The four points of the star represent faith, freedom, righteousness and honor, while the circle represents the Sun. The moon was a symbol of masculinity in Slavic mythology and was venerated during lunar feasts as a symbol of health and prosperity. Polytheism is accepted for its ability to "account for the complexity of the world with its multiple good and evil forces", and particularly emphasised is the popular Russian belief in the great goddess of the Earth (Mokosh or Mat Syra Zemlya). The cultural center "Vyatichi" in the "Russian Pagan Manifesto" of 1997 (Nikolai Speransky - Velimir and others) on the threshold of the third millennium announced the end of the "night of Svarog" and "the morning of the new great day of the gods. Rodnovery is attractive because of its "paradoxical conjunction" of tradition and modernity, recovery of the past through innovative syntheses, and its values calling for a rediscovery of the true relationship between mankind, nature and the ancestors. [59] A variant of "Rodnovery" is "Rodianism" (Rodianstvo), which Laruelle also translates as "Ancestrism". Slavs belong to the group of Indo-European peoples, also called Aryan peoples (do not confuse this term with the term 'Aryan race'). Volkhvs are the higher rank of the sacerdotal hierarchy, while zhrets are of a lower authority. [102] The Russian volkhv Velimir (Nikolay Speransky), emphasises a dualistic eternal struggle between white gods and black gods, elder forces of creation and younger forces of destruction; the former collectively represented by Belobog and the latter by Chernobog, also symbolising the spiritual and the material. Avdeyev connected the future with the establishment of a "supranational, continental, planetary worldview", which should be helped by a "national prophet". [99], Sylenko proclaimed himself a prophet, bringing to the Slavs a new understanding of God that, according to him, corresponds to their own and original understanding of God. [304] There had been schisms in the international organisation of Native Ukrainian National Faith. The Slavic mythology personified many aspects of the world, with worshipers believing that waters, forests, households and even illnesses were represented or governed by spirits. [319] The two groups, respectively renamed "Kin of Yarovit" and "Kin of Mokosh", merged in 2000 to form the Commonwealth of Native Faith (Spoleenstv Rodn Vra). [297] In 1986, Viktor Bezverkhy (19302000) established the Saint Petersburg-based Society of the Mages (Obshchestvo Volkhvov), an explicitly white supremacist and anti-Semitic organisation; it was followed by the Union of the Veneds, founded in 1990. [355] An organised attempt at a renewal of the Scythian religion by the Cossacks started in the 1980s building upon the folk religion of the Ossetians, who are the modern descendants of the Scythians. [429] The largest organisations are the Commonwealth of Rodoviches, which represents Rodnovers fully aligned with Slavic traditions,[215] and the groups Radzimas and Centre of EthnocosmologyKriya, which represents Krivich Rodnovery. Active religious practitioners who were devoted to establishing the Slavic Native Faith appeared in Poland and Ukraine during the 1930s and 1940s, while the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin promoted research into the ancient Slavic religion. [445], There are also practising Rodnovers among Lithuania's[446] and Estonia's ethnically Russian minorities. [246] Though the majority of Rodnover priests are males, Rodnover groups do not exclude women from the priesthood, so that a parallel female priesthood is constituted by the two ranks of zhritsa and vedunya ("seeresses"). [133] Aitamurto and Gaidukov noted that "hardly any women" in Russian Rodnovery would call themselves feminists, partly due to Rodnover beliefs on gender and partly due to the negative associations that the word "feminism" has in Russian culture. Ad vertisement from shop Wojdart. [14] In 2002, six Russian Rodnover organisations issued the "Bittsa Appeal" (Bittsevskoe Obraschchenie), in which, among the many topics discussed, they expressed the view that "Rodnovery" should be regarded as the foremost name of the religion. [368] Orantism is a movement centred around the cult of Berehynia, linked to Ukrainian national identity, non-violence and resistance to global assimilation. [8] The historian Marlne Laruelle has described Rodnovery as "more inclusive than just adherence to a pantheon of pre-Christian gods". Sources that Rodnovers rely upon include valued scholars like Vladimir Dal and Boris Rybakov. [45] According to her, the case of Russia is exceptional compared to western Europe, because Russia neither lived the intellectual upheavals of the Renaissance, nor the Reformation, nor the other movements which severely weakened folk spirituality in Europe. For instance, the Association of Sons and Daughters of Ukraine of the Native Ukrainian National Faith (OSIDU RUNVira), one of the churches of Ukrainian Sylenkoism, holds a weekly "Holy Hour of Self-Reflection", in which practitioners read from Sylenko's Maha Vira, sermons are given, the ancestors are commemorated, and prayers and hymns are given, and the meeting ends with the singing of the national anthem of Ukraine. Lada is the Slavic goddess of beauty and fertility. Yakutovsky's form of Rodnovery has been defined as tolerant, pluralistic and pacifistic, and his teachings are popular among Rodnovers who identify as communists. [317] Two groups were founded in those years, the National Front of the Castists (Nrodn Front Castist, where "Castists" was created as a neologism from Latin castus, meaning "pure"[318]) and the Radho group, founded by the Naples-born anthropologist and professor of Slavic languages Giuseppe Maiello (whose Slavic name is Dervan) among the students of the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University in Prague. [97], When emphasising this monism, Rodnovers may define themselves as rodnianin, "believers in God" (or "in nativity", "in genuinity"). It is believed that Slavic mythology can trace its roots back to the Proto-Indo European period, and perhaps as far back as the Neolithic era.The early Proto-Slav tribes split into groups, consisting of the East, West Slavs, and South Slavs.Each group created its own distinct set of localized mythologies, deities, and rituals based upon the beliefs and legends of the original Proto . [178], Schnirelmann noted that the movement of Rodnovery is fundamentally concerned with the concept of "origins". [299] Ivanovite teachings are incorporated by Peterburgian Vedism. In the Slavic mythology, Viy (or Bog Viy) is the guardian of the Heavenly Border, which separates the Light Halls the spiritual world inhabited by the gods and dead souls from the Dark Halls populated by demons and evil spirits. [286] There is overlap between Slavic Native Faith followers and other sectors of Ukrainian society, such as the folk and traditional music revival groups, Cossack associations, traditional martial arts groups, and nationalist and ultra-nationalist organisations. [53] Also appropriate chants and gestures are believed to allow the participants to enter in communion with the upper world. He was associated with blacksmiths and the forging of iron. [404] In 2016, Aitamurto noted that there was no reliable information on the number of Rodnovers in Russia, but that it was plausible that there were several tens of thousands of practitioners active in the country. [166] For many others, rituals may include magical practices and are meant at the creation of shared meanings and new community ties. [113] Lesiv reported about a Sylenkoite follower who said that "we cannot believe in various forest, field and water spirits today. Greek Orthotes, Sanskrit ta) in primordial undeterminacy (chaos), through a dual dynamism, represented by Belobog ("White God") and Chernobog ("Black God"), the forces of waxing and waning, and then giving rise to the world in its three qualities, Prav-Yav-Nav[95] (meaning "right"-"manifested"-"unmanifested", but called with different names by different groups[89]), namely the world of bright gods, the world of mankind, and the world of dark gods. [11] Many Rodnovers refer to their belief system as an "ethnic religion",[12] and Rodnover groups were involved in establishing the European Congress of Ethnic Religions. However, there are more closed groups that require more stringent commitment from their adherents, and emphasise esoteric teachings and practices, including complex initiation rituals, reference to systems similar to Jewish Kabbalah, prayer and magic. [143] Rodnovery typically emphasises the rights of the collective over the rights of the individual,[144] and their moral values are the conservative values typical of the right-wing of politics: emphasis on patriarchy and traditional family. In Slavic mythology, Stribog was the god of air, wind and storms. [151] Some blame many of the world's problems on the mixing of ethnic groups,[152] and emphasise the idea of ethnic purity,[153] promoting ideas of racial segregation,[154] and demanding the legal prohibition of mixed-race marriages. From demons of an old and scary looking witches, banes, night demons . He is a god of thunder, lightning, and war, and is often associated with the oak tree. [51], The Anglicised term "Rodnovery", and its adjective "Rodnover(s)", have gained widespread usage in English and have been given an entry in the second edition (2019) of the academic Historical Dictionary of the Russian Federation. [50] The contemporary design of the kolovrat as an eight-spoked wheel was already present in woodcuts produced in the 1920s by the Polish artist Stanisaw Jakubowski, under the name soneczko ("little sun"). Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich was assigned by the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party the task of studying folk religious movements, and in 19081910 a faction of the Bolsheviks, represented by Anatoly Lunacharsky, Alexander Bogdanov, Maxim Gorky, and Vladimir Bazarov, formulated the "God-Building" movement (Bogostroitelstvo), whose aim was to create a new religion for the proletariat through a synthesis of socialism with folk religion. In religious terms, it is in the guise of "Russian National Socialism" by Alexey Dobrovolsky (Dobroslav); in historiographical terms, it is the desire to demonstrate the "glorious Aryan past of the Rus"; in political terms, it is the slow transfer of "Aryan" allusions from the environment of extremist nationalist parties of the ultra-right wing to the political tools of more moderate groups (for example, the Party of Spiritual Vedic Socialism of Vladimir Danilov). Mokosh is sometimes called the Great Mother. This is a concept that was especially popular among nineteenth-century ethnographers who were influenced by Romanticism and retains widespread popularity across Eastern Europe, but has come under criticism in more recent times. Today, the swastika is officially used by Baltic neo-pagan organizations such as Romuva and Dievturiba. Morok, which translates literally as darkness in modern Russian, is the Slavic god of ignorance, error, deceit and lies. [316], Modern Rodnovery in the Czech Republic emerged in 19951996. Mokosh is associated with destiny and fate, particularly the destiny of women. The Svarozhich (or Svarojich) is the symbol of Svarog. [407], Aitamurto observed that a substantial number of adherentsand in particular those who had been among the earliestbelonged to the "technical intelligentsia". [51][52] According to Laruelle, Rodnovers believe that it is a symbol of "accession to the upper world". [70], Some Slovenian practitioners use the Slovenian language term ajd, which is a loan-word of the Germanic-language heathen. [269] He claimed that in 1934 he underwent a spiritual revelation atop Mount Grekhit in the Carpathian Mountains. [42] Since the collapse of the Soviet Union there has been a new wave of scholarly debate on the subject within Russia itself. [166] Historiosophical narratives and interpretations vary between different currents of Rodnovery,[179] and accounts of the historical past are often intertwined with eschatological views about the future. [237] In another instance, Lesiv observed a Ukrainian Rodnover who legitimised the practice of yoga by claiming that this spiritual tradition had originally been developed by the ancestors of modern-day Ukrainians. Vladimir Istarkhov, in the book "The Strike of the Russian Gods", predicts that in the era of Aquarius there will be a revival of the pagan gods, and the "Aryan power" will triumph over the "Jewish devil. It is from this connection that new souls emerge. Besides varieties of "traditional" clothing and the tambourine, the most distinctive element accompanying the Rodnover volkhv is their staff, conferred at the moment of their initiation, an "invariable attribute of religious and secular power (the sceptre, the wand) in the traditions of the peoples of the world". The Slavs believed in three planes of existence: the heavens, governed by Perun, Dazhbog, Mokosh and Lada, symbolized by the sun and the moon; the earthly plane, occupied by humanity; and the underworld, symbolized by snakes and darkness, ruled over by Veles. The Rarg usually was depicted taking the form of a phoenix, falcon or other bird of prey. It is officially registered as a charity by the government of Australia. [228], Rituals take place at consecrated places and generally include the lighting of fire (vozzhiganie ognia), invocation of gods, the singing of hymns, sacrifices (prinesenie treby) and the pouring of libations, circle-dances (khorovod or simply kolo, "circle"), and usually a communal meal at the end. [405] This was partly because there were several Rodnover groups active on the social network VK which had over 10,000 members. In 2012, in Russia, representatives of the Union of Slavic Native Belief Communities, the Circle of Pagan Tradition and the Circle of Veles, signed an "Agreement on Mutual Recognition of Priests" that defined the criteria for the ordination of those wishing to become Slavic priests. Other Slavic kingdoms took more liberties with color choices. [14] Some practitioners regard "ethnic religion" as a term synonymous with "Native Faith", but others perceive a distinction between the two terms. [119] Its anthropocentrism is ultimately deemed responsible for ecological disruption,[106] due to the fact that its theological exaltation of mankind above the world produces in turn an existential model for mankind's technocratic domination of the world of nature. [139] Rodnovers started to establish numerous organised groups by the mid of the decade; in 1994 the Moscow Slavic Community was the first Rodnover group to be registered by the government. [361], In Ukraine, there are currents of Rodnovery which are peculiar to the Ukrainians. Truth is sometimes personified as a god, Prov, who is the guardian of the law, lawfulness and righteousness. The book explores the pre-Christian Slavic customs, symbols and myths from the deepest parts of prehistory up to our contemporary folklore. [130] Other Rodnovers are openly anti-Semite,[156] a category which for them means not only anti-Jewish but more broadly anti-Asian, anti-Christian and anti-Islamic, and anti-Byzantinist sentiment,[157] and espouse conspiracy theories claiming that Jews and Asians control the economic and political elite. The symbol of Rod is identical to the swastika symbol with four points and rounded edges. Semargl represents good fortune, drinking, and abundance. It originated in the early twentieth century and experienced a revival after the collapse of the Soviet Union, relying upon the Russian philosophical tradition, especially that represented by Vladimir Vernadsky and Pavel Florensky. [259] "Slavic-hill wrestling" (Slavyano-goritskaya bor'ba) was established by the Russian Rodnover Aleksandr Belov. As of 2013, Rodnover groups in Bulgaria were described as having few members and little influence. "" - slavic sun wheel - "kolovrat" means "spinning wheel" in a number of slavic languages. [301] In 2003, the First Forum of Rodnovers was held in Ukraine, resulting in two public proclamations: the first urged the country's government to protect what the Rodnovers regarded as sacred sites and objects, and the second called on the government not to go ahead with the proposed privatisation of agricultural land. Vishnu, and Intra, i.e. The movement is based on the teachings of the Russian Veda, considered an expression of Slavic paganism, Russian cosmism and psychoanalysis. According to Helmold's Chronica Slavorum (compiled 11681169), "obeying the duties assigned to them, [the deities] have sprung from his [the supreme God's] blood and enjoy distinction in proportion to their nearness to the god of the gods". [364] Today, there are at least four Sylenkoite churches: the Association of Sons and Daughters of Ukraine of the Native Ukrainian National Faith (OSIDU RUNVira), the Association of Sons and Daughters of the Native Ukrainian National Faith (OSID RUNVira), Volodymyr Chornyi's western branch of OSIDU RUNVira centred in Lviv, and the more independent Union of the Native Ukrainian Faith (SRUV). Rather, he describes the movement as having been "built up artificially by urbanised intellectuals who use fragments of early pre-Christian local beliefs and rites in order to restore national spirituality". [408] Physicists were particularly well represented; in this Aitamurto drew comparisons to the high number of computer professionals who were present in the Pagan communities of Western countries. Nemiza is the Slavic god of death, in that he or she would cut the thread of life. The god was depicted, at different times, as both male and female. [262] This was accompanied by a growth in nationalism across Europe, as intellectuals began to assert their own national heritage. [213], Christians have also been responsible for opposition to Slavic Native Faith, for instance through the establishment of social media groups against the movement. [328], The 1990s and 2000s also witnessed the development of international contacts between Rodnover groups from all Slavic countries, with the organisation of various All-Slavic Rodnover Councils. withershins, leftwise) in those rituals dedicated to the gods of Nav (underworld). [124] Immediately related to the morality of a responsible community is the respect for the whole world of nature, or what Aitamurto defines "ecological responsibility". A new Pagan belief system, Rodnovery, has arisen in recent years, claiming to be a continuation of the ancient Slavic beliefs that Christianity replaced in the middle ages. [269] The Ukrainian literary magazine Dazhboh, published in 19311935, was imbued with Neopagan ideas (Bohdan Ihor Antonych and others). [334], The early 2010s saw a strengthening of relations between Rodnover groups. [72] Another term employed by some Rodnovers has been "Slavianism" or "Slavism", which appears especially in Polish (Sowiastwo), in Russian (Slavianstvo), and in Slovak (Slovianstvo). [226] Symbols such as the trident, the swastika, and objects representing fire, are prominent features of Rodnover rituals. [38] Halyna Lozko of the Federation of Ukrainian Rodnovers, which directly inherits Volodymyr Shaian's orthodox doctrine, advanced vehement critiques of Sylenkoism, deeming Lev Sylenko a "false prophet" and accusing him of having tried to lead Ukrainians in the Abrahamic religions' "quagmire of cosmopolitan monotheism". On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [333] Rodnover themes entered the heavy metal subculture, particularly in bands like Sokyra Peruna ("Perun's Axe"), Whites Load, and Komu Vnyz ("Who Will Go Down"). Mirolyubov alleged that the Isenbek text had been etched on wooden boards, but that these had been lost during the Second World War, leaving only his own copies. [245], Rodnovery is headed by a priestly class distinguishable into the orders of volkhv (translatable as "wiseman", "wizard", i.e. Yarilo, in the Slavic mythology, is the god of springtime, fertility, sexuality and peace. Check out our slavic pagan symbols selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our figurines shops. The staff is covered with cuts which are vertical lines if masculine and associated with the power of Rod, while a spiral or circle cuts if feminine and associated with the goddess of the Earth. [165] Schnirelmann similarly noted that there is a loose boundary between the explicitly politicised and less politicised wings of the Russian movement,[144] and that ethnic nationalist and racist views were present even in those Rodnovers who did not identify with precise political ideologies. In 1999, the communities of Moscow and Obninsk left it as they refuted nationalism, and established another umbrella organisation, the Circle of Veles led by Ilya Cherkasov (volkhv Veleslav), which is one of the largest and administers communities also located in the territory of Ukraine. [175] The Anastasians too organise their communities according to their interpretations of the veche, regarded as the best form of "self-government", where everyone expresses his opinion which is taken into account for the elaboration of a final unanimous decision; this process of unanimity arising from multiple opinions is seen as manifesting the divine law itself, theologically represented as the manifoldness of reality which is expression of the singularity of God. [420] Established Ukrainian Orthodox and Roman Catholic groups have viewed it with alarm and hostility,[418] while the country's educated and intellectual classes tend to view it as a fringe part of the ultra-conservative movement which was tinged with anti-Semitism and xenophobia. Wojdart From shop Wojdart. [387] Despite this, Ynglism continues to operate as an unregistered religious phenomenon represented by a multiplicity of communities. Between life, death and rebirth. Viy watches over the Slavs, and makes note of their good and bad deeds. Stribog translates to mean wealth spreader, and he was said to connect the earth to the heavens. [299] Schnirelmann reported in 2008 that Ivanovism was estimated to have "a few dozen thousand followers". [120], Rodnovers blame Christianity for transferring personal responsibility into a transcendent future when actions will be judged by God and people either smitten or forgiven for their sins, in fact exempting people from responsibility in the present time,[121] while at the same time imposing a fake moralism of self-deprecation, self-destruction and suppression of the flesh. [14] Laruelle has emphasised that Rodnovery "cannot necessarily be defined as a religion in the strict sense"; some adherents prefer to define it as a "spirituality" (dukhovnost), "wisdom" (mudrost), or a "philosophy" or "worldview" (mirovozzrenie). [384], Besides their Vedas, the Ynglists instruct their disciples about "Aryan mathematics" and grammar, and techniques for a "healthy way of life", including forms of eugenics. Dodola is the Slavic Goddess of rain, sometimes thought to be the goddess of the air, also. [269] He turned to recorded Ukrainian folklore to find what he regarded as the survivals of the ancient Slavic religion. [130] Many Rodnovers espouse socio-political views akin to those of the French Nouvelle Droite,[145] and many of them in Russia have come close to the ideas of Eurasianism. In recent times, the movement has been increasingly studied by academic scholars. [370] These books teach what the scholar Rasa Pranskeviit has defined as a "cosmological pantheism",[371] in which nature is the manifested "thought of God" and human intelligence has the power to commune with him and to actively participate to the creation of the world. [374] In his writings, Megre identifies the ideal society which the Anastasians aim at establishing, based on its spiritual ideas, as an ancient Slavic and Russian "Vedism" and "Paganism", and many of his teachings are identical to those of other movements of Rodnovery. 024-657-834 (CC0), Pixabay. [223] Ritual practice makes use of mythology, symbolism, codified chants and gestures. [68] It is often more accurately (though by no means thoroughly) translated as "Gentile" (i.e.