With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the term “paganism” began to gain more and more popularity in our country. The biggest jump in popularity has become the last 5-8 years - the years of the rapid development of Internet technologies and Internet resources. A lot of people appeared who began to call themselves pagans. Modern paganism has become a subculture, and being a pagan has become kind of fashionable.
A huge number of communities dedicated to paganism have appeared in various social networks, and groups of related topics (for example, esoteric groups) began to pay more and more attention to this. People's interest has grown and continues to grow. To a greater extent, paganism attracts people with patriotic feelings, those who love their land, country, homeland. However, why are these people not interested in Orthodoxy, traditional for our region? Not all patriots are carried away by paganism, but many.
After the ban on religiosity was lifted, people were able to believe in anything or not believe at all. Someone discovered Orthodoxy, someone - other religious denominations and cults, but many decided to start looking for pre-Christian beliefs. All because they have no respect for Orthodoxy, and the latter has lost all authority in their eyes. Therefore, anti-clerical sentiments are so strong among the people, and they treat Orthodoxy as some kind of Jewish project, specially created to enslave the Slavs and other peoples. This is the official position of modern paganism.
When I was in school, at some point I began to be interested in something metaphysical, well, that's understandable: sooner or later a person asks himself such questions. On the bookshelf at my home, I found a book on astrology, various signs of the zodiac, their descriptions and more. The tendency of my mind and predisposition to "humanitarianism" aroused great interest in me in this entertaining reading. I began to study the descriptions of the various signs of the zodiac, memorized them in order to be able to receive information about a particular person, to know what one could expect from him and what his character is, to select friends according to this principle, or vice versa, to avoid someone.
I seriously believed in astrology and believed that these descriptions actually correspond to reality, and with their help I can learn something about a person only by the date of his birth. My head was filled with this nonsense for a long time, but after a lot of experience studying people on this principle, empirically, I came to the conclusion that these descriptions are incorrect and that each of them can be true for any of the 12 signs of the zodiac. So I lost faith in astrology, and not because someone told me, but because I myself figured out this pseudo-scientific teaching.
And I was also terribly superstitious and seriously believed that signs work: if you do this and that, then you will be successful in this and that - and it seemed to me that it worked! I believed that if I perform a certain ritual (for example, do not greet each other across the threshold, look in the mirror before going out, sit "on the path", etc.), then I will surely expect success, or at least there will be no disappointments today and unpleasant situations. For unpleasant situations could greatly disappoint me and cause stress, which I really did not want, like most normal people. And therefore, due to my mental weakness, I resorted to such dubious methods of dealing with them. I believed in pagan astrology and had pagan forms of belief - superstition. I was a real pagan!
Growing up, becoming interested in various natural sciences, as well as studying religions, I realized that that model of belief and an attempt to explain certain things (predict them, influence them) is primitive, childish, underdeveloped. This is the simplest attempt to explain something metaphysical, beyond.
I was a pagan, but I was not an adherent of the modern pagan subculture "Rodnoverie", which is so popular now. I was not for one simple reason: I knew nothing about it and I had no place to get such information, although Rodnoverie already existed. If I grew up in the modern period, with all these gadgets, social networks and such a saturated Internet, then I would probably be interested in this phenomenon. However, my views evolved earlier, long before my acquaintance with Rodnoverie and modern paganism.
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Those. being at that stage of development of my views, I was greedy for various unknown, esoteric. I was attracted by this mysterious and unknown. What if I can learn something from clever books and learn to do something that I could not? Quite a reasonable and sensible desire. Paganism is very attractive because it offers easy ways of solving problems, but these ways in practice turn out to be wrong and dead end. At a young age, a person wants everything, at once and faster, which is why pagan elements are so attractive to young people who are fascinated by them.
Why do many people become addicted to paganism in adulthood? It is obvious that they are at an early stage in the development of their views and have just come to this. I was lucky, and I became interested in this even in school, but many are so unlucky, and they come to this at a later, often mature age. A huge part of them also eventually evolve and cease to be superstitious, cease to believe in astrology, horoscopes, healers and sorcerers, corruption and evil eye, love spell and lapel, various voodoo cults, black cats, tarot cards and other heromancy. However, many continue to adhere to their beliefs, stubbornly refusing to accept objective criticism of neo-paganism.
KINGDOM OR SLAVIC LANGUAGE?
Rodnoverie is a cultured form of pagan beliefs, an attempt to build a certain subculture on the pagan foundation, an attempt to unite people into society within the framework of pagan beliefs. Rodnoverie is the modern paganism of the Slavs, or rather, persons from the post-Soviet space of Slavic appearance. Rodnoverie analogs exist in different parts of the world. In Scandinavia - this is Asatru, in Great Britain - Druidism, in Latin America - the descendants of the indigenous peoples are trying to revive their beliefs (Maya, Aztecs, Incas, etc.). India is officially a pagan country.
Rodnoverie is neo-paganism, namely "neo", that is, new. However, Rodnovers claim that their specific beliefs are similar to the beliefs of the Slavic tribes before the adoption of Christianity in Russia. And that they keep and revive the old faith. However, this is not true: the faith of the pre-Christian Slavs and the faith of modern Rodnovers are not the same thing!
If Rodnoverie is a subculture built on pagan views, then in addition to it there is a huge number of pagans who do not belong to Rodnovers. However, their circles are replenishing at a rapid pace. Having pagan views, a person sooner or later stumbles upon somewhere on a social network the publication of materials that are interesting, in his opinion, and that correspond to his worldview. He decides to join the community, albeit virtually, but de facto becoming a member of this society. Those. it would be if I, at that school age, would browse the Internet and come across such materials - they would clearly interest me. To be honest, 5-6 years ago, while studying the Internet, I came across materials from neo-pagans, and I liked them. However, in the end, having a bit of critical thinking, I did not fall for these provocations and turned away from this,visually attractive information.
Modern pagans (Rodnovers) in the temple.
At that moment I was interested in Vikings, Scandinavia, nature and aesthetics of the north of Russia, taiga, ancient times, Germanic and Slavic tribes and others. The materials of neo-pagans attracted me, first of all, for their aesthetics. After all, most of the publications of modern pagans now represent various pretentious pictures, which depict daring warriors in armor, Vikings, luxurious chopped huts with carved platbands, beautiful girls with braids and in dresses with ornaments, fairy-tale worlds in the fantasy genre, happy people, who dance in circles - and everything is clearly done in a propaganda style. In general, drawing attention-grabbing pictures, and below them a text that allegedly contains a description of the life and life of the Slavs, their beliefs and other things. However, most of these descriptions do not pass any criticism - they were invented by the authors of these resources, and this was not in reality. Plus the lion's share of all the material falls on Christian Russia, and is presented as pagan. Therefore, modern Rodnoverie cannot command any respect - because of outright lies and falsification of materials.
An example of pretentious propaganda pictures of Rodnovers.
Due to the lack of any sources of that time, modern neo-pagans are forced to deal with the composition, the assumption of how it could have been then. But you can guess as much as you like, but without sources, such assumptions are worthless, and Rodnoverie in this case is an absolutely new, modern religious cult, built on lies and falsification. And if you ask me why, despite objective criticism, Rodnovers still continue to be Rodnovers, I will answer you: because their views are at a low stage of development, they have not undergone evolution, as it was with me when I abandoned astrology and superstition.
An important point is the fact that the lion's share of adherents sympathetic to neo-paganism are people in a state of neophyte, i.e. undecided, doubting, those who just stumbled upon the propaganda of neo-pagans and perceives it as something patriotic. Those. the number of seasoned neo-pagans is not that great in fact. Due to the fact that their views have not yet undergone rapid growth and evolution, they buy into the pseudoscientific information of neo-pagans and take it for granted. Despite the objective criticism, which is now quite enough, people who are greedy for neo-paganism are still being led by all these fabulous pictures and invented stories. The charm of a fictional past is so beautiful that sometimes no criticism can dispel these myths. In addition, people turn on conspiracy thinking about Jewish-Masonic conspiracies. People do not want to accept criticism, because the vast majority of people who sympathize with neo-paganism, as practice shows, have uncritical thinking: people inclined to abstract thinking, fantasizing, in general, kind, loving the Motherland, respecting manual labor. There are many neo-pagans among the visitors of this site.
If you do not touch Russia and Europe, then you can take India, in which many people profess Hinduism. Once upon a time, Buddhism emerged from Hinduism - as a more perfect form, based on the dharma concepts of South Asia. Buddhism is an evolution of views, it is progress, a way forward, while Hinduism is a regression, movement in place. It does not matter whether it is Christianity or Islam - monotheism was precisely the very evolution of human views from a wild, primitive man - to a higher and more civilized one. A return to paganism is a way back, regression, cultural degradation, decline. All attempts of modern pagans to present paganism as something highly cultured, pure, good are in vain, and, apart from their painted fairy-tale pictures, there were no historical sources testifying to the “purity” of paganism.
Paganism has always and everywhere been cruel. If monotheism says that a person must control himself, curb his instincts, then paganism has always relied precisely on primitive human instincts. Blood for blood, eye for eye, cults of aggression and strength - when all issues can be resolved only by force, and the one who is stronger is right. An example is pagan Scandinavia, where Yarls could change almost every day, dying from the sword of a new challenger. Society was built on a primitive biological dogma of power, a hierarchy of domination, slavery and submission.
CONSUMER LANGUAGE
And yet, most of the modern pagans do not belong to the subculture of the native believers, while de facto remaining pagans. For paganism runs through all spheres of our activity. If a native is most often a person inclined to something archaic, ancient, traditional, then the one I am talking about may not like and despise it at all.
I have already spoken above about astrology and various superstitions, which are also a manifestation of paganism. Astrology is an attempt to study certain events on Earth from the stars and celestial bodies, an attempt to predict events according to the "heavenly book of fate." The nature of superstitions is such that all superstitions are built on the principle of either protecting against something negative, or to attract positive.
Therefore, any pagan cult has always been built precisely on superstition - on people's fear of certain objects, situations and on trying to correct these situations. Therefore, in any pagan cults there have always been priests, wise men, sorcerers, oracles who were engaged in predicting events and trying to correct them. In this regard, the clergy of traditional confessions, with a general similarity to the priests, differ from them in that they are not authorized to predict events and change them, their role is mediation between man and God. Therefore, the activity of the priest was called witchcraft, and the activity of the priest was akin to the activity of a shepherd - teacher, sage, mentor, for a priest does not change anything. The believer himself is engaged in changes - through his repentance and sacraments, and the priest is only a mediator.
Fortuneteller.
In Christianity, as in Islam and Buddhism, in order to change your future, you must change yourself, but in paganism everything is different. You come to the sorcerer, pay him money for a service, and he either predicts something for you, or tries to change the course of events by some actions, rituals. In this regard, a huge number of Christians do not really understand what Christianity is and regard it as paganism. They spend huge amounts of money on various icons, gold chains, candles, “on building a temple,” on prayer for themselves by the clergy, thinking that the more money they spend, the better their future will be. And at the same time they themselves do nothing to improve themselves. "I paid you, God, why don't you help me?" - entrepreneurial attitude towards God, as towards your business partner. They are not Christians at allbut the most real pagans. Exactly the same as those who go to witches and sorcerers, witches and fortune-tellers. They have constancy of intentions, one sorcerer did not help - I will go to another. They represent the Orthodox priest as a sorcerer, a priest, mentally endowing him with qualities unusual for him.
Idol worshipers
Money worship
However, not only such people can be called pagans. There is much more modern paganism. For example, belief in the Golden Calf, service to mammon - the craving of a modern person for material well-being and the cult of money can also be called paganism. When material wealth is the goal of life, and striving for enrichment is the only activity. Such people go to church to light a candle for the success of their enterprise, for the success of his next commercial deal, for getting more profit, etc. When all the main traditional confessions call for non-covetousness, moderate asceticism, for observing the measure in their needs, the pagan achieves, on the contrary, the highest material indicators.
All big bourgeois, bearers of big capital, oligarchs are just such pagans. Instead of doing ordinary, socially useful work, they engage in investment and speculation. They receive money out of thin air, selling already created goods and services, giving money for growth at interest. I would call such pagans money-worshipers.
Chinese talisman for increasing money.
This does not mean that they worship money in the literal sense - they put a bunch of bills in front of them and make obeisances - worship happens in a different way. As some worshiped idols, gods, bringing them gifts, sacrifices, so modern money worshipers worship money, sacrificing something for the sake of increasing money. This worship is performed in superstitious rituals. For example, some pagans (mostly women) use various conspiracies that they think will bring more money. They say a phrase in front of the money and put it in their wallet, hoping that the number of pieces of paper will increase precisely because of this ritual.
Others are constantly counting them, repeating that "money loves the bill." Still others put them in the wallet in a special way, the fourth put some amulets in the wallet, or not in the wallet, but simply keep them in the house. Popular Chinese amulets in the shape of a toad with a coin or just a coin with a hole on a string. There are hundreds of them …
Nevertheless, the worship of money is paganism, not monotheism (monotheism), because money worship is only part of the great pagan outlook of man, and besides him there are others, because pagans have many gods.
Cattle worship
Another type of idolatry is cattle worship. This ailment affects people who are fond of various vegetarian diets, and most of all - vegans. Refusal from animal food due to the poor quality of meat products (sausages from do not understand what, hormonal meat, etc.) is quite understandable and logical - people are afraid for their health. The religious overtones are also quite understandable, for example, fasting, when a believer is forbidden to eat animal food, as well as "tasty" food, ie. refusal as austerity, as an element of control over oneself and one's vices, but only for a while.
However, it is another matter when a person refuses meat because he believes that "killing animals is not good!" Extreme vegans refuse not only food, but leather and any animal products. Ardent animal defenders, they all put animals above humans and do not allow their killing just because, in their opinion, it is “wrong”. This is nothing more than cattle worship.
Food worship
The next type of modern paganism is food worship. When people pay too much attention to the food they eat. They eat something specific, or, more often, on the contrary, they refuse something, bending over this or that food. Food lovers include raw foodists. Instead of being omnivorous and consuming all kinds of food, they exclude food of animal origin as well as food that has undergone heat treatment. They believe that their diet can bring their health to a better state, get rid of diseases, even cancer, and much more. The extreme stage of a raw food diet, in their opinion, is the so-called "prano diet", when the body no longer needs earthly food, but enough "energy supply".
Among raw food eaters there is not a single church-going Orthodox, Muslim believer, Jew, and also hardly any authentic Tibetan (or Mongolian, Buryat, Kalmyk, Chinese or even from Southeast Asia) Buddhist will be a raw foodist. A raw food diet can only be accepted by people with an occult, pagan outlook, whoever they call themselves. The vast majority of raw foodists are fond of esotericism and occultism, there are many raw foodists among native believers.
Food worship is also any endowment of food with some properties, for example, the belief that healing tea or infusion can save me from cancer - this is also food worship. Any gluttony, when a person indulges his stomach with various delicacies - "a feast during the plague" is also food worship. Such a person serves his stomach as God. Submits to the “will of his stomach”, as the will of the master, and satisfies his culinary needs and desires.
Cult of personality
The most serious form of idolatry is man worship, i.e. raising a certain person into the cult framework. For example, the "personality cult" of a famous person, such as I. Stalin, or V. Lenin. Endowing a person with magical power or something powerful. Icons with Stalin differ from icons of saints in that the icons of saints, unlike any idols, depict the face of a saint, and the person praying is not praying to the icon as such (a piece of wood), but to the saint. In the same way, you can pray without the icon. Whereas the role of the idol lies precisely in the fact that the worshiper prays to a specific idol, believing that it is this idol that is able to bring him good, or vice versa, adversity (if not to please him). Therefore, in ancient times, many pagans had their own personal idols to which they sacrificed.
Such a cult of personality exists even now among many, when, for example, they put water in front of the TV for a conspiracy, believing that the speaker's voice has healing power. For some reason, other unbelieving atheist communists keep the statuettes of Ilyich and keep them carefully. In reality, the personality cult of Stalin and Lenin, of course, was exaggerated, but this was the case.
Serious types of human worship are the cult of the mother or the cult of women in a matriarchal society - when all activity is associated with activities for the sake of a woman (wife, lover, mother). I wrote more about this in the article on matriarchy. Then a man is ready to crash into a cake for the sake of a woman, and women, using this, manipulate such a man-worshiper of women. Such a man is too dependent on women, he cannot live without them. To be honest, all these flowers, confessions, inscriptions on the asphalt under the window are all pagan women worship. Traditional confessions do not recognize such behavior; in them the roles of men and women are structured hierarchically and patriarchal.
Whatever one may say, but the cult of personality exists among famous people: actors, musicians, prominent political figures. They are exactly the same people: they do not glow in the dark, there is no halo above them, but when many admirers meet with the objects of their cult - their idol - what emotions and feelings they experience at the same time: “So I finally touched myself! I can shake his hand, kiss him, get an autograph”and so on, and so on … What is this if not a personality cult?
Materialism, material worship, fetishism
The next actual type of paganism is material worship, or materialism, fetishism - when people worship material objects. Various talismans, amulet-amulets, pebbles from "places of power" - all this is fetishism.
However, not only talismans can be objects of worship and instill in a person some kind of faith - material worship is most often the cult of ordinary household things, for example, items of clothing. When a person puts on this or that fashionable thing on himself, then subconsciously he endows it with something magical. For example, if I wear this jacket or this coat, blouse, watch, then I will look “cooler”. I will feel more confident in this, but no other changes will occur to me and the world around me. Those. it is this particular thing that will give me some kind of magical power - and I will become "cooler".
The pagan amulet * Red thread *, spread by the followers of the occult Jewish movement Kabbalah. Sold to stupid tourists in Israel.
Those who have played computer games of the fantasy genre will understand: when a hero finds some thing (armor, helmet, sword, amulet, etc.), then putting it on, he becomes somewhat better depending on the value of this thing … Those. it is this very thing that adds +1 to magic, +10 to dexterity, etc. In everyday life, the same thing happens to us: when we put on some cool clothes, we begin to feel stronger, cooler, more successful, more powerful, in general, better than we were before putting on it. From the feeling that we consider ourselves better, we experience joy, satisfaction (endorphins are produced), which means that it was this thing that influenced the improvement of well-being, and at the same time we realized that we supposedly became better.
FINALLY
I understand that this is a controversial issue, many will disagree with me and prefer archaic forms of social structure - this is their business. In our country today, in many respects, everything is built in the same way, and it is not at all necessary to be a Rodnover or a Druid in order to be a pagan. Paganism now permeates many spheres of our activity, it did not leave us anywhere and was always with us; paganism will continue to exist until our last days. It is in our gut, in the deepest corners of our vast inner universe, and it is simply impossible to remove it completely.
Paganism is a primitive beast that sits in our bodily shell, and often this beast wakes up and takes possession of us. In politics and economics, in science and art - in all spheres of our activity paganism lives.
In this article I do not condemn anyone, although I criticize, giving my assessment of the events. Each person has free will and has the right to choose certain things, views and so on. I may disagree with something, but I respect the conscious choice of people, rejection of something, or vice versa, acceptance. If you want to accept these or those pagan views, this is your right. With this article I would like to show what they are made of and what they are. Thank you for attention!
Author: Oleg Prikhodko