In many cultures, the belief is known that each person has his personal guardian spirit, inextricably linked with him. The Scandinavians, for example, called such a keeper fylgia.
They believed that only “death breaks the bond between a person and his mysterious patron. Fylgia knows the past and the future and often takes the image of the animal whose character is most suitable for the character of his client; sometimes, like the Valkyrie, he appears in the form of a beautiful woman and takes part in battles. Before the very end, a person sees how his patron spirit dies. (…) Fylgien belong not only to individuals, but to entire families and clans (…)”.
More recently, our Ancestors believed that each person has his own guardian angel. Many people believe in this today. But the belief in patron spirits is much older than Christianity - it has been part of the Slavic Tradition since ancient times. A wonderful work about guardian spirits in the traditional culture of our ancestors was written at the beginning of the 20th century by the Russian linguist Alexander Afanasyevich Potebnya. It is called “About the share and creatures akin to it”. I advise everyone interested in this issue to read it, and in this short article I bring to your attention, in fact, its summary with some additions from other sources …. So, let's begin:
Guardian spirits are known to influence the fate of a person. Strictly speaking, it is more correct to call those of them, about which we will talk, spirits of fate - after all, such creatures do not always protect a person; sometimes quite the opposite. I believe this is due to the fact that the main task of these spirits is to ensure that a person receives what is intended for him in life.
Different words are used in the Slavic Tradition to denote human destiny (and concepts closely related to it). Here are some of them: part (as well as happiness, misfortune, fate), share (not share), srecha (non-speech).
Apparently, the word "god" in ancient times also had the meaning of "part", "share", "happiness", "good", and then it began to denote the One who bestows happiness, bestows good. Hence, “rich” is one who has good, and “poor” is the same as the unfortunate one. In one of the Slavic languages (Upper Sorbian) "happiness" is "zbozo" …
However, in Slavic traditional culture, at least, many such names clearly denote not only abstract concepts. In folklore, share, srecha, etc. act as animate beings. As in many other cases, the same word serves to designate both a certain Power and the Divine (or spirit), who controls this Power (or influences it).
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What does Slavic folklore say about the spirits of fate?
A share comes to a person, meets him, it is impossible to escape from it: "Evil is inconceivable to the Warrior"; "May you be good, Lord God!"; “Be afraid, do not be afraid, but you will not leave your part”. A person suffers when trouble does not sleep - and on the contrary, when happiness does not sleep, he feels good: "if you sleep dashingly, do not wake him up"; "Why shouldn't I drink, if I can't sleep." Happiness works for a person - in the Russian fairy tale, the happiness of the happy one plows for him, and the happiness of the unfortunate one lies under a bush in a red shirt and sleeps day and night. By the way, in Russian folklore it famously appears as a tall one-eyed old woman or a one-eyed giant; grief pursues a person in human form, as well as in the guise of a pike and a wolf ….
A share is born (comes to the world of people): "Thy Wednesday gave birth to / Sunchan zhdrak povila / Mjsetsem sjajnim gojila"; “Oh come back, bideau! What did you get into? I won't be back, divchino! I was born with you. " A. A. Potebnya gives an interesting Germanic parallel to this idea: “According to the view of Germanic mythology, souls before their birth are with the goddess Golda (…) Every time a soul descends to earth to take on a human form, it is followed by one, two, three souls as her guardian spirits. (…) The appearance of these satellites on earth, simultaneous with the birth of a person, is in some way also a birth”.
The share grows with the person: "Ditina is asleep, and the share is growing," "The seat is sitting, and part of him is growing."
There is information that brings together the share and the brownie. Here is the Belarusian wedding lamentation:
At the same time, the connection between the house spirit and the fire of the hearth is well known: it is evident, for example, from the Russian custom, when moving, to transfer heat (burning coals from the stove) and at the same time call the brownie for housewarming. Czechs and Slovaks believe that wherever there is in the house, there is happiness, and whoever kills such a snake will lose all livestock and happiness will disappear from the house. Already - also one of the images of the house guardian spirit. The Belarusians believe that the house spirit has the appearance of a snake, and they call it "tsmok-house"; in the Slovak language "zmok" means "brownie", and in Czech "zmek" - "brownie, snake".
Brownies are also associated with the spirits of the Ancestors (Ancestors - Grandfathers; the common Russian name for brownies is grandfather). Stefan Verkovich in his book "Veda Slovena" (a controversial source, but very interesting) gives the following information about the shares:
“- Doles, about which a lot is sung in songs, who were they?
- Well, dear, don't you know who the Doli were! They were people like us, they had a great kingdom; here, once upon a time our grandfathers, when they lived in the Land of the Land, bore the name Doli; they were very famous and not only in the Land of the Land, they were engaged in various matters, and other places were neglected, and when our grandfathers settled on them, then they were processed and taught to people in all kinds of activities, so they were honored as Gods, because they thought that they flew from heaven and were sent by God on purpose to teach them how to yell and all kinds of things; but after the grandfathers, somehow they spread throughout the whole earth, and then they lost that name Doli (…) and they themselves began to believe in Dol that they were not people, but that they flew from heaven and taught people whatever.
According to traditional beliefs, God gives a share to a person: “God will give a share in a pure field”; "It is too lazy to lie, but God will keep his share for him." In Slavic mythology, Rozhanitsy are also known - the Virgin of Fate, similar to the Scandinavian norns and antique parks. A. N. Afanasyev writes: “As soon as a baby is born (the Horutans say), as soon as - God knows where and how - three sisters in labor (rojenice) appear in the hut, sit down at the table and in short sayings determine the fate of the newborn; having uttered their predictions, they quietly leave, and if at that time a month shines through the window, then illuminated by its rays - their light, airy images and rainbow covers are visible. In Upper Krajina they are called pure, white declice and wife (pure, white maidens and wives), in Carinthia - zhelink, zhelinka to wife, from the verb of yellow (to wish, to care), similarlyhow the Valkyries were given the nickname "wunschm? dchen"; in other localities - sap, saplings and judges (sujenice = sojenice, sudice = sodice), that is, the virgins of life and fate. The last name is also known to the people of Ludica (sudzicke), Slovaks and Czechs (sudice, sudi? Ky). According to a legend that survived among the Istrians, women in labor live in mountain caves (…) the villagers still carry bread for them and put it at the entrance to the cave. " In the ancient Russian "teachings against paganism", in tandem with Rozhanitsy, Rod (the Deity associated with childbirth) is constantly mentioned, which gives reason to consider him the God of Destiny. The God of Fate is also known in South Slavic folklore - the Serbs call him Usud. In Slavic mythology, there is also a Deity of Fate in a female guise: "In Russia, an old saying has survived:" wait for the Sun Mother of God's judgment! " Solntseva's mother is mentioned in many tales,and everywhere she is spoken of as spinning things: she gives wandering heroes wise advice and spins a golden tow on a golden spinning wheel. (…) In Little Russia, the following legend has been preserved: a peasant walked through the forest and got lost. Night fell, a friendly light shone in the distance; the peasant hurried to its light, came across a dilapidated hut and asked to spend the night. He was received by a poor old woman and to the guest's question: "who are you?" called Fate. " Death also “appears in legends with the character of the goddess of fate. Like women in labor, she, according to folk tales, perceives newborn babies, and as they are called among the Czechs kumami (kmotri? Ky), so the same name kuma is assigned to Death; in her caves she keeps the lamps of human life and determines the period of their burning”.she gives the wandering heroes wise advice and spins a golden tow on a golden spinning wheel. (…) In Little Russia, the following legend has been preserved: a peasant walked through the forest and got lost. Night fell, a friendly light shone in the distance; the peasant hurried to its light, came across a dilapidated hut and asked to spend the night. He was received by a poor old woman and to the guest's question: "who are you?" called Fate. " Death also “appears in legends with the character of the goddess of fate. Like women in labor, she, according to folk tales, perceives newborn babies, and as they are called among the Czechs kumami (kmotri? Ky), so the same name kuma is assigned to Death; in her caves she keeps the lamps of human life and determines the period of their burning”.she gives the wandering heroes wise advice and spins a golden tow on a golden spinning wheel. (…) In Little Russia, the following legend has been preserved: a peasant walked through the forest and got lost. Night fell, a friendly light shone in the distance; the peasant hurried to its light, came across a dilapidated hut and asked to spend the night. He was received by a poor old woman and to the guest's question: "who are you?" called Fate. " Death also “appears in legends with the character of the goddess of fate. Like women in labor, she, according to folk tales, perceives newborn babies, and as they are called among the Czechs kumami (kmotri? Ky), so the same name kuma is assigned to Death; in her caves she keeps the lamps of human life and determines the period of their burning”.a friendly light shone in the distance; the peasant hurried to its light, came across a dilapidated hut and asked to spend the night. He was received by a poor old woman and to the guest's question: "who are you?" called Fate. " Death also “appears in legends with the character of the goddess of fate. Like women in labor, she, according to folk tales, perceives newborn babies, and as they are called among the Czechs kumami (kmotri? Ky), so the same name kuma is assigned to Death; in her caves she keeps the lamps of human life and determines the period of their burning”.a friendly light shone in the distance; the peasant hurried to its light, came across a dilapidated hut and asked to spend the night. He was received by a poor old woman and to the guest's question: "who are you?" called Fate. " Death also “appears in legends with the character of the goddess of fate. Like women in labor, she, according to folk tales, perceives newborn babies, and as they are called among the Czechs kumami (kmotri? Ky), so the same name kuma is assigned to Death; in her caves she keeps the lamps of human life and determines the period of their burning”.and as those are called among the Czechs kumas (kmotri? ky), so the same name kuma is assigned to Death; in her caves she keeps the lamps of human life and determines the period of their burning”.and as those are called among the Czechs kumas (kmotri? ky), so the same name kuma is assigned to Death; in her caves she keeps the lamps of human life and determines the period of their burning”.
But the fate of a person is determined not only by Gods. Ethnographer A. K. Bayburin in his book "Ritual in Traditional Culture" writes: "The Slavic ideas about the share are characterized by duality. On the one hand, the share of each person is predetermined by the highest court (lot), on the other, this predetermination is not absolute: the share is not only given, but taken; its volume and nature (good - bad) depend on various circumstances; in some situations, a person himself chooses one or another share. Such ambiguity of the individual share is also manifested in the fact that not only mythological characters of various levels, but also the mother of the child, his recipients and other persons could act as its giver”.
Miroslav (Vlaskin Evgeniy)