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"We are the children of the Gods!" say the Slavs. But who from Slavic gods can become your personal Patron? As a result, you will find out with which Slavic God you have a lot in common.

Divya, Goddess of the Moon

You are a dreamy, vulnerable and lyrical person.

Divya, the Goddess of the Moon, arose simultaneously with Khors, the God of the Sun and is his opposite. Divya is needed so that people see the importance of dreaminess and romanticism, indifference to everything new, beautiful and unusual, spiritual subtlety, emotionality and charm. People who are close to Divia in spirit have a refined perception of the world, are intuitive and clearly feel the magic that spreads in our world under the magical light of the moon.

At the same time, the character of people living under the Moon-Divya is unbalanced, vulnerable and contradictory, unsure of himself, prone to doubts and hesitation, the light phase is naturally replaced by a dark one. In the dark period - unwillingness to work and absent-mindedness, isolation, complaints of suffering, a painful reaction to even light criticism, emotionality, because of which the mind falls silent. At the same time - stubborn strong perseverance in important desires, turning into illnesses and severe depression, if you cannot immediately achieve what you want. But the bright period that inevitably comes shows us a renewed beautiful person - a generous, free, creative, open-hearted, gentle, tactful charming person who has a peculiar sense of humor, a romantic and an optimist. Just as the Moon from a narrow crescent becomes the complete mistress of the night sky, so in people close to Divia, we again see sorcerers, rulers of minds, gentle leaders who can reveal many secrets to us, inspired magicians and strong knowing mothers.

Divya - The Moon, possessing magical power, owns the minds, perhaps more subtly, but just as strong as the Sun. It illuminates the path of people in darkness, guards dreams, and symbolizes by its behavior the immutable law of being - the day must change into night, the night must go, because after it there will come a day of light. So, people living under Divya - the Moon show us with their changeable character that everything in this life can change, and you just need to continue to live in order to meet the dawn.

Words that can be attributed to you if this Goddess is close as a person:

Dreamer, romantic, sensitivity, rejection of criticism, charm, sorcery, sophistication, humanity, modesty, disorganization and love of freedom.

Your amulet

If your patroness is Divia, then your sign is Lunnitsa.

The Lunnitsa sign looks like a crescent moon, turned down with its horns. Although sometimes there are moons with horns looking up. His horns have long been considered a connection with cosmic energies. In the Bronze Age, whence the first mention of moons came from, these amulets were made of bronze, silver and other metal.

Wolf's wife. Her incarnation is the moon. Demands for sacrifice the meat of wild animals, the skins of sables and martens, pies and ribbons on the days of hunting, the issuance of girls in marriage and matchmaking.

Mentioned in that part of the translated “Grigory the Theologian’s Conversation on the Testing of the City (hail)”, which is recognized as an insertion by a Russian scribe of the 11th century. Here, after listing the remnants of paganism, it is said “Ov Dyu eat, and the other - Divy ...”. Apparently, Divya here is the female counterpart of Dyu, that is, the Greek Zeus from church texts.

In the "Word of the Idols" the goddess Diva is mentioned after Makosh and before Perun, which also speaks of important place, occupied by this goddess in the pagan ideas of the Slavs.

Notes

Literature

  • Rybakov B. A. Paganism of the ancient Slavs. Origins of Slavic mythology. Birth of goddesses and gods

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

Synonyms:
  • Lelya
  • Svarog

See what "Divya" is in other dictionaries:

    Divya- (feminine) divine Ancient Indian names. Meaning Dictionary... Dictionary of personal names

    divya- n., number of synonyms: 1 goddess (346) ASIS synonym dictionary. V.N. Trishin. 2013 ... Synonym dictionary

    krasta divya- @font face (font family: ChurchArial ; src: url(/fonts/ARIAL Church 02.ttf);) span (font size:17px; font weight:normal !important; font family: ChurchArial ,Arial,Serif;)    phraseol. (Greek ψώρα ἀγρία) scabies (disease), skin rash ... Church Slavonic Dictionary

    Dione- This term has other meanings, see Dione (meanings). Zeus and Dione on the Dion coin ... Wikipedia

    Alalykins- Alalykins. Temir Alalykin, the Suzdal son of a boyar, who became famous in 1572 in the battle of Molodi, where the famous boyar Prince Mikh. Iv. Vorotynsky utterly defeated and drove out the Crimean Khan ... ... Biographical Dictionary

    Alalykin, Temir- Suzdalian, son of a boyar, distinguished himself in the battle of Prince M. I. Vorotynsky with Devlet Girey near the village. Young in 1571, Alalykin killed the son-in-law of the Khan, Il Murza, and captured Diviy Murza of the Nagai. "Russian genealogical book", part IV, p. 233. ... ...

    Alalykins Big biographical encyclopedia

    Alalykins- The ancestor of this family name should be considered Temir Alalykin, the Suzdal boyar son, who became famous in 1572 in the battle of Molodi, where the famous boyar Prince. Mich. Iv. Vorotynsky utterly defeated and drove out the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray, ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

    Wild fruits, cucumbers- (according to the Slavic divya apples) (2 Kings 4:39) from the gourd family, their leaves and branches resemble the branches of real cucumbers and spread along the ground. Their fruits, having the shape and size of an egg, taste very bitter, have a harmful effect on health and can be dangerous ... ... Bible. dilapidated and New testaments. Synodal translation. Bible encyclopedia arch. Nicephorus.

    THE DAY OF IVAN- (Ivan Kupala), the day of the Nativity of John the Baptist (June 24 / July 7), the day of the summer solstice, BC. 20th century one of the main folk holidays, combining elements of the Christian worldview and the remnants of ancient pagan rituals. Ancient ... ... Russian history


Goddess Divya was perceived by the Slavs as a symbol of well-being, fertility, wealth. Slavic amulets with the sign of Lunnitsa, it was believed that they were able to heal people from diseases and ailments, reduce pain during childbirth. Lunnitsa guarded the value is not in vain. After all, the Goddess amulet Divya perceived as more feminine. But in any case, the symbols of the Slavic Gods, namely Divya, helped everyone - guaranteed success in business and respect.

This amulet grants development magical abilities, intuition and creative talents, as well as bring love and lasting family relationships into your life.

Material: thick canvas, colored strong threads.

The size of the patch is 8 cm in diameter.

Do you want to show your belonging to the Slavic Family? And thus establish a connection with the ancestors? The symbols of the Slavic Gods will help with this! A Goddess Divya especially! Mozhno-Slavic stripes buy and sew on a prominent place - on a shirt, on a jacket, attach a patch to a sleeve, to a bag or to a headdress! Don't want to show off your beliefs? Slavic chevrons are easy to hide by sewing on inside sleeves, floors, bags, purse. In any case, you get a patch made by a northern master entirely from natural materials and filled with fresh power of native Slavic symbols.

Slavic amulets with the sign of the Goddess Divya have the shape of the moon, horns facing down, which symbolizes the connection with cosmic energy.


How to care for patches on clothes?

When washing Slavic chevrons, it is worth considering, first of all, the recommendations for washing the thing on which the chevron is sewn. If you just carry the Slavic patch with you, then it can be washed in warm soapy water, rinsed and dried thoroughly. Ironing is recommended only in case of severe wrinkling of the chevron and using a damp cloth.

The goddess of the moon in the beliefs of different peoples is a reflection of the ancient lunar cult related to fertility. The worship of the moon goddess was intended to provide good harvest, the birth of a healthy child. Women of various ethnic groups turned to the moon to perform magical rites and practices that went down in history under the name of lunar mysteries.

Greek goddess of the moon


The daughter of the famous titans Theia and Hyperion, the goddess of the moon in Greek mythology - Selena, personified the moonlight among the Greeks. All natural phenomena are cyclical. At the change of day, in the face of the goddess Hemera, the vault of heaven was illuminated by the quiet, thoughtful light of Selena, riding out on her silver chariot drawn by horses. Beautiful, but pale and sad face of Selena. The Greeks worshiped her as the goddess of the tides, fertility. Selena is associated with - ancient Greek priestesses called to her through dreams for advice on important issues.

In the Hellenic (Greek) tradition, there were deities that migrated from other cultures. One of these figures is the goddess of the moon, her name is Hekate, gloomy and mysterious. She had three bodies and controlled the past, present and future, Zeus himself endowed her with this power. Faces of the Moon Goddess:

  1. Daytime Hekate is the image of a mature, wise woman who patronizes people in judicial research, military operations, and obtaining various knowledge.
  2. Night Hecate - brews love potions and poisons. Manages the night hunt. The goddess of the dark moon is depicted with a pack of red-eyed dogs running among the graves, in the hair of her snake, and her face is beautiful and terrible at the same time. Patronizes murderers, swindlers and lovers.
  3. Heavenly Hekate is the personification of spirituality, the image of an immaculate young maiden. In this hypostasis, he helps philosophers and scientists. Accompanies the souls of the dead on the way to the light.

Roman goddess of the moon


Lunar cult ancient rome was similar to Greek, and at the initial stage of worship, the Roman goddess of the Moon was called the Moon. Later, the Romans began to call her Diana, and in some provinces Trivia. On the surviving frescoes, Diana is depicted in a moon-colored tunic, with beautiful flowing hair, in her hands a spear or a bow. The goddess of the moon Diana in the representation of people performed the following functions:

  • protection and patronage of nature;
  • obstetrics;
  • goddess of the moon and the hunt;
  • patronage of slaves and the poor;
  • mistress of crossroads and roads.

Interesting Facts:

  • in honor of the goddess of the Moon, the satellite of the planet Earth - the Moon is named;
  • Diana - asteroid 78 is named after the brilliant goddess of the Romans.

Goddess of the Moon among the Slavs


The mother of all living things was considered the Slavic goddess of the moon - Divia, who personified the light in the night. It was created by the supreme god Rod, in order to illuminate the path for people at night, when, according to the beliefs of the Slavs, evil spirits, dark forces roam. Divya was depicted with a golden shining crown on her head, which appeared in the sky in the form of the moon. The goddess protected people during sleep, and sent bright ones. Divia's husband was Dyy (Div) - together they personified the daily cycle: day and night.

Egyptian moon goddess


The cult of the moon gods among the Egyptians was considered paramount; in their view, the moon influenced the fertility of the earth more than the sun. The moon was worshiped in the face, Nut, Hathor, but the most majestic was egyptian goddess moon - Isis, who lives on the star Sirius. The ancient magical cult of this goddess existed for a very long time and migrated to esoteric circles. medieval Europe. Attributes of Isis:

  • a curl of hair in a hairstyle is a symbol of the moon that affects plants;
  • a ball on the head, lying on a wreath of flowers - the universe;
  • snakes - Magic power the moon and its path through the sky;
  • ears of wheat in hair - a gift to mankind of the first grains and knowledge about the cultivation of fields;
  • a bucket in the left hand - the flood of the Nile;
  • sistrum musical instrument right hand- creates vibrations to scare away evil forces;
  • a mantle embroidered with stars and a tunic shimmering with lunar hues - a symbol of the sky;
  • the crescent in the region of the womb spreads the rays to the earth for fertility.

Functions inherent in Isis:

  • protection of pregnant women and women in childbirth;
  • patronage of travelers and sailors;
  • discoverer and priestess of magical practices;
  • protects all living things.

Hindu goddess of the moon


The moon goddesses of different peoples have a similar appearance and are endowed with the same powers. In some countries, the deity of the moon has a male hypostasis. India is a country with a huge pantheon of gods and various entities. Soma - ancient god Moons in Hinduism. By his middle name he is known as Chandra. He controls time, the minds of people and the whole universe. Soma - the source of the life force of all beings, patronizes the northeast. In the images, Chandra appears as a copper-skinned deity sitting in a lotus flower on a chariot drawn by white horses or antelopes.

Chinese Moon Goddess


The original and more ancient name of the goddess of the moon in China is Changsi, which later changed to Chang E. The Chinese are very fond of telling the legend about this beautiful goddess. A very long time ago, when the Earth was under the scorching action of ten suns, vegetation began to die, rivers dry up, and people died of thirst and hunger. The survivors prayed and heard their prayers, the shooter Hou Yi. The great hero shot down 9 suns with arrows from a bow, but left one, ordering him to hide for the night. This is how day and night came about.

The Emperor of the Celestial Empire rewarded the shooter with the elixir of immortality. Hou Yi gave it to his beloved wife Chang E for safekeeping. In the absence of her husband, someone Peng Meng broke into the house and wanted to take the elixir, but Chang E drank the potion so that the robber would not get it. The wind picked up Chang E, who had become light, and carried her to the sky to the Moon Palace. Hou Yi was very sad, but one day he saw the face of his wife on the moon and realized that she had become a moon goddess. Interesting Facts:

  1. The 15th day of the 8th lunar month is considered the day of Chang E. On this day, people bring gifts and put various fruits on the tables.
  2. The symbol of the goddess is Yutu the hare. According to legend, the animal offered itself as a sacrifice, for which the Heavenly Sovereign settled the eared one in the Moon Palace with Chang E so that she would not be so lonely. A hare in a mortar crushes cinnamon for potions.

Servants of the moon goddess Changxi celebrate the moon mystery every autumn. Lunar myths tell that in the sands of the Great Desert there is a mountain of the Sun and the Moon, where, according to legend, they set and rise, each luminary in its turn. The goddess of the moon, Changsi, is the most ancient Chinese moon deity mentioned in mythological sources. Wang-shu (a character about whom little is known) carries Changsi across the sky in a chariot, lighting the way for travelers late in the night. The moon goddess often appears as a three-legged toad.

Japanese goddess of the moon


The servants of the moon goddess in Japan are Shintoists, who preach the Shinto religion, which has survived unchanged to this day. This is the "way of the gods" or kami - belief in the elements, the spirits of nature, different deities. One of these kami is the moon goddess in Japan, Tsukiyomo, who often appears in a male form and is called Tsukiyomi-no-kami (the spirit that calls the moon). Moon Goddess/God Functions:

  • rules over the ebb and flow;
  • knows the lunar calendar;
  • patronizes sea travelers;

Scandinavian goddess of the moon


The gods and goddesses of the moon are highly revered different nations. The moon has always attracted people with its mysterious and gentle light. Looking at the Scandinavian Moon, you can see the cart driven by the moon god Mani, in which he carries two children Bil (more late period began to indirectly personify the goddess of the moon and time) and Hyuk. The Scandinavians saw the reflection of the masculine principle in the Moon, and the feminine principle in the Sun.

The legend of the northern tradition tells of the appearance of the moon god. Odin created from the fire of Muspelhein the Sun and the Moon. The gods thought about who would carry the luminaries across the sky. One heard how on earth, a man named Mundilfari boasts that his children, daughter Sol (Sun) and son Mani (Moon), surpassed in beauty the heavenly creations created by the gods. One punished the proud father and sent his children to heaven to serve the people. Since then, Mani has been carrying the Moon across the sky, and the wolf Hati is chasing him, who strives to swallow the luminary.

Gauls goddess of the moon


The ancient Gauls preached the cult of the Great Mother Goddess, who met under different names. The Gaulish goddess of the moon is known as Corey, and temples were erected in her honor, in which only female priestesses could serve. Men worshiped solar gods. The moon goddess Kori patronized such phenomena as:

  • a bountiful harvest;
  • the birth of healthy children;
  • doctoring women's and.

Aztec moon goddess


In the ancient beliefs of the Aztecs, the goddess of the moon and night, as well as milky way- Coyolxauqui is the daughter of the goddess Coatlicue and a sword made of volcanic magma. According to legend, she tried to kill her mother when she became pregnant from hummingbird feathers, but Huitzilopochtli jumped out of the womb of Coatlicue in a frightening battle attire and killed Coyolxauqui by cutting off his head, which he threw high into the heavens. Thus the moon goddess was born. The Aztecs believed that the Coyolxauci had the ability to:

  • cause great harm to a person (damage his mind);
  • control the star deities of Witznaun;
  • help in military operations.

Celtic goddess of the moon


The ancient Celts noticed a similarity between the cycle of the moon: growth, fullness, decrease with the cycle of a woman's development. The Great Goddess, so revered by the Celts, was also the moon goddess in 3 forms: the Virgin, the Mother and the Crone. The fourth form of the goddess, the Enchantress, was known only to those initiated into the cult of the Moon. Celtic goddess of the moon different periods personified the phases of the moon:

  1. The New Moon is the time of the face of the Temptress. magical rites. A gift to people of the ability to clairvoyance.
  2. Waxing Moon - Virgo. Symbolizes the beginning, growth, youth.
  3. Full Moon - Mother. Maturity, strength, pregnancy, fertility,.
  4. Waning Moon - Old Woman. Withering, peace, wisdom, death as the end of the cycle.

DIVYA/DIVA

Goy, thou earth is damp,

mother earth,

Mother to us dear!

Thou hast given birth to us all,

And endowed with land;

For us, our children,

Potion thou hast brought forth

And drink any cereal ...

Conspiracy when gathering healing herbs (32)

(Maikov, 1998, No. 254)

The name Dyi had the form female. The wife of Dyya is probably the goddess of the earth: “Oh, make a claim on the stauden, jda lawsuits from him, forgetting like God from heaven to give. Eat the bearers of God, and make the God who created heaven and earth unfriend. She calls the river a goddess, and the beast living in it, like calling a god, demands to create. Ov Dyu eat, and the other Divi. And read the ingrad. Ov shit vskrosch, laying on the head, the oath to create; ov oaths to create human bones. Ov kobeni bird watch. Ov meeting doubt. Ov muschn cattle, creating to kill. Ov in a week and on holy days to do, he arrived at his place, creating his own death, but to do everything this week, to kill him that day. I swear to swear on my lies” (Word of St. Gregory, Conversation of St. Gregory the Theologian about the beating of the city - Anichkov, 1914, p. 93).

Since in almost all Indo-European mythological systems there is a symmetry of "female and male", the pair "earth - sky", it is natural to assume that Div (Dyi) and Diva (Diya) are just such a pair. That Div correlates with the sky (Upper world) etymologically and plot-wise, it can be seen at least from the Tale of Igor's Campaign: “I have already carried blasphemy to praise; I will already crack the need to freedom; Divi is already falling to the ground.

According to the same Galysovsky, before the Greek scribes, the Slavs never had such a goddess - Diva. However, we venture to suggest that the goddess still existed, they just began to call her in the Greek way. Or Divia is a proper name, which goes back to the Indo-European root. Recall that in Lithuanian mythology it is known about the marriage of the highest male deity Dievas and the proto-goddess Deiva.

Deive, or Zhemina, Latvians call Zemes mate- Mother Earth. Dievs is her husband. In other words, Diva, Divia, is the goddess Mother Earth Cheese, the Slavic Gaia, who is fertilized by the heavenly waters of Dyya-Diva.

Protesting against Christianity being introduced among them, the Prussians tell their missionaries that because of them (since they came with their own, alien rites), the Prussian land will cease to reap, trees - fruits, animals - offspring (Lavvis, 1897).

Let us turn again to the teaching “The word of St. Gregory was invented in the talk about what the first trash of the existing tongues bowed to the idol and laid them down”, where, as it seems to us, the name of the Diva is also mentioned:

“... Even the mothers of demons and the goddess Aphrodite are raging. Coronet. the crown is bowed and the mother of the Antichrist. and ArtemiDe. damn. diomise. stegnorage and prematurity. and the god of the husband-wife ... the same god trebou kladout and create. and Slovenian. vilam. mokosh. diva, perunou. harsou. rodow. and childbirth…”

When translating for some reason, Diva is often written as a maiden, although between a maiden and a maiden, as well as between a maiden and a Diva, the difference is significant, magical, we would even say. And it turns out for such translators like “Mokoshi-deva”, and this does not climb into any gates. At the same time, researchers, even the most blinkered ones, agree that the cult of Makosh / Mokosh was reincarnated in Orthodoxy in the veneration of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa. This saint, of course, is not a boy, but not a virgin either, she seems to be a very respectable matron.

“Everything in nature has its own unique properties, which can be known by those who are ready to look for them. Above all else in the Northern Tradition is a deep respect for the earth, which appears in the guise of a goddess, Mother Earth. This idea is the same in all versions of the faith, although the goddess may be called differently. She is the personification of the Earth, regarded as a sacred entity, and not as a huge inanimate stone, and is the basis of the worldview. As a consequence, all manifestations of the natural world should be revered, as well as places of power - places where the gods are present ... Northern Tradition sees in the planet Earth not an inanimate (cosmic body), but a living entity with a spirit, "ond, which manifests itself in various forms corresponding to the fundamental qualities of the elements to which it belongs” (Pennick, 1989).

Greetings, mother earth,

haven of death,

Be blooming and fertile

By the grace of the gods

Full of food

What feeds our people.

Anglo-Saxon Prayer (Ibid.)

The barren land spell in good old England was done by taking the seeds and putting them on the plow:

Erke, Erke, Erke,

earthly mother,

may the almighty give you

eternal sovereign,

rich lands,

flowering meadows,

fruitful fields,

multiparous, multidate,

increased millet,

good grain,

barley too

excellent grain,

also wheat

nice grain.

May he give

eternal sovereign,

and his followers

mountain dwellers,

master's lands

protection from ruin

field and arable land

salvation from adversity

from an evil word

from earthly curses.

Protect, omnipotent,

Creator of the world

from an evil wife,

from a malevolent husband,

my speech is strong

yes it will be strong.

(Old English Poetry, pp. 23–24)

The pagan identity of the early Middle Ages in Russia is also found as a cult of the Earth.

He, like the cult of the Family, according to the same V. L. Komarovich, “was in that era not only the lot of everyday or personal superstition of individual“ non-veglas ”, but also a rather formidable social force. His involvement, as well as the cult of the Family, in inter-princely relations is beyond doubt. Both cults were in close contact in the outlook and experience of their adherents. The rebuke against those who believe in the birth of children by the earth concerns at the same time their faith in the Genus. Other denunciations, less definitely speaking about Rod, are invariably called, however, next to the women in childbirth or, as it is read in the most ancient lists of monuments, Rozhanitsa (in singular)…” (Komarovich, 1960, pp. 103–104)

The author makes a non-disputable assumption, “that “Rod” and “Rozhanitsa” of our accusatory monuments will exactly correspond to the pagan cults of the Family and the Earth, which were just as firmly brought together in the most ancient Russian life.” Taking into account the identification in the teachings against paganism of one of the Women in Childbirth with Artemis, it is precisely such a woman in childbirth that is hardly comparable with the giving birth to the Earth, although, undoubtedly, she performs midwifery functions.

But if V. L. Komarovich’s constructions are not entirely correct, he is right in the following: “If we look through all those places in the annals where more or less stable formulas of their customary law are put into the mouths of individual princes, then here we will meet with the same two concepts and even terms: genus and land. In particular, the cult of the land was already connected with the princely possessive right through the ancient Russian customary right to land ownership in general. Turned on itself in this last note Pavlov-Silvansky, the oath by the earth is denounced as a forbidden remnant of paganism already in the same “Word of some kind of trash that the tongues bowed to an idol” (XI century): “Oh, resurrect the turf (cut out) on the head, laying the oath to create.” The long reign of this custom is also evidenced by its numerous later remnants collected by Smirnov (33). The pagan cult of the earth clearly comes through in some of the surviving features of the proper princely life and rule. For example, a son was born to Rurik Smolensky - on the way from Novgorod, in the city of Luchin; at christening he was given “grandfather’s name is Mikhailo, and prince Rostislav, grandfather’s name”; what it meant to give one's grandfather's name - we already partly know; but not enough of this: where the princess was caught in childbirth, “putting in that place the church of St. Michael, where he gave birth.” Why certainly “in that place”, and not somewhere nearby - which would, of course, be easier and simpler - again becomes clear from international data on the veneration of mother earth: how the dying were certainly laid on the ground “ut extremum spiritum redderent terrae“ in the conviction that the soul, just where the dying person is laid, will return to the mother’s earthen womb, so exactly the return transition to the newborn of the soul of the deceased ancestor - most often just the grandfather - from under the earth was again imagined possible only where the birth took place.

In an accidental slip of the tongue of the chronicler, a precious everyday detail is revealed, as we see, both the veneration of the family and the veneration of the earth at the same time, one with the other in an indissoluble connection. The Earth is honored doubly: both for accepting dead grandfathers and for giving back their souls to their newborn grandchildren; doubly honored and this kind, as it has now become clear, an ancestor passing from generation to generation, either returning to the earth, then from it, with the first cry of a baby, reappearing for further above-ground life, like an epigone; in the exact sense of the word, or, if you like, like grass, tree or cereal. Finally, one can also see to what extent the views inherited from pagan antiquity were closely in contact with the sphere of princely customary law: having called his son both grandfather's names, marking the place of birth with a church building, the father of the newborn, Prince Rurik, in conclusion “gives him Luchin the city, in it be born"; i.e., we have before us one of the countless examples of the princely “row”, happily differing from the rest only in the clear evidence of the circumstances that gave rise to it; but, as we see, they do not reconcile either with the presumption of the patrimonial theory, or with the presumption of the theory of “ladder climbing”: neither of them can be deduced from the right of the prince to own the city as a “grandfather” just because he was born in it; a happy accident helped to deduce such a right from the pagan cult: the momentary talkativeness of the chronicler. But how many other similar customary legal norms remain unrecognized because of its annoying laconism? ( Ibid).

Citing a number of striking examples of this view, Dietrich notes: “Such a relationship (of a child with the soul of an ancestor) must have had a very deep foundation in the once very specific views on the afterlife (Weiterleben) of the ancestors, if grandchildren, according to the ancient customs of so many peoples, were consistently endowed with the name of the grandfather... In our language, even the word "grandson" (Enkel) actually means nothing more than "little grandfather"" (see: Dieter ich Al Mutter" Erde, p. 25).

The cult of the Earth-Mother persisted for a very long time and is correlated by many researchers with the course of strigolism:

“In the middle of the XIV century. under the Archbishop of Novgorod Moses, who built 13 churches in Novgorod at the expense of the Sofia treasury and was forced to leave the pulpit twice during the time of popular unrest, the church attacked all types of deviations from Orthodoxy, both in the direction of great-grandfather paganism, and in the direction of the newly emerged humanistic heresy of the Strigolnikovs . Not without reason, the hairdressers, as it were, celebrated the second departure of Bishop Moses in 1359 by installing on one of the city squares the famous Liudogoshchi cross, outlining the main theses of their teaching ”(Rybakov, 1987).

“In the summer of 6884 ... she was beaten in Novegrad by the heretic shepherds, the deacon Nikita da Karp the simple and the third person with them, overthrowing them from the bridge, the libertines of the holy faith of Christ,” the Piskarevsky chronicler reported (PSRL, vol. XXXIV. M., 1978 ).

The well-known collector of teachings against paganism N. M. Galkovsky writes (Galkovsky, 1916):

“... The universal progenitor of the earth, cherishing in her bosom vegetable and animal world, including a person, was in the minds of our ancestor a mother, a drinker and a nurse during life, and after death she hid him in her bowels. As such, she aroused reverent veneration for herself, was a shrine, "The earth is holy to the mother." According to popular beliefs, a foul-mouthed person who utters “swear words” will not be forgiven, because such words are blasphemed against the mother earth. They swore by the earth during disputes over land holdings, the disputant put turf on his head and walked around the plot of land to prove that this land belongs to him. This is a very ancient custom, noted in the Slavic translation of the word of St. Gregory the Theologian: “Oh, the shit is open (cut out) on the head, laying an oath to create.” The Church fought against this pagan way of swearing, striving to replace the turf with an icon; as a result, they began to use both turf and an icon in boundary disputes. We personally heard that even recently, robbers, having robbed travelers, but not wanting to kill them for some reason, took an oath from the robbed in silence, forcing their victims to swear with a clod of earth in their hands, and then eat this clod. As a rule, those who swore so all their lives were silent about what had happened to them, and only before death did they open about the terrible event they had experienced. We believe that this way of swearing with the earth in hand, which was then eaten, is an echo of hoary pagan antiquity. Just as ancient must be recognized the belief that it is easiest for a man to die on earth; it is especially difficult to die on a featherbed (for a rich man). If the sick person was “hard” (suffering severely), but could not die, he was lowered to the floor (the peasants used to have an earthen floor; now, when the floor is usually boarded, straw is laid under the patient). The touching custom of washing the dead and dressing them in everything clean is well known: in addition to natural respect for the dead, there is also an old concern not to disturb the purity of the earth. We consider the confession of the earth to be an important proof that in the prehistoric era the earth was an object of reverence. It is known that the heretics of the Strigolniks (14th-15th centuries) repented not to the priest, but to the earth. Prof. S. I. Smirnov pointed out what elements are included in the Eastern Christian custom of confession without a confessor before shrines: the pagan cult of the earth; folk performance about the earth as a judge and the idea of ​​the earth as the redeemer of sin, developed in Eastern folk Christianity. Prof. Smirnov means strigolnikov. Confession to the earth exists at the present time among some schismatic sects and among the common people in general: if there is no one to repent, repent to the earth. It cannot be argued that the present confession to the earth is an echo of the heresy of the Strigolniki. But one can think that the psychological foundations of the strigolniks and the schismatics-bezpriests are the same. Close to confession to the earth is the rite of farewell to the earth before a church confession, when the confessor asks for forgiveness from the sun, moon, rain, wind, and especially from the earth. Prof. S. I. Smirnov believes that this forgiveness with the earth before the church confession is nothing more than a people's confession to the earth, supplementing the church confession.

From the foregoing, we can conclude that the cult of the earth was inherent in our pagan ancestors. It was an ancient cult, over which a new formation of gods, personifying the sun and natural phenomena, was layered: Perun, Dazhbog, Stribog, etc., as among the Greeks, the ancient Uranus and Gaia were replaced by a younger generation of gods. But the worship of the universal mother earth never fell into complete oblivion. The ancient Russian scribe instinctively sensed a pagan element in the naming of the earth as mother and saw in this a departure from Orthodoxy; denouncing the Latins, he reproached them that they "speak mother earth." We believe that the cult of the earth has been preserved in its most ancient form: this is worship without temples, rituals, and even without a definite idea; at the heart of this cult lies the consciousness of closeness and dependence on the earth, hence the reverent veneration of the earth, one's universal mother. This consciousness is inherent in all people. Under the influence of a pure Christian worldview, this consciousness has its own, so to speak, legitimate dimensions. But where there is no pure Christianity, the ancient cult of the earth expands, as we see among the Strigolniks and our schismatics-bezpriests. This reverence is not alien to the modern peasant, as we see from the following fact, which we personally know. One peasant of the Dorogobuzh district, Smolensk province, did not keep cattle, he was dying. One good friend of the peasant, under great secrecy, advised the loser, secretly from everyone, to go out into the yard at sunrise and bow to the ground three times without a cross and a hat. The peasant did this, and from that time on his cattle began to be kept. But then he realized that he bowed not to God, but to the earth, and, considering his deed a sin, repented of it. - This incident clearly shows us that the ancient cult of the earth secretly still continues to live; this is precisely the remnant of paganism: it was necessary to bow without a cross and secretly.

Ust-Tsilma Old Believers for an invitation Orthodox priests to confess they answered: “We confess to God and mother - the damp Earth” or “I will put my ear to the damp Earth, God will hear me and forgive me.” Forgiveness was also asked from the earth in case of illness or the approach of death. In the spiritual verse "The Unforgivable Sin", the Earth acts as the bearer of moral truth, a special law of tribal life. According to the beliefs of the Eastern Slavs, dating back to the era Ancient Russia, the righteous bosom of the Earth does not accept sorcerers, suicides and those who were cursed by their parents (Toporkov, 1984).


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