Ancient paganism. Paganism in ancient Rus' and its role in the development of Russian culture

Paganism in form - the deification of created objects, in essence - demon worship.

In a broad sense, paganism can be not only a type of religious worldview, but also a level of moral life, a quality of attitude towards the spiritual world. A person can declare himself a Christian, but in practical life be an actual pagan, for example, by resorting to, believing in astrology. Paganism also becomes simply the recognition of the primary values ​​of the blessings of this world, earthly success, and sensual pleasures.
We can say that paganism is a state of soul deprived.

“The main difference between Christianity and paganism is that Christianity tells the world and man: “you are sick,” and paganism assures you, “you are healthy.” No difference? But what if I have appendicitis, and instead of a painful operation they tell me: “take sleeping pills or aspirin and everything will go away”? Christianity says: go through the pain of repentance and strive for God. Paganism assures us that we don’t need either one or the other, but only need to “expand our consciousness.” And if you need to meet with someone, then not with God, but simply with some of the space inhabitants...”
Deacon Andrey. From the book “Satanism for the Intelligentsia”

“Often, the ways of venerating the same god in different cities of the empire differed significantly from each other and went back to different myths and beliefs. For example, he noted that in different cities three different Zeuses, five Athens, six Apollos are worshiped, while Asclepias and Hermes are innumerable. At the same time, the pagans were not embarrassed by the fact that their myths often contradicted each other. Paganism was a religion of worship, play, theater and folk festivals par excellence. Paganism knew neither a sacred history, nor a holy book, nor a rule of faith.”
Pavel Gavrilyuk

Osipov A.I. From book " "

The term "paganism" comes from the Church Slavonic word "language", meaning, specifically, "people". In the Old Testament era, Jews called all other peoples pagans, putting into this word a negative assessment of these peoples themselves, and the entirety of their religious beliefs, customs, morals, culture, etc. From the Jews the term “paganism” passed into the Christian lexicon. However, it no longer includes anything related to nation or race. It denotes non-Christian religious teachings and worldviews that have a number of specific characteristics (see below).

There are many types of paganism (all polytheistic religions, magic, Satanism, shamanism, atheism, materialism, etc.). They are characterized by various features, the main of which are: naturalism, idolatry, magic, mysticism.

§1.Naturalism

Naturalism (from the Latin natura - nature, nature) in this case means a life principle according to which the purpose of life is the maximum satisfaction of all so-called. natural human needs - what the Apostle John the Theologian defines as “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” (). Such a life attitude is usually associated with broad moral “freedom” of the individual. It comes from the understanding of man as a spiritually valuable being (“man – this sounds proudly”) and therefore in need only of appropriate material and social conditions of life. Therefore, the Christian teaching about the corruption of human nature (the so-called original sin) and the need for her healing from passions (“lusts”) in order to achieve a full life in God is alien to paganism. The pagan, on the contrary, is satisfied with himself, with his mind, he seeks only “bread and circuses.” However, the ideal of naturalistic paganism - maximum pleasure and minimum labor - is more than illusory. Not to mention its fleeting nature and unconditional end for each person, its dependence on many different kinds of circumstances throughout life, pleasure, which has become the goal of life, due to the very nature of man, cannot provide him with unconditional benefit. Passions, being satisfied, gradually corrupt the soul, making it selfish, proud, insensitive, incapable of selfless goodness, love, joy, much less spiritual experiences.

Not recognizing, for the most part, the immortality of the soul and denying the general resurrection, paganism, even religious, completely deprives a person of the real meaning of life. For meaning can only be in life, in personal assessment and experience of one’s actions, and not in the insensibility of death. And only fear of the voice of conscience and moral responsibility for one’s actions can explain the blind, persistent belief in one’s final death (i.e., impunity) that a pagan convinces himself of. Hence his desperate desire to “live”, to “take everything from life.” But a moment of life cannot be extended, and the meaningless tragedy of death in paganism each time debunks its myopia, revealing the emptiness of those ghost-idols by which pagan man lives.

§2.Idolatry

Idolatry (from the Greek vision, ghost, appearance, dream, ideal, idol) is the worship of idols (literally or figuratively), that is, “lusts,” goals, ideas, idols that humiliate a person, making him unspiritual (according to the word Apostle: “These are people... of the soul, without spirit.” -), often immoral. Idolatry is a natural expression of naturalism. It has various forms in religious and non-religious paganism, expresses the spiritual aspiration of man and society and is embodied in various philosophical ideas, pseudo-religious beliefs, socio-political utopias and even material forms. In polytheistic, for example, religions, naturalistic ideals were expressed in the cult of various idols-gods (for example, in the Greek religion: Dionysus - the god of wine and fun, Aphrodite - the goddess of sensual love and beauty, etc.). Various sacrifices were made to these idols, including often human ones.

But idolatry is not necessarily associated with a religious worldview and cult sacrifices. Idolatry also has many non-religious forms, both social and individual. The idea of ​​world domination, the cult of business and moral permissiveness, the cult of arbitrariness under the guise of freedom and similar social idols serve as objects of sacrifices that are often gigantic in scale. The apostle calls idolatry, for example, the passion for wealth, “covetousness” (), gluttony (“their god is the belly.”). Any passion can become an idol for a person: physical, mental or spiritual. Therefore, idolaters, i.e. real pagans can be people of very different worldviews: from an agnostic and an atheist to an Orthodox Christian. The Lord warns: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (), testifying to this that loyalty to God is ultimately determined “not by word or tongue, but by deed and truth” ().

§ 3.Mysticism

Mysticism (from the Greek mysterious, mysterious) is a fairly broad concept. The famous modern Catholic theologian Hans Küng writes, for example, about him this way: “Mysticism”, “mystical” - these words, if we return to their literal meaning, come from the Greek verb to close (mouth). “Mysteries” are “sacraments”, “secret teachings”, “secret cults”, which are not supposed to be told to the uninitiated. Mystical, therefore, is a religion that “closes its lips,” that is, is silent about its innermost secrets in the presence of profane people and, moreover, turns away from the outside world, closes its eyes and ears in order to find salvation within itself. Mysticism, as F. Geiler defines it (1967), is “that form of communication with God in which the world and the Self are radically denied and the human personality dissolves, disappears, drowns in the single and endless element of the Divine” [ Kung G. Does God exist? 1982. P. 295]. But the very perception of God takes on a distorted character in mysticism. As the same F. Geiler, a major Western researcher of religion, writes in his monumental work “Prayer,” “consistent mysticism frees the idea of ​​God from all personal attributes, leaving “naked” and pure infinity” [Ibid. P. 297].

If we proceed from this understanding of mysticism (and it expresses its essence), then it becomes obvious that mysticism is far removed from Orthodoxy, in many ways even opposed to it (in the understanding of God, man, the world, and hence the goal and means of knowing the supernatural world) and , as a consequence of this, in contrast to true knowledge of God, leads a person to a false understanding of all spiritual life. Therefore, the “easy” use of the terms “mysticism” and “mystical experience” as applied to any phenomenon of “that” world, any experience of contact with it, regardless of their nature, is fraught with very serious consequences. The use of these terms in such a broad sense, covering good and evil, the desire for truth and primitive curiosity to find out what is “out there,” the search for the Kingdom of God and the thirst for new, unusual pleasures, holiness and Satanism, Christ and Belial (), - in which they entered into philosophical and theological literature, very effectively introduces into the subconscious and consciousness the destructive idea of ​​the essentially identical ascetic paths of all religions.

As a result, the very concept of Truth in religion is destroyed; Thus, a person is deprived of even the thought of the possibility of a fatal mistake in the most complex and responsible area of ​​life - the spiritual, and turns into a blind toy of his daydreaming, pride and often openly demonic forces.

Therefore, the confusion of concepts (“mystic”, “saint”, etc.) in this area is more dangerous than in any other, for the spiritual area of ​​life is the foundation of all others, the basis of human existence itself.

Mysticism is, in fact, present in all religions. But in paganism - as a “natural” phenomenon, corresponding to the teachings of a given religion, in Christianity - as a disease, abnormality, as a distortion of his faith and principles of life. The sources of mysticism are the same everywhere - this is the pride of man, his passionate desire to penetrate the secrets of spiritual existence and gain power over them, voluptuousness, the search for higher pleasures, ecstasy. The presence of these signs is always the best indicator that in this case we are dealing with mysticism, and not with true spirituality and holiness.

Mysticism has a lot varieties. However, they can all be divided into two main categories: natural and acquired. Of course, the division into these two branches is arbitrary, since they not only often intertwine, but sometimes completely merge with each other, as, for example, in non-Christian mysticism.

Natural mysticism is one that is found in a person as his natural ability, for example, foresight, healing, clairvoyance, telepathy, etc. Since extrasensory abilities are a rare phenomenon, they especially easily develop vanity, pride and other passions in their owner, which in turn makes its impact on humans dangerous. The danger lies in the fact that such a “natural mystic” is not at all a saint, that is, someone who has been cleansed of passions and, as a result, has received from God the gift of seeing the true state of the soul. He is, at best, an ordinary, sinful person. The nature of his “treatment” consists in influencing the patient’s soul (as opposed to conventional therapy) and through it on the body. Thus, a spiritually blind person, penetrating with his uncleaned “hands” into the soul of another, infects it, disrupts the subtle, intimate order of the soul and thereby often causes irreparable harm to the entire makeup of a person: spirit, soul and body. From here it becomes clear why it is forbidden to seek help from such healers.

Moreover, it is necessary in every possible way to avoid even accidental influences (for example, through television) of “professional” psychics, sorcerers, astrologers, etc., who, for the sake of glory and self-interest, consciously develop these abilities in themselves (thus entering into unity with the spirits of evil) and they cripple people to an incomparably greater extent than the first ones. (Television “experiments” of various modern psychics are an excellent illustration of this). This is already a category acquired mysticism, which is achieved with the help of special, artificial means and exercises. It, in turn, is divided into two main branches: occult and charming.

Occult[occultism (from Latin occultus - secret, hidden) is a doctrine that recognizes the presence of special hidden (occult) forces in man, nature and the cosmos, as well as the existence of the spiritual world, and calls on a person to master them in order to achieve his goals. There are many varieties of occultism] mysticism is associated with a person’s conscious desire to penetrate “that”, beyond the control of natural science, the mysterious world of man, nature and spirits in order to learn its secrets and use the forces hidden in it for their own purposes. It is extremely dangerous to take the path of occultism, because here, consciously or unconsciously, a person enters into communication only with rejected spirits, with all the ensuing disastrous consequences for him [See. Orthodox teaching on this issue from St. . Works: In 5 volumes, 3rd ed. St. Petersburg, 1905.T. 3].

Occultism includes: magic, Satanism, spiritualism, theosophy, anthroposophy, etc.

Hinduism and Buddhism are excellent illustrations of acquired mysticism. A few examples of them. Buddha (483 BC) inspires his followers: “Do not seek support in anything except in yourself: shine for yourself, relying on nothing but yourself” [ Buddhism in comparison with Christianity: In 2 volumes. Pg., 1916. T. 1. P. 175]. And this is what he says about himself: “I am omniscient, I have no teacher; no one is equal to me; in the world of men and gods, no creature is like me. I am sacred in this world, I am a teacher, I alone am the absolute Buddha Himself. I achieved peace (by extinguishing passions) and received nirvana..." [ Kochetov A.N. Buddhism. M., 1968. P. 84]. The ancient temptation “you will be like gods” () speaks here loudly, with all frankness.

We see the same thing in yoga and in the most authoritative modern Hindu system - Vedanta. In one of the Hindu hymns, “Song of the Sanyasin,” we find the following passionate exclamation on behalf of a person: “There is no more birth, no more “I”, no “you,” no mortal, no God! I will become everything, everything will become “I” and not clouded by bliss!” [ Vivekananda Suomi. Jnana yoga. St. Petersburg, 1914.S. 8]

The most authoritative preacher of Vedanta, Suomi (teacher) Vivekananda (1902), recommends such a spiritual attitude to his followers: “Reminding us of our weaknesses, says Vedanta, will not help; we need treatment. The treatment for weakness does not consist in making a person constantly think that he is weak, but in making him think about his strength. Tell him about the power that is already in him. Instead of telling people that they are sinners, Vedanta teaches the opposite: “You are pure and perfect, and whatever you call sin is not yours... Never say, “I cannot.” This cannot be, since you are infinite... You can do everything, you are omnipotent” [Ibid. P. 275]. Or this instruction: “The best person is the one who dares to say about himself: “I know everything about myself”... Listen day and night that you are the Soul. Repeat this to yourself day and night until this thought enters your blood, sounds with every beat of your heart... Let your whole body be filled with this one thought: “I am the unborn, immortal, blissful, omniscient, ever-beautiful Soul...” Master this thought and become imbued with the consciousness of your power, greatness and glory. May God grant that the opposite superstition never gets into your head. “Do you really consider yourself weak? It is not good to consider yourself a sinner, weak. Tell this to the world, tell yourself..." [Ibid. P. 277, 279]. And this must not only be known and realized, it must be deeply felt: “Feel like Christ, and you will be Christ; feel like Buddha, and you will be Buddha” [Ibid. P. 283].

“What else is there in religion that you need to learn? - Vivekananda exclaims and answers: The unity of the Universe and faith in yourself, that’s all you need to know” [Ibid. P. 278]. “Vedanta says that there is no God except man. It may surprise you at first, but little by little you will understand it. The living God is in you, and you build churches and temples and believe in all sorts of imaginary nonsense. The only God to be worshiped is the human soul or the human body” [Ibid. P. 299].

The above statements clearly show what Hindu Vedanta mysticism is. This is a cult of outright, satanic pride (“imbued with the consciousness of your power, greatness and glory”!), angrily rejecting the existence of the One God (“there is no God but man... and you believe in nonsense”!) and, naturally, leading to obvious madness ( “Feel like Christ, and you will be Christ!” Isn’t that the same path, by the way, for Francis of Assisi, who also “felt himself completely transformed into Jesus”?).

But perhaps it is especially important to note that mysticism, as false spirituality, being a determining factor in life and teaching in pagan and neo-pagan religions and systems of thought, is also possible in Christianity (the so-called prelest). A striking example of this are the Roman Catholic saints, for example, the most revered ones, such as Francis of Assisi (XIII century), Catharine of Siena (XIV century), Teresa of Avila (XVI century) (the last two were erected by Pope Paul VI (1978) even in the dignity of the teachers of the Church), Ignatius of Loyola (XVI century) [See Chapter VI: Revelation]; also so-called charismatic movements in various Christian churches, sects, communities (for example, Catholics, Pentecostals), certain charismatic preachers popular in the West or the “Virgin Center” in Moscow, the “white brotherhood”, etc.

Mysticism is also possible in the Orthodox environment, just as paganism is generally possible among believers who seek not God, but gracious pleasures from God and who live not according to the patristic teaching of the Church, but according to their own considerations and desires. The holy fathers call it prelest. This term is remarkable in that it accurately reveals the very essence of false spirituality: a proud opinion about oneself, one’s spiritual perfection, caused by a passionate (i.e., blind, enslaving the mind) desire for spiritual gifts, experiences, powers, knowledge and revelations.

Mysticism, thus, leads a person away from God, from the true goal of life and gives such a direction to the development of the spirit, in which refined pride unusually increases, making a person incapable of accepting Christ as the true God and the only Savior. The development of pride is facilitated by false asceticism, and often developed extrasensory abilities (for example, in yoga), as well as deep neuropsychic experiences, pleasures that lead to ecstasy. All this gradually leads a person to the conviction that he himself has the fullness of being and therefore, without God, is capable of becoming “like the gods.” This path often leads to mystical atheism (for example, Buddhism, Samkhya), to madness, hysteria, and suicide.

§ 4.Magism

Magism (from the Greek witchcraft, sorcery, sorcery) is the belief in a person’s ability to master supernatural and natural forces with the help of spells, rituals, etc. ON THE. Berdyaev (1948) wrote about magic like this: “Occultism, for example, is the sphere of magic par excellence, i.e. necessity, not freedom. Magic is domination over the world through knowledge of the necessity and patterns of the mysterious forces of the world. I have not seen freedom of spirit in people who are passionate about the occult. They did not possess occult powers, occult powers possessed them.

Magism, like mysticism, is completely unrelated to the recognition of the personal and, especially, the One God. The magical worldview views the world as something absolutely static and deterministic and leaves no room for freedom for either gods, spirits, or the forces of nature. Everyone and everything is subject to eternally existing occult laws. From here, the one who finds the “key” to them becomes the true ruler of the gods, people and the world. One of the Indian proverbs says: “The whole world is subject to the gods. The gods are subject to spells. Spells for brahmins. Our gods are brahmins."

Therefore, unlike religion, which sees the essence of a person’s life in the proper dispensation of his spirit in relation to God, magic pays its main attention to the correctness of the ritual. Its precise execution is of fundamental importance in magic. Hence, for her, the Orthodox teaching about the sacraments, the validity of which is determined by the spiritual state of the recipient, is completely unacceptable (for example, the Apostle Paul writes about communion: “Whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks condemnation to himself” () - and this is with the exact fulfillment of all external (ritual) side of the sacrament of the Eucharist and rules of preparation for it).

Magic as a state of consciousness is possible everywhere. A striking example of magism in Christian practice is the baptism or communion of a person under duress, or for purely everyday reasons (for example, so as not to get sick), and not out of faith, as the Lord says about it (). The magical perception of the cult is generally one of the main reasons for the degeneration of the Christian religion, its distortions, and the reason for the growth of paganism, especially atheism, occultism and Satanism.

The greatest temptation for a person is to “thwart the secrets of existence” (gods, man, nature) and become “like God”, not subject to God, moreover, to try to subjugate God himself. Magic is an insane attempt to implement such an idea, a kind of psychological “revolution” of man against God.

According to the Holy Scriptures, the last step in the development of paganism should be the appearance of the ruler of the whole world - the Antichrist, the “man of sin”, the “lawless one” () in the highest and exclusive meaning of this word, “so that in the temple of God he will sit as God, pretending to be God" () and creating false miracles with the help of magic and other means.

§5.The origins of paganism

What gave birth and continues to give rise to paganism in man and society?

The main and root cause of the emergence of paganism is the false path of human self-determination. The Book of Genesis tells how the first people were seduced by illegally plucking fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to become “like gods” and in such a destructive way to realize the inherent human desire for knowledge of God and endless perfection. Instead of gradual spiritual growth, changing oneself in the image of the all-holy God, and ever closer unity with Him, through which infinite perfections and powers would be revealed in a person and he would receive true knowledge of all things and eternal life, a person chooses an easier “path” - not requiring internal improvement, “pleasant to the eye and desired” (), promising to quickly, immediately give a person “knowledge of good and evil,” omniscience is the path of godless becoming “god.”

However, this external path of “tearing away” the secrets of existence in order to master its natural and supernatural forces is essentially flawed, for it separates man from the source of existence - God, and cultivates in man pride, the root of all human suffering. It is from here that magic appears as an attempt to unravel and use for selfish purposes the secrets of the world and God, even against His will. From here arises idolatry as a natural result of the perversion of the concept of the highest goal and the true meaning of life. Hence naturalism, since the loss of the spiritual ideal inevitably entails the cult of the material, the cult of the flesh. Pride, man’s attempt to take the place of God himself, the desire for superconsciousness and higher pleasures gives rise to the most refined paganism - mystical [See. Ch. II, §8: Diversity of religions].

§6.Paganism and history

In what direction is the general development of paganism going? Is it becoming more and more “pagan” or is there some positive process of returning to the “invisible God” ()?

It is undeniable that in paganism there have always been people who “sought God to see if they would feel Him and find Him” (). And in this sense, it is true that in paganism “a positive religious process took place” [ Bulgakov S. Non-Evening Light. Sergiev Posad, 1917. P. 323). For, as St. wrote. , “everyone has the seeds of Truth” [Apology. 1.7 // Monuments of ancient Christian writing: In 7 vols. T. 4. M "1860-67. P. 25] and “Christ is the Word, in whom the entire human race is involved. Those who lived in accordance with the Word are Christians, even if they were considered atheists - such among the Hellenes are Socrates, Heraclitus and the like" [Apology. 1.46. Right there. P. 85]. However, it is no less obvious that this universal participation in the Word and the sincere search for truth by individual pagans do not determine the general course of development of paganism in humanity. Paganism is not a search for God, but a departure from Him, and progress in paganism was and remains more a progress of sin and apostasy than of a disinterested search for truth. The idea of ​​the “Kingdom of God on earth”, i.e. the idea of ​​the universal deification of humanity in earthly history is absent in the patristic works and fundamentally contradicts the Revelation of the New Testament (for example, the Apocalypse, etc.). Divine Revelation proclaims that “in the last days difficult times will come, for people will be self-loving, money-loving, proud...” (), so that “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth” (). These can only be the consequences of the deep, all-encompassing development of paganism in humanity. The Lord reveals to the Church that the fulfillment of God’s creative plan for humanity is destined not in history, but in metahistory, when there will be “a new heaven and a new earth” ().

§7.Evaluation of Paganism

Assessing paganism as a whole, one can see that this concept in Christianity, first of all, expresses that “old”, hereditary principle in man, which, having arisen as a result of his falling away from God, then, in the process of history, is revealed and develops in various forms and types. According to Christian teaching, man in his present state does not represent a naturally normal being; on the contrary, his nature is deeply damaged and upset. In it, after the Fall, good is mixed with evil, “new” with “old”, Christian with pagan, and constant, conscious spiritual and moral work is required in order to become a full-fledged, “new” () person. Life without internal struggle with oneself, i.e. a spiritually passive life (), flowing along an inclined channel of satisfying the passions of the flesh and spirit, leads a person to final slavery to sin and to its cult - paganism.

Paganism, therefore, is a direction of life that is characterized by a person’s false attitude towards God, towards himself, towards the world. Paganism is therefore not covered within the framework of any one religion or a specific set of them (for example, Greco-Roman polytheism, Hinduism, etc.). It is much broader and includes both different religions of worldview, and the very character and spirit of life of all people, including many Christians who reject the Gospel standards of life. And a Christian, while remaining a completely orthodox, Orthodox person by formal belonging to the Church and by fulfilling its external rites and instructions, can at the same time be a real ungodly pagan. A striking example of such an unnatural state are the Pharisees, scribes, Jewish and Christian lawyers, who rejected and are rejecting Christ the Savior with their lives. There is a Christian and a pagan in every person by nature. And only the sincere election of Christ as the norm, the ideal of one’s life makes a person a Christian. Otherwise, even professing Orthodoxy (by custom, language), he remains a pagan: “Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord! God!" He who does the will of My Heavenly Father will enter the Kingdom of Heaven" ().

About the pagan worldview

Despite the fact that the term “paganism” itself was created as a concept reflecting the identity of the Jewish nation, opposing itself to all other peoples, it cannot be ignored in the history of religion. The term “paganism” is extremely important for understanding the essence of religious teachings that consistently reject the idea of ​​a Personal One God as the Creator of the world, and that is why it cannot be ignored. The peculiarity of this term is that it indicates anti-monotheistic views not directly, through the disclosure of the content of religious teachings, but indirectly, through the historical-genetic national moment. The concept of “paganism” reflects the long historical monopoly of the Jewish nation on the monotheistic idea, denotes the genetic ascent of theistic, creationist and providentialist views to the monotheistic Revelation given to the Jewish people. Revealing the genetic ascent of a worldview opposite to monotheism to the religious creativity of all other, “pagan” peoples, this concept gives Judeo-Christian monotheism the status of an exceptional, unique phenomenon in the history of religions, emphasizing the opposition of the Judeo-Christian monotheistic Revelation and all other religions.
The pagan worldview is the ultimate antithesis of monotheism, since it affirms the divine, absolute nature of impersonal natural being, declares its originlessness, infinity, uncreatability and indestructibility. It attributes the attributes of God to impersonal nature, and thereby reduces man to the level of a natural phenomenon. In the context of paganism, man is no longer the Image of God, not the crown of creation, called to union with his Uncreated Creator. In paganism, the human personality is only a secondary and derivative phenomenon of nature, generated by an impersonal natural substance. In paganism, a person turns into a hostage of spontaneous natural processes, into a manifestation of unintentional, unconscious natural self-movement. Such an interpretation assumes the complete depersonalization of a person, because here he acquires the properties of a natural phenomenon, equal in its properties with other natural phenomena, having lost freedom, incapable of independent activity, decomposed into impersonal natural components, capable of taking on other natural forms under the influence of spontaneous natural changes.
The pagan worldview denies the existence of a supernatural personal Absolute. That is why, in its essential ideological positions, paganism remains a legacy and continuation of the spiritual degradation of man. In paganism, a person does not seek and realize the ideal of the Kingdom of God, which invariably harmonizes the human personality and interpersonal human relationships, but puts into practice completely opposite ideas that contribute to absurd immoral self-affirmation. Such self-affirmation in paganism is virtually inevitable, since man is left alone with the impersonal natural world, and the latter does not contain any ethical imperatives, significantly lower than the godlike human being. In the process of such self-affirmation, a person deliberately avoids the transcendentally imposed moral discipline, shuns the absolute moral control imposed from the outside (for impersonal nature does not possess such control and discipline), and strives to realize only his own limited and transitory goals, which are in decisive contradiction with the similar goals of other people. Hence the pagan brings continuous conflicts, chaos and disharmony into his own existence and interpersonal relationships. That is why pagan religious consciousness reflects the destructive process of decomposition of human morality.
The moral development of man in paganism has always found a serious obstacle from polytheistic cults - the veneration of anthropomorphic elemental natural forces, the ethical requirements of which were as relative as they themselves. Polytheistic cults did not promote spiritual growth. The deification of transient natural phenomena could only relativize human morality, which always needs an absolute, supernatural ethical Ideal - a Personal God, external to temporary human existence. The veneration of polytheistic deities did not provide such an Ideal, but offered only surrogates in the form of creatures whose existence was endowed with those spatio-temporal characteristics that humans possess, creatures that could not give an absolute moral law precisely because of their limited, finite nature. Thus, the spatio-temporal localization of polytheistic deities, suggesting their autochthonous, local character, excluded the idea of ​​human unity, stimulating and directly sanctifying the constant strife between pagan tribes, when the extermination of members of another ethnic community was equated to meeting the needs of the local deity. Extrapolation of the consummative characteristics of the human body to polytheistic deities gave rise to human sacrifices that satisfied the nutritional needs of anthropomorphic gods. The deification of the productive forces of nature justified depraved cults and temple prostitution, mystery orgies and frantic zeal, turning a person into a fanatic, reducing his behavior to the level of unconscious, impulsive instincts of an animal. Thus, pagan polytheistic practice, requiring the deification of relative natural phenomena, contributed to the moral decay of man.

prot. , " ":
Historians sometimes claim that, while fighting paganism, Christianity itself adopted many “pagan” elements and ceased to be evangelical worship of God “in spirit and truth.” Temple piety, the development and complexity of the cult, the veneration of saints and their relics, which blossomed so quickly in the fourth century, the ever-increasing interest in the “material” in religion: in holy places, objects, relics - all this directly traces back to pagan influence in the Church, and this is seen as a compromise with the world for the sake of a “mass” victory. But it is not at all required of a Christian historian that, in the name of defending Christianity, he simply rejects this accusation - that is, denies any “analogies” between Christianity and pagan “forms” of religion. On the contrary, he can safely accept it, because he does not see any “guilt” in these analogies. Christianity has adopted and made many “forms” of pagan religion its own, not only because these are eternal forms of religion in general, but also because the whole idea of ​​Christianity is not to replace all “forms” in this world with new ones, but to fill new and true content. Baptism with water, a religious meal, anointing with oil - she did not invent or create all these fundamental religious acts; they all already existed in the religious practice of mankind. And the Church never denied this connection with “natural” religion, only from the very first centuries gave it a meaning opposite to that which modern historians of religions see in it. For these latter, everything is explained by “borrowings” and “influences.” The Church, with its lips, has always asserted that the human soul is “by nature Christian,” and therefore even “natural” religion, even paganism itself, is only a perversion of something true and true by nature. good. Taking any “form”, the Church - in her consciousness - returned to God what rightfully belongs to Him, always and in everything restoring the “fallen image”.

(function (d, w, c) ( (w[c] = w[c] || ).push(function() ( try ( w.yaCounter5565880 = new Ya.Metrika(( id:5565880, clickmap:true, trackLinks:true, accurateTrackBounce:true, webvisor:true, trackHash:true )); ) catch(e) ( ) )); var n = d.getElementsByTagName("script"), s = d.createElement("script") , f = function () ( n.parentNode.insertBefore(s, n); ); s.type = "text/javascript"; s.async = true; s.src = "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net /npm/yandex-metrica-watch/watch.js"; if (w.opera == "") ( d.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", f, false); ) else ( f(); ) ))(document , window, "yandex_metrika_callbacks");

Eastern Slavs until the end of the 10th century. preserved the pagan faith - the religion of the primitive era. They revered certain stones, believed in the miraculous power of animals, considering them their ancestors, in werewolves, worshiped swamps, rivers, lakes, etc. Everything that surrounded them seemed to them inhabited by good and evil spirits, to whom they needed to make sacrifices, perform prayers to gain their favor. Traces of the cult of ancestors, which arose in the era of the tribal system, were still alive. The Slavs believed in an afterlife; during burial they provided the deceased with everything necessary for future existence: his favorite things, household items, and placed a pot of food for the first time. A funeral feast (funeral) was held for a soul that had gone to distant lands, another world. The most revered souls were the souls of the forefathers, who, in the minds of the Slavs, did not cease to monitor, protect and patronize their family even in the afterlife.

The personifications of the ancestors were the deities Rod and Rozhanitsa. The clan was otherwise called Shchur. The saying “mind me” is probably associated with the cult of the ancestor. With the establishment of the monogamous family, the god of the clan was supplanted by the patron of the family, the house - the brownie. The main pagan deities of the Eastern Slavs were associated with natural phenomena. Back in the 6th century. The Byzantine writer Procopius of Caesarea wrote* “The Slavs recognize one God, the Thunderer, as the ruler of the whole world and sacrifice bulls and all kinds of sacred animals to him. They worship ancestors and nymphs and other deities and make sacrifices to all of them, and during these sacrifices they tell fortunes.”

Perun - the god of lightning and thunder - was the main deity of the Eastern Slavs. Along with Perun, Dazhdbog was revered - the god of the sun, Svarog or Svaro-zhich - the god of fire, Stribog - the god of the winds; the “cattle god” Volos was of great importance, etc. In addition to the common Slavic deities, almost every tribe revered its own tribal deities.

The Eastern Slavs associated the veneration of natural phenomena with holidays. The birth of the sun (the beginning of the addition of a day) is associated with the holiday of carols, the onset of spring - with the holiday of burning the effigy of winter (later - Maslenitsa). The Trinity holiday was considered the meeting of spring with summer, the holiday of Kupala was associated with the summer turning of the sun. On the Kupala holiday, young people lit fires by the rivers, twirled in round dances, and told fortunes by throwing wreaths into the water.

Oleg and his husbands, when sealing the treaty with Byzantium, swore on their weapons “Perun their god and Hair the cattle god.” In Kyiv, under Igor, in a high place, in front of the princely mansion, stood the idol of Perun, in the market, in Podol - the idol of Volos.

For its gods, pagan Rus' built special religious buildings - treasuries, temples, temples, where prayers took place and sacrifices were made.

The ancient pagan Slavs revered the sun, moon, stars, fire, water, mountains and trees as special deities. Arab writer of the 10th century. Al-Masudi says about the Slavs that “some of them are Christians, among them there are also pagans, as well as sun worshipers.” Two centuries later, another Arab writer, Ibrahim bin Wesif Shah (c. 1200), noted that some of the Slavs, being Christians, bowed to the sun and other heavenly bodies. Constantine Porphyrogenitus (10th century) says that “the dews (on the way to Constantinople in 949) sacrificed live birds near a very large oak tree.” In the church charter, attributed to Vladimir of Kiev, it was forbidden to pray “under the barn (i.e., fire), or in the grove, or by the water.” The “Word of the Lover of Christ” (according to the list of the 14th century) says: “And they pray to the fire, calling his Svarozhich... they pray to the fire under the barn.” The natural forces of nature were represented in the form of giants (anthropomorphism) or in the form of huge animals (zoomorphism).

In Slavic fairy tales there are many magical characters - sometimes terrible and formidable, sometimes mysterious and incomprehensible, sometimes kind and ready to help. To modern people they seem like fanciful fiction. but in the old days in Rus' they firmly believed that Baba Yaga’s hut stood deep in the forest, that a serpent abducting beauties lived in the harsh stone mountains, they believed that a girl could marry a bear, and a horse could speak with a human voice.

This faith was called paganism, i.e. “folk faith.”

The pagan Slavs worshiped the elements, believed in the kinship of people with various animals, and made sacrifices to the deities that inhabited everything around them. Each Slavic tribe prayed to its own gods. There were never common ideas about gods for the entire Slavic world: since the Slavic tribes in pre-Christian times did not have a single state, they were not united in beliefs. Therefore, the Slavic gods are not related, although some of them are very similar to each other.

Due to the fragmentation of pagan beliefs, which never reached their peak, very little information about paganism has been preserved, and even then it is rather meager. Actually, Slavic mythological texts have not survived: the religious-mythological integrity of paganism was destroyed during the period of Christianization of the Slavs.

The main source of information on early Slavic mythology is medieval chronicles, annals written by outside observers in German or Latin and Slavic authors (mythology of Polish and Czech tribes), teachings against paganism (“Words”) and chronicles. Valuable information is contained in the works of Byzantine writers and geographical descriptions of medieval Arab and European authors.

All these data relate mainly to the eras that followed the Proto-Slavic era, and contain only individual fragments of pan-Slavic mythology. Archeological data on rituals, sanctuaries, and individual images (Zbruch idol, etc.) coincide chronologically with the pre-Slavic period.

Funeral rites.

The stages of development of the pagan worldview of the ancient Slavs were largely determined by the Middle Dnieper historical center. The people of the Middle Dnieper laid “sacred paths” to Greek cities and placed stone idols with a cornucopia on these paths. Somewhere on the Dnieper there must have been the main sanctuary of all the Skolots - farmers, in which the sacred heavenly plow was kept. In the religious history of Kievan Rus, much will be clarified thanks to an appeal to the ancestors of Rus.

The evolution of funeral rites and different forms of funeral rites mark significant changes in the understanding of the world.

A turning point in the views of the ancient Slav occurred back in pre-Slavic times, when the burial of crumpled corpses in the ground began to be replaced by the burning of the dead and the burial of burnt ashes in urns.

The crouched burials imitated the position of an embryo in the mother's womb; crouching was achieved by artificially tying up the corpse. The relatives prepared the deceased for his second birth on earth, for his reincarnation into one of the living beings. The idea of ​​reincarnation was based on the idea of ​​a special life force that exists separately from a person: the same physical appearance belongs to a living person and a dead one.

The crouched position of corpses persists until the turn of the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The crouched position is replaced by a new form of burial: the dead are buried in an extended position. But the most striking change in funeral rites is associated with the advent of cremation, the complete burning of corpses.

In real archaeological traces of funeral rites, the coexistence of both forms is constantly observed - ancient inhumation, burial of the dead in the ground.

During the burning of corpses, a new idea of ​​the souls of ancestors, which should be somewhere in the middle sky, and, obviously, contribute to all heavenly operations (rain, snow, fog) for the benefit of the descendants remaining on earth, appears quite clearly. Having carried out the burning, sending the soul of the deceased to the host of other souls of his ancestors, the ancient Slav then repeated everything that was done thousands of years ago: he buried the ashes of the deceased in the ground and thereby provided himself with all those magical benefits that were inherent in simple inhumation .

The elements of the funeral rite include: burial mounds, a funeral structure in the form of a human dwelling, and the burial of the ashes of the deceased in an ordinary food pot.

Pots and bowls with food are the most common things in Slavic pagan burial mounds. A pot for preparing food from the first fruits was often considered a sacred object. The pot, as a symbol of goodness and satiety, dates back, in all likelihood, to very ancient times, approximately to the agricultural Neolithic, when agriculture and pottery first appeared.

The closest thing to the relationship between the sacred pot for the first fruits and the urn for burying ashes are anthropomorphic stove-vessels. Vessel-stoves are a small pot of a simplified shape, to which is attached a cylindrical or truncated-conical tray-stove with several round smoke holes and a large arched opening at the bottom for burning with wood chips or coals.

The connecting link between the god of the sky, the god of fruitful clouds and the cremated ancestors, whose souls are no longer embodied in living beings on earth, but remain in the sky, was the pot in which for many hundreds of years primitive farmers boiled the first fruits and thanked the god of the sky with a special festival .

The ritual of corpse burning appears almost simultaneously with the separation of the Proto-Slavs from the general Indo-European massif in the 15th century. BC e. and existed among the Slavs for 27 centuries until the era of Vladimir Monomakh. The burial process is imagined as follows: a funeral pyre was laid, a dead man was “laid” on it, and this funeral was accompanied by a religious and decorative structure - a geometrically precise circle was drawn around the pyre, a deep but narrow ditch was dug in a circle and a light fence was built like a fence made of twigs, to which a considerable amount of straw was applied. When the fire was lit, the flaming fence, with its flame and smoke, blocked the process of burning the corpse inside the fence from the ceremony participants. It is possible that it was precisely this combination of the funeral “mass of firewood” with the regular circumference of the ritual fence that separated the world of the living from the world of dead ancestors that was called “theft.”

Among the Eastern Slavs, from the point of view of pagan beliefs, the burning of animals, both domestic and wild, along with the deceased is of great interest.

The custom of burying in domovinas, or more precisely, erecting domovinas over Christian graves, survived in the land of the ancient Vyatichi until the beginning of the 20th century.

Animal deities.

In a distant era, when the main occupation of the Slavs was hunting. rather than agriculture, they believed that wild animals were their ancestors. The Slavs considered them powerful deities who should be worshiped. Each tribe had its own totem, that is, a sacred animal that the tribe worshiped. Several tribes considered the Wolf to be their ancestor and revered him as a deity. The name of this beast was sacred, it was forbidden to say it out loud.

The owner of the pagan forest was the bear - the most powerful animal. He was considered a protector from all evil and a patron of fertility - it was with the spring awakening of the bear that the ancient Slavs associated the onset of spring. Until the twentieth century. many peasants kept a bear's paw in their houses as a talisman-amulet, which was supposed to protect its owner from disease, witchcraft and all kinds of troubles. The Slavs believed that the bear was endowed with great wisdom, almost omniscience: they swore by the name of the beast, and the hunter who broke the oath was doomed to death in the forest .

Of the herbivores in the hunting era, the most revered was Deer (Moose), the ancient Slavic goddess of fertility, sky and sunlight. In contrast to real deer, the goddess was thought to be horned; her horns were a symbol of the sun's rays. Therefore, deer antlers were considered a powerful amulet against all night evil spirits and were attached either above the entrance to the hut or inside the dwelling.

The heavenly goddesses - the Reindeer - sent newborn fawns to earth, which fell like rain from the clouds.

Among domestic animals, the Slavs most revered the Horse, because once upon a time the ancestors of most peoples of Eurasia led a nomadic lifestyle, and they imagined the sun in the guise of a golden horse running across the sky. Later, a myth arose about the sun god riding across the sky in a chariot.

Household deities.

Spirits inhabited not only forests and waters. There are many known household deities - well-wishers and well-wishers, at the head of which is the table of the brownie, who lived either in the oven or in a bast shoe hung for him on the stove.

The brownie patronized the household: if the owners were diligent, he added good to the good, and punished laziness with misfortune. It was believed that the brownie paid special attention to the cattle: at night he combed the manes and tails of horses (and if he was angry, then on the contrary he tangled the animals’ hair into tangles), he could take away milk from cows, and he could make the milk yield abundant, he had power over life and the health of newborn pets. That’s why they tried to appease the brownie. When moving to a new house, on the eve of the move, take 2 pounds of white flour, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 0.5 pounds of butter, 2 pinches of salt. They kneaded the dough and took it to the new home. They baked bread from this dough. If the bread is good, then life is good; if it’s bad, then you’ll have to move soon. On the 3rd day, guests were invited and dinner was served, and an extra device was placed for the brownie. They poured wine and clinked glasses with the brownie. They cut the bread and treated everyone. One hump was wrapped in a rag and stored forever. The second one was salted 3 times, a piece of silver money was stuck in edgewise and placed under the stove. We leaned on this stove 3 times on 3 sides. They took the cat and brought it to the stove as a gift to the brownie: “I give you the brownie, father, a shaggy animal for a rich yard. After 3 days we looked to see if the wine had been drunk; if it had been drunk, it was topped up again. If the wine was not drunk, then they asked for 9 days 9 times to taste the treat. Treats for the brownie were given every 1st day of the month.

Belief in the brownie was closely intertwined with the belief that dead relatives help the living. In people's minds, this is confirmed by the connection between the brownie and the stove. In ancient times, many believed that it was through the chimney that the soul of a newborn came into the family and that the spirit of the deceased also left through the chimney.

Images of brownies were carved from wood and represented a bearded man in a hat. Such figures were called churs and at the same time symbolized deceased ancestors.

In some northern Russian villages, there were beliefs that in addition to the brownie, the housekeeper, the cattleman and the Kutnoy god also took care of the household (these good-timers lived in the barn and looked after the cattle, they were left with some bread and cottage cheese in the corner of the barn), as well as the guardian ovinnik grain and hay reserves.

Completely different deities lived in the bathhouse, which in pagan times was considered an unclean place. Bannik was an evil spirit that scared people. To appease the bannik, after washing, people left him a broom, soap and water, and sacrificed a black chicken to the bannik.

The cult of “small” deities did not disappear with the advent of Christianity. The beliefs persisted for two reasons. Firstly, the veneration of “minor” deities was less obvious than the cult of the gods of sky, earth and thunder. Shrines were not built for “minor” deities; rituals in their honor were performed at home, with family. Secondly, people believed that small deities live nearby and people communicate with them every day, therefore, despite church prohibitions, they continued to venerate good and evil spirits, thereby ensuring their well-being and safety.

Deities are monsters.

The ruler of the underground and underwater world, the Serpent, was considered the most formidable. The serpent, a powerful and hostile monster, is found in the mythology of almost every nation. The ancient ideas of the Slavs about the Snake were preserved in fairy tales.

The Northern Slavs worshiped the Serpent - the lord of underground waters - and called him the Lizard. The Lizard's sanctuary was located in swamps, the banks of lakes and rivers. The coastal sanctuaries of the Lizard had a perfectly round shape - as a symbol of perfection and order, it was opposed to the destructive power of this god. As victims, the Lizard was thrown into the swamp with black chickens, as well as young girls, which was reflected in many beliefs.

All Slavic tribes who worshiped the Lizard considered him the absorber of the sun.

With the transition to agriculture, many myths and religious ideas of the hunting era were modified or forgotten, the rigidity of ancient rituals was softened: human sacrifice was replaced by horse sacrifice, and later stuffed animals. The Slavic gods of the agricultural era are brighter and kinder to people.

Ancient sanctuaries.

The complex system of pagan beliefs of the Slavs corresponded to an equally complex system of cults. The “minor” deities had neither priests nor sanctuaries; they were prayed to either individually, or as a family, or by a village or tribe. To venerate the high gods, several tribes gathered, for this purpose temple complexes were created, and a priestly class was formed.

Since ancient times, mountains, especially “bald” ones, that is, with a treeless peak, have been the place for communal prayers. At the top of the hill there was a “temple” - a place where a cap - an idol - stood. Around the temple there was a horseshoe-shaped embankment, on top of which kradas - sacred bonfires - burned. The second rampart was the outer boundary of the sanctuary. The space between the two shafts was called the treasury - there they “consumed”, that is, ate, sacrificial food. At ritual feasts, people became, as it were, table companions with the gods. The feast could take place in the open air and in special buildings standing on that temple - mansions (temples), originally intended exclusively for ritual feasts.

Very few Slavic idols have survived. This is explained not so much by the persecution of paganism, but by the fact that the idols, for the most part, were wooden. The use of wood, rather than stone, to depict the gods was explained not by the high cost of the stone, but by the belief in the magical power of the tree - the idol, thus, combined the sacred power of the tree and the deity.

Priests.

Pagan priests - the Magi - performed rituals in sanctuaries, made idols and sacred objects, using magic spells, they asked the gods for a bountiful harvest. The Slavs for a long time kept faith in cloud-busting wolves, who turned into wolves, in this guise they rose to the sky and called for rain or dispersed clouds. Another magical effect on the weather was “sorcery” - spells with a charm (bowl) filled with water. Water from these vessels was sprinkled on crops to increase the yield.

The Magi also made amulets - female and male jewelry covered with spell symbols.

Gods of the era.

With the transition of the Slavs to agriculture, solar gods began to play an important role in their beliefs. Much in the cult of the Slavs was borrowed from the neighboring eastern nomadic tribes; the names of the deities also have Scythian roots.

For several centuries, one of the most revered in Rus' was Dazh-bog (Dazhdbog) - the god of sunlight, warmth, harvest time, fertility, God of summer and happiness. Also known as the Generous God. Symbol: Solar disk. Dazhdbog is located in a golden palace on the land of eternal summer. Sitting on a throne of gold and purple, he is not afraid of shadows, cold or misfortune. Dazhdbog flies across the sky in a golden chariot trimmed with diamonds, pulled by a dozen white horses with golden manes breathing fire. Dazhdbog is married to the Month. A beautiful young maiden appears at the beginning of summer, grows older every day and leaves Dazhdbog in winter. They say that earthquakes are a sign of a couple's bad mood.

Dazhdbog is served by four maidens of exceptional beauty. Zorya Utrennyaya opens the palace gates in the morning. Zorya Vechernyaya closes them in the evening. The Evening Star and the Star Dennitsa, the Morning Star, guard the wonderful horses of Dazhdbog.

Dazhbog was the god of sunlight, but by no means the luminary itself. The Sun God was Khors. Horse, whose name means “sun”, “circle”, embodied a luminary moving across the sky. This is a very ancient deity who did not have a human form and was represented simply by a golden disk. The cult of Khorsa was associated with a ritual spring dance - round dance (movement in a circle), the custom of baking pancakes on Maslenitsa, resembling the shape of a solar disk, and rolling lighted wheels, also symbolizing the luminary.

The companion of the gods of the sun and fertility was Semargl (Simorg) - a winged dog, guardian of crops, god of roots, seeds, sprouts. Symbol – World tree. Its animal appearance speaks of its antiquity; The idea of ​​Semargl, the protector of crops, as a wonderful dog is easily explained: real dogs protected fields from wild roe deer and goats.

Khors and Semargl are deities of Scythian origin, their cult came from the eastern nomads, therefore both of these gods were widely revered only in Southern Rus', bordering the Steppe.

The female deities of fertility, prosperity, and the blossoming of life in spring were Lada and Lelya.

Lada is the goddess of marriage. abundance. time of harvest ripening. Her cult can be traced among the Poles until the 15th century; in ancient times it was common among all Slavs, as well as the Balts. The goddess was approached with prayers in late spring and during the summer, and a white rooster was sacrificed (the white color symbolized goodness).

Lada was called “Mother Leleva.” Lelya is the goddess of unmarried girls, the goddess of spring and the first greenery. Her name is found in words associated with childhood: “lyalya”, “lyalka” - a doll and an address to a girl; "cradle"; “leleko” – a stork bringing children; “cherish” - take care of a small child. Young girls especially revered Lelya, celebrating the spring holiday Lyalnik in her honor: they chose the most beautiful of her friends, put a wreath on her head, sat her on a turf bench (a symbol of sprouting young greenery), danced round dances around her and sang songs glorifying Lelya, then the girl “Lelya” presented her friends with wreaths prepared in advance.

The common Slavic veneration of Makosha (Moksha) - the goddess of the earth, harvest, female destiny, the great mother of all living things - goes back to the ancient agricultural cult of Mother Earth. Makosh, as the goddess of fertility, is closely connected with Semargl and griffins, with mermaids irrigating fields, with water in general - Mokosh was worshiped at springs, and girls threw yarn into wells for her as a sacrifice.

The male fertility deity associated with the lower world was Veles (Volos). God of trade and animals. Also known as the Guardian of the Herds. Symbol - A sheaf of grain or grain tied into a knot. Sacred animals and plants: Ox, grain, wheat, corn. Volos is a benevolent god who regulates trade and makes sure promises are kept. Oaths and covenants are sworn in his name. When Perun became the greatest god of war, he recognized that, unlike Svarozhich, he needed a cool head to advise. Due to this, he recruited Volos to be his right-hand man and advisor.

The hair also has another side. He is the protection of all tamed animals. Volos appears in the guise of a bearded shepherd. Volos is the patron god of armor.

Among the common Slavic gods of fertility, a special place is occupied by the warlike gods to whom bloody sacrifices were made - Yarilo and Perun. Despite the great antiquity and, therefore, wide popularity of these gods, they were little revered by most Slavic tribes because of their warlike appearance.

Yarilo is the god of spring and fun. The symbol is a garland or crown of wild flowers. Sacred animals and plants - wheat, grain. Cheerful Yarilo is the patron saint of spring plants.

The Slavic thunderer was Perun. The symbol is a crossed ax and hammer. His cult is one of the oldest and dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. e. when warlike shepherds on war chariots, possessing bronze weapons, subjugated neighboring tribes. The main myth of Perun tells about the battle of God with the Serpent - the kidnapper of cattle, waters, sometimes luminaries and the wife of the Thunderer.

Perun is a snake fighter, owner of a lightning hammer, closely associated with the image of a magical blacksmith. Blacksmithing was perceived as magic. The name of the legendary founder of the city of Kyiv, Kiy, means hammer. Perun was called the “prince’s god” because he was the patron of princes and symbolized their power.

Svantovit is the god of prosperity and war, also known as the Strong. The symbol is a cornucopia. Svantovit is worshiped in richly decorated temples guarded by warriors. There is a priest's white horse kept there, always ready to ride into battle.

Svarozhich is the god of strength and honor. Also known as scorching. Symbol: Black buffalo head or double-sided axe.

Svarozhich is the son of Svarog, and the fact that he rules the pantheon together with Dazhdbog is the intention of Svarozhich’s father. Svarog's gift - lightning - was entrusted to him. He is the god of the hearth and home and is known for his faithful advice and prophetic power. He is the god of a simple warrior who values ​​peace.

Triglav is the god of plague and war. Also known as the Triple God. The symbol is a snake curved in the shape of a triangle.

Triglav appears as a three-headed man wearing a golden veil over each of his faces. His heads represent the sky, earth and lower regions, and he rides on a black horse in wrestling.

Chernobog is the god of Evil. Also known as the Black God. Symbol: Black figurine. It brings failure and misfortune; she is the cause of all disasters. Darkness, night and death are associated with her. Chernobog is in all respects the opposite of Belbog.

Paganism in urban life in the 11th-13th centuries.

The adoption of Christianity as the state religion did not mean a complete and rapid change in the way of thinking and way of life. Dioceses were established, churches were built, public services in pagan sanctuaries were replaced by services in Christian churches, but there was no serious change in views, a complete rejection of the beliefs of our great-grandfathers and everyday superstitions.

Paganism was reproached for polytheism, and Christianity was given credit for the invention of monotheism. Among the Slavs, the creator of the world and all living nature was Rod - Svyatovit.

Russian people isolated Jesus Christ from the Trinity and built churches of the Savior, replacing the pagan Dazhbog.

Christianity also reflected primitive dualism. The head of all the forces of evil was Satanail, undefeated by God, with his numerous and extensive army, against which God and his angels were powerless. Almighty God could not destroy not only Satan himself, but also the smallest of his servants. A person himself had to “drive away demons” with the righteousness of his life and magical actions.

Such an important section of primitive religion as the magical influence on higher powers through a ritual action, a spell, a prayer song, was at one time absorbed by Christianity and remained an integral part of church ritual. Religious support for statehood at the time of the progressive development of feudalism, the prohibition of blood sacrifices, a wide flow of literature heading to Rus' from Byzantium and Bulgaria - these consequences of the baptism of Rus' had progressive significance.

An outbreak of sympathy for ancestral paganism occurs in the second half of the 12th century. and, perhaps, is connected both with the disappointment of the social elite in the behavior of the Orthodox clergy, and with the new political form, which brought closer in the 12th century. local princely dynasties to the land, to the zemstvo boyars, and partly to the population of their principalities in general. One might think that the priestly class improved its ideas about the magical connection between the macrocosm and the microcosm of personal clothing, about the possibility of influencing life phenomena through incantatory symbolism and pagan apotropaia. Dual faith was not just a mechanical combination of old habits and beliefs with new, Greek ones; in some cases it was a thoughtful system in which ancient ideas were quite consciously preserved. An excellent example of Christian-pagan dual faith are the famous amulets - serpentines, worn on the chest over clothing.

Dual faith was not just the result of the church’s tolerance for pagan superstitions, it was an indicator of the further historical life of aristocratic paganism, which, even after the adoption of Christianity, developed, improved, and developed new subtle methods of competition with religion imposed from outside.

Pagan rituals and festivals of the 11th – 13th centuries.

The annual cycle of ancient Russian festivals consisted of different, but equally archaic elements, dating back to the Indo-European unity of the first farmers or to the Middle Eastern agricultural cults adopted by early Christianity.

One of the elements was the solar phases: winter solstice, spring equinox and summer solstice. The autumnal equinox is very weakly noted in ethnographic records.

The second element was a cycle of prayers for rain and the effect of vegetative force on the crop. The third element was the cycle of harvest festivals. The fourth element was the days of remembrance of ancestors (rainbow). The fifth could be carols, holidays on the first days of each month. The sixth element was Christian holidays, some of which also celebrated solar phases, and some were associated with the agricultural cycle of the southern regions of the Mediterranean, which had different calendar dates than the agricultural cycle of the ancient Slavs.

As a result, a very complex and multi-basic system of Russian folk holidays was gradually created.

One of the main elements of Christmas rituals was dressing up in animal-like clothes and dancing in “mashkers”. Ritual masks were depicted on silver bracelets.

Masquerades continued throughout the winter holidays, acquiring a special revelry in their second half - from January 1 to January 6, on the “terrible” Veles days.

After the adoption of Christianity as the state religion, there was a calendar contact between ancient pagan holidays and new, church-state holidays, obligatory for the ruling elite. In a number of cases, Christian holidays, which, like the Slavic ones, arose on a primitive astronomical basis, on solar phases, coincided in timing (Nativity of Christ, Annunciation), and often they diverged.

Rusal incantation rituals and dances were the initial stage of a pagan festival, which ended with an obligatory ritual feast with the obligatory consumption of sacrificial meat: pork, beef, chickens and eggs.

Since many pagan holidays coincided or calendared with Orthodox ones, outwardly decency was almost observed: the feast was held, for example, not on the occasion of the feast of women in labor, but on the occasion of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, but it continued the next day as a “lawless second meal” .

Historical development of Slavic-Russian paganism.

“Paganism” is an extremely vague term that arose in the church environment to designate everything non-Christian, pre-Christian.

The Slavic-Russian part of the vast pagan massif cannot in any case be understood as a separate, independent and unique variant of religious primitive ideas inherent only to the Slavs.

The main determining material for the study of paganism is ethnographic: rituals, round dances, songs, children's games into which archaic rituals degenerated, fairy tales that preserved fragments of ancient mythology and epic.

As primitive society developed, the complexity of its social structure was increasingly based on religious ideas: the identification of leaders and priests, the consolidation of tribes and tribal cults, external relations, wars.

Speaking about evolution, it should be noted that deities that arose in certain conditions can acquire new functions over time, and their place in the pantheon can change.

The world of the then pagans consisted of four parts: earth, two heavens and an underground water zone. This was not a specific feature of Slavic paganism, but was the result of a universal, stage-convergent development of ideas that varied in detail, but were mainly determined by this scheme. The most difficult thing to unravel is the ancient ideas about the earth, about a large expanse of land filled with rivers, forests, fields, animals and human dwellings. For many peoples, the earth was depicted as a rounded plane surrounded by water. Water was concretized either as the sea or in the form of two rivers washing the earth, which may be more archaic and local - wherever a person was, he was always between any two rivers or rivulets limiting his immediate land space.

Medieval people, regardless of whether they were baptized or not, continued to believe in their great-grandfather’s dualistic scheme of the forces governing the world, and with all archaic measures they tried to protect themselves, their homes and property from the action of vampires and “navi” (alien and hostile dead).

Under princes Igor, Svyatoslav and Vladimir, paganism became the state religion of Rus', the religion of princes and warriors. Paganism strengthened and revived ancient rituals that had begun to die out. The young state's commitment to ancestral paganism was a form and means of preserving state political independence. Updated paganism of the 10th century. was formed in conditions of competition with Christianity, which was reflected not only in the arrangement of magnificent princely funeral pyres, not only in the persecution of Christians and the destruction of Orthodox churches by Svyatoslav, but also in a more subtle form of contrasting Russian pagan theology with Greek Christian.

The adoption of Christianity to a very small extent changed the religious life of the Russian village in the 10th – 12th centuries. The only innovation was the cessation of corpse burnings. Based on a number of secondary signs, one can think that the Christian teaching about a blissful posthumous existence “in the next world,” as a reward for patience in this world, spread in the village after the Tatar invasion and as a result of initial ideas about the inescapability of the foreign yoke. Pagan beliefs, rituals, conspiracies, formed over millennia, could not disappear without a trace immediately after the adoption of a new faith.

The decline in the authority of the church reduced the strength of church teachings against paganism, and in the 11th – 13th centuries. did not fade away in all layers of Russian society, but passed into a semi-legal position, as church and secular authorities applied harsh measures to the pagan Magi, including a public auto-da-fe.

In the second half of the 12th century. There is a revival of paganism in the cities and in princely-boyar circles. An explanation for the revival of paganism can be the crystallization of one and a half dozen large principalities-kingdoms that took shape since the 1130s with their own stable dynasties, the increased role of the local boyars and the more subordinate position of the episcopate, which found itself dependent on the prince. The renewal of paganism was reflected in the emergence of a new doctrine about an inscrutable light, different from the sun, in the cult of a female deity, and in the appearance of sculptural images of the deity of light.

As a result of a number of complex phenomena in Rus', by the beginning of the 13th century. a kind of dual faith was created in both the village and the city, in which the village simply continued its religious ancestral life, being listed as baptized, and the city and princely-boyar circles, having accepted much from the church sphere and widely using the social side of Christianity, not only did not forget their paganism with its rich mythology, deep-rooted rituals and cheerful carnivals with their dances, but also raised their ancient religion, persecuted by the church, to a higher level, corresponding to the heyday of Russian lands in the 12th century.

Conclusion

Despite the thousand-year dominance of the state Orthodox Church, pagan views were the people's faith until the 20th century. manifested themselves in rituals, round dance games, songs, fairy tales and folk art.

The religious essence of rituals and games has long faded away, the symbolic sound of the ornament has been forgotten, fairy tales have lost their mythological meaning, but even the forms of archaic pagan creativity unconsciously repeated by descendants are of great interest, firstly, as a bright component of later peasant culture, and secondly, as an invaluable treasury of information about the millennia-long journey of understanding the world by our distant ancestors.

Paganism of Ancient Rus'- a system of pre-Christian ideas about the world and man among the ancient Eastern Slavs, the official and dominant religion in the Old Russian state until the Baptism of Rus' in 988. Until the middle of the 13th century, despite the efforts of the ruling elite, it continued to be confessed by a significant part of the population of Rus'. After being completely replaced by Christianity, pagan traditions and beliefs continued to have a significant influence on Russian culture, traditions and way of life, which continues to this day.

The beliefs of the ancient Slavs were rooted in the religious views of the ancient Indo-Europeans, from among whom the Slavs emerged in the 2nd–1st millennium BC. e. Gradually transforming and becoming more complex, adopting the features of other cultures, primarily Iranian-speaking ones (Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans), the system of pagan beliefs reached the 9th–10th centuries.

The Laurentian Chronicle mentions that in the Kiev pagan pantheon, erected by Prince Vladimir in 980 “on the hill behind the tower courtyard,” there were idols of the gods Perun, Khors, Dazhbog, Stribog, Simargl (Semargla) and Mokosha. Perun was the supreme god of thunder, the Slavic analogue of Zeus and Thor. He was considered the patron saint of the princely family; he was worshiped primarily among the princely retinues. Horse played the role of the sun god. Researchers argue about the origin of his name; perhaps it came to the Slavs from the Khazars or Scythians and Sarmatians. Dazhbog, who also personified the sun, is identified by some experts with Khors, believing that these are two names of the same god. Stribog was the god of the wind, Semargl, as some scientists believe, was the god of vegetation, earth and the underworld. The only goddess in Vladimir's pantheon was Mokosh, the patroness of crafts and fertility. “The Gods of Vladimir” is devoted to a huge amount of controversial scientific literature: experts offer many options for interpreting the names of pagan deities, talk about their tribal connection and look for analogues in Germanic, Baltic, Iranian, Finno-Ugric, and Turkic cults. There is an opinion that the legend about the “gods of Vladimir” is actually a late insertion with the names of pagan idols known from various references. One way or another, archaeological excavations have shown that opposite the princely court on Starokievskaya Mountain there really was a Slavic temple.

Of those Slavic gods that are not mentioned in the Laurentian Chronicle, researchers highlight the fire god Svarog, especially revered by peasants, the goddess of spring and marriage Lada, as well as Volos (Veles), the patron god of cattle breeding. The outstanding scientist B. A. Rybakov “identified” these three gods, as well as Mokosh, Perun and Dazhbog-Khorsa, in images from a stone idol of the 10th century, discovered in 1848 in the Zbruch River (modern Ukraine) and therefore went down in history as “Zbruchsky” idol". It is noteworthy that the cults of different deities prevailed among different Slavic tribes.

At the first stage, the religious ideas of the ancient Slavs were associated with the deification of the forces of nature, which was imagined as inhabited by many spirits, which was reflected in the symbolism of ancient Slavic art. The Slavs worshiped mother earth, whose symbol were patterns depicting a large square divided into four small squares with dots in the center of a plowed field. Water cults were quite developed, since water was considered the element from which the world was formed. The water was inhabited by numerous mermaid deities, watermen, in whose honor special Rusalia holidays were held. Ducks and geese usually serve as symbols of water in art. Forests and groves were revered as the dwellings of the gods. The owner of the pagan forest was the Bear, the most powerful animal. He was considered a protector from all evil and a patron of fertility. Some tribes considered the Wolf to be their ancestor and revered him as a deity. Of the herbivores, the most revered was Deer (Moose), the ancient Slavic goddess of fertility, sky and sunlight. Among domestic animals, the Slavs revered the Horse more than others. They imagined the sun in the form of a golden horse running across the sky. At the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. ancient Slavic deities take an anthropomorphic form, that is, animal features in the images of deities gradually give way to human ones. The main gods among them are Svarog, Dazhdbog, Khors, Stribog, Veles (Volos), Yarilo, Makosh (Mokosh).

Svarog is the personification of the sky, the supreme ruler of the Universe, the ancestor of the gods. Stribog is the god of the winds. Dazhbog (Dazhdbog) was one of the most revered pagan gods in Rus' for several centuries. Dazhbog is the god of sunlight, warmth, and the time of harvest ripening. The symbols of this god were gold and silver. Dazhbog was the god of sunlight, but by no means the luminary itself. The god of the sun was Khors, whose name means “sun”, “circle”, embodying a luminary moving across the sky. This is a very ancient deity that does not have a human form and was represented simply by a golden disk. The ritual spring dance of round dance (movement in a circle), the custom of baking pancakes on Maslenitsa, reminiscent of the shape of a solar disk, and rolling lighted wheels, also symbolizing the luminary, were associated with the Khorsa cult. The companion of the gods of the sun and fertility was Semargl (Simargl) - a winged dog, guardian of crops, god of roots, seeds, sprouts.

Its animal appearance speaks of its antiquity. The female deities of fertility, prosperity, and the blossoming of life in spring were Lada and Lelya. Lada is the goddess of marriage, abundance, and the time of harvest ripening. Lada was called “Mother Leleva.” Lelya is the goddess of unmarried girls, the goddess of spring and the first greenery. The common Slavic veneration of Makoshi (Mokoshi) - the goddess of the earth, harvest, female destiny, the great mother of all living things - goes back to the ancient agricultural cult of Mother Earth. Makosh, as the goddess of fertility, is closely connected with Semargl, with mermaids irrigating fields, with water in general - Makosh was worshiped at springs, and as a sacrifice, girls threw yarn into her wells. Makosh was also the goddess of women's work, a wonderful spinner. Friday was considered the sacred day of Mokosh; 12 Fridays a year (every month) were especially celebrated. The male god of fertility associated with the lower world was Veles (Volos). The name Veles goes back to the ancient root “vel” with the meaning “dead”. Veles is the ruler of the world of the dead. At the same time, Veles is the god of wisdom and poetry. The cult of Veles among the Slavs changed greatly over time. The most ancient form of the god is the Bear, which is the progenitor of wild animals that are hunted. With the transition to cattle breeding, Veles turned into the patron of domestic animals, the “cattle god.” But the “bestial god” has not yet completely lost its bearish appearance: for example, Russian peasants until the 20th century. They kept a bear's paw in barns as a talisman and called it “cattle god.” With the development of agriculture among the Slavs, Veles became the god of the harvest, while still remaining the god of the dead - the ancestors buried in the ground were patrons and givers of the harvest. These gods also had their own symbols in art.

The rooster, who marks time with amazing accuracy, was recognized as a bird of things, and a rare fairy tale passed without mentioning him. The horse, this proud, swift animal, which in the minds of the ancient Slavs often merged with either the sun god or the image of an equestrian warrior, was a favorite motif in ancient Russian art, and much later its image continued to appear on the ridges of Russian huts and towers. The sun was especially revered, and the image of a fiery wheel divided into six parts became firmly established in fine art.

These images appeared on the frames of huts and embroidered towels until the beginning of the 20th century. Honoring and fearing brownies, barnacles, goblins, mermaids, water creatures and other creatures inhabiting the world around him, the Slav tried to isolate himself from them with dozens of conspiracies and amulets-amulets, some of which have survived to this day.

The second stage of the development of Slavic paganism

At the second stage of the development of ancient Slavic paganism, the cult of the Family and Rozhanits of the creator of the universe and the goddesses of fertility took shape and lasted longer than others. It was a cult of ancestors, family and home. Rod was the god of the sky, thunderstorms, and fertility. They said about him that he rides on a cloud, throws rain on the earth, and from this children are born on earth. The clan is the ruler of the earth and all living things, he is a pagan god-creator. The companions of the Family were Rozhanitsy, the nameless goddesses of fertility, abundance, and prosperity. Their image goes back to the ancient Deer. Women in labor were revered as protectors of young mothers and young children. At the same time, a three-part idea of ​​the world was formed: the lower underground (symbol of lizards, snakes), the middle earthly (people and animals) and the upper heavenly, starry one. An image of this structure of the world could be seen on idols, surviving only in single copies, as well as on Russian spinning wheels, made a hundred years ago.

Sanctuaries

Worship and sacrifices took place in special religious sanctuaries, temples, which were initially round wooden or earthen structures erected on embankments or hills, and later they acquired a quadrangular shape. In the center of the temple there was a wooden or stone statue of an idol deity, around which sacrificial fires burned. The walls of the temple were made of vertical logs, decorated with carvings and brightly painted. The most famous monument of paganism was the Zbruch Idol (IX - 10th centuries), a tetrahedral stone pillar installed on a hill above the Zbruch River. The sides of the pillar are covered with bas-reliefs in several tiers. The top one depicts gods and goddesses with long hair. Below there are three more tiers, revealing the ideas of our ancestors about space, sky, earth and the underworld.

National holidays

The continuous struggle and alternate victory of the light and dark forces of nature was artistically enshrined in the Slavs’ ideas about the cycle of the seasons. Their starting point was the onset of the new year and the birth of a new sun at the end of December. This celebration received the name “Kolyada” among the Slavs. The deity of the sun, seen off for the winter, was called Kupala, Yarilo and Kostroma. During the spring festival, straw effigies of these deities were either burned or drowned in water. Pagan folk holidays, such as New Year's fortune-telling, rampant Maslenitsa, "Mermaid Week", were accompanied by incantatory magical rituals and were a kind of prayer to the gods for general well-being, a rich harvest, and deliverance from thunderstorms and hail. For New Year's fortune telling about the harvest, special vessels of charm were used. They often depicted 12 different designs that made up a closed circle, a symbol of 12 months.

The third stage of development of Slavic paganism

At the third, final stage of the development of paganism, the cult of Perun, the warrior god of thunder, rises. In 980, the Kiev prince Vladimir I, nicknamed the Red Sun, made an attempt to reform paganism. In an effort to raise folk beliefs to the level of a state religion, the prince ordered wooden idols of six gods to be erected in Kyiv: Perun with a silver head and golden mustache, Khors, Dazhdbog, Simargl and Mokosha. Eight unquenchable fires burned around the idol of Perun. In Kyiv, there was also an idol of Veles, but not near the princely court, but in the settlements of the common people: the cult of this half-animal god was considered too wild and common to be compared with the “princely” gods.

Warlike Gods

Among the common Slavic gods of fertility, a special place is occupied by the warlike gods, to whom bloody sacrifices were made, Yarilo and Perun. Yarilo, the god of grain dying in the ground to be reborn as an ear, was both beautiful and cruel. To the pagans he appeared as a young man on a white horse, in white clothes, and wearing a wreath of wild flowers. A young sheep was sacrificed to Yarila, as the god of death and resurrection, whose blood was sprinkled on the arable land to make the harvest more abundant. In the era of dual faith, the cult of Yarila was correlated with the cult of St. George the Victorious, since the name of the holy warrior means “farmer.” The Slavic thunderer was Perun. His cult is one of the oldest and dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. The main myth about Perun tells about the battle of the god with the Serpent who stole cattle, waters, luminaries and the wife of the Thunderer. Perun the serpent fighter, owner of the lightning hammer, is closely associated with the image of the magical blacksmith. The rise of the cult of Perun, his transformation into the supreme pagan god, begins with the military campaigns of the Kievites. They defeat the Khazars and fight with Byzantium. Human sacrifices are made to Perun at the foot of the sacred oak trees. Perun was called the “princely god” because he was the patron saint of princes and symbolized their power. Such a god was alien to most Slavic farmers.

The topic of Russian paganism has been incredibly popular in recent years. The ranks of “Rodnovers”, “Slavic-Aryans”, “relatives” and other neo-pagan movements are expanding. Meanwhile, even before the middle of the last century, the debate about Russian paganism was conducted only in scientific circles.

What is paganism

The word “paganism” comes from the Slavic word “pagans,” that is, “peoples” who did not accept Christianity. In historical chronicles it also means “worshipper of many gods (idols)”, “idol worshiper”.

The word “paganism” itself is a translation from the Greek “ethnikos” (“pagan”), from “ethnos” (“people”).

From the same Greek root, a people is called an “ethnos,” and the name of the science of “ethnography” is derived from “the study of the material and spiritual culture of peoples.”

When translating the Bible, translators translated the word “Gentile” from the Hebrew terms “goy” (non-Jew) and similar ones. Then the first Christians began to use the word “pagan” to designate representatives of all non-Abramic religions.

The fact that these religions were, as a rule, polytheistic influenced the fact that “paganism” in the broad sense began to be called “polytheism” as such.

Difficulties

There was very little scientific research on Russian paganism until the last third of the 20th century.

In 1902-1934, the Czech philologist Lubor Niederle published his famous work “Slavic Antiquities”. In 1914, the book of the Masonic historian Evgeniy Anichkov “Paganism and Ancient Rus'” was published. At the beginning of the 20th century, Finnish-born philologist Viljo Petrovich Mansikka (“Religion of the Eastern Slavs”) studied Russian paganism.

After the First World War, interest in Slavic paganism subsided and awoke again in the second half of the 20th century.

In 1974, the work of Vladimir Toporov and Vyacheslav Ivanov “Research in the Field of Slavic Antiquities” was published. In 1981 - the book of archaeologist Boris Rybakov “The Paganism of the Ancient Slavs”. In 1982 - the sensational work of philologist Boris Uspensky about the ancient cult of Nicholas of Myra.

If we go to any bookstore now, we will see hundreds of books on Russian paganism on the shelves. Everyone writes about it (even satirists) - the topic is very popular, but today it is extremely difficult to “catch” anything scientific in this ocean of waste paper.

Ideas about Russian paganism are still fragmentary. What do we know about him?

Gods

Russian paganism was a polytheistic religion. This has been proven. The supreme god was Perun, which immediately puts the paganism of the Slavs in a row of religions with the Thunder God at the head of the pantheon (remember Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Hinduism).

The so-called “Vladimir Pantheon”, compiled in 980, gives us an idea of ​​the main pagan gods.

In the Laurentian Chronicle we read: “And Volodya began to reign as one in Kyiv and placed idols on a hill outside the dark courtyard. Perun is wooden and his head is silver and otss is gold and Khursa Dazhba and Striba and Simargla and Mokosh [and] I ryakhu in the name of the honorable god... and I eat the demon."...

There is a direct listing of the gods: Perun, Khors, Dazhdbog, Stribog, Simargl and Mokosh.

Horse

Khors and Dazhdbog were considered sun gods. If Dazhdbog was recognized as the Slavic sun god, then Khorsa was considered the sun god of the southern tribes, in particular the Torci, where the Scythian-Alan influence was strong even in the 10th century.

The name Khorsa is derived from the Persian language, where korsh (korshid) means “sun”.

However, the personification of Khors with the sun has been disputed by some scholars. Thus, Evgeny Anichkov wrote that Khors is not the god of the sun, but the god of the month, the moon.

He made this conclusion on the basis of the text “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” which mentions the majestic pagan deity to whom Vseslav of Polotsk crossed the path: “Vseslav the Prince ruled over the people, ruled over the princes of the city, and at night he prowled like a wolf: from Kiev he hunted to the roosters of Tmutarakan , the great Horse scoured the path like a wolf.”

It is clear that Vseslav crossed the path of Khorsu at night. The Great Horse, according to Anichkov, was not the sun, but the month, which was also worshiped by the Eastern Slavs.

Dazhdbog

There is no dispute regarding the solar nature of Dazhdbog. His name comes from “dazhd” - to give, that is, God willing, giving god, literally: giving life.

According to ancient Russian monuments, the sun and Dazhdbog are synonyms. The Ipatiev Chronicle calls Dazhdbog the sun in 1114: “The sun is the king, the son of Svarog, aka Dazhdbog.” In the already mentioned “Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” the Russian people are called Dazhdboz’s grandchildren.

Stribog

Another god from the Vladimir pantheon is Stribog. He is usually considered the god of the winds, but in the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign” we read: “Behold the winds, Stribozh’s grandchildren, blow arrows from the sea onto Igor’s brave regiments.”

This allows us to talk about Stribog as the god of war. The first part of the name of this deity “stri” comes from the ancient “street” - to destroy. Hence Stribog is the destroyer of good, the destroying god, or the god of war. Thus, Stribog is a destructive principle as opposed to the good Dazhdbog. Another name for Stribog among the Slavs is Pozvizd.

Simargl

Among the gods listed in the chronicle, whose idols stood on Starokievskaya Mountain, the essence of Simargl is not entirely clear.

Some researchers compare Simargl with the Iranian deity Simurgh (Senmurv), a sacred winged dog, guardian of plants. According to Boris Rybakov, Simargl in Rus' in the 12th–13th centuries was replaced by the god Pereplut, who had the same meaning as Simargl. Obviously, Simargl was the deity of some tribe, subject to the Grand Duke of Kyiv Vladimir.

Mokosh

The only woman in the Vladimir pantheon is Mokosh. According to various sources, she was revered as the goddess of water (the name “Mokosh” is associated with the common Slavic word “get wet”), as the goddess of fertility and birth.

In a more everyday sense, Mokosh was also the goddess of sheep breeding, weaving and women's husbandry.

Mokosh was revered for a long time after 988. This is indicated by at least one of the 16th century questionnaires; During confession, the clergyman was obliged to ask the woman: “Didn’t you go to Mokosha?” Sheaves of flax and embroidered towels were sacrificed to the goddess Mokosha (later Paraskeva Pyatnitsa).

Veles

In the book by Ivanov and Toporov, the relationship between Perun and Veles goes back to the ancient Indo-European myth about the duel between the God of Thunder and the Serpent; in the East Slavic implementation of this myth, “the duel between the Thunder God and his opponent occurs due to the possession of a lamb.”

Volos, or Veles, usually appears in Russian chronicles as a “cattle god”, as a god of wealth and trade. “Cattle” - money, tax; "cowwoman" - treasury, "cowman" - tribute collector.

In Ancient Rus', especially in the North, the cult of Volos was very significant. In Novgorod, the memory of pagan Volos was preserved in the stable name of Volosovaya Street.

The cult of Hair was also in Vladimir on the Klyazma. The suburban Nikolsky-Volosov monastery, built according to legend on the site of the temple of Volos, is famous here. There was also a temple of Volos in Kyiv, down on Podol near the trading piers of Pochayna.

Scientists Anichkov and Lavrov believed that the temple of Volos in Kyiv was located where the boats of the Novgorodians and Krivichi stopped. Therefore, Veles can be considered either the god of the “wider part of the population,” or the “god of the Novgorod Slovenes.”

Veles's book

When talking about Russian paganism, one must always understand that this system of ideas is reconstructed according to the language, folklore, rituals and customs of the ancient Slavs. The key word here is “reconstructed”.

Unfortunately, since the middle of the last century, increased interest in the topic of Slavic paganism began to give rise to both poorly proven pseudo-scientific research and outright fakes.

The most famous hoax is the so-called “Veles Book”.

According to the recollections of the scientist’s son, in his last speech at the department’s bureau, Academician Boris Rybakov said: “Historical science faces two dangers. Veles's book. And - Fomenko." And he sat down in his place.

Many people still believe in the authenticity of the Book of Veles. This is not surprising: according to it, the history of the Russians begins in the 9th century. BC e. from forefather Bogumir. In Ukraine, the study of “The Book of Veles” is even included in the school curriculum. This is, to put it mildly, astonishing, since the authenticity of this text is not even fully recognized by the academic community.

Firstly, there are many errors and inaccuracies in the chronology, and secondly, the language and graphics do not correspond to the stated era. Finally, the primary source (wooden tablets) is simply missing.

According to serious scientists, the “Veles Book” is a hoax, allegedly created by the Russian emigrant Yuri Mirolyubov, who in 1950 in San Francisco published its text from the tablets that he never demonstrated.

The famous philologist Anatoly Alekseev expressed the general point of view of science when he wrote: “The question of the authenticity of the Book of Veles is resolved simply and unambiguously: it is a primitive forgery. There is not a single argument in defense of its authenticity; many arguments have been given against its authenticity.”

Although, of course, it would be nice to have “Slavic Vedas”, but only genuine ones, and not written by falsifiers.