Transcription
Welcome to spiritual studies session 28. This is on the Slavic paganism. So in former sessions on this course, we have done the Kelts, the Norse, and now we're doing Slavic paganism. These are three of the heavy hitters when it comes to what is being brought back under neopaganism.
So first, we should establish what comprises the Slavic people. So, starting off with just a slight historical context, you know, context in general. Honestly, there are central, eastern, um, western Slavs. You can find them in North Asia. You can find them mostly in Eastern Europe. Pretty much all the countries of Eastern Europe have Slavic uh predominance. The language of the Slavic people is coming from proto-Indo-European. So it is an Indo-European Slavic language.
So when defining who they are by modern standards, countries, West Slavs are the uh Polish, the Poles, the Slovaks, and the Czechs. Then you have the southern Slavs comprising of the Serbs, the Bosniaks, you know, Bosnians, the Slovenes, the Serbs, the Macedonians. Then eastern Slavs, Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians. All of them have shared some form of culture, their genetics, and their relationships between them. So overall, in the world now, there are over 360 million Slavs.
The ancient Slavs migrated to the area between the fifth and 10th century, um, this being central and eastern Europe. They absorbed earlier on an Iranian influence who were also living in Europe around the sixth century. By the 8th century, the Slavic population had exponentially grew, and they started to expand the territory to the Balkans, the Alps, and the Volga River. It is the 9th century where Christianization began. So, what we're talking about today is what they believed before that point, the 9th century. And it did take some time before Christianity completely spread, but we're going to talk about that some more. So their neighbors would have been the Khazars, the Byzantium, and Vikings.
But in regards to who they were in themselves, what we know of the ancient Slavic paganism and the ancient Slavs in general is coming from three different sources. For one, we have the folklore, the folk traditions that had been passed down words, uh, from ear to mouth to ear to mouth, right? And their songs, their rituals of which they still practice to this day. Only in the 19th, uh, 1900s, beginning of the 20th century, did these really begin to um, get put to writing, um, in in a good amount. Before then, there were fragments, I suppose, but most of it's coming from being written in the early 20th century.
The other source would be archaeological finds, um, which is highly debated as we'll see, because they're not sure who's who when they're finding these things. They're not sure if it was a pre-existing people, if it actually was the ancient Slavic people. So, some of this archaeological evidence is more reliable than others.
And then lastly, we have writings that reference the Slavs. So many of the Christian missionaries, which was the same case for the Kelts, um, what they write about these people is another reference, um, you know, all these Christian writings discouraging the pagan religion, um, and referencing it specifically. And also, uh, travel accounts of Arabs, um, and just classical writings in general. So this is fragmentary knowledge, much like with the Kelts.
And also like with the Kelts, what we'll be seeing is that when I say Slav, just like when I say Kelts, it's actually more of me saying, uh, it's like calling somebody European. Um, there's many countries, there's many disparities, there's many particularities with each place you go to. So it's a, it's a grab bag of a term, Slav, to say Slavic religion, because there was a lot of variation in what deities they worshiped, how they would reference said deities, um, but there are commonalities. And so, in the same way with the Celtic, in discussing Celtic paganism, we have to allow the ambiguousness of referring to the whole, uh, plethora of what Slavic paganism brings to the table.
Now, the act of Christianization, the Slavic people turning Christian, uh, started with the 8th century all the way to the 13th century. And it would catch on to the southern Slavs, um, in the sixth or 7th century, you know, 600, 700. Uh, and it would catch up with the eastern Slavs in, uh, around the year of 988 by this very infamous ruler by them, Vladimir the Great. Um, and then lastly, the last ones to go, uh, Christian would be the West Slavs. And this was done in the 12th century by the Romans.
None of this was a very peaceful transition, mind you. It was not a natural transition by any means. Um, it was a slow and superficial process because the Slavic people integrated their paganism. In some cases, they integrated their paganism with the Christianity. They called this double faith. So on one hand, they would be making a show as if they were Christian, but still paying homage to their pagan roots. And this is still true, uh, to this day. Uh, the ceremonies still happen, and they can still call themselves Christian.
Now, in other cases, you know, those that would stand on the way out and not compromise would be the ones that really fell to the tragedy of this time in history. And regardless, though, this, um, pagan faith, this native faith has remained throughout.
So, two notes of context before I get into the religion or the, uh, spirituality. It's a note that's happened with many different spiritual traditions in the past. This aspect of using fire in the mythology. Fire, in other, uh, traditions, in Christian, in Judaism, is always associated with the godhead, mystic experience. And the fire here in Slavic paganism is purity, spiritual purity, the essence of all things. That, that the fire cannot bear any evil. It is a symbol of the ancestors. It is a symbol of the pulse, the very pulse of the universe, the anima of the universe. It is a symbol of truth that if you are to speak sincerely, authentically, then you are speaking from the heart, and subsequently speaking from the fire. And so we see this ceremony of jumping through the fire, not just in the Slavs, but yes, in the Slavs as a symbol of truth, of primalism, of ancestry. Um, by primalism, I mean, um, of what has been there since the very beginning, acknowledging that.
And the unique attribute here of Slavic paganism is it is not a far deviation from shamanism. And as we've talked about plenty of times before, shamanism is the original spirituality of the world. Um, goddess nature centricism, mystic journeys, Slavic paganism is truly not far off. It is very naturalistic. It is very, um, it has a lot of lore and a lot of mythos, but it's very simple and true to its purpose in this way.
But let's get into the details. And we're going to start with the creation story. Now, this is unique because there is not a singular creation story. But let's start with this one. In the beginning, God, or the white god, favored to expand the earth. The devil arrives to dive into the abyss of the water to get a handful of the earth and bring it up to the white god. So the devil does so, and he dives in, but he keeps some of it in his mouth. He hides some of this earth, and he brings it to the god. Gives it to him. Um, and the god throws it across and creates the world, but it's very flat. So, if you were to stand on one end, you could see everything happening on the other. And the devil, or the black god, starts choking, coughing, and he runs away, and then he starts to spit it up, and this creates the mountains and, uh, and all manner of hills, slides, moguls.
So in this way, you see the act of the earth's creation was undertaken by two creator gods. And what I've been referring to as white god and black god, they are not necessarily good and bad per se. They can be visualized in several, uh, depictions by birds. It could be a pigeon. It could be ducks. Um, and they are close friends or brothers, but regardless of their relationship, they're always together. So, usually what's happening in these different stories is that white god is altruistic, present, very, uh, unvengeful, and the black god is attempting to sneak around and do something. Some real trickster energy about that one. Um, and here are the references: Belobog and Chernobog. Belobog is the white god, and Chernobog is the black god. And we can liken this to Satan and God, or we can liken this to Ahriman and Ahura Mazda of the Zoroastrian tradition. But the dynamic here is very different. So this is how I would coin it: a dual monotheism. This isn't the whole story, though. This is just one story. So the idea being that all fortune and all good things come from the good, the white god, Belobog, and all bad things are changed or mixed around by the bad god, by the black god, by Chernobog. So they depend on each other in this way. And when you look at the iconography, in my mind, it's very reminiscent of yin-yang, how the good necessitates the bad. A fundamental understanding that all things, um, that there is no war to be fought between these two. They get along. They necessitate each other. There can't be a white without a black. There can't be a black without a white. And so these stories that they have are involving both.
It's debated of their existence, though. This is a contended story, and their presence is contended because, as you'll see, there's more than one story, and not all Slavic people would worship in this way. Welcome to the confusion of understanding Slavic paganism.
So here's another story, another creation story. In the beginning, there was Nav, or the formless abyss. We've seen this many times, the ether, the akasha. And inside of this formless abyss was a cosmic egg where the god Rod and his female consort Rozhanitsa, or no, no, I'm saying that so wrong, um, which we'll talk about these two later, um, break the egg with great effort. Rod breaks the egg, and light cascades across the universe. Um, the quote is like bright buttermilk, and eventually this milk congeals into butter, and then slowly things begin to take form from this primordial substance, giving us mother earth, the planets, the cosmos, and the sun.
And here's here's a change. This doesn't happen in all stories, or you can consider this a different story. It's the dismemberment creation story. The sun was pulled from his face, Rod's. The moon from his chest, the stars from his eyes. Dawn and dusk were pulled from his brows, the dark night from his thoughts, the wind from his breath, the rain from his tears, the thunder and lightning from his voice, until he completely vanished into the vast expanse of all of existence. So the universe is a dismemberment of Rod. This is where you start to see the other deities emerge, which we'll talk about all these deities a bit later, um, you know, the story of subsequently how to form the earth, um, and references to the flood myths even in this creation story.
So we've got a few notes to talk about here. On one hand, with the white and black god, we are seeing something that is likened to the monotheism that was forming around the world at this time and long before. And on the other hand, we have the Orphic egg, or the cosmic egg. And this, you will find in Orphism or in Greece. And then we are seeing the dismemberment, uh, trope that all of the universe is formed from different pieces of the godhead. You find this in Hinduism, that, you know, all things being formed, or society being formed from Purusha, the first man, um, you know, Brahmins from the mouth, warriors from the shoulder, peasants from the hips, Shudras from the feet. And you also found this in what we were discussing in the last session, you found this in Norse mythology with Ymir, how the world, how Ymir was killed by Odin, and the world was created from Ymir's body parts. So these different creation stories show, illustrate the far-reaching, um, relationship between Slavic paganism and all the societies all around it, truly all around it. So many different, different influences.
So let's start to get more into the nitty-gritty here. There's an idea that the world was, uh, kept up, sustained, fundamental by whales, and that first there were seven whales, but then three went away, and that there were only four left. One of them died, and then now three are left, and therefore the world is off-kilter, not quite right. And this plays into other faiths as well. In China, you have this discussion of the pillars of the world, and how if one is, uh, destroyed, crippled, that it causes catastrophe in the world. So if there was a tremendous cataclysm, natural event, volcanoes, tsunamis, fires, you could say that something happened to one of the whales, or you could say that one of the pillars of the world gave way. You find this also in the Hopi in Native Americans. You find this kind of trope, and you also find this in the African, um, belief of Bambara.
So likewise, too, to keep tying the Slavic to other traditions, you have the Slavic dragon, Zmey. Zmey or Zmei. And this is a dragon, a viper, a snake that contains the world. Where have we heard of this one before? Um, you know, you have the different beliefs of the Mesoamericans, of the ancient Mesoamericans, that tie the world's horizon or the world's outline to a snake putting its own tail in its mouth. And then of course, like the Norse, in Nordic mythology, the world serpent Jörmungandr.
So right away, I'm establishing how much is shared. And to continue that, it was believed, and there were many references to the dome of the world, and that the dome was centered by a pillar. This is in the ancient world referred to as the axis mundi, or the cosmic tree, which points its way towards the pole star and rotates the whole earth. So just like the Norse again, where they had Yggdrasil, or Yggdrasil, again, we're seeing the cosmic tree. And when I said it's not far from shamanism, this is where it comes from: the world tree, the idea of the tree that upholds the world, that is a vault towards the spiritual upper world and the lower world, is straight out of shamanism.
So, I'm not going to go over a lot about the afterlife here. It's kind of a shame, you know, I don't really have the time for that today. But they believed that the, uh, when souls traveled after death to the underground, they did it by a bridge. A bridge. Remember the Chinvat bridge in Zoroastrianism? Remember the rainbow bridge, or the Bifröst of, uh, Norse mythology? They said that this bridge at night was the Milky Way, and during the day it was a rainbow. H, the rainbow bridge. H. So it makes you wonder what central traditions they're all getting this from. The Milky Way, by their standards, was called the way of the soul, or the way of the blue army, that it was spilled with stardust. The axis mundi, or the tree, was also likened to the family tree, that it connected one person to the ancestors, or the, I'm going to try to say this, Dziadzi, the elders, the ancestors that you were connected to the dead, to your lineage through the tree, through the axis mundi, the tree of family, the tree of life. It all has to do with the tree. And that the souls in the afterlife would return to earth by the rays of the sun. Again, very naturalistic.
And the trees would play many roles in ceremonies. And when Christianization came through, they appropriated this and turned it into the Christmas tree. You see, this would be much deeper than a simple Christmas tree to the pagans. And we should also reference that, uh, in the Slavic pantheon and Slavic god, Slavic myth, um, that at the roots of the tree, there was a demonic creature, a snake, which would chew on it. And they had different tales for this, but we found the same thing yet again in Norse mythology, and the use of the snake being at the very bottom, underground roots of everything. So, there's a lot of tie-ins here with Norse mythology.
Now, let's start getting onto the deities, the actual gods themselves. And when I'm talking about this list, it could be the Eastern Slavs, it could be the Western Slavs, it could be the Southern Slavs. This is a broad stroke across. Okay. So, I'm not just sticking to one group. In future, in a future session, I would be happy to get more specific, but I'm giving points of interest, heavy hitters.
So, let's start first with talking about, uh, the god I already referenced, the creator god Rod and Rodzanica. So this is literally the primordial god and goddess. It implies that the fundamental nature of reality is both that their union would create reality. So right away, we're seeing that it's not just about God. It is equally about goddess, which is not, not, which is hearkening back to a much older time. So, Rozhanitsa is the collective representation of the three goddesses of fate, that the mother goddess, the ancient mother goddess, ties or or spins the web of fate. Now, this of course hearkens to the three Norns of Nordic mythology, tying the goddess to fate. And she is also called Deva, meaning the youngest lady, and that all of the other goddesses hearken back to her. Baba, meaning the old lady, is also a reference. The beautiful lady. She is likened to Aphrodite in Greek. She is likened to, in India, Lakshmi. She is likened to the Roman Juno. However, in this case, she is a supreme goddess, the bestower of fates. So, I, I'm mentioning more the female side here, not to say that it's uneven, because I find that necessary in comparison to many of the other topics I get to talk on. Now, one, in the culture, the first haircut you get is dedicated to Rod, you know, the male side, in celebration. Um, in later times, these two would become less important. So from this, you could also call the goddess Sud, S-U-D, the interweaver of fate. And in this female form, it is manifesting the three goddesses who determine the fate of men at birth. They are often presented as Sud's three daughters. All of this harkening back, right? They are sometimes depicted, these daughters, as good-natured old women. Other times, they're beautiful young women. Sometimes they're wearing white, and sometimes they're adorned with different jewels and gold, precious stones, and sometimes they're depicted holding burning candles. A lot of iconography comes from this. A lot of religious iconography comes from this. Other traditions, they're just plainly wearing a, um, what do they call that? A wreath of flowers over their heads.
So let's move forward from that. That's a kind of light discourse on these creator deities. Next is Svarog, S-V-A-R-O-G. And in this way too, we have another creator god. One who ruled the sky and fathered all other gods, or not all other gods, many of the other gods from fire, meaning the sun. And later on in the pantheon, he would retire and hand it over to his sons. So this is very reminiscent of Uranus, or Ouranos, one of the original Titans, one of the original gods that would eventually get overshadowed. In this, as far as I can see, he's not killed. He just goes away. So right away, a characteristic of Slavic paganism: there is not nearly as much violence. You don't see all the evil. You don't see all the animosity whatsoever. I couldn't find it. So there's a very interesting characteristic of this mythos. In the Norse pantheon, you see a lot more violence, and in Greek, you especially see violence. But in this one, I'm not getting that. Svarog, you know, god of fire, god of the sun, is also likened to Helios in the Greek tradition, or Hephaestus, the crafter, you know, the, what do they call it? The metallurgist. And the name is, uh, hearkening back to India, hearkening back to Sanskrit. Svar meaning heaven, or the rulers of the heaven. And in this tradition, is likened to the god Indra. So we're, I hope you're seeing how interestingly intertwined Celtic is, or not Celtic. Gosh, it's terrible for me to say. Slavic paganism is.
Our next little focus is on Dazhbog. Dazhbog is the son of Svarog. And this is one of the gods that takes over, a solar deity, a god of the sacred sun, the patron of the house. Uh, Dazhbog is related to the essential element of survival, the progression of humanity. Dazhbog is also the god of rain and the lightning of fire. So we're still getting sky vibes from the sun here, or sky, sky vibes from the sun. So people would perform many rituals dedicated to Dazhbog to ensure rain, to ensure sun, to ensure fertile crops.
So this is another, you're seeing here a lot of different creator gods, or a lot of different predominant gods, but one of the big predominant ones is this next one, more so than others, maybe, is Perun. Perun is the ruler god and is the god of lightning and thunder. H, what does this sound like? Maybe like Thor of the Norse mythology. Maybe like Zeus of the Greek mythology. The name Perun comes from proto-Indo-European, meaning to strike or to hit. So this is a reference to the thunder and the lightning, the clap of the sky. And he is mainly worshipped in predominance by the eastern Slavs.
And a contender to Perun is Veles. So these two are seen in competition to each other, shoulder to shoulder. Veles is the god of cattle and the god of wealth. So more earthly, and is associated with poetry, magic, the dead, the underworld, and oaths. So Veles and Perun having this sort of rivalry hearkens back to the black-white god analogy that we are talking about in the creation story. We're, we're setting the stage for two different primordial gods as opposing rivals, or maybe not truly opposing.
So, here's another interesting tie-in deity: Triglav. And Triglav is a form of, as the name might imply, three different gods. They also say that it could be the form of the god Veles, the one that we were just talking about. Triglav, you can find a, they found a statue of this god, and they say that it's a mixture of Svarog, Perun, and Dazhbog, or in other words, translation, a god that represents the heaven, the earth, and the underworld. H, there are different answers to what the three different heads represent. Um, but this is one answer, but it's a fusion of three gods. And this is very interesting because you don't see this a lot. You see a lot in different mythologies and different religions, the triple goddess trope, very common, but not so common to see the triple god trope. And one of the examples of where you find this is in the Trimurti in Hindu mythology. So again, really pointing to the fact that India has a lot to do with this story that I'm talking about here.
So next is Zhiva. And this is a goddess, meaning literally the life-giver, or the life-giver, or simply she who lives. She is sometimes depicted with a cat for a head, a cat head, a cat face, and is likened to Ops, Isis, and Bona Dea. She is the opposite of the goddess of death, Morana. So this is the anima. This is the goddess that gives life. This is the goddess that springs in the spring. She has, uh, this aspect of dry earth that she is literally the dry earth. And this makes her the opposite of this next god I'm talking about, Veda. Veda is the rainy earth, or the celestial rain, or the goddess of celestial rain. She is the empress of the heaven, as it's called, and is associated with the tree of light. Interesting note there. So right here, I'm giving you examples of how in Slavic paganism, there are opposites, opposite gods, which is unique to them. Opposites in different ways. This one represents dry earth. This one represents, uh, moist earth. And the one that stands different to this also, in contradiction to the dry earth, is Mokosh. And Mokosh is literally the personification of the wet earth. Not just simply the rain like Veles and Veda. Um, the goddess of grain, the grain mother, damp mother earth. Curious. And by Christianization, Mokosh was turned into the Black Madonna, which is really popular in Poland. And you can find equivalents to this goddess in Indo-Iranian, uh, mythology.
One that I want to mention real quick is Chislobog. And this name literally means the number-giver. She is the god or the goddess of time, of the lunar month. And this hearkens back to the Paleolithic goddess tradition, where the act of women having their menstrual cycles in tune with the lunar cycles made them the knowers of time. So here again, I can point out the fact how closely tied Slavic paganism is to shamanism.
And the one that I want to spend more time on than the rest is Marzanna. And I mentioned her before as the goddess of death and winter, which go hand in hand. She is related to Kali, the great, you know, the destroyer god of India. Marzanna comes from an etymological root of mar or mo, meaning death, mortal, and also might tie her to the Roman god Mars or Aries. You also see that it could mean pestilence. It also could be tied to mara, meaning dream. Mara, meaning phantom vision or hallucination. So it's interesting here how these words are related. Death, related to dream, related to vision, hallucination, phantom. Curious note there. Marzanna, or Marzanna, is called the death crone. So when winter comes and the world is going to sleep or dying, Marzanna will take over. And they will hold, the people will hold a ceremony when spring comes to say goodbye to Marzanna. There's a time where she rules, and there's a time where she goes away. The importance of death here is that it's natural. It is a transition between new life. That if things were to live forever, they would never be fresh. And so Marzanna is not feared. Marzanna is celebrated. Curious note there. Very different than what the western tradition has taken on ethically. Um, in Hinduism, there is a Mara as well. The word literally meaning death. Mara, goddess of death. Many people offering her offerings. You also find this in Latvian mythology again, Mēra, mara. So this goes really far back, and I would say older than Hinduism, older than Jainism. You also find similar tropes in South Asia, showing this influence really goes far.
So this, you might not be shocked to hear, Marzanna really ties close to one of the most infamous folklore figures in the Slavic tradition: Baba Yaga. Let's talk about Baba Yaga. In many ways, Baba Yaga can be interpreted as a singular person, a singular entity, a singular old woman. But in other ways, she's depicted as three sisters of the same name. She appears to be deformed, hideous, old, a deformed, hideous old woman. Lives in a hut that is standing on chicken legs. So, let me try to explain this chicken legs thing. The old crone was someone who was very learned, and they would use everything of an animal. Everything. And what do people want the least when they make a catch? Probably the bones, the little chicken legs. They'd rather go for the meat on the big on the inside, right? So the old grandma, the old crone would make use of the chicken legs. So this association with Yaga, with Baba, and the chicken legs, a house made of chicken legs.
Now, sometimes Baba Yaga is a kind of apathetic helper, helping somebody find their bride. She's testing them in some way, testing to make sure they're the truly, uh, right person. But in other times, she's depicted as a child-eating monster, as this hideous monster. So, let's break down this word, or this, you know, title. Baba Yaga. Baba, as I've already sort of referenced, could mean, uh, in old Russian, a midwife, a fortune teller, a sorceress. But you hear in the, in the modern Russian word babushka, meaning grandma. Baba, babushka, grandmother, literally just grandmother. So, baba, baba meaning grandma. And Yaga is much more debated because this could simply be a, uh, a reference to a snake or a serpent. This could also be a reference, I'm going to give a big list here, to pain, to worry, to doubt, to witch, to evil woman, to wickedness, to, to a wood nymph, to, uh, to exploitation, all these things, horror, a shudder, you know, fear. All these things hint at the essence of what Yaga should mean. Um, you also see an answer in the phrase, uh, to tell somebody off. Um, and all these things seem to fit Baba Yaga in some way, the forest dweller, the snake-like ancestrial forest dweller. And so she is depicted not only with the chicken-legged hut, but she flies in a mortar and pestle. So again, you're talking about a naturalistic woman. Why a mortar and pestle, right? This is what would be used to create, uh, spells, to do, to create medicine, remedies, a mortar and pestle, and a broom. I mean, come on. So, it's all reference to something that's very real, something that would be associated culturally with grandmas, that's made into a storification, or, you know, a story, not a fantasy per se, but a, a kind of exaggeration of what is. And in the tales where she is depicted as three sisters, it is a direct hint to the triple goddess trope, truly. I mean, the mother, the maiden, and the crone. So the fact that there's three of them is a direct reference to what Baba Yaga symbolizes.
So in the old tradition here, when a boy was to become a man, they would bring him out into the woods to a high priestess. A high priestess would be a very old woman. And what she would do is she would initiate them. She would test them. She would have them do things. She would test their minds, their will. And in their understanding, they, the boy would die. A child eater, you see. But they would die and be reborn as a man. That's why Baba Yaga is a child eater, because when they leave, they're a man. And this is what the crone, the priestess, is a gatekeeper in the understanding of what comes to death.
So, Marzanna and Baba Yaga are a truly descriptive allegory for the crone archetype. And we should pay attention to the fact that there are so many deities in Slavic paganism. And all of these deities represent something very real in life. They're not representing just astronomical objects like how in, uh, Roman and in Greek, it's all about referencing to the planets, the big gods. That is, they're referencing dry earth. They're referencing wet earth. They're referencing lightning. They're referencing youth. They're referencing a good crop, a god of death, a god of, of initiation. And all of these deities represent something in the natural world. The furthest thing from that would be the creator deities representing something of abstraction in the pre-cosmos. Right? So when it came to, uh, you know, the Slavs being good-hearted, kind people, happy with very little, this was because of this naturalistic personification of the natural environment. Again, not being far from shamanism. They would see the god or the goddess in the world, and the, and the depiction of them as a person is understood as nothing more than a symbol for something that can be observed in person.
And so you see so many tropes here: the triple god, the triple goddess, the rainbow bridge, the world tree. And you're tying it to Zoroastrianism. You're tying it to Hinduism. You're tying it to the Norse pantheon. You're tying it to the Kelts, you're tying it to the Greeks, to the Romans. And there are some ties that I, I didn't get to get to, uh, in, in Egypt. So, this is one of those hard-to-fully-grasp pantheons that is a treasure trove for the historical unraveling of the original spirituality predating human society. There are tropes within the Slavic pantheon, within the Slavic folk tales, that dip far back beyond agriculture, I'd say. Um, and the use of spirits in everything has a lot to do with this connection.
Some things that I didn't get to mention. For instance, the belief in household spirits, that if you left out offerings and talked nicely to the household spirit, that it would protect you, that it would do well by you. And if you didn't respect it, if you talked bad about it, it would haunt you. And you might think this is pretty paranormal sounding, like a literal spirit. But it's like talking nice to your house plant makes your house plant better. It makes it grow better. That's been scientifically proven. So in this way, talking nicely to your house, you can call it a spirit and get kind of woo-woo with it, but it actually improves the environment. It improves your gratitude, and you can't argue with results. I mean, just about everything would get deification or a spiritual personification in, in the Slavic people. They had the spirit of cherries. They had the spirit of different times of years. You know, like I was saying with Marzanna being the winter, being the oncoming of winter, they'd have gods of the solstice sun. They'd have gods of the disappearing sun. They'd have a god of the western wind. I mean, you're talking specificities here. Highly, uh, symbolic specificities.
And so, what one of the main things that I think one should take away from this is that the natural order of things, the reverence of the natural order of things, the reverence of things that are observable and right in front of you, not lost in abstraction, but immediately in front of you. This made them happier people. This was a holistic, integrated belief. And while a lot of these folk tales can come across as very magical, very folklorish, very fairy-talish, that is intentional. The wonderment is involved in these folklores, which does good by people. Um, so a few takeaways in summation here. The folkloric tradition of the Slavic people can be much better understood in its actual meaning if you study their neighboring mythologies, and what those mythologies mean. There is a tapestry. In order to understand these mythologies, that the stories that they tell are encoded with very pertinent life lessons, and to the one who understands it, it's very apparent. Um, so treat this session as your introduction and as a, a beginning of investigation, whether it's in the specific deities that I've referenced, whether it's in the other religions that are referenced within Slavic paganism, um, or whether you're going to start way back at the beginning and start digging into shamanism. This would be a logical next step from there.