Slavic demonology lessons
One of the most common topic of discussion of the modern Rodnovers (just next after discussing the altars’ decorations and the wording of religious incantations) are various ways of recognising which God is most “accurate” for a given person or situation and how to “make” this God “cooperate”. Truly possessed by theological pondering the Slavic pagans of the XXI century seem to be forgetting that our ancestors sought the Gods’ help only in the most serious issues. Issues of life and death of an individual (in individual prayers and bargaining with Gods for surviving a battle or a disease) or the community (fertility or divination rituals considering the future harvest, the severity and length of winter etc). In day-to-day life, in less, lets call it, serious, matters, our pre-Christian ancestors did not bother their Gods, but asked for help the more “earthly” supernatural powers: the ancestors (of whom, I promise, we will talk about very soon) and the Slavic demons, which inhabited every nook and cranny of the pre-Christian Slavs’ world, and which accompanied the Slavs on every step.
In modern times the word “demon” – undoubtedly under the influence of Judaeo-Christian tradition – has a negative connotation. From early childhood we are taught that every supernatural creature, which is not the Holy Trinity or the Virgin, is most likely of demonic nature, so: evil. Even a significant part of angels are demonic, because they are fallen[1]. It’s no wonder then that modern followers of Slavic Native Faith, in their religious activities, focus on developing contacts or bonds with the Slavic Gods, completely or almost completely ignoring other supernatural beings like Dola (of which I wrote here) or other protective spirits, labelled by the modern Rodnovers as one and the same (and less “worthy) with all other “demons”. However, unlike Judaeo-Christian religions, many pagan religions – including the original, pre-Christian Slavic faith – do not see supernatural beings in black and white or good and evil categories (God=good, demon=evil), but rather see the “demons” through a more fluent prism of functions, responsibilities or influences in the earthly world. After all the majority of Slavic demons (with exception of human-born demons like vampires or topielce, which I discussed here), depending on the situation (or the human), could be benevolent, malevolent or completely indifferent towards humans.
Tit for tat
One of the largest categories of Slavic demons are demons who have extremely ambivalent and utilitarian attitude towards humans. Those demons, depending of the behaviour or personality of a human, can either help him/her out, or make his/her life miserable. An excellent example of this type of demons are gumienniki – demonic inhabitants of barns. Gumienniki like to take on a form of a black cat and they are protective spirits of unthreshed, harvested cereal. Gumienniki protect the cereal from damp, mould or from theft. The only problem with them is that they really, really don’t like to be disrespected or manhandled and if they are – they get very, very angry. An angry gumiennik can be extremely dangerous for both the farmer and the harvest - it can destroy the whole crop or even cause a fire. Our ancestors were aware of the powers of gumienniks and if they suspected (or were sure) that they had one such demon living in their barn, they were very, very careful when in or around the barn, to not to offend or upset the demon. One of the very basic thing to do around unthreshed crop in the barn, was to make sure than any black cats sitting on or near it, were left in peace and undisturbed (because if could be a gumiennik).
Gumiennik by Fozen Peas
Other Slavic demons also operated in a similar friendly-hostile way. Demons like bahan (a protective spirit of cattle. Bahan could, depending on how it was treated, either look after the cattle, or cause the whole herd to become sick), pasiecznik (a protective spirit of apiaries. To please a pasiecznik the beekeeper had to build a little house for the demon and make annual offerings. In exchange for that the pasiecznik protected the apiary from diseases and theft, as well as ensured good quality of mead produced from the harvested honey), Pustecki and Skarbnik (demons living in caves and mines), Rzepiór (demonic ruler of Karkonosze – a mountain range, part of Sudetes mountain system), and many, many more.
The powers of ambivalent demons allowed them to either bless (give: health to the cattle, good harvest of honey or safety while mining) or curse (bring: disease on the cattle, theft of honey or cause the miner to get lost wile underground) humans, but there was a particular subcategory of demons which could only bring misfortune. A blessing or benevolence of such demons was withholding the curse, bad luck or disease. Such an ambivalent malevolent spirit was Długi Zmyk, a male version of Bieda (a female demon bringing bad luck and poverty). The always “evil” Bieda brought hardship and scarcity wherever she went, but her male version – Długi Zmyk – was, let’s call it, kind enough to give people a chance of diverting the bad luck. Długi Zmyk travelled in the form of tall, very thin old beggar. When he arrived to a village he could be persuaded to leave, by offering him a lavish meal, after eating which Długi Zmyk left the village without causing any harm to its inhabitants. However if the villagers did not offer the demon a meal and instead chased him away, angered Zmyk, out of spite stayed and started causing all sorts of diseases to the farm animals, bad harvest and could even cause alcoholism in the unhospitable farmers – which, obviously, lead to decline of the farm or the whole village.
The measure of character
Another subcategory of ambivalent Slavic demons, were demons whose attitude towards humans depended not on actions, but on the character or personality of those humans. An excellent example here is Plonek, a spirit inhabiting the homesteads of quiet and hardworking people. Plonek could be very helpful around the house and in the fields, but even if it did not do much work-wise, its presence only brought good fortune and wealth to the people the demon lived with. However Plonek really did not like laziness and indolence. If he noticed that the people it lived with changed their character from hardworking to indolent (because of, for example, becoming lazy, developing alcoholism, or because of a change in ownership of the land Plonek lived on), straight away from a benevolent, protective spirit, Plonek turned into an evil and mean demon. Angered and disappointed the demon could cause a considerable damage on the farm, including destruction of the whole harvest.
Łełeki were not as dangerous as Plonek, but equally picky with regards to personality or character of the humans. Łełeki were a little, woodland, goblin-like creatures, that liked to hoard treasures. Łełeki diligently guarded their treasures and ruthlessly chased away anyone, who wanted to steal from them. However there were known cases of łełeki actually helping out people lost in the woods, but only if those people were “good and righteous” and, understandably, did not try to steal the riches hoarded by the demons.
It is difficult to say how exactly łełeki assessed the “goodness and righteousness” of humans – after all neither righteousness nor goodness are universal concepts among people, let along demons. Perhaps to be seen as good and righteous by łełeki one had to treat them with respect and not to try to steal from them (which wound qualify łełeki to the main category of ambivalent demons, assessing people basing on their actions, not personalities), but it is also possible that łełeki, after living among pre-Christian Slavs, somehow adopted Slavic cultural norms and among them – Slavic morality. Sharing a common moral outlook with the Slavs, would allow łełeki to judge the “goodness” and the “righteousness” of the people lost in the woods.
The topic of Slavic morality was discussed on the Witia’s blog before, mainly in the context of how little it’s known about moral or ethical norms of our ancestors. Basing on the information provided by historical sources, the only cartain moral values that can be attributed to pre-Christian Slavs are: hospitability, respect for the parents and caring for the sick. However, in the light of the analysis of the Slavic demonology, perhaps we should consider adding to the list a rule of reciprocity. A rule that requires respectful treatment towards those, whose power or abilities can contribute to our wellbeing or good fortune. Perhaps, as a modern Rodnover, you should consider if being disrespectful or mean to your spouse, colleague, or a shop assistant (or even towards a black cat!), is not against the traditions of our ancestors. Your spouse, your colleague or your local shop assistant (I’m not even gong to mention the black cat!) can all potentially contribute to increasing your wealth, improving your wellbeing or to bringing good fortune in your life. The same logic, the same way of seeing relationships, made your ancestors be respectful towards demons, or humans (or animals!) suspected to be demons. Why then shouldn’t you be respectful towards people (or black cats!)?
Pure evil
The ambivalence dominating among Slavic demons does not mean that our ancestors didn’t know “evil” demons, so demons who were always malevolent towards humans. It seems that the truly “evil” demons were mostly human-born (developed from people, who after death did not receive proper burial ritual), but we can find in Slavic demonology a few “organic” (so natural, not human-born) malevolent spirits.
One of such demons were, according to some sources[2], kikimora – a malevolent demon haunting either houses build on unmarked grave/graves, or houses that were cursed. Typically kikimoras lived in the attic, which they left only at night, to cause havoc and destruction around the whole household. The house invaded by a kikimora was characterised by night-time noises (screeching, rattling) and – a very typical symptom of kikimora’s activity – by presence of tangled and matted yarn. Kikimora could also pester animals (particularly chickens) and cause nightmares to the inhabitants of the house, particularly to males. This demons were not easy to get rid of and their presence could be so trying, that often house owners were forced to move out.
Kikimoras caused significant damages to the home and household items, but their presence was not as catastrophic, as the invasion of złydnias – another type of “organic”, “purebred” Slavic demons. Złydnias liked to get together in hordes and attack human settlements. The powers and abilities of those demons were truly terrifying. Their “natural” habitat were rivers and swamps, where they enjoyed drowning people and animals. Outside of the rivers and swaps though, in the household they attacked as a pack, they damaged and destroyed everything they got their hands on. They could cause diseases in farm animals, hit (and even kill) humans, as well as chase away any protective or benevolent spirits inhabiting the assaulted household. Złydnias were ruthless and they stayed in the house as long as there was at least one thing left to destroy or kill. Like envoys of chaos they did not rest until they brought a complete ruin to the people they attacked. The invasion of złydnias could be recognised by night time noises, frequent and random breakage of household equipment, and insomnia of the occupants of the invaded house. The insomnia was caused by złydnias whispering wicked words into the ears of the sleeping people.
Neither kikimoras not złydnias were demons capable or willing to negotiate or, for the right price, to compromise. The farmer whose household was invaded, if he/she wanted to survive and save his/hers estate, he/she had only two options: either to get rid of the demons, or leave the house/estate him/herself. According to folklore there were many ways in which one could get rid of złydnias or kikimoras, and, what is even more important, there were also ways in which one could stop those demons to enter or invade the house in the first place. So, it seems, a pre-Christian Slav could only blame him/herself, if złydnias or kikimoras invaded his/her household and proceeded to destroy it. After all if there were ways to prevent the plague of malevolent demons, if there were ways to identify this plague (identify which demon is responsible for the invasion) and to remedy it (get rid of the demons), then being passive, allowing demons to ransack the household without taking action to fix the problem, could only be blamed on the homeowner, who, through inaction, allowed his/her property and his/her family to become victims of demons.
So next time, dear modern Rodnover, when you are affected by a disease, insomnia or back luck, instead of kneeling in front of your altar and making sacrifices to the Gods, take a good look around and consider if your misfortune could not have been caused by a plague of kikimoras, złydnias or other malevolent demons. Instead of bothering the Gods, follow the rules of Slavic demonology, so, actually, follow the wisdom of your ancestors (who discovered and developed the rules of Slavic demonology), and: firstly figure out what actually goes wrong, how it goes wrong and when – gathering those facts allows you to identify the offending demon. It is also important to look into every nook and cranny of your home, sweep all the dust and cobwebs, tidy up all the mess - not by moving it from one place to the other, but by physically removing it from the house – which is the best way of getting rid of złydnias. And after you do all of that, then take time to do everything in your power to make your home nice and inviting for the benevolent demons, who, if they move in and are treated well, will help to protect you, your family and your belongings from further attacks of malevolent spirits.
Lose the boose
A very interesting type of Slavic demons are demons specialised in tormenting drunk people and/or alcoholics. Our ancestors knew three of those demons (not counting Długi Zmyk, which, if you remember, could cause alcoholism in his victims):
Bandureks were demons which liked to lurk on a road near an inn and wait there for their victims – dunk people attempting to get home. Initially bandureks pretended to be helpful spirits and offered to help the drunk person to get back home, by producing lights to show the way. But when they managed to get the attention of the drunk, they would lead him (or her) astray – to the woods, as far from the village as possible and then they would attack their victim, they would hit, tug and laugh at the drunk.
Piwoszek, similarly as bandureks, also waited for its victims on a road - not from the inn, but to the inn. Piwoszek was more proactive with its victims – it would jump on their shoulder, settle under the collar of the shirt or jacket and start to talk its victims into stopping by the inn. When piwoszek managed to get the person to enter the inn, it would start talking him (or her) into drinking more and more beer. And after drinking all the beer, piwoszek would make the drunk person get into fights, which, in the best case would end up with the drunk getting hurt and in the worst case – getting killed.
The third, and I think the most known Slavic demon of the drunks, was gnieciuch. Contrary to bandureks and piwoszeks, who waited for their victims by the road, gnieciuch waited at the drunks’ home. The demon fed on the drunken people’ life force, which it sucked out of their victims when they were sleeping in alcoholic slumber. Gnieciuch sat on the chest or the belly of the drunk and kneed the flesh to get the life out of it. There was a few ways of warding off the attacks of gnieciuch (or other alcoholic demons), but, understandably, the best one by far was (and still is) avoiding excessive drinking.
The ultimate protection
Pre-Christian Slavs knew how to protect themselves (or avoid) the attacks of almost all the Slavic demons. The knowledge of Slavic demonology was passed on through generations and included advice on places or situation to be avoided, symptoms of demonic attack or influence, guides how to negotiate with demons and even how to grow or bring up demons at home for one’s own gain (because keeping demons as “pets” or familiars was also possible in Slavic tradition). Among our ancestors Slavic demonology was as well known as nowadays alphabet is among the modern Rodnovers. However, apart of, let call it, “species” specific remedies against malevolent demons, our ancestors knew also one, universal and 100% sure and secure way of protecting against all the “evil” spirits. This universal antidemonic panacea was called a jarchuk.
A jarchuk was a sort of guard dog, specialised in detecting and eliminating malevolent demons. Jarchuks were black dogs born and bred – literally. To get a jarchuk one had to bring up and breed black dogs for nine generations. Jarchuks were bred in the steppes of the Ukraine and breeding them really wasn’t an easy task. Because of the amazing abilities of jarchuks, malevolent demons did what they could to kill those dogs, so jarchuks’ puppies were very sickly and had to be hand reared at home and protected from demons for the first 12 months of their life. It was only after those 12 months when jarchuks gained their full strength and abilities. But the long process of bringing up a jarchuk was well worth it. Once fully grown those dogs were unstoppable. They were completely immune to any and all demonic attacks and they were relentless in protecting their owners against the most dangerous and most powerful malevolent demons.
Jarchuks, although not demons per se, they do however teach us, the modern Rodnovers, another important lesson of the wisdom of our ancestors: caring for animals, particularly for dogs, pays back. Always and at any time. Not only in Medieval Ages and not only on Ukrainian steppes.
With the upcoming celebration of Dziady, with the nearing autumn, and winter following in its steps; with the evenings and nights getting longer, particularly in the year that has been so difficult and so testing for all of us, we, the Witia’s team, would like to wish all of you to pay more attention to the pagan world of the Slavic demons. Forget the prayers for a day, or two, or maybe even for longer. Leave the oh-so Judeo-Christian activities of kneeling and begging for mercy. Stop bothering Veles, Morena or falling asleep Mokosh. The Slavic Gods have bigger problems than listening to pleas of us, the common mortals. Respect the Gods, respect the memory of your ancestors and get up from your knees! Leave your more or less Instagram-ready altar and start paying attention to what’s happening in your own house, in your own life. Instead of agonising over some religious invocations, check your house and make sure it’s dry, warm and friendly enough to encourage the benevolent (or ambivalent with benevolent abilities) demons to move in with you. Listen to the sound of your home, particularly overnight. Make sure you are not housing a kikimora and that there is no open entry for złydnie to break in. And in the evening, when you tired and sleepy and you are driving home – drive carefully, so you can break on time and avoid hurting a (not only black) stray cat or a dog.
Slava!
Blibliography:
W. Vargas, P. Zych “Bestiariusz Słowiański”
А. А. Бычков „Энциклопедия языческих богов”
[1] For those who are not familiar with the Christian doctrine, I’d like to remind, that Satan and his hellish subordinates were at some point angels. Angels who rebelled against the Judeo-Christian God and as a punishment were sent to Hell.
[2] According to some authors kikimora was human-born and developed from souls of miscarried foetuses, stillborn babies or babies who died shortly after birth. According to others though kikimoras were not only “purebred” demons, but could also reproduce – give birth to kikimora’s demonic babies.