of the Vostok Brigade) and the Rusich Company. [76] According to Demetria K. Green of the Johns Hopkins University, Rodnovery is strictly intertwined with the development of East Slavic languages, and especially of Russian language, which preserved embedded in themselves ideas and terminology of ancient Slavic religion over the centuries facilitating its revival in the modern era. [269] The Ukrainian literary magazine Dazhboh, published in 19311935, was imbued with Neopagan ideas (Bohdan Ihor Antonych and others). [196] In various Slavic countries, many archaeologists and historians have been hesitant about giving credence to Rodnover interpretations of history. [186] Some Rodnovers take their cosmology, ethical system, and ritual practices from the Book. Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich was assigned by the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party the task of studying folk religious movements, and in 19081910 a faction of the Bolsheviks, represented by Anatoly Lunacharsky, Alexander Bogdanov, Maxim Gorky, and Vladimir Bazarov, formulated the "God-Building" movement (Bogostroitelstvo), whose aim was to create a new religion for the proletariat through a synthesis of socialism with folk religion. [281] This text was brought to the public by the Russian Yury Petrovich Mirolyubov (18921970), who claimed that it had been discovered by a friend of his, Fodor Arturovich Isenbek, while serving as a White Army officer during the Russian Civil War. [418], Ivakhiv noted that Rodnovery remains "a relatively small niche in Ukrainian religious culture",[419] and that it faces a mixed reception in the country. The earliest form of Cyrillic manuscript, known as Ustav, was based on Greek uncial script, augmented by ligatures and by letters from the Glagolitic alphabet for consonants not found in Greek. [215] Some hierarchs of the Church have however called for a dialogue with the movement, recognising the importace of the values about the land and the ancestral tradition that it carries with itself, and even proposing strategies of integration of Rodnovery and the Russian Orthodox Church. Yakutovsky's form of Rodnovery has been defined as tolerant, pluralistic and pacifistic, and his teachings are popular among Rodnovers who identify as communists. In some cultures, an effigy of Mara is drowned (sometimes burned) to more quickly bring about the end of winter and the beginning of spring. [59] A variant of "Rodnovery" is "Rodianism" (Rodianstvo), which Laruelle also translates as "Ancestrism". He is associated with herders and cattle farmers. [180] Archaic patterns of meaning re-emerge at different levels on the spiral of time. [111] Despite the animosity that existed between these rival Ukrainian groups, there was some collaboration between them. The hammer-and-knife attack would leave . Among the most common myths is that of Belovodye (the esoteric kingdom of "White Waters"), deriving from eighteenth-century Old Believers' culture. [21] Simpson has noted, speaking of the specific context of Poland, that unlike historical Slavic beliefs, which were integral to the everyday fabric of their society, modern Slavic Native Faith believers have to develop new forms of social organisation which set them apart from established society. [375], Roerichism (Russian: , ) and Ivanovism () are spiritual movements linked with Russian cosmism, a holistic philosophy emphasising the centrality of the human being within a living environment, in turn related to the God-Building movement.