The paganism of the ancient Slavs existed until the 10th century, when in 988 Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich decided to baptize his land. However, even after that, many features of folk mythology were preserved in rituals, beliefs, fairy tales, riddles and other works of folk art.
During this time, their views have undergone significant changes. According to the most prominent researcher of Slavic paganism, Academician B.A. Rybakov, subsequent views, plots and myths did not erase the previous ones, but were layered on them and continued to coexist with them. Thus, even in the era of the most developed mythological representations the memory of the most archaic layers of the beliefs of their ancestors was preserved in the popular consciousness.
The very term "paganism" is of literary origin. Derived from the Church Slavonic word "languages", i.e. "peoples", "foreigners". Thus, the Russian scribes of the era of Kievan Rus - Christians by faith - as if "fenced off" from peoples who had not yet been baptized. AT modern science paganism is understood as a complex of religious rites, beliefs, ideas that preceded the emergence of "world religions" (Christianity, Mohammedanism, Buddhism) and served as their basis.
The pagan Slavs worshiped the elements, believed in the relationship of people with various animals, and made sacrifices to the deities inhabiting everything around. Each Slavic tribe prayed to its gods, the religion of the northern (Baltic and Novgorod) Slavs was very different from the religion of the Kyiv and Danube Slavs. There have never been common ideas about the gods for the entire Slavic world: since the Slavic tribes in pre-Christian times did not have a single state, they were not united in beliefs either. Therefore, the Slavic gods are not related by kinship, although some of them are very similar to each other. The pagan pantheon created under Vladimir Svyatoslavich - a collection of the main pagan gods - also cannot be called pan-Slavic: it mainly consisted of South Russian deities, and their selection did not so much reflect the actual beliefs of the people of Kiev, but served political goals.
Due to the fragmentation of pagan beliefs, which never reached their peak, very little information about paganism has been preserved, and even then it is rather meager. Researchers learn about the higher Slavic gods, as a rule, from Christian teachings against paganism; about "lower" mythology - from folklore (tales, rituals); a lot of information is obtained thanks to archaeological excavations of places of pagan prayers and the found treasures of women's and men's jewelry with pagan symbols. In addition, comparisons with the ancient religion of neighboring peoples, as well as with epic tales (for example, Russian epics) that are not directly related to religions, but retain echoes of myths, help to correctly comprehend the material received.
Stages of ancient beliefs
Entering the world of Slavic paganism, we must also clearly understand that its development is mediated by the natural environment surrounding a person and the dominant social relations.
FETISHISM AND ANIMISM
According to the famous Soviet religious scholar I. A. Kryvelev, common feature Man's thinking in antiquity consisted in the fact that his object and material were objects and phenomena that were part of the immediate environment of man and were of vital importance to him. Therefore, religious ideas at first referred to objects and phenomena of the immediate environment, moreover, to those that were woven into human life.
Sources have survived to our time that testify to the worship of the ancient Slavs to such objects and phenomena. The author of the "Walking of the Virgin through the Torments" - a work of the 12th-13th centuries - writes that "they all called God: the sun and the moon, the earth and water, animals and children." The famous Russian church leader of the XII century. Cyril of Turovsky in one of his sermons furiously exclaimed:
"The elements, neither the sun, nor fire, nor springs, nor wood will be called God!" This shows that at an early stage, the pagan Slavs worshiped various inanimate and animate objects, deified the forces of nature.
At Eastern Slavs echoes of fetishism and animism, refracted for thousands of years, was the worship, for example, of stones, trees, groves. The cult of stone fetishes is very ancient. It is quite possible that among the ancient Slavs it arose from the veneration of stone tools necessary in hunting and farming. In any case, the ancient Romans had a cult of the primitive flint tool - the "drummer" (hence the god Jupiter also bore the name Feretrius - the drummer). "The cult of stones turned out to be very tenacious among the Slavs. "Word. John Chrysostom" (according to the Russian list of the XIV century, but written much earlier) when listing the places where the Russians "come to pray" and "sacrifice, bring", he calls "stone". Until recently, there was a belief among Belarusians that in hoary antiquity stones spoke, felt, grew and multiplied like people.
The objects of worship of the Eastern Slavs were also trees, groves, forests. The veneration of trees is mentioned in the "Life of Konstantin of Murom", the prayer "for firewood" is also reported in the "Word of John Chrysostom". In the northern regions of Russia there was a cult of birch. According to the prediction, on the site of the city of Belozersk, birch trees used to grow, to which sacrifices were made. The birch cult continued later. In 1636, Nizhny Novgorod priests complained in their petition that "wives and maidens gather under a tree, under birch trees, and make sacrifices, pies and cereals and scrambled eggs, and bow down to the birch trees to learn satanic songs in passing, weaving peti and splashing hands, and all kinds of rage" .!
In the Dnieper region, the cult of oak was widespread. The Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in his essay "On the Governance of the State" (948-952), based on personal impressions, wrote about the Russians - Russians, that they "sacrifice live birds near a very great oak tree" on a campaign. Two powerful "sacred" oaks were discovered already in our century at the crossroads of two medieval trade routes "from the Varangians to the Greeks" and from Kyiv to Chernigov. They were raised from the bottom of the Desna and Dnieper in 1909 and 1975. when clearing the bottom of these rivers. Radiocarbon analysis of the second of these oaks showed that it ceased to exist (probably fell due to the erosion of the coast) in the middle of the 8th century. Scientists believe that, apparently, "sacred" oaks grew in "sacred" groves, which were also the object of worship of the ancient Slavs.
TOTEMISM
The discovered oaks also pointed to another layer of beliefs of the pagan Slavs. In tree trunks at a height of several meters (where the branches began to diverge) boar jaws were planted symmetrically and firmly. Along with the veneration of the oak, the Dnieper Slavs worshiped sacred animals - wild boars. Old Russian chronicles and epics repeatedly tell about the hunting of a wild boar and the solemn eating of boar meat at princely feasts. .Some researchers see in these "boar" treats echoes of the ritual eating of boar meat associated with an ancient cult. Here we already meet with totemism and the cult of animals.
The question of the totemic cult among the Eastern Slavs is rather complicated. It is possible that in a number of cases we are faced with the transformation of totemism into the cult of ancestors in the form of animals. Echoes of "animal" cults can be traced in early church teachings. In the already mentioned "Walking of the Virgin through the torments" it is reported that the Slavs "called the gods" of animals ("creatures"). The Church Fathers went on a rampage when newly converted Christians continued to observe "demonic" rites, in which their participants "put on animal skins", danced, jumped and sang "demonic" songs. Totemic games of a bear ("komosditsa") were preserved in the Belarusian village until the second half of the 19th century. Here, apparently, one can see a relic of ritual dances at the festival of the totem, which is known and studied among the peoples of the Far North and many others.
Elements of totemism are also traced in the later, already agricultural, rite of "pulling out the beard" - the last ears of corn from the field. At the same time, special songs are sung, calling for help from wolves, foxes, bears and other animals. But the existence of totemism among the Eastern Slavs is most clearly confirmed by the archaic layers of Russian folk tales, primarily fairy tales and about animals. The totem animal in the fairy tale is a wonderful cow helping her stepdaughter. The stepdaughter does not eat cow meat and buries it with honor. In this case, the attitude towards the cow is determined by the idea that the totem can save a person, warn him of danger; harming the totem also harms the person associated with it.
Often in fairy tales, animals are called fox-sister, wolf-brother, bear-grandfather. This, to a certain extent, testifies to the existence of ideas about the blood-related ties between humans and animals. It is interesting that the Australians, who had pure totemism in the last century, called their totem animals: "this is our father", "this is our friend". Deeply archaic views on the relationship between man and animals were conveyed to us by the fairy tale "Bear-Linden Leg" of East Slavic origin. A man, who met a bear, cuts off his paw in a fight and brings it home to a woman. The old woman peels off the skin from her paw and puts her paw to boil (bear meat), and she herself begins to spin bear hair. The bear, having made a wooden leg out of linden, goes to the sleeping village, breaks into the hut and eats the offenders. The bear takes revenge according to all the rules of blood-related revenge: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Since his meat is eaten, it means that he eats living people.
There is an archaic motive for violating the prohibition to kill and eat a totem animal. At the same time, fairy tales also describe the situation when the beast faithfully follows the sacred kinship and the obligations arising from it. So, in the tale of Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf, at first the wolf kills Ivan's horse. And then he swears to the prince to serve "faithfully". From the point of view of totemism, writes V.P. Anikin, “it is clear why the fairy-tale wolf, having harmed a person, considers himself obliged to compensate for the damage with faithful service. The relationship was considered sacred, and its violation was punished. When actions were contrary to tribal morality, they demanded compensation, and compensation of the most accurate. The wolf ate the horse. He himself serves as the hero's horse. He takes upon himself the duty to help a person voluntarily, without coercion: and for him family ties are sacred. The logic of primitive thinking is undeniable here."
A variation of the ancestral cult in the form of animals is werewolfism. In Russian epics, Volga hunts in the form of a falcon, turns into an ant when it is necessary to climb through a gateway from a fish tooth. The Russian fairy tale makes extensive use of the motif of the transformation of a beautiful bride-maiden into a swan, a duck, a frog. "The princess turned into a white swan and flew off the ship"; "I fell, hit the ship, turned into a duck and flew away ..."; ^: And the frog jumped out onto the porch at night, the ground burst out and became a beautiful princess. "The Eastern Slavs are interested in beliefs about wolf people - volkolaks. Belief in volkolaks and stories about them were especially common among Belarusians and Ukrainians, as well as among Great Russians. Some stories talk about sorcerers who can turn into wolves for a while, others - about people turned into wolves.Faith in werewolf, not yet sufficiently studied by science, is evidence of the worship of animals in the Eastern Slavs.
CULT OF ANCESTORS
Separation of the spirit-double from the object to which it is inherent, along with totemism, gives rise to faith in the souls of the dead, as well as the cult of ancestors. Probably, one of the forms of this cult was the veneration of the Clan and women in childbirth, which arose in connection with the growth and strengthening of the clans and the strengthening of the clan organization, as the well-known Leningrad historian V.V. Mavrodin believes. Recently, the point of view has been expressed that Rod was the supreme deity of the Slavs before Perun. However, it is unlikely that in the conditions of the political and economic disunity of the ancient Slavs, the isolation of the clans among the Slavs, there could be a supreme god subordinating everyone else.
Another social factor in the emergence of the cult of ancestors was the allocation of the age group of the oldest in the genus. Their reverence in earthly life affected the attitude of their relatives towards them after death. A trace of this form of cult has been preserved in the well-known image of Chura, or Shchura. According to the prominent Soviet ethnographer S. A. Tokarev, this was a revered ancestor. The exclamations now preserved in children's games: "Chur me!", "Chur, this is mine!" - meant in ancient times spells, invocations of Chur for help. That Chur-Schur was precisely the ancestor is evident from the word "ancestor", great-ancestor. The surviving custom of commemorating deceased parents on certain days of the year also points to the cult of ancestors. Archaeologists record manifestations of the cult of ancestors in burial mounds and simple burials.
POLIDEMONISM
Invisible spirits - the souls of ancestors and relatives, twins of fetishized objects and phenomena, objects of a totem cult gradually "inhabit" the surrounding ancient Slav world. The object itself is no longer the object of veneration. Worship refers to the spirit that lives in it, the demon. Not the object itself, but it is they that have a positive or negative impact on the course of events in the world and on the fate of people.
Paganism ascends to a new level. This is the stage of polydemonism. Demons are previously twins of real things and phenomena of the objective world, as well as people, but they left their real carriers and became independent beings. They take on an anthropomorphic image. Now both the forest and mother water, I even dwelling - earthly and unearthly, where the souls of the dead are, become inhabited, demons settle in them. It is the demons inhabiting this or that natural space that medieval authors mean when they write that the Slavs worship the water and forest elements.
Over time, the spirits, originally representing a homogeneous mass, begin to differ. First of all - according to the habitat, becoming the "owner of the place." Modern researchers separate the demonic characters of the "outside home" sphere (forest, field, swamp, etc.), the "home" sphere, the "below the earth" and "above the earth" spheres, as well as characters associated with a certain period of time (noon , midnight, etc.). They also differ in their attitude towards a person: evil and kind.
In the water element, the ancient Slavs believed, the banks and water ones lived. Beregini, and later pitchforks and mermaids, are female spirits of rivers, lakes, ponds, wells, etc. According to popular belief, in spring, mermaids come ashore, swing on branches, comb their long green hair, sing songs, lure passers-by and try tickle them to death. Mermaids are also associated with ideas about women and girls who died in the water, about unbaptized dead children. Apparently, here the echoes of the cult of the dead were layered on the image of mermaids. But mermaids are also the spirits of vegetation: trees, herbs, flowers, bread, because they give vital moisture to plants, send blessed rain on the field. Vodyanoy - shaggy, with a knee-length beard, an evil, mischievous and vengeful old man, lives at the bottom of rivers and lakes, in whirlpools.
The forest is the realm of the goblin, or forest man. Leshy lives on trees or in hollows. At night, he "screams wildly, looking out from behind an old oak tree (remember that the oak tree is also associated with pagan beliefs).
In the fields in tall grass or in high ears of corn live field workers - goat-like creatures. The appearance of their image tells us about the development of agriculture. Field workers could be male and female.
In the dwelling, the "owner" of the brownie is a little hunchbacked old man. He is the patron of the house, the household. Depending on the specific "location" it was called yard, ovinnik, bean goose, bannik. If you take care of him, then he helps in the household. "The king is the hostess of the courtyard, the queen is the hostess of the courtyard! And I give cebe and bread and salt and a deep bow, and what I eat, drink, I give to you; and you, the hostess-father and the hostess-mother, take care of me and the horse of the bludzi," - they used to say to the old man. If you do not feed him, then he strangles the chickens, disturbs him with his fuss at night. Then he turns into the accursed "demon of a horomo-resident," as the house clergy called it ("The word of St. Basil about fasting" - a monument of the XIV century.).
Thus, for many centuries, the Eastern Slavs developed a kind of pantheon of demons, or lower deities. Over time, new ones were added to their original functions. Therefore, in a number of cases, their polyfunctional images have come down to us. An example of this, as noted above, is mermaids. There were relations between the demons, reflecting the family and domestic ties of people. The Slavic demons had a certain hierarchy: among them were chiefs and subordinates, seniors and juniors. The brownie has a family: a wife (domakha, domovikha), children. The goblin can also have a paired character - a forest mistress (a goblin, a goblin). Mermaids were considered the daughters of the merman. In one of the written monuments of the XIX century. about pitchforks it is said that "their number is distant sisters, they speak ignorantly and think of goddesses." Brownies go to visit each other, sometimes quarrel and even fight. The brownie leads an acquaintance, and sometimes fights with banniks, ovinniks, foresters and field workers, and is irreconcilably hostile to watermen. "All these spirits are close and relatives or friends, godfathers," Russian peasants used to say. Apparently, Rod was the head of women in labor - the spirits of the family, birth and fertility. In submission to the forest owner was a hog.
From what has been said, it is obvious that the Eastern Slavs developed a fairly developed system of the so-called lower mythology, or demonology. The stage of "demonism" was passed by paganism and other peoples. The most famous representatives of the "lower mythology" of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The ancient Olympian gods, led by Zeus, were preceded and later accompanied in their earthly life by demons - demigods of various "ranks": nymphs, naiads, satyrs, heroes, etc.
Demonic beliefs brought the Eastern Slavs closer to the next stage in the development of pagan religion - polytheism, that is, faith in the gods. The fact that demonism, developing, was the forerunner of polytheism, is unequivocally said by the "Lay about idols". Its author, the first systematizer and periodizer of Slavic beliefs, writes: “Behold, the Slovenes began to put a meal” to the Family and women in labor before Perun, their god. And before that, they laid trebs for ghouls and coasters. "But it does not follow from this that Rod before Perun was the supreme Slavic god. Along with other lower mythological creatures, he preceded polytheistic deities at the previous stage of development of paganism.
These are multifaceted and unusual beliefs that have their roots in the mists of time. There is no exact information about the place of origin of the first pagan cult, because almost all archaeological evidence has been erased by inexorable time. Everything that is known to scientists has been obtained from the few chronicles and stories that have been able to reach us.
But even this is enough to understand what the culture and religion of the Eastern Slavs were like before the advent of Christianity. Understand what motivated people in that historical period, and how it was reflected in the modern world.
Basic concept of paganism
The religion of the Eastern Slavs was based on the belief in many gods - polytheism. All phenomena in nature were God's omens and testified that people are surrounded by otherworldly creatures.
The Slavs feared and revered the gods, made sacrifices to them and prayed for their help. Many customs were associated with the worship of deities and were carried out according to established rules. The Slavs believed that everything was the will of the gods, and without their participation nothing was done.
The Slavic pantheon had its own hierarchy, according to which the gods were divided into major and minor. Also in paganism there were guardian spirits who protected the house, helped with crops and treated for diseases.
world creation
The religion of the Eastern Slavs briefly describes the creation of the world. It is only known that at first a golden egg appeared, in which was the god Rod - the father of all living and non-living things.
He created the sky, the earth, the trees, all the gods came from him. On behalf of this deity, the word "nature" was formed, which meant - everything with Rod.
The spirit of God became one of the first creations of the Family, and it was depicted as a huge owl. Over time, she was given the name Mother Swa. From God's spirit appeared Svarog - the god of heaven, as well as the king of all things on earth.
Further, Svarog had children: the god of the sun Dazhbog and the god of the wind Stribog. And then some gods created others, who, in turn, gave birth to other mystical creatures, until a whole divine kingdom was formed with its own laws and rules. Over the years, the names of the gods changed to others, but their essence remained the same. This is how pagan culture gradually emerged with its divine hierarchy.
Major gods
The pagan religion of the Eastern Slavs has changed greatly over the centuries. At the same time, new customs and beliefs did not replace the old ones, but became their continuation, partially changing their essence. Therefore, often the popularity of obsolete gods declined, as did their position in the divine hierarchy.
Initially, Rod was the main and most respected god. After all, he is the creator of everything that exists on Earth, as well as the patron of the earth and fertility. Sacrifices were made to him and songs of praise were sung in the hope that he would look after the harvest and prevent diseases from hitting the fields.
Later, his place was taken by Svarog - a divine being responsible for order and peace in the lands of the Slavs. Over time, Svarog took over most of the merits of the Family, becoming the creator of the sky and what is under it.
Veles, who was responsible for cattle, was no less revered god. This attitude was due to the fact that the Slavs, like many other peoples of that time, were engaged in cattle breeding. If cows and other living creatures began to die, people thought that Veles was angry and demanded a sacrifice. Another task of this harsh god was to look after the souls of the dead, so prayers were often offered to him so that he would take care of the dead relatives.
Perun time
It should be noted that initially Perun was not the main god, but was only depicted as one of the sons of Svarog and Mother Swa. He was a thunderer and ruler of the rains. When peaceful times gave way to frequent military campaigns, his role changed dramatically - Perun became the god of war and one of the most revered deities in the Slavic pantheon.
The reason for this is that lightning has always been considered invincible and deadly, punishing everyone who dared to stand in the way of Perun. Therefore, the governors believed that if the army enlisted the support of this god, they would be able to freely win in any battle.
In order to attract the attention of Perun, the princes often made large offerings, built altars and followed the signs from heaven. This led to the massive spread of the cult of Perun, and the religion of the Eastern Slavs again changed its divine leader.
Diversity of gods in Slavic culture
But not only the great gods were worshiped by the Slavs. The heavenly abode numbered dozens of less significant deities, and all of them were responsible for a certain part of people's lives and natural phenomena, at least this is how the religion of the Eastern Slavs presents them. Briefly about the minor gods of the pagans.
- Dazhbog - the god of the sun, symbolizes dawn and prosperity.
- Stribog - the god of the wind, is able to send storms and bad weather. He also watches over the passage of time and the change of seasons.
- Lada is the goddess of order and the first of the women in childbirth. It was she who, according to legend, gave birth to twelve months.
- Lelya is the mother of Perun. This goddess watched over the crops, therefore she was in special honor among the Slavs.
- Yarilo is the god of light and spring, over time they began to personify him with the solar circle.
- Makosh is the goddess of fate and the eternal spinner. They say that she wove all human destinies on her spindle, and Share and Nedolya helped her in this.
In addition, there were also evil deities who tried to destroy people, constantly sending illness and misfortune on them.
Magi - a link between people and gods
The priest was present in every culture, so the religion of the Eastern Slavs could not do without him. In ancient times, people who could read the prompts of the gods were called sorcerers or sorcerers. People often came to them for help, since, according to legend, they knew how to heal diseases, remove the evil eye and bless in future endeavors.
What is true, unlike other religions of that time, pagan priests did not build temples and did not demand heightened attention. In most cases, they lived away from the settlements in order to protect themselves from annoying crowds.
Rites in ancient Russia
The religion and life of the Eastern Slavs are closely connected. There are many beliefs and signs that people always pay attention to. So, crops were always accompanied by prayers to the goddess Lele, so that she would later look after the harvest.
Funerals were of particular importance, because the observance of the rite depended on how the deceased would be met in the afterlife. The body of the deceased was placed in a small boat, then set on fire and set adrift. Thus the soul of the deceased was sent down the river to afterworld, after which the ashes were buried in a barrow. Armor, weapons and the corpse of a horse were placed in the graves of noble people and warriors, so that in the other world a person would not need anything.
Just as reverently, the religion of the Eastern Slavs guarded the rites associated with the birth of a child, matchmaking and marriage.
Great celebrations and festivities
All holidays in the calendar of the Slavs were associated with natural phenomena and transitions from one season to the second. Many of them played such an important role in society that they remained even after the arrival of Christianity, although having changed their original purpose.
So, the first of the year was a celebration in honor of Kolyada, the god who brought knowledge to people. It was celebrated on the first of January, which later coincided with Christmas. That is why now there is a tradition to walk around the yards and ask for sweets in exchange for a laudatory verse.
Another pagan holiday that still exists today is Ivan Kupala. It is celebrated on June 24 (according to the old calendar) in honor of summer solstice. According to legend, on this day the water has a healing power, so people arrange this festivities by the pond. Initially, this day was intended for the chanting of the sun god. It is in his honor that fiery circles or wheels are launched into the water, thereby demonstrating the movement of the sun across the sky.
Arrival of Christianity
And although the religion of the Eastern Slavs for a long time reigned throughout the territory of Russia, the advent of Christianity nevertheless forced it out. The reason for this was the patronage of Prince Vladimir, which left no choice to the common people.
For several more centuries, the Magi tried to return the old traditions, but their work ended in failure. And only small temples and wooden idols still remind us that in ancient times there were gods who could control the weather, heavenly bodies and the fate of man.
Essay on ethnogeography and geography of religions.
Topic: "Religion of the ancient Slavs."
Introduction.
Beliefs of the ancient Slavs (Slavic paganism) is a complex of views, beliefs and cults of the ancient Slavic tribes, a powerful religious and cultural layer, preceding the Christian one in time of existence.
Paganism is a Christian theological term for the general designation of all faiths except Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Paganism is a very broad concept, covering both the primitive religious ideas of ancient peoples (animatism, animism, the cult of ancestors, magic, totemism, etc.), and the developed polytheistic systems of cultural peoples. ancient world: Egyptians, Sumerians, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Scandinavians, Slavs, etc. Since the religion of the Slavs combined both archaic elements of primitive beliefs and ideas about a multitude of gods, the use of this term in relation to it is adequate.
Sources for studying Slavic beliefs
The study of paganism is not an easy task due to a number of factors. Firstly, this is a huge territory of settlement of Slavic tribes and, as a result, different internal trends in their development and the excellent influence of external factors. Secondly, the uneven pace of historical development in different zones resettlement Slavic peoples; thirdly, the absence of reliable mythological and religious texts; fourthly, the destruction of the traditional picture of the world and mytho-religious ideas introduced by Christianity.
Due to the lack of authentic pagan texts, the study of this cultural layer is very difficult. The sources of information in this kind of research are the texts of Greek and Arab travelers, various ethnographic information and archaeological sites.
Stages of development of the beliefs of the Slavs.
The question of the ethnogenesis and ancestral home of the Slavs is still debatable, and therefore it is impossible to indicate the approximate spatial and temporal framework for the emergence of the religion of the ancient Slavs. The first mention of the Slavs (under the name "Venedi") by ancient authors date back to the 1st-2nd centuries. AD, but at that time these tribes already had a fairly developed system of religious beliefs, and also actively contacted other ethnic groups, partially adopting their traditions.
The religion of the Slavs has come a long way of change from primitive animistic ideas to a complex and branched system of polytheistic beliefs.
Animism is one of the central and most ancient Slavic religious beliefs. Initially, it arises as an idea of the existence in a person of his incorporeal double: spirit, shadow. From these ideas gradually grows faith in the existence of the soul. Moreover, not only people are spiritualized. All phenomena of nature in the imagination of the pagan have their souls.
Also, among the Slavs, totemic beliefs were quite widespread. The characteristic totem animals of the Slavs are the elk, bear and wild boar. Over time, the praise of animal ancestors took the form of veneration of the sacred animal of one or another deity. So, the wild boar was considered the sacred animal of Perun, and the bear was considered Veles.
The Slavs also had widespread plant totems. Most often they were oaks, birches, willows. Trees were widely revered in pagan times, not only as ancestors, but also as sacred objects. This can be confirmed by the veneration of sacred groves or separately standing trees who performed certain rituals.
Ideas about the soul give rise to faith in the souls of the dead, a kind of other world, which, in turn, leads to the emergence of the cult of ancestors. Scientists associate the emergence of these beliefs with the formation of a developed community-clan system among the Slavs and the emergence of a separate class of elders. The most respected senior relative was revered in the family even after his physical death, in the role of a patron spirit. It was even customary for some tribes to bury respected relatives right in the hut, under the threshold, or in the red corner. It was believed that in this way the protector ancestor would protect his family from the influence of evil forces.
The cult of ancestors, widespread among the Slavs, eventually evolved into polydemonism. Demons are essentially the same spirits that were previously perceived as twins, "shadows" of things and living beings. In the process of development of ideas, spirits "separate" from their former carriers and become independent supernatural beings with an anthropomorphic image.
Over time, the spirits begin to differ, each spirit has its own "sphere of influence"; different types of spirits are distinguished. Each of them becomes the "master of the place", practically omnipotent in its territory. They differ in relation to a person, respectively, into “evil” and “good”. One can also distinguish a separate variety of demons that are neutral in relation to humans. These are brownies, as well as other types of spirits that are closest to human habitation: barns, banniki, etc. Most likely, these demons are the result of the evolution of ideas about guardian ancestors.
Demons, despite all their superhuman strength, are not yet gods. Demons don't create. They are only the guardians of a certain area. The gods are creators. It is impossible to name a specific historical moment when polydemonism was replaced by beliefs in gods, one can only assume that this process was associated with the collapse of the communal-tribal system and the formation of a feudal state-principality. The religious tradition sensitively reflected the socio-cultural changes that took place in the ancient Slavic society. In accordance with how disunited tribes are united in tribal unions, the disunited numerous pantheon gradually acquires clearer contours. A certain hierarchy of deities stands out, and the supreme god of the ruling tribe is recognized as the main one over all others. But this process was never completed. The last attempt to create a common Slavic pantheon was made by Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich immediately after his accession to the Kiev throne in 980. The pantheon of Prince Vladimir, also called Kyiv, included six deities. These were mainly South Slavic deities, and their selection not only reflected the actual beliefs of the people of Kiev, but served political purposes. The god Perun, the patron of princes and military squads, was placed at the head of the pantheon. Other deities are Dazhdbog, Stribog, Khors, Simargl and the only female deity of the pantheon is Makosh. At the same time, one of the most respected gods among the people - Veles, the patron of trade, wealth and livestock, was not included in the official princely pantheon, and his idol was located on Podol, at the foot of Starokievskaya Mountain.
However, this religious reform did not bring much fruit, and it was decided to replace the existing faith with a new, Byzantine one.
In 988 Christianity became the official religion of Russia. The end of the pagan era has come. But the echoes of paganism are still preserved in folk culture in the form of song traditions, beliefs, fairy tales, divination and rituals. Christianity could not completely supplant the ancient tradition, but it significantly transformed it, introducing new cultural meanings. Christian saints in folk tradition acquire the features of the ancient gods. In Saint Ilya, the image of Perun is clearly traced, in Saint Paraskeva - the image of Makosh, in Saint Blaise - the image of Veles. Pagan elements are added to Christian holidays, and symbols of Christianity are added to pagan holidays, etc.
Gods of the ancient Slavs.
The Slavs did not have a single polytheistic pantheon of deities. Each tribe had significant differences in their beliefs in gods: their own pantheon developed, the same gods received different names, there was no single supreme god for all tribes. Although there are a number of deities that researchers recognize as common Slavic. These are such gods as Svarog, Perun, Makosh, Lada, Veles.
Svarog is the god of sky and fire, the father of other gods. B.A. Rybakov believed that Svarog was once the supreme deity of the Slavs, but later his cult faded into the background compared to the cult of Dazhdbog, the god of sunlight.
Perun is the god of thunder, the patron of warriors and princely power. Among the Western Slavs is also known under the name of Perkunas. Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich tried to establish the cult of Perun as the supreme deity in Kyiv.
Makosh is the goddess of fertility, the patroness of women in childbirth, the goddess of fate. Also referred to as the goddess of water. The personification of the feminine. As the goddess of fertility, Makosh is often depicted with a horn, which is considered a symbol of wealth and prosperity.
Lada and her daughter Lelya are the goddesses of "childbirth", associated with the ancient cult of fertility. Lada - goddess of beauty, love, patroness summer harvest. Lelya is the goddess of spring, the keeper of young shoots and shoots. On traditional Russian embroideries, Lada and Lelya are depicted standing next to the "mother of the harvest" Makosh.
Veles is the "god of cattle", the patron of the merchants, the god of wealth. Also referred to as the god of the dead. Considered an antagonist of Perun, at least in the Kievan pantheon. Veles was also revered as the patron saint of travelers. Read more about the gods of the Slavs in the article "Gods of the Slavs".
Idols in the religion of the ancient Slavs.
Idols are stone and wooden sculptures that convey the image of a deity and serve as an indispensable attribute of the religious rites of Ancient Russia. Very few idols have survived to this day, but this is due not only to the persecution of paganism, but also to the fact that Slavic idols were mostly wooden. This is probably due to the ancient cult of trees.
Most often, idols were placed on hillocks, on the banks of rivers, along groves. There were also small domestic idols, which were often hidden from prying eyes. Most likely, the idols were made according to one model, but they differed in design. For example, the idol of Perun in Kyiv, as the chronicle tells, was wooden, but with a silver head and a golden mustache. Sometimes the idols were dressed, sometimes weapons were placed near them. Some idols held horns in their hands (for example, the idol of Makosh, with a horn as a symbol of prosperity in their hands) or bowls.
It is characteristic that for the Slavs, like any other pagans, an idol is not just an image, it is a deity itself. Therefore, to damage the statue is the same as to harm God himself. Therefore, when in 988 the people of Kiev were to be baptized, many of them hid domestic idols in Kyiv caves, saving them from destruction. Read more about idols in the article "Slavic idols".
Priesthood and sacrifices of the ancient Slavs.
The Eastern Slavs did not have a centralized priestly apparatus. Rites of individual family significance were often performed by the eldest man of the family, while rituals of collective, communal significance were performed by its head, the elder. Among the Western Slavs, who were under the influence of the Baltic and Germanic tribes, the institution of the priesthood was formed. Western Slavs erected temples in honor of their gods. At the same time, the idols of the entire pantheon, and not of any particular deity, were often placed in the temples. The Eastern Slavs did not build temples and prayed to their gods under open sky. The role of their temples was played by temples located in sacred groves or on the dominant heights of a certain area. The temple consisted of two main parts: the "temple" itself, where the idols of the revered gods were placed, and the "treatment", where the altar was located and sacrifices were made. Among the Western Slavs, the temple was fenced off with screens and curtains, only a priest could enter it; among the Eastern Slavs, any believer could approach idols.
The role of the altar was often played by a large bonfire. One of these altars was excavated at the beginning of the 20th century. V.V. Khvoykoy on Starokievsky Hill. The altar was the remains of a pillar in which layers of burnt clay alternated with layers of ash and charcoal. Around the post found a large number of bones of various animals, which gives an idea of the nature of the sacrifices. The Slavs have no convincing information about human sacrifices.
Magi in the religion of the ancient Slavs.
The Slavs also had the so-called Magi. Contrary to popular belief, they were not priests, although some researchers associate the name "sorcerer" with the name of the god Veles. Rather, they played the role of keepers of ancient knowledge, healers and seers. The motif of the "prophetic" magi is quite often mentioned in the chronicles of Kievan Rus.
The Magi compiled calendars, stored and transmitted ancient myths, performed the functions of soothsayers and sorcerers. There are references, including in chronicles, about the miracles performed by the Magi. According to the report of the Arab traveler Ibn-Dast, the magi had a great influence on the prince of Kyiv and that it was they who appointed sacrifices to the gods.
Ideas about the afterlife among the ancient Slavs.
The ideas about the life of the soul of a person after the death of his physical body among the Slavs are quite diverse. First of all, there was an opinion that a person after a violent, unnatural death, or one over whom the correct funeral rite was not performed, becomes a spirit of nature, often hostile to people. Such spirits include ghouls, goblin, water and other evil spirits. The souls of witches and sorcerers, who continue to harm people after death, do not find rest either.
There was also a mysterious afterlife in the ideas of the Slavs, called Iriy, Vyriy. After death, the souls of those who were buried according to custom, the “clean” dead, fell into it after death. Such dead were called "grandfathers" and believed that they could help their descendants who remained in the world of the living. According to the beliefs of the Slavs, life "in the other world" was a continuation of the earthly one.
Holidays and rituals of the ancient Slavs.
It would be appropriate to divide the ritual component of Slavic paganism into two spheres. The first of these is the rituals of the communal, national importance, which include calendar holidays associated with the agrarian cult, and holidays in honor of the gods. The second is rituals and ceremonies of individual and family significance, such as a wedding, a “maternity” ceremony, and a funeral. Otherwise, they can be called rites of passage. If most communal rituals are conditioned by the calendar cycle, then family ones are rituals of the life cycle, akin to initiation rites, fixing a change in the status of a person both in the family and in society as a whole.
The calendar holidays of the Slavs were associated with the agrarian cycle and, accordingly, with the solar cult. There are many reconstructions of the calendar of Slavic holidays, but there are no reliable sources on this issue. Archeology and ethnography provide important information about festive rituals, but these data do not have an unambiguous interpretation. Moreover, in each locality the rites had their own characteristic features. For example, the effigy of Marena (Mary, Witches, etc.), which was subject to ritual destruction on the Kupala holiday, was performed in different places as burning, tearing apart or drowning the effigy. The scarecrow itself could be replaced by a dressed-up tree, a cow's skull, or just a bunch of herbs.
Also, Maslenitsa (“komoeditsy”) and Kolyada, Kupala and Tausen are also among the major pan-Slavic calendar holidays.
Maslenitsa is a celebration of farewell to winter and welcome of spring. Pancakes are an obligatory attribute of Maslenitsa. It is believed that the pancake, which has a round shape, is a symbol of the sun.
Kolyada is a winter holiday of the sun, marking the turn of the sun from winter to summer. It was celebrated by the Slavs on December 21, on the day of the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year. Gifts, dressing up (disguise, the custom of “driving a goat”, “caroling”) were integral attributes of the holiday.
Kupala is the holiday of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. A huge number of legends and beliefs are associated with the Kupala holiday. On a festive night, they guess, look for the legendary fern flowers, burn an effigy of Madder, which symbolizes victory over death.
Tausen is the autumn equinox holiday associated with the harvest, the end of all peasant seasonal work.
Rites of passage - rites that mark the most important milestones in a person's life, a change in his social status. Such rites are divided into two subspecies: "extreme" (birth and funeral rites, entry and exit from the life cycle, respectively) and "middle" (wedding rite, various initiations and initiations).
The maternity and wedding rites of the Slavs are reconstructed on the basis of annalistic records and ethnographic material.
The ritual complex associated with the birth of a child occurs in several stages and has, in part, not only a family, but also a communal character. First of all, the midwife prepares the expectant mother for childbirth, which is accompanied by a certain set of ritual actions, such as stepping over a rope. Sometimes the father of the child also participates in such rituals. After childbirth, which was not taken in the house, but in another room (often in a bathhouse), a ritual of accepting a new member of the community is performed. This is usually ablution, i.e. ritual cleansing of the child, as well as his mother and midwife.
The wedding ceremony takes place in three stages, in each of which the same ritual actions are repeated, which gradually develop and become more complicated. These are the main steps:
1) matchmaking;
2) engagement;
3) the wedding itself.
All three stages of the wedding are characterized by the motive of kidnapping the bride by the groom, making a ransom for the bride. The complex of wedding rituals also includes purification rituals associated with the ancient cults of water and fire and reflecting the idea of the cleansing properties of the elements. (see Wedding customs of the ancient Slavs)
The funeral rite of the Slavs is most accurately reconstructed in comparison with other ritual complexes, for the most part due to archaeological data. Judging by them, the funeral rite of the Slavs went a long way of development from the culture of the fields of funeral urns, characteristic of the end of the Bronze Age, to the complex burial mounds of the 10th century AD. Almost all burials of the pagan era were carried out according to the rite of cremation (cremation). This was probably due to the nature of the beliefs of the Slavs in the soul and its afterlife. The ritual of inhumation (deposition) replaced cremation only with the final introduction of Christianity in Russia.
The ancient burial grounds of the Slavs were collective. Urns with the ashes of the dead were buried in the ground within the burial complex of the tribe, a kind of cemetery. Sometimes some things of the deceased were buried along with the urn. Later burials were carried out in the form of round (Polesye, Podnestrovie) or long (basin of lakes Ilmen and Pskov) barrows. Burial mounds are mostly collective. Individual burials spread in the 10th-11th centuries. (for example, on the territory of the Chernigov Principality).
Conclusion.
The religion of the ancient Slavs is a fairly developed system of pagan beliefs, we confess the Slavic tribes before the adoption of Christianity. The specificity of Slavic paganism lies in the free coexistence of both developed polytheistic and archaic agrarian cults, animistic and polydemonic ideas, and the cult of ancestors. Another characteristic feature of the religion of the ancient Slavs is its heterogeneity, the difference between cults among different tribes, the veneration of different deities, and excellent cult practice in different localities. The paganism of the Slavs is not only a system of cults, but also a worldview, a worldview, reflected in the further development of the cultures of the Slavic peoples.
The topic “Beliefs of the Eastern Slavs” is interesting for me, since paganism is an integral part of the history of our country - mysterious, appearing either in rock compositions, or in works of fiction, in art publications, or told by one of the grandparents as “what great-grandfathers used to tell” and, as far as I understood, exciting not only me as an idle dilettante, but, as it turned out, occupying the minds of many modern people who believe that paganism is not at all in the past.
The most important cultural prerequisite for the history of Russian civilization is the beliefs of the Eastern Slavs. They were associated with the predominantly agrarian, agricultural nature of production in the 6th-9th centuries. and the tribal nature of society, divided according to the principle of kinship and neighborhood
The pagan religion corresponded to the era of the primitive communal system among the Eastern Slavs. Slavic paganism is a whole complex of beliefs, ideas, rituals that came from ancient times and which reflected the complete dependence of ancient people on the forces of nature. These are polytheistic beliefs and rituals that existed among the Slavs before the adoption of the monotheistic religion - Christianity.
The term "paganism" appeared in the Old Russian language after the adoption of Christianity to refer to all pre-Christian and non-Christian cults and was used by Orthodox preachers. In other words, the term "paganism" is conditional and does not mean any specific beliefs, but any traditional folk religion. In modern scientific literature the term "polytheism" is more commonly used (from the Greek polys - numerous, and theos - god; i.e. polytheism, belief in many gods).
Paganism belongs to an archaic type of culture, very different from traditional and modern types. From world religions, ancient paganism is that the imperfection of man was not associated with his falling away from the divine ideal (fall). Imperfection was considered a quality inherent in the whole world, both earthly and heavenly, both the world of everyday life and the world of the mysterious forces of nature. In fact, man himself was one of these forces. In order to achieve the fulfillment of his will, he could scare and force a brownie or goblin to obey him, and people with witchcraft power, such as sorcerer priests or tribal leaders, could control the forces of nature: send and prevent rain, illness, crop failure, hunger to ensure victory in the war.
This worldview created a rather cozy image of the world, in which there were no insoluble contradictions, there was no that gap between everyday life and the ideal, man and God, the appearance of which in the great cultures of the East and Greece in the 8-2 centuries BC allowed the philosopher K. Jaspers to name this time is "axial", dividing the history of mankind. The spiritual revolution of the "axial time" aroused in people the need to strive for the ideal, to seek "salvation" from their imperfection. It is connected with the emergence of world religions and great philosophies, traditional culture. The Slavs in the pre-Christian period did not have a religion common to all tribes. However, their ideas about nature, the surrounding world, the elements that rule in it are very close to each other. This allows us to talk about the existence of a special folk faith among the ancient Slavs, i.e. Paganism. Paganism is the national religion. Unlike the great world religions, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, which do not recognize national borders, paganism is addressed only to the Slavs, or only to the Germans, or only to the Celts, etc., perceiving each people as a tribal family community and opposing it to the rest the world.
The religion of the Eastern Slavs is strikingly similar to the original religion of the Aryan tribes: it consisted in the worship of physical deities, natural phenomena and the souls of the dead, tribal, domestic geniuses; we do not notice traces of the heroic element that develops anthropomorphism so strongly among our Slavs - a sign that conquering squads were not formed between them under the command of hero leaders and that their migrations were carried out not in a squad, but in a tribal form.
The Eastern Slavs did not know all this until the 10th century. Their world was inhabited by many strange creatures that personified the forces of nature. Gods and spirits were everywhere: in the rain, in the sun, in the forest, under the threshold of the house, in the water, on the ground. The Slavs tried to find a common language with everyone, appease some and scare others. These were local deities, numbering in the tens and hundreds. They, like people, were good and evil, simple-minded and cunning. Some helped a person in achieving his goals, while others, on the contrary, hindered him. They had nothing of the omnipotence and perfection of the Christian God. In order to communicate with pagan gods, it was not necessary to fight for spiritual purity, as Christian monks did, but it was only necessary to know certain technical techniques: rituals, prayers, conspiracies.
Having arisen in ancient times, when human consciousness had just begun to form, Slavic paganism did not remain petrified, but developed along with primitive society. In the 12th century, interesting notes were compiled on the development of pagan beliefs among the ancient Slavs: "A word about how pagan peoples worshiped idols and made sacrifices to them." Its author divided the history of Slavic beliefs into three periods: first, the Slavs made sacrifices to ghouls and coastlines (in other sources? It is written “beregyns”); then they began to “set a meal” for Rod and women in labor; finally, in the late period of paganism, they began to pray to Perun. (This periodization takes place in the textbook for grades 10-11 of educational institutions, I.N. Ionov “Russian civilization, 9th-early 20th century”? M .: Education, 1995 ).
Another source (A. Lukutin "History. Grades 9-11", M.: AST-PRESS SCHOOL, 2006) provides the following data: scientists note 4 stages in the development of Slavic paganism.
The first stage corresponds to the era of the Stone Age, the Slavs made sacrifices to the "ghouls" and "beregyns". Ghouls and beregini are evil and good local gods. Ghouls are vampires, werewolves, mermaids, goblin. Usually these are former people who did not die by their own death, were not buried and avenged for this alive. You can fight them, knowing protective rites. Especially often ghouls inhabited remote, little-visited places: forests and rivers. In the villages they were searched for in wells. Christian priests for a long time still accused the peasants that they "eat (pray) to demons and swamps and wells." Beregini were good deities. For example, the idea of a brownie, which can be both evil and good, has come down to our times, depending on how you propitiate him. N.M. Karamzin wrote in the History of the Russian State: “In the superstitious traditions of the Russian people, we also discover some traces of the ancient Slavic worship of God: until now simple people we talk about goblin, who look like satyrs, live as if in the darkness of forests, equal to trees and grass, terrify wanderers, go around them and lead them astray, about mermaids, or nymphs of oak forests (where they run with loose hair, especially before Trinity Day), about beneficent and evil brownies, about kikimors.
Later, when the ancient Slavs made the transition from a nomadic to a sedentary way of life, when agriculture appeared, the cult of Rod and Rozhanits, fertility deities, was born, which is associated with the development of the tribal system and Agriculture among the Slavs. In Rod, the forces of the fertility of the earth and the unity of generations of people were simultaneously personified. After all, the fertility of the earth, according to the beliefs of the Slavs, is provided by the ancestors, and if the earth does not bear fruit, then the sacrifice must be made to them. The pagan idea of the unity of the world was also manifested in the fact that the ability of a person to produce offspring was considered to stimulate the creative forces of nature.
Therefore, the spring holidays in honor of Rod and Rozhanitsy were accompanied by general drunkenness (“not into the law, but into a drunken state” and obscenities. At this stage in the development of pagan beliefs, there are attempts to portray the gods in a humanoid form.
It is significant that already after the adoption of Christianity, peasant women prayed to Rozhanitsa along with the Christian Mother of God. According to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, Rod is the creator of the entire universe. He "breathed" life into people, commanded the sky, rain, fire, sent lightning to the earth. The famous historian B.A. Rybakov in his work “History. The initial centuries of Russian history ”writes about Rod like this:“ God Rod was the supreme deity of heaven and the universe. He was compared with Osiris, Baad Gad and the biblical hosts. This was a deity more significant than the retinue-princely Perun who replaced him. And here is another interesting version of it: “On the Dnieper, 120 km from Kyiv, at the mouth of the Ros River, there was the city of Roden, from which now there is a settlement on a high mountain - Knyazhya Gora.
Judging by the location in the middle of the range of Rus antiquities of the 6th-7th centuries, Roden could be the tribal center of the Rus and be named after the main god of the ancient Slavs - Rod ... Such an assumption would fully explain the chronicle phrase (possibly taken from Greek sources of the 9th century) " Give birth, we call Russia ... ". The name of the union of tribes according to a common deity can also be traced in the name of the Krivichi, named after the ancient native (Lithuanian) god Kriva - Krivite. Russ on the Ros River could get their name from the god Rod, whose place of worship was Roden on Ros.
Gradually, many of the functions of the Family were transferred to the jurisdiction of other gods.
Rod had assistants - Yarilo and Kupala.
Yarilo personified the awakening spring. To the Slavs, he appeared as a young handsome youth who rode through the fields and villages on a white horse and in a white robe.
Kupala was considered as a fruitful deity of summer. His day was celebrated on June 24, and it was preceded by "Rusalia" - celebrations dedicated to the nymphs of fields and waters.
Worship of the god Veles (Volos), the patron saint of cattle and cattle breeding, arose at a time when the ancient Slavs learned to tame wild animals. It was believed that this god contributed to the accumulation of wealth.
In the 8th-9th centuries, a “divine” picture is formed, where each deity has its own place:
Svarog is the lord of the sky, to whom the whole Universe obeys (it can be compared with Zeus among the ancient Greeks). Svarog had several children.
Svarozhich, the son of Svarog, is the god of fire, the patron of blacksmiths and blacksmithing, as well as jewelers.
Dazhbog is the son (according to another version - the daughter) of Svarog, personifying the sun. According to Slavic beliefs, Dazhbog lives far to the east, in the land of eternal summer. Every morning, on his luminous chariot, Dazhbog makes a circular detour across the sky.
Khors is a deity close to Dazhbog and directly connected with him. He was represented as a white horse, also making its run over the earth from east to west.
Stribog is the god of the wind, storm, hurricane and all kinds of bad weather. He was worshiped by people whose activities depended on weather conditions: farmers, travelers, sailors, etc.
Mokosh (Makosh) - the patroness of women, women's needlework, as well as trade, the mother of the harvest, the goddess of the earth.
Simargl (Semargl) - seemed to be a sacred winged dog. It was not possible to fully understand the purpose of this deity. It is only clear that he was a deity of a lower order, a winged dog that guarded seeds and crops, was considered the god of the underworld. (Simargl and Horos, or Khors, mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years, are apparently Iranian deities brought to Russia by the Khorezm guard hired by the Khazars).
Over time, when military campaigns took a significant place in the life of the Eastern Slavs, Perun became one of the most revered gods - the lord of thunder and lightning, the patron of the prince, combatants and military affairs in general.
The phenomenon of thunder, lightning is the most striking of the phenomena of nature; no wonder that primitive man gave him the first place among all other phenomena: man could not fail to notice the beneficial effect of a thunderstorm on the life of nature, could not fail to notice that the light of lightning independently at all times reveals its power, while, for example, the action of the sun is limited , subject to a certain law and can only be revealed at a certain time, yielding dominion to another, opposite and, therefore, hostile, beginning - darkness; the sun was eclipsed, died in the eyes of a person, and lightning never lost its power in his eyes, was not defeated by another principle, because the light of lightning is usually accompanied by rain that is life-giving for nature - hence the necessary idea that Perun sends down rain to thirsty nature, which without him would die from burning rays of the sun. Thus, lightning was for primitive man a productive force, with the character of a deity of the highest, acting, ruling predominantly, moderating, correcting the harm caused by other deities, while the sun, for example, was something suffering, subordinate for a pagan worshiping him. Finally, lightning received the meaning of the supreme deity-ruler in the eyes of the pagan because of its terrible punitive power, acting quickly and directly.
Gradually, Perun seizes supreme power over the rest of the pagan gods, pushing Svarog into the background. The latter retains the right to patronize artisans involved in metal processing.
The oath by weapons, Perun and Veles is already known from the story of the treaty of 911 between the Kyiv prince Oleg (882-912) and the Byzantines.
The Tale of Bygone Years, under 980, says that the Kyiv prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, having captured Kyiv and began to reign in it, even before the baptism of Russia, placed on the Mountain, not far from the princely palace, wooden idols of the gods: Perun, Khors, Dazhbog , Stribog, Simargl, Mokosh. However, Rod, Rozhanitsy, Svarog, Svarozhich and Volos were not among the gods. Scientists explain this choice of the prince by the fact that the pagan pantheon of Vladimir was intended to pray not to ordinary people, but to the Kievan nobility, who lived on the Mountain and preferred to worship their gods.
The Slavic pagan world is surprisingly poetic, permeated with magic and the belief that all the nature around us is alive. Our distant ancestors worshiped the elements, believed in the kinship of people with animals, and were convinced that the progenitor animal of their kind always patronizes its human descendants. Pagan Slavs made numerous sacrifices, most often allocating part of their prey for hunting, fishing or harvesting to the deities, good and evil spirits that inhabited the world around them. Each Slavic tribe prayed to its especially revered gods, but often they differed only in the pronunciation of names.
Very little information has been preserved about the paganism of the ancient Slavs. In most cases, the supreme Slavic gods are known from later Christian teachings against them. Speaking of the pagans, Metropolitan Macarius in the 17th century. wrote: “Their nasty prayer places: forest, and stones, and rivers, and swamps, and springs, and mountains, and hills, the sun and the moon, and the stars, and lakes. And to put it simply, everything that exists was worshiped as God, and honored, and sacrificed.” Deifying the surrounding world, the Slavs, as it were, concentrate all their disparate beliefs around three main phenomena in their primitive life: hunting, farming and housekeeping. Forest, field and house - these are the three pillars of the Slavic universe, around which the whole pagan Slavic mythology is formed, in Slavic paganism the whole life path of a communal peasant is reflected and expressed: a cycle of agricultural work, household life, weddings, funerals, etc.
Hunting beliefs were very common.
In the primitive era, the forest not only gave the Slavs the opportunity to survive, get food, build a solid dwelling, heat it with fire, the fuel for which was abundant around, but also endowed them with special ideas about their origin. Hunting clans and tribes believed that their distant ancestors were wild animals with supernatural magical abilities. Such animals were considered great deities and worshiped by their totems, that is, sacred images that protected the family. Each tribe had its own totem.
The most important deity of the forest pantheon of the ancient Slavs was the BEAR. His mighty image was perceived as the image of the great owner of the forest - the most powerful beast. The true name of this beast is forever lost, because it was not spoken aloud and, apparently, was known only to the priests. Oaths and contracts were sealed with this sacred unpronounceable name. In everyday life, the hunters called their god "honey badger", whence the name "bear" came from. The ancient root "ber", preserved in the word "lair", that is, the lair of a ber, sounds the same as the Scandinavian word "ber" - a bear, and means "brown".
Extremely common, especially among the northern Slavs, was the cult of the WOLF. During holidays and important rituals dedicated to this animal, the men of the tribe dressed up in wolf skins. The wolf was perceived as a devourer of evil spirits, not without reason the priests of the wolf cult and even simple warriors from the "wolf" tribes were considered good healers. The name of the powerful patron was so sacred that it was forbidden to say it out loud. Instead, the wolf was designated by the epithet "fierce". Hence the name of one of the large Slavic tribes "Lutichi". The feminine principle, always associated with fertility, in the forest era was personified by the great goddess DEER or ELSE. Unlike real female deer and elk, the goddess had horns, which also brings to mind the cow. Horns were considered symbols of the sun's rays, so they were a talisman against dark forces and attached above the entrance to the dwelling.
Both hunters and farmers revered the HORSE. They represented the sun in the form of a Golden Horse running through the heavens. The image of the sun-horse was preserved in the decoration of the Russian hut, decorated with a ridge with one or two horse heads. Amulets depicting a horse's head, and later just a horseshoe, were considered solar symbols and were perceived as powerful amulets.
According to pagan beliefs, there were also rituals of those distant years. For example, the rites of the cult of ancestors (worship of the souls and geniuses of the deceased). In ancient Russian monuments, the focus of this cult is with the meaning of the guardian of relatives genus with their women in labor, i.e. grandfather with grandmothers, - a hint at the polygamy that once dominated among the Slavs. The same deified ancestor was honored under the name chura, in Church Slavonic form scura; this form has survived to this day in the compound word ancestor. The meaning of this grandfather-ancestor as the protector of all relatives is still preserved in a spell from evil spirits or unexpected danger: fuck me! those. save me, grandfather. Protecting relatives from evil dashing, chur protected their family heritage. The legend, which left traces in the language, gives the chur the same meaning as the Roman term, the meaning of the protector of ancestral fields and borders. The violation of the boundary, the proper border, the legal measure, we now express in the word too, means, chur - measure, limit. This meaning of chur can, it seems, explain one feature of the funeral rite among the Russian Slavs, as described by the Primary Chronicle. The deceased, having performed a feast over him, was burned, his bones were collected in a small vessel and placed on a pole at the crossroads where the paths crossed, i.e. converge the boundaries of different possessions. Roadside poles are boundary signs that guarded the boundaries of the family field or grandfather's estate. Hence the superstitious fear that seized the Russian man at the crossroads: here, on neutral soil, the relative felt himself in a foreign land, not at home, outside his native field, outside the sphere of power of his protective wards.
The infant people could not understand the spiritual existence beyond the grave and imagined the souls of the departed forefathers accessible to all sensations of this white light; they thought that winter is the time of night, darkness for the souls of the departed, but as soon as spring begins to replace winter, the night path also stops for souls that rise to heavenly light, the moon and others, rise to a new life. On the first feast of the newborn sun, on the first winter Kolyada (a holiday that now coincides with the feast of the Nativity of Christ), the dead already rose from their graves and frightened the living - hence now Christmas time is considered the time of wandering spirits.
The essential rite of the feast consists of walking to praise the deity and collect alms, as can be seen in times pagan offerings were collected for a common sacrifice.
Maslenitsa - the spring holiday of the sun, is also a commemoration week, which is directly indicated by the use of pancakes, commemorative food. From the ancient Maslenitsa, the living greet the dead, visit their graves, and the Red Hill holiday is connected with Radunitsa, the holiday of light, the sun for the dead, it is believed that the souls of the dead rise from the dungeons during the commemoration and share the commemorative food with the bringer.
So, spring is met on Krasnaya Gorka, usually round dances begin, the religious significance of which and the relationship to the sun is beyond doubt. The time of the resurrection of all nature and the intensification of desires was considered the most appropriate time for marriage and for congratulating young spouses: this congratulation is known under the name of vignitism. The long struggle with the Church's Shrovetide feast ended in the end only with its removal beyond the time of Great Lent before Pascha. However, the pagan character of the holiday was preserved. According to the beliefs of some Slavic tribes, on Maslenitsa days, the deity of winter, Morana, cedes his power to the deity of spring, Lada. According to other beliefs, this is a celebration of the death and resurrection of the goddess of fertility Maslenitsa or Kostroma, whose straw image was burned at the end of the holiday, and the resulting coals were scattered over winter crops.
The importance of games and laughter during Christmas time and Shrovetide was important. Particularly characteristic in this sense are the games of weddings, the capture of snowy towns. At the same time, laughter was of a ritual nature: it was supposed to provide fun and harvest for the whole next year. The attitude towards the burning of Shrovetide was more difficult. According to custom, some of the people were supposed to cry at this time, and the other to laugh. This rite expresses the idea of the immortality of the creative forces of nature, the absence of death.
The current Christian holiday of Easter is associated with the custom of visiting the graves of deceased relatives, but these are echoes of a pagan holiday that occurred at a time before plowing. It was associated with the desire of the peasants to achieve support from the dead ancestors in awakening the fruitful forces of the earth, ensuring the harvest. The time after Easter was known as the Navi holiday, that is, the feast of the dead. At this time, they rolled on the graves boiled eggs poured oil, wine, beer on them. All these were sacrifices that were supposed to remind the dead of their family ties and duty to the living. By the way, such sacrifices were made repeatedly during the spring and summer; the church later turned them into a celebration of parental Saturdays, a visit to the cemetery, accompanied by the commemoration of the dead.
In direct connection with the belief that in the spring the souls of the dead rise to enjoy the new life of nature, there is a holiday of mermaids, or mermaid week. Mermaids are not at all river nymphs or any kind of nymphs; their name does not come from the channel, but from blond ( those. light, clear); mermaids are the souls of the dead, coming out in the spring to enjoy the revived nature. Mermaids appear from Good Thursday, as soon as the meadows are covered with spring water, willows bloom. If they seem beautiful, they always bear the imprint of lifelessness, pallor.
CM. Soloviev wrote about mermaids in this way: “The lights coming out of the graves are the essence of the lights of mermaids, they run through the fields, saying:“ Boom! Wow! Straw spirit. Mother gave birth to me, laid me unbaptized. Until Trinity Day, mermaids live in the waters, they only come to the banks to play, and after all, among all pagan peoples, the waterway was considered a guide to the underworld and back from it, which is why mermaids appear in rivers, at wells. But already from Trinity Day, mermaids moved to the forest, to the trees - a favorite place for souls to stay until death. Mermaid games are games in honor of the dead, as indicated by dressing up, masks - a rite that not only Slavs needed during the celebration of the shadows of the dead, since it is common for a person to represent the dead with something terrible, ugly and think that especially souls evil people turn into scary and ugly creatures.
Among the Russian Slavs, the main holiday of the mermaids was Semik - the great day of the mermaids, on which they were sent off. And the end of the mermaid week - Trinity Day - was the final holiday of the mermaids, on this day the mermaids, according to legend, fall from the trees - the time of spring pleasures ends for them. On the first Monday of Peter's Day, in some Slavic places, there was a game - seeing off the mermaids to the graves. By the way, Semik was considered a girl's holiday, dedicated to Yarila and Lada, the goddess of family harmony. At this time, a young birch tree, the sacred tree of Lada, was removed with ribbons and the houses were decorated with birch branches. The girls went to the forest to weave wreaths of flowers, dance and sing ritual songs. On Thursday of the Semitsky week, in the afternoon, at the height of the holiday, a review of brides was held. In the evenings, young people “chased mermaids” - they played burners with stems of wormwood or buttercup in their hands. According to legend, these herbs protected from the machinations of evil spirits. On the last day, the birch was cut down, and the girl's wreaths were let down the river. Whoever's wreath floats far away will soon get married. For fun and fortune-telling, the Semitsky week, which was celebrated in the last century, is called green Christmas time.
On June 24, a great holiday was celebrated, which has come down to us as Ivan's Day, or Ivan Kupala. This holiday, however, like Maslenitsa and Kolyada, is common, i.e. not only for all Slavic, but also for foreign peoples. Although, according to the rites of the holiday, one can guess that it refers to three elemental deities - both Svarozhichs, the sun and fire, and water, but it can also be attributed to one sun. The night on Ivanov's day was accompanied by the gathering of herbs, to which miraculous power was attributed; bathing (because the sun, according to the beliefs of the Slavs, producing a miraculous effect on everything, produced it on water as well) - after all, bathing during the summer solstice is healing; lighting fires and jumping over them, because the jump was judged by luck in marriage (in addition, lighting fires is necessary for sacrifices). And on the summer holiday, the rite of extermination of the effigy of Mary is repeated - cold and death: she is drowned in water or burned (Ionov calls her the goddess of spring Lada. The sun, which gives life and growth to everything that exists, should have been a force that arouses natural desires - hence the festival of Kupala was connected with the festival of Yarila, by the way, some negative (according to the later clergy) phenomena took place in it, for example, the kidnapping of girls... Ivan Kupala was considered, and even now, also the most famous and magical of pagan holidays.
Here are the main initial features of the beliefs of the Eastern Slavs. Over time, they could also be distorted: the same deity in different tribes had different names; later, with the convergence of the tribes, different names could already appear as different deities. Elemental deities initially did not have a gender and therefore afterward easily changed it: for example, the sun could easily be both male and female, and husband and wife of the month.
CM. Solovyov believes that the main distorters of the original religion of the people were always and everywhere priests and artists, and that is why among our Eastern Slavs, who did not have a class of priests and did not have a common custom of depicting deities as idealized, religion was preserved in much greater simplicity. The chronicles are silent about the existence of temples and priests among the Eastern Slavs (and if temples existed, this would certainly be reflected in the annals, as well as their destruction).
The Eastern Slavs did not have a priestly class, but there were magicians, fortune-tellers, sorcerers, sorcerers and witches. Very little is known about the Slavic magi, but there is no doubt that they had close connection with the Finnish Magi in close proximity and alliance of these two peoples, especially since after the adoption of Christianity, the Magi mostly appear in the Finnish north and from there stir up the Slavic population (and the Finnish tribe from time immemorial has been distinguished by a penchant for magic, has been famous for it from time immemorial: the Finns had developed mainly about evil deities, about evil spirits and about communications with them.
So, the Magi is the old Russian name for the ministers of pagan cults. For the first time they are mentioned in the annals in 912: one of the Magi predicted the death of the Kyiv prince Oleg from his own horse. Under the year 1071, it tells about unrest in the Rostov land during the famine, headed by two wise men. Later, astrologers, sorcerers, "warlocks" were called magi - that is, people who possess some kind of secret knowledge, fortune-telling from "forgotten books". In the Christian tradition, it was believed that demons endowed the Magi with the gift of prediction and miracles. Magic was later banned by the decisions of the Stoglavy Cathedral, they were subjected to persecution, punishment, persecution, and execution.
The pagan gods were, first of all, local deities and the planting of their cult in other tribal lands (for example, the cult of Perun in Novgorod) was not always successful. On this basis, it was unthinkable to achieve the spiritual unity of the population of the country, without which it is impossible to create a stable state.
The pagan religion gradually ceased to be a link between various social groups in Kievan Rus. Sooner or later, another religion had to give way, which could, to one degree or another, satisfy the interests of all social strata.
Pagan beliefs did not enjoy authority in the countries closest to Russia: Christian Byzantium, Jewish Khazaria and Bulgar, which converted to Islam. In order to have equal relations with them, it was necessary to join one of the great world religions. Actually, this is what happened. The aforementioned Vladimir 1 Svyatoslavich around 987-88 adopted Christianity and began to plant a new religion, calling for help from Greek priests.
The persecuted paganism had one way: first to the outskirts of Russia, and then to the corners of people's souls, to the subconscious, in order to stay there, apparently forever, no matter how they call it: superstition, remnants of the past faith, etc.
And if you think about it, how much is the new really new, and the old - irrevocably obsolete?
Paganism had a significant impact on the formation of the Christian cult and rituals. For example, between Christmas and Epiphany there are pre-Christian Christmas time. The pagan Maslenitsa became the eve of Great Lent. Pagan funeral rites, as well as the ancient Slavic cult of bread, were woven into Christian Easter, the cult of birch and grass, as well as other elements of the ancient Slavic Semik, were woven into the feast of the Trinity. The feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord was combined with the feast of fruit picking and was called Apple Spas. Pagan influence is sometimes traced in the ornaments of the monuments of ancient Russian temple construction - solar (solar) signs, decorative carving and others. Pagan beliefs left their mark in the monuments of literary and oral folk art, especially in the epic, epics, songs. At the level of everyday superstitions, paganism was preserved, constantly remaining a means of mythological exploration of nature by man.
I consider very interesting the data with which I got acquainted, preparing for the writing of this test. It turns out that paganism is not only the past of our country (I do not mean residual phenomena that have been preserved in holidays, etc.). This is the current religion! Since the following data (which, I confess, I found on the Internet) shocked me, I decided to include them in my control work(in quotation marks, because these are quotes).
“Currently in Russia there are a number of pagan movements and communities that aim to revive the original Russian faith. Despite the fact that the total number of their members is much less than the number of followers of various Christian and other religious movements, their ranks are constantly replenished with new members - true Russian patriots. Russian pagans are the successors of the long historical process. Modern paganism is a complex worldview, the basis of which is the path of personal self-improvement using independent thinking. According to the intellectuals, paganism is Poetry; in various cities of Russia, in recent decades, pagan communities have arisen that set themselves the goal of restoring the faith of their ancestors in its entirety and in accordance with modern understanding. For a thousand years, paganism has gone from decay and oblivion to scientific, and after aesthetic and, finally, spiritual revival. In light of this, the process of formation of Slavic paganism seems irreversible. Paganism inherits all the diversity of human communication with the spirits and forces of Nature, to which the Magi and ordinary people of past centuries turned. All of these practices continue to this day. Paganism, being a universal and comprehensive philosophy, remains at the same time a deeply national phenomenon. This tradition is manifested through the totality of the traditions of each specific people, set out in a clear and characteristic language for it, taking into account all the specifics of the national worldview.
One of characteristic features modern Russia is the presence of well-known differences between urban and rural lifestyles. Modern urban pagans, as a rule, pay more attention to philosophical and historical concepts, literary and scientific activities, etc., while rural pagans prefer mainly the practical side of things (ritualism, arrangement of temples, related craft activities, etc. ). However, recently there has been a tendency to merge small communities into larger ones, where both of these currents meet, which in the future will make it possible to restore historical traditions lost over the past seventy years. Paganism, devoid of any rigid systems, dogmas and prescriptions that are mandatory for all people, without taking into account their personal properties, is able to return modern man a holistic view of the world, stimulating his personal spiritual search and not fitting him into a narrow framework.
On the official map national park"Elk Island" denotes a pagan temple - one of a dozen and a half operating in the capital. Only 17 religious organizations of pagans are registered with the bodies of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation (and most of them are in the territory of Mari El), but religious scholars say that there are actually several hundred pagan communities in our country. This is much more than Catholic and comparable to the number of Old Believers. Most Russian pagans do not need registration - everyone is allowed into the forest for now. "In order to embark on the path of paganism," says the sorcerer Ingeld, "you must go beyond the threshold and go along an inconspicuous path into the forest. And there listen to the rustle of leaves, the creak of tall pines, the murmur of a key. And it, paganism, will come and capture you."
It only seems from the outside that the new Russian paganism is marginal. Take a walk in the morning after the summer Ivan Kupala (July 7) or the winter Kolyada (December 25) through the Tsaritsyno or Bitsevsky park - and you will find fresh fire pits, colorful ribbons on trees, wheat grains and flowers sacrificed to the spirits of the forest. Although the pagans are almost not engaged in missionary work, thousands gather for their colorful holidays and performances. Each city in central Russia has its own "sacred trees", and in tourist centers such as Suzdal or Pereslavl-Zalessky, crowds of tourists "worship" pagan shrines - Perunova Gora and the Blue Stone. Pagans also consider “their own” those millions of Russians who unconsciously participate in pre-Christian rites - they decorate Christmas trees, leave vodka and bread on the graves, tell fortunes and spit over their right shoulders.”
“According to the British Center for Religious and Sociological Research, Russia ranks fourth in Europe in terms of the number of pagans. 3rd place is occupied by neighboring Ukraine, and 1st and 2nd, respectively, by Iceland and Norway.”
To be honest, I do not quite understand the desire to revive paganism, even if in new forms. My generation, in principle brought up on the ideas of atheism, can hardly, in my opinion, seriously and consciously accept a pagan religion. Most likely, this is a tribute to fashion (somewhat paradoxical: we rush from one extreme to another, we want to stand out from the crowd, to show “how extraordinary we are!”). Again, though, this is my personal opinion. By the way, an example of the fact that modern paganism is just a fashion trend can serve as a new age paganism, which some consider sophisticated and elitist. It incorporates everything "the most fashionable" in this world: "environmental consciousness", "free love", feminism, "ethno" music.
For me, paganism is, as the poet put it, “traditions of the deep antiquity”, which I respect and which fascinate with their primitiveness, amaze with the beauty, naivety and primordialness of the preserved cultural monuments, but that’s all. I respect paganism as an integral part of our history and culture. But modern paganism, as a movement, makes me feel surprised and misunderstood.
You can argue as much as you like on this topic, but it is impossible to begin the history of Russian culture with the baptism of Russia, just as it is impossible to derive it from Byzantium. It is impossible to deny that the entire Christian culture was largely rethought in accordance with the traditional pagan ideas of the Slavs. This manifested the syncretism of Russian culture - the fusion in it of various, often contradictory elements. And the fact that the pagan beliefs of the Slavs are the most important cultural prerequisite for the history of Russian civilization has been proven by history itself.
Literature
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Rybakov B.A. The world of history. - M.: Young Guard, 1987.
Mironenko S.V. History of the Fatherland: people, ideas, solutions. / Essays on the history of Russia 9 - early 20 centuries. - M.: Politizdat, 1991.
World of Russian history. / Encyclopedic reference book. - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg branch named after V.B. Bobkov, Russian Customs Academy, 1998.
Putilov B.N. Ancient Russia in faces. - St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2000.
Ionov I.N. Russian civilization (9th - early 20th century). - M.: Enlightenment, 1995.
Lyubimov L. The Art of Ancient Russia. - M.: Enlightenment, 1974.
Soviet encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1982.
The World History. People, events, dates. / Encyclopedia. ? Rider/s Digest, 2001.
Merkulov. Russia has many faces. - M.: Soviet writer, 1990.
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http://heathenism.ru/target.
http://heathenism.ru/new_edge.
http://heathenism.ru/slav.
This concept usually means a complex of views, beliefs and cults of the ancient Slavs, which existed before the introduction of Christianity in 988 by Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, which is still preserved in the culture of the Slavic peoples as traditions, and the original foundation of ancient culture.
The term "paganism" has a Christian bookish origin and is applied to the beliefs of various peoples. In relation to the mythology and religion of the Slavs, the use of this term is fully justified by its Slavic etymology. The word "language" meant, among other things, "a separate people, a tribe." The Russian chronicler, talking about the history of the Slavs, was of the opinion that all Slavs came from a single root: "There was one Slavic language: the Slavs who sat along the Danube<. >From those Slavs they dispersed over the earth and were called by their names, from the places where they settled ... And so it dispersed Slavic... ". Thus, the word "paganism" can be used as a synonym for the folk, tribal religion of the Slavs.
It is worth noting that the Slavs themselves, judging by many sources, never called themselves "pagans" since this name is given by an external observer and serves rather to generalize the archaic religions of various peoples.
Slavic mythology and religion were formed over a long period in the process of separating the ancient Slavs from the Indo-European community of peoples in the II-I millennium BC. and in interaction with the mythology and religion of neighboring peoples.
Historians identify a significant layer of Indo-European vocabulary, which was used by the pagans as sacred. Among the parallels: Svarog and svarga, Makosh and moksha, company (oath) and rita (in Sanskrit "order"), prophetic and Vesta, witch and Vedas, Divas and virgins, etc. Among the oldest cults that have common Indo-European and European roots, one can name the twin myth, the cult of the bull and the horn, the worship of the Moon and the Sun. Since the Middle Ages, it has been traditional to identify Slavic deities with the gods and characters of Greco-Roman mythology, who have much in common.
But it is worth considering what was the cause and what was the effect? In my opinion, it is impossible to say with absolute certainty that the Slavic deities were borrowed from ancient Greek mythology. The basis for these doubts is the uncertainty of the history of the Slavs before their arrival in Europe. It is possible that this similarity is due to nothing more than archetypes that lie in the deep layers of the collective unconscious.
The religion of the Slavs is not homogeneous, this is most likely due to the territorial features and living conditions of various Slavic peoples. Along with the common Slavic deities (Svarog, Perun, Lada), each tribe developed its own pantheon of gods, the same gods received different names. It can be argued that in the early Middle Ages, the beliefs of the western Baltic Slavs and the eastern Dnieper Slavs were divided, while the paganism of the southern, eastern and also Polish Slavs largely retained unity.
During the settlement of the Slavic tribes in the VI-IX centuries. their culture was mixed with the beliefs of the local Finno-Ugric, Baltic and Turkic peoples. This caused a strong fragmentation and inter-tribal enmity of the Slavs. Each village could have its own gods, and religious conflicts arose with enviable regularity.
Slavic paganism refers to polytheistic religions, that is, the Slavs recognized the existence of many gods. The pagan, using the word "god", meant a specific supernatural being, a representative of the Slavic clans, who reached the spiritual level of the Creator and got the opportunity to operate with the processes of the universe. The Slavs say: "Our gods are our ancestors, and we are their children."
A feature of Slavic paganism is often the allocation of its main deity for each tribe. So in the treaties of Russia with Byzantium, Perun is called "our god", "in whom we believe." Helmold speaks of the worship of Svyatovit, "to whom a temple and an idol were dedicated to the greatest splendor, precisely attributing primacy among the gods to him." At the same time, the Slavs, like the Balts, had an idea of the supreme deity. But, as a rule, these gods could be different for different tribes.
Dualism is characteristic of Slavic paganism. If among the Scandinavians, for example, it is difficult to identify "good" and "evil" gods, then the Slavs distinguished and contrasted the black and white beginnings of the world, dark and light, earthly and heavenly, feminine and masculine. Such opposition is known for Belobog and Chernobog, Perun and Veles, Svyatovit and his nocturnal enemies. The researchers noticed that neither Veles, nor Svarog, nor Rod, the most important gods who opposed Perun, entered the pantheon of Prince Vladimir.
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