God of construction in the mythology of the Slavs. Pagan gods - the main deities in Slavic mythology

The ancient Slavic pantheon is very complex in structure and numerous in composition. Most of the gods were identified with various forces of nature, although there were exceptions, the most striking example of which is Rod, the creator god. Due to the similarity of the functions and properties of some gods, it is difficult to determine for sure which names are just variations on the names of the same god, and which belong to different gods.

The entire pantheon can be divided into two large circles: the elder gods who ruled all three worlds in the primordial stage, and the second circle - the young gods who took the reins of government in the new stage. At the same time, some older gods are present in the new stage, while others disappear (more precisely, there are no descriptions of their activities or interference in anything, but the memory that they were, remains).

In the Slavic pantheon, there was no clear hierarchy of power, which was replaced by a tribal hierarchy, where sons obeyed their father, but brothers were equal among themselves. The Slavs did not have pronounced evil gods and good gods. Some deities gave life, others took it away, but all were revered equally, since the Slavs believed that the existence of one without the other is impossible. At the same time, the gods, good in their functions, could punish and cause harm, while the evil ones, on the contrary, help and save people. Thus, the gods of the ancient Slavs were very similar to people, not only outwardly, but also in character, since they simultaneously carried both good and evil.

Outwardly, the gods were similar to people, while most of them could turn into animals, in the form of which they usually appeared before people. From ordinary beings, the gods were distinguished by superpowers that allowed the deities to change the world around them. Each of the gods had power over one of the parts of this world. The impact on other parts beyond the control of the deities was limited and temporary.

The most ancient supreme male deity among the Slavs was Rod. Already in Christian teachings against paganism of the XII-XIII centuries. they write about Rod as a god worshiped by all peoples.

Rod was the god of the sky, thunderstorms, fertility. They said about him that he rides on a cloud, throws rain on the ground, and from this children are born. He was the ruler of the earth and all living things, he was a pagan creator god.

In Slavic languages, the root "genus" means kinship, birth, water (spring), profit (harvest), such concepts as people and homeland, in addition, it means red and lightning, especially ball, called "rhodium". This variety of cognate words undoubtedly proves the greatness of the pagan god.

Rod is a creator god, together with his sons Belbog and Chernobog, he created this world. Alone, Rod created Rule, Yav and Nav in the sea of ​​chaos, and together with his sons he created the earth.

The sun then went out of His face. A bright moon - from His chest. Frequent stars - from His eyes. Clear dawns - from His eyebrows. Dark nights - yes from His thoughts. Violent winds - from the breath ...

"The Book of Carols"

The Slavs had no idea about the appearance of the Rod, since he never appeared directly in front of people.

Temples in honor of the deity were arranged on hills or simply large open areas of land. His idol was phallic in shape or simply made in the form of a pillar painted red. Sometimes the role of an idol was performed by an ordinary tree growing on a hill, especially if it was old enough. In general, the Slavs believed that Rod is in everything and therefore you can worship it anywhere. There were no sacrifices in honor of Rod. Instead of them, holidays and feasts are arranged, which are held directly near the idol.

The companions of the Sort were Rozhanitsy - female deities of fertility in Slavic mythology, the patroness of the clan, family, home.

Belbog

Son of Rod, god of light, goodness and justice. In Slavic mythology, he is the creator of the world along with Rod and Chernobog. Outwardly, Belbog appeared as a gray-haired old man dressed as a sorcerer.

Belobog in the mythology of our ancestors never acted as an independent individual character. As any object in the world of Reveal has a shadow, so Belobog has its integral antipode - Chernobog. A similar analogy can be found in ancient Chinese philosophy (yin and yang), in Icelandic Ynglism (rune yudzh) and in many other cultural and religious systems. Belobog, thus, becomes the embodiment of bright human ideals: goodness, honor and justice.

A sanctuary in honor of Belbog was built on the hills, turning the idol to the east, towards the sunrise. However, Belbog was revered not only in the sanctuary of the deity, but also at feasts, always making a toast in his honor.

Veles

One of the greatest gods of the ancient world, son of Rod, brother of Svarog. His main act was that Veles set the world created by Rod and Svarog in motion. Veles - "cattle god" - the owner of the wild, the owner of Navi, a powerful wizard and werewolf, interpreter of laws, teacher of arts, patron of travelers and merchants, god of luck. True, some sources point to him as the god of death ...

At the moment, among various pagan and native faith directions, a fairly popular text is the Book of Veles, which became known to the general public in the 1950s of the last century thanks to the researcher and writer Yuri Mirolyubov. The Veles book actually consists of 35 birch planks, covered with symbols, which linguists (in particular, A. Kur and S. Lesnoy) call Slavic pre-Cyrillic writing. It is curious that the original text does not really resemble either Cyrillic or Glagolitic, but the features of the Slavic runic are also indirectly presented in it.

Despite the great distribution and mass veneration of this god, Veles was always separated from other gods, his idols were never placed in common temples (sacred places in which images of the main gods of this territory were installed).

Two animals are associated with the image of Veles: a bull and a bear; in the temples dedicated to the deity, the Magi often kept a bear, which played a key role in the rituals.

Dazhdbog

God of the Sun, giver of heat and light, god of fertility and life-giving power. The solar disk was originally considered the symbol of Dazhdbog. Its color is gold, which speaks of the nobility of this god and his unshakable strength. In general, our ancestors had three main solar deities - Khors, Yarila and Dazhdbog. But Khors was the winter sun, Yarilo was the spring sun, and Dazhdbog was the summer sun. Of course, it was Dazhdbog who deserved special respect, since a lot depended on the summer position of the sun in the firmament for the ancient Slavs, the people of the tillers. At the same time, Dazhdbog never had a sharp temper, and if a drought suddenly attacked, then our ancestors never blamed this god.

The temples of Dazhdbog were arranged on the hills. The idol was made of wood and placed facing east or southeast. Feathers of ducks, swans and geese, as well as honey, nuts and apples were brought as a gift to the deity.

Devana

Devana is the goddess of hunting, the wife of the forest god Svyatobor and the daughter of Perun. The Slavs represented the goddess in the form of a beautiful girl dressed in an elegant marten fur coat trimmed with a squirrel. Over the fur coat, the beauty put on a bearskin, and the head of the beast served as her hat. With her, Perun's daughter carried an excellent bow with arrows, a sharp knife and a horn, with which they go to a bear.

The beautiful goddess not only hunted forest animals: she herself taught them how to avoid dangers and endure harsh winters.

Dewana was primarily revered by hunters and trappers, they prayed to the goddess to grant good luck in hunting, and in gratitude they brought part of their prey to her sanctuary. It was believed that it was she who helped to find the secret paths of animals in the dense forest, avoid skirmishes with wolves and bears, but if the meeting did take place, the person would emerge victorious from it.

Share and Nedolya

Share - a kind goddess, Mokosh's assistant, weaves a happy fate.

It appears in the guise of a sweet young man or red-haired girl with golden curls and a cheerful smile. He cannot stand still, he walks around the world - there are no barriers: a swamp, a river, a forest, mountains - The share will overcome in an instant.

He does not like lazy and negligent, drunkards and all sorts of bad people. Although at first he makes friends with everyone - then he will figure it out and leave the bad, evil person.

NEDOLYA (Nuzha, Need) - the goddess, Mokosh's assistant, weaves an unhappy fate.

Share and Nedolya are not just personifications of abstract concepts that do not have objective existence, but, on the contrary, they are living faces, identical to the maidens of fate.

They act according to their own calculations, regardless of the will and intentions of a person: the happy one does not work at all and lives in contentment, because the Share works for him. On the contrary, Nedolya's activities are constantly directed to the detriment of man. While she is awake, misfortune follows misfortune, and only then does it become easier for the unfortunate when Nedolya falls asleep: “If Likho is sleeping, don’t wake him up.”

Dogoda

Dogoda (Weather) - the god of fine weather and a gentle, pleasant breeze. Young, ruddy, blond-haired, in a cornflower blue wreath with blue, gilded butterfly wings around the edges, in silvery bluish clothes, holding a thorn in his hand and smiling at the flowers.

Kolyada

Kolyada - the baby sun, in Slavic mythology - the embodiment of the New Year cycle, as well as a holiday character similar to Avsen.

“Once upon a time, Kolyada was perceived not as a mummer. Kolyada was a deity, and one of the most influential. They called the carol, called. New Year's Eve was dedicated to Kolyada, games were arranged in her honor, which were subsequently performed at Christmas time. The last patriarchal ban on worshiping Kolyada was issued on December 24, 1684. It is believed that Kolyada was recognized by the Slavs as the deity of fun, which is why they called him, called on New Year's festivities by cheerful gangs of youth ”(A. Strizhev.“ People’s Calendar ”).

Rooftop

The son of the Almighty and the goddess Maya, was a brother to the very first creator of the world Rod, although he was much younger than him. He returned fire to people, fought on the shores of the Arctic Ocean with Chernobog and defeated him.

KUPALO

Kupala (Kupaila) is the fruitful deity of summer, the summer incarnation of the sun god.

“Kupalo, as I think, was the god of abundance, as with the Hellenes Ceres, who is insane for the abundance of thanksgiving at that time, when the harvest is imminent.”

His holiday is dedicated to the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. The night was also sacred, on the eve of this day - the Night on the eve of Kupalo. All that night, feasting, games and mass bathing in reservoirs continued.

They sacrificed to him before the collection of bread, on June 23, on the day of St. Agrippina, which was popularly nicknamed the Swimsuit. Young people decorated themselves with wreaths, laid out a fire, danced around it and sang Kupala. The games went on all night. In some places, on June 23, bathhouses were heated, grass bathing suit (buttercup) was laid in them, and then they swam in the river.

On the very Nativity of John the Baptist, weaving wreaths, they hung them on the roofs of houses and on stables in order to remove evil spirits from the dwelling.

Lada

LADA (Freya, Preya, Siv or Zif) - the goddess of youth and spring, beauty and fertility, the all-generous mother, the patroness of love and marriages.

In folk songs, “lado” still means a dearly beloved friend, lover, groom, husband.

Freya's outfit shines with the dazzling brilliance of the sun's rays, her beauty is charming, and the drops of morning dew are called her tears; on the other hand, she acts as a militant heroine, rushing through the heavenly spaces in storms and thunderstorms and driving rain clouds. In addition, she is a goddess, in whose retinue the shadows of the dead march into the afterlife. The cloudy fabric is precisely that veil on which the soul, after the death of a person, ascends to the kingdom of the blessed.

According to the testimony of folk verses, angels, appearing for a righteous soul, take it in a shroud and carry it to heaven. The cult of Freya-Siva explains the superstitious respect that Russian commoners have for Friday, as a day dedicated to this goddess. Whoever starts a business on Friday, he, according to the proverb, will back away.

Among the ancient Slavs, the birch, personifying the goddess Lada, was considered a sacred tree.

Ice

Ice - the Slavs prayed to this deity for success in battles, he was revered as the ruler of military actions and bloodshed. This ferocious deity was portrayed as a terrible warrior, armed in Slavic armor, or all-weapon. At the hip, a sword, a spear and a shield in his hand.

He had his own temples. Going on a campaign against the enemies, the Slavs prayed to him, asking for help and promising plentiful sacrifices in case of success in military operations.

Lel

Lel - in the mythology of the ancient Slavs, the god of love passion, the son of the goddess of beauty and love Lada. About Lele - this cheerful, frivolous god of passion - is still reminiscent of the word "cherish", that is, undead, love. He is the son of the goddess of beauty and love, Lada, and beauty naturally gives rise to passion. This feeling flared up especially brightly in the spring and on the Kupala night. Lel was portrayed as a golden-haired, like a mother, winged baby: after all, love is free and elusive. Lel threw sparks from his hands: after all, passion is fiery, hot love! In Slavic mythology, Lel is the same god as the Greek Eros or the Roman Cupid. Only ancient gods strike the hearts of people with arrows, and Lel kindled them with his fierce flame.

The stork (heron) was considered his sacred bird. Another name for this bird in some Slavic languages ​​is leleka. In connection with Lel, both cranes and larks, symbols of spring, were revered.

Makosh

One of the main goddesses of the Eastern Slavs, the wife of the Thunderer Perun.

Her name is made up of two parts: "ma" - mother and "kosh" - purse, basket, koshara. Makosh is the mother of full cats, the mother of a good harvest.

This is not the goddess of fertility, but the goddess of the results of the economic year, the goddess of the harvest, the giver of blessings. The harvest every year determines the lot, fate, so she was also revered as the goddess of fate. An obligatory attribute in her image is a cornucopia.

This goddess connected the abstract concept of fate with the concrete concept of abundance, patronized the household, sheared sheep, spun, punished the negligent. The specific concept of “spinning” was associated with a metaphorical one: “spinning fate”.

Makosh patronized marriage and family happiness. It was presented as a woman with a big head and long arms, spinning at night in a hut: beliefs forbid leaving a tow, "otherwise Makosha will spin."

Moraine

Morena (Marana, Morana, Mara, Maruha, Marmara) is the goddess of death, winter and night.

Mara is the goddess of death, the daughter of Lada. Outwardly, Mara looks like a tall beautiful girl with black hair in red clothes. Maru can not be called either an evil or a good goddess. On the one hand, it bestows death, but at the same time it also bestows life.

One of Mary's favorite activities is needlework: she loves to spin and weave. At the same time, like the Greek Moiram, he uses the threads of the fate of living beings for needlework, leading them to turning points in life, and, in the end, cutting the thread of existence.

Mara sends her messengers all over the world, who appear to people in the guise of a woman with long black hair or in the guise of doubles of people who are meant to be warned, and portend an imminent death.

In part of Mary, no permanent places of worship were erected; honors could be paid to her anywhere. For this, an image of the goddess, carved from wood or made from straw, was installed on the ground, stones were laid around the place. Directly in front of the idol, a larger stone or wooden plank was installed, which served as an altar. After the ceremony, all this was sorted out, and the image of Mary was burned or thrown into the river.

Mara was revered on February 15, and flowers, straw and various fruits were brought as a gift to the goddess of death. Sometimes, during the years of severe epidemics, animals were sacrificed, bleeding them directly at the altar.

Meeting spring with a solemn holiday, the Slavs performed the rite of expelling Death or Winter and plunged an effigy of Morana into the water. As a representative of winter, Morana is defeated by the spring Perun, who smashes her with his blacksmith's hammer and casts her into an underground dungeon for the whole summer time.

According to the identification of Death with thunder spirits, ancient belief forced these latter to fulfill its sad duty. But since the thunderer and his companions were also the organizers of the heavenly kingdom, the concept of Death was bifurcated, and fantasy portrayed it either as an evil creature, dragging souls into the underworld, or as a messenger of the supreme deity, accompanying the souls of the deceased heroes to his heavenly chamber.

Diseases were considered by our ancestors as companions and helpers of Death.

Perun

The God of Thunder, a victorious, punishing deity, whose appearance excites fear and awe. Perun, in Slavic mythology, the most famous of the Svarozhich brothers. He is the god of thunderclouds, thunder and lightning.

He is represented as stately, tall, with black hair and a long golden beard. Sitting on a flaming chariot, he rides through the sky, armed with a bow and arrows, and strikes the wicked.

According to Nestor, the wooden idol of Perun, placed in Kyiv, had a golden mustache on its silver head. Over time, Perun became the patron of the prince and his squad.

Temples in honor of Perun were always arranged on hills, and the highest place in the district was chosen. Idols were made mainly of oak - this mighty tree was the symbol of Perun. Sometimes there were places of worship to Perun, arranged around an oak tree growing on a hill, it was believed that this way Perun himself designates the best place. In such places, no additional idols were placed, and the oak, located on a hill, was revered as an idol.

Radegast

Radegast (Redigost, Radigast) is a lightning god, a killer and a devourer of clouds, and at the same time a radiant guest who appears with the return of spring. The earthly fire was recognized as the son of Heaven, brought down to the bottom, as a gift to mortals, a fleeting lightning, and therefore the idea of ​​​​an honorary divine guest, an alien from heaven to earth, was also connected with it.

The Russian settlers honored him with the name of a guest. At the same time, he received the character of a saving god of any foreigner (guest), who appeared in a strange house and surrendered himself under the protection of local penates (i.e. hearth), the patron god of merchants who came from distant countries and trade in general.

The Slavic Radigost was depicted with the head of a buffalo on his chest.

Svarog

Svarog is the creator god of earth and heaven. Svarog is the source of fire and its master. He creates not with a word, not with magic, unlike Veles, but with his hands, he creates the material world. He gave people the Sun-Ra and fire. Svarog threw a plow and a yoke from heaven to earth to cultivate the land; a battle ax to protect this land from enemies, and a bowl for preparing a sacred drink in it.

Like Rod, Svarog is the creator god, he continued the formation of this world, changing its original state, improving and expanding. However, blacksmithing is Svarog's favorite pastime.

Temples in honor of Svarog were arranged on hills overgrown with trees or shrubs. The center of the hill was cleared to the ground and a fire was made in this place; no additional idols were installed in the temple.

Svyatobor

Svyatobor is the god of the forest. Outwardly, he looks like an aged hero, representing an old man of strong build, with a thick beard and dressed in animal skins.

Svyatobor fiercely guards the forests and mercilessly punishes those who harm them, in some cases even death or eternal imprisonment in the forest in the form of an animal or a tree can become a punishment.

Svyatobor is married to the goddess of hunting Devan.

Temples in honor of Svyatobor were not arranged, their role was played by groves, pine forests and forests, which were recognized as sacred and in which neither deforestation nor hunting was carried out.

Semargl

One of the Svarozhichs was the god of fire - Semargl, who is sometimes mistakenly considered only a heavenly dog, the guardian of seeds for sowing. This (storage of seeds) was constantly engaged in a much smaller deity - Pereplut.

The ancient books of the Slavs tell how Semargl was born. Svarog hit the Alatyr stone with a magic hammer, carved divine sparks from it, which flared up, and the fiery god Semargl became visible in their flame. He sat on a golden-maned horse of a silver suit. Thick smoke became his banner. Where Semargl passed, there was a scorched trail. Such was his strength, but more often he looked quiet and peaceful.

Semargl, God of fire and moon, fire sacrifices, home and hearth, keeps seeds and crops. Can turn into a sacred winged dog.

The name of the God of Fire is not known for certain, most likely, his name is so holy. Still, because this God does not live somewhere in the seventh heaven, but directly among people! They try to say his name out loud less often, replacing it with allegories. The Slavs associate the emergence of people with Fire. According to some legends, the Gods created a Man and a Woman from two sticks, between which a Fire flared up - the very first flame of love. Semargl does not let evil into the world. At night, he stands guard with a fiery sword, and only one day a year does Semargl leave his post, responding to the call of the Bather, who calls him to love games on the day of the Autumn Equinox. And on the day of the Summer Solstice, after 9 months, children are born at Semargl and Bathing - Kostroma and Kupalo.

Stribog

In East Slavic mythology, the god of the wind. He can summon and tame a storm and can transform into his assistant, the mythical bird Stratim. In general, the wind was usually represented in the form of a gray-haired old man living at the end of the world, in a deep forest or on an island in the middle of the sea-ocean.

The temples of Stribog were arranged on the banks of rivers or seas, they are especially often found at the mouths of rivers. The temples in his honor were not enclosed in any way from the surrounding territory and were designated only by an idol made of wood, which was installed facing north. A large stone was also erected in front of the idol, which served as an altar.

Triglav

In ancient Slavic mythology, this is the unity of the three main essences-hypostases of the gods: Svarog (creation), Perun (the law of Rule) and Svyatovit (light)

According to various mythological traditions, different gods were included in Triglav. In Novgorod of the 9th century, the Great Triglav consisted of Svarog, Perun and Sventovit, and earlier (before the Western Slavs moved to the Novgorod lands) - from Svarog, Perun and Veles. In Kyiv, apparently - from Perun, Dazhbog and Stribog.

Small Triglavs were made up of gods, standing lower on the hierarchical ladder.

Horse

Khors (Korsha, Kore, Korsh) - the ancient Russian deity of the sun and the solar disk. It is best known among the southeastern Slavs, where the sun simply reigns over the rest of the world. Khors, in Slavic mythology, the god of the Sun, the keeper of the luminary, the son of Rod, the brother of Veles. Not all the gods of the Slavs and Rus were common. For example, before the Russ came to the banks of the Dnieper, Khors was not known here. Only Prince Vladimir installed his image next to Perun. But he was known among other Aryan peoples: among the Iranians, Persians, Zoroastrians, where they worshiped the god of the rising sun - Horset. This word also had a broader meaning - “radiance”, “brilliance”, as well as “glory”, “greatness”, sometimes “royal dignity” and even “hvarna” - a special mark of the gods, chosenness.

Temples in honor of Khors were arranged on small hills in the middle of meadows or small groves. The idol was made of wood and placed on the eastern slope of the hill. And as an offering, a special pie "horoshul" or "kurnik" was used, which crumbled around the idol. But to a greater extent, dances (round dances) and songs were used to pay tribute to Khors.

Chernobog

God of cold, destruction, death, evil; the god of madness and the embodiment of everything bad and black. It is believed that Chernobog is the prototype of Kashchei the immortal from fairy tales. Kashchei is a cult character of Slavic mythology, whose folklore image is extremely far from the original. Kashchei Chernobogvich was the youngest son of Chernobog, the great Serpent of Darkness. His older brothers - Goryn and Viy - feared and respected Kashchei for his great wisdom and equally great hatred for his father's enemies - the Iry gods. Kashchei owned the deepest and darkest kingdom of Navi - the Koshcheev kingdom,

Chernobog is the ruler of Navi, the god of time, the son of Rod. In Slavic mythology, he is the creator of the world along with Rod and Belbog. Outwardly, he appeared in two forms: in the first, he looked like a hunched, thin old man with a long beard, a silver mustache and a crooked stick in his hands; in the second, he was depicted as a middle-aged man of thin build, dressed in black clothes, but, again, with a silver mustache.

Chernobog is armed with a sword, which he masterfully wields. Although he is able to instantly appear at any point in Navi, he prefers to travel on horseback on a fiery stallion.

After the creation of the world, Chernobog under the patronage went to Nav - the world of the dead, in which he is both a ruler and a prisoner, since, despite all his strength, he is not able to leave its limits. The deity does not release the souls of people who got there for sins from Navi, however, its sphere of influence is not limited to one Navi. Chernobog managed to bypass the restrictions imposed on him and created Koshchei, who is the embodiment of the ruler of Navi in ​​Yavi, while the power of God in another world is much less real, but still allowed him to extend his influence to Yav, and only in the Rule Chernobog never appears.

The temples in honor of Chernobog were made of dark rocks, the wooden idol was completely upholstered with iron, except for the head, on which only the mustache was trimmed with metal.

Yarilo

Yarilo is the god of spring and sunlight. Outwardly, Yarilo looks like a young man with red hair, dressed in white clothes with a flower wreath on his head. This god moves around the world riding a white horse.

Temples in honor of Yarila were arranged on top of hills overgrown with trees. The tops of the hills were cleared of vegetation and an idol was erected in this place, in front of which a large white stone was placed, which sometimes could be located at the foot of the hill. Unlike most other gods, there were no sacrifices in honor of the god of spring. Usually the deity was revered with songs and dances at the temple. At the same time, one of the participants in the action was certainly dressed up as Yarila, after which he became the center of the whole festival. Sometimes they made special figurines in the form of people, they were brought to the temple, and then smashed against a white stone installed there, it is believed that this brings Yarila's blessing, from which the harvest will be greater and sexual energy higher.

A little about the world order of the Slavs

The center of the world for the ancient Slavs was the World Tree (World Tree, World Tree). It is the central axis of the entire universe, including the Earth, and connects the World of people with the World of Gods and the Underworld. Accordingly, the crown of the tree reaches the World of the Gods in heaven - Iriy or Svarga, the roots of the tree go underground and connect the World of the Gods and the World of people with the underworld or the world of the Dead, ruled by Chernobog, Marena and other "dark" Gods. Somewhere in the sky, behind the clouds (heavenly abysses; over the seventh sky), the crown of a sprawling tree forms an island, here is Iriy (Slavic paradise), where not only the Gods and ancestors of people live, but also the progenitors of all birds and animals. Thus, the Tree of the World was fundamental in the worldview of the Slavs, its main component. At the same time, it is also a staircase, a road through which you can get to any of the worlds. In Slavic folklore, the Tree of the World is called differently. It can be oak, and sycamore, willow, linden, viburnum, cherry, apple tree or pine.

In the views of the ancient Slavs, the World Tree is located on Buyan Island on Alatyr-stone, which is also the center of the universe (the center of the Earth). Judging by some legends, light gods live on its branches, and dark gods live in its roots. The image of this tree has come down to us, both in the form of various fairy tales, legends, epics, incantations, songs, riddles, and in the form of ritual embroidery on clothes, patterns, ceramic decorations, painting dishes, chests, etc. Here is an example of how the Tree of the World is described in one of the Slavic folk tales that existed in Russia and tells about the extraction of a horse by a hero-hero: forehead red sun ... ". This horse is a mythological symbol of the entire universe

Of course, in one post it is not possible to cover all the gods that our ancestors worshiped. Different branches of the Slavs had the same gods called differently, and had their own "local" deities.

For the first time this series was published in the Kirovograd journal "Threshold", here it is presented in an even more complete form. Then the code was published by us in the book by D. GAVRILOV, A. NAGOVITSYN. "Gods of the Slavs. Paganism. Tradition”, — M.: Refl-Book, 2002. 464 p.

A distinctive feature of this list is that it is tied to the dates of the pagan folk calendar. It should be noted, however, that all dates are given for central Russia and may vary depending on the latitude and longitude of the celebration. Added quotes from a number of previously inaccessible to us Western medieval primary sources on the beliefs of the Slavs.

Let us also mention such a curious hypothesis of the researcher Sergei Pivovarov - Svyatich - from the "Circle of Ber" that the pantheon could not exceed 33 true names of the gods. This is a sacred number for the Vedic Tradition.

Then it remains to be assumed that some of the gods named below are heiti (alegorical remembrance), so the mother goddess could have “pseudonyms” Lada, Priya, Rozhanitsa, Koruna, Karna ... And the daughter goddess could have heiti - Lelya, Rozhena, Zhelya, Wow…

THE FIRST, OLDEST GODS AND GODDESSES

1. KIND AND BIRTH

ROD - the Existing, the One, the progenitor of the gods and the creator of the world, “The Almighty, who is the only immortal and undying creator, I will blow a man on the face of the spirit of life, and be a man in my soul I live: then you are not Rod, sitting on the air, a mosque on the ground of a pile - and the children are in that…”, is mentioned, for example, in the teachings against paganism “On the inspiration of the holy spirit”, “The Word about Idols”, “The Word of Isaiah the Prophet”, the manuscript of the Chetya Menaia from the Old Russian confessor. Perhaps, like Stribog, i.e. the stern (old) god-father is mentioned in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign" and Russian chronicles, and also as God in the agreement between Igor's Rus and the Romans. Helmold reported: “Among the diverse deities to whom they dedicate fields, forests, sorrows and joys, they (Slavs) recognize and one god, dominating them in heaven, recognize that he is omnipotent, cares only about heavenly affairs, other gods obey him, perform the duties assigned to them, and that they come from his blood, and each of them is all the more important, the closer he stands to this god of gods. Such a “God of Gods” among the Western Slavs is called Sventovita, most likely, this is one of the main hypostases of the Sort.

“To that things Boyan and the first refrain, meaningful, speech: “Neither cunning, nor much, nor much torture of the Judgment of God.” It would be funny if the grandson of Veles turned to a different court, except for the pagan, whether Veles or the court of the Family. We assume that here, under the name of God, it is precisely Rod that is hidden. The genus is accompanied by women in labor. In “Questions of Kirik we find”, a monument of literature of the XII century: “Already to Rod and Rozhanitsa to eat bread and cheese and honey ...”, somehow connected with fate. Probably, if Rod is called the Court, then women in labor are called Sudinites - and most importantly, with the posthumous life of a pagan, the rebirth of the “male principle” through the “female”.

Sometimes only one Rozhanitsa is mentioned: “From the time of deer to put the treb to Atremis and Artemis, the reksha Rod and the Woman in Childbirth, the Iguptians are the same. So even before the word, until the end of these words, and you began to lay the requirement for the Family and Rozhanitsa, ... and here the Egyptians lay the requirement for Nile and fire, river Nil, the fruit-bearer and the grower of the class. In a bright hypostasis, Rod is compared with Apollo-Atremid (Artemis): "Artemi, call Rod to the south." It is curious that Sreznevsky uses the word “gehena, unquenchable fire” as a synonym for “rod”. According to Sreznevsky, the clan in the PJP is opposed to the Christian God, that is, it is equated with his opponent, Satan, who is equal to him in “appointment”: “Those who serve God and do his will, and not the Family, nor the Women in Childbirth, a vain idol, but you sing song of demons to Rodow and Women in Childbirth". Many consider Lada and Lelya to be women in labor (see), although they are never called that in PJP. It is clear that women in labor are the maidens of life and fate, who “they cut their hair from the first time and the women cook porridge for a meeting of women in childbirth”, and people back in the 13th century “preparing a meal for razhanits and performing demonic sips” , and not for women in childbirth "" Setting a meal for women in childbirth i other all the services of the devil"

In the sixteenth century, in the “Charter of the Monk Savva” we find such a confessional question: “didn’t she slut ungodly fornications with women, didn’t she pray to pitchforks, or Rod and women in childbirth, and Perun, and Khors, and Mokosh, drank and ate?”

Modern pagans put idols to Rod in the form of wooden phallic symbols painted in red. It may be just a stone pile, which has analogues in India, where the phallic linga symbolizes Rudra. Such idols are always placed in an open place and the higher, the better. For the manufacture of idols, it is best for Rod to use beech, elm, ash, but since these trees are rare, it is proposed to replace them with maple.

Trebs of the Family are still unconsciously brought in the form of "Easter" eggs to the graves of their ancestors. A special honoring of the Family falls on April 21 (Orthodox Rodion the icebreaker). This holiday is called in pagan Radogoshch, and Svarozhich himself is honored as a solar deity.

2. STRIBOG, Stribo, Striba

God the father, stern, old god, grandfather of the winds (probably can be correlated with the Indian god Rudra), is mentioned in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign" ("Behold the winds, Stribozh vnutsi, blow from the sea with arrows on the brave regiments of Igor"), in Russian chronicles, in the retellings of Strykovsky, “The Word of John Chrysostom ... what was the first trash they believed in idols and laid rites to them ...” speaks of him as a deity of the sky, air and wind. Probably one of the names of the Family or the side of the Family, as the father of the gods. It blows life (spirit) into human bodies through the wind. His day is Saturday. It is no coincidence that Saturday is a parental day, the day of Satros - Saturn, the parent of the gods.

In later sources, it was depicted as a single head, acquiring chthonic features of the Viya-Vey type. There is a description of a pagan temple on the Kiev land of the 16th century of the era of dual faith.

Associated with the lunar cult, the constant commemoration of Stribog next to Dazhdbog, a solar deity, leads just to this idea that the old god gives way to the young one, and the Moon to the red Sun: “eat the idol sacrifice ... believe Stribog, Dazhdbog and Pereplut, like him spinning drink in roses"

Perhaps one of Stribog's messengers is a swift. The pagan celebration of Stribog itself was probably on the first day of the last summer month. According to the new style, this is August 21st. The folk calendar these days is replete with proverbs regarding the winds - the grandchildren of Stribog: "The windmills drove the dust across the wide world, sobbed through the red summer." “The wind-running myrons drive dust around the world, they moan about the red summer.”

3. SVETOVIT and / or Belobog

Svantevit is a real (“good”) god, the god of fertility according to the Czech medieval dictionary “Mater Verborum” - “Ares, bellum”, “Mavors: Mavortem poete dicunt martem”, where he is also likened to the god of war Ares. In the same source: "Belboh: Belbog - beel, baal".

God, opposing Chernobog, is one of the sides of the Sort.

Sventovit, Svyatovit, Svetovik, Svetich - the god of the White Light, the supreme god of the Western Slavic pantheon, the horseman god fighting Darkness. Mentioned in the "Slavic Chronicle" by Helmold, described in detail by Saxo Grammar in the "Acts of the Danes", as the main god, "the god of the gods", "the most convincing in the answers." It is he who is most often meant by the name Belobog among the Slavs, functionally correlated with Apollo, i.e. thus Atremis-Artemis, brother of Artemis-Lady. “Hence the evil god the Devil and Chernobog, that is, the Black God, the good Belbog, that is, the white god, was called. The figure of this idol, carved in stone, can still be seen on Ruyan, on the Witt Peninsula, popularly referred to as Wittold, as it were, “Ancient Wit”. With a big head and thick beard, he looks more like a monster than a fictional god” (“History of the Kamensk diocese”, 17th century). And a century earlier it was reported: “The image of the idol of Ruyana, carved on a stone, can be seen in the village of Altenkirchen, in the vestibule of the temple. More like a monstrous evil demon than any god; the former inhabitants of the island called him Svyatovit, the current Vitold. (David Khitreus. Saxon Chronicle, 16th century). Thus, Svetovit and Belobog are one and the same essence, but under different names of the One Good God.

Comparing the Black and White gods, Peter Albin in the “Misney Chronicle” (1590) testifies to another name for the god of light: “XI. Chernobog was a black god; like the Utrobog, the god of the dawn. Undoubtedly, a similar god was also worshiped, which probably meant the morning dawn.

Sventovit - a predictor and giver of earthly blessings - crops, the sanctuary of Arkona is famous for the fact that the priests predict the future (guessing by the tread of a horse and a horn).

The Arkon idol, according to Saxo the Grammar, "gave tribute to the entire Slavic land." Helmold's Rugs or Ruyans in the Slavic Chronicle, to whom the temple of Sventovit belonged, are reported as a tribe that is most respected by other Slavs, the priest was honored there above the prince, and without the decision of the rugs close to the gods, nothing was done in public affairs according to Adam of Bremen. It can be assumed that he is a lawmaker, like Apollo among the Greeks. Frenzel speaks of him as "De Svantevito, Deo Soraborum Slavorumque supremo"

Sventovit is identified with the four-faced image of the upper tier of the Zbruch idol. The same image of Sventovit stood in the famous Temple in the city of Arkona. The idol was exterminated by Bishop Absalon in 1168.

Saxo Grammaticus writes: “The city of Arkona lies on the top of a high rock; from the north, east and south it is protected by natural protection ... from the western side it is protected by a high embankment of 50 cubits ... In the middle of the city lies an open square on which rises a wooden temple, of fine workmanship, but honored not so much by the splendor of architecture, but by the majesty of God, to whom an idol is erected here. The entire outer side of the building shone with skillfully made bas-reliefs of various figures, but ugly and crudely painted. Only one entrance was into the interior of the temple, surrounded by a double fence ... In the temple itself stood a large, exceeding human height, idol, with four heads, on the same number of necks, of which two came out of the chest and two - to the ridge, but in such a way that from both front and both rear heads, one looked to the right, and the other to the left. Hair and beard were cut short, and in this, it seemed, the artist conformed to the habit of ruddy. In his right hand, the idol held a horn made of various metals, which was usually filled every year with wine from the hands of a priest for divination about the fertility of the next year; the left hand was likened to a bow. Outerwear went down to the berets, which were made up of various types of trees and were so skillfully connected to the knees that only a close examination could distinguish the fugues. The legs were level with the ground, the foundation was made under the floor. In a small distance, the bridle and saddle of the idol with other accessories were visible. The viewer was most struck by a huge sword, a scabbard, the black of which, in addition to beautiful carved forms, was distinguished by silver trim ... In addition, this god also had temples in many other places, ruled by priests of lesser importance. In addition, he had a horse with him, completely white, from which it was considered impiety to pull out a hair from a mane or tail ... Svyatovit was symbolized by various signs, in particular, carved eagles and banners, the main of which was called the village ... The power of this small piece of canvas was stronger than the power of the prince. »

So, the idol of the God of Light is four-faced (it is possible that two heads are female), the symbols of Svetovit are a sword, a horn and, possibly, a bow, as shown in a number of medieval Polish engravings. Trebs to Svetovit and/or Belobog were brought in the form of a tall pie, which was cut into four parts, and possibly, and then spread on all four sides, in accordance with the direction of Svetovit's gaze. The wine was sweet, because insects flocked to its tart smell - witnesses of beliefs claim that the idol of Belobog was covered with flies. Because of this, he was identified with Beelzebub. In fact, we are only talking about the fact that the trebs were brought sweet, probably libations were made directly into the mouth of the idol or they were smeared with sacrificial honey. One of the main holidays of Svetovit-Belobog can be considered the calendar Tausen - the autumn solstice, when the harvest is harvested, and you need to take care of a prosperous new one - next year.

4. VELES and / or Chernobog

Chernobog is a Navi, an "evil" god according to Helmold's "Slavic Chronicle". In the Serbian-Lusatian pantheon, he was named Czernebog by A. Frenzel (1696), and the first in this pantheon was the opponent of the Black God - Sventovit.

Al-Masudi in the tenth century gives a description of the sanctuary of a certain god on the black mountain: “... in it (the building on the black mountain) they (the Slavs) had a large idol in the form of a man or Saturn, presented in the form of an old man with a crooked stick in his hand, with which he moves the bones of the dead from the graves. Under the right foot are images of heterogeneous ants, and under the left - black crows, black wings and others, as well as images of strange Khabash and Zanj (i.e. Abyssinians).

Peter Albin in the “Misney Chronicle” says: “for this, the Slavs revered Chernobog as an evil deity, that they imagined that all evil was in his power, and therefore asked him for mercy, they reconciled him, so that in this or the afterlife not he harmed them." Helmold describes that when the evil god Chernobog was honored at a feast among the Slavs, then when the guests were carried around with a cup, everyone uttered curses, not words of blessing. However, everyone understands to the best of their upbringing: “The amazing superstition of the Slavs, because at their festivities and feasts they surround a circular bowl, proclaiming words over it - I won’t say a blessing, but a curse, in the name of the good and evil gods, since they expect from a good god happy share, and from evil - unhappy; therefore, the evil god is even called in their own language the devil or Chernobog.

According to the myth cited by Sreznevsky, Satan (read Chernobog) will defile the soul of a person created by God, in fact, according to Christian dogmas, this is so. According to another myth cited by Afanasyev, Satan (Chernobog) created man from the sweat of God. There is a similar myth in the Laurentian Chronicle. Chernobog is the co-creator of the World.

In the mythology of the Balts, the black god is called Vielona, ​​Wellns or Vels, which actually means “devil”, “devil” is the constant opponent of the Thunderer and the owner of the world of the dead, a jester and a trickster. One does not have to be seven spans in the forehead in order not to notice the identity of this name and the similarity of this image with the Slavic Veles.

His name varies in the lists of chronicles and teachings against paganism - Veles, Volos, Vlas, Vlasiy, Vlas - "cattle god", "cattle", i.e. wild, fierce, bestial. This is confirmed by the fact that Veles is likened to Pan - the god of the Wild (Mater Verborum - "Veles: Veles - Pan, ymago hircina"). The correlation of Satan with the goat in the Middle Ages does not need proof.

Russian chronicles according to the treaties of Oleg and Svyatoslav with the Greeks: In the summer of 6415 (911): “Caesar Leon and Alexandria made peace with Olgm, imishing on a tribute and a company that came between them, kissing themselves crest, and Olga led his company and her husband along Russian law and swearing by their weapons and Perunm, their gods and Volos cattle God and affirming the world. In the summer of 6479 (971). "... Yes, we have an oath from God, but we believe in him from both Perun and Volos, the cattle of God."

Probably Veles and the giver of wealth (through cattle, the main wealth of nomadic tribes is the “god of cattle” (“On the idols of Vladimirov”), and later simply the god of wealth, which is earned by labor throughout life.

There is every reason to believe that it is Veles who monitors the implementation of laws and treaties, he is the father and judge of truth, like Hermes and Odin. Therefore, “The second (idol) Volos, the god of cattle, was with them (pagans) in great honor” (“Gustinsky Chronicle”).

The mention of Veles in the contract, next to Perun, the patron of the prince and the squad, is not accidental. Mercury was also invoked by the Germans in tandem with the warlike Mars. And the sacred couple here is not accidental - a wise, old, not quite positive in the Christian sense of the word "cattle god" and a strong, young warrior-ruler.

Despite the obvious attributes of blackness, Veles, like Odin, Mercury and Hermes, is the god of science and wisdom. In the "Word of Igor's Campaign" we find "Whether it was sung, prophetic Boyane, Velesov's granddaughter ...". His name is also found in the late recorded ritual text of the Macedonian Bulgarian-Pomaks, the so-called "Veda of the Slavs" in ed. Verkovich (see, for example, IV, 5. 5-13).

God le Vlas le
Alive ma Yuda taught
Yes, this is a Clear Book,
yes, sit down and write.
Mom taught, God, taught.
And you, God, yes ma teach
Yes, right, kusher-ta.
Yes, you will give me three hundred oxen,
Three hundred oxen, three hundred blood

In the apocryphal “Walking of the Virgin through the torments”, Veles is directly called a demon, but he is also called an “evil god”, almost like Helmold’s Chernobog in the “Slavic Chronicle” (it is understood that there were good gods, pay attention to the plural): pagans “these are those who were called gods; the sun and the moon, earth and water, beasts and reptiles, who in their hardness of heart gave names to the gods, as to people, and those who revered Utrius, Troyan, Khors, Veles, turning demons into gods. And people believed in these evil gods.”

Literally, according to another list: “God created a creature of faith, a creature from the south, then they all the gods called the sun and the month the earth and water, animals and reptiles, then it is more net and a member of the documentary of the Trojan chrsa veles perouna to the Gods, turning the evil demon into faith , hitherto obsessed with darkness by evil, for the sake of this, to urinate tacos.

Next to him, Veles, in the list are Troyan, according to Serbian legends, a giant who is afraid of sunlight and has goat ears, as well as Khors. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” testifies to a certain night path of Khors, for Vseslav prowled in the form of a wolf precisely at night: “Vseslav prince is judging by people, he is a prince of the city, and he himself is a wolf prowling in the night; from Kiev doriskashe to the chickens of Tmutorokan, the path of the great Khorsov and the wolf is broken by a wolf.

The Czechs, even after adopting Christianity, remembered Veles as one of the most powerful "demons", sacrificing black chickens and pigeons to him. In "Word of St. Gregory" it is said about the worship of the Slavs "to the cattle god and companion and forest god". Those. Veles - the god of cattle, the patron saint of travelers, the god of forests.

The blackness of Veles is evidenced by the absence of his pillar in the pantheon of Prince Vladimir, the pillar of Veles stood separately, not on a hill, but on Podil. Meanwhile, they deal with Veles in Kyiv under Vladimir, sending them to the afterlife along the river, i.e. do not mutilate, but bury the old god. The “Life of Vladimir” says: “And the Hair of the idol ... led the Pochaina river into the river.” By this, allegedly, Vladimir sent Veles, as hitherto Perun, on a voyage to the kingdom of the dead. He put to rest, therefore, the two most famous Slavic gods.

However, in Rostov, much later, the stone idol of Veles was destroyed. In the life of Avraamy of Rostov it is said: "The end of Chud worshiped the stone idol, Veles." We pay attention to the sacred location of the idol - the Chudsky end. With Veles, a demon is directly compared, possessing knowledge of hidden treasures. And Abraham, who destroyed the “idol stone” of Volos in Rostov, “almost became a victim of a demon”, which was transformed into its opposite - “into the image of a warrior who slandered him to “Tsar” Vladimir ..”. The demon "accused Abraham of being engaged in sorcery, that he hid from the prince a copper cauldron with money he had found in the ground." This is truly a diabolical mockery worthy of the trickster Loki and the Navi god - Odin.

In the “Tale of the Construction of the City of Yaroslavl”, an 18th-century source dating back to an ancient record, “which, although updated later, nevertheless adequately reflected the true course of events,” it is directly stated that the Magi were priests of the “cattle god”: “To this same multi-executed idol and kermet (temple) was created the life and the Magi vdan, and this unquenchable fire Volos holding and sacrificial smoke to him.” The priest guessed by the smoke of the fire, and if he guessed badly, and the fire died out, then the priest was executed. “And these people, by an oath at Volos, promised the prince to live in harmony and give him dues, but they just did not want to be baptized: During the drought, the pagans begged tearfully for their Volos to bring rain down to the earth: In the place where Volos once stood, there are pipes, and the harp, and singing, heard many times, and some dancing was visible. When cattle walked in this place, they were subjected to unusual thinness and illness: They said that all this attack was the wrath of Volos, that he turned into an evil spirit in order to crush people, as they crushed him and kermet ".

H.M. Karamzin retells (without reference to the source, but this is essentially one of the variants of the Greater Poland Chronicle) “for the curious” “fables”, in one of which we find: “The Slovene-Russian princes, delighted with such a letter (from Alexander the Great), hung this in his temple on the right side of the idol of Veles ... After some time, two princes Lyakh (Mamokh, Laloch) and Lachern rebelled from their family, fought the Greek land and went under the most reigning city: there, near the sea, Prince Lachern laid his head (where was created after the Blachernae Monastery ...) "

With a high degree of probability, we can say that Veles is a vodka and shepherd of the dead, like his Baltic counterparts, like St. Nicholas.

“The fiery river runs, across the fiery river the viburnum bridge, along that viburnum bridge there is an old mater man; carries in his hands a golden saucer, a silver feather ... relieves seventy diseases from the servant of God.

The werewolf god, the master of magic and the secret, the ruler of the crossroads, the Navi god, as we showed in our previous book, where a functional analysis of the images of Thoth, Hermes, Mercury, Odin, Veles was carried out.

One of his names is Mokos - the husband of Mokosh, the goddess of fate (we know at least four mentions of Mokosh-Mokos in the masculine gender) - thus Veles himself, who appears in fairy tales as an old man with a guiding ball - the god of Luck. Note that in the Indo-European tradition, gods with similar names also had similar functions. For example, Roman Lares, Russian Mavkas, mermaids, Roman Fauns and Fauns, Indian Adityas, etc.

Perhaps he is the Chernobog of the Slavs, although he is also embodied in the Rule. Veles is identified by B.A. Rybakov with a three-faced image on the lower tier of the Zbruch idol, supporting the foundation of the world.

Among the Slovenes of the Priilmensky, Volos-Veles, probably also acted under the name of the Lizard or Volkhov. The veneration fell on December 19 - Nikolu the Water Volkh, Volkhov, Volkhovets - also the son of the Lizard, the werewolf god, the god of hunting and prey similar to Veles, probably the owner of the waters and, possibly, the patron saint of warriors, there are indications of him in the "Word of the Regiment Igor”, epics about Volkh Vseslavich and Sadko, the First Novgorod Chronicles, as Vuk the Fire Serpent is described by the Serbs. Ancestor - Gray prophetic Wolf from Russian fairy tales. Hypostasis of Veles. His day is celebrated in central Russia on October 2, this is the beginning of the hunting season. Volosyns are the wives of Veles, the constellation Pleiades according to I.I. Sreznevsky (they are Vlasozhelishchi, Baba) with reference to his work by Afanasy Nikitin “Journey beyond three seas”: “Hairs and a stake entered the dawn, and the elk stands with its head to the east”.

Volosozhary - Milky Way - "Veles scratched and scattered his hair." According to ancient ideas (Egyptians, Germans, Slavs), the Universe appeared from a heavenly cow. The Milky Way is her milk. Veles is the son of the Cow of the Universe. Elk - Constellation Ursa Major - the palaces of Velesov.

1. The "cattle god" is the master of the Wild.
2. Vodchiy on all Roads, Mr. Ways, patron of all travelers
3. The owner of Navi, the ruler of the Unknown, the Black God
4. Posthumous judge and lifetime tester.
5. A powerful wizard and lord of magic, a werewolf.
6. The patron of trade, mediator in contracts and interpreter of laws.
7. Giver of wealth.
8. Patron of those who know and seek, teacher of arts, including skaldic
9. God of luck.

Veles Day is Wednesday, stone is opal or obsidian, metal is lead or mercury, wood is spruce, pine, walnut or ash (yew), it is from them that amulets, staves, idols and other items associated with the cult of Veles should be made. The myth of the northern sorcerer-god is, of course, somewhat different from that of the Southern Tradition. Places for the device of victims to Veles and dedications to him are dense coniferous forests. Often impassable with ugly trees and deadwood, Veles is volohat and loves mosses and lichens, as well as mushrooms, perhaps they set an idol for him or laid trebs at the fork and crossroads of three forest roads. Three evergreen trees (often pines - hence the “get lost in three pines”) and anthills are also signs of Velesov. If on flat terrain - then the same intersections, but with a lone tree or stone on them.

A black raven or an owl, a cat, a snake or already - all these are harbingers of Veles' look at a pagan during the ceremony.

On the temples of Veles could hang not only letters with letters, as in the legend, but also cattle skulls or horns. Probably, the idol Veles himself was crowned with horns - hence his identification with Satan, or a crooked stick. Veles was sacrificed with copper, for he is the god of well-being and prosperity, wool and fur, and they also poured beer and kvass - the drinks that he taught people to prepare according to one of the legends.

Images of Veles' idols may contain images of the same horn (or be horned), as well as a dead human head in the hand of a god. The idols of Veles, according to the reconstruction of D. Gromov, were placed not on the top of the hills, but on a slope or in a lowland, closer to the waters. His, Velesov, days were celebrated especially solemnly on December 22-24, December 31, January 2 and 6 - on the days of St. Nicholas the Winter, on February 24 they asked the "cattle god" to knock the horns off Winter. And they also honored him on the days of honoring St. Nicholas Veshny - May 22 (Yarilin Day, semik). July 12 - when they put the first sheaf and begin to mow, harvesting hay for livestock. Between August 18 and 20, Veles was curled in a tuft on a harvested field “on a beard” - Nikolin's beard.

We believe that under the heity - the divine pseudonym - the Black God of the Slavs could be hiding precisely the wise ancient Veles, because the ethics of the peoples of the Northern Tradition is not the ethics of Good and Evil, it is based on the concept of justice. Throughout the ages, the pagan tradition of confrontation between the Black and White gods continues and manifests itself at all levels. The first - Old - pacifies nature, the second - Young - revives it, and with it he rises himself, full of strength. In the spring, the young replaces the old, and the New replaces the Former. Then the cycle repeats, and so it will be forever.

Veles is the patron of the zodiac Capricorns, who climb up, stubborn in their striving, and there is no such abyss from which they would not be saved, and there is no such peak that they would not take.

5. TRIGLAVE

From the "Biography of Otto of Bamberg" we learn about the existence among the Slavs in the city of Stetin "a three-headed image of a deity that had three heads on one body and was called Triglav."

Triglav - the highest deity, according to the medieval historian Ebbon - "summus paganorum deus", with a golden bandage on his lips and eyes (see "The Life of Otto, Bishop of Bamberg"):

“III.1. 1126 Szczecin: includes three mountains, of which the middle and highest is dedicated to the supreme god of the pagans Triglav; on it there is a three-headed statue, whose eyes and mouth are covered with a golden bandage. As the priests of idols explain, the main god has three heads, because he oversees the three kingdoms, that is, heaven, earth and the underworld, and covers his face with a bandage, since he hides the sins of people, as if not seeing or talking about them.

And according to the historian Gerbord, he rules over three worlds - heaven, earth and the underworld, is involved in divination through a huge black horse. Stetin, visited by Gerbord himself according to his testimony c. 1120, like that of Ebbon, located on three hills, in itself was a place of worship for this god with three heads. Triglavu Temple was located on the highest of the three places. Having taken possession of the god pillar, Otto destroyed the body, and took the connected three heads as a trophy and sent it to Rome, as proof of the conversion of the Pomeranians. As we know, Belobog-Sventovita, also the highest deity, the god of gods, is in turn dedicated to a white horse, but the rite of divination is similar.

On the Zbruch idol there is a three-faced deity in the lower tier, and this leads us to believe that the German authors called Chernobog Triglav. This is supported by the worship of the Slavs of Stetin, according to the same Gerbord, to a nut, and this is a Navi tree associated with the lower world of the Lizard. Later Serbian sources say that Troyan is afraid of sunlight and has goat ears, this is also evidence of the character's chthonicity.

However, among the Western Slavs, many deities are many-headed and many-sided, however, only one is named in terms of "heads". Among the names there is neither Semiglav, nor Pyatiglava, nor Chetyrekhglav ... And what, it would seem, is easier - to call Svetovit - Four-faced. The conclusion suggests itself. The Germans decided that Triglav is a deity, but we believe that Triglav is not a separate, even the highest god, but the very principle of unity and opposition of its Three components. "Mater Verborum" characterizes this name in this way: "Trihlav - Triceps, qui habet capita tria capree."

According to medieval Polish sources, Triglav is a three-headed giant, from which the world is created by cutting off his head by God. Thus, Chernobog, Belobog and a certain Khambog, associated with the color red, allegedly appear, but the latter seems to us newspeak, although it does not contradict logic. In a treatise of the 17th century by the author - Abraham Frentzel - one of the chapters is devoted to a certain Trigla, one must think that this is just the way the image of Triglav is changed. De Trigla, Dea Poli, Soli Salique. The line about Trigle should probably be translated not as "Goddess of fields and earth", but "Goddess of heaven, earth and prosperity." Fields - from an erroneous interpretation of Poli from Slavic. Рolus - vault of heaven + solum - earth, soil + salus - well-being, security + -que - and.

Due to a similar misunderstanding, the name of Triglav began to move closer to the name of the ancient emperor Rome Troyan. Troyan is mentioned in one of the lists of the apocrypha "The Virgin's Passage Through Torments", in the series "those who revered Utrius, Troyan, Khors, Veles, turning demons into gods"; in the semi-statutory manuscript of the Tolstoy collection among "Perun and Khors, Dy and Troyan", as well as in the "Word and Revelation of the Holy Apostles", where he is compared with the Roman emperor Troyan. In the Tale of Igor's Campaign, Troyanov's path, the Troyanov centuries and the land of Troyanov are mentioned, it is possible that there was such a prince who preceded even Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv - just three brothers. And if the third son in the family is called Tretiak, then the father of three sons is Troyan, Troyak. Perhaps, if such brothers really came to the Dnieper from the Carpathians, they called themselves descendants of the famous conqueror of the Dacians. Or the Trojan centuries - when three brothers ruled, and not some kind of Trojan? “O Boyana, the nightingale of the old days! Anyhow, you tickled the regiments, galloping, glory, along the mental tree, flying with your mind under the clouds, weaving both floors of glory this time, growing into the path of Trojan through the fields to the mountains!

“There were the days of Trojan, the summer of Yaroslavl passed; there were half of Olgova, Olga Svyatoslavlich. “Already more, brethren, not a merry time has risen, the desert has already covered the force. Resentment arose in the forces of Dazhdbozh’s grandson, she entered the land of Troyan as a virgin, splashed her swan wings on the blue sea near the Don: splash, lose fat times. "At the seventh age of Troy, Vseslav is the lot about the girl I love myself." It is obvious to us that the concept of Triglav and Troyan should not be brought together, these are different things.

In general, there is no god Triglav. Triglav we pagans call the idea of ​​the ancient Indo-Europeans about the threefold structure of the world.

6. Svetlusha

According to the Czech medieval dictionary "Mater Verborum", the Western Slavs have the goddess of Light - Svetlusha - "Lucina dea", and, as we assume, this is the female incarnation of the white god Sventovit, or his wife - he himself is "Ares, bellum", "Mavors : Mavortem poete dicunt martem.

There is also a certain Svetlonosha - the goddess of love according to the same "Mater Verborum". The Vendians were also called the spirits dancing in the meadows.

7. MAKOSH(b), Mokosch

The goddess of all Fate (kosh, kosht - fate, the syllable "ma" can be abbreviated as the word "mother"), the eldest of the goddesses of fate, was later considered the patroness of spinning. It can be correlated with the beliefs of the ancient Greeks in the spinners of fate - Moir, as well as with the Germanic spinners of fate - the Norns and Frigg - the wife of Odin, spinning on her Wheel. Due to the fact that the goddesses - the spinners of fate in beliefs appear in threes, she also probably had two sisters or incarnations - a happy fate and an unhappy one, lucky and unlucky.

Makosh - the goddess of fertility, the mother of crops, has 12 annual holidays, sometimes depicted with horns (apparently the cult of Makosh - and the Lunar cult, then there are 13 holidays). A characteristic female horned headdress was worn as early as the 19th century at folk festivals. Mentioned in Russian chronicles and numerous teachings against paganism. “Teaching Spiritual Children” in the 16th century warns: “Skip before the invisible God: people praying to the Family and women in childbirth, Perun, and Apollo, and Mokosh, and Peregina, and do not approach any gods vile requirements.”

The only goddess from the pantheon of Prince. Vladimir. The mother of the gods, perhaps the wife or incarnation of Veles-Mokos-Mokosh, correlated with Hekate (the name is often used in the masculine form).

“Mamai is the king ... he began to call on his gods: Perun, Salmanat, Mokosh, Rakliya, Rus and his great assistant Akhmet.” “They put the demand and create ... Mokosh diva .... they smear the goddess Ekatia, they create this maiden and honor Mokosh.

Thus, Makosh is the goddess of witchcraft and the mistress of the Transition from this world to the Other World.

In the lower incarnation, perhaps, she is the famous Baba Yaga (Hel, Kali), in this case we can say that she is the mother of the winds and the mistress of the forest world. Depicted on Russian embroideries between two moose cows-Rozhanitsa, sometimes depicted with a cornucopia. As a result of chthonicity, it has a disproportionately large head in the images. Perhaps Makosh is the image of the most ancient, even Neolithic origin, the Mother Goddess, who is known as the "Neolithic Venus". The most ancient Goddess was the giver of both life and death, the image of her face was considered taboo, had a large head.

Mokosh's Day is Friday, in Orthodoxy the image merged with Paraskeva Friday, i.e. she is the patroness of housewives and wives. One of the days on which Makosh is especially honored is the Friday closest to April 8 - Makosh's Proclamation. And also on October 27, actually Paraskeva Pyatnitsa.

Its metal is silver, its stone is rock crystal and the so-called "moonstone". Makosh the Beast is a cat. The symbol of this goddess is yarn, a ball of wool, a spindle, and they were brought to temples. Mokosh's idols could be made from "female woods", primarily from aspen. The idol of Mokosh could often be horned or have a horn in his hands:

The monk Alberich from the Three Sources in his "Chronicle" of the XI century (according to A. Frenzel, 1712) wrote: “II. 1003 Emperor Henry: subjugated the Vindeliki, a people bordering the Suebi. These vindeliki revered Fortuna; having her idol in the most famous place. They put into his hand a horn full of drink made from water and honey:

A characteristic female horned headdress was worn as early as the 19th century at folk festivals. In any case, she appears to be a tall, portly woman, whose head is crowned with a cap with protruding edges. In her hand (but not the one that Veles has, but in the opposite one) is a cornucopia.

Share, Srecha, Sryashta (Serb.), Meeting, Happiness - a spinner, assistant or younger sister of Makosh, the mother of the lot, Yagishna.

Nedolya, Nesrecha, Nesryashta (Serb.), Misfortune is a spinner, assistant or younger sister of Makosh, the mother of the lot, Yagishna.

So, Makosh herself:

1. Goddess of all Destiny
2. The Great Mother, the goddess of fertility, is associated with the harvest, has 12-13 yearly festivals (and can be celebrated every full moon)
3. The goddess of magic and sorcery, the wife of Veles and the Mistress of the crossroads of the universe between the worlds.
4. Protector and patroness of mistresses.
5. In the lower incarnation, she is the famous Yaga, in this case we can say that she is the mother of the winds, that life and death are equally subject to her.
6. Mistress of Nature.

8. SYTIVRAT or Sytavrat

Mainly, the West Slavic god of fertility, likened in the original source to Saturn, the god of sowing and seeds, according to the Mater Verborum. "Sytivrat - Saturnum pagani illum esse ajunt qui primus ab Olimpo uenit arma Jovis fugiens, - Stracec Sytivratov syn - picus Saturni filius."

Saturn, in turn, is identified with Kronos. In the glosses of Vatserada, the deity of the Vagrians and Slovaks of the type of Saturn is called Sitivrat, Mount Sitna is associated with his name in Slovakia, where “there is an entrance to hell”, and he himself is called a propagandist and a perpetrator. At the same time, the name is associated with the "sower", "sieve" and "light". Serbian "sit" means "light". It is a whirlpool of light. He is the god who turns the sun wheel for the summer and restores the power of fertility to the earth. Its celebration falls on December 17 and coincides with the cronolia or saturnalia.

9. CRUT, Crodo

Also, mainly the West Slavic god, the son of Sytivrat, the god of sacrificial places and fire on them, the father of Svarog, the grandfather of Radegast-Svarozhich, according to "Mater Verborum" - "Radihost vnuk Krtov", was also identified with Saturn. Probably, "stealers" are what this ancient god is watching.

The remnants of the cult of Crodo were caught in the Harz. The idol of Krodov stood on a high, wooded mountain. It was an old man with a bare head, he stood with his bare feet on a fish, he was girded with a white woolen bandage, he held a wheel in one hand, and a vessel with flowers and fruits in the other (dey grote Duvel tour Harzborg). The presence of the wheel indicates that this god is associated with time, the change of seasons, the same circumstance is indicated by the fruits and flowers in his hands. Perhaps he could also be associated with the change of eras, the "golden age of the Slavs", like the Roman Saturn. Associated with the cult of ancestors and the burning of corpses, it was honored by the Vends on Radunitsa - March 9 and May 1. There is a well-known saying among the Croats “not all of us will go to the kingdom of the Moles, others to hell”, which may indicate that the kingdom of Crodo corresponded to the “good times” of Saturn or the “islands of the blessed” Kron, where the shadows of the best of heroes and titans reside.

Korochun, Karachun - a seasonal god from the retinue of Frost (the Novgorod Chronicle says: “the whole autumn rain from the Lady of the days to Korochun stood”). Kerechun or Krochun evening - Christmas Eve or Christmas time. To turn around, to roll a karachun - i.e. cool like a corpse. Perhaps somehow connected with the ancient cult of Krat.

10. SVAROG, Sovarog

The divine blacksmith, a descendant of Sitivrat and Krat, who took over all the chthonic features, leaving Svarog in possession of light, fire and ether, which quite often happens when the pantheon changes, when the once great demiurge gods are replaced by a younger generation of gods, as happened , for example, among the ancient Greeks, when the generations of Uranus (sky) and Kronos were replaced by the Olympians, led by the thunderer Zeus. Svarog is the god-creator and legislator, the father of the Svarozhichs (Perun, Dazhdbog-Radegast, Smagi-Fire and / or Rarog), the demiurge, correlated with Hephaestus, according to the worldview, dating back to the Orphic tradition. Therefore, he is the source of fire and its master. It has much in common with the Finnish Ilmarinen. He creates not with a word, not with magic, unlike Veles, but with his hands, he creates the material world. The difference between Veles and Svarog is akin to the difference between Väinämöinen, the “eternal rune-singer” and the forger Ilmarinen.

With a high degree of probability, we can also say that the pairs Targitai-Koloksai, Svarog-Svarozhich, Kuzma-Demyan go back to one mythologeme. The closest Vedic analogue is the god-creator of the material world Tvashtar. Any forge, any furnace is already the temple of Svarog, therefore, when arranging temples, a modern pagan should remember that. With the wooden idol of Svarog, fire should burn, metal should be heated, and the idol itself should be upholstered with metal. On the temple of Svarog there should be a hammer (or a heavy iron stick-crowbar) and an anvil. It was Svarog who started the Iron Age and taught people how to use iron tools. Sounds pleasant to Svarog - because. he is the first patron of crafts and all craftsmen - blows of hammers, ringing of chains and howling of fire. Trebs of Svarog are brought either with cheese (syrniki) and cottage cheese. The word “cottage cheese” means created, it has the same root as the name Svarog, and is a symbol of heavenly bread. The role of the idol of Svarog can be played by a huge stone, on which the symbols of fire are applied.

Its celebration day falls on November 14 - Svarozhki (the day of Kuzma and Demyan). They honor both father and son - Svarozhich-Fire.

10. LAD and / or LADA - LAD (?)

Lada is the pan-Slavic goddess of love, the female way of life in the family, the goddess of marriage, according to the Czech “Mater Verborum”, (correlating there with Venus) and “Synopsis”, as well as “The Tale of the Construction of a Benedictine Monastery on Bald Mountain” (XVI century records), under the name Gardzyna ("Guardian"). Mentioned in the Polish church prohibitions of pagan rites of the early fifteenth century. Her month is April. She, apparently, is one of the Elk Ancestors. Corresponds with the ancient Greek Lato from the country of the Hyperboreans in the upper hypostasis, and Demeter - in the lower hypostasis. One of the Rozhanitsy. Wife of Lada and / or Svarog (Mars was Aphrodite's lover, Hephaestus was her husband). Its metal is gold, copper or bronze, and its stone is emerald.

Lad, Lado, Lyado, Ladon - the god of war, the god of fun, the god of marriage, the god of hell. According to the opinion accepted in modern science, Lada and Lad are one deity, such a well-known researcher as Faminitsyn was scolded for highlighting the god Lad, but the authors of the book have a different opinion on this matter, since a significant number of references to the god Lad are in the primary sources: Lad ("Synopsis"); Lado or Lyado (“Gustinskaya chronicle”, “On the idols of Vladimirovs”); Ladon - "Polish Chronicle" by Jan Dlugosh; Alado (in Polish ecclesiastical prohibitions of pagan rites of the early fifteenth century). The deity Lado has signs of hermaphroditism, as well as the ancient Greek Apollo, Dedis Dewie (Did-Lado is our great deity), Dlugosh is echoed by other researchers Strykovsky, Belsky, Mekhovsky, Prokosh.

“Gustin Chronicle”: “The fourth (idol) Lado (si is Pluton), the god of hell, this was believed to be the god of marriage, fun, consolation and all prosperity, like Elina Bacchus; to this, sacrifices are brought to the Shah who want to marry, so that with his help a good and loving marriage would be. This Ladon demon, in some countries, and to this day at christenings and brothers is called, singing his own certain songs, and splashing his hands on his hands or on the table, Lado, Lado, weaving his songs, they commemorate many times. By the consonance of names, as is always the case in mythology, Lad and Lada make up a married couple. May be identified with the Roman Venus or the Greek Persephone. In this case, if the goddess Lada is identified with Venus, then Lad is close to Mars. If Lada is close to Demeter or Persephone, then Lada is related to Hades.

12. LIZARD, Yasha, Yassa, Iassa, Issaya, Yesha

Common Slavic hellish god. World Serpent. Mentioned more than once in the Polish church prohibitions of pagan rites in the 1420s. Perhaps it is one of the incarnations of Veles-Chernobog (as the son of Loki was the Midgard Serpent, and Azhi-Dahaka was the son of Anghro-Mainyu). In the Western Slavic medieval sources, it is mentioned together with Lado (see Lad).

The lizard is a hellish god.

However, according to the "Polish Chronicle" by Jan Dlugosh, he - Jessa - is correlated with Jupiter. And Famintsyn compares this deity, having nothing but a name, with Belobog, supposedly this is a “clear” god.

We believe that there is no god Jason - this is the fruit of the imagination of interpreters. In "Mater Verborum" we find, however, such a "namesake": "Jesen, jasni: Iesen, Yasni - Isis lingua egiptiorum terra dicitur".

Probably, there is just the owner of the depths and / or the kingdom of minerals, maybe the sea king - Yesha, the Lizard. It is characteristic that it was Poseidon of the Greeks who was called the "shaker of the earth." According to Dlugosh, "Jesus was prayed for the gift of earthly blessings." Music in the myth of Sadko is a worship service to the Sea King, and the harp had a lizard-like shape.

The Belarusian song has survived to this day:

Sit the Lizard under the fireworks
On a walnut bush
Where is the walnut lusna ...
(I want to get married)
Get yourself a girl
Which one do you want...

We know of other variants of it:

sit sit Yasha
Under the walnut bush
Gnaw-bite Yasha

Chok-chok, piglet!
Get up Yasha, you fool.
Where is your bride
What is she wearing
What is her name
And where will they bring...

Recorded several years ago in the village of Frolovo, Moscow Region, by Konstantin Begtin.

Side-sede Yashsha
At the willow bush
Gnawing Yashsha
Knee nuts, sweetly presented.
Tsok-tsok, lollipop,
Get up (beep) Yashsha, well done.
Come your bride
What is she wearing
What is her name
And from where they will bring ...

Academician Rybakov B. A. in “Paganism of Ancient Russia” writes: “... the Slavic Lizard, who married a drowned girl, corresponds to Hades, the god of the underworld, the wife of Persephone. And the sacrifice was made not to these forces of seasonal action themselves, but to the constantly existing ruler of all underground-underwater forces that promote fertility, i.e. Lizard, Hades, Poseidon.

The toponyms of many lakes and rivers of the North-West remain traces of the habitation of "Russian crocodiles": the Yaschera River, Lake Yaschino, the settlements of Yaschera, Malaya Yaschera, etc. In the vicinity of Moscow, one can point to the Spas-Crocodile Monastery near Klin (now the village of Spas-Krokodilino) . In the Novgorod region, there may have been a temple in the area of ​​​​the ruins of the Rdeisky monastery. In the same place, the Lizard was considered as a father or Volkhov himself.

The Lizard was especially honored on the Nut Savior and generously poured nuts into the mouths of the Lizard's idols. Perhaps, as a pallet ruler, a girl's doll (or even the girl herself) was thrown into the water.

13. LELYA, Lyalya.

Goddess of fertility. The second Rozhanitsa, daughter of Lado, who, according to the Synopsis (1674), is Lelev's mother. A virgin, but a goddess of childbearing, similar to Artemis (“The Tale of the Construction of a Benedictine Monastery on Bald Mountain” (XVI century records): “Bald Mountain is named after the Lysets castle, which was on it, so named because it was white. In that castle "one lady lived before. Exalted with pride that she defeated Alexander the Great under that mountain, she ordered to venerate herself as the goddess Diana: in the same place there was a temple of three idols whose names were Lada, Boda, Lelya. To them ordinary people converged on the first day May, pray to them and offer sacrifices to them.” By order of Princess Dubravka, the church was destroyed, and the Trinity Monastery was built there.

Since the celebration of Lelya and Lada fell on the first days of May, this gives reason to say that they are still goddesses, because on the night of May 1, on Bald Mountain, witches, according to the views of Christians, spend their Sabbath - Walpurgis Night. We learn a little earlier, in the Czestochowa manuscript of Jan from Mikhochin "(1423) we learn that" on these three days (Trinity holidays): old women, women and girls converge, but not to the temple, not to prayer, but to dances, not God, but the devil, that is, Yesha, Lado, Lelya, Nyya. Such, if they do not repent, let them go with "Yassa, Lado" to eternal damnation. And in a number of other Polish teachings against paganism of the 13th-14th centuries it is said that it is the girls who worship idols, and precisely in these days. Thus, Lelya is a goddess, and only in the fantasies of the authors of the 16th-18th centuries did she become the boy Lelya.

On Russian embroideries, perhaps, Lelya the woman in labor is presented as one of the two Elks, between them is Makosh, often mentioned next to Lada and Lada. Her day is Monday. Most likely the daughter of Lada (Boda) and Lada. Her tree is a mountain ash, but more often a birch ("In the field there was a birch - Lyalya, Lyalya stood"), metal - silver. The cult of Lelya and Lada is considered in detail by B. A. Rybakov. Lyalin Day also fell on the first days of October, when the hunting season began from October 2 to October 7. And also on Pokrova on October 14, if snow falls inadvertently. In the lower hypostasis is correlated with Persephone.

14. DY, DY, DIV

In Vedic and Sanskrit, deva is a derivative of the verbal root div, one of the meanings of which is “to shine” (and in general, there are a lot of them). It is from the same root that the words div and diy come, which have common indirect forms in Vedic (for example, dyaus in the nominative and vocative (with different stress), dive in the dative, etc.), and the stems of which alternate in Sanskrit. So, both div and diy mean "sky", "day", etc. Accordingly, these words also have a lot of derivatives. By the way, the literal meaning of the word deva is "heavenly". It is quite logical to assume that the Slavic divs and dyy are closely related to each other. Dyy is a god, according to the Dyevoy Ministry and the Word and Revelation of the Holy Apostles.

He is the Div bird from The Tale of Igor's Campaign. “Running Div, calls to the top of the tree - orders to listen to the unknown land” “Already blasphemed to praise; I will already crack the need to freedom; Divi is already falling to the ground.

Perhaps the god of heavenly waters is the next primordial sky, and not the one that was forged by the divine blacksmith Svarog. Since Deva in Sanskrit means "God", it can be compared with Rod as one of his names, meaning the abstract "God", the sky and the light of day.

“According to the Letovnik of George Amartol,” Galkovsky tells us, Diy was the son of Kron and the brother of Nin. Diy was named in the imelstye stars. The Persians had a law to take their mother and sister, which is why Diy was married to his sister Ira. In honor of Diya in Egypt, goats and other animals were slaughtered. Amartol says that Serug was the first to introduce the Hellenic doctrine in the Babylonian land to honor the exploits and deeds of the ancient former warriors or princes; later, non-leading people began to revere the famous ancestors for gods: “like the gods of heaven, honor the gods, and zhrehou them, and not like a man who was dead.” Thus, people began to deify people who made some kind of discovery or invention - such, for example. Posidon - the inventor of shipbuilding, Hephaestus, the forger of copper, etc. But these deified heroes were ordinary people. “And of old, oubo, even from the creator of the gods, dia and krona and apolon, and iroya, more, human gods to be, deceitful things.” Then poems began to be deified under these names. “Dia dzhda decide to be”, i.e. Di is rain. Below it is said that people served the creature more than the Creator, idolized the sky, the earth, animals, birds and reptiles. "Imenovahow Dia sky". So, in Amartol, Diy means the deity of rain and sky, i.e. Zeus. We believe that the compiler of the Russian word was familiar with the Hellenic Chronicler of the first edition. According to the Chronicler, Diy was the son of Kronos (i.e. Chronos), who reigned in Assyria, who devoured his children; but Diy was saved thanks to the cunning of his mother Aria, who gave Krona a stone instead of a child. Diy in the Chronicler is identified with Zeus: “When would it be time for her to give birth to the Peak called Zeus, izhi es Diy”. A few lines below we read: “Kron, leave your son Peak Zeus, those who are, leave them in Asuri,” he took possession of the western countries. In the Chronograph of the second edition, Diy is also identified with Zeus: “there is Diy about Zeus.” Smoke is the same as DY. Diy also had a feminine form: “to eat the ov, and the other divi”. The conversation of Gregory the Theologian about the beating of the city, - Slavic insert. So, Diy or Dyy is the god of rain and sky, i.e. Zeus".

15. DIVA, DIVA

Goddess of the earth, wife of Dyya: “Oh, make demands on the stauden, jda lawsuits from him, forgetting like God from heaven to give. Eat the bearers of God, and make the God who created heaven and earth unfriend. She calls the river a goddess, and the beast living in it, like calling a god, demands to create. Eat sheep, and the other Divi. And read the ingrad. Ov shit vskrosch, laying on the head, the oath to create; ov oaths to create human bones. Ov kobeni bird watch. Ov meeting doubt. Ov muschn cattle, creating to kill. Ov in the week and on holy days to do, profit to yourself, creating your own death, but to do it this week, kill those days. I swear on my best lies"

Since in almost all Indo-European mythological systems there is a pair of "earth-sky", it is quite logical to assume that Div and Diva are such a pair, since Div corresponds to the sky and the light of the sky. Divya is the goddess Mother-Cheese-Earth, fertilized by the heavenly waters of Dyya. Divya, divitsa and other derivatives from here.

GODS AND GODDESSES OF A NEW GENERATION

16. YARILO, Yarovit and Ruevit

These are different incarnations of the same deity of fertility (“yar”, “spring”), the ardent god of awakening matter (“fury”), strength and youth (“yarka” - a young strong sheep) and spring light (“bright”) (Eastern Slav Yarilo; Zap.Slav. Yarovit, Zap.Slav. Yaromir according to the unrecognized "Kraledvorskaya Manuscript"). The god of war Yarovit, whose temple was in Volegast (Volegoshche), is functionally similar to the violent, zealous Tour of the Eastern Slavs, Mars - the Romans according to eyewitnesses, Arey - the Greeks, Tyr - the Scandinavians.

It is possible that Yarovit and Ruevit - Yariy and Zealous - are two names of a single deity among the Western Slavs. Rugevit or Ruevit - among the Rug-Ruyans, the seven-faced god of war, an idol stood in the city of Karenze (Kornitsa) on Rügen. Saxo writes: “(The city) is famous for the temples of three glorious temples. The main temple was located in the middle of the front part of the temple, which, like the temple, having no walls, was bequeathed with a purple cloth, so that the roof lay on the same columns. When both covers were torn off, the oak idol of Ruevit ugly opened up from all sides.

Ruevita's idol was exterminated by Bishop Absalon in 1168. He had eight swords and seven heads and was gigantic in stature. Four heads were male and two female, the seventh animal was on the chest. Unless the paraphernalia says that these are different gods in the understanding of the Rugs and Stetins. The symbol of Yarovit was a huge shield, most likely personifying the sun, since holidays were held in honor of it before the start of summer (as with Yarila, calling fertility to the fields).

It is quite characteristic that Yarilo participates in Belarusian holidays either in the form of Yara-Yarilikha, or in the form of a man with a huge phallus. Meanwhile, the root "yar" is present in such specifically "female" words: spring sheep - bright, yoke, spring wheat, spring bread, but the use of this root in the feminine: rage, milkmaid, yar, yarina (sheep's wool), yara (Spring).

We consider Yarila as a dying and resurrecting son or a reality hypostasis of Veles, who acts as Frost in winter, and in spring as Yarila. His day is Tuesday. Its month is March, named after the god of war - Mars, its metal is iron, stones - amber, ruby, garnet, hematite.

It seems interesting to us that this god had its analogues among a number of peoples. And, although a number of researchers hastily write down Yarila in late medieval fiction, this cannot be so since the root “yar” is the oldest common Slavic and even Indo-Aryan root. Recall that, etymologically and functionally, the Slavic Yaril correspond to the Roman Eryl, who has several lives, like Mars, the god of the ardent power of the rebirth of nature, the Hitto-Hurrian god of war Yarri, the Akkadian god of war Erra, the Greek god of war Ares-Arey.

The celebration of Yarila firstly falls on March 21, the beginning of the first month of the pagan year, this is due to the fact that "the cattle god raises Winter on his horns." Perhaps on the same day the gods awakening life were honored - Zhiva, Dazhdbog and Svarog. They honor Yarila and Yuri Zimny ​​- December 9, together with Dazhdbog.

17. DAZHDBOG, Dazhbog, Dab, RADEGAST, Radigosh, Svarozhich

They are different variations of the same name. God of fertility and sunlight, life-giving force. We correlate with Helios, the son of Svarog. The first ancestor of the Slavs (the Slavs, according to the text "The Word of Igor's Campaign" - Dazhdbozh's grandchildren) "Then, under Olze, Gorislavlichi sows and stretches out strife, the life of Dazhdbozh's grandson perishes, in princely sedition, the vezi is reduced to a man."

“Resentment arose in the strength of Dazhdbozh’s grandson, entered the land of Troyan as a virgin, splashed her swan wings on the blue sea near the Don: splash, lose fat times.”

According to the "Word of John Chrysostom ... what was the first trash they believed in idols and they laid trebs on them ...", the god of the sun and life-giving power.

Probably, Dazhdbog could, following the white Sventovit, correlate with Apollo (Targeliy) as the god of sunlight. In teachings against paganism, among other gods, they are mentioned next to Artemis: “and having started to the idol and began to eat lightning and thunder, and the sun and the moon, and friends to Pereun, Hours, vilam and Mokosh, we rest and coast, they also call distant sisters, and others we believe in Svarozhitz and in Artemis, whom the unknowing people pray, and they cut chickens ... and we drown the essence in the waters. And friends come to the wells to pray and throw into the water ... offering a sacrifice, and friends fire and stone, and rivers, and springs, and banks, and firewood - not only before in filth, but many and now they are doing it.

Dazhdbog. He, apparently, is Radegast, Radogost - among the Western Slavs, according to the German chronicles; Radigoshch and Radogoshch - among the Vyatichi. The son of Svarog, the grandson of Krat, the god of the sun and the real Light (also correlated with Mitra), his day is Sunday, his metal is gold, his stone is yahont. The celebration may fall on the day of Rodion the Icebreaker. The largest cult center of Svarozhich was located on the lands of the Lutich Retarii, was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt again - in 953 it was ruined by Otto the First, in 1068 by the Saxon Bishop Burchardt the Second and was finally burned by the Germans in 1147-1150. during the crusade against the pagans of the Bavarian Duke Heinrich the Lion. Bronze images of the Lutich gods and ritual objects from the Retrinsk temple were found in the soil of the village of Prilwitz at the end of the 17th century. The figurines are covered with Slavic runic inscriptions. On the lands of the Vyatichi people, settlements were also named in honor of the god Svarozhich. The name Radegast would sound like Radigosh here. Radogoshch - two settlements claim its role - this is either Pogar on the Sudost River (a tributary of the Desna), west of Trubchevsk and north of Novgorod Seversky, or Radogosh proper on the Nerussa River, north of Sevsk and west of Krom. The sacred animal of Dazhdbog - Radegast was considered a lion (like the Persian god of the Sun - Mithra), Svarozhich was depicted either with a lion's head or riding a chariot drawn by lions. Note that the root “rad” meant sunlight among the Slavs, hence the “rainbow” - the solar arc. The same "solar" root and the word "joy, joy" - that is, given by the rays (cf. lat. radio) of the sun.

Hence the names Radegast, Radogosh consist of three words: Rad - sunny, "yes", before" by analogy with Dagbog, Dazhdbog can mean donation, gift, and "gast", "gosh" are semantically close to the word "guest". In other words, these names, perhaps, mean: "a guest who gives the sun and sunlight", or the messenger of the gods, who brought the power of light and the sun as a gift. In this case, the East Slavic Dazhbog and the West Slavic Radegast are different names for the same god - Svarozhich. Frenzel speaks of him as "De Radegastos. Marte Soraborumque altero supremo Deo ”- Radegast in the Serbo-Lusatian pantheon is no less significant than even Sventovit himself.

The symbols of Svarozhich are not only royal lions, but also wild boars (boar is also the embodiment of Indian Vishnu and Scandinavian Freyr). One of the attributes is a sword, later an ax, and also a spear, possibly a scarlet banner: “Does the devil Svarozhich and the leader of the saints converge in this, yours and ours Mauritius? Those. Who in front raises the sacred spear, and those who stain the diabolical banners with human blood?

Radegast's bird is a rooster that heralds the coming of the sun with its cry. On the idol, the Venedian runes wrote the name of God, perhaps there was also solar symbolism. The head of the idol is placed at sunrise or southeast so that he can follow its course.

Dazhdbog was called the Savior, i.e. Savior, but not in the sense of saving the lost sheep of Israel, but in the military sense - a protector. Therefore, the apple (August 19) and honey Savior (August 14) are the days of honoring Svarozhich. He, along with Yarila, is also honored on Yuri Zimny ​​(December 9).

18. PERUN, Perunova

The god of thunder and lightning, like heavenly fire, is mentioned in the annals in the treaties of the Rus and Slavs with the Romans (Prince Oleg - 907, Prince Igor - 945, Prince Svyatoslav - 971). Svarozhich (Perun - in Russian chronicles, Perunova, Perun, that is, Jupiter - in "Mater Verborum", Peroun - in the "Word and Revelation of the Holy Apostles" from the teachings against paganism of the 14th century). How the Elinsky god (a hint of Zeus) is mentioned in the "Word of Bribery" (list of the 16th century) and in the "Word of Repentance" (list of the 16th century). The supreme god of the pantheon Vladimir is the god of the ruling military elite, the prince and the squad. God punishing for non-compliance with the laws of Reveal and Rule. Comprehensive information about the idol of Perun is contained in the “Gustin Chronicle”: “Firstly, Perkonos, this is Perun, they had an elder god, created in the likeness of a man, he also had a valuable stone in his hands like fire, he, like God, offered sacrifice and fire unquenchable from the oak tree incessantly fire; if it would have happened due to the negligence of the serving priest when this fire is extinguished, such a priest without any warning and mercy would kill him.

And also in the teaching “On the idols of the Vladimirovs”: “In the first place put the most basic idol. In the name of God's perun, thunder i lightning i rain clouds on a hillock high above a storm stream like a little man. his bodies were cunningly carved from the tree; In the hands of holding a stone in the likeness of a perun, a burning one. rubies. And decorated with a carboucle: "Further, the story with unquenchable fire is repeated word for word. According to Frenzel - "Percuno, Deo tonitru & fulguru".

Perun is also mentioned in the “Tale of the (Mamaev) Massacre led. book. Ditriy Ivanovich Donskoy "together with Mokosh among the pagan gods of the impious "Tatars". But, most likely, the compassionate compiler of the narrative wrote down the main pagan gods as assistants to the wicked, which, undoubtedly, he knew even then - Mokos (Veles) and Perun. It must be admitted that among the supporters of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich, then an ally of another Khan Takhtamysh, there were baptized Tatars, and, perhaps, not only baptized ones. The ruin of Moscow by Mamai's successor in 1382 forced this fact to be hushed up in every way in Russian history and the Battle of Kulikovo field was filed with a clearly religious connotation in the interests of the Orthodox Church.

Perunov day - Thursday. The day of Elijah the Prophet (August 2) and the period from July 20 to August 2-4 are especially celebrated. They also celebrate Perunov's day on June 21 ("Fedor-Stratilat is rich in thunderstorms")

Its metal is tin, its stone is belemnite (devil's finger-perun's arrows), sapphire, lapis lazuli; tree - oak, beech. It was associated with fertility, in Orthodoxy it is correlated with Elijah the Prophet, as the defender of the real world from the Navi, in later times it is correlated with Zeus, who owns a perun. Correlates with Perkunas of the Balts, Thor of the Scandinavians, Tarinis of the Celts.

So, Perun, the elder son of Svarog:

1. God of thunder and lightning as heavenly fire
2. The patron saint of warriors and the princely squad.
3. God-ruler, god punishing for non-compliance with laws.
4. Defender of Yavi.
5. Giver of male power.

The symbolism of the temple is an oak idol, a stone, or two stones on either side of the idol, a sacrificial fire lit in front of the idol, a six-beam wheel on the idol, a symbol of lightning or an arrow, or even a thunder arrow itself with the idol. Probably the pagans did not cut live trees for idols - a live, but an old, powerful oak was already a symbol of worship for them, putting facial features on it with gold and silver paint. Oak struck by lightning was especially revered and amulets, staves, wands, arrows made from it were considered the best guardians from Navi.

19. SIMARGL, SEMARGL

Fire god. First of all, his name is mentioned in Russian chronicles - the pantheon of Prince. Vladimir, it came, presumably, from the old Russian “smag” (“I’ll call Karn after him, and Zhlya jump across the Russian land, Smag mooing in a rose flame”) i.e. fire, tongue of flame, Fire-Svarozhich - half dog, half snake. Probably, the mediator between the real world and the world under heaven, which in the Vedic tradition is the god of fire - Agni. He is a penezhny (fiery) snake from conspiracies. Mentioned in the Paisevsky collection of St. Gregory (14th century) and the Chrysostom collection of 1271 Ognebog-Yognebozhe, according to the Veda of the Slavs by Verkovich, among the Pomak Bulgarians;

Fala ti Yogne God!
Fala ti Yasnu Sun!
You heat up on the earth.
Having baked a chick to the ground ...
... Pokrivash e tsyrna Muggle,
that sa niche and look.

He, quite possibly, is Rarog, Rarozhek is the son of Svarog, according to Czech medieval sources. Already in Orthodox times in PJJ, according to ak. B.A. Rybakov, Pereplut is named - the god of soil, plant roots, plant power, but there are no grounds for identifying Pereplut and Semargl. Such a correlation, of course, has a certain sacred meaning, since plants under the influence of sunlight, as it were, pierced (horn) the soil and went out to the sun, but Semargl is also not connected with the sun.

Identification of this god with the Iranian Senmurv (a giant magic bird) we believe is unjustified, but there is probably a connection with the firebird (a fiery herald of happiness) that brings his happiness.

In the Middle Ages, it was incorrectly understood under the name of two gods at once: “For the sake of it, it is not appropriate for Christians to play bezovsky games, even eating dancing, gudba, songs of the Myr and eating idlskaya, even praying to fires with a barn and pitchfork and Mokoshiya and Sim and Rgl and Perun and Rod and Rozhanitsy" ("Word about bribery" according to the list of the 16th century).

The interpretation of Rugla as a separate lizard-like deity is not justified. Recognizing him, it will be necessary to prove that Prince Vladimir established the pillars of both Sim and Rugla, while there is no indication of this.

Semargl also spoke under his own name, let's say in the Word of a certain Christ-lover of the XIV century: “I pray to fire Svarozhich, i chives - to God, but they create him - when there is a feast for someone, then they put them in buckets and bowls, and drink about their idols rejoicing is not worse than the essence of heretics.

Semargl-Svarozhich was honored on all those days when the folk calendar is replete with signs of a fire and fire. On April 14 Marena burns down in a ritual flame and together with her Semargl drowns the last snows. September 17 - Burning Bush, possibly Podaga. Semargl-Svarozhich is honored from November 14 to 21 in Svarozhki, the image of Svarozhich-Fire merged with the image of the Archangel Michael with a fiery sword.

20. HORS, HOROS

God of the solar disk. Note that the veneration of the sun separately as a planet and sunlight is found among many peoples. So, among the Etruscans, the god of the solar disk is Strength, and the god of light is the god Kave; among the ancient Greeks, the solar disk is Helios, and the light of the sun is Apollo; among the Russians, the god of sunlight is Dazhdbog, and the god of the solar disk is Khors.

The cult tends to the steppe and forest-steppe zone of the Slavic lands, the name of this god is mentioned in the Russian chronicles of the pantheon of Prince. Vladimir, in the apocryphal “Walking of the Virgin through the torments”, in the PJP “On the idols of Vladimirov”, “Memory and praise to Vladimir” and the life of “blessed Volodimer”, “The word of a certain Christ-lover”, “A word about how the first trash existing tongues bowed to an idol ”, he is commemorated in the “Conversation of the Three Hierarchs”.

“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” testifies to a certain night path of Khors, for Vseslav prowled in the form of a wolf precisely at night: “Vseslav prince is judging by people, he is a prince of the city, and he himself is a wolf prowling in the night; from Kiev doriskashe to the chickens of Tmutorokan, the path of the great Khorsov and the wolf is broken by a wolf.

“The word and revelation of the holy apostles”: “the gods of many Perouna and Khorsa Dyya and Trojan and other many will not enter into the delusion of greatness, for as if the people were the elders of Peroun in Elinah, and Khors in Cyprus, Troyan was the king in Rome.” “... others around the borders pray to him, the damned fool Perenou, Khorsow, Mokshi, vilam ...”

Welcoming Khors, the Slavs danced and built Sanctuaries for him - mansions, mansions. In Orthodoxy, he is associated with George the Victorious and, as a solar deity, he should be a horseman and a serpent fighter, he is probably the god of the world order in something similar to Mithra.

The German Wunderer, who traveled around Russia later in 1581, described the image of Khors near Pskov: “Kors (i.e. Khors), who stands on a snake, having a sword in one hand, and a fiery ray in the other.” It should be noted the undoubtedly significant work of the researcher from Russia Alexei Bychkov, who drew on a lot of Western sources that were previously inaccessible to us, describing Khors in a similar way (and a number of other Slavic gods in the late Middle Ages).

The following words are probably associated with the name of Khors in Russian: good, khoruv, chorus, associated with the true order of things (right) and joint work. Khors is the god of the world order associated with the course of the sun. Khors and Dazhdbog correlate as Greek Helios and Apollo. God Navi could be called, in contrast to him, Black Horos, i.e. the same solar disk, but located on the night side of the world. The image goes back to ancient times and the serpent-fighting myth. Perhaps, among the Skolots, this is Koloksai (Sun-king) - the son of Targitai (blacksmith Svarog), and then the god Khors - Svarozhich.

Note that the roots "horo" and "kolo" are semantically associated with the concept of round. A round dance is a circle of people holding hands walking in a circle, mansions are a circular building, a banner is something that unites the military circle. Such round objects as a bell, a kolobok (round side), a stake, a brace are associated with the root “kolo”. The latter concept is directly related to the change in solar cycles. Horse's Day is Sunday, like Dazhdbog's, metal is pure gold. The days of Khors coincide with any solstice, for example, summer - June 21 to 25 (Kupala), autumn - September 21 - 23 (Ovsen Small, Tausen, Autumn Horos). An indispensable attribute of the veneration of Khors is round dances.

21. MARA, MORENA

Marzhana, Martsana, Morena, Morana - the pan-Slavic goddess of fertility and harvest. According to the "Chronicle of Poland" by Jan Długosz and "Mater Verborum", correlated with Hekate ("Ecate, trivia vel nocticula, Proserpina"). She is also Mara - the goddess of death according to the late origin of the "Kraledvorskaya Manuscript" and Marzava according to A. Frenzel ("De Marzava, Dea Morte, Dea Mortis"). Morana among the Czechs in the late Middle Ages is the goddess of not just death, but also winter.

For the expulsion of Mary, a poker and plowing of the settlement were used. The dark side of the goddess is associated with such concepts as pestilence, haze, the sea, as a dangerous environment, a nightmare. The goddess herself is the hypostasis of the most ancient Great Mother - the mistress of life and death, and in this case is the dark side of Mokosh or Yaga in her dark hypostasis. It is no coincidence that Makosh was compared with Hecate. Madder is honored at the Meeting - Wednesday, February 15, they appease her so that she does not linger, and spring is called. Maslenitsa is considered the culmination of the celebrations of Marena days.

22. ALIVE

Slavic goddess of life and fertility. In "Mater Verborum" we meet "Ziva: Alive - dea frumenti Ceres, - Diva Estas". Dlugosh says that Zhive is the god of life. This is the fifteenth century and it is not so far from the truth. In the Serbo-Lusatian pantheon of A. Frenzel, there are more variations of this name: “Siwa Polon. Zyvvie, Dea vita".

Her name is also the beautiful lady (Krasopani), as well as Milka or Milda (Mila). Zhiva's largest sanctuary was in the Polabian town of Ratibor. Foreign authors of the 15th-17th centuries redraw each other's image of her in the form of a buxom naked woman with fruits in her hands. In semantics, the name of the goddess is close to the word "life" and is associated with the idea of ​​prosperity, as in the words: profit, profit. Stryjkowski connects a certain "god of the noisy wind Zhiva" and the Weather, "the god of clear and cheerful days." Two centuries later, Prokosh speaks of the god Zhiva as the supreme one, and the son of a certain god Trzha. Live with Prokosh "the creator of life, long and happy well-being, he was especially worshiped by those who heard the first cry of the cuckoo: It was believed that this supreme ruler of the Universe turns into a cuckoo in order to announce their life span:". However, this is a later myth-making.

23. PORVATA

Zap.-glor. goddess of spring. Opponent of Mary Morena, goddess of fertility according to the Mater Verborum, also correlated with Proserpina. Probably, it is she who meets with Mara at the Candlemas. Etymologically connected with Porevit, Porenut and Prove. Perhaps etymologically connected with Parvati, the wife of Shiva (our Veles), who has the same functions, the mother of Skanda (our Yarila).

24. PERUNITSA-LETNITSA

Letnitsa (western-glorious) goddess, wife of Perun, according to the Mater Verborum, she is probably Perunitsa, Gromovitsa, Melania, the Lightning Queen. Honored on the same days as Perun.

25. CORUNA

Mother of the gods, according to the PJP "Word of St. Gregory"; perhaps this is one of the epithets of Lada or Diva. It is quite possible that her name is associated with the word crown and crown, as the designation of the supreme and upper (see roof, roof).

26. PROVE

Prono, Provo, Prove (Rrovo) (Zap.-Slav.) - the god of law, the god of oak groves, was revered by the Wagrams, the god of the Aldenburg land according to Helmold: “... we went further along Slavia to visit one powerful man, whose name was Teshemir because he invited us to his place. And it happened that on the way we came to a grove, the only one in this region, which is entirely located on the plain. Here, among very old trees, we saw sacred oaks dedicated to the god of this land - Prova. They were surrounded by a courtyard surrounded by a skillfully made wooden fence, which had two gates. All cities abounded with penates and idols, but this place was the shrine of the whole earth ... The Slavs have such respect for their shrines that the place where the temple is located is not allowed to be defiled with blood even during the war. It is also reported by Shchediy Mikhei (“On the German Gods” (c. 1750), “De Prove, deo sive praeside Justitia ac fori” - A. Frenzel (“History of the Peoples and Customs of Upper Lusatia”, 1696). The “Saxon Chronicle” by Konrad Botho (1495) says this: “1123 In Oldenburg there was a god called Prove, and he stood on a pillar, and had a red iron of trials in his hand, and had a banner and long ears, and a pair of boots, and under the foot is a bell.

27. PORENUCH

Porenut (Porenutius) (West-Slav.). With regard to Porenuch or Porenut and Porevit (Porevith), little can be said for certain, except that both have five faces, five heads. Frenzel defines it like this: "De Porenuito, Deo embryonis"

(C) "Circle of Bera" from "Circle of Pagan Tradition", 2003

Since ancient times, people have explained many phenomena by the "wrath" or "gift" of God. To the question "how many pagan gods were there?" no one can answer. Only a few pagan gods are known, such as the ancient Russian god Svarog or Dazhdbog, but they could also form a pantheon. There were also pagan gods and the "lower" class, which united any minorities or were associated with seasonal rites or economic cycles.

Also, female deities belonged to this class of pagan gods, in which only some groups believed. As a sign of respect for all the gods, feasts were held for each, where all kinds of livestock like goats and rams were sacrificed to them, thus affecting them, and sometimes they simply brewed beer for the whole tribe. On such holidays, the pagan gods also took a meal along with people.

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Various pagan gods and spirits controlled a certain element and impulse of natural phenomena. The gods represented the role of the creator in their field. In turn, people with a developed consciousness controlled the natural gods and spirits. After listing some pagan gods, you can not only learn about that era, but also compare the cultures of different peoples.

Svarog, he is a saint - researchers believe that he was the supreme god of the Eastern Slavs and heavenly fire. It is depicted in the drawings as a warrior with a four-headed horse, which symbolizes the cardinal points. In his hand you can see the cornucopia.

Perun - in Slavic mythology, he took the place of the god of thunder. At the end of the years of paganism in Russia, he was the main god, personifying princely power. Depicted in the drawings in the form of an angry bull Tura. There is also a mention of him in the book "The Tale of Igor's Campaign". Veles - known as the central deity in Slavic mythology and was the patron saint of domestic animals. One of the greatest gods of the ancient world.

The genus is the parent of all living things and everything that we see around. His merits included the separation of Pravda from Krivda. Some consider him one of the oldest deities. Avsen, he is Ovsen,

Usen is a pagan god who changes the seasons. Represented in the images by a man on a golden-red horse, who brought spring and autumn.

Lada - harmony, love and beauty under the rule of this Slavic goddess. On her images you can see a beautiful maiden with a huge bouquet of flowers.

Belobog is the god of fertility.

Niy, also known as Viy, is a pagan god who acts as a posthumous judge and ruler of the underworld. Dark guardian of souls. Souls that have left the body.

Lelya is the daughter of Lada, the goddess of Spring. It is inextricably linked with the awakening of nature in the spring, as well as the resumption of field work.

Alive - youth, beauty, fruitful power, all this is in the personification of Spring.

Makosh is the pagan goddess of fate, as well as all women's needlework. "Makosh" can be referred to as "mother". Prefers female fertility and productivity, economic prosperity in the house.

Mara is the most ancient Slavic goddess. Death, she's Morena, Mara. Gloomy, but not at all evil.

Volkh - was supposedly a werewolf god, an earthly god, a god of hunting.

Stribog was the god of the wind in Slavic mythology. The tamer of the storm, found on the pages of the book "The Tale of Igor's Campaign".

Yarila (Yarilo) - ardent, like a quick-tempered, cheerful, furious. Yarila was a rider on a white horse with red hair.

Chernobog - acted as a pagan god of darkness, the ruler of Navi and the Pekelny kingdom. Depicted as a humanoid idol. Black body color and silver mustache.

Dajbog is the god of the Sun, who gives heat and light. Ancestors believed that this pagan god is the patron of weddings.

Dogoda is a pagan god of warm wind, pleasant weather. God of the quiet. In the images it is found as a ruddy young man in a cornflower blue wreath, wings behind his back, who overshadows everything around with his smile.

Numberbog - the pagan god of numbers, the conqueror of time. This god has two faces - one is like the sun, and the other is a crescent. The sun symbolizes the course of the day, and the moon symbolizes the night.

Khors is the Slavic god of the Sun, a relative of Veles. Scientists have long been unable to determine its full nature.

Semargp is the Slavic god of fire, who is only mistakenly called the heavenly dog, who guards the seeds for sowing.

Chur - among our ancestors, this pagan deity was of a low rank, but many remember and honor him. It is believed that he was the ruler and saver of land holdings. And many more different deities, responsible for various moments of life.

Prayer is the most popular genre of religious literature inherited from the ancient pagans. Every culture and people had their own prayer. The Greek hymn, the Babylonian psalm, the prayers of the Romans in prose, the liturgy of the Vedas - all this is just a small part of the prayers that ascended to the pagan gods.

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Paganism (people, peoples) - it is customary to consider that these are various religions adopted before Christianity. In other words, many divine religions. Christianity is the direct opposite of these religions, since paganism meant the people and "languages".

The pagan gods were the national religion, but the pagans themselves did not call themselves such a definition. Pagan gods magically influenced nature, communicated with ancestors. In the cult of the pagan gods, in addition to the usual "calendar" holidays, there were also agricultural celebrations, as well as family feasts. In the future, such religions began to simply be destroyed by Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, but they did not succeed in completely destroying such a cult. Scientists, in turn, try to avoid the term "paganism", because of the variety of concepts of this word.

In 980, Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich made an attempt to create a nationwide pagan pantheon, but unfortunately the attempt was unsuccessful. After that, the baptism of Russia took place in 988. This opinion should be attributed to erroneous, since already initially many peoples had a pantheon. This pantheon was erected for a different reason. Nevertheless, paganism was pushed into popular culture by the official religions (Christianity, Buddhism, Islam).

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- the embodiment of light, the god of goodness, good luck, happiness, good, the personification of the daytime and spring sky. His sanctuary was on a hill open to the sun, and Belbog's numerous gold and silver ornaments reflected the play of rays and even at night illuminated the temple, where there was not a single shadow, not a single gloomy corner.

Veles is one of the greatest gods of the ancient world, the son of Rod, the brother of Svarog. His main act was that Veles set the world created by Rod and Svarog in motion. Veles - "cattle god" - the owner of the wild, the owner of Navi, a powerful wizard and werewolf, an interpreter of laws, an art teacher, a patron of travelers and merchants, a god of luck.

Dazhdbog is the god of the Sun, the giver of heat and light, the god of fertility and life-giving power. His name is heard in a short prayer that has survived to this day - “Give, God!”

Dogoda is the god of a quiet, pleasant wind and clear weather, the complete opposite of his ferocious brother, the patron of the winds, Pozvizd.

Karachun is the god of cattle death and death from frost.
Karachun is the second name of Chernobog.

Kolyada - the ancient god of merry feasts, it is believed that his name is derived from the word "kolo" (circle). Teacher of the Third Law of Life. He told people about the Great Kolo of Svarog, about the Day and Night of Svarog, and also established the first calendar.

Roof - the son of the Almighty and the goddess Maya, was a brother to the very first creator of the world Rod, although he was much younger than him. He returned fire to people, fought on the shores of the Arctic Ocean with Chernobog and defeated him.

Lel - in the mythology of the ancient Slavs, the god of love passion, the son of the goddess of beauty and love Lada. About Lele - this cheerful, frivolous god of passion - is still reminiscent of the word "cherish", that is, undead, love.

Ovsen is the younger twin brother of Kolyada. He got the role of putting into practice the divine knowledge that Kolyada taught people.

Ozem is the god of the underworld, the keeper of the earth's bowels.
He protects gold, silver and copper ores.

Perun is the god of thunderclouds, thunder and lightning, the most famous of the Svarozhich brothers. Perun is the patron of warriors and the princely squad, the god-ruler, the god punishing for non-compliance with laws, the protector of Reveal, the giver of male power.

Rod is the creator god of the visible world. Everything born by Rod still bears his name: nature, homeland, parents, relatives. Rod gave birth to Svarog - the great god who completed the creation of the world.

Svarog is the creator god of earth and heaven. Svarog is the source of fire and its master. He creates not with a word, not with magic, unlike Veles, but with his hands, he creates the material world. He gave people the Sun-Ra and fire. Svarog threw a plow and a yoke from heaven to earth to cultivate the land; a battle ax to protect this land from enemies, and a bowl for preparing a sacred drink in it.

Svyatobor is the god of forests and forest lands. It predetermines the fate, life and fate of all the inhabitants of the forest, ensuring harmony and concord in nature.

Svyatovit is a deity identical to Svarog among the Western Slavs.

Semargl is the god of fire and the moon, fire sacrifices, home and hearth, the keeper of seeds and crops. Could turn into a sacred winged dog.

Stribog - in East Slavic mythology, the god of the wind. He can summon and tame a storm and can transform into his assistant, the mythical bird Stratim. In general, the wind was usually represented in the form of a gray-haired old man living at the end of the world, in a deep forest or on an island in the middle of the sea-ocean.

The list is headed by the supreme god of the Slavs - Rod. It is located at the top of the divine pantheon. The genus is the ancestor, creator and ruler of all living things. He himself does not have a physical body and is an incorporeal spirit that exists everywhere, uncreated and having no beginning and no end. Isn't it very similar to the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu concept of God? The genus is capable of bursting with thunder, throwing lightning, pouring rain. In his management is life and death, the abundance of the fruits of the earth and poverty. Everything is under his control. No one has seen him, but he sees everyone. His name is still present in words that symbolize our most important values ​​- "homeland", "relative", "spring" (in the sense of pure water), "rhodium" (ball lightning, that is, fire), "birth", "harvest", etc.

In power and importance, he is followed by the sun god. In Ancient Russia, he has four forms: Kolyada, Svarog, Yarilo and Dazhdbog. All incarnations operate seasonally. In autumn, winter, spring and summer, people expect appropriate help from each of them. Ritual meetings and farewells are associated with each of them, known among the people as big holidays-festivities. Even now, we are happy to bake pancakes for Maslenitsa, weave wreaths and burn bonfires on the night of Ivan Kupala, and fortune-telling at Christmas time.

The gods of Ancient Russia, the list of which is very long, are mysterious entities that influence the entire cycle of life. They are divided into three levels according to their authority among other deities and according to their importance in worldly affairs. The upper one is the gods responsible for global, national issues: wars, weather, fertility. The middle one is the deity of more local control - the patrons of crafts, women's cares, hunting and fishing, and agriculture. They are all human-like in appearance.

The lowest level is assigned to spiritual beings, whose appearance is significantly different from gods and people. These are all kinds of forest and house creatures - mermaids, goblin, brownies, kikimors, ghouls, banniks, etc.

Without Kolyada, Yarila, Kupala and Svetovid, it is impossible to imagine the paganism of Ancient Russia. The gods responsible for the seasons begin their cycle with Kolyada.

Kolyada, or Khors, reigns on earth from December 22 to March 21 - from the winter solstice to the spring equinox. This is a baby sun. Welcome his arrival in December. The celebration lasts for two weeks, until January 7, at the very peak of winter, when agricultural work is not carried out, and the short daylight hours do not encourage needlework. These days are well known as Yuletide.

By the holidays, cattle were specially fattened and slaughtered, barrels with pickles and pickles were opened. Thrifty owners carried the surplus to the fairs. Most of the cattle just at this time was relieved from the burden by calves, kids, lambs. Adult animals were allowed to eat and sold, and dairy queens with newborn cubs were content with one serving. Everything was very reasonable and expedient.

Christmas time is the most fun time with songs, games, fortune-telling, matchmaking and weddings. These are days and nights of unbridled fun, friendly gatherings, plentiful feasts and completely legal idleness. Kolyada was praised with special songs - they thanked for the preservation of stocks, asked for a warm, snowy winter, health for themselves, their loved ones and livestock. It was customary to show generosity and mercy to the poor so that Kolyada would not bypass the benefactors with his mercy.

This is followed by more adult solar gods of Ancient Russia. The list continues Yarilo (Ruevit, Yar, Yarovit) - the Sun God of a young age. Wherever he looks, there the field will grow, where it passes, there useful plants will sprout. Yarilo is also responsible for the fertility of animals. He is described as a young man riding a white horse across the sky. In the hands - a bow and arrows, bare feet, on the head - a crown of rye ears with wildflowers. Its time is from March 21, when nature is actively awakening from its winter sleep, and until June 22. Food stocks by this time are completely running out, and there is a lot of work. In spring, the day feeds the year. The peasants plow and sow the land, plant chickens on the nests, check pastures, put their houses and outbuildings in order. Rituals pleasing Yarila are held immediately after the day of the spring equinox. Intensive work ends on the day of the summer solstice, when the luminary turns back.

Dazhdbog, or Kupail, Kupala, is a god in his prime, a mature man. His arrival is celebrated on the longest night of the year - June 22. The gods of Ancient Russia, according to legend, love noisy holidays. When seeing Yarila off and meeting Kupala, they arrange games, burn Yarila's effigy, jump over bonfires, throw wreaths on the water, look for a fern flower and make wishes. The gods of Ancient Russia and the Slavs react to them with a good disposition.

As you know, our ancestors lived well and freely. They knew how to work well and have fun from the heart. In the season of Dazhdbog, the earth gives all the juices to the fruits planted in it. Long daylight hours and a large amount of work - harvesting hay, harvesting the first crop, harvesting fruits for the winter, repairing and building housing - required selfless labor from our ancestors. There is a lot of work in summer, but it is not hard when Dazhdbog helps with rain and sunny days. September 23, on the day of the autumn equinox, the power of Dazhdbog ends.

The fourth age of the sun god begins with the day of the autumn equinox on September 23 and ends on December 22, on the day of the winter solstice. The God of Ancient Russia Svarog, or Svetovid, is an old god, the husband of the Earth, the father of the Sun, Dazhdbog and the gods of the most significant natural phenomena. Dazhdbog he gave fire and gave the power to throw thunder and lightning. In legends, he is represented as a gray-haired old man. His time is a period of prosperity, satiety and peace. The people enjoy the stored fruits of the earth for three months, play weddings, arrange fairs and do not grieve about anything. According to the annals, the god of Ancient Russia Svarog is a tall man with four heads on four necks. He faces north, south, west and east. In his hand is a sword with which God strikes the forces of darkness.

Perun is the son of Svarog. In his hands are arrows-lightning and a bow-rainbow. Clouds are his face, beard and hair, thunder is the verb of God, wind is breath, and rain is fertilizing seed. The Vikings and Varangians believed that the best god in the pantheon is, of course, Perun. God of what in Ancient Russia is the son of Svarog and the Earth? Endowed with a cool and changeable disposition, the formidable and powerful Svarozhich is considered the patron saint of brave warriors. He gives them good luck in military affairs and strength in confrontation with any opponent.

The Slavs attribute to him love and patronage of blacksmiths and plowmen. Both of them did the hardest work, and Perun patronizes everyone who does not shy away from putting physical strength into their work.

Perun is the god of war in ancient Russia. Going on military campaigns or expecting an enemy attack, the Slavs made sacrifices to him. Altars dedicated to Perun were decorated with military trophies, armor and weapons. The statue of the god was carved from the trunk of the largest tree. A fire was kindled in front of her, on which a sacrificial animal was burned. Dances with pipes and rattles accompanied songs containing the words of a request for victory over the enemy.

Veles is the beloved god of farmers and cattle breeders. He is also called the animal god. The Slavs did not share these areas of peasant life - everyone had cattle, and everyone plowed the land. Veles (Volos, Month) - the god of wealth. Initially, Veles was identified with Perun. He also commanded the clouds and was the shepherd of the heavenly sheep, but later he was ordered to look after the earthly flock. Veles sends rain to the fields and meadows. After the harvest, he was always left with one sheaf uncut. This tradition is also still preserved. It was the gods of Ancient Russia Veles and Perun who have always been the most revered people. Our ancestors swore by them in fidelity and in an honest word. This is mentioned in the "History of the Russian State" by N. M. Karamzin.

If we analyze which gods were worshiped in Ancient Russia with the greatest zeal, then these are mostly the gods of the elemental forces of nature. For modern Russians, it is very difficult not to confuse them with each other. Take the same Stribog. How to distinguish him from Perun, Veles, Posvist, Pogoda and other lords of wind and rain?

Stribog is the lord of the wind, clouds, storms and snowstorms. He is both evil and good. God holds a horn in his hands. He blows into it and calls the elements. From his wind came music, songs and musical instruments. Understanding the magical effect of music on the human psyche was born from the sounds of nature - the sound of water, foliage, whistling and howling of the wind in pipes, crevices and among trees. All this is Stribog's orchestra. They pray to Stribog for rain and for its cessation, as well as for the strong wind to subside. Hunters ask for his help before going after a shy and sensitive animal.

Most of the information has been preserved about this goddess. Lada is the female incarnation of the supreme god Rod. Her clothes are clouds, and her dew are tears. In the morning mist - the veil of the goddess - the shadows of the dead move, whom she leads to the afterlife.

The main temple of the goddess stood on Lake Ladoga. The high priestess was chosen very carefully. This can be compared to how the Dalai Lama is chosen. First, the magi singled out women who were most suitable for the role of the mother goddess. They had to be distinguished by intelligence, beauty, dexterity, strength and courage. Then their daughters, who had reached the age of five, were collected for the competition. Several winners became the disciples of the Magi. For eight years they comprehended the intricacies of various fields of knowledge, sciences and crafts. At thirteen they were tested again. The most worthy became the high priestess - the embodiment of Lada, and the rest served as her retinue.

Sacrifices to Lada consisted of flowers woven into wreaths and pancakes or fritters. They were burned at a ritual fire. It happened on the feast of Ladodania. The best young men and women lit torches from the sacrificial fire and, passing the baton, carried them all over Russia. On the morning of the feast, the priestess gave a speech. She went out to people dressed up, in a wreath of the most beautiful flowers. It was believed that at that moment the goddess Lada herself entered her body and mouth. She talked about what awaits her fellow tribesmen, how they should live, what can and should be done, and what cannot. If she called the name of a person, then woe to him, if it was a reprimand. The whole family turned against the rejected goddess. She could justify the innocent accused. At the end of her speech, the woman fell to her knees. This was a sign that the heavenly Lada had left the body of the priestess. The Magi put on her a beautiful dress, and the fun began.

Lada is primarily the patroness of women. Under her protection is the hearth, childbearing and love. Some sources draw a parallel between the Slavic Lada and the Roman Venus.

Friday is the day dedicated to Lada. Women rested on Friday. It was believed that any business started by a woman on this day of the week would back away, that is, slow down all other work.

Mokosh, or Makesha, is another goddess guarding the family hearth. Translated from Old Slavonic, her name means "full purse". Mokosh is the deity of trade, the final harvest, already existing fruits, their sale and the most correct use. The statue of the goddess is made holding a large horn in his hands. Her arms and head are larger than those of the average person, and are disproportionate to the rest of her body. She is credited with managing the fruits of the earth. Therefore, another appointment of Mokosh is the management of fate.

Mokosh is especially interested in weaving and spinning. The spinning of thread in many beliefs is associated with the weaving of fate. They say that an unfinished tow cannot be left overnight, otherwise Mokosha will ruin the yarn, and hence fate. In some northern regions, she was considered an unkind goddess.

The goddess Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa is the successor of Mokosh. She walks in a white dress. He patronizes trade and youth festivities with games, songs and dances. For this reason, Friday was a market day in Russia for a long time, when women were not allowed to work. For disobedience, she can turn a disobedient into a frog.

The goddess is responsible for the purity of water in the wells, helps to find underground keys. In order for Paraskeva Friday to always help, women sew pieces of woolen tow into their aprons.

One of the most ancient and, if I may say so, stable gods is Semargl. This god is one of the seven most revered. The origin of the name is shrouded in mystery. Another name, Pereplut, seems more Russian, but its meaning has been lost over the years. Smargle is the only god who has the appearance of an animal - a winged dog. He performs the function of an intermediary between people and gods. Semargl passes the sacrifices. He is the god of fire.

Once Semargl brought to earth a branch of the tree of life. Since then, he has taken seeds and crops under his patronage. He is the god of plant roots and knows how to heal diseases.

Forest thickets, swamps, pools and ponds with stagnant water are terrible. Many legends about the various evil spirits living in them were preserved by Ancient Russia.

Slavic gods are not all kind and pleasant for Russian people. Such is Chernobog - the lord of the forces of evil, the god of darkness, illness and misfortune. In his hands is a spear, and his face is full of malice. He rules at night. And although Belobog opposes him, the evil spirit subordinate to Chernobog is very numerous and insatiable. These are mermaids, dragging into the pools of water, goblin, confusing forest paths, capricious brownies, cunning banniki.

Morena, or Maruha, is the goddess of evil and death. She dominates the cold winter, rainy night, during wars and epidemics of disease. She is represented as a terrible woman with a black face, a bony body, a sunken snub nose and long curved claws. Her servants are diseases. During the battle, she clings to the wounded and drinks their blood. Morena never leaves on her own. Perun drives her away. During the feast of the meeting of the god Perun, the Slavs mercilessly destroy the idol of Morena.

There is an opinion that Christianity is less close to Russians than paganism. It is no coincidence, they say, that for more than a thousand years we have not outlived many ancient customs, such as: the celebration of Maslenitsa, wedding rituals, pleasing the brownie, belief in a black cat, a woman with an empty bucket, etc. Nevertheless, the expediency of introducing a new religion is beyond doubt. During the time of Prince Vladimir, who christened Russia, there was great disunity between the individual principalities and tribes. Only a common ideology could reconcile everyone. Christianity became such a binding force. Its rituals, the time of holidays and fasts organically fit into the annual cycle of everyday affairs and everyday life, and Christian saints no less effectively help believers who have been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ in pressing matters. The very word "Orthodoxy" came from Ancient Russia. The gods of the Slavs helped our ancestors no worse than Christian saints. Addressing them was the right word, that is, Orthodoxy.

The rejection by many of us of the current form of Orthodoxy is the rejection of church officials who profit in unrighteous ways. In pre-Christian times, there were also priests who weaved intrigues and grew rich on offerings obtained by cunning.

The gods of Ancient Russia and the Slavs changed their functions from time to time and turned from good into evil, passed from one hypostasis to another. Their ancestry varied in many places. This created conflict situations. The great gods of Ancient Russia have not disappeared anywhere, just as the one God, the creator of the whole world, has not disappeared. They simply began to be called by other names - the names of Christian saints, and at the head of the divine pantheon is the son of the Creator, Jesus Christ, who died as a martyr on the cross in order to atone for our sins. He brought the New Testament - the law of people's love for each other. This was not before him. In the old days, disputes were resolved only by physical strength. To correctly understand and accept this law is what we must learn and teach our children. If the pagan gods of Ancient Russia, the list of which, with various incarnations and transformations, as well as broken down on the ground, exceeds hundreds, often caused strife between individual clans, then Christian saints have never been the cause of disunity between Christians of different denominations.