The topic of the ancient relationship of the Celts and Slavs has become very popular for some time now, sometimes acquiring a smack of some pseudo-historical scandal. One of the supporters of the closeness and interconnection of the ancient priests of different tribes, S. V. Tsvetkov, as evidence of his position, cites the following arguments.
1. “Hyperboreans, Veneti, Neuros and Ants were often mistaken by ancient authors for Celts and Slavs. Such confusion was caused by ancient snobbery, which was expressed in a contemptuous attitude towards barbaric peoples: in Central Europe, where the Celts and Germans were the main tribes, the Slavs alternately treated one or the other.
2. Based on the fact that the formation of the Slavic ethnos took place on the territory of Suspension under the impressive influence of the Celtic civilization, it can be argued that the Slavic tribes were an ethnic synthesis of the Celtic and Proto-Slavic tribes. (As a substantiation of this thesis, Tsvetkov refers to anthropological studies, as a result of which a "Celtic-Slavic" type of skull structure was identified.
3. Celtic and Slavic tribes had a similar mentality. One of its characteristic features is cruelty, which has a basis in the religious-mystical picture of the world. (As the author of the theory suggests, both the Celts and Slavs divided the world of people into "us" and "strangers", the latter were inhabitants of the other world and were considered as a kind of "undead", with which one can not stand on ceremony.) Celtic and Slavic warriors were known as skillful and fearless. Despite their cruelty and belligerence, both were famous for their hospitality, loved music and had much in common in their attitude to power and religion.
4. Celts and Slavs have a common, Indo-European origin, in connection with which it is assumed that the Celts and Slavs:
a) a similar pre-Christian picture of the world;
b) similar rituals, in particular divination and funeral rites;
c) the dominant role of the priestly estate in society;
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d) the general system of sacrifices.
5. “The Chronicle Volokhs are the Celts, after whom they began to call Russian pagan priests the Magi.” It is assumed that the first Slavic Magi were none other than the Celtic Druids.
6. The similarity of the pagan Celtic and Slavic pantheons:
a) Tendency to monotheism;
b) general solar symbolism;
c) worship of objects of nature, in particular the veneration of stones.
7. The traditions of building temples by the Slavic tribes were also adopted from the Celts, who, in turn, adopted them from the Romans.
8. Blacksmithing, foundry technologies and jewelry were adopted by the Slavs from the Celts.
9. According to the version of A. G. Kuzmin (which is shared by S. V. Tsvetkov), the Glagolitic alphabet was created by the Irish monk Virgil, who spread Christianity in Moravia and Pannonia in the 5th century. n. e.
10. During the Christianization of Rus it was the Celts who laid the foundations of Russian Orthodoxy.
On the basis of all of the above, Tsvetkov comes to the conclusion that the "early medieval" Slavs are in many ways direct descendants of the Celts, and not only heirs, but also carriers of Celtic traditions and Celtic culture."
Based on the theory that the Celtic Druids were the ancestors and mentors of the Slavic Magi in witchcraft, we will carry out, without going into geographic subtleties, a comparative analysis of information about the Druids and about the Slavic Magi.
Before Christianization, the Magi had a fairly high status in society. A. F. Hilferding (Corresponding Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Slavic scholar) describes the Baltic Magi as a special class, whose duties were to perform public prayers in the sanctuaries, divine, recognize the will of the gods and proclaim it to people. The status of the sorcerer was so high that he disposed of the income from the estates that belonged to the temple. The pagan temple itself had land, the wise men taxed merchants, appropriated a third of the war booty and had their own army.
The Magi, like the Druids, were a special revered class, within which there was a division into groups in accordance with the functions performed. Based on a review of information Xl-XlV centuries. Academician B. A. Rybakov gives the following hierarchy of the Slavic priestly class (men-women):
- Magi, Guardians-Magi ("vlkhva" -women-sorcerer);
- Wizards, Witch Supporters;
- Cloud Runners, Blasphemers-Sorceresses;
- Priests, Bayans-Enchantresses;
- Sages, Wizards-Obavnitsy;
- Sorcerers, Kobniks-Forges;
- Enchantors-Suckers, supporters.
The main functions of the Slavic priesthood were: the performance of rituals and prayers to the gods, various worldly rituals, healing, divination, various conspiracies of a wide range of effects, from amulets for people and livestock to sending damage.
Like the Druids, the Magi made calendars. The Slavic calendar was based on a slightly different principle - the dates in it were not "floating" and did not depend on the phases of the moon. Like the Celtic, the Slavic Volkhov calendar was a "timetable of rituals" closely related to agricultural work. BA Rybakov describes in detail such a calendar dated to the 5th century BC. n. e. and representing an earthen jug for sacred water. On the jug, various events related to agricultural work were indicated: the timing of the appearance of the first shoots, the Slavic holiday of Yarilin day, the summer solstice, Perunov day, as well as the four periods of rains necessary for the spring crops of the area. As noted by BA Rybakov, the accuracy of this calendar was confirmed by the agrotechnical leadership of the XlX century. for the entire Kiev region. To carry out such accurate calculations and observations, its own system of signs was created, transmitted from teacher to student.
Like the Druids, the Slavic Magi were credited with power over the natural elements. They were "cloud-killers", they could conjure rain, influence solar and lunar eclipses. Just like the heroes of Celtic epic legends, the Magi could transform into animals, most often they were attributed to a wolf appearance.
Like the druids, the Magi were experts in various herbs and their properties; for various witchcraft manipulations with decoctions, a special enchant item was used, hence the name of such witchcraft-enchantment; those who used this kind of magic were called enchantors or enchantresses. Healers were also called supporters. Charu can be compared with Celtic magic cups, and both are endowed with magical properties.
Slavic predictors were called kobniks: B. A. Rybakov suggests that modern verbs "kobenitsya" and "kobenitsya" originate from this word, since the predictive ritual required some unusual body movements. Predictions were carried out with the help of observing the flight of birds, the druids also had this practice.
Bayuns were storytellers, but by no means of the same kind as the Celtic bards or Philids; in Dahl's dictionary "bayunit" means to talk, engaging in conversations, "baysik" is a storyteller who knows fairy tales, songs, stichera, spiritual verses, it is also a button accordion, boyan.
But the class of blasphemers was represented by storytellers of a different kind, some of their functions were really similar to the bardic ones - they were storytellers of myths and legends (it should be remembered that for us and for people of that time these stories about the gods are not the same, for them it was reality), which deserved the special dislike of the ministers of the Christian cult - the word "blasphemy" appeared in the Russian language, which meant insult and desecration of religious feelings (a close interpretation of the negative meaning of "blasphemy" is the abuse of "koschey" (bones), that is, disturbance of peace dead). Probably, in addition to various stories about the gods, the blasphemers were directly related to witchcraft practice, possibly to spells, appeals to the afterlife, and so on. Rybakov draws parallels between the blasphemer and the image of Koshchei the Immortal and his "blasphemous kingdom", that is, blasphemers,probably related to the funeral rite.
The Slavic priestly class included makers of talismans ("khranilyshki"); they were often identified with blacksmiths, since talismans were often made of metal and in the form of jewelry. The talismans depicted various pictures from the pagan pantheon of the Slavs or a protector deity. Among other things, blacksmiths, making weapons, decorated them in the same way, so the sword had not only the function of an earthly weapon, but also a protector from otherworldly forces.
Among the Celts, we find in their legends ("The Battle of the Mag Tuired") a similar attitude towards swords: "That is why they are truly rightfully rubbed by removing them from their scabbards. And even at that time, talismans were held in swords, and demons were broadcasting from the blades, and all because then people worshiped weapons, and it was their protection."
As for the sacrifices, among the Slavs they were performed by the sorcerer-cloud-chaser - most of the rituals were associated with the harvest, and therefore with weather conditions.
There are some similarities in the appearance of the Druids and the Magi. In the Radziwill Chronicle of 1071, there is an image of a sorcerer: he is dressed in loose white clothes, although for some reason he is without a board.
Both the Celts and the Slavs alike had a cult of stones. Particularly revered were the so-called "thunderstones" or "lightning stones" (thunder), arising mainly when lightning strikes the ground, when the soil in the "lightning trunk" is sintered into a kind of oblong "arrow" ("arrow" or "finger" Perun, the lord of the thunderstorm and the patron saint of the military class), however, it is possible that sometimes it could be meteorites, or just stones that were struck by lightning. The Slavic Magi used "Perun's arrows" as protective talismans: "And that stone falls and shoots from above from the thunder … We call it a thunder arrow … From that stone we make an eye into a ring and wear it on the hand, it is saved from every visible and invisible villain you will … The demons will be afraid of the same stone, but the one who wears it will not be afraid of misfortune and misfortune and will overcome his opponents. If anyone carries a thunderous arrow with him, he can defeat everyone by his own strength, and no one will stand against him, although he would be stronger … "(Zabelin I. Ye." The history of Russian life since ancient times ").
Such stones were also used for healing purposes. Among the Celts, they were primarily associated with the cult of fertility. For example, a woman who wanted to get pregnant had to spend the night on a ritual stone, or the young had to spend their wedding night on such a natural altar. The Celts used lightning stones for the same purposes as the Slavic Magi - it was believed that such a talisman protects from fires and lightning strikes, and the owner of the talisman himself acquires a certain magical or military power.
The Slavic and Celtic peoples are related by the veneration of the oak. The connection of the oak with other worlds in Slavic folklore is well known. Thus, the expressions “to give an oak” (to die), “to look into an oak” (to be near death), “to stiffen” (to freeze) connect this tree with the world of death. According to popular beliefs, using oak, the dead can get into the earthly world. Oaks, oak groves from ancient times were dedicated to the thunderbolt Perun and served as a way of communication with his (other) world. The oak on the island of Khortytsya, on the Dnieper, has long been revered by the Cossacks as a sacred tree connecting with the divine worlds. In Russian fairy tales, an oak tree is often a place where the hero moves to other worlds or a place of communication with these worlds: the death of Koshchei the Immortal is on the oak tree, there is a hollow in it that stores untold treasures, etc.
As you can see, the Celts and Slavs really have a lot of common features, the contact of cultures really took place.
And yet, the above analogies do not mean at all that the class of Celtic Druids was identical to the class of the Slavic Magi, nor does it prove that the first Magi among the Slavs were druids. BA Rybakov notes that the Slavs often had the same person as a prince and a priest: “In many Slavic languages,“prince”and“priest”sound almost the same (Czech: prince-knez, priest-knez; Polish: prince-ksiaze, priest-ksiadz) ; Describing the excavations of the Black Tomb, Rybakov notes that inside the grave there are indispensable attributes of a Slavic priest: a bronze idol, two turkey horns and two sacrificial knives. The pictures of the world of the Slavs and Celts also had quite impressive differences. Rybakov believes that the progenitors of the pantheon of Slavic deities were the Skolot deities, while they themselves were the descendants of the Scythians.
The teachings of the Skolots were not much like the teachings of the Druids. Traditionally, the Slavs divided the world into reality, nav and rule, while the Celts have a world of people and a sid, inhabited by tribes of gods, whose races have repeatedly changed. Among other things, the gods of the Celts are mortal, such as the Partalon race, which died from a pestilence, and can experience various collisions of life, as if ordinary people, for example, to be expelled from somewhere unknown, how the gods of the Danu tribe were expelled by the sons of Mil, etc. …
It is in vain that the Celts are credited with striving for a strict hierarchy of gods, not to mention monotheism: the god Llug was not more revered than the goddess Brigit, and the god Dagda quite often, according to mythology, found himself in embarrassing situations.
Dagda is the great leader of the entire Danu clan, but he is just another leader of another divine race. It is difficult to find a religion that allows itself such direct mockery of the higher gods, even in folk tales. Although, of course, something similar can be found among the Greeks or Hindus, but certainly not in the mythology of the Slavs, where there is no place for mocking passages in relation to any of the higher deities - Svarog, Rod, Dazhdbog, Khors … and any other character divine pantheon.
The Slavs, in contrast to the Celts, really had the prerequisites for a strict hierarchy of gods and even monotheism. God Rod (often interpreted as Svarog) ruled over the human race, heaven and earth, he largely owned the power over the elements. The rest of the gods in the Slavic pantheon were also deeply revered, however, one can speak of Rod (and later, Perun) as the supreme deity.
The transfer of knowledge was probably also significantly different. The Slavs did not have forest schools, like the Druid ones; most likely, magic arts and knowledge were passed on within the family - from father to son, from mother to daughter. This explains the more extensive gradation within the Volkhov estate. The Magi were not a clearly structured organization, like the Celtic Druids, nor did they have an archdruid head ("archwolf"). The one whom someone with magical abilities identified as a student, simply lived nearby and studied, day after day comprehending the science of herbs and spells, rituals and calendar subtleties.
If you look at the deification and spiritualization of nature, then for that era it was more than natural not only to the ancient Celts and Slavs, but also to all peoples who had ever inhabited our planet.
In social terms, unlike the Slavic Magi, for the Druids it was quite natural to have strict control over the functions of the highest power, and later, in Britain, and the combination of the functions of a priest and a king in one person. This tradition was preserved among the descendants of the Celts, and they, for example, crowned the head of state and revered as the anointed of God, and the Christian European kings were the governors of God on earth.
Quite a strange idea is to record the Magi as the descendants of the Druids. Considering all that has been said above about the druids, it is naive to assume that they, who so carefully kept their secrets, would suddenly begin to share them with strangers. Still, the Slavs were not Celts, even if we assume that for a short time they could live with them in the neighborhood. And if we accept the hypothesis of the discipleship of the Magi, then the Druids, undoubtedly, transferred to them not only their knowledge, but also the system of training, they would include them in their hierarchy, just as if during the time of Prince Vladimir Russia became Catholic, then it would obey the Pope Roman … Everything that was associated with the cult was considered sacred by the druids themselves - not least of all this can be said about the druidic hierarchy. When the Romans of the 1st century. n. e. destroyed the center of druidism during the battle on the skeleton of Mona,they actually broke his backbone. From that very moment, the decline of Druidism began, up to its complete disappearance, which can be designated V-Vl century. -after the Christianization of Ireland (the last stronghold of druidism).
It is also difficult to assume that even during the period of the decline of Druidism, individual Druids, fleeing from the troubles that persecute them, crossed all of Europe, settled in Slavic territories and were able to exert any significant influence on the already established and functioning system of Slavic priesthood.
In conclusion, it should be noted that, based on the logic of the historical process and the migrations of the people (in particular, the Aryan migrations), the opposite hypothesis has a greater right to exist, according to which the Druids may be the recipients of the Slavic-Aryan priestly tradition, in their own way understood and developed by them, - After all, the Slavs as an ethnos, although they took shape later than the Celts (according to modern scientific views), were always geographically and culturally much more stable, did not move away from their ancestral lands, located much closer to the center of the ancient Aryan civilization. The Celts, however, were eventually pushed out to the very outskirts of Eurasia …
Frolov Sergey. Member of the Russian Geographical Society of Armavir