The memory of their deeds was so diligently cleared out of the history of Russia that now we know more about the Celtic druids than about their Slavic "colleagues" - the mighty Magi.
Academicians of Slavic Sciences
There were no situations in the life of our distant ancestors that did without the participation of the Magi. And if so, then in history there should have been many references to them. But is it really so? Alas, for more than a thousand years, Christianity has erased any information about the servants of pagan gods from the people's memory, and has succeeded pretty much. There was even a paradox: almost everything that historians know about the wise men, they have learned from Christian sources.
But even by the evil responses of the church, one can judge how powerful these people possessed. Among the ancient Slavs, the Magi community was assigned the role of keepers of age-old wisdom, which they carefully cherished and constantly multiplied. Their authority was so great that it often exceeded that of the prince, and there were two main reasons for this. First, the wise men traditionally were intermediaries between the world of people and the gods. Secondly, they were much closer to the people than representatives of the princely power, and the importance of their work for the Slavic tribes was truly invaluable. The same reasons later turned out to be fatal for the magicians: Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko did not want to share power, and changed paganism to Christianity, which allowed him to declare war on the Magi.
In the Slavic community, the sorcerer simultaneously played the role of a religious priest, fortuneteller, magician, healer, herbalist, and at the same time a psychologist and "manager" of the human community. In addition, since one of the main Volkhov instruments was the word, the magicians had the duty to create and improve tribal rites, create prayers and ritual chants, and formulate appeals to the gods. It is quite possible that some of the ancient epics that have come down to us are also the fruit of their creativity, it is not for nothing that the Magi were also called bainniks (from the word “bayat” - to speak, tell) and blasphemers (“blasphemer” - an epic tale).
It is generally accepted that there was a kind of division of labor between male magi and female witches (from the word "in charge"). Men were engaged in social activities that concerned the entire tribe, and women were responsible for household and family magic, quackery and fortune telling on personal topics.
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Wizard, favorite of the gods
At the end of the 19th century, archaeologists found evidence that the Magi were even responsible for the calendar according to which the tribal community lived. On a ritual jug found near Chernyakhov, with the help of a special sign system, the dates of the most important events for the Dnieper Slavs were marked. Calendar marks indicated the onset of natural phenomena necessary for the growth of the crop, and the time of prayers for these phenomena. Separately, the dates for the growth of cereal crops and the dates of the main Slavic holidays were listed. It is interesting that the agricultural part of the calendar was fully confirmed by the agrotechnical reference book issued for the Kiev province at the turn of the 20th century.
“ Meeting of Prince Oleg with a magician (sorcerer). ” V. M. Vasnetsov, 1899
Depending on the season and the upcoming holidays, the Slavic priests sometimes played completely different roles. On Divin's day, for example, they were engaged in community psychoanalysis, instructing people who came for advice on how best to work out their "life lesson" in order to live better in a new rebirth than before. And on the day of Veles, the Magi regularly performed the functions of Santa Claus: they went from house to house, talked with the kids about what they had learned in a year, and awarded the most diligent ones with gifts. Lazyev, according to legend, a magician could freeze to death.
Some of the daily activities of the Magi were preserved in comic expressions that have come down to our days: "to pound water in a mortar", "to write with a pitchfork on the water", "to beat thumbs up" - all this magicians did very often. In our time, such activities are considered little respectable, but only because for many centuries the ministers of the church deliberately distorted the meaning of these actions and ridiculed them in every possible way. What did the wise men actually do?
Much is known about the miraculous properties of water today. For example, scientists are convinced that she has the ability to absorb any information and then transmit it. And when the magician began to “crush water in a mortar”, he energetically purified the liquid in order to then put into it the information necessary for certain purposes. In the same vein, one should interpret "writing with a pitchfork on the water", which just means programming water for protection, recovery, well-being and similar positive effects. The Magi literally "wrote" on the water, inscribing runic signs on it using a ritual three-pointed fork. Triglav symbolized the unity of the three worlds - Yavi, Pravi and Navi, in addition, a threefold increase in magical signs gave a triple power to the spell.
"Thrashing" also meant something quite different from what it is today. When a baby was born, the sorcerer noticed the day and time of his birth. Then he went into the forest, chose a tree in the prime of life, with a strong energy, performed a ceremony, asking permission from the gods and chopped down the plant he chose. In place of the felled tree, several new ones were supposed to be planted so that the forest would not degenerate. At a favorable time, the sorcerer cut out logs of different sizes from the selected wood and gave them to the newborn's family. Of these, the child's father made toys, dishes, handles for tools and weapons. Throughout the child's life, all these objects became powerful amulets, they brought him good luck, gave him strength, and protected him from evil.
The faces of the ancient priests
When trying to imagine what the magician-sorcerer was as a person, historians inevitably encounter contradictions. The fact is that fragmentary information has been preserved about very different representatives of this community.
From time to time, the Volkhov gift was found among the representatives of the authorities. The most famous of them is Prince Vseslav of Polotsk, according to legend, who was not born in the usual way, but "from magic." "The Lay of Igor's Host" tells that he was trained by the Magi of witchcraft wisdom, and could turn into a gray wolf, a bay tur, a clear falcon. Vseslav also knew how to see the future, lead a haze to the enemy, and perfectly coped with two "positions" at once - a pagan priest and a prince.
Monument to Vseslav the Sorcerer in Polotsk
Since the Magi were fluent in the art of music and the skill of storytellers, historians consider the ancient singer Boyan the Prophetic as a true sorcerer. He received the nickname "Prophetic", apparently, precisely because he possessed a special gift of speech and the ability to reincarnate.
Another pagan priest remained on the pages of the chronicle because he staged a rebellion against the baptism of the inhabitants of Veliky Novgorod. The name of the rebel sorcerer was Bogomil-Nightingale, and there are two versions about his nickname. According to the first, he possessed amazing eloquence, and therefore the people obeyed him unquestioningly. According to the second version, Bogomil played the harp and said blasphemers like a songbird, which is why he received the bird's nickname.
A story about another Nightingale can be found in Russian epics and legends - this is the famous Nightingale the robber. The historian M. Zabylin wrote in one of his works: “When the Christian faith penetrated into Russia, it did not suppress Slavic paganism everywhere and not now, as we see from the struggle of Ilya Muromets with the Nightingale the Robber, who, according to legend, was none other than a fugitive priest hiding in the woods. " In fact, Ilya Muromets, who according to legend served Vladimir the Baptist, could conduct "punitive expeditions" against the pagan priests hiding in the forests, and his battle with the Nightingale the Robber was so fierce that it has survived to this day in folk tales.
Much bo and volsvi chydes sotvorisha
With the advent of Christianity, a real religious war broke out in Russia. The Magi were mercilessly exterminated, only those who managed to hide in the forest thickets escaped. The Church not only physically destroyed the pagan priests - it did everything to destroy their authority among the people, and the very memory of them was erased forever. But for Christian Russia, the Magi were dangerous not only for their powerful influence on people, but also for their witchcraft abilities, which even the priests did not doubt. Lines from a letter from Jacob Mnich to Prince Vladimir have survived: "There is a lot more and will do things with demonic dreams …"
I must say that in the battle with the new faith, sorcerers used any weapon - eloquence, influence, and magic. In the 11th century, a certain sorcerer raised an uprising in Novgorod against Prince Gleb, but was killed by deception. In the same century, the Magi organized revolts against Christianity in Suzdal, Yaroslavl and Kiev, and although all protests were brutally suppressed, some of the priests went into the forests, where they continued to provide spiritual guidance and other assistance to the people.
“ Prince Gleb Svyatoslavovich kills the sorcerer at the Novgorod veche (Prince's court) ”, A. P. Ryabushkin, 1898
One of the last mentions of the pagan priests dates back to the end of the 17th century, when in the Order of Investigative Affairs they interrogated "the sorcerer Dorofeyka" - a medicine man, a fortuneteller and a sorcerer. The sorcerer was under investigation for casting a spell on the grand dukes so that they would show favor to the steward Andrei Bezobrazov. Dorofeyka confessed to all his magic, for which he was executed.
Centuries passed, and the real sorcerers possessing magical knowledge became less and less. Witchcraft still operated only in peasant life, where with the help of simple conspiracies they treated people and cattle, were engaged in herbalism and the simplest "love spells-lapels". As if there were no more powerful servants of the pagan gods in the world. But the legend says that the Magi did not perish in the battles with Christianity, but went beyond the Ural Mountains into the deep Siberian forests, and somewhere there they are now waiting for the onset of a new Golden Age - the revival of Slavic Russia.
Ekaterina Kravtsova