Churov day is approaching today, July 27 - the time of commemoration of the ancestors who left for Nav, "another world", "another world", invisible life. These calendar rites are still not painted in gloomy, sad tones. It's about the attitude towards death and towards life. After all, they believed before - in this sublunary world, created by the Rod, the soul does not leave without a trace, does not disappear, like a grain of sand, in the ocean of time and space, but continues life - but already in a different quality and dimension, without breaking ties with the living blood and spiritual relatives, and sometimes returning to us in a different guise. Slavic mythology gives us amazing explanations of what happens to us outside of explicit life.
Calendar rites of remembrance of ancestors today
I thought about it - indeed, if you adhere to the same beliefs as the ancestors, life becomes much easier, the attitude towards death - my own and those of my loved ones - completely changes. This is similar to the perception of death in young children.
When I was still young, it seemed that I would never die, and my parents would always be with me forever. But she grew up, saw the first losses - first my great-grandmother left, then my grandfather - and a feeling of despair overcame. It seems that they are leaving forever, there will be no more of them, only photographs and memories will remain.
Modern people, for various reasons, perceive life very “straightforward”, consider it a chain of accidents. A person appears into the world, walks along the road of life, bypassing certain stages, and then comes to the last line - death, and disappears forever.
Time is running out, memory is running out, new generations are coming, and no one remembers him anymore … Of course, with such an attitude, death seems to be something terrible and terrible, a real catastrophe that destroys a person, sweeps him off the face of the Earth, erases him from memory.
Like everything that causes horror, we strive to forget about death as quickly as possible, and our deceased ancestors and loved ones are really gradually erased from our memory, we feel that we cannot approach them, that they are no longer among us.
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The departed seem to be distant and forever dissolved in time, it is harder and harder to remember them alive, supporting us, every year. Already, the ancestors who lived centuries before us, who laid the foundation for our family, are perceived as something mythical, as if it had never existed. Is it because sometimes such a feeling of hopelessness and fear envelops when you think about your future, about your posthumous fate, because for us death is considered a dead end, the last line, beyond which there is emptiness?
Calendar rites of the Slavs
My latent feeling that my relatives did not leave, but simply left somewhere, from where they could not send a message directly, did not go anywhere. It turned out that the premonition did not deceive. Indeed, according to the faith of the Slavs, the ancestors - Churs - are constantly present with us. The soul never dies, does not disappear forever.
This is what our Slavic ancestors thought. For them, human life was not a straight line, but a circle. After all, they were much closer to nature, its constant cycles. Spring always comes after winter, life on earth begins anew, after a turning point (Solstice) it begins to decline, gradually, gradually fading, finally, completely stops in order to be reborn again.
That is how man is - he is born, grows, matures, withers and leaves. But not without a trace. He will definitely return to earth - this is the order of things. He does not lose touch with his Clan, and his offspring reveres him, knows that he sees everything, even if he is not physically with them. So the Slavs carried out calendar rites of remembrance of the Ancestors - bright, not sad.
Calendar rituals of reverence for Chur - the ancestor of the family
Hence the veneration of the ancestors, and above all, Chura - the ancestor of the family, who protects it, protects the good and well-being, stands guard of the patrimonial nest.
The day of his remembrance - as well as the memories of all relatives, ancestors and those who were close to us during their life - is celebrated at the end of July, when the days are still sultry, summer is in full swing, but will soon begin to fade, turn into autumn …
Such a period reminded people that life is not eternal, it is necessary to think about the future. And in the future, everyone has the same result - the transition to another world.
I thought about it without any sadness and hopelessness - after all, they remembered that nothing in nature disappears without a trace, that the soul is immortal and can reincarnate several times, taking on many guises, passing into a variety of physical bodies.
In the East, in the teachings of Buddhism and Hinduism, such a belief is strong. They call it reincarnation, and in the Slavic Traditions the circle of rebirths of one soul is called Kolorod, and calendar rites help to remember this and honor the ancestors.
Soul path
But why is the human soul reborn? We are not all sinless. And the Gods at birth gave us all some task. Made mistakes, did not complete tasks - you have to pay for it, but in a different body.
Thus, the soul is liberated, tempered by the cycle of rebirth. The more the soul incarnates in the Manifest World, the more “hardened” it becomes, the more perfect and developed body it receives.
As in Buddhism, in the Slavic tradition it was believed that the soul can incarnate not only in human bodies, but also in animals, plants, stones. Man is the crown of creation, and therefore the incorporation of the soul into the human body means a special mercy and reward from the Gods for the virtues shown by it.
Time in the world of Navi does not exist, therefore for the soul, hundreds of years are like a single moment. After death, rebirth may not occur immediately, sometimes two physical bodies, in which the same soul has been, can be separated by whole centuries. But maybe just one moment.
Why don't souls "end" if they are constantly being reborn? There are many bodies in the world? And because they are constantly born in Prav, like sparks-stars appearing in the endless sky. This is the basis of our personality.
In Prav, the soul grows, develops, receives all the necessary knowledge and strength. Then, when she is ready for this, she is sent to the "middle" world of Revelation in a new body.
And there she lives until the deadline, trying to embody in life everything that was laid in her in the world of Rule. What happens when the deadline has come and the time comes for the soul to leave the body?
First, the soul throws off its physical shell, like a snake - a skin. The funeral rites of the Slavs are precisely aimed at helping this - the dead were not buried, but burned, because in this way the soul will much faster break the connection with the decaying body. And the dead were seen off with sadness, but they did not make a tragedy out of this event, because they knew that their loved ones would always remain close, and their Souls were immortal.
After the Soul left the Body, it goes to the world of Navi, where it is purified by fire. The less perfect the soul is, the more the flame burns, the more painful it burns. And those souls that did not fulfill their task, did not develop, burn to the ground in this flame, and the "ash" from them feeds the world of Rule, it will go to create new souls.
Other souls, not perfect, but not completely lost, can preserve entire layers of knowledge and energy, and bring them with them to a new physical body. Then the effect of remembering past lives arises - which means that the layers were quite powerful.
If you remember something that simply could not have happened in your real life, images of the unknown, some events, people, landscapes periodically appear in your head - this means that you have an “old”, living soul.
It is important to remember at the same time - you cannot enter the same river twice, you cannot re-live your past life. Indeed, in that other life there were mistakes, mistakes. When working with past lives, it is important to determine where this mistake was made and try to correct it.
And what happens to the souls of the Righteous? Those who have received a lot of experience and completed all the tasks are completely cleansed in Navi and retain their integrity. If experience is not enough, then she will acquire a new body more perfect.
And all the knowledge and experience gained by such a person in his previous incarnation will benefit him. Usually there are not very many such incarnations, in general, several times. After the fifth incarnation, a person comes into the world as a Knower who has the ability to bring knowledge to others.
And then, after the 7th reincarnation, he becomes a healer. After completing its affairs on earth, the soul of the perfect creature goes to the Rule, where it becomes similar to the Gods. Our souls go through such a cycle, and, as you can see, even the most imperfect ones do not disappear anywhere without a trace. And all the time they keep in touch with the family.
Calendar rituals are needed precisely for this. Churas are the souls of departed ancestors, saints and sacred, who have already passed into the Rule, but who have not ceased to follow the life of their relatives and descendants, protecting them, helping them in every way.
Chur's power is stronger than human, but weaker than Divine. He, like a man, can be angry and fall into mercy. The word "Chur" has survived in the language to this day.
When something threatening life, otherworldly, frightening appears, people shout: "Chur me!", Calling for the help of the guardian ancestor - and the navya dissipates without a trace. Churas were placed "idols" - their images - in specially designated places, starting from the home altar and ending with sacred groves.
They sculpted "idols" from wood and put them on the borders - the borders of the possessions. The statue itself embodies three worlds - Pravi (divine face), Yavi (physical appearance during life, and not necessarily human) and Navi (with the signs of Chura). Various sacrifices are made to such Churam in the form of vegetable food, pancakes and other products, but never meat and blood.
Calendar rituals on Churov day
On the day of Chura, according to the customs of the calendar rituals, they brought a demand for milk. They dug a hole on the border (border of the site), poured milk there. All gathered at home, showing the ancestor their unity and thus showing him respect.
They also remembered other people who had left, not forgetting that the turn will come for everyone to go first to Nav, then to Prav and return to Earth again - whoever it was: a stone, a tree, an animal or a bird, a new person.
And if you are conducting a memorial ceremony for a recently departed person - get together, all those who truly loved and respected him. Bake pancakes, a traditional Slavic memorial dish.
Light the candles, remember the person with a kind word, wish his Soul a good rebirth. That's all you really need - love, kindness and a wish for a new life.
The soul is immortal!
Slavic mythology about the world of Navi
If you think that mythology has not preserved memories of the world of Navi - the world of Souls from which the Ancestors return, then you are mistaken! Another thing is that these stories are few, and they are not always told. After all, it is the Slavic explanation of "life after life" that distinguishes one worldview from another. In our northern fairy tales, you can find rare revelations and figurative pictures of the Navi world.
For example, here is a short excerpt from the book "The Tragedy of God Veles":
- This is where Nav itself begins. After his death, every person is destined to overcome this road, - Veles explained again, - but you and I are alive, so we stay away from this place Navi. It is dangerous for you. Yes, and I’ve lost the habit of walking uphill,”the God of Witchcraft grinned, easily grabbed the guy and put him on his shoulder, and he climbed almost to the gray sky.
And the guy from above saw what only the Gods saw, and even then not all. Beneath them, a road stretched that encircled the mountain and rushed to the barely visible pass, and then descended again. The souls of the dead slid silently along the road, bypassing the huge stones blocking the passage. And it was scary to look at this gray, silent stream, at this solemn procession of Death, and this gave hope for the eternity of the Soul and its rebirth.
