[149] According to them, the Slavs are the directest descendants of an ancient Aryan race, whom they equate with the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The movement also rejects extreme right-wing and anti-Semitic ideas. The statue remained in place for some time until being removed by the authorities in 2007 when a decision was made to construct a church nearby. Meryan Rodnovers also rely upon the uninterrupted traditions of the Mari Native Faith; on 27 September 2015, they organised a joint Mari-Merya prayer in the Moscow region. [263] Therefore, he became a precursor of the return to Slavic religion in Poland and all Slavic countries. According to them, such criticism is an attempt to "suppress knowledge" carried forward either by Soviet-style scientism or by "Judaic cosmopolitan" forces. 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. Yakutovsky's form of Rodnovery has been defined as tolerant, pluralistic and pacifistic, and his teachings are popular among Rodnovers who identify as communists. [223] Slavic Native Faith has been described as following "the cycles of nature",[85] of the seasons of the year. [97], When emphasising this monism, Rodnovers may define themselves as rodnianin, "believers in God" (or "in nativity", "in genuinity"). [251], The common Rodnover ritual calendar is based on the Slavic folk tradition, whose crucial events are the four solstices and equinoxes set in the four phases of the year. [209] The folklorist Mariya Lesiv observed Rodnovers marching in Kiev in 2006 chanting "Out with Jehovah! In religious terms, there is a development of a number of movements focused on the "re-creation" of ancient Slavic paganism. [211] Simpson noted that in Poland, several Rodnovers launched a poster campaign against Valentine's Day, which they regarded as not being an authentically Polish celebration. [175] Western liberal ideas of freedom and democracy are traditionally perceived by Russian eyes as "outer" freedom, contrasting with Slavic "inner" freedom of the mind; in Rodnovers' view, Western liberal democracy is "destined to execute the primitive desires of the masses or to work as a tool in the hands of a ruthless elite", being therefore a mean-spirited "rule of demons". [401] Veleslav's left-hand path has been criticised by other Rodnover groups and leaders including Speransky and Irina Volkova (Krada Veles). [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". 4000+ Symbols - PDF - Ready to print. The Slavic Font has been designed following the typical proportions of the Ustav alphabet (Uncial), translating the calligraphic letters into modern types that still keep the calligraphy effect but in more geometrical harmony. [328], The 1990s and 2000s also witnessed the development of international contacts between Rodnover groups from all Slavic countries, with the organisation of various All-Slavic Rodnover Councils. Sventovit is the Slavic god of war. Morok, which translates literally as darkness in modern Russian, is the Slavic god of ignorance, error, deceit and lies. The poles, or statues, are called rodovoy stolb ("ancestral pole"), idol, chur,[242] but also kapy. [437] They also observed that males constituted the majority of the community. [299], Anastasianism (Russian: , , ) or the Ringing Cedars ( ) is a spiritual movement that overlaps with Rodnovery. Sylenkoism is the branch of Rodnovery represented by the churches of the Native Ukrainian National Faith (Ukrainian: ) founded by Lev Sylenko in 1966 among the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States, and introduced in Ukraine only in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union. [253] Similarly, Schnirelmann noted that the founders of Russian Rodnovery were "well-educated urbanised intellectuals" who had become frustrated with "cosmopolitan urban culture". Meanwhile, literary writings of important figures of village prose (derevenshchiki) promoted Paganism, including Petr Proskurin (19282001) and Yury Kuznetsov (19412003). [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. [241] The basic structure of a temple of the Slavic Native Faith, the ritual square (, kapishche), is constituted by a sacred sacrificial precinct, accessible only to the priests, at the centre of which are placed poles with carved images of the gods and a ritual fire (krada). [9], According to Schnirelmann, it was the Soviet Union's official scientific atheism, which severely weakened the infrastructure of universalist religions, combined with anti-Westernism and the research of intellectuals into an ancient "Vedic" religion of Russia, that paved the way for the rise of Rodnovery and other modern Paganisms in Eastern Europe. ",[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!". Lada is the Slavic goddess of beauty and fertility. [96], The founder Aleksandr Belov (Selidor) was originally a Karate master, and in the 1970s and 1980s he began researching and reviving ancient Slavic martial techniques mixing them with elements of English catch wrestling and other styles, codifying the practice in the book Slavic-Hill Wrestling and popularising it by founding, in 1986, the group of the Descendants of Svarog (-, Svarozhychey-Tryverov), which in 1989 took part in the creation of the Moscow Slavic Pagan Community; in 1995 Belov left the group and the following year he established the Russian Federation of Slavic-Hill Wrestling, which was officially registered by the state in 2015 as the Association of Slavic-Hill Wrestling Fighters ( - ). [164], Laruelle has observed that even in groups which reject extreme nationalism or are apolitical, ethnic identity is still important, and a good Rodnover is considered one who is conscious of ethnic identity, national traditions, and knows the history of the ancestors. Triskele. [222] Ceremonial accuracy is often considered essential for the efficacy of a ritual, but at the same time Rodnover rituals have been regarded as flexible frameworks, wherein there is room for elaboration and experimentation. The religion is patriarchal, and attitudes towards sex and gender are generally conservative. [85], Monotheism and polytheism are not regarded as mutually exclusive. 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. "our own language craft", "Gentility"), but it is infrequent. [244] Gaidukov documented that in the 2000s Rodnovers erected a statue of Perun in a park near Kupchino in Saint Petersburg, although they did not obtain official permission first. 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. [301] In 2003, the First Forum of Rodnovers was held in Ukraine, resulting in two public proclamations: the first urged the country's government to protect what the Rodnovers regarded as sacred sites and objects, and the second called on the government not to go ahead with the proposed privatisation of agricultural land. [127], Rodnover ethics deal with a wide range of contemporary social issues,[11] and they can be defined as conservative. Semargl is a chimerical creature in the Slavic mythology, often depicted as a lion or large dog with wings. 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. There, he established the Order of the Knights of the Solar God (Orden Lytsariv Boha Sontsia), a religio-political group that he hoped would affiliate itself to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the Second World War. [76] Thus, Czech Rodnover groups have coined Jazynictv and Slovak Rodnovers have coined Jazynctvo. [186] Some Rodnovers take their cosmology, ethical system, and ritual practices from the Book. [109] Conversely, Sylenko's Native Ukrainian National Faith (RUNVira; also called "Sylenkoism") regards itself as monotheistic and focuses its worship upon a single God whom the movement identifies with the name Dazhbog, regarded as the life-giving energy of the cosmos. [353], Scythian Assianism (Russian: ) is essentially a type of Scythian Rodnovery which emulates the Ossetian Folk Religion. [274] the term Zadruga refers to a South Slavic tribal unit. [445], There are also practising Rodnovers among Lithuania's[446] and Estonia's ethnically Russian minorities. He is a source of wealth, sometimes translated as wealth-giver, and represents justice and well-being. The Lunica is a symbol worn by Slavic and Viking women. The death of the "Judeo-Christian" world, in his opinion, will mark the beginning of "our new era." [109] In keeping with the pre-Christian belief systems of the region, the groups who inherit Volodymyr Shaian's tradition, among others, espouse polytheism. [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. [284] Sylenkoism was influenced by deism and Theosophy. "Slavic Traditions & Mythology" is the fourth book by Stefan Cvetkovi which sums up his research in the field of Slavic mythology. [87] Rod is the all-pervading, omnipresent spiritual "life force", which also gives life to any community of related entities; its negative form, urod, means anything that is wrenched, deformed, degenerated, monstrous, anything that is "outside" the spiritual community of Rod and bereft of its virtues. Scholars of religion regard Slavic Native Faith as a modern Pagan religion. [53] Rodnovers generally present their symbols in high-contrast colour combinations, usually red and black or red and yellow. The sacrificial ground is usually in the northern part of the square, so that during the sacrificial ceremonies both the priests and the laymen look towards the divine North Pole; otherwise, in the cases of those communities who give more importance to the cycle of the Sun, it is located in the eastern part of the square. [308] In this context, the growth of Rodnovery can be seen as part of the nationalistic drive to regain national pride. The study of this syncretic popular religion and philosophy was the foremost interest for late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Russian intellectuals: early revolutionaries (Alexander Herzen, Nikolay Ogarev, Mikhail Bakunin), Narodniks (Populists), and early Bolsheviks were inspired by the radical forms of society practised within folk religious communities, which in many ways were precursors to socialism. [260] Other martial arts styles that are popular among Rodnovers are "bench wrestling" (lavochki) and "wall against wall" (stenka na stenku). [285] In 1979 he published the Maha Vira ("Great Faith"), a book which he claimed chronicled the ancient history of the Ukrainian people. She is the goddess of death, rebirth, rural places and young plants. [351], Meryan Rodnovery is a movement present in the Russian regions of Ivanovo, Kostroma, Moscow, Vladimir, Vologda, Tver, and Yaroslavl. Perun is the Slavic god of thunder, and of war. [19] In this way, Slavic Native Faith has been understoodat least in partas an invented tradition,[20] or a form of Folklorismus. 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. "[199] An example is Yuri Sergeev's adventure novel "Stanovoi Ridge" (1987), whose protagonist in the 1920s in the Yakut taiga discovers elderly "Old Believers" who store knowledge of "the wonderful beauty of religion, which they defiled and killed", and a secret library with texts, citing the Book of Veles. [303] It is within this broader milieu of cultural nationalism and interest in alternative spiritualities that Rodnovery re-emerged in Ukraine. [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 latter, which is a derivation of the near-homophonous yazyk, "tongue", is prevalent and has a less negative acceptation, literally meaning "pertaining to (our own) language". [99], Sylenko proclaimed himself a prophet, bringing to the Slavs a new understanding of God that, according to him, corresponds to their own and original understanding of God. I want to invite you on a small journey into Slavic mythology and Polish witchcraft. and is used in modern neo-paganism (see " In modern countries "). [310] In 2002, groups of Rodnovers that did not share the extreme right-wing views dominant within some of the largest organisations at the time, promulgated the "Bittsa Appeal", which among other things condemned extreme nationalism and was the foundation charter of another umbrella organisation, the Circle of Pagan Tradition headquartered in Moscow. [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. 5 out of 5 stars (1) $ 5.52. [98] Already the pioneering Ukrainian leader Shaian argued that God manifests as a variety of different deities. The moon was a symbol of masculinity in Slavic mythology and was venerated during lunar feasts as a symbol of health and prosperity. [399] He borrows from various Eastern traditions, including Hinduism (Tantrism), Buddhism and Taoism,[400] but also Western Neoplatonism, Hermeticism and alchemy, as well as the medieval German mysticism of the Friends of God (Meister Eckhart and Johannes Tauler). [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. [259] "Slavic-hill wrestling" (Slavyano-goritskaya bor'ba) was established by the Russian Rodnover Aleksandr Belov. The ideas of these Rodnover political groups span from extreme right-wing nationalism and racism, to Stalinism, seen by some of them as the most successful political expression of Paganism. [50] The contemporary design of the kolovrat as an eight-spoked wheel was already present in woodcuts produced in the 1920s by the Polish artist Stanisaw Jakubowski, under the name soneczko ("little sun"). Animals always played a important role among Slavic people. 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, "". [216] Some Russian Rodnovers have attempted themselves to improve relations with the Orthodox Church, arguing that Russian Orthodoxy had adopted many elements of historical Slavic belief and rites,[217] though for some by corrupting their original meaning. The Svarozhich, then, is the heavenly fire from which the gods were forged. In Christianity wolf was associated with evil spirits but still most of these . 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". Ad vertisement from shop Wojdart. [126] However, there have been difficulties with Rodnover involvement in the wider environmentalist movement because of many environmentalists' unease with the racial and anti-Christian themes that are prominent in the religion. [26] Other leaders who emerged in this period were Aleksandr Asov, author of numerous books on Rodnover philosophy which have sold millions of copies, Aleksandr Belov, founder of the Slavic-Hill military type of Rodnovery integrating Rodnover philosophy and martial arts, and Viktor Kandyba, founder of Kandybaism. [24], Espousing a holistic worldview that does not create a dichotomy between mind and body, many Rodnover groups employ physical techniques, or martial arts, as means for cleaning, strengthening and elevating the mind. [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. [255] Some Rodnover groups have appropriated or reappropriated Christian festivals. ), 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. [343] Other Rodnover movements represent distinct ethnic groups within the broader Slavic family or space (Rodnoveries reconstructing the religions of specific early Slavic or Balto-Slavic tribes, Meryan Rodnovery and Scythian Assianism). [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). [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.
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