Moja Cesta, My Journey

[Collowrath]

Table of Contents

1) Introduction, Table of Contents
2) Slavic Paganism
3) "Double Faith" and its Relationship to Christianity
4) Hellenic Polytheism
5) Personal Cosmology - IE, How it Comes Together
--------a. Gods and Spirits
--------b. World Tree; A Creation Story
--------c. Language and Shifting Contexts
--------d. Practical Worship
--------e. Miasma and Me
--------f. Sacred Things
6) Introduction to Slavic Language; Lexicon
7) Personal Ethics

Introduction

Hello, I'm a young guy living in the Midwest US. I attend a local private Catholic university, and my major is Political Science. I'm transferring soon to a public institution in order to add a Serbian language minor (well, that and I cannot continue to attend a university that condones racist, sexist, and homophobic activity on campus...)

I love to cook. Food is my primary form of expression at home.

On the religious end, I have been a practicing Hellenic Polytheist for two or three years now. Athena tapped me on the shoulder and said "We want you." Since then though, my life has moved away and become more varied in practice. Hermes is now a constant force in my life, and my native Double Faith has been making itself known in ways that I simply cannot ignore.  

[Collowrath]

Slavic Paganism

Slavic paganism is a difficult subject – there are few primary sources surviving, and those that have survived are often looking at the subject through Christian eyes, or as in the case of our folk tales and songs, have been Christianized themselves. There are a few points that I think are academically agreed upon as having been true for pre-Christian Slavs, at least in part. The biggest things to keep in mind on the subject of Slavic pagan and Double Faith traditions is that Slavic society was deeply tribal and deeply divided (a situation that survives to today, see: Croatia and Serbia, Slovakia and Cechia), and that each tribe, even each village, could be vastly and radically different in its understanding of the Gods and in its traditions.

There are some unifying points that draw us together though; these things reflect our cultural and linguistic heritage as an Indo-Aryan people from the Iranian plateau, our geopolitical situation in Europe straddling Celtic, Germanic, Scandinavian, and Greco-Roman worlds, and the fact of our late arrival in Europe in comparison to the aforementioned peoples, on the cusp of Christian conversion – a multi-national, multi-century event that left a massive, irreversible mark upon the Slavic identity. These unifying points are:

1) The deep polarity of the universe, expressed in dualistic God-pairs, usually brother-sister/husband-wife. This is largely expressed among West Slavs (Slovaks, Czechs, and Poles, especially in Western and South-Western Poland, also Kashubs, Sorbs) and is evidenced in place names and folklore surrounding the cycle of seasons. An example of this is the brother/sister pair of Jarilo and Morena, Jarilo is a vegetation god who dies in the winter, and is brought back by the sacrifice of his sister, the death goddess Morena every spring following the dramatic events of Maslenica.

2) Shared concepts and understandings with other Indo-European traditions, especially with Scandinavian traditions, and later picking up Greco-Roman syncretism by way of Christianity, producing the Double Faith, or Dveviere.

3) World Tree cosmology. Persistent theme through Slavic mythology, though I’m not qualified to comment on details outside of my own UPG. It is usually oak or ash, and different parts of the tree separate different worlds: that of Gods, that of Men, and that of the Dead, though they remain intimately connected.

As a final point, and because I’m sure people familiar with this forum are asking: Slavic paganism is not a closed tradition in the sense that Irish traditions are closed. Slavic peoples, in effect (though often harshly opposed by ultra-nationalist groups), are a mixed-race people. There are no “pure” genetics or ancestry – we are a people united by common culture, historical experience, and language. That said, these things can be limiting in their own right. English language will get you nowhere, and Western culture will be debilitating. Even between Tea and me, having similar linguistic and cultural backgrounds, the differences between us can make it impossible to communicate certain ideas and understandings in an effective way. I’m sorry if it sounds harsh – that isn’t the intention. But I won’t sugarcoat.

Also, this is going to be blunt and hard to swallow for some, but it must be said: there isn’t ever going to be an accurate restoration of Slavic paganism. Be wary of reconstruction, as there is a lot of fakelore and decontextualization to fill in the massive blind spots.  

[Collowrath]

Double Faith and Its Relationship to Christianity

Double Faith is an English term that translates the native term dveviere (compare to Tea’s dvoeverie), which lies somewhere between what we call rodna viera (native faith, more commonly known in its Russian form: rodnoverie, Anglicized as Rodnovery) in reference to the pagan faith of our ancestors, and kresťanstvo (Christianity). If you are aware of other syncretic Christian faiths, such as those with origins in West African tradition in the American South and the Caribbean such as Voudoun, and Santeria, then you probably have a heads-up on the nature of Dveviere.

When the Christians came preaching their religion in the mid-800’s, the Slavs treated their god in the same hard-polytheistic way they had become accustomed to treating the gods of the numerous other people around them. Those who became enamored of Christ set about worshiping him in the way he asked, through baptism, mass, etc, while retaining the worship of their old gods separately and in the way they had asked of them. In some places, and particularly among West Slavs in the Carpathians, conversion was more organized and often violent – ancient idols were torn down and drowned, temples burned, and so on. These violent, complete conversions are partially responsible for the lack of historical primary evidence for pagan traditions.

The other reason for this lack of primary sources, and the one which I would say is the primary cultural force behind it, is that the pagan traditions never truly “died.” They were recontextualized from the ground up to fit in with the new Christian mythology that promised salvation through Christ. Pagan gods became equated with elements in Christian mythology, local rituals and festivals took on a new meaning, often while still retaining the older pagan one.

This is not a pagan religion or tradition. The people who practice within a double faith are typically very devout Christians, usually Eastern Orthodox or Catholic.  

[Collowrath]

Hellenic Polytheism

This is probably an easier and more difficult topic to convey in respectively different ways. There are a lot more primary sources to work with and entire Classics departments to school us on the cultural rituals and their relevancy. Not to mention, Hellenic myths are very well known (though also, often distorted). The most important thing to mention right off the bat is probably that Hellenic beliefs are as varied now as they were in ancient times. That said, Hellenic Polytheism is an orthopraxy. Yep, just like Wicca. What matters is how things are done more than what you believe about the nature of the Gods.

Even so, you still won’t find two Hellenic Polytheists who practice exactly the same. This reflects the ancient Hellenic world as well – Greeks themselves practiced differently in different cities and from year to year. This being the case, I can only really speak for myself and how the practice involves me. Just remember that it’s more important how you do things and that you do them consistently the same.

On the forums, in M&R, I often identify as “primarily Hellenic Polytheist.” This isn’t entirely accurate. There are gods that I worship that are my primary interaction at this point in life, and they happen to be Hellene. I worship them in the way they ask – I have a relatively Reconstructionist methodology, but I don’t see the point in discounting UPG just because it can’t be accounted for historically (however, keep in mind, there are thousands of thoughtforms out there masquerading as Hellenic gods – if it directly defies what we know for sure about god X, it probably isn’t really him, but rather a projection of your own mind or worse).

On a very important note, this practice is maintained entirely separate from dveviere. Hellenic gods have a purity standard that is different from Slavic ones. They are worshiped in different ways. Where there is crossover, it’s often where I don’t have enough raw materials to work with on one end or the other and I’m playing “fill in the blank.” They are separate but complementary practices.  

[Collowrath]

Personal Cosmology - IE, How it Comes Together

Gods and Spirits

I am a hard polytheist. I believe that all gods are legitimate, separate entities with unique individual personalities, just like we are. I don’t believe that their interaction with us is even the tip of the iceberg that composes their social lives. Even YHVH has a place here, though not in any monotheistic capacity.

I have a give and take relationship with my gods. I’m careful to watch myself for hubris; it’s very necessary where Hellenic gods are concerned to “remember your place.” Where some gods just won’t talk to their flock after some minor offense, Hellenic gods will turn your body inside out and giggle with glee as you choke in agony, but enough with humanizing Those Who Are Deathless.

I love a good epithet. But an epithet is just that, and it is not the entirety of their person. Gods are not items on a salad bar. But I digress.

When I say “give and take” relationship, I mean it very simply: if I want or need something from my gods, I give them something in return and often something in advance. Think of it this way – you want to buy a new car. You go to the bank and ask for the loan. They give you the loan, but you have to make a down payment before they give it to you and you must pay them back and often with interest. Now, replace it with appropriate terminology and you get: you want a car, so you go to the temple or shrine. You ask for money/a loan. You bring a sacrifice or offering with you as a down payment and promise to pay them back in full with interest, ie a more elaborate sacrifice when they come through for you.

On the other hand, there is the world of spirits. Some of them are from this world and have left for the “other side,” others are from the “other side” and have come back for whatever reason and others are from this side and never left and vice-versa. Some are human spirits and some aren’t, and quite a few of them were humans once and aren’t any more. Often, I have the unfortunate habit of referring to spirits that are not Slavic in nature by their Slavic names. My house spirits aren’t necessarily the same as the domovoj, but I will still tend to call them that. As well, a local malevolent spirit of a drowned person who desires to pull us under to share their fate might have its own local name, but I will still tend to refer to them as a vodnik. This isn’t so much a case of forcing my linguistics onto other beings as it is the names being descriptive of form and function – domovoj means of the house in a literal sense, and vodnik roughly means water person or him who dwells in water.

Also, not all spirits are intrinsically tied to land. Hel, some spirits are travelers by profession!

In my world view, there is a definite sense of respect and sometimes fear associated with spirits. Not many of them like humans very much, and a good number of them, like the vodnik and vlkolak are actively malevolent toward human beings because of things that were done to them in their own time in this world. Others, like the spirits that roam forests (Lesný mužík or Lešij, in English, he of the forest from the root les, or forest) just want to be left alone. I give spirits as much personal space as I can, and often err on the side of caution. I drop money into water before I get too comfortable around it and ask the resident spirits to let me be. I leave an offering for the Lešij before I take a hike in the woods. There’s a definite air of hospitality here as well. At some point, I’m treading in someone’s home and it wouldn’t be any less rude for me to show up in their home without a gift as it would be to show up at any person’s home without a gift.  

[Collowrath]

World Tree; A Creation Story

As is common in the Indo-European worldview, the world is conceived of as a tree. There are three primary worlds which are involved in Slavic and my own mythology. I’m not of the opinion that these are the only three worlds – after all, a tree has many, many branches.

At the top is Pravda (Truth), the world of the Gods. Among the many realms here is Svarga, the house of Svaroh, a wise and warlike sun god, often depicted as being a fire-breathing serpent (or a serpent composed of fire). The glorious dead are taken here to live in peace. Beneath Pravda is our own world, Jav (lit. phenomenon, fig. as material world). It is portrayed as the trunk of the tree, surrounded by both the Underworld of roots and the Upperworld of branches. The implication of this, at least in the minds of Russian neopagans, is that the material world is thus subjected to Pravda – that the laws of physics are divine mandate: not only does a rock fall when dropped, but it is good and just that it do so. Personally, while I can see where they are coming from, I don’t think it’s necessarily accurate. My understanding is that Jav is simply the material world of action – it is cyclic and dual in nature: everything has happened before and will happen again, and for every action, there will be an equal and opposite reaction. The third world is the damp, dark world of the roots – Nav (from the proto-Slavic root, meaning dead). There are some gods who live here, but mostly it is where the dead live. Compare to Hel or Hades.

As for a creation story, I have only heard one – and I’m not sure where it comes from or where I read it. It contains within it four characters: Bieloboh (The White God), Čierneboh (The Black God), Včelka (Bee), and a donkey.

Creation Story

Before the world as we know it, there was only a watery void. At the bottom of the watery void was sand. One day, growing tired of the monotony of the void, Bieloboh and Čierneboh decided it was time to create what we would come to know as Earth. Here was the trick though: Bieloboh knew how to start the process but not end it, and Čierneboh knew how to stop it, but not start it. Thus, they had to work together. Bieloboh cast into the sea and came up with a mouth full of sand. He spit it over the water, and from that little bit the world began to grow.

And it grew and it grew and it grew; trees and mountains and flowers – everything. Bieloboh cast creatures onto the new world. But as it grew, it eventually began to get too big. Bieloboh decided it was time to stop it, before it burst. But Čierneboh, being the trickster that he is, snuck off, taking with him the secret to stop the creation of the Earth. Being lazy, he snuck away on a donkey. As he rode away, he bragged into its ear, “Look how clever I am! I showed him!”

Bieloboh realized how dire the situation was – so he recruited Včelka, the Bee, to track down Čierneboh and steal the secret from him. And that she did. When she found him, she buzzed around his face as he continued to brag to his donkey. In his pride, he told the donkey the secret – and Včelka stole away from him as fast as she could. Realizing what had just happened, Čierneboh pursued her. He only caught up with her after she had given the secret over to Bieloboh. Bieloboh then used the secret word to stop the growth of the world, thereby saving the Earth.

Čierneboh was angry. He shouted: “I curse the people of this Earth you have created! I curse them to ever eat the excrement of the bee!” Bieloboh turned then to the bee and said: “So shall your excrement ever be the sweetest on the Earth!”

Thus began the World, the intimate relationship between human and bee, and the rivalry between Bieloboh and Čierneboh.

 

[Collowrath]

Language and Shifting Contexts

One of the big things about me is language. I love language. I grew up in a house and family that was semi-bilingual. I learned to read Cyrillic in elementary school from some Russian friends. In high school, I took four years of Turkish. I also learned how to read and write with the Arabic alphabet. I have an ear and an eye for language – if you can show me what it looks like, I can tell you what it is.

I find language to be very spiritual as well. When I keep my Hellenic calendar, I keep it in Greek. I keep and pronounce the names of the Gods as they are in Greek. My prayers are peppered with Greek phrases.

As part of a personal quirk, I keep Hlaholica for spiritual purposes. The alphabet itself was never intended for such, but the act of writing with it is spiritual in and of itself for me. The names of the letters individually are meaningful, and I’m tempted to divise a divination system for them.

Often, you can tell whether I’m coming at you from a Slavic pagan, Double Faith, or Hellenic context based on the words I use. That’s the tricky part. smile  

[Collowrath]

Practical Worship

Practical worship for me comes in a few different flavors and a few different directions. Eventually, it all boils down to a few key things, usually practical things. There is an element of purification to these practical acts (otherwise, they couldn’t be considered worshipful!). Cooking is an act of worship. Making the votive for an offering is worship to the god it is intended for. Making, playing, and appreciating music can be worship as well. So is drinking.

I regularly give libations – “pour out.” This is especially done in remembrance of ancestors.

When I give an offering to Athene, I pour good extra virgin olive oil directly onto a makeshift rock altar in my back yard. Spare change and frankincense go straight to Hermes.

Offerings of food are always burnt. Slavic gods are usually only worshiped when their “time of year” comes around.  

[Collowrath]

Miasma and Me

This is probably my biggest difference in practice from your usual Hellenic Polytheist. Even the language I use surrounding it is different – artificial intentionally. Essentially, there are three kinds of things: the pure, the mundane, and the impure. Purity is tied to things which are sacred – fire, and water being principle among them. Certain actions are purifying. The mundane things are things that are neither. These things are a “take it or leave it” quality – if one day is set aside for a God, is it pure, but all others then are mundane; they aren’t necessarily made unclean unless something has happened. The impure is marked mainly with those things that are intrinsically human: blood, death, sexual fluids, and birth. It is also tied to physical uncleanliness, dirt and sweat.

In the same way that this is marked with physical uncleanliness, it is also removed like physical uncleanliness, washing it away directly with water. For this reason, I wash my hands, arms, neck, and face a number of times a day.

Here’s where I get very different from Hellenics. My Slavic heritage does indeed play a part. Things that are a part of that, cultural idiosyncrasies, become tied to the concept – actions that can be pure or impure depending on context. It is affected by modesty as well; I almost always wear pants except in my own home. I don’t wear my slippers outside and I don’t wear shoes inside, there is a clear distinction. Impurities can be passed on through physical contact. I wouldn’t want to drag it in on my shoe, and for the same reason, I rarely if ever hug people or shake their hands if it can be avoided.

It has a clear affect on the way I cook food, especially meat. Materials used to cook meat must be cleaned before used on something else. I use a different cutting board for meat as well. The biological dangers of cross-contamination aside, the blood transfer would have severe affects on the meal: meat is made pure via cooking. I don’t eat half-cooked meat either. Medium-well is good enough for me. Also, certain foods are simply avoided altogether at different times of the year or altogether permanently.

The language I use is a little different as well. I don’t use the Hellenic terms any more. I prefer to use Slovak term word čist or čistý in the same way I would use the words clean or pure, to reflect the changed context.  

[Collowrath]

Sacred Things

My sacred things are often practical things. I have a book that I keep things in, some of them spiritual, some of them mundane. A lot of it is written in a script your probably wouldn’t understand. I have a set of really nice tarot cards. I read them according to augmented meanings that fit within my own context; they are awakened and occasionally have something out of the ordinary to tell me. One of my most sacred things is a set of Japanese calligraphy pens.

Some things are set aside for sacred use, but not in the neopagan sense of waving it in front of an altar. An example would be a good set of dishware and utensils that are set aside for the ancestor feasts – they play a special role in a useful capacity. There are also things set aside for other sacred uses, but these are things given over directly to a God; they are beyond chist and are no longer used. These things are burnt, drowned, or in some way removed to be taken by the God him or herself.  

[Collowrath]

Introduction to Slavic Language; Lexicon

You’ve just seen me use a s**t-ton of Slovak terms. They’re strange, rough, and sometimes missing vowels where it appears they really should be. Some of them even have these funny accent things on them. Well, fear no more, because I’m going to give you a basic run down of the alphabet, along with a quick reference for all the terms used. As I go along in the thread answering questions, I’ll add more terms – just prompt me for what you want to know and I’ll be happy to oblige.

Most letters are pronounced like their English counterparts. These are the exceptions:

-c, č, ď, ch, ľ, ň, š, ť, ž. They are pronounced as ts, ch, dye, hard h, lye, nye, sh, tye, and zh (like azure.). Essentially, they are all palatalized. Also, these letters following e or i are pronounced like this, so de, le, ne, te are pronounced as dye, lye, nye, tye.

-Vowels are like English, but very short comparatively. Acute accents (á) are pronounced as long. Two unusual vowels are ä, pronounced as in “hat” and ô, pronounced as “wo.”

-Also, J is pronounced like a consonantal Y, as in “yes.”

Bieloboh – The White God, analogous to the Christian God.

Čierneboh – The Black God, syncretized with the Devil figure.

Čistý or čist – lit. “clean”

Dveviere – from dva, two, and viera, faith.

Domovoj - of the house. Spirits who live in and are part of the home.

Fakelore – folklore that has been made up to suit some purpose.

Hlaholica – West Slavic form of “Glagolica,” the Glagolitic alphabet.

Jarilo – vegetation god worshiped at the onset of spring.

Jav - lit. phenomenon, fig. as material world, the world in which we live.

Kresťanstvo - Christianity

Lesný mužík or Lešij – “he of the forest” from root “les”, shape-shifting spirit that roams the forest as a protector.

Morena – Slovak death goddess who brings winter when her brother-husband Jarilo dies.

Nav – from Slavic root meaning “death,” the Underworld; Realm of the Dead.

Pravda – lit. “Truth,” the world in which the Gods live.

Rodna Viera – “Native Faith,” the pre-Christian faith of the Slavs. Also, rodnoverie, Rodnovery.

Svarga – sometimes as “heaven,” more analogous to Valhalla.

Svaroh – the god who rules Svarga.

Včelka – lit. “little bee.”

Vlkolak – a cross between the romantic American ideas of werewolves and vampires, the root word being “vlk,” or “wolf.” They are vampiric creatures who roam the night looking to drink your blood and eat your body.

Vodnik – “him who dwells in water,” the spirit of a man who died tragically in the water, who seeks to make others share in his fate. He grabs your feet from beneath and pulls you in to drown you.  

[Collowrath]

Personal Ethics

What does all this mean for my personal ethics? The biggest pull of it is that it simply isn’t my business to impose my beliefs on other people. I see no reason to stand against their rights as citizens to carry out their lives within the bounds of American law. Some of my personal stances are:

-Pro gay marriage,
-Pro abortion,
-I am for the right of a person to prostitute themselves.
-I am all for responsible drug use.

Outside of hot button issues, my ethics include a strong sense of the oath. An oath is taken very seriously and with great care to ensure both or all parties understand everything that is happening with it.

I’m a bit of a mystic.

Being a great host is of vast importance to me. Hospitality outside the home is also important.

I have a lot of patience online, but I see no reason to oblige stupidity.  

[Collowrath]

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