Blog
Slavic Paganism in Medieval Christian Writings: Ink, Cross, and Pagan Gods by Jiří Dynda
I’ve recently read this book and wanted to share some of my thoughts about it — partly so you can make an informed decision about whether to purchase it (it is quite expensive). I will be placing it on my recommended reading list, although with the caveat that it is not a basic or introductory text.
Rodnovery 101: Dola
Dola is often translated as “fate” or “destiny,” but this can be misleading. In Slavic tradition, Dola is better understood as a person’s inherent “portion” or share: a unique set of personality traits, temperament, skills, abilities, and talents bestowed at birth, frequently associated with the weaving of the …
Rodnovery 101: Ancestral veneration
Ancestral veneration is one of the best-preserved and most widely attested elements of pre-Christian Slavic religion. It stands out as a core component of Slavic paganism, with broad scholarly agreement on its historical existence and significance — unlike many other aspects of Slavic mythology and ritual, whic…
An overview of Slavic gods
Translation and titles of subchapters (in original only numbered) by Witia
Dziady: in the Spring, in the Fall and on the road
All footnotes and [square brakets comments] by Witia
Communistic history lesson
Being an (recently more and more passive) user of pagan social media, I could not help but notice a growing trend among (mostly freshly converted) Rodnovers to describe early medieval societies of our pagan ancestors as communistic societies. I am old enough to remember living under communism, but also young enough to remember history lessons, therefore…
Fakelore and istina in Slavic tradition
One of the goals of Witia project is to propagate the Slavic culture. Which is why, with great joy I look at ever growing popularity of Slavic traditions and beliefs, also among non-Slavic speaking people. Unfortunately, as it always happens, every stick has two ends, and in the case of ever growing popularity of everything Slavic, the other end is ever…
Rainbow-phobia. More than a few words on the power of the Slavic rainbow
Non-normativity of sexual orientation, gender or sex (biological gender) has been present in the history of human kind since the time immemorial. Wherever we look, in pretty much every culture created by human race, next to the dominant “norm” (unequivocal anatomical sex, auto-identification with own anatomical sex and heterosexual orientation) non-norm…
The Slavic patriarchy
In the previous post we discussed the position of pre-Christian Slavic women, so it is only fitting that today, in order to keep a balance between the sexes, we look into the roles and responsibilities of our male ancestors. And because we will be contemplating our ancestors, who, obviously, were fathers, we will not avoid the topic of patriarchy, so, g…
Putting Slavic women in their place
According to “The Tale of Bygone Years” in the year of 983 a few boyars knocked to the door of one of the Kievan estates. The estate belonged to a Varangian, who lived there with his son. Both the Varangian and his son arrived to Kiev from Byzantium and they both were Christians.
If not hell, then what?
Christian or Judaeo-Christian apostasy (official renunciation of religion) becomes more and more popular, particularly in Poland. The decision to commit apostasy causes unease in the Judaeo-Christian part (or – in case of Poland – majority) of the society, worried that abandoning the “guidance” of Bible, the 10 commandments and the priest, living withou…
Slavic demonology lessons
One of the most common topic of discussion of the modern Rodnovers (just next after discussing the altars’ decorations and the wording of religious incantations) are various ways of recognising which God is most “accurate” for a given person or situation and how to “make” this God “cooperate”. Truly possessed by theological pondering the Slavic pagans o…
The “rodnoy” badlands of the pagan faith
As the pagan system of believes increase in popularity, more and more priests and priestess of those religion speak out, attempting to explain the pagan ideas to the “less spiritual” followers. Among those priests and priestesses are also żercas – the priests of Slavic Native Faith. Unfortunately, the voices of żercas (who are, no surprise here, in vast…
Rodnovery 101: Dola and Niedola
The concept of fate, as well as Gods responsible for spinning it, are known in pretty much all the cultures created by the human kind. They are – or rather: were – also known to the pre-Christian Slavs. Our ancestors believed that the task of creating or spinning the fate of a human belongs to Goddesses
Rodnovery 101: entry requirements
Recently it’s becoming more and more popular to abandon the dominating for centuries Judeo-Christian tradition, in order to discover and pursue the original, pagan roots of humanity. The internet, and social media in particular are full of questions about how to be pagan, what is paganism and how to follow a pagan religion, including the Slavic Native F…
The wreaths of Kupala – a few words about women’s status among the Slavs
Most of the modern historians and scholars researching social relations among the pre-Christian Slavs, claim that women had a low(ish) status in our ancestors’ communities. Apparently pre-Chrisitan Slavs – men, the elders of clans/families, did not regard the opinion of the women and cared so little about their daughters, that they didn’t even give them…
Pre-Christian Slavic values
The morality of pre-Christian Slavs is perhaps not the most popular topic of research, nevertheless many are keen to preach about Slavic ethics, typically from the high horse of zhrets’s (priest’s) authority, highlighted with the whiteness of a ritual, linen robe. Modern Rodnovers are lectured about honour and righteousness, are told to build stable, tr…
Slavic faith – part 3 – the sacrifices worthy of Slavic Gods
In the previous parts of “Slavic faith” we talked about the ritual sacrifices our ancestors made to their Gods and we came to a conclusion that those sacrifices were much more valuable than the (very, very symbolic) sacrifices made by modern followers of Slavic Native Faith. We also noted that most of the sacrifices offered to Gods by pre-Christian Slav…
Slavic faith – part 2 – the meaning behind prayers
In the previous post we discussed religious sacrifices made by pre-Christian Slavs. We came to conclusion that, considering the historical context, our ancestors’ sacrifices to the Gods were of much higher value than our modern offering are. We also mentioned that, due to the nature of Slavic Gods, our ancestors had to be precise in their prayers – know…
The Slavic faith – part 1 – historical reenactment or a religion?
We don’t know much about pre-Christian Slavs, but we do know one thing about them for sure: they were tough, resilient, pragmatic and resourceful people. Their strength and determination helped them not only to live and thrive in conditions – for us, the people of the XXI century – pretty much unimaginable, but also to create a culture, which, despite a…
Contemplating the Slavic soul
Recently I was following a Facebook discussion about Slavic souls, focusing particularly on when the soul develops. As it usually happens with this sort of discussions in a few comments the topic branched off towards abortion, pro-life movements and family planning. Again – as it usually happens - the gist of some of the comments indicated that at least…
First – thou shalt not make new vampires
A lot is being written and said about the toxicity of the modern society. Lack of tolerance, marginalisation of the minorities, ignoring of the needs of our mental health, excessive pressure, criticising or bulling in schools, work places or even in the public space (streets, busses, supermarkets etc). This toxicity of the modern society (often after ad…
Dziady and the ritual Slavic masks
A night walk on the slopes of Ślęża is not an activity I would recommend to faint-hearted or faint-spirited. Following a forest trail, in the dark dispersed only by a soft light of a torch, listening to your own breathing, screeching of the trees and wind, with every cell of your body sensing the presence of …
The lost ancestors
Veneration of the dead has always been one of the most important pillars of the Slavic culture. One of the way in which our ancestors revered their dead was by preparing celebratory feasts, during which the departed were summoned, and then fed, asked for advice or for blessings. Initially those feasts were lead by a priest (zhrets, volkhv), who after th…
A fabric embroidered with fate
A very interesting text written by Ewa Zwierzyńska and published on the Czasopis portal. The text has been published a few years ago and since deleted, so good job I downloaded and translated it. It is a bit long, but describes an ancient Slavic tradition of embroidering towels with spells, a tradition which is dying as we speak. I hope you will find is…
The miracle of marketing – a few words about pop-culture and Christianisation
Why is pop-culture so popular? What makes the simple, predictable and often unoriginal melodies, paintings or movies be so popular, have hordes of fans and generate so much profit? There is for sure many reasons, but the main one is… their popularity – not in the “well known or accepted” meaning of this word but rather in the other “plain, easy to grasp…