Slavic faith – part 2 – the meaning behind prayers
In the previous post we discussed religious sacrifices made by pre-Christian Slavs. We came to conclusion that, considering the historical context, our ancestors’ sacrifices to the Gods were of much higher value than our modern offering are. We also mentioned that, due to the nature of Slavic Gods, our ancestors had to be precise in their prayers – know exactly what they wanted to pray for, which God they wanted to pray to, when and how.
Today as promised we will discuss if it’s possible to adapt prayer/sacrifice rituals of pre-Christian Slavs for the reality of XXI century and - if so - how can it be done.
A disclaimer: this post discusses exclusively the issues off the worship of Slavic Gods. The issues of veneration of the ancestors will be discussed another time.
Thoughts and prayers
We know roughly what pre-Christian Slavs prayed for. We know they made valuable sacrifices to their Gods, to ensure the fulfilment of their prayers. But we also know that our ancestors did not stop at, so extremely popular nowadays, thoughts and prayers. After praying for plentiful harvest they did not sit on their bums, waiting for crops to magically grow, but they went out into the fields and tended to them. After making a sacrifice in the intention of a successful raid, they gathered their weapons to set off for the raid, where they fought with courage and determination. While they prayed for a short and mild winter, their supplies were already in their granaries, collected and secured, ready to feed them until the next spring. Our ancestors did not rely on prayers in a way that is typical for Judaeo-Christian traditions (“In God we trust” etc). One could almost say that pre-Christian Slavs did not “trust” their Gods at all. Or – maybe – they respected Their gifts too much to just expect this gifts for free, without any work or effort (because, after all, prayers and thoughts do not cost us anything, do they?). Our ancestors “used” work and effort to show the old Gods how much they wanted and needed the things they asked for in their prayers. And we – Rodnovers, the hairs of pre-Christian Slavs – we should do the same.
How many of us, after praying for a plentiful harvest, go to the fields to actually contribute to the plentifulness we pray for? I bet not very many. Why? Because most of us don’t care about a good harvest. Most of us don’t starve (at least not because of scarcity of food). Most of us have never experienced a real hunger. Quite the opposite - a lot of us try to eat less on purpose – to lose weight or to get fit. Why? Because statistically 1/3 of us is overweight or obese. But, at the same time, while contaminating the Earth with excessive consumption and eating ourselves to death, we dare to ask our Gods for plentiful harvest?! And health?! No wonder the Rodnovery movement is a laughing stock for “non-pagan” society. The most friendly commentators call us historical reenactors – and really, what else can we call a movement that thoughtlessly reenacts rituals from hundreds of years ago? XXI century is not medieval ages. Our needs, our lifestyles, our professions and societies are different than the needs and society of pre-Christian Slavs were. Why don’t we stop offending our ancestors and Gods with rituals, that mean to us so little, that we can’t be even bothered to actively contribute to making our prayers come true?
Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski, Dozhinki - a painting from 1910. Back then celebrating of good harvest still made sense - but does it now?
The purpose of the prayer
We can all agree that pre-Christian Slavs most frequently prayed to Gods for good harvest and fertility of the land. Following this lead (and the modern trend of historical re-enactment) Rodnovers nowadays also pray for fertility and good harvest (at least during those rituals I took part in, such intentions were prayed for). We should however ask ourselves if, in modern times, when some of the most common causes of death are obesity and other diseases developing due to overconsumption of food and overexploitation of land, if in times like ours it still makes sense to pray for good harvest and fertility of the land?
Thanks to scientific discoveries and development of agricultural technologies our land is more fertile than ever – but we still want more. Despite plentiful harvest we are still deforesting more land, to increase the acreage of our fields; to increase the productivity we use more and more artificial fertilisers. In some countries financial incentives are used to encourage farmers to produce more, and the rest of us is bombarded with ads, designed to make us consume more and more. What is the purpose behind such pointless policies, which benefit only very few? We’re cannot pretend any longer that deforestation, pumping chemicals into our environment and making ourselves obese does any good to the majority of us.
It is estimated that, in the European Union only, every year 88 million of (metric) tonnes of food is wasted – statistically every European citizen throws away 173 kg (over 27 st) of food every year. The production and disposal of this “waste” causes emission of 170 (metric) tonnes of CO2. Every year. I am not even going to mention the costs of the land, water and energy necessary to generate and dispose of this “waste”. Considering the above our modern prayers seem to be not only a mockery of our Gods, but can also, long term, hurt us all.
What do we really need
Perhaps, instead of apeing our ancestors’ prayers for good harvest, we should follow the idea behind the pre-Christian religious rituals, and pray, as our ancestors, for what we really, really need. Perhaps we should pray to Gods for what we all lack nowadays: clean air, clean water and land not contaminated with toxic waste. Instead of fertile fields lets pray for fertile and healthy forests, or even city parks, which, after all are the main “producers” of oxygen. Instead of the health of farm animals, lets pray for the health of bees and other pollinating insects, which die in mass every day, succumbing to the human-made air pollution. For sure prayers like that – if the Gods hear and answer them – will bring us more good, than asking for more food, in a world where we cannot even eat what we have already produced.
Praying for the health and fertility for the forests, bees, or for clean water are intention we are all capable of contributing to. Not many of us are farmers. Very few of us cares at all about good harvest, and even fewer can actually do something to make the crops grow healthily. But if we ask Gods for clean water or air, we all can, without much problem (but with a considerable effort, which is actually indicated here) work hard and contribute to making our forests, bees or air healthier. Saving paper (here I drink to e-books and electronic paper – is the experience and smell of a “real” book truly worth the death of a tree? Well, even if it is – lets look at the act of denying ourselves this experience, as a real and worthy sacrifice), cutting down on consumption and production of waste, recycling, upcycling, planting flowers, to provide food for bees, cleaning up the woodlands and parks, cutting down on plastic usage, cutting down on air travel and other activities, which contribute to pollution. The possibilities are endless and every one of us can contribute every day to making our prayers come true. We should stop complaining that environmentally friendly life style is too difficult, too expensive or too cumbersome. That’s the point. It wouldn’t make sense to bother Gods with prayers for something that’s easy. Our ancestors drudged on their fields, to show Gods, that they pray for something, they really needed. We then should also work hard on improving the quality of water, air and land. Our health and life depends on it, as tending to the fields was crucial for the survival of our ancestors. After all Rodnovery deserves to become a real religion instead of being a medieval dress up party combined with recreational outdoor camping.
Individual prayer
Not all pre-Christian, Slavic prayers were said with the intention of, lets call it, a common good. In the olden days, as it is now, apart of the needs of the community (like good harvest, mild winter or a victorious raid), individual needs existed as well. Procopius of Cesarea mentioned the way pre-Chrstian Slavs prayed to their Gods with a personal cause:
“as for fate, they [Slavs] neither know it nor do they in any wise admit that it has any power among men, but whenever death stands close before them, either stricken with sickness or beginning a war, they make a promise that, if they escape, they will straightway make a sacrifice to the god in return for their life; and if they escape, they sacrifice just what they have promised, and consider that their safety has been bought with this same sacrifice”
It's obvious from the quotation above that personal-cause prayers of pre-Christian Slavs had a different logic than the prayers for a common-good goal. The personal-cause prayer was not supported by an offering, but only by a promise of one if the prayer was answered by the Gods. Here we once again see Slavic lack of “trust” in Gods. As our ancestors did not rely on Gods to make the good harvest happened, but worked hard to make it happen, so they made the promised sacrifice, only if their personal prayers were answered. Of course it goes without saying that apart of praying for their life, our ancestors did everything in their power to survive the battle or illness.
Despite all the benefits of the scientific and technological progress, in XXI century we seem to have more individual problems, which are not only more common, but also more complicated, than the problems our ancestors had. In order to survive a battle one had to “only”* fight with all one’s might. An illness in medieval times was even “easier” – the survival rate of any diseases was much lower than nowadays, so chronic diseases were less common (people died sooner) and treatment was simpler and less painful/onerous (was limited to drinking herbs or cauterisation of wounds). I don’t think we need historical sources to know, that in Medieval ages nobody survived cancer*, and the issues of patients after ostomy surgery or chemotherapy were completely unknown. Today, in XXI century, we can treat more and more forms of cancer, and even if there is no cure, the patients can be kept alive for longer than in the times of pre-Christian Slavs.
The price we are paying for the luxuries of modern times are problems completely unknown to our ancestors. Homelessness, unemployment, chronic diseases, including diseases which our ancestors simply did not survive, and which surviving (or living with) comes with significant deterioration of quality of life and/or social stigmatisation (like, for example, heart diseases requiring multiple surgeries and medications, kidney diseases requiring dialyses, congenital disease such as cystic fibrosis, or acquired diseases like cerebral palsy and many, many more). I suspect pre-Christian Slavs would not even be able to comprehend the scale and complexity of problems their children’s children will one day have. Which does not change the fact that, in their generosity and wisdom, they left us a simple and easy to use instruction how to deal with our modern issues.
The ancestors’ algorithm
The instructions left by our ancestors are genius in their simplicity: firstly the actual problem has to be identified, in order to be able to establish which God’s help is most needed. Before a battle our ancestors did not pray to just survive a battle (like a follower of Judaeo-Christian tradition would), they prayed for particular skills/blessings necessary to make it out alive – they prayed for strength, courage, good fortune etc. They had to define the blessing needed, in order to be able to name the God they needed the blessing from. Because of the nature of their beliefs, Slavs did not have a deity of survival, but they did know Gods capable of blessing a warrior with strength, courage or good fortune. Therefore, before a battle, Slavic warriors did not pray to Veles or Morena (who were incapable of giving the needed blessing), but instead they called upon Perun, Svarog or Raróg (the embodiment of good fortune and one of Svarog’s incarnations). They called upon those Gods promising Them a suitable sacrifice, in exchange for the needed blessing.
So now we can see the beauty of the pre-Christian logic: identify your problem (in the example above: how to survive a battle), identify the exact “things” needed to solve your problems (in the case of a battle those “things” are: strength, courage and luck) so you can identify the God/Gods capable of helping you, then pray to this/those God/Gods, offering Them a valuable sacrifice, if They help you out. And – last but not least – after you say your prayer and promise the sacrifice, do your absolute best to survive, so you can make the promised sacrifice.
The beauty of Slavic logic lies also in its universality. In medieval times as well as in our modern world one can solve problems using the same algorithm left to us by our ancestors.
Lets take, for example, unemployment: it’s a common problem nowadays, affecting many people from different social groups, of different education, age, gender etc. There is almost as many causes of unemployment, as there is people affected by it – and this is why an unemployed Rodnover, before he/she gets down to prayers in the intention of finding a job, should think long and hard about what really is the problem in his/hers particular case. Maybe the issue lays in too high expectations (for example expecting unrealistic salary or working hours), or maybe it’s the wrong approach to job-hunting, or to work as such. I am absolutely not claiming that the cause of unemployment always lies in the attitude of the unemployed, but, having had some experience in recruitment process, I’ve noticed, that in some cases the people who look/apply for a job just don’t seem to be doing it right.
Only after a thorough and honest assessment of the situation and after identifying the core causes of the problem, our Rodnover can choose a God capable of helping out. If, for example, our Rodnover came to a conclusion that in order to find a job he/she has to gain new qualifications, he/she can pray to Veles - the keeper of the secretive wisdom (and, of course, to the ancestors, which we will discuss another time). If our Rodnover has to change his/her lifestyle (for example: start getting up early, cut down on drinking/partying, improve hygiene etc) it would be more appropriate to ask for the blessing of Mokosh – the biggest transformational power among all Slavic Gods. If the core of the problem is lack of grit or self confidence during job interviews, it might be a good idea to call upon Perun. It is of course possible that the cause of unemployment is not something our Rodnover does or does not do, but the core lies in a faulty socioeconomic system of the country our Rodnover lives in. In such case the appropriate solution might be voting for a different political party in the upcoming election, or even emigrating to a different country. In those examples the appropriate Goddess to pray to might be Morena – whose power includes the death and rebirth as well as dreams; or even Rodzanice – responsible for spinning our fate.
After deciding which God/Goddess is capable of helping us, it is time to start praying and promising the appropriate sacrifice (which will be made, after our prayers are answered). But lets not forget – Slavic Gods do not solve the problems for Slavs, they can only help out with Their gifts of strength, wisdom, good fortune and other blessings. However the whole process of finding out the God/Goddess most capable of helping us, makes it easier for Rodnovers to understand the causes and the nature of their problems, hence – as I wrote before – the instructions left to us by our ancestors are genius in their simplicity.
What is the conclusion of this (I hope not too long) elaborations? Well, the conclusion is: if you are a Slav and you follow your ancestors’ wisdom:
you never ever pray for things that you are not prepared to work hard for;
there is always something that you can do to solve your problem. Opposite to Judaeo-Christian way of thinking, in the pre-Slavic system of beliefs nothing is set in stone. Not the future, not the fate and not the final outcome of your struggles.
In the next – and last – part of this series of posts we will discuss the value and the nature of appropriate sacrifices which we – the Rodnovers – can offer to our Gods, instead of the mentioned in the last post, Gods-offending steak from Tesco.
But for now –
Slava!
*“in Medieval ages nobody survived cancer” - to answer the questions raised by some commentators, I want to stress that in this sentence I meant surviving cancer after being diagnosed with it. Of course the immune system can destroy the cancerous cells or even larger tumours and kill the cancer without the need of medical treatment (like a surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy etc) and without a doubt such cases of "surviving cancer" happened to pre-Christian Slavs. However in Medieval ages those whose cancer "cured itself", were not aware of having this terrible disease (because nobody gave them an X-ray, a scan, MRI, CT etc), so we cannot compare it to surviving cancer in our day and age. Modern cancer survivors had to cope not only with the disease itself, but also with many financial and emotional struggles not known in Medieval times.
*”to survive a battle one had to “only”* fight with all one’s might” -
to answer the issues with „only”, raised by some commentators, I will given an example of single parents (who currently make up 15% of all the families in EU, so they are not a rare occurrence ), The typical problems of single parents include making a salary of X last for the whole month, if the cost of child care is one third or even half of the X, the cost of rent is very similar, and you still have to feed the child (and from time to time – yourself too), buy clothes, books and sometimes even a toy or two. On top of it you have the constant worrying about the future (will I still have a job, what if my child gets ill, how will I pay for fixing the car, fridge, washing machine etc, etc). Those struggles – constant stress, austerity, frustration, sleep and food deprivation – don’t last a few days or weeks, but years! Having experienced single parenthood myself I can say with confidence, that standing in a medieval battle is much „easier”. If you die in a battle, at least you don’t have to worry any more. If you’re wounded - you suffer for a few hours, days at the most – that’s nothing comparing with years of struggles single parents have to endure. Struggles, I dare to say from my own experience, that require much more courage, perseverance and strength to endure, than any battle – medieval or modern – have ever required.