[podcast's transcript] Petting shapeshifting demons
Hello, everyone! Sława Bogom and welcome to the 20eth episode of Searching for the Slavic Soul. In the last episode, which was published at the end of October, I mentioned I might have to go in winter hibernation, but the fact that we took a break on the 19th episode was really, really bugging me, because I have, unfortunately, a touch of OCD, as well as – as you most probably have noticed – a few of other mental health issues... But, you know, I am working on it, so it’s all good.
Anyway, the 19th episode was bugging me so much, that it was actually more effort to chase away the… the bug, the bugging thoughts, than to get the 20th episode done, so here we are. Still in 2021, starting the 20theth episode of Searching for the Slavic Soul before the new year begins. And because the end of the year is, typically, the time of summarizing and drawing conclusions, I want to, in a way, draw conclusions and summarize what I’ve learned so far about the Slavic tradition and Slavic native Faith. So today I will be talking about searching for my own Slavic soul and about the way I practice Slavic Native Faith and also why I practice it this way. So, if any of this sounds…
Wait! I forgot to introduce myself. Again.
My name is Magda Lewandowska and I am your scatterbrained presenter of Searching for the Slavic Sul, which is a podcast by Witia project.
Tadam! I’ve introduced myself!
So… that’s it. That’s all the introduction. So if you’re interested in how and why I practice Slavic Native Faith - keep listening.
So, my practice. My religious practice, not veterinary practice. Although, as you will later see, these two connect a little bit. Like pretty much everything in my life recently, it all just starts to connect and build something bigger, with more meaning and, you know, a central goal.
Which is, really, the main reason I practice – a religion – because after decades of trials and errors, I realized that I am a much better person with a religious practice, than without it. Which is no wonder, really, because we – the human kind in general, not only Rodnovers or pagans– we evolved to have spirituality and some form of religion, and we really can’t function properly without it. Because what spirituality or religion does, it gives us a narrative. It gives us a way we can tell our story, explain our existence in the world and give it a bit of meaning.
Because, really, if you look at life – any life, not only a life of a human – if you look at any life objectively, it doesn’t really have much sense. I mean, you’re born, if you’re lucky you get to reproduce, and then you die. And that’s it. That’s the end. And if you… well, not you, because I don’t want to tell you what to think or how to interpret your life, but if I look at, for example, my life, objectively, without any attempts to narrate it in any way, without any attempts to extract any meaning out if it, it’s really just pointless. Historically every single good or enjoyable thing in my life ended, or is ending or will end at some point in the future. Which is, kind of the ultimate truth, because everything ends sooner of later. The good and the bad, it all ends. Obviously we don’t mind when the bad things end, but when the good stuff reaches it’s conclusion, it’s not so nice anymore, is it? So, you know, if I look at my life and discard all the stuff that ended or will end, the only thing that’s left is my birth and my death. And I was born as a twin, so not really alone, but I will, as everyone else, very likely die alone, so, like, from the start, by default, I will end up worse than I started. Because I started in the company of my twin sister, and I end up alone.
And if you really think about it, it’s really no wonder we have such an epidemic of mental health issues. Especially, because the depressing stuff, the stuff that extracts the ultimate lack of meaning out of life and presents it in a nihilistic philosophy of, I don’t know, Kierkegaard or Nietzsche or the stuff that you read in Dostoevsky, or, really the whole post-modernism, it sounds so deep. It makes you feel so wise and mature and, well, you know, it is kind of catchy. It allows you to be in opposition to the stupid and pointless, to the celebrities and even the boomers, who see so much meaning in everything and see a life as either a journey or hard work and sacrifice, so then you can enjoy your high social status and tell these who are “below” you how they should live. So, you know, many, especially young people, hold on to their nihilism because it’s the easiest way to put yourself in the opposition to the stupid, the shallow, the mundane and the… you know, the boring.
But, it seems, the nihilistic lack of meaning is the integral part of being a human and it has been accompanying human beings since, well, since the records started and likely even before that. Pretty much every single human culture, at any time of the history of human kind developed some sort of religious believes, and some sort of religious practice that was designed to contradict the nihilism, to give life its meaning and stop people from giving up on life. And that became an evolutionary adaptation in humans. So, really the individuals that were incapable of finding meaning in life – they were just giving up and dying, and the individuals who were capable of persevering despite difficulties, who were able to see above the hardship and the suffering, who were able to find hope and meaning, who were able to find an explanation for their struggles, they survived and kept surviving. And we, the modern humans, are the heirs of these survivors. We are evolutionary conditioned to have spirituality or religion in our life.
And it actually shows. Because the modern people who do not follow a religion per se, the individuals who consciously and willingly reject any religion and any believes or spirituality, these individuals, sooner or later, will start to treat other things like religion. And this is exactly what we see now, with political ideologies, all sort of fitness or diet regimens or even, most recently, with anti-COVID measures. Some people just go crazy with this thing. They switch off thinking, refuse to see facts, idealize the object of their obsession, get all hysterical and irrational – like they were defending a religious doctrine not, you know, a political party or having an uncovered face.
Anyways, the same thing applies to me. While living my life and reflecting on it I realized that I am a stronger and more resilient person when I believe in something bigger, something more important than me. Like, for example, believing in my ancestors, that they do, in fact, exist as my ancestors after their death and that they are there, in Navia, the Slavic after-life, they are there, waiting and ready to support me with their strength and their wisdom. And the belief in my ancestors, the ancesrsl veneration which is such an important element of Slavic Native Faith, was the very first element of Slavic native Faith I come across while searching for my soul, which is, without a doubt a Slavic soul.
I mean, I was aware of Rodnovery or Rodzima Wiara as it is called in Poland, well before I started what would later turn out to be my path to Rodnovery. Which, as I was recently made aware, makes my story an unusual one. Because, as it turns out, most Rodnovers of my generation discovered Slavic Native Faith on their own, through sometimes very convoluted spiritual search, involving wicca, Norse paganism, Baltic paganism, Buddhism, Islam and even Confucianism. While I went directly to Rodnovery, because I was introduced to Rodnovery by my sister, Gosia, who started practicing, I don’t know, somewhere in the year 2000 or even before that. So I knew, roughly, what Rodnovery is, how the rituals look, how it is practiced, I knew all of that before I started practicing it myself. And that is unique in this way, that thanks to Gosia I could skip the early phase of following Slavic native Faith, which is, let’s be honest, getting a tattoo, building an altar and, you know, praying on a tight and highly regulated schedule.
Which is not to say that I didn’t have an altar phase. I did! I absolutely did! It’s actually quite cute when I think about it and, I don’t know, cringy in a way, but still cute. Because the one and only altar I ever build was an altar decorated with white and purple elder flowers with a jehowa-witnesses-style picture of Virgin Mary in the center. I constructed the altar when I was 7 or maybe 8 years old and I did it because I really didn’t like the god that was being sold to me in the church. Because, I am not sure I mentioned it, I was brought up Roman Catholic and I was send to… well, a sort of Sunday school. It wasn’t taking place on Sunday if I remember well, but it was like a weekly classes about bible and ten amendments and stuff. And I remember I did not like the god that was presented to me during these classes, but I liked the idea of worship and altars, so I figured I won’t worship the god I did not like, but I will worship the pretty lady instead. So I constructed an altar and… I think I even prayed in front of it a few times. But then my mum told me the altar was pretentious and I had to take it down. And that’s the story of my altar-based worship.
I wish I could show you a picture of this altar, but I don’t have any, because that was all going down in times when the internet was only operating in MIT or Harvard or other fancy places, but most certainly not in Poland, and when taking pictures was reserved for special moments like christenings or first communion. But I still remember how pretty was my altar. I mean, in the eyes of an 8 or 9 years old Magda it was the prettiest thing ever and I am pretty certain that I would have put its picture on the internet if I only could. So, what I wanted to say here is – I do understand the modern fledging pagans with their altars and tattoos. I really do. I take the piss out of it, because, you know, it is a bit funny, mostly because of how predictable and common this is. But it is also very… cute, I’d say. All this zeal and need to present to the world your newly found spirituality. It’s so human and so common for all of us, regardless if these altars are occupied by Perun or Holy Mary.
But still, what we have to remember is that the Slavic Native Faith was not a newly found spirituality for our ancestors – which, I am going to remind here for these who only started to listen to this podcast now – by our ancestors I mean early medieval pre-Christian Slavs. So among our ancestors one did not have to have a tattoo or an altar to show everybody that one is a pagan. Because everyone else was a pagan too. And the Slavic Paganism was like roman Catholicism in modern Poland. Everyone knew what it is, how it is practiced, and no one had to construct altars at home, because there were much better, much more “altary” altars build and used by the whole community. And we know they were used, because one thing that archaeologist keep finding on sites which were occupied by Slavs in the early medieval period, are piles of animal bones with evidence of fire and spilled blood and that is consistent with what we read in written sources – that early medieval pre-Christian Slavs had outdoor communal spaces, like holy grooves, where they performed their ritual practices. Which is no wonder really, because if you look at Slavic Gods, most of Them are actually the Gods of nature and elements. They are the Gods of earth, storm, lightning, wind, water, death itself and, you know, such powerful elements and forces of nature are not things that one wants to invite under one’s roof. I mean not if one has any common sense and survival instinct. And our ancestors had both common sense and survival instinct, because if they didn’t, we would not be here.
So the original pagan Slavs worshipped mostly outdoors. And if they had an indoor altar, like the temple of Świętowid in Arkona, they did not actually enter the sacred space, only a priest was allowed to enter and even a priest was not allowed to breath in the presence of the statue of Świętowid. Or, like in the case of Trygław, which was a three-headed God worshipped, among others, in Szczecin, they covered the eyes and the mouths of the God with golden bandages, so the God does not look at the humans. The chronicles also mention another type of Slavic temples, which by the way were called kącina – the temples with a space for feasting, so with benches and tables, where all this feasting space was covered with a roof. However, they were not spaces to live, they were not houses. They were temples. They were spaces where people sat on the long benches and participated in a ritual feast. People did not live there.
But the modern Rodnovers build indoor altars. In their own homes. They build altars and invite storm or death itself under their roofs. And then, after they build these altars, they attempt to… I don’t even know what word to use here… to entice? Bribe? They, like, attempt to worship the storm or the death itself, indoors, by offering, like, 5 quid worth of, I don’t know, Tesco own brand beef. Like, how sad is that. And how pointless.
And on top of it, they – this modern Rodnovers – many of them worship the same Slavic Gods whom the original Slavic pagans did not want to worship. Because, let’s say it as it is, most of the modern Rodnovery worship is centered around the so-called – Vladimir pantheon, so the pantheon of 6 Gods: Perun, Strzybog, Dadźbog, Mokosz, Chors and Simarlg. And this 6 gods are called Vladimir pantheon because Valdimir the Great, the kniaź od Kievan Rus, wanted to build a state-religion and unifiy Kievan rus under this religion. So in order to achieve that Vladimir build a temple in Kiev and in this temple he put the statues of these 6 Gods. But the thing is that the pagan Slavs living under Vladimir the Great rule did not want to worship these Gods. Vladimir did his best, but the pagan Slavs just did not warm up to his ideas, they did not want to worship the, so called nowadays Vladimir’s pantheon, and this is why, after a few years, Vladimir got rid of his temple – like – literally ordered it to be destroyed, and in 988 of the common ere he accepted Christianity.
And, you know, it’s hard to say why the subjects under Vladimir’s rule di dnot want to worship the Gods that Vladimir wanted to worship. There is an agreement that the Gods chosen by Vladimir to his pantheon were chosen from among gods worshipped by the pagan Slavs of those days. It is possible that Vladimir did not chose the right Gods, or all the right Gods, or that there were not enough female Godesses in his patheon. Because, really, if you look at how pre-Christian Slavs lived, the having only one Goddess in the pantheon of 6 can be a bit confusing. Like, you know, pre-Christian Slavs had polygamy and the number of wives was actually a big status thing for pre-Christian Slavic men. Vladimir for example, famously had hundreds of concubines and, depending on who’s counting, somewhere between 5 and 7 wives. But the Vladimir’s pantheon there was only one Goddess and 5 Gods. Which could easily be quite confusing for pagan Slavs, because if there is one female and 5 blokes – that doesn’t really reflect well on this group of Gods, doesn’t it? Like who are they? Are they a mother and her sons? If so – why the Goddess doesn’t have a husband? Like what’s wrong with her husband? Did he abandon here, did he die? And if he died – what good can he be as a god? Or maybe he wasn’t a God? But if the husband of the Goddess wasn;t a God, then that does not reflex well on the Goddess, does it? Of course, it is possible, that the 6 Gods are not a mother and her sons, but, for example, a husband, a wife and their sons. Then the question is – what is wrong with the God-husband? Why does he only have one wife? Is he such a looser he can’t afford to have more than one wife? You see where I am going with it? If we look at it from a perspective of an early medieval Slavic pagan, suddenly the Vladmir’s pantheon does not really make much sense.
So, you know, the original Slavic pagans did not want to worship Vladimir’s pantheon. But we, the modern Rodnovers, go for it. And I really don’t know why.
I mean, I do, in a way. Because we are all told that religion or worship doesn’t count, unless there is a God or Gods and you pray to them and burn candles on an altar and make sacrifices and it’s all so super special and mysterious. And by we – I mean the people of the Modern Western Culture. Because people outside of the modern Western culture know that a religion does not require a god or gods to be an actual religion. There’s actually plenty of religions without a god or gods and, obviously, religions that do not require their followers to worship any god or gods – because there aren’t any included. But we the modern Rodnovers can’t seem to be able to stop this never ending, pointless worshiping, and this prayers where we call the Slavic gods our fathers or mothers or our lords and are so blinded by our cultural background, that we don’t even see how Christianised our practice is.
And, you know, I did exactly the same, when I started. I mean, I did not have an altar, but after I found my way to Slavic Native Faith I attended rituals and celebrations where everyone did the whole Christianised pagan worship. And I kind of did accept it for a while. I didn’t think about it really, until one Dziady celebration I was told to wear a mask before we called upon our ancestors. And anyone who did not have a mask was supposed to turn their back towards the fire and look away from the fire, because as it was explained to us by monsignor żerca, the mask were there to protect us from bad spirits when we were calling upon our ancestors.
And I am just like – what? We are calling our ancestors from Nawia. We are calling them through a holy fire which has just been started by the żerca and blessed in the name of Slavic Gods, we are calling upon members of our families and we are supposed to cover our faces? And the only way to be safe with an uncovered face is to look away from the fire, into the darkness and the woods where the actual Slavic demons are. Like, how does it even make sense?
Well, it doesn’t. The whole BS with masks has been made up by some stupid people who spend too much time watching some fantasy TV series and not thinking enough, but when I started questioning it I was told that I don’t know shit. Because I am just a follower and the żerca knows more. Because what żerca knows is that the karaboszka masks, so the, you know, very special and magical dziady masks, they look cool when you put them on and do some mumbo jumbo in front of the fire. So, let’s just do stuff that look cool, because, why not?
And the funny thing is that we actually don’t know what type of masks our ancestors wore for Dziady and what was the purpose of wearing such masks. We know they wore it, because it’s mentioned in the chronicles, but we don’t know how these masks looked and why exactly they were worn.
And the masks that are so regularly made for Dziady celebrations are reconstructed from 2 masks found in Ostrówek in Poland. These masks are dated for XI and XII century and that is all we actually know about them. Where these masks were found does not suggest any sort of special purpose, how these masks were made does not suggest any special way they were used. They don’t even seem to have any sort of holes or hooks to secure a string so they can be worn. The archaeologists and historians are still arguing what were these masks for. Yet the modern Rodnovery żercas know it for sure. And it you question it – it’s you who don’t know shit and makes stuff up. Like, ok. If you say so.
So, anyway, this memorable Dziady celebration was the point when I decided to start all over. Because what the żerca was telling me was not making any sense at all and one thing I know for sure is that the original Slavic paganism, like any old and tested by generations traditions, had to make sense, otherwise it would not be followed and passed through generations. Because people don’t tend to do pointless things though generations. I mean, one or two generations can be fooled, but then people just start to rebel. Like, for example, women started rebelling when contraception was developed and it turned out that we – women – we don’t need men to take care of us when we pregnant. Because, with contraception, we don’t have to be pregnant if we don’t want to.
Still, you know, patriarchy did make sense for a long time, it was the most efficient way to get humans live longer and safer lives while producing more healthy and looked after children. So for a long time patriarchy worked. It was beneficial for humans as a species. But as soon as it stopped making sense – people started abandoning it. So, basically, what I am saying it, if Slavic tradition survived for hundreds of years and dozens of generations, it has got to make sense. And if it doesn’t, it means that we, the modern Rodnovers, we got it wrong and we have to keep trying to get it right, instead of doing some stupid BS just because it looks cool.
And this is why I am so sceptical about daily prayers to gods, particularly if these prayers are supposed to take place in front of an indoor altar. Because, if you look at an average early medieval pagan Slav, it actually makes no sense. Like, imagine you live in early medieval times, you live off the land, in a small hut, without windows, decent chimney, plumbing or any other things we take for granted nowadays. You wake up in the morning, with a back ache from all the work you did in the field the day before and perhaps even with a headache from all the smoke from the fire that’s been going the whole night. You’re most likely thirsty, likely hungry. You might have a full bladder. I can reassure you, kneeling down for a morning prayer is the absolutely last thing you want to do. Not because you’re not a good follower of your religion, but because for you, as for everyone else in early medieval period, the fact that you stay alive is so much more important. So, no, you don’t pray. You get up and sort yourself out first. Get a drink, have a pee, maybe spend some time rekindling your fire and getting some breakfast ready. And when you’re done with that – if it’s summer – you go to work on your field, to get as much done as possible before midday. Because, and we know it for sure, early medieval Slavs did not work at midday in the summer. We know it firstly from the folklore where many myths of midday demons were preserved – so we know that Slavs believed that at midday in the summer demons were hunting on the fields, so to stay safe no one was working in the fields at this time. And another reason we know it for sure, if because we know that if you work hard in the sun in the summer you’re likely to get a heat stroke and die. And this is a beautiful illustration how religion or any sort of tradition has to make sense and be beneficial of its followers in order to be followed and passed over through generations. Any sort of religious or mythical belief has to make sense and provide a real life benefit if they are to be followed. Otherwise it’s just a waste of time and resources and no one bothers.
So, as an early medieval pagan Slav you don’t work in the middle of the day in the summer. But there’s plenty of work in the summer if you have to live off the land. This is why you get up early, work had, then take a midday break and work hard again until the end of the day. And this is exactly how farmers work in the summer. Regardless of historical time or geographical location. Because that’s the only way of working that makes sense and allows people to survive.
But if it’s winter, and – remember – you’re still the early medieval Slav that has just woken up in the morning. So it if winter, there might be less work to do, but the day is much shorter, so you’ve got less time. And also it’s likely cold and everything is frozen or covered in snow, so it’s much more difficult to do things like, I don’t know, getting water from the river or hunting. So, yeah, less work to do in the winter, but the work is more time consuming and there is less day to do it. And when it’s getting dark you don’t go for a walk to the nearby holy grove to pray, because there are hungry wolves in the forest. Like – literally. Because it’s medieval ages and forests are dangerous. So you go to your little hut, cuddle up with your family and try to stay warm and safe. And, by the way, you don’t have any candles, because the only type of candles that exist in your time are made from bees wax, which, in order to get, you actually have to find a nest of wild bees and fight with them to get the wax. And, of course, if you’re super stupid, you can absolutely use up you bees wax for a candle, but if you do that – you will soon die, because once you burn your wax in candles, you won’t have any wax to waterproof your leather equipment, or, for example, the string of you bow. And without a waterproof equipment and a strong string bow you won’t be able to hunt or protect your family and you will all die. And you know who we, the modern Rodnovers are? We are the successors of the Slavs that were not stupid and did not die. Which means that our ancestors did not care for altars and candles. They cared for themselves and their families. And they followed a religion that allowed them to do just that.
Oh, by the way, I am also 100% sure that our ancestors did not run around in the rain during a thunderstorm calling upon Perun and calling him father. Which is, as I learned some time ago, what some modern Rodnovers do and which is another proof that some modern Rodnovers are just plain stupid.
Anyway, back to my crisis of faith in żercas and decision to start over. I started with veneration of the ancestors, because back then I already had made some progress with it and it felt natural to continue. I already knew something about my ancestors and this something already had helped me in real life problems. For example, I know that one of my ancestress survived a gułag in Siberia. For these of you who are not familiar with the topic, gułags were work camps organised by Stalin in Siberia, in the subarctic circle. Stalin send there all the enemies of the communism in the most wide and inclusive sense of this word. In the times of Stalin one could end up in gułag for owning a horse or a sawing machine.
By the way, if you want to learn more about the gułags in Syberia, there is a super interesting book by Giles Udy – I am not sure how to pronounce this surname, I hope I am getting it right. It’s GILES UDY – he is a historian and he recently published a book called “Labour and the Gulag: Russia and the seduction of the British Left”. In this book, apart of very insightfully having a look at the modern Left, left in the political sense, he also describes in quite a lot of details how the gulags looked.
And if you don’t feel like buying and reading a book, you can listen about this book on an episode of Trigernometry podcasts, where the author of this book was interviewed. And I will put a link to this episode in the notes.
And if you don’t feel like read and listen, I am just going to tell you that gulags were horrendous concentration work camps in the subarctic cycle were the enemies of communism, or of Stalin, were send to work in inhumane conditions. And one of my anscestress and her whole family, her husband and children, were send there too. And only she came back. And after she came back she lived for many years and she even could smile and laugh.
And there was a time in my life when knowing that one of my ancestress was such an amazingly strong and resilient woman, it actually saved my life. Because there was a time in my life when I was… I was done. I could not take it any more. Life was too hard for too long and all my efforts to improve it seemed to be completely in vain, and I didn’t have it in me to keep trying any more. And I actually planned to commit suicide. And when I was just about to do it, this is when, completely out of the blue, I remembered this ancestress of mine. I didn’t see her or feel her, none of that stuff. It was just that a thought about her, just a thought that popped in into my head, just like that. Just when I was about to cut my wrists. And this thought got me thinking. Because I realised that my ancestress, a woman, whose blood I share, she endured loss I can’t even imagine, in conditions I can even begin to picture and after that she could smile and laugh. And I started to feel ashamed – ashamed of my weakness. But on the other side I felt empowered. Because, I though to myself, on the distaff side of my family I am related to a woman so unimaginably strong and resilient, that there is just no way, some of this strength had to passed over to me. Because, if you don’t know, women – only cis-women, not tans-women, I am afraid, so biological women have a very unique way of passing their genes. Because they don’t only pass one half of their nuclear DNA, so the DNA that is contained in the nucleus of their cells, but also 100% of their mitochondrial DNA, so the DNA that is contained in their mitochondria, which are the powerhouses of every single cell of their bodies. So, apart of sharing some of the main, nuclear DNA, I can be 100% sure, that me and this ancestress of mine, have the same mitochondria, so the very things that give us energy to function. Which, in turns means, that potentially, my body is capable of producing enough energy to get me through a gulag is Syberia, and if that’s the case, then I most certainly can survive being homeless in the mild weather of United Kingdom. And, believe it or not, this conclusion caused me to abandon any thoughts of suicide, and gave me strength to keep going. And I’ve kept going for years after that. I mean, I stumbled a few times, I lost my way a few times, I even had one more episode of suicidal thoughts, but overall, I am still there. Because I trust in my ancestors and believe they are out there to help me, give me strength and guide me through any hardships.
And another thing that is a direct result of me worshipping my ancestors was improving my relationship with my family. Because my relationship with my family, not my daughter, but the rest of my family, had been strained for many years. For years I barely talked to my parents, I moved as far away from them as I could and avoid any contact. But when you venerating ancestors you really can’t do it. Also, as I learned out while reading about pre-Christian early medieval Slavs, they actually looked and respected their parents. So, whether I liked it or not, I felt I had to do it too in order to be a proper follower of Slavic Native Faith. And one day I called up my parents and I started talking to them. And, you know, it wasn’t easy at the beginning. There was just so much distance between us, so much… well… hurt and lack of understanding. But I kept calling them up, every week, and I kept talking to them, because I believed this is what my religion requires of me. And from my parents I learned out more about my family – so my ancestors, who I am supposed to venerate as a Rodnover. So that was good. But also while talking to my patents about their parents, I started to see why my parents are as they are. I started to understand where their pain came from. And that was the beginning of the healing between me and my family. And, you know, things are not great now, but they are better. They are much better. And my conversations with my parents made me a better human being – because I am not so judgemental any more, I understand that who we are as adults is greatly shaped by our parents and some of these things can’t be easily overcame. Opening a conversation with my parents also allowed me to connect more with who I am and also – what is very important to a Rodnover – to understand my Dola better.
And for these of you who don’t know what Dola is, I will just send you to the 9th episode of Searching for the Slavic Soul where I explained the concept of a Dola of a Slav. And here I am just going to very briefly mention, that a Dola is a sort of protective demon who is span by Rodzanice, who are Slavic Godesses responsible for fate. Rodzanice spin a Dola of a child in the period of the first few days after this child is born. Or, at least, they spin the Dola if they are properly treated by the parents of this child. But if they are not received properly, they might spin a Nie-dola, so a negative Dola, sort of a bad fate.
And, really, considering that most of us, the modern Rodnovers, were born in hospitals without any sort of proper setting to receive the Goddesses, it is likely that most of us have a Nie-dola, so a bad fate, not Dola, so the good one. I mean, if you listen to the 9th episode, you’ll know I greatly simplify here, but for the purpose of what I want to talk about here, it’s, I think quite enough. So, basically, before I started to work on my Dola, I am pretty sure I had a Nie-dola, so it’s no wonder my life did not go well. But what I learned about a Slavic Dola, is that a Slav can actually change his or her Dola for one that belonged to another member of the family. And this is where veneration of the ancestors comes in rather handy. Because in order to venerate my ancestors, I have to learn about them, and when I learn about them, I can kind of deduct some things about their Dolas and in this way I can figure out how to find a Dola that is well suited for me.
With regards to how I venerate my ancestors: Obviously I participate in the Dziady ritual and venerate my ancestors in a, let’s call it, official way, during these celebration. But mostly I venerate in private, on a daily basis really. I think about my ancestors, I remember them, I try to relate to them, understand who they were and what was important to them. I try to learn from their lives. I thank them for their mistakes – because I can learn from them without having to make these mistakes on my own. And I celebrate their successes because they build the world in which I am living now. I thank my grandfather, my grandmother and her brother for fighting in the underground Polish army in the 2nd world war, and I thank them for surviving it. I thank them for the world they build. I am grateful for them that despite the pain, the loss and the trauma they experienced, they never gave up and brick after brick they rebuild Poland to what it was when my parents were born, and what it became when I came to live in it. I thank them for what I have – for the 70 years of peace, for the Convention of Human rights and all of the post-war stabilisation that was build on their sacrifices. And thanks to that I never feel alone.
And, you know, I am aware that some of my direct ancestors were devout Roman Catholic and I respect that. I never ever call upon the devout catholic ancestors of mine during pagan celebrations, because I think they would find it offensive. But I do talk to them in private, making sure I am respectful of their religion, but also respectful to mine. And every day I try to strengthen and deepen my connection with the generations of the women and men whose blood flows in my veins. Because they gave me the world I have and I want to do my part to make sure I don’t break it, and if possible I want to make it even better for my daughter, who, will hopefully, venerate me, after I die.
Another thing I do for my ancestors – not only the ones I know by name, but in general, all my Polish ancestors, is speaking Polish properly and teaching my daughter proper, elegant and correct Polish. Because, as it happens, a lot of my Polish ancestors literally died for Poland to exist and for polish language to not to be forgotten. Because in Polish history there was a long period where Poland actually did not exist as a country. Poland was occupied by Russia, Germany and Austria and each of these occupiers tried to eradicate Polish culture and language. And my ancestors kept fighting for the culture and language to not to be forgotten. They died in uprisings and wars, they fought and died to bring Poland back on the map of Europe and, after like 2 hundred years, they succeeded. So by cherishing my Polish heritage and language, I show the respect to my ancestors I don’t know by name.
But it is not only the blood-related ancestors I venerate. I mean, well, let me rephrase – it’s not only the blood-related ancestors I intend to venerate in the future. Because there are a few people, who were my mentors. Who influenced my life is such a positive way, made such an impact on who I am, that I will never be able to repay them in a, let’s call it, material way. And these people, my, I think I can say, spiritual family – I will venerate them too, when they pass away. Which hopefully won’t be soon, but will happen one day. And I will be there to make sure that they are remembered.
Because most of how I worship my ancestors is remembering, really. I don’t have any altars for my ancestors, I don’t burn any candles. I am aware that many people need this sort of props to get into the mood of worshipping, but I don’t, so I don’t do it. As far as props of gestures go, the only thing I sometimes do is raising my glass in the name of my ancestors or a particular ancestor. And that’s it. I don’t need anything else.
So, that’s my veneration of the ancestors, which is the part of Slavic Native Faith I started with first, so I think I have it figured out the best. But, obviously, ancestors are not all. And Gods are not all. Because apart of the ancestors and the Slavic Gods there are also Slavic demons that played a huge role in the religion of the original pagan Slavs, and they are, actually, pretty much completely ignored by the Gods worshipping modern Rodnovers. And I don’t know why. Because if you look in the historical sources about the original Slavic paganism, demons, particularly household demons, but also spirits of trees or rivers, were worshipped left right and centre back then. Such demons were given offerings and were venerated and looked after and a lot of these traditions were preserved in Slavic folklore. So why the modern Rodnovers totally blank them out? Well because they are Christianised. Not the demons, but the modern Rodnovers. The modern Rodnovers are Christianised. They are so brain washed that they can’t even see what’s in front of them, they just keep looking for Gods, you know, axis mundi, deus otiosus, some bloody duality or some other BS taken straight out of Judaeo-Christian religious studies, and totally blank out the truly pagan stuff like demons.
And the demons were important to the original pagan Slavs. They were so important that even in the XV century, five hundred years after Christianisation of Poland, in Polish sermons preachers were still preaching that Christian Poles should stop offering to uboże what is left over from dinner on Thursdays. And this uboże is one of the Slavic household demons. But the Christian Poles did not listen to the preachers and neither did any of the Christianised Slavs. They continued to interact with the Slavic demons, despite the relentless campaign of the missionaries, and priests. And this perseverance should tell us that the Slavic demons are important and that, for the lack of better word, let’s call it “working” with the Slavic demons was of benefit to the Christianised Slavs. Of so much benefit in fact that the Slavic demonology is one of the best preserved elements of Slavic pagan traditions. And I just could not figure out why, until I actually started to, again - for the lack of better word, work with the Slavic demons.
So, if you look at Slavic demonology, many malevolent demons can be detected by observing the signs of their presence. And one of such common signs is that the bread is not coming out right. This bread thing puzzled me for a long time, because, I could not figure out what could the demons have to do with the bread not coming out right. But then I started making my own bread and when I got really good at it, like so good that I did not have to weight my ingredients, I just knew how much to add flower or water, so when I got so good at it, this is when it clicked.
You see, the thing is, that when you get really good at something, so good that you don’t have to think about it, you can just do it, how this thing you’re so good out turns out, starts to depend on how you feel about yourself. So, when you in a good mood, you’re feeling confident and nothing worries you, you just to the thing – like I make bread – without thinking about it or double guessing yourself. But when something bothers you, or you are preoccupied, this is when you start to lose your touch. And suddenly things that you were previously really good at, just stop working out for you. You keep getting distracted, you keep losing focus, you double guessing yourself, and sometimes even triple guessing yourself, and something that should be easy and be your second nature – suddenly starts to be a difficult task. And that it a symptom that there are malevolent demons in your life.
And you see, making bread from scratch, with only flour and water, no yeast even, which is how bread was made in the medieval times, when sour dough was used as a raising agent for the bread. So in medieval ages making bread was one of these things that people were doing all the time. That was the equivalent of, I don’t know, making a cup of tea nowadays. Like, who can’t make a cup of tea? So, because making bread was such a common thing to do, people were good at it and if they suddenly started to fail at it, it meant that there is something happening that makes them stop paying attention. This something could be argument with a spouse, or an illness of a child, or a period of scarcity or some other trouble in the village – which, as our medieval ancestors believed was all caused by malevolent demons. So if your bread did not turn out right, which could only happen when you were distracted and added too much flour or too much water and completely mess up the recipe. When your bread was not coming out right, you knew that there is something you need to pay attention to. You knew that there are demons invading and you’ve got to take actions before it’s too late. And that is just absolutely amazing early detection system, that even modern psychologist and therapist use nowadays. Like, if you ever were in therapy or read at least on self help book, they always tell you to pay attention. To identify problems and solve them before they become too big. To not to let the anxiety or panic take over, but to stay in the moment, pay attention and be mindful. Be aware of what’s happening, why is happening and what is your relation to it. And our Slavic ancestors did it too. In their stories about demons and spirits, the stories that were told so often, and through so many generations, they actually made it through hundred of years, from the medival times to the modern era, in this stories they left their successors a clue: pay attention. Be mindful. If you’re bread is not turning out right – there is something wrong. Something is trying to hurt you and you need to take actions. And that is just bloody awesome. And this is why I am so much in love with Slavic tradition.
So, once I figured out the bread situation, I really started to interact with all sorts of demons. To start with I focused on benevolent demons, such as Plonek. And if you listened to the episode number 11 of Searching for the Slavic Soul, you already know that Plonek is a protective demon of the land, who has a very strong beliefs regarding who should live on his land. Plonek only tolerates honest and hardworking people, and if such live on his land, he would bring them plentiful harvest and good fortune. But if the people who live on his land are free loaders, he will make every single day of their life a disaster. So, I though to myself, how amazing it would be to have a Plonek helping me out. And now, I live in a flat, in the middle of a urbanised area, so chances of Plonek living nearby are very slim. By the practice I work for is actually in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields and orchards. So, I thought to myself, let’s see if any of the Poles moving to UK over the last 150 or so years, brough a Plonek with them. Let’s see if there is one living on the land where my practice is. And I started leaving small offerings on the fields near to my practice and, just in case there is a Slavic demon living there, I started paying attention to being honest and hard-working. And under 6 months it brought me plentiful harvest – like the metaphorical harvest, obviously, not harvest in the sense of harvesting form the field, but it the sense of salary. But, yeah, it definitely brough me plentiful harvest and good fortune. Which is actually quite unusual nowadays, because nowadays, as sad as it is, working hard and being honest usually causes people to take advantage of you, doubles and triples your workload, makes you feeling like a looser, and in a way it makes you a looser and sooner or later causes you to burn out professionally. But, for a change, in the practice I work, on the land I made offerings on – it didn’t. it allowed me to thrive.
Another demons I started to, again- for the lack of better word – work with, are protective household demons such as uboże I mentioned before or the, I think most famous salvic household demon Domowik. With these demons, as it’s stated in the historical sources, every Thursday, I leave them the left overs of my dinner. And that is important in this respect, that I am not really a big on eating, most of the time I can get by on a few sandwiches, scrambled egg or a bowl of cereals, but now, in order to please my household demons, at least once a week I have to have a proper dinner. And I do, because I’m so into following Slavic Native Faith that I actually organised for Thursdays to be my days off, so I have absolutely zero excuse not to have a dinner on this day. Which, kind of, contributed to improving my relationship with my daughter, because she’s really into cooking and, you know, we can bond over that. Which to a person who doesn’t know me might sound a bit ridiculous, and perhaps, in the context of me admitting to baking home made bread, a bit dishonest, but I can reassure you, apart of bread – which I make to practice Slavic traditions of bread making, I really don’t know shit about cooking and I have zero interest in cooking. And now I cook once a week. And my daughter loves it.
Also, in context of keeping our household demons happy, we don’t argue in our house. We just don’t. I am not saying we don’t have different opinions in our small family, but we don’t resolve them by arguing in the house. If there is any argument to be had – we have it outside, in the car or when walking the dog. Never ever in the house. And that is, in my opinion, huge. It’s changed my relationship with my daughter in more ways I can describe. Because if there is an argument brewing one of us will say – stop. Let’s calm down, let’s not shout, so we don’t scare our household demons. And that is pretty much enough to take the edge off the anger and allow us to communicate in an effective, productive way. And even if it doesn’t, while leaving the house to have the argument somewhere else – we chill out a little bit and it’s all just more manageable.
What I also do – more “just in case” than basing on any solid evidence – I really look after my pets, particularly my 2 cats. Because in Slavic demonology there is a lot of demons with ability to shapeshift into animals, most frequently into cats. Such demons are gumiennik which I talked about in the 9th episode, chochlik or, I think the most famous one, wargin, the demonic cat. Such demons basically look like the animals they shapeshift into and there’s really no way to say if they are demons or just regular cats for example. So, just in case, I treat my dog and my two cats right. I look after them, make sure all their physical, mental and emotional needs are met, make sure they happy and healthy, so, you know, in case they are demons, I don’t piss them off. And, so far, I think I have not piss them off, although a few times I was cutting it close with my oldest cat Leela, who is a diva and is really easy to offend.
But still, looking after my pets and having pets in general is good for me. And it’s actually scientifically proven. Like petting a cat is relaxing, healing makes you feel better and actually makes you heal better. So, yeah, petting shapeshifting demons has got to be good for you too.
As far as the more palpable effects of having protective demons in your house – well, we lived here 4 years and so far – touch wood – nothing really broke down here. The boiler is working, the electricity is working, we had no fires, no leaking washing machines or other stuff. There was one leakage in the bathroom, but it didn’t cause any damage in my flat, just in the flat downstairs. Which, as a good neighbour, I shouldn’t really be saying with so much satisfaction, but, hey ho. What can I do? Better them than me. Which is also a part of Slavic tradition, because if you read into Slavic demonology, you will find out that a lot of benevolent demons, like a little dragon-like demon called Trach, they just work in this way. They benefit the person who feeds them, by stealing or causing other damage in the neighbour’s household. But then, if the neighbours looked after their protective demons, their protective demons wouldn’t allowed for such stealing to be taking places, so, really, it’s their fault not mine.
Another thing I do is attending to the spirits of trees and rivers, which I do by looking after my local park. I go there every day while walking my dog, I pick all the rubbish I find, I don’t live any rubbish, I don’t destroy trees, don’t cause any damage, and quite often in the summer I sit by the river and just express my gratefulness to the river for being there and having this amazing cold water that allows me to rest. I am not sure how and if the spirits find my effort, but going there every day is most certainly good for me, for my body and my mind, so I do it anyway.
What else… O! I almost forgot. This year I started to dabble a bit in Slavic magic. And I started with making ritual dolls, which are called ziarnuszki, motanki or zadanice. And the names of this dolls pretty much explain what they are. The name ziarnuszka comes from ziarno, which means seed, which is what this dolls, mostly heads, can be filled with. The name motanki comes from a verb motać, which means to tangle. Because how you make this dolls, you basically tangle fabric to given them a shape. And the name zadanica comes from zadanie, which means a task. Which is really what these dolls are for. You make them in order to complete a task. You can given them various tasks, like, for example, finish your degree or, I don’t know, in my case, achieve a state of well balanced mental health. The task that you give them has to be very precisely defined, you have to really spell out what you want to achieve. Because if you, for example, make a motanka in order to be happy – which is a very imprecise goal, the montaka can easily get you hooked up on heroine or some other drugs, because, really, that’s the easiest way to be happy quickly. You know, just shoot up the opioid and let the happiness come. But, obviously, is not really what you want. So, when you make your motanka, you’ve got to be focus on the exact thing you want your motanka to help you achieve. And once you make this doll, you just let ler live with you, you take her places and let her to the work. And as she get’s closer to achieving the task, she starts slowly unravel, until all her magic is gone, your goal achieved and then you can bury her in the ground and let the seeds, that fill her body, grow into what they are supposed to be.
And I know it sounds like mumbo-jumbo, but if you really look into it, it makes a lot of sense. Because spelling out, clearly defining you’re goals is the first and, let’s be honest, the most important step of achieving anything. So making a motanka helps you to define what you want or what you need to happen. And, obviously, you do what you can to achieve you’re goal and motanka is supposed to do the rest. So, for example, if what you need to achieve is a good mental health, motanka will make it so, that you will find a therapist that is a good match for you. And she will make it so the factors that are outside your control, for example, how your boss sees you struggles, she will make it happen in your favour. And what I can say basing on my own experience – it works. It really does.
Another thing I do as a part of my pagan practice is I try to buy as much locally grown food as I can. Obviously, we all know that locally grown food is more expensive than the supermarket one, which is actually really crazy if you think about it, because with less transport and less middle men it definitely should be cheaper, but I guess it just shows you how exploitative the corporations are to actually make not locally grown food cheaper. But, still, as much as I can afford, I buy locally. I believe is a way to bond with the land I live on. Like, you know, eating an apple that grew from the land you live on is in a way becoming part of the land you live on. So that’s the spiritual meaning. But there is also a practical significance to it. Because if you buy from the people that live on the land you live on, you allow this people to earn their living and in this way you are reducing the chances of this people becoming poor and out of hunger or deprivation, start murdering each other on the streets just to steal a wallet.
And I am fully aware how white-people-twitter what I’ve just said sounds. Like, you known, be mindful, make dolls and shop locally, but, hey, what else can I do to connect with my pagan roots? I can’t sell everything I have and move out into the mountains to live off the land. Firstly I can’t do it because everything I have is not worth enough to allow me to move to the mountains and live off the land. And secondly, because I know shit about living off the land. Like, really, I am crap with plants, I can’t even look after a cactus, I am too old, skinny and arthritic to work in the field all day long. I am also clumsy and short-sighted, so that doesn’t bother well for a successful career in hunting. So I am doing what I can, what’s achievable for me, and what makes sense from a historical and ethnographical perspective. I can’t do more than that.
And as to the Slavic Gods. I deeply believe They are. I believe in the existence of Slavic Gods, while having a very scientific approach to looking at the world, because these two don’t actually contradict eachother, which one day I might actually record an episode explaining that. But for now I just say – yes, I deeply believe in the Slavic Gods. I believe They make the world run and influence various events, but I also deeply believe they don’t give a shit about me or humans in general. Because, really, why would They? I mean, Rodzanice pay some attention to us when we are born, Rod perhaps too, but other than that – there is no reason for humans to be of any significance to the Slavic Gods. We are not particularly useful, not particularly helpful, what we do doesn’t benefit the world in any particular way. I mean, bees are more useful than we are. Which is why bees are the Gods’ messengers, and we humans, are just there, like everything else. And I am perfectly happy to leave it at that. I have zero need to be noticed by Gods, because if you look in Slavic folklore stories, nothing good really comes out of Gods paying attention to humans. It just creates problems for the humans in questions. So, I am not interested. I stay away from the Gods as much as I can. Obviously, I participate in rituals, such as drowning of Marzanna or Kupała, but during these rituals it is not me interacting with the Gods. It’s the żerca. I’m just standing in the circle around the holy fire and do what the żerca tells me to do. And if the żerca tells me to do things that makes no sense, I leave the group and find another one with a żerca, who makes more sense.
In all this years being a Rodnover, not counting the rituals lead by żerca, I only prayed twice to the Slavic Gods. On both occasions I was faced with situation that was almost completely out of my control and, after I did everything in my power to affect the positive outcome, after much deliberations, I came to conclusion that I have no choice but to pray. So I prayed. I went by the river, I sat on the ground, I touched the ground with my hands and looked up to the sky and I prayed, in Polish, explaining my problems, asking for the outcome I needed. And when I prayed I offered a valuable sacrifice in exchange for this outcome.
By the way if you not sure what is a valuable sacrifice, please listen to the first 3 episodes of Searching for the Slavic Soul, and it’s all explained there. Here it would be too much to talk about it, I am just going to mention that in one case I prayed, the sacrifice was my blood and in the other the sacrifice was a translation of a text on Slavic Native Faith I offered to make if the outcome I needed was granted.
As to the result of my prayers – in the first case the outcome was granted, so the problem I had was resolved in the way I wished it to be, so I happily made the promised sacrifice on the next ritual lead by żerca. As to the second time I prayed – the outcome was not as I asked for, but in the end it turned out to be beneficial for me, so I decided to square it with the Gods and I made my sacrifice. And that was it. That’s my whole interactions with the Slavic Gods. Other than that I never pray to Them, I don’t have an altar, don’t make any ritual offerings, because, quite frankly, as I already said, from what I’ve learned about Slavic paganism, such worshipping does not seem to be a part of the original Slavic paganism. And I don’t want to practice the modern, Christianised version, because it would not benefit me in any way. It would just be a waste of time and space – in my opinion. While the way I currently practice Slavic native Faith seems to be benefitting me enormously. And, being a born and bred Slav, I am all for being pragmatic, staying away from anything phoney and for show and just, you know, focus on improving the life of my family, bettering myself, and making something out of myself, so I can, after I die, be an useful and venerated ancestor.
And that’s all I have to say today… Other than mentioning that I’ve decided to change the way we are producing this podcast. So, before, before today, the episodes of the podcasts were based on the posts on Witia’s blog. So I would first write the post on the blog in Polish, then translate it into English and Russian, and then do some notes to record the podcast’s episode, but that was very time consuming, so I decided to do it the other way around. So from now on, the podcast’s episodes will be recorded first, the blog will have transcripts of the podcasts episode, which will be translated, as always into Polish and Russian. And if I have time I will put Polish and Russian subtitles on the YouTube channel, so that would hopefully make the content of the episode more available. I am hoping this change will allow me to be a little more efficient in producing the podcast and, hopefully, put more content out there. But we’ll see. It might just give me more time to read weird books.
Still, I hope I wasn’t too boring today. As always if you have any comments – positive or negative – do let us know via our Youtube, facebook, Instagram, Witia’s web site or email. I will link all the contact details in the notes to this episode as well.
And for now – have a beautiful rest of the year, hopefully doing things that make sense, look after yourself, and Sława!
Bibliography:
A. Fletcher “Wonderworks: Literary invention and the science of stories”
H. Heying, B. Weinstein :A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life”
“Sources of Slavic Pre-Christian Religion”, edited by J. A. Álvarez-Pedrosa
P. Szczepanik „Słowiańskie zaświaty. Wierzenia, wizje i mity”
A. Szyjewski „Religia Słowian”
P. Zych, W. Vargas „Bestiariusz Słowiański”
Duke of Kiev and Novgorod Vladimir I Svyatoslavovich.(NA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)