Pagan beliefs of the ancient Slavs.

Paganism is a religion based on belief in several gods at the same time, and not in one creator God, as, for example, in Christianity.

The concept of paganism

The term "paganism" itself is not entirely accurate, as it includes several concepts. Today, paganism is understood not so much as a religion, but as a set of religious and cultural beliefs, and belief in several gods is referred to as "totemism", "polytheism" or "ethnic religion".

The paganism of the ancient Slavs is a term that is used to refer to a complex of religious and cultural views on the life of the ancient Slavic tribes before they converted to Christianity and converted to a new faith. There is an opinion that the term itself in relation to the ancient religious and ritual culture of the Slavs did not originate from the concept of polytheism (many deities), but from the fact that the ancient tribes, although they lived separately, were based on one language. So, Nestor the chronicler in his notes speaks of these tribes as pagans, that is, having one language, common roots. Later, this term gradually began to be attributed to Slavic religious beliefs and used to refer to religion.

The emergence and development of paganism in Rus'

Slavic paganism began to take shape around the 2nd-1st millennium BC. under the influence of Indo-European culture, when the Slavs began to stand out from it into independent tribes. Moving and occupying new territories, the Slavs got acquainted with the culture of their neighbors and adopted certain features from them. So, it was the Indo-European culture that brought into Slavic mythology the images of the god of thunder, the god of cattle and the image of mother earth. The Celts also had a considerable influence on the Slavic tribes, who also enriched the Slavic pantheon and, in addition, brought to the Slavs the very concept of "god", which had not been used before. Slavic paganism has a lot in common with the German-Scandinavian culture, from there the Slavs took the image of the world tree, dragons and many other deities, which later transformed depending on the living conditions and the characteristics of the Slavic culture.

After the Slavic tribes formed and began to actively populate new territories, move away from each other and separate, paganism was also transformed, each tribe had its own special rituals, its own names for the gods and the deities themselves. So, by the 6th-7th centuries. the religion of the Eastern Slavs was quite noticeably different from the religion of the Western Slavs.

It should be noted that often the beliefs of the top of society were very different from the beliefs of the lower strata, and what was believed in large cities and settlements did not always coincide with the beliefs of small villages.

From the moment the Slavic tribes began to unite, began to form, external relations of the Slavs with Byzantium began to develop, gradually paganism began to be persecuted, old beliefs began to be doubted, even teachings against paganism appeared. As a result, after the Baptism of Rus' in 988, when Christianity became the official religion, the Slavs began to gradually move away from the old traditions, although the relationship between paganism and Christianity was not easy. According to some information, in many territories paganism is still preserved, and in Rus' it existed for quite a long time, until the 12th century.

The essence of Slavic paganism

Although there are a sufficient number of sources by which one can judge the beliefs of the Slavs, it is difficult to form a unified picture of the world of the East Slavic pagans. It is generally accepted that the essence of Slavic paganism was faith in the forces of nature, which determined human life, controlled it and decided fate. From this follow the gods - the lords of the elements and natural phenomena, mother earth. In addition to the higher pantheon of gods, the Slavs also had smaller deities - brownies, mermaids, etc. Minor deities and demons did not have a serious impact on human life, but actively participated in it. The Slavs believed in the existence of a human soul, in the heavenly and underworld kingdoms, in life after death.

Slavic paganism has many rituals that are associated with the interaction of gods and people. They worshiped the gods, they asked for protection, patronage, they made sacrifices - most often it was cattle. There is no exact information about the presence of human sacrifices among the pagan Slavs.

List of Slavic gods

Common Slavic gods:

• Mother - Cheese Earth - the main female image, the goddess of fertility, she was worshiped and asked for a good harvest, a good offspring;
• Perun is the god of thunder, the main god of the pantheon.

Other gods of the Eastern Slavs (also called the pantheon of Vladimir):

• Veles is the patron of storytellers and poetry;
• Hair is the patron saint of cattle;
• Dazhdbog - a solar deity, is considered the ancestor of all Russian people;
• Mokosh is the patroness of spinning and weaving;
• Rod and women in labor - deities personifying fate;
• Svarog - the blacksmith god;
• Svarozhich - the personification of fire;
• Simargl - a messenger between heaven and earth;
• Stribog - a deity associated with the winds;
• Khors is the personification of the sun.

The Slavic pagans also had various images that personified certain natural phenomena, but were not deities. These include Maslenitsa, Kolyada, Kupala, etc. Effigies of these images were burned during holidays and rituals.

The persecution of the pagans and the end of paganism

The more Rus united, the more it increased its political power and expanded contacts with other, more developed states, the more the pagans were persecuted by the adherents of Christianity. After the Baptism of Rus' took place, Christianity became not just a new religion, but a new way of thinking, began to play a huge political and social role. Pagans who did not want to accept a new religion (and there were a lot of them) entered into open confrontation with Christians, but the latter did everything to reason with the "barbarians". Paganism persisted until the 12th century, but then it gradually began to fade away.

The religion of the ancient Slavs, which historically existed in Slavic cultures, is a form of religious life that arose in the pre-Christian period as the original religion of the Slavs and, after the introduction of Christianity, passed to the position of an “unofficial”, folk belief. The religion of the ancient Slavs is a combination of religious beliefs and attitudes that have developed in the pre-Christian Slavic culture, as well as ways of organizing spiritual experience and behavior. Historically, the religion of the ancient Slavs goes back to the religion of the ancient Indo-Europeans. It acquires relative integrity and originality in the era of Slavic unity, which lasted until the second half. I millennium AD The gradual resettlement of tribes from the Proto-Slavic homeland (the lands between the Vistula and the Oder) led to the formation of differences in religious ideas and cults of the southern, western, Baltic and eastern Slavs, which, however, retained, with increasing features, the features

indigenous community. With the development of new lands, some forms of religious life, borrowed by the Slavs from neighboring peoples, were added to the ancient Indo-European mythology and to the Proto-Slavic religious tradition. The religion of the Eastern Slavs included fragments of Iranian, Finno-Ugric and some other beliefs. In the X century. some ancient Slavic religions, for example, Kievan Rus, reached the stage of an early state religion.

The ideas of the Slavs about the sacred are rooted in the Indo-European pre-foundation: from the Indo-European root *k "uen- (*k" wen-) originates a large family of Slavic words with the element * svet-, denoting the holy. Indian, Iranian and Baltic linguistic data show that the Indo-European ideas about the sacred were originally associated with the idea of ​​superhuman strength, life-giving and filling the being with the ability to grow. Related meanings of strength, growth, increase are established for Slavic words that expressed ideas about the sacred.

The Slavs gave holiness to heaven and earth, sources of water, plants, fire, certain parts of space, periods of time, forms of activity and a number of other phenomena that, in their perception, had a special vital value and in which they saw the presence of an extraordinary power of growth, abundance, life-giving. The element svet-, denoting the corresponding qualities, was part of many Slavic names: Sventovit - the name of the god of the Baltic Slavs, Svyatogor - the name of a mythological hero, Svyatoslav, Svyatopolk - the names of princes, etc. The ancient Slavs possessed a developed system of concepts about alien human beings who are secretly present in the world and, if necessary, show their anthropomorphic, zoomorphic or theriomorphic appearance and their power. The highest category of this kind of beings were the gods.

The word god itself existed among the Slavs already in the pre-Christian era and,

judging by the related words of the Indo-European group, it originally meant a share, destiny, happiness (this meaning is retained in Russ, poor - “devoid of a share”, rich - “having a share”), as well as the giver of a share. The Slavs stood on the positions of polytheism, and the composition of the gods, their names, functions in different areas of Slavic culture differed significantly, although there were also common Proto-Slavic gods.

Sources indisputably testify to the worship of the Slavs to the god of thunder, the earliest mention of which dates back to the 6th century. (Dig Caesarea. War with the Goths). The god of the stormy sky, typical of the common Indo-European religious mythology in East Slavic culture, is known under the name of Perun. Among the Eastern Slavs, Perun is a warrior god, the patron of princely power and squads, and military craft. Perun was given a distinctly anthropomorphic appearance of a formidable warrior, sometimes on horseback; Perun's attributes were lightning, "thunder" arrows, axes and other weapons, the sacred tree of Perun was an oak. According to The Tale of Bygone Years, the Eastern Slavs in the pre-Christian era revered Beles (Volos) as one of the main gods, whose cult has its counterparts in other Slavic religions. Whiter - "cattle god", i.e. god of offspring and harvest, god of the life-giving forces of the earth. The power of Beles over the life-giving juices of the earth indicates his involvement in the underworld, which was perceived by the Slavs not only as the "world of the dead", but also as the foundation of the earthly world, the root of its vitality. As the patron of cattle, Beles was associated with wealth, and therefore with gold, so red and yellow colors were the attributes of Beles; another attribute of this god is wool, a symbol of wealth. In the ideas of the Eastern Slavs, wool and hairiness indicate the relationship between Beles and the bear.

We can talk about the East Slavic cults of Dazhbog (“giving god”) - the god of the sun, Stribog - the god of the winds, Svarog - the god of fire, possibly heavenly, solar fire, Rod - the god who personified

continuity and integrity of generations coming from one ancestor. The Baltic Slavs worshiped Sventovit - the warrior god, honoring the sword and the white horse as his attributes, Svarozhich (Radgost) - the god of the sun and military success, Triglav - the god of magical knowledge and some other deities. There is little reliable information about other gods of Slavic religions, their names, functions, statuses, and prevalence. There is practically no exact data on the ancient gods of the southern and western Slavs, although scientific reconstructions indicate the existence of images that corresponded to common Slavic ones. Some cults were borrowed by the Slavs from neighboring peoples, such are the East Slavic cults of the gods Khors and Simargl, adopted from Iranian beliefs.

Along with male deities, the Slavs revered female deities, associated primarily with marriage, birth and needlework. Among the Eastern Slavs, such are women in childbirth and the goddess Mokosh (Makosh), the patroness of spinning and household chores, whose anthropomorphic image was retained by tradition until the 19th century. Female deities formed marriage pairs with male ones, but exact correspondences have not yet been established.

In 980 of Kievan Rus, Prince Vladimir, in the course of a religious reform, attempted to streamline the hierarchy of gods as part of a nationwide pantheon. He established for official worship the cults of Khors, Dazhbog, Stribog, Simargl, Mokosh under the leadership of the princely retinue god Perun. The state cult established by Vladimir did not stand the test of time and was abolished by Vladimir a few years later.

In addition to clearly personified images of the gods, the Proto-Slavic religious consciousness developed an idea of ​​the divinity of the sky, which was perceived as a masculine principle, and the earth, endowed with a feminine nature. The sacred marriage of heaven and earth was conceived as the source of life for all things. In the religion of the Eastern Slavs, the earth acted in an anthropomorphic

the image of the progenitor - Mother Earth, Mother of the damp earth, nurse, patroness and - which is especially noteworthy - the compassionate forgiver of sins.

The veneration of heaven and earth was supplemented in the Orthodox religion by the worship of water elements, certain tree species and animal species, which, as a result of personification, could acquire a personified appearance or receive the status of impersonal forces and spirits. Such personified creatures also represented the good or unfortunate states of human life - such, for example, fever, mara - or certain habitats - brownie, goblin, water, etc. Together they constituted the lowest category of Slavic mythology in relation to the gods - pandemonium. The evil characters of the Slavic pandemonium were called demons.

Ideas about gods, good and evil spirits were subordinated to the idea of ​​the dualism of light and darkness, good and evil, truth and falsehood, characteristic of the religious worldview of the Slavs.

The Slavs had widespread ideas about the origin of the entire human race from the progenitor earth, which at the same time acted as a participant and companion of each new birth of a human being. Human life was considered predetermined from the beginning, while the mythological image of fate among the Slavs, like most other Indo-European peoples, was a thread that, at the time of birth, was spun by divine spins (in Rus', perhaps, women in labor and Makosh). The religion of the Slavs, however, was not reduced to absolute fatalism, for the right to compete with the immutability of fate was recognized for a person.

The Proto-Slavs shared the belief, rooted in Indo-European antiquity, in the existence of an immortal soul, which is separated from its bodily shell under special circumstances (for a sorcerer - during witchcraft,

for example), as well as at the time of death. According to Slavic beliefs, which are very discordant in this part, the world of the dead, to which the soul went after death, could be located both underground and in heaven. The Slavs thought of this world as a fertile land, a place of calm after earthly troubles. There was no idea of ​​hell in the Proto-Slavic religion. Serious sinners, people who died an unnatural death, the dead, left without burial, could not go to the afterlife, becoming, according to Slavic beliefs, evil spirits, navyas, ghouls. The beliefs of the Slavs allowed the idea of ​​the posthumous reincarnation of the soul both in the human body and in another, primarily zoomorphic appearance. It was also believed that some people have a witchcraft ability to shape-shifting: such, for example, were wolf-lacquers, human-wolves.

Belief in the immortality of the soul and existence after death was the basis of the Slavic cult of ancestors. According to Slavic ideas, relatives who passed into the "other world" received access to the controlling elements, alien beings and forces, before which they could act as intercessors for their kind; on the other hand, the ancestors themselves acquired special power, good or evil, in their posthumous existence. The Proto-Slavic cult of ancestors included memorial days, rites of remembrance, rituals of seeing off to the “other world” and “meetings” of the souls of ancestors, veneration of cult images, etc. Until the 11th century in the Slavic environment, the rite of ritual killing of the elderly was widespread, due to the belief in the magical power of the creatures of the “other world” and the hope for their patronage.

At the general and tribal level, the cult of ancestors took shape in honor of the ancestors, the genealogical heroes who founded the community and performed miraculous deeds for the benefit of their descendants. In East Slavic culture, the genealogical heroes attested to by The Tale of Bygone Years are Kyi, Shchek and Khoriv; among the Slovenes of Novgorod, the memory of the ancestors - the founders was preserved in the legends about Slovenia and

The most important Proto-Slavic rituals were closely connected with agricultural labor, with natural cycles, forming in their interweaving a circle of calendar rituals. The basis of the calendar rites, which met at certain times - holidays ("holy days"), was agricultural magic.

When performing rituals, ritual objects were used, among which the most important role was played by cult images of gods and ancestors, often voluminous - idols (Old Russian cap).

Significant events in public or private life were accompanied by occasional rituals designed to ensure a favorable outcome of the case. Home (family) rituals, which were performed during the performance of everyday activities - food, work, etc., filled the everyday life of the ancient Slavs.

Proto-Slavic ritualism knew "rites of passage", the execution of which is mediated by the change of a member of the archaic collective of their social position. Rites of youthful initiation (which, however, did not leave a deep mark in Slavic culture), wedding rituals were based on the idea of ​​the symbolic death of the main characters and their subsequent rebirth in a new capacity. These rituals implied ritual trials, demonstration by applicants of relevant knowledge and skills. As a "rite of passage" the funeral was arranged, sending the soul of the deceased to the "other world" to reunite with the community of ancestors.

Proto-Slavic rites included prayers, spells, magical actions using fire, water, amulets or other ritual objects. The sacrificial rites were of particular importance. Under certain circumstances, human sacrifices were performed. But usually, as a gift, the Slavs offered sacrificial animals, cereals, intoxicating drinks, money and other valuables to the gods. Often the sacrifice took on the character of a ritual feast. In the context of ideas about

sacrificial meal, in which the god invited by prayer participated simultaneously as a host and guest (Proto-Slavic gostb), the Old Slavic gospodb was formed with the meaning "guest and host of the sacrificial feast."

A significant place in the Proto-Slavic religion was occupied by divination rites, the most important of which were timed to the “boundary” states of time - to the timing of the winter solstice, to the transition from winter to spring, etc. Ancient sources indicate that the Slavs divined by the behavior of the sacred horse, by the lot that fell, by signs, by prophetic dreams, and in other ways. Many gods were associated with the practice of divination, for example, Sventovit and Svarozhich among the Baltic Slavs.

Family rituals were performed at home, the most important of them - in specially designated places in the house. For the administration of collective sacred rites, especially remarkable areas were used - riverbanks, groves, etc., as well as specially equipped sanctuaries - temples. Some rituals, on the contrary, gathered participants in "wild" places - at crossroads, in abandoned dwellings, etc.

The religious community of the Slavs did not represent a single whole, either from the point of view of the harmonious harmony of beliefs, or in organizational terms. Religious differences, local features already existed among the most ancient Slavic tribes. As the Slavs settled from their historical ancestral home, these differences were assimilated. However, within specific communities, the orderliness of religious life was quite strict.

The primary cell of the religious life of the Proto-Slavs was the family or consanguineous community of families - the clan, united by the cult of common ancestors. The main character in the performance of household rituals was the head of the family. Worship of common gods, genealogical heroes, local spirits united clans and families within a settlement or tribe. Initially, the most important sacred rites at this level were performed by elders and princes. Tribal unions and early state formations

established state cults, created sanctuaries and temples to worship the common gods - such are the temple of Perun near Novgorod, the Kiev sanctuary of the six Vladimir gods, the temple of Sventovit in Arkona, etc.

Gradually, a special layer of people stands out in the Slavic environment (among the Eastern Slavs - the Magi), professionally engaged in the administration of the main rites, the storage and transmission of religious knowledge. The Eastern Slavs revered the Magi as mediators between people and gods, as soothsayers and sorcerers.

The organization of religious life reached its most advanced forms among the Polabian-Baltic and Eastern Slavs.

The development of the religion of the ancient Slavs was interrupted by Christianization, which began in the Slavic environment in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium AD. For the longest time, the Polabian-Baltic Slavs fought for the preservation of their original beliefs, seeing in the Christianity spread by papist missionaries a phenomenon hostile to their national independence, for the missionaries accompanied the German feudal lords who seized the Slavic lands. During the uprisings against German rule, forcibly baptized Slavs destroyed churches, expelled and killed clergy, reviving pre-Christian beliefs and ritual practices. The last attempts to return to the original religion took place in the XIV century. in the lands of the Lusatians. Such perseverance in upholding the old beliefs is explained, in addition to political and social reasons, by the fact that the religion of the semi-Baltic Slavs by the beginning of Christianization was quite highly developed and firmly merged with ethnic self-consciousness.

In other Slavic lands, the preservation of the Proto-Slavic beliefs was to a lesser extent associated with the processes of mass irreconcilable opposition to Christianity from the standpoint of the original religion. Here, after baptism, the original religious traditions move to the position of "unofficial", folk beliefs and continue to exist in complex

relations of confrontation and mutual influence with Christianity for a long time. As a result of the interaction of the Proto-Slavic religion and Christianity, a peculiar religious phenomenon was formed, which was called "dual faith". Most deeply and thoroughly "dual faith" took root among the Eastern Slavs. In the culture of the Eastern Slavs, “dual belief” is a form of organization of religious life, syncretically combining native Slavic beliefs and customs with Orthodox ones.

In the culture of the Eastern Slavs, the formation of "dual faith" took place on the basis of the counter development of pre-Christian ideas and those aspects of Orthodoxy that were in close contact with folk religiosity. Thus, under the influence of Christianity, primarily Christian heresies (Bogomils, etc.) and apocryphal literature, the Proto-Slavic ideas about the dualism of creative principles that create human destiny were further developed, the cosmology inherited from antiquity, mythological images and some others changed in the direction of rapprochement with Christianity. aspects of the traditional Slavic worldview. Significant changes have taken place in the East Slavic pantheon and pandemonium. In particular, the cults of the Family and women in childbirth came to the fore; under the influence of biblical mythology, the image of Rod, judging by medieval written evidence, acquires the features of a god - the creator of mankind; solar images of Yarila appear in personified form - the god of the spring sun and love passion, Kupala. The East Slavic pandemonium is replenished with some images borrowed from the Near Eastern and Greek demonology. It is characteristic that the Proto-Slavic deities and spirits, losing their former place in the hierarchy of higher powers with the introduction of Christianity, retained in the people's consciousness signs of possessing the quality of holiness in its ancient sense - they were credited with the presence of superhuman power, life-giving or deadly.

For its part, Russian Orthodoxy went towards the Proto-Slavic

beliefs, combining the images of Christian saints with the images of the ancient Slavic gods (Ilya the Prophet with Perun, Blasius with Beles, etc.) or assimilating the images of Proto-Slavic mythology as "demons", conforming the church calendar and rituals with the agrarian magical practice of rural of the population, as well as allowing other serious and insignificant deviations from canonical norms, which eventually took the form of the so-called "folk Orthodoxy".

Mutual concessions and mutual influence of the primordially Slavic religion and Russian Orthodoxy led to the formation of syncretic religiosity, which was organically combined with the foundations of folk spirituality and folk life, coexisting until the 20th century. next to church life, and sometimes even within it. The doctrinal provisions of this syncretic religiosity received their most systematic exposition in spiritual verses.

At the beginning of the XX century. in Russia, in the circles of the creative intelligentsia, interest in pre-Christian Slavic beliefs has sharply increased as a phenomenon that can play a positive role in modern spiritual development. Throughout the 19th century there were cultural preconditions for this kind of religious quest. Domestic ethnographers and folklorists collected and published vast material on the history of the spiritual culture of the Slavs, which revealed the ideological richness, ethical and aesthetic merits of traditional folk religiosity. Literary and pictorial works appeared that poeticized Russian antiquity in its pre-Christian or "two-faith" form. Romanticism gave national antiquity the status of an ideal state and purity of the national spirit. Based on these cultural prerequisites, a significant part of the creative intelligentsia turned to the "primordial" and "genuine" culture, untouched by the influence of Christianity. Pre-Christian beliefs were presented as an elixir of youth, capable of returning the "freshness" and "clarity" of the worldview to the "decrepit" Europe. A tribute to this hobby, mixed with mysticism, theosophy

and other fashionable trends at that time, gave V. Rozanov, D. Merezhkovsky, M. Prishvin and many other writers and artists of the "Silver Age".

In the 80s. 20th century again there was a trend towards the revival of Slavic paganism. It is due primarily to the growth of Russian ethnic self-consciousness and the increased interest in the historical past of the Fatherland. In its most radical forms, Russian "neopaganism" is associated with a certain type of Russian nationalism, from the standpoint of which Christianity, as a supranational religion, cannot become the spiritual basis of national self-assertion. "Neopaganism" refers to the images of the Proto-Slav-Vyansk gods (especially willingly - to the images of Perun and Rod), makes extensive use of ancient symbolism (for example, the image of lightning - "perun arrows", stylized images of birds, pitchfork-mermaids, etc.), tends to the revival of the details of the traditional Slavic costume and pre-Christian rituals. The mythology and dogma of Russian "neopaganism" are largely based on the Book of Veles, which is regarded as a reliable ancient source. Meanwhile, the dating and authenticity of this text have been questioned by modern science.

Shinto

Syntonism developed in the 6th-7th centuries. The term "Shinto" ("the way of the gods") appeared in the Middle Ages. The mythological tradition contained in the first Japanese written monuments reflected the complex path of the formation of the system of Shinto cults, which included the deities of the tribes of Northern Kyushu who came to Central Japan, and the gods of the local population who lived here.

The local gods were pushed aside, the “solar” goddess Amaterasu became the supreme deity, who “created” the Japanese islands and sent her grandson Ninigi to earth, who laid the foundation for the “divine” imperial dynasty.

Of paramount importance for the ancient Japanese were tribal deities - "ujigami" ("uji" - clan, "kami" - deity). The functions of "ujigami" included the protection of the clan, patronage of the life and various activities of its members. In addition to tribal deities, the deities who ruled the natural elements were of great importance: earthquakes, hurricanes, rain and snow, as well as numerous landscape deities with which the Japanese inhabited the entire surrounding world. Any mountain, hill, forest, river, waterfall had its own kami - a guardian god, the power of which extended precisely to this area and, as a rule, here exceeded the capabilities of the main deities of the Shinto pantheon.

In the cult of the goddess Amaterasu, there are three "divine" regalia - a mirror, a sword and jasper pendants. According to the mythological tradition, the goddess of the sun passed them on to her grandson Ninigi, sending him to earth with instructions to illuminate the whole world and rule it, conquering the recalcitrant. -The interpretation of regalia as symbols of the most important virtues, adapted to life practice, also arose: a mirror is a symbol of honesty, jasper pendants are compassion, a sword-wisdom. The highest embodiment of these qualities was attributed to the personality of the emperor. - The main Shinto temple complex was the sanctuary in Ise - Ise jingu (founded, apparently, at the end of the 7th century). Ise jingu is considered the shrine of Amaterasu, where her cult is performed as the supreme deity and progenitor deity of the imperial house, and through him, of all the Japanese.

At the end of the V-beginning of the VI century. in Central Japan, the struggle between the heads of clans for influence in the tribal association intensified. The process of transition from an early class society to an early feudal one became more active and expanded. The internecine struggle reached its greatest aggravation in the relations between the Soga clans and the coalition of the Mononobe military clan with the priestly Nakatomi. In their pursuit of power, the Soga used a foreign religion, Buddhism. The first mentions in the sources of penetration

Buddhism dates back to the beginning of the 6th century. In 538, the embassy of the Korean kingdom of Baekche, which arrived in Yamato, presented the king with several Buddhist sutras and a statue of Shakya Muni, the founder of Buddhism, but information about Buddhism was known to the population of Yamato much earlier.

Confucianism also spread throughout the country. The Confucian ideas of the cult of Heaven found fertile ground for their perception among the royal elite and its aristocratic entourage, cultivating their "unearthly", "divine" origin. The ethical program of Confucianism, with its clear hierarchical division of society and strict fixation of the place and duties of everyone in it, fully corresponded to the desire for power of the tribal clans. In Confucian ethics, the principle of filial piety and filial duty attracted particular attention to the Japanese - for the lower strata this principle was unambiguously realized in the cult of ancestors, for the higher strata it was equally unambiguous - in the unquestioning and comprehensive submission of subjects to the "divine" dynasty of rulers.

Confucian ideas were widely used in the concrete reproduction on Japanese soil of state institutions borrowed from the mainland, but in the struggle for power for Cora in 587, Buddhism began to spread widely, numerous Buddhist monasteries and temples were built, they were provided with land, slaves, significant funds were allocated from treasury.

Buddhas and bodhisattvas were endowed with the same magical properties as kami, they were addressed with specific requests: to heal from diseases, send a rich harvest, protect from evil, “to be the guardian of any area, village, etc. In the vast pantheon of Shintoism, by this time, the division of gods into “heavenly and earthly” appeared, reflecting the desire of the Yamato kings to strengthen their religious prestige: “heavenly” gods living in the “Heavenly Country” were declared the progenitors of the royal house, “earthly” - the progenitors of the conquered, subordinate clans. Buddha and

bodhisattvas naturally entered this pantheon as new gods. At the same time, the sphere of relations between different strata of the population and nature belonged to Shinto. Shinto, which arose as a religious practice of the agricultural community, was a reflection of collective views and requests, while Buddhism meant an individual, appealed directly to the individual. Local beliefs and Buddhism divided the life practice of the Japanese among themselves: bright joyful events - birth, marriage - remained in the jurisdiction of the tribal gods, headed by the "solar" goddess Amaterasu; death, interpreted by Shinto as a filth, took Buddhism under protection, presenting the concept of "rebirth", "salvation in Buddha's paradise".

This is how the two religions gradually merged - syncretization, in Japanese terminology "rebushinto" - "the path of Buddhism and Shinto." Of no small importance was government activity, providing official support to local cults. The Taihoryo Code of Laws (701) noted the creation of a special department of the Jingikan (Department for the affairs of heavenly and earthly deities), whose functions included Shinto rituals during state religious celebrations and control over the activities of large state shrines. Another way to support the interaction of the two religions was government decrees on local kami - as protectors of Buddhist deities. By decree of Shotoku, Shinto and Buddhist rituals are combined even in such a main and intimate ceremony as “tasting the fruits of a new harvest,” Buddhist monks are invited to it. The construction of a huge statue of the Buddha Vairocana during the construction of the Todaiji temple in Nara is also indicative, when Amaterasu was asked for “advice” before starting work. Local Shinto gods "suggested" a place in the north of the country, where the missing gold for casting the statue was mined. But the highest form of religious syncretism was the concept of "honji suijaku", according to which the deities of the Shinto pantheon can be considered as a temporary incarnation of the Buddhas.

and bodhisattvas. Thus, the sun goddess Amaterasu became the incarnation of the “Brilliant Light” Buddha Vairochana.

The stage in the development of Shinto was the emergence of the concept of "Ise Shinto", the main purpose of which was to strengthen the cult of the emperor. One of the reasons for the emergence of this concept was the strengthening of the authority and influence of the shrines, especially the Ise Jingu, during and after the Mongol invasion (1261-1281). Then the cult of the “progenitress” of the imperial house Amaterasu, who lived in Ise and helped her descendants, increased unprecedentedly - the divine “kamikaze” wind, having swept away the attacking fleet twice, averted the threat. Development of "Ise Shinto" in the second half of the 16th century. led to the emergence of a new cult that allowed the deification of a person during his lifetime, while the basis was not belonging to the imperial family, but major political and social deeds. This reflected the general situation in the country that had developed at the end of the 12th century, when the military-feudal nobility (samurai) came to power, which actually made the power of the imperial house nominal, limiting it to the sphere of the Shinto cult. The feudal dictator Oda Nobunaga (1533-1572), who fought for the unification of the country, declared himself a god and demanded to be worshiped as a kami. His associate dictator Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) was also deified. According to the will of the shogun (head of the military-feudal government) Tokugawa Izyasu, it was necessary to build several shrines and a chapel to worship his spirit.

During the reign of the Tokugawa dynasty (1603-1687), various currents of Confucianism enriched Shinto ethical ideas, creating a broad basis for the activation of Shinto-Confucian syncretism. Schools were formed that set themselves the task of substantiating the cult and institution of imperial power on the basis of historical material. Based on ancient mythological codes, these schools elaborated and scrupulously expounded the idea of ​​the authenticity of the origin and actions of the divine dynasty of Japanese emperors, emphasized the role of the "tenno" (emperor) as the source and bearer of the "national"

identity. The forgotten wisdom of the ancient "Way" - "miti" (Chinese "dao") of Japan was revived, the "Shinto of antiquity" ("Fukko Shinto") was restored.

The ideas of defending the emperor and restoring imperial power became the ideological basis of the opposition movement to overthrow the shogunate system.

The discovery of the country in the middle of the XIX century. after two and a half centuries of seclusion and the arrival of foreigners, the flood of Western culture that poured into the country deepened the crisis of feudal society and worsened the situation of the majority of the population. The slogan "sonno joi" ("veneration of the emperor, expulsion of barbarians"), put forward by scientists of the Mito school at the beginning of the 20th century, primarily by its prominent representative Aizawa Seishisai (1781-1863), found a response and support in various social strata, including in the opposition circles of the samurai. The anti-foreign and anti-shogun movements converged under one slogan. Thousands of protests against the shogun were launched by pilgrims to Shinto shrines in the autumn of 1867 and became the first stage of the Meiji bourgeois revolution (1867-1868).

The end of the struggle that led to the collapse of the shogunate system and the restoration of imperial power meant the choice of a new path - the modernization of the country, the transformation of all public life, including the sphere of religious consciousness. However, in order to fulfill the tasks set, the new government bodies had to reckon with the historically established traditional structure of the national social organism, including the specifics of culture. The principle of "wakon yosai" - "Japanese spirit, European knowledge" seemed to be optimal.

In March 1868, a decree was published on the return to the unity of the system of religious ritual and the management of state affairs (the unity of religion rt politics). The Jingikan was restored - the Office for the Affairs of Heavenly and Earthly Gods; 660 BC - the date of accession to the throne of the emperor of the mythological period of Japanese history, Jimmu - was

declared the beginning of the chronology from the "foundation of the Japanese Empire." At the same time, ancient Shinto rituals began to be restored to increase the religious and political authority of the imperial house. The cult of the emperor - tennoism - became the center of the state Shinto, which actually replaced many gods with one "living god". The theoretical substantiation of tennoism was a complex set of concepts - "kokutai" (roughly translated "national essence", literally - "body of the state"). The components of the kokutai are the "divine" origin of the Japanese and their state, continuity through the centuries of the imperial dynasty, national identity, embodied in the special character of the Japanese with his moral virtues, loyalty and filial piety. The ideology of tennoism, using the traditional concept of a "harmonious state", contributed to the strengthening of nationalist tendencies, and ultimately - in the upcoming wars - to the consecration of militarism (by promoting the "divine mission" - "hako ichi u" - "the whole world under one roof").

In general, the complex of state Shinto included: dynastic Shinto, which was the property of the imperial family; tennoism - the cult of the emperor; temple - in which the veneration of both common Japanese and local gods is essential; home - with a kamidan - a miniature analogue of a temple place of worship.

After the defeat of Japan in the Second World War, in the conditions of a general democratic upsurge, the course of the country's democratization began to be implemented. Measures were taken to eradicate militarism and tennoism. In 1946, in a New Year's address to the people, Emperor Hirohito renounced divine origin. Progressive reforms were carried out in the education system, "moral education" in schools, based on the cult of the emperor, was abolished. The constitution of 1947 changed the status of the emperor, now he was declared "a symbol of the state and the unity of the nation."

However, the position of state Shinto was not fundamentally changed. The main direction of the tennoism revival policy is attempts to restore Shintoism in the status of the state religion. In 1946, the Association of Shinto shrines - Jinja honcho, was created by the highest Shinto leadership, which made it possible to maintain a single centralized system for managing shrines. The Association included a significant part of them - more than 78 thousand. This made it possible to achieve the transfer to the ownership of the sanctuaries of the vast land plots they occupied, which previously in most cases belonged to the state.

Already in 1952, the rituals of the imperial court acquired the character of official state ceremonies. Shinto ceremonies for the elevation of Akihito (the son of the reigning Emperor Hirohito) to the rank of heir to the throne and his wedding in 1959 were held as a state act. An equally important stage in strengthening the idea of ​​state Shinto was the revival of obarai - a rite of great purification from the filth of the entire Japanese nation. The symbolic participation of the highest religious person in the ceremony of the state emphasized the unity of the national religion and imperial power.

In 1966, the holiday “kigensetsu”, which was canceled by the constitution of 1947, was restored - the day of the founding of the state, which is celebrated annually on February 11th. The mythological era of history with information about the "divine" origin of the imperial dynasty and people was again included in school textbooks. A special place in the desire to restore tennoism is occupied by the Yasukuni Shrine, built in 1868 in Kyoto in honor of the soldiers who fell for the emperor, and after the bourgeois revolution it was moved to Tokyo. The sanctuary was administered by the Ministry of the Army and Navy.

In 1969, on the basis of the Association of Shinto Shrines, the Shinto Political League was created - an organization that, for the first time after

the elimination of the state Shinto openly set the political task of participating in government. In January 1989 Emperor Hirohito died. The Shinto system determined the whole diverse complex of ceremonies in the ritual of succession to the throne. The teaching of the "divine regalia", the state and imperial seals, the first reception by the emperor of high-ranking officials, by decision of the government, were held not only as purely religious ceremonies, but also as a state act.

Conclusion

National religions are religions that are widespread and are addressed to a certain nation, nationality, ethnic group. These religions often accompany the process of formation and development of an ethnic community and, as a result, act as components of its history. Sometimes they are associated with the formation of national statehood, their functioning is intertwined with the functioning of state bodies, which gives reason to call them national-state (Confucianism, Judaism). For the sake of objectivity, it should be noted that the world religion (for example, Islam in the Arab world) can play an important role in the development of the state of a particular people, that is, not only the national religion, but also the world religion can be the state religion, therefore the term “national-state religion ” is not entirely legal. The very category of “national religion” is often used to define religions that can be attributed to religions of a transitional type (for example, the religion of the ancient Greeks), or local ones that are widespread in a particular region, but are not addressed to a particular people or nation (for example, Zaraostrianism). ). In the first case, they forget that a nation is a product of a sufficiently high level of development of society. Since it is impossible to talk about the ancient Greek or the ancient Egyptian nation, then the religions of the Ancient

Egypt and Ancient Greece to national is impossible Even if we recognize the existence of the ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek peoples, these religions do not meet the criteria of the national in due measure. Proceeding from this, some researchers distinguish between early national religions (where the same religions of Ancient Greece, etc. are referred) and later ones, which can hardly be considered correct. According to the recognition of local religions, the criterion here should be the answer to the question of whether that community, to Gregory Morris Japanese candles, balconies of the veka, which faces religion, nation, ethnic group, people. Such an approach helps to clearly recognize and determine whether this or that religion is really national or early national (despite the ambiguity of such a term) or local, etc. Some scholars use the terms "ethnic" and "folk" religions to define certain types of national religions.

Based on the etymology of the Greek word etnikos (generic, folk, pagan), folk religions are identical, in fact, ethnic in the narrow sense of the word. Folk religions are traditionally considered so-called natural religions, that is, those that arise naturally as a result of the gradual and long-term development of the worldview ideas of a particular ethnic community about the natural and supernatural world, which are presented in the form of myths, traditions, customs, rituals, cults. A certain ethnic community arises and is maintained due to a single genetic (blood-disputed) origin, common territory of residence and language of communication, joint historical memory, which are recorded in tribal legends about the origin of the people and are constantly reproduced in the implementation of collective rituals. Some researchers even identify ethnos and ethnic religion, considering the components of an ethnos to be what constitutes its ethnic religion.

Folk religions include such religious complexes that arose among the early ethnic groups and corresponded to their spiritual, ideological, cultural needs. These are, first of all, ancient Iranian, ancient Egyptian, ancient Indian, ancient Greek, ancient Slavic and other religions that were passed on to more developed religions of state ethnic groups-peoples (Zoroastrianism, Greek or Roman polytheism, the religion of the Aztecs or Incas, the religion of the East Slavic tribes of Kievan Rus, etc. ). Folk religions are manifestations of autochthonous traditions that not only preserve them, but also develop and improve them. Folk religions are mandatory for representatives of certain ethnic communities. As a rule, they are not chosen, they are born into them.

The characteristic features of national religions include:

1. The presence in one form or another of the idea of ​​the “godlikeness” of a given people.

2. The presence in one form or another of restrictions on contacts (joint activities, marriage, etc.) with representatives of other faiths.

3. Specific ritual (cult).

4. Ritualization of everyday life (conversion into a rite of some kind of everyday action, for example, “mekvah” in Judaism).

5. National religions reflect the socio-political conditions of life of a given people (Confucianism and the imperial system in China, Hinduism and the caste division of society in India).

6. National religions reflect the mentality and psychology of their people.

Main:

1. Lebedev V. Yu. Religious studies. - M.: "Yurayt", 2013. - 629 p.

2. Yablokov I.N. Fundamentals of Religious Studies. - M.: Gardariki, 2002. - 511 p.

Additional

These are multifaceted and unusual beliefs that have their roots in the mists of time. There is no exact information about the place of origin of the first pagan cult, because almost all archaeological evidence has been erased by inexorable time. Everything that is known to scientists has been obtained from the few chronicles and stories that have been able to reach us.

But even this is enough to understand what the culture and religion of the Eastern Slavs were like before the advent of Christianity. Understand what motivated people in that historical period, and how it was reflected in the modern world.

Basic concept of paganism

The religion of the Eastern Slavs was based on the belief in many gods - polytheism. All phenomena in nature were God's omens and testified that people are surrounded by otherworldly creatures.

The Slavs feared and revered the gods, made sacrifices to them and prayed for their help. Many customs were associated with the worship of deities and were carried out according to established rules. The Slavs believed that everything was the will of the gods, and without their participation nothing was done.

The Slavic pantheon had its own hierarchy, according to which the gods were divided into major and minor. Also in paganism there were guardian spirits who protected the house, helped with crops and treated for diseases.

world creation

The religion of the Eastern Slavs briefly describes the creation of the world. It is only known that at first a golden egg appeared, in which was the god Rod - the father of all living and non-living things.

He created the sky, the earth, the trees, all the gods came from him. On behalf of this deity, the word "nature" was formed, which meant - everything with Rod.

The spirit of God became one of the first creations of the Family, and it was depicted as a huge owl. Over time, she was given the name Mother Swa. From God's spirit appeared Svarog - the god of heaven, as well as the king of all things on earth.

Further, Svarog had children: the god of the sun Dazhbog and the god of the wind Stribog. And then some gods created others, they, in turn, gave birth to other mystical creatures, until a whole divine kingdom was formed with its own laws and rules. Over the years, the names of the gods changed to others, but their essence remained the same. This is how pagan culture gradually emerged with its divine hierarchy.

Major gods

The pagan religion of the Eastern Slavs has changed greatly over the centuries. At the same time, new customs and beliefs did not replace the old ones, but became their continuation, partially changing their essence. Therefore, often the popularity of obsolete gods declined, as did their position in the divine hierarchy.

Initially, Rod was the main and most respected god. After all, he is the creator of everything that exists on Earth, as well as the patron of the earth and fertility. Sacrifices were made to him and songs of praise were sung in the hope that he would look after the harvest and prevent diseases from hitting the fields.

Later, his place was taken by Svarog - a divine being responsible for order and peace in the lands of the Slavs. Over time, Svarog took over most of the merits of the Family, becoming the creator of the sky and what is under it.

Veles, who was responsible for cattle, was no less revered god. This attitude was due to the fact that the Slavs, like many other peoples of that time, were engaged in cattle breeding. If cows and other living creatures began to die, people thought that Veles was angry and demanded a sacrifice. Another task of this harsh god was to look after the souls of the dead, so prayers were often offered to him so that he would take care of the dead relatives.

Perun time

It should be noted that initially Perun was not the main god, but was only depicted as one of the sons of Svarog and Mother Swa. He was a thunderer and ruler of the rains. When peaceful times gave way to frequent military campaigns, his role changed dramatically - Perun became the god of war and one of the most revered deities in the Slavic pantheon.

The reason for this is that lightning has always been considered invincible and deadly, punishing everyone who dared to stand in the way of Perun. Therefore, the governors believed that if the army enlisted the support of this god, they would be able to freely win in any battle.

In order to attract the attention of Perun, the princes often made large offerings, built altars and followed the signs from heaven. This led to the massive spread of the cult of Perun, and the religion of the Eastern Slavs again changed its divine leader.

Diversity of gods in Slavic culture

But not only the great gods were worshiped by the Slavs. The heavenly abode numbered dozens of less significant deities, and all of them were responsible for a certain part of people's lives and natural phenomena, at least this is how the religion of the Eastern Slavs presents them. Briefly about the minor gods of the pagans.

• Dazhbog - the god of the sun, symbolizes dawn and prosperity.
• Stribog - the god of the wind, is able to send storms and bad weather. He also watches over the passage of time and the change of seasons.
• Lada is the goddess of order and the first of the women in childbirth. It was she who, according to legend, gave birth to twelve months.
• Lelya is the mother of Perun. This goddess watched over the crops, therefore she was in special honor among the Slavs.
• Yarilo is the god of light and spring, over time they began to personify him with the solar circle.
• Makosh is the goddess of fate and the eternal spinner. They say that she wove all human destinies on her spindle, and Share and Nedolya helped her in this.

In addition, there were also evil deities who tried to destroy people, constantly sending illness and misfortune on them.

Magi - a link between people and gods

The priest was present in every culture, so the religion of the Eastern Slavs could not do without him. In ancient times, people who could read the prompts of the gods were called sorcerers or sorcerers. People often came to them for help, since, according to legend, they were able to heal diseases, remove the evil eye and bless in future endeavors.

What is true, unlike other religions of that time, pagan priests did not build temples and did not demand increased attention to themselves. In most cases, they lived away from the settlements in order to protect themselves from annoying crowds.

Rites in ancient Rus'

The religion and life of the Eastern Slavs are closely connected. There are many beliefs and signs that people always pay attention to. So, crops were always accompanied by prayers to the goddess Lele, so that she would later look after the harvest.

Funerals were of particular importance, because the observance of the rite depended on how the deceased would be met in the afterlife. The body of the deceased was placed in a small boat, then set on fire and set adrift. Thus, the soul of the deceased was sent down the river to the afterlife, after which the ashes were buried in a barrow. Armor, weapons and the corpse of a horse were placed in the graves of noble people and warriors, so that in the other world a person would not need anything.

Just as reverently, the religion of the Eastern Slavs guarded the rites associated with the birth of a child, matchmaking and marriage.

Great celebrations and festivities

All holidays in the calendar of the Slavs were associated with natural phenomena and transitions from one season to the second. Many of them played such an important role in society that they remained even after the arrival of Christianity, although having changed their original purpose.

So, the first of the year was a celebration in honor of Kolyada, the god who brought knowledge to people. It was celebrated on the first of January, which later coincided with Christmas. That is why now there is a tradition to walk around the yards and ask for sweets in exchange for a laudatory verse.

Another pagan holiday that still exists today is Ivan Kupala. It is celebrated on June 24 (according to the old calendar) in honor of the summer solstice. According to legend, on this day the water has a healing power, so people arrange this festivities by the pond. Initially, this day was intended for the chanting of the sun god. It is in his honor that fiery circles or wheels are launched into the water, thereby demonstrating the movement of the sun across the sky.

Arrival of Christianity

And although the religion of the Eastern Slavs for a long time reigned throughout the territory of Rus', the advent of Christianity nevertheless forced it out. The reason for this was the patronage of Prince Vladimir, which left no choice to the common people.

For several more centuries, the Magi tried to return the old traditions, but their work ended in failure. And only small temples and wooden idols still remind us that in ancient times there were gods who could control the weather, heavenly bodies and the fate of man.

This concept usually means a complex of views, beliefs and cults of the ancient Slavs, which existed before the introduction of Christianity in 988 by Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, which is still preserved in the culture of the Slavic peoples as traditions, and the original foundation of ancient culture.

The term "paganism" has a Christian bookish origin and is applied to the beliefs of various peoples. In relation to the mythology and religion of the Slavs, the use of this term is fully justified by its Slavic etymology. The word "language" meant, among other things, "a separate people, a tribe." The Russian chronicler, talking about the history of the Slavs, was of the opinion that all Slavs came from a single root: "There was one Slavic language: the Slavs who sat along the Danube<. >From those Slavs they dispersed over the earth and were called by their names, from the places where they settled ... And so the Slavic language dispersed ... "Thus, the word" paganism "can be used as a synonym for the folk, tribal religion of the Slavs.

It is worth noting that the Slavs themselves, judging by many sources, never called themselves "pagans" since this name is given by an external observer and serves rather to generalize the archaic religions of various peoples.

Slavic mythology and religion were formed over a long period in the process of separating the ancient Slavs from the Indo-European community of peoples in the II-I millennium BC. and in interaction with the mythology and religion of neighboring peoples.

Historians identify a significant layer of Indo-European vocabulary, which was used by the pagans as sacred. Among the parallels: Svarog and svarga, Makosh and moksha, company (oath) and rita (in Sanskrit "order"), prophetic and Vesta, witch and Vedas, Divas and virgins, etc. Among the oldest cults that have common Indo-European and European roots, one can name the twin myth, the cult of the bull and the horn, the worship of the Moon and the Sun. Since the Middle Ages, it has been traditional to identify Slavic deities with the gods and characters of Greco-Roman mythology, who have much in common.

But it is worth considering what was the cause and what was the effect? In my opinion, it is impossible to say with absolute certainty that the Slavic deities were borrowed from ancient Greek mythology. The basis for these doubts is the uncertainty of the history of the Slavs before their arrival in Europe. It is possible that this similarity is due to nothing more than archetypes that lie in the deep layers of the collective unconscious.

The religion of the Slavs is not homogeneous, this is most likely due to the territorial features and living conditions of various Slavic peoples. Along with the common Slavic deities (Svarog, Perun, Lada), each tribe developed its own pantheon of gods, the same gods received different names. It can be argued that in the early Middle Ages, the beliefs of the western Baltic Slavs and the eastern Dnieper Slavs were divided, while the paganism of the southern, eastern and also Polish Slavs largely retained unity.

During the settlement of the Slavic tribes in the VI-IX centuries. their culture was mixed with the beliefs of the local Finno-Ugric, Baltic and Turkic peoples. This caused a strong fragmentation and inter-tribal enmity of the Slavs. Each village could have its own gods, and religious conflicts arose with enviable regularity.

Slavic paganism refers to polytheistic religions, that is, the Slavs recognized the existence of many gods. The pagan, using the word "god", meant a specific supernatural being, a representative of the Slavic clans, who reached the spiritual level of the Creator and got the opportunity to operate with the processes of the universe. The Slavs say: "Our gods are our ancestors, and we are their children."

A feature of Slavic paganism is often the allocation of its main deity for each tribe. So in the treaties of Rus' with Byzantium, Perun is called "our god", "in whom we believe." Helmold speaks of the worship of Svyatovit, "to whom a temple and an idol were dedicated to the greatest splendor, precisely attributing primacy among the gods to him." At the same time, the Slavs, like the Balts, had an idea of ​​​​the supreme deity. But, as a rule, these gods could be different for different tribes.

Dualism is characteristic of Slavic paganism. If among the Scandinavians, for example, it is difficult to identify "good" and "evil" gods, then the Slavs distinguished and contrasted the black and white beginnings of the world, dark and light, earthly and heavenly, feminine and masculine. Such opposition is known for Belobog and Chernobog, Perun and Veles, Svyatovit and his nocturnal enemies. The researchers noticed that neither Veles, nor Svarog, nor Rod, the most important gods who opposed Perun, entered the pantheon of Prince Vladimir.

Slavs?

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia says: “The Slavs are the largest group of related peoples in Europe. It consists of eastern (Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians), western (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatians) and southern (Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Macedonians, Bosnians) Slavs. The total number for 1976 is 270 million people. They speak Slavic languages.

And also: “The East Slavic pantheon of gods was approved by Vladimir the Red Sun in 980, it included Perun, Makosh, Dazhdbog, Stribog, Khors, Semargl” ... and that’s it. Although a long time ago, at the very beginning ...

At the beginning

…In the very beginning, there was only the Great Mother, and the newborn world lay on her warm knees, or maybe at her chest. What was the name of the Great Mother? Maybe, Zhiva-Zhivana, for from him came all life. But no one will talk about it now. Surely her name was too sacred to be spoken aloud. And what kind of newborn calls his mother by name? ma, Mom and all...

When the young world got a little stronger and was able to look after itself, the Great Mother left. One must think that other worlds called her, also waiting for love and care. Fortunately, the Gods and the first People still managed to remember the Great Mother and her divine face: a clear brow that went into the sky above the stars, eyes like two gentle suns, eyebrows and hair like good summer clouds pouring living water of rain. She was nowhere and everywhere, her face was visible from everywhere, and her gaze penetrated into the most secret corners. Not without reason, and many centuries later, when the Sun was bequeathed to a completely different, young God, it was still called the All-Seeing Eye. And a cross circled around was made a symbol of the Sun - for the sake of the north, south, west and east, the four sides of the white world, where the Eye directs its gaze.

And the Great Mother also planted the Great Tree, so that it would wrap its roots around the underworld depths of the Earth, and embrace the transcendental heights of the Sky with its branches, tying them together. And when her will was fulfilled, in the world, similar to a large egg, two essences separated and woke up: male - in the Sky and female - in the Earth. They woke up and opened their eyes in surprise: thousands of stars immediately flared up and were reflected in springs and forest lakes... Earth and Sky did not yet know their purpose, they did not know what they were born for. But then they saw each other, at the same time they reached out to each other - and they understood everything, and did not ask about anything. The earth rose majestically to the Sky in mountains, laid luxurious greenery of forests, opened bashful lilies of the valley in damp hollows. The sky enveloped the Earth with a warm haze of clouds, poured with quiet rain, and amazed with burning lightning. For in those days, a thunderstorm was not called a thunderstorm, because no one was afraid of it. The storm was the celebration of the wedding: golden lightning kindled new life, and thunder sounded a solemn cry, an invocative cry of love.

And what a merry, noisy, spring life was bustling about everywhere under the affectionate gaze of the Great Mother Zhiva! Winter, deadly frost was not in sight. The earth flourished without fear, generously gave fruits and, after a little rest, was again taken for its kind, and from the World Tree, similar to a sprawling oak, the seeds of all trees and grasses flew to it, the cubs of all birds and animals jumped off

And when the time came for some decoration of the forest, a mighty ash or pine - can we say that they were dying? Surrounded by young shoots, having released a thousand shoots, they simply dropped the old trunk, touched by rot, and it lay down in soft mosses, again became fruitful land, and Life - Life did not disappear anywhere ...

This is how the Great Mother ordered this Universe before she retired.

In the middle, supported by the World Tree, was the Earth, and it was surrounded on all sides by the Ocean-Sea. From the bottom lay the Night Country; cross the Ocean, just there you will find yourself. The Night Country was also called Kromeshnaya - that is, separate, oprichnina, special, not like that. And above the Earth, nine different skies began: the closest one was for clouds and winds, the other one was for the stars and the moon, and one more one was for the Sun. During the day, the Sun floats over the Earth from east to west, then crosses the Ocean and measures the lower sky from west to east, shining in the night, Underworld. Therefore, the Solar Cross is also drawn rolling in one direction, then in the other.

The seventh heaven became a firmament, a strong transparent bottom for inexhaustible abysses of living heavenly water. The World Tree has sprouted its green top; and there, under the spread branches, in the abyss of heaven an island was born. It was called iriy - the indestructible abode of Life, Light, Heat. And it was also called Buyan Island - for the fruitful riot of Life, for the fact that the progenitors of every creature began to live there: animals, birds, fish, insects and snakes. Not without reason, to know, say those who have known happiness: how did you get into the seventh heaven!

Where we are not

Interest in folk, national culture, including Slavic, first woke up in the 18th century. The second wave of it, one must think, has come in our time. A few years ago. And they became interested, surprisingly, in the original beliefs and traditions. They remembered the peoples who no longer exist, or who have long been forgotten: the Sumerians, Aztecs, Celts and Slavs. Those Slavs who were not converted to Christianity, who did not need a foreign, Byzantine religion, who had their own.

On the fertile soil of Slavic myths, a whole trend in literature is now flourishing - Slavic fantasy. A number of authors: Semenova, Uspensky, Konstantinov and many others more than once turn to the plots of legends and resurrect Perun, Lada, Yarila and other mystical brethren in their works: Mavok, Brownies, Vodyanykh, Leshih.

The Slavic religion practically left no traces in literature, only written news of the 6th - 12th centuries have survived. Otherwise, when studying ancient cults, it is necessary to resort only to folk memory: rituals, round dances, songs, incantations, and to material reminders: the symbolism of embroidery, carving, and other household items.

“What were once conspiracies are now children's counting rhymes, and what is now considered a magic spell will become a game in years to come. Everything goes in circles. And so it will always be. Until the end of time."

By comparing archaeological excavations and folklore studies, the stages of development of paganism were established. Religious ideas did not replace each other, but were layered, introducing the new, while preserving the old. An example is the legendary "proboscis monsters", which are the "descendants" of mammoths.

In the middle of the 2nd century BC, an array of Proto-Slavic tribes was formed - from the Oder to the Dnieper. Their religion is an agricultural cult, that is, the deification of nature with elements of totemism. Over time, there is a transition from an animal ancestor to a human ancestor.

At the beginning of the 12th century, hegumen Daniel, a contemporary of Vladimir Monomakh, divided Slavic paganism into four stages:

1. The cult of "ghouls" and "shorelines" - the animism of ancient hunters, dividing all spiritualized nature into evil and good spirits.

2. The cult of the agricultural heavenly deities of the Family and Rozhanitsy. Women in labor are the goddesses of fertility of all living things, who have become matriarchal goddesses of fertility. The clan is a patriarchal stage of the same beliefs, degenerated into early agricultural monotheism. Although the cult of Rozhanitsa survived the cult of the Sort.

3. The cult of Perun, who was the god of thunder, lightning and after, who became the god of war - the patron saint of warriors and princes. When creating Kievan Rus, he became the main deity.

4. The adoption of Christianity in 988 pushed paganism into the depths of the state.

But let's look at it with different eyes...

Rod and Rozhanitsi

And what a marvel the young world was lucky to see. Earth and Sky loved each other so much that their love came to life as a separate being - and, like them once, it immediately split into two, into Female and Male Love, for one is not enough - there are always two who love.

God Rod, Male Love, began to give offspring and offspring to all breathing creatures, and People soon learned to honor him: they began to make images and put them in wedding congratulatory bowls, for happiness and many children to a new family. This Rod, they said, grows trees, it is he who throws flint pebbles from heaven, from which stubborn and strong People will be born. It is he - the Light of Heaven, without which the Sun would float alone, like a star in blackness. And how many things were named after him - not to count: harvest, people, homeland, childbirth ...

Goddess Lada became Women's Love. According to her, wise wives were nicknamed, who know how to put a family together, to start a harmony in the house. The Great Goddess liked faithful conjugal love, and husbands and wives called each other almost by her name: - Lada! My lado! ..

The engagement was then called - frets, wedding conspiracy - padins, girlish fortune-telling about the groom - frets. And, they say, People have never heard of someone taking an unloving wife or raping, dragging a girl to marry a hateful, unloving, uneven ...

The Great Lada - Dedis-Lada, Did-Lada, as one people who arose from flint called her, would never forgive such sacrilege ...

She traveled around the sown fields in green clothes, blessing the future harvest, and the fur of her horse shone with ripe gold, like a poured ear. And men and women, holding hands, followed her into the fields, where you can embrace away from prying eyes. People knew; their love gives good strength to the grain field. the field gave the People blue flowers and promised to return what was sown a hundredfold. They say that the rye then grew with a hundred ears - a hundred tight, heavy ears of corn on each stalk!