[364] Today, there are at least four Sylenkoite churches: the Association of Sons and Daughters of Ukraine of the Native Ukrainian National Faith (OSIDU RUNVira), the Association of Sons and Daughters of the Native Ukrainian National Faith (OSID RUNVira), Volodymyr Chornyi's western branch of OSIDU RUNVira centred in Lviv, and the more independent Union of the Native Ukrainian Faith (SRUV). [286] Native Ukrainian National Faith congregations were established among Ukrainian emigree communities in other parts of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Germany. [233] The structure of these Syenkoite rites is modelled on those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. [205] As an alternative to the "mono-ideologies" and the world of "unipolarity" that they created, Rodnovers suggest their idea of "multipolarism". Nemiza is the Slavic god of death, in that he or she would cut the thread of life. The god was depicted, at different times, as both male and female. [28] According to the folklorist Mariya Lesiv, through this syncretic process, "a new religion is being created on the basis of the synthesis of elements from various traditions". These festivals all were associated with symbols of pagan . The contemporary organised Rodnovery movement arose from a multiplicity of sources and charismatic leaders just on the brink of the collapse of the Soviet Union and it spread rapidly during the mid-1990s and 2000s. She is the opposing personification to Mara, the goddess of death. [299], After Mikhail Gorbachev's Soviet government introduced the policy of perestroika in the 1980s, Slavic Native Faith groups established themselves in Ukraine. In their view, beings are the progeny of gods; even phenomena such as the thunder are conceived in this way as embodiments of these gods (in this case, Perun). [110] Sylenko characterised Dazhbog as "light, endlessness, gravitation, eternity, movement, action, the energy of unconscious and conscious being". [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). Morok, which translates literally as darkness in modern Russian, is the Slavic god of ignorance, error, deceit and lies. It is also a popular feminist symbol. [271] The adherents believe that the class of the warriors should have the superior and leading role in society (espousing the idea of a military state and rejecting communism and democracy), and should be always ready to sacrifice themselves for the community. [31], A different perspective is offered by the historian Svetlana M. Chervonnaya, who has seen the return to folk beliefs among Slavs as part of a broader phenomenon that is happening to "the mass religious mind" not merely of Slavic or Eastern European peoples, but to peoples all over Asia, and that expresses itself in new mythologemes endorsed by national elites. The crow, eagle, etc. His name, sometimes styled as Jarilo, comes from the Russian for bright or bright lord. Yarilo represents youth and rebirth. [286] There is overlap between Slavic Native Faith followers and other sectors of Ukrainian society, such as the folk and traditional music revival groups, Cossack associations, traditional martial arts groups, and nationalist and ultra-nationalist organisations. Indra), Iranian deities (such as Simargl and Khors), deities from the Book of Veles (such as Pchelich) and figures from Slavic folk tales such as the wizard Koschei. [65] For instance, one of the earliest branches of Rodnovery is known as "Peterburgian Vedism". They are used to surround evil or protect oneself from it. Once Christianity became the official religion in Russia, the clergy did all it could to suppress folklore, worried that it was too pagan at its core. One of the earliest exponents of Russian Rodnovery, Moscow State University-graduated psychologist Grigory Yakutovsky (1955, known as a shaman by the name Vseslav Svyatozar), asserted that ancient Slavic religion was fundamentally shamanic, and Siberian shamanism plays a central role in his doctrines. The wheel equally symbolizes the power of life and knowledge. Rodnovers share the strong feeling that their religion represents a paradigmatic shift which will overcome the mental constraints which were imposed by feudalism and by what they call "mono-ideologies". He is associated with herders and cattle farmers. [183] Rodnover personalities and groups played a prominent role in the 2002 establishment of Ongal, a Bulgarian far-right umbrella organisation. [133] Many groups in both Russia and Ukraine have demanded the prohibition of mixed-race unions,[134] while the doctrine of the Ynglist Church includes an articulate condemnation of race mixing as unhealthy. He says that Meryan Native Faith is mostly Slavic Native Faith whose concepts, names and iconoraphy are Finnicised. 4.5 out of 5 stars (584 . A popular sport movement associated with Rodnovery is "Russian jogging" ( , Russkiye probezhki). [321] Conflicts emerged around the interpretation of ancient Slavic religion: The Kin of Yarovit focused on Indo-European religion and its social trifunctionalism, the Kin of Mokosh focused on Neolithic Europe's mother goddess worship, while groups which emerged later, such as the "Kin of Veles", had no focus. [116] Rodnovers generally believe that death is not a cessation of life, and believe in reincarnation only in mankind and in the possibility of deification in paradise, Iriy or Vyriy, which is the same as Prav. Air is associated with the colors yellow and white. [79] They regard themselves as restoring the original belief system rather than creating something new. It will not come as any surprise that most of the demons in Slavic mythology took the form of women. [120], Rodnovers blame Christianity for transferring personal responsibility into a transcendent future when actions will be judged by God and people either smitten or forgiven for their sins, in fact exempting people from responsibility in the present time,[121] while at the same time imposing a fake moralism of self-deprecation, self-destruction and suppression of the flesh. [285] In 1979 he published the Maha Vira ("Great Faith"), a book which he claimed chronicled the ancient history of the Ukrainian people. The Proto-Slavic reconstruction is *dadjbog, and is composed of *dadj, imperative of the verb *dati "to give", and the noun *bog "god". [143] Some Rodnovers espouse ideas similar to those of Jewish Kabbalah, namely the discipline of Vseyasvetnaya Gramota ("Universal Script"), which holds that there is a connection between language, script and the cosmos (corroborated by the etymological connection between the word yazychnik, "pagan", and yazyk, "language", which share the same root): the Cyrillic and Glagolitic scripts, and their alleged ancestor, are considered to have magical usefulness to cooperate with the universe and communicate with God, and to see past events and foresee future ones. [30] Other Rodnovers are conscious that the movement represents a synthesis of different sources, that what is known about ancient Slavic religion is very fragmented, and therefore the reconstruction requires innovation. [119] Christianity is also considered as a system that destroys morality by casting human responsibility away from the present world and into a transcendent future,[121] its theology also enforcing a separation of the supreme God from the world. Over time, however, tribes were consolidated and, not long after, most converted to Christianity. [59] A variant of "Rodnovery" is "Rodianism" (Rodianstvo), which Laruelle also translates as "Ancestrism". [344], Many of these movements share the assumption to represent expressions of "Vedism". [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. [387], The Ynglist Church was prosecuted in the early 2000s for ethnic hatred according to Russian laws, and its headquarters in Omsk were dissolved. [186] Some Rodnovers take their cosmology, ethical system, and ritual practices from the Book. The symbol for Prov represents truth. [292] Other influential texts in this period were Valery Yemelianov's Desionizatsiya ("De-Sionisation")[182] and later Istarkhov's Udar russkikh bogov ("The Strike of Russian Gods"). [98] Already the pioneering Ukrainian leader Shaian argued that God manifests as a variety of different deities. Ivakhiv classifies Roerichians and others movements of Theosophical imprint, such as the Ukrainian Spiritual Republic founded by Oles Berdnyk, together within the broader "Vedic" movement. Among the most common myths is that of Belovodye (the esoteric kingdom of "White Waters"), deriving from eighteenth-century Old Believers' culture. Modern religious movement based on pre-Christian Slavic beliefs, "Orthodoxy", "Old Belief", "Vedism" and other terms, General descriptors: Western "pagan" and Slavic, Views on Christianity and mono-ideologies, 1800s1920s: Romantic and Russian revolutionary precursors, 1960s1980s: Soviet Union and Slavic diaspora in the West, Branches, interwoven movements and influences, Authentism, Kandybaism, Levashovism, and the Way of Troyan, "". [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. [269] He claimed that in 1934 he underwent a spiritual revelation atop Mount Grekhit in the Carpathian Mountains. [105] Different Rodnover groups often have a preference for a particular deity over others. He was associated with blacksmiths and the forging of iron. 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. Slavs belong to the group of Indo-European peoples, also called Aryan peoples (do not confuse this term with the term 'Aryan race'). [376], Ivanovism is a spiritual discipline based on the teachings of the mystic Porfiry Ivanov, based on the Detka healing system and religious hymns. Ivanov, who declared himself a Zoroastrian and subscribed to "Arism" or "Slavism", published a fervently anti-Christian pamphlet entitled "The Christian Plague" (Khristianskaya chuma). [114] Some polytheist Rodnovers have deemed the view adopted by Sylenko's followers as an inauthentic approach to the religion. [333] This attitude generated some mutual hostility between academics and practitioners of Rodnovery, rendering subsequent scholarly fieldwork more difficult. [397] The movement abhors moral decay, while emphasising discipline and conservative values, and even though Belov's early works do not have a radical right-wing posture, many adherents espouse such position. [330] Many Rodnovers made use of Russian Wikipedia to promote their religion, although many switched to LiveJournal and mail.ru, through which they could promulgate their ideas more directly. [323] The group is associated with the movement of Praskozorje. [256] The calendar of some Sylenkoite organisations includes holidays that have been de-Christianised, such as a "Christmas of Dazhboh's Light" and an "Easter of the Eternal Resurrection". [132] Many leaders of early post-Soviet Rodnovery were intellectuals who were already Rodnovers in the late Soviet times; for instance, Grigory Yakutovsky (volkhv Vseslav Svyatozar), Alexey Dobrovolsky (volkhv Dobroslav) and Viktor Bezverkhy. Adherents of Rodnovery usually meet in groups in order to perform religious ceremonies. [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. [260] Other martial arts styles that are popular among Rodnovers are "bench wrestling" (lavochki) and "wall against wall" (stenka na stenku). [401] The goal of this esoteric system goes beyond that of other left-hand path traditions which stop at the deification of the individual; the goal of Veleslav's way is to strip the individual of any identity constructions through images and dreams of death and destruction, to reveal the individual's true essence, ultimately sacrifying its individual divinity, its names and forms, into the utmost spring of all divinity, the transcendent, primordial, unborn, unthinkable supreme source. [326] In 2011, the Circle of Svarog (Svaroi Krug) was founded in Bosnia. [137] There is an academic consensus that the Proto-Slavic language developed from about the second half of the first millennium BCE in an area of Central and Eastern Europe bordered by the Dnieper basin to the east, the Vistula basin to the west, the Carpathian Mountains to the south and the forests beyond the Pripet basin to the north. [398], The Way of Great Perfection (Russian: ) is an esoteric doctrine of Rodnovery elaborated by Ilya Cherkasov (volkhv Veleslav), offering a perspective which according to him never existed in Slavic religion, a Slavic left-hand path. Perun is the Slavic god of thunder, and of war. [357] Another organisation is the "All-Russian Movement of the Scythians". Check out our slavic pagan symbols selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our shops. [266] In 1995, one of the future founders of the organisation, Radek Mikula (Ratko), had established contacts with Vadim Kazakov, leader of the Russian Union of Slavic Native Belief Communities; the relationship continued in the 2000s and led to Rodn Vra becoming an official subgroup of the Russian organisation until 2002,[320] while it nurtured ties with Polish and Slovak Rodnovers too. [266] Another precursor in Poland was Jan Sas Zubrzycki (18601935), who elaborated the doctrine of "God-Knowing" (Bogoznawstwo). Ruling over the Slavic pantheon was Perun, the god of thunder and lightning, associated with fire and mountains and more. [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. The Slavs, who were their creators, are an ethnic group that has existed in Europe since at least the time of the Romans. [115] The United States-based Native Ukrainian National Faith established itself in Ukraine soon after independence, with the first congregation in Ukraine gaining official recognition in Kiev in 1991. She is the goddess of death, rebirth, rural places and young plants. Slavic Spells The folklore of ancient Slavs contains a rich treasury of spells, including spells for domestic prosperity, wisdom, and knowledge. In Witcher 3, his rune will cause burning. [102] The Russian volkhv Velimir (Nikolay Speransky), emphasises a dualistic eternal struggle between white gods and black gods, elder forces of creation and younger forces of destruction; the former collectively represented by Belobog and the latter by Chernobog, also symbolising the spiritual and the material. [256] The same Kupala Night is a reappropriation, being the day of the year when Christian churches set the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. [51], The Anglicised term "Rodnovery", and its adjective "Rodnover(s)", have gained widespread usage in English and have been given an entry in the second edition (2019) of the academic Historical Dictionary of the Russian Federation. [124] Immediately related to the morality of a responsible community is the respect for the whole world of nature, or what Aitamurto defines "ecological responsibility". [405] This was partly because there were several Rodnover groups active on the social network VK which had over 10,000 members. [392] The locution "Slavic hill" refers to the kurgan, warrior mound burials of the PonticCaspian steppe. [1] Within the movement, it has also been used to define the community of Native Faith practitioners themselves as an elective group. [2] [172], The Aryan myth in Slavic neo-paganism is part of a contemporary global phenomena, which consists in the creation of "traditions". Nevertheless, according to Aitamurto, on the basis of the amount of literature that Ynglists publish and the presence of their representatives at various Rodnover conferences, is clear that Ynglism has a "substantial number of followers". 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. Check out our slavic pagan symbols selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our figurines shops. [53] Also appropriate chants and gestures are believed to allow the participants to enter in communion with the upper world. [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. [307] Many people became unemployed, and many turned to the past, nourishing the study of ethnic roots. [96] Triglav and Svetovid ("Worldseer") are concepts representing the axis mundi and, respectively, the three qualities of reality and their realisation in the four dimensions of space. Often represented as a female deity, she represents joy, water and the midday sun. Russian folklore has its roots in the Slavic pagan traditions. [231], There is much variation between major currents and organisations of Rodnovery. The return to reflections on the "Aryan" theme takes many forms. The symbol of Rod is identical to the swastika symbol with four points and rounded edges. [293] In Moscow, the occult Yuzhinsky Circle had been established by the poet Yevgeny Golovin, the novelist Yury Mamleyev and the philosopher Vladimir Stepanov in the 1960s, while a young Alexander Dugin would have joined the circle in the 1980s;[294] although not explicitly Pagan, they were influenced by occult Pagan thinkers like Guido von List and sought a return to a pre-Christian Aryan world. [182], In the 1970s, explicitly religious Rodnover groups had still to operate in secret, although a few small groups were known to exist in Moscow and Leningrad (Saint Petersburg), closely linked to the nationalist intellectual circles. [199] One of the native faith leaders, Dobrovolsky (Dobroslav), like Hitler, was proud of his lack of higher education and believed that "education cripples a person. LADA Lada is the goddess of summer, love and beauty and even fertility. Lada is the Slavic goddess of beauty and fertility. [123] This emphasis on individuality is not at odds with the value of solidarity, since collective responsibility is seen as arising from the union of the right free decisions of reflexive individuals. [253] The movement also involved a significant number of people who had a background in the Soviet or Russian Army,[409] or in policing and security. [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. [138] In doing so, they branched out into three sub-linguistic families: the Eastern Slavs (Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians), the Western Slavs (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks) and the Southern Slavs (Slovenes, Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Macedonians and Bulgarians). [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. They are those responsible for holding rites for worshipping the gods and leading communities and religious festivals. [344], The Roerichian movement originated from the teachings of Helena and Nicholas Roerich, it inherits elements of Theosophy, and revolves around the practice of Agni Yoga, the union with Agni, the fire enliving the universe. [197] In turn, Rodnovers have accused academics of being part of a conspiracy to conceal the truth about history. They hold that the Saga ob Ynglingakh, their Russian version of the Germanic Ynglinga saga (itself composed by Snorri Sturluson on the basis of an older Ynglingatal), proves their ideas about the origins of the Ynglings in Omsk, and that the Germanic Eddas are ultimately a more recent, western European and Latinised version of their own sacred books, the Slavo-Aryan Vedas. [269] The Ukrainian literary magazine Dazhboh, published in 19311935, was imbued with Neopagan ideas (Bohdan Ihor Antonych and others). [93] Mathieu-Colas defines Rod as the "primordial God", but the term also literally means the generative power of family and "kin", "birth", "origin" and "fate" as well. [258] Some Rodnovers espouse linguistic purism, proposing the replacement of foreign words with Slavic equivalents (such as svetopisi instead of fotografii, or izvedy instead of interv'iu). Ynglists organise yearly gatherings (veche) in summer. [115] In Poland, Rodnovery also influenced various forms of folk and popular music. Her symbol, or star, serves as protection against negative energy or dark forces. Yakutovsky is critical of the Soviet type of communism, and rather proposes "social communism" as the ideal form of government. [14] Some practitioners regard "ethnic religion" as a term synonymous with "Native Faith", but others perceive a distinction between the two terms. Aitamurto characterises the veche as a model of organisation "from below and to the top", following descriptions given by Rodnovers themselvesthat is to say a grassroots form of governance which matures into a consensual authority and/or decision-making. Active religious practitioners who were devoted to establishing the Slavic Native Faith appeared in Poland and Ukraine during the 1930s and 1940s, while the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin promoted research into the ancient Slavic religion. [26] Tengrist-influenced Rodnovery is practised by Bulgarian groups who identify as descendants of the ancient Turkic Bulgars. 3. Paperback - April 17, 2021. The Lunica is a symbol worn by Slavic and Viking women. [280], A key influence on the movement was the circulation of the Book of Veles among Russian and Ukrainian emigrees. He is the guardian of good weather. [84] Similarly to the ancient Slavic religion, a common theological stance among Rodnovers is that of monism, by which the many different gods (polytheism) are seen as manifestations of the single, universal impersonal Godgenerally identified by the concept of Rod,[86] also known as Sud ("Judge") and Prabog ("Pre-God", "First God") among South Slavs. [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.