Many adherents of modern neo-paganism claim that their faith is "the return of ancient paganism", trampled upon by the once insidious Christians led by Prince Vladimir. But how much does their doctrine correspond to historical information about the pre-Christian faith of Russia and what is the true source of the allegedly Slavic polytheism, which is popular among our citizens?
In our time, full of pluralism and total tolerance, the phenomenon of "his own theologian" has become very widespread. In the religious teachings of the famous reformer Martin Luther, the words of the Apostle Paul were also difficult to correlate with the Epistle of James, and he was even ready to give his own theologian's cap to the one who "reconciles Paul with Jacob." But if Luther was still thinking about whether he was right, then today's gurus do not suffer from such "complexes".
As the father of Scientology Roy Hubbard said, "create your own religion and make millions on it!" You do not like Orthodoxy, so compose an alternative to it in your own catacombs. You are not satisfied with what your pastor says, organize your own congregation, because surely many people will like your religious work more. And most importantly, any person who claims (sometimes rightly) that you actually carry a sheer heresy in relation to the previous religion can be stamped on the spot with a quote from the Constitution about the right of everyone to profess their beliefs! As they say, you can't dig …
But let's also remember another right - to receive truthful information. If everyone is now empowered to compose religions at his own discretion, then no one has yet deprived a potential consumer of these spiritual products of a similar right to an objective assessment of their quality. Especially when it comes to slogans like: "Turn to the faith of your ancestors!" It is necessary to distinguish between self-made, honestly positioning itself as: "Such and such a vision has opened to me," and author's creativity, claiming to revive something. The latter is simply obliged to follow the basics of what it supposedly revives, otherwise all its statements about succession are nothing more than the most ordinary advertising lies.
Take, for example, modern Slavic neo-paganism. As you know, one of the main deities of the neo-pagan pantheon is Rod (hence one of the versions of the self-name of this movement - "Rodnovers"). But did Rod exist as the "father of everything" among the ancient Slavs? This theory was once defended by one of the most famous researchers of Slavic paganism, B. A. Rybakov. But even with him, this statement is very contradictory. In particular, attention is drawn to the complexity of the interpretation in the work of D. Gavrilov and S. Ermakov “Gods of Slavic and Russian paganism. General views ". There is evidence of one manuscript of the 16th century, describing ancient beliefs and quoted by N. V. Kalachev: “It’s not the kind that is sitting in the air, throwing piles on the ground, and in this are children born” (1872, p. 24). Citing this quote in his book, B. Rybakov unwittingly negates his own hypothesis. If Genus is really an analogue of the Christian God the Father, then why is it “then you are not Genus”? It is clear that this is not a matter of monotheism, of which there is really no reason for the ancient Slavs. But it is said: “God is a creator for everyone, and not a Genus” (Rybakov, 1981, p. 449). It turns out that a completely different deity was revered by our ancestors as the almighty and giver of life? Moreover, the well-known historian and ethnographer I. Sreznevsky as a synonym for the word "Rod" cites "Gehenna, an inextinguishable fire", and according to a number of other specialists in religion, the Rod among many tribes was something like a Domovoy, a small god of the secondary pantheon.“God is the creator of all, and not the Genus” (Rybakov, 1981, p. 449). It turns out that a completely different deity was revered by our ancestors as the almighty and giver of life? Moreover, the well-known historian and ethnographer I. Sreznevsky as a synonym for the word "Rod" cites "Gehenna, an inextinguishable fire", and according to a number of other specialists in religion, the Rod among many tribes was something like a Domovoy, a small god of the secondary pantheon.“God is the creator of all, and not the Genus” (Rybakov, 1981, p. 449). It turns out that a completely different deity was revered by our ancestors as the almighty and giver of life? Moreover, the well-known historian and ethnographer I. Sreznevsky as a synonym for the word "Rod" cites "Gehenna, an inextinguishable fire", and according to a number of other religious experts, the Rod among many tribes was something like a Domovoy, a small god of the secondary pantheon.
At the very least, the creators of neo-paganism are cunning, presenting the status of the Rod supposed by some theoreticians as an absolutely known fact. Historically (at the level of official science, and not "alternative history", the object of which, besides the Earth, is - just don't laugh! - and Sirius) this has not been proven in any way.
Moreover, the scattered Slavic tribal unions, many of which, due to the great distance with each other, did not communicate at all, could not have an identical religious cult. The first attempt to create a single pantheon of gods for all of Russia was undertaken in 980 by Prince Vladimir, and, I must say, did not succeed as expected. And this was at a time when real witnesses of the ancient faith lived, and not readers of fantastic works about it.
However, some adherents of Russian neo-antagonism seem to understand the absurdity of their claims to the revival of a "single Slavic religion." Otherwise, why would they need to compose a blasphemous parody of the Christian "Symbol of Faith" (it is easy to guess where the construction of "confession" came from: "I believe in Gods, my ancestors, one in the Family, eternal and indestructible")? This is how I remember the famous saying that the devil is the monkey of God. It seems that the faith of Christ's monkey teachings also sometimes start.
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Reading that one of the "prophets" of neo-paganism, the ancestors: "in the name of the salvation of descendants called to proclaim RUNVeru in the only gentleman with the name Dazhdbog", a person who is in the slightest degree familiar with the history of Rus will only ironically smile. At least, the “ancestors” for such picky would have got into the Iriy from Perun, and from Svarog, and from Yaril, no less revered by the Slavs. In addition, the Varangian runes, like the Indian Vedas, are a completely different and alien culture to the ancient Slavs. But only such communities are becoming more and more, despite the fact that the historical illiteracy of the "revivalists" is evident. Why?
Neopaganism is a well thought out and commercially successful project. Putting Christian doctrine in an extremely unattractive light (the concept of the essence of which, by the way, most neo-pagans have a very vague idea), in contrast to it, it offers people "karma-cola" for every taste. Integrating India and Russia is easy! It's elementary to turn yesterday's "loser Vasya" into a tough magician! To enjoy every whim and live "to the fullest", without looking back at morality and ethics, all sorts of "neopeak" teaches no worse than some "school for bitches." And most importantly, like any other neosect, paganism convinces everyone that he is cool, and therefore do not care about all sins. This is truly the best psychological drug for the Slavic soul. And the most dangerous….
VICTORIA MATVEEVA