Witia
read: “veet-ya”; from: “wit” (Old-Polish) - a sovereign, a monarch; “weyd-” (Proto-Indo-European) - to see, to know.
the world of Witia
Following the old Gods
Witia is a female ruler of Dabor, a land created as a part of the universe of a fantasy novel “Drzewo wspomnień” (The Tree of Memories), the first tome of “Witia” - a fantasy book series. Every Witia comes from the Drewian family and has a gift of creating a bond with every female from her bloodline, including the spirits of the deceased female ancestors. Thanks to this bond Witia knows (she has the knowledge of the women of the Drewian family), sees (she has access to the experiences of all the other women of the Drewian family) and never stands alone (through the bond she is always supported by her female ancestors).
“Witia” is also a creative project focused on discovering and increasing awareness of the Slavic culture. Although Witia was born as a character in a fantasy novel, as the time went on, the concept of a girl/woman discovering the world with the help of knowledge and experiences of the ancestors, outgrow the pages of the book and the borders of Dabor. It’s like the creation of a Slavic-inspired story awoke our Slavic souls and urged us to follow in the footsteps of the old Gods, to discover our heritage and to show it to the world.
But at the beginning there was Dabor and the Tree of Memories…
“The Tree of Memories”
The first tome of “Witia” book series was published in Polish by a Polish publishing house Genius Creations. Currently we are working on an English version of this book, but we do not know yet when it will be coming. If you want to read “The Tree of Memories” in English you can let our publisher know!
Tales of Old Gods
Tales of Old Gods is a series of illustrated stories, inspired by Slavic tradition and culture. Published regularly since 2016 (on Witia’s Facebook as well as on Tapastic), Tales were born from a deep rooted hunger to understand who our ancestors were, how did they think, what was important for them, what guided them in creation of culture so powerful, that, despite persecutions and christianization, it survived thorough thousands of years.
It has to be stressed that Tales of Old Gods, as well as the entire Witia project is a creative not a scientific project. We do study scientific resources to find knowledge about Slavic culture and history, but our interpretation of Slavic traditions and beliefs is a result of creative, not scientific work.
Video tales
From September 2019 “Tales” took a form of short videos. Some of the earlier “Tales” created between 2016 and 2019 also were made into videos (and some will be soon). All Witia’s videoclips are available on our YouTube channel.
Discovering the Slavic culture is not easy. Scientific sources are scarce, and oral tradition tainted by Judaeo-Christian point of view, imposed on our ancestors with fire and sword. Written sources come from historians or travellers looking at the culture of Slavs with the eyes of a witness, not a participant and usually from the perspective of a foreign (Roman, Arabic, Judeo-Christian) culture. Archaeological discoveries require interpretation by modern researchers which obviously blurs the original meaning of the artefacts.
Large part of the “Witia” project is an attempt to look at the Slavic culture with the eyes of a pagan, with an openminded approach and respectful curiosity. Listening to the whispers of our Slavic souls we try to separate interpretations from facts and find in our heritage the elements which were supressed by the hundreds of years of Christianisation. The results of our attempts can be found on Witia’s blog.