Paganism in Russia. It's hard to be Russian. Russia and new paganism

(with) “Slavic paganism and the Russian Orthodox Church have one audience”
If a few decades ago, a full-time propagandist of scientific atheism from the Knowledge society had been informed that hundreds of residents of megacities revere Perun and Svarog, performing rituals in front of their carved images, he would have twisted his finger at his temple and immediately reported to the KGB.Today this is a reality: pay attention to young people with runes and kolovrats in the form of tattoos or prints on black T-shirts, in one click you can find hundreds of videos about Slavic neo-paganism, and there are groups of believers in all major cities of Russia.

This is the paradox - for centuries, paganism steadfastly held out in the countryside, yielding to Christianity the right to be the religion of the townspeople. Now the lion's share of his adherents live in cities.What is Slavic neo-paganism? Who becomes its adherents and where do they get the knowledge about how our ancestors believed a thousand years ago? Is neo-paganism capable of becoming a real political force, and why are the grains in it that have come down to us from hoary antiquity generously flavored with a surrogate written in the 1990s? Obzor talked about this in detail with the author of lectures on modern paganism - a teacher at the Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities, a candidate of historical sciencesDmitry Galtsin :

Why in our time with its digitalization and artificial intelligence more and more people practice paganism, returning to the "childhood of mankind"?

In my opinion, modern paganism as living religiosity is a product of modernity. To form from a huge number of different cult practices, mythologies, pantheons and philosophical systems a certain common area with a single, so to speak, denominator, opposing it to others "world religions ", it was possible only if there was, in fact,"world religions', primarily Christianity.

For the believer, the attractiveness of the rite is more important than its historical "authenticity.

In order for this undertaking not to be destroyed by the dominant religion, a minimum guarantee of freedom of conscience and speech was necessary (because paganism appears not in the Islamic East, but in the Christian West, which has already crossed the border of the Middle Ages). In order for the rather complex ideas of antiquity to be assimilated by a sufficient number of people, appropriate media and a literate population were needed. Finally, in order for the idea of ​​some kind of idyllic past to arise, where one can return at least for the duration of the ritual, a sufficient critical distance in relation to the present and a certain artistic culture is necessary, which will provide an aesthetic embodiment.

By the way, how do you feel about the very term "neopaganism"?
I know that even in the scientific community it is perceived ambiguously.

I don't really like the term neo-paganism because only in the 20th century for the first time do people appear who agree to call themselves pagans, paganism arises as a religious self-determination.Before, no one called himself that, and most importantly, he did not feel himself a part of one universal religious element. Today, with all its internal differences and even conflicts, a follower of, for example, the Lithuanian religion "Romuva”is more likely to see a congenial person in a Russian Rodnover than in a tribal Catholic. In the cultural reality that modern pagans are turning to - the reality of the ancient policy, early feudal Russia, Scandinavia of the Viking Age, and even more so tribal "prehistory”- there was no religion at all as a sphere of life in our modern sense.

Undoubtedly, there are most of the components " religious”, to which we are accustomed: there is a cult, there is a pantheon and often quite developed ideas about gods and other sacred characters, there is an institute of clergy, there are specialists on a variety of religious and magical issues. But all this, apparently, was not at all differentiated in consciousness into a separate identity, it was not something with which a person was ready to associate himself in the first place.

That is why the ancient types of religiosity in most of the globe were swallowed up and pushed out new', or, as they are more commonly called, 'world » religions, in which a proper religious identity appeared, independent of other identities and allowing them next to itself.The modern world is a world of identities. People are strivinginvent» yourself, choose your own environment, environment, your own value system. Paganism in this sense is one of the options associated with a number of values ​​that I spoke about above - nostalgic admiration for the historical past, craving for Nature (whatever is understood by it), the desire for "spiritual”, which goes beyond conventional religiosity. Since virtually all varieties of modern paganism refuse to rigidly prescribe a set of doctrinal or ethical propositions to their followers, it also assumes enough high level independent religious creativity on the part of the practitioner. Such active position, position, if you like "seeker" and even " inventor"- a very modern phenomenon, which has little to do with the main principle of traditional society - conservative conformism.

In this respect, Slavic neo-paganism differs from similar Western cults?

Slavic paganism in literature is often referred to as "reconstructionist "type" means that main goal here it is consideredrevival» religious practices of the Slavic peoples of the early Middle Ages. Similar movements exist all over the world.Slavic modern paganism has a fairly long history in countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine - in Russia, oddly enough, it appears only in the second half of the 20th century. And there are reasons for this:Slavism"For such nations as Czechs, Poles and Ukrainians, it was a symbol of the struggle for liberation, cultural and political, and in Russia it has been since the 19th century, in conjunction with"Orthodoxy" and " autocracy”, was built into the imperial discourse - the religious niche was already occupied here.

If we talk about the social portrait of a Russian pagan, who is he?

As one of the researchers Roman Shizhensky points out in the monograph, modern Slavic paganism is still poorly understood: there is no corpus of empirical information collected in the process field research. But on the basis of the data already obtained by sociologists, the following can be asserted: Slavic paganism, like other types of modern paganism - the religion of the townspeople. Most often, these are educated city dwellers who have a specialized secondary or higher education working more or less in their specialty. In the 1990s, the scientific and technical intelligentsia were unequivocally spoken of as a characteristic environment for the spread of pagan identity. It is rather difficult to say about political preferences, but in general, Slavic pagans somehow value the autochthonous and traditional more than the globalist and revolutionary, so it is unlikely that one can find supporters of globalization among them.

When groups of Slavic pagans were formed in Russia in the 1990s, practically all of them declared sympathy for imperial statehood and perceived the collapse of the USSR and the emergence of capitalism in Russia, a consumer society, as a catastrophe. Often this was also associated with a commitment to political communism and almost always with nationalism of varying severity. This period of the history of paganism turned out to be reflected in the scientific literature and popular reviews of paganism (WCH press), and this circumstance still serves the Slavic pagans in a rather bad service: much has changed since then, and today it is no longer possible to talk about that Slavic paganism is a religious continuation of aggressive nationalism. Already in the 2000s, the main forces of the developing Slavic paganism were directed "inside» - on the development of religious pictures of the world, practices, building links between pagans and their groups. Political rhetoric had virtually disappeared by the 2010s.

Zbruch idol against the background of a miniature "Games of the Slavs" from the Radziwill Chronicle of the 15th century

Recently, Patriarch Kirill expressed concern about the increased interest in paganism among athletes and military personnel, including special forces. Metropolitan of Yekaterinodar and Kuban Isidor also reported on the "manifestation of elements of paganism" among the Kuban Cossacks. In your opinion, why are people of these categories interested in paganism?

About athletes, military men and Cossacks, I can only say that these strata are traditionally associated with conservative views. In today's Russiaconservativerather means political right. Slavic paganism, tied to the notion of the importance of ethnicity, undoubtedly fits well with such sympathies.The ethical and aesthetic moment is also important: in Slavic paganism, the “military» theme, celebrated as supreme value defense of the fatherland, and often just a war with "not ours", "male » values ​​- physical strength, courage, dominance. Part of the Slavic pagan ritual is often funny fights or active sport games competitive nature. At native faith holidays, the physical action generally prevails, and the verbal component (the main component of the ritual "big religions”) is generally subordinate to her. It is clear that suchbodily» Religion may appeal to people who are oriented towards physical action.

However, the statements of any church officials on this matter cannot be perceived otherwise than as a fact of intra-church life: church language is flexible and metaphorical, and, for example, “neopaganismYou can name almost anything with which this hierarch does not agree. In his statement, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate Kirill drew such attention to the connection between sports and paganism that it seemed to some Russian pagans that he equated sports with paganism.

It must be remembered that the Slavic pagans are probably the only real opponents of the ROC (MP) in the religious field, because they are focused precisely on the audience that the modern Orthodox Church in Russia, these are Russian people for whom their “Russianness", them " historical memory " and " traditions". I put these words in quotation marks because in this context I perceive them as propaganda concepts. The fear of Orthodox functionaries before Slavic paganism, in my opinion, is caused by the fact that the latter manages to play these three trump cards even more successfully than Orthodoxy - after all, in Slavic paganism all this clearly functions as sacred in itself.At the same time, in ordinary life, the interest of the Orthodox in modern paganism is a rather frequent phenomenon. I myself witnessed a situation (it was at a public lecture in one of St. Petersburg universities), when an Orthodox monastic, in full agreement with the Slavic pagans present here (apparently, “Vedists”), said that Russian Orthodoxy organically absorbed the ancient faith of their ancestors, and even presented the lecturer with a nail, on the hat of which a solar symbol was embossed (this is really an authentic magical artifact from the Russian North) as a token of gratitude.

If we study ancient myths at school, and we can get acquainted with the worldview of the ancient Germans from medieval epics, then there are not so many sources with the East Slavic cult. Usually his opponents cite as an argument - show at least one source about the paganism of Ancient Russia (with the exception of already Christian chronicles and the Tale of Igor's Campaign), which existed before the second half of the 20th century. Today we really do not know how they believed and performed rituals in pre-Christian Russia, what was the pantheon?

Compared to the cultures of antiquity, all the data we have about the pre-Christian beliefs of Europe is scarce. The Slavs were even less fortunate than the Celts and Germans - if in Ireland and Iceland Christians showed a certain interest in old traditions and even wrote them down (albeit censored), the situation was different in the Slavic lands. There are few sources, all that we can draw from them are the names of the gods, individual elements of the ritual and single cult prescriptions.

A follower of, for example, the Lithuanian religion "Romuva" is more likely to see a congenial person in a Russian Rodnoverie than in a tribal Catholic

However, the paucity of sources testifies rather to the strength of pre-Christian traditions throughout the Middle Ages. It was pointless to write about paganism, because it still surrounded the inhabitants of Ancient Russia. If we talk about the West Slavic lands, then there the struggle against paganism was also a war for Germanization, part of the feudal-churchDrang nach Osten. However, reconstruction of the pantheon and beliefs of the Slavs is possible, as shown by the richest research literature on this topic from the 18th century to the present day. In addition to written sources, it is impossible to do without archeology, data from historical linguistics, folklore, anthropology, and cross-cultural studies. The picture that we get at the output will, of course, be only a sketch. However, in this sense, any ancient religiosity for us is largely a book with seven seals. Even ancient religiosity, about which we know so much, is far from being as well understood by us as many assume.

Another common Christian idea of ​​paganism is its bloody nature and the need for sacrifices. How do modern pagans relate to these ancient rites and do without sacrifice?

It is also worth mentioning that Jewish religiosity until the 2nd century was also centered around bloody sacrifices - sacrifices to the very God whom Christians also consider their own. Until now, the blood sacrifice is preserved in Islam and, as far as I understand, in Armenian Christianity. It seems to me that here, too, this is primarily due to a certain economic structure.

A number of researchers speak of "fantasy paganism", which does not bind itself with the need to at least roughly correlate with ancient Russian realities. Why are adherents of this trend extremely uncritical to sources, taking on faith not only religious remakes, but also common myths of folk history, alternative chronology?

Because the religious behavior of a person is rather indirectly connected with the sphere of scientific rationality. Much more important is not the actual "authenticity» history, and its attractiveness for practice. They say that in the 1990s, trust in outright fakes in the field of Slavic antiquities was associated with the monstrous illiteracy of people who were interested in them, their low educational level. However, we see that many times"exposed» motives « fantasy paganism ” are popular even today, when a huge amount of information is available about what we reliably know about the ancient Slavs. This means that such versions of history, mythology, such religious texts resonate in the souls of their "consumers».

A striking example is the Book of Veles, which, despite the fact that the vast majority, as I think, of Slavic pagans, recognizes it as a fake, nevertheless, as a whole, continues to influence the movement. The style characteristic of the ritual texts of modern Slavic paganism - I would call it "pseudo-archaic ”- was largely set by this particular work (and not, for example, by the manner of representing Old Russian speech in works of Soviet art). I have already had to say that I see here a certain influence of Velimir Khlebnikov and some people close to him."archaizing" futurist poets who at the beginning of the 20th century sought to create a new old language, returning it to magical, primitive roots.

Despite the skepticism of scientists and even many believers, the Velis book continues to influence Slavic neo-paganism

As for pseudo-history, here the need to have "my» the history of the Slavs and / or Russians, which would allow legitimizing the pagan religion. In the official, clichéd version national history paganism is perceived as something filmed ”, left in the past, as something that is done away with once and for all. The main impulse of Slavic paganism is precisely in disagreement with such a vision of history. Accordingly, the community seeks to find its history - given how little we know about the pre-Christian religiosity of the Slavs, the frank invention of the past in this sense seems to be a working alternative.

Does Russian neo-paganism have a chance to grow into a sufficiently large and unified structure capable of influencing social and political processes, to become the ideology of a significant part of Russians? Why?

It seems to me that this is impossible. Not now, not in the future. Paganism by its very nature is a protest religion, a minority religion. You can talk with Pavel Nosachev about "marginal religiosity ". Paganism exists not so much in stable communities as in amorphous"cult environment "(cultic milieu), by Colin Campbell. The political possibilities of such an environment as a separate group are limited - all the more, it will inevitably include people of different social groups with different interests in the social, economic and political spheres.

"Ideology”is, first of all, a clear and coherent program regarding what people want to see around them, what changes they need in the world. Slavic pagans are united by their love for the ethnic - but this love can manifest itself in diametrically opposed, say, political positions. So, for one Rodnover, this will result in empire, in dreams of the territorial expansion of Russia, for another - in the adoration of the local, loyalty " small homeland». One Slavic pagan can be a consistent xenophobe and consider any relationship (and even more so marriage) with " non-Slavs"a religious crime, while the other, on the contrary, strives to create a new ethnic group and even new religious traditions based on the synthesis Slavic tradition and traditions of other peoples of Russia (and even abroad). There are Slavic pagans who sing of scientific progress and its technical achievements, but there are absolutely all of this rejecting and advocating "renunciation of civilization." Everyone justifies their position with the same assumptions.

Joint projects of various Slavic pagan communities are now aimed more at developing a single semantic field in which it is possible to solve religious tasks proper - the demarcation of the priesthood and"laity", the unification of the sources of tradition, the rules of interaction between various pagan groups and the mechanisms for representing the Slavic pagan community in the media and on the Internet. There is no talk of a centralized development of a single ideology.

Talking about Perun, "Russian gods", "Book of Veles" and "pre-Christian Orthodoxy" with a serious face makes you want to pinch yourself ... or whoever says it. What is behind modern paganism, Rodnovery? Neo-pagans”, who swear their love for the Russian people, in fact, they despise this people. It is more correct to call pagans "neopagans" - as they are usually called by religious scholars and ethnographers. All pagan peoples widely and constantly borrowed rituals, cults, and beliefs from each other. In Ukraine, Slavic paganism is represented by "RUNVera" and the Union of co-religionists of Ukraine and the Diaspora, known as "Ukrainian Pagans".

Russia and new paganism

Truth, or rather “rule,” are, in the opinion of the new pagans, the laws supposedly governing the universe. These "laws" are indifferent to good or evil, because according to neo-pagans, neither good nor evil as such exist. This is what the new pagans think. What does this have to do with talk about traditionalism, about “restoring the ancient primordial faith of the Slavs, the Native Faith”? native faith New Gentiles is Satanism. Because even many Orthodox Christians are like that only in appearance. YaD writes that the new Satanism will be "far from the purely philosophical Satanism that we know today." Baptism is when people knowingly refuse their Christian baptism.

II. Where to look for "Russian gods"?

The pagans themselves abandoned paganism. 5. If Slavic paganism is the religion of the strong, then why did it lose to Christianity, the religion of the weak? The conclusion is unequivocal - since Jesus Christ himself said that the pagans of the north do not need to carry Christianity, then the Slavs do not need this religion. After all, Christ himself said ... This quote directly contradicts the second most popular statement of neo-pagans that "we are not servants of God, we are children of the gods." See? Before the Baptism of Russia, there is still a lot, and the Slavs are already called Orthodox, which means that Orthodoxy is the name of the original, pre-Christian faith of the Slavs! He defended Russia from the filthy (pagans), prayed for icons (in the epic "At the outpost of the heroic"), which also does not fit with the image of a fighter against Christianity. In fact, Ivan Sergeevich wrote about one particular village where a sect spread about the next coming of the "Antichrist" and the sectarians often called themselves "perfect Christians."

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that they came to the lands of the Middle Dnieper a thousand years before Darius, that is, one and a half thousand years before the birth of Christ. And their gods are precisely the gods of Skolots, Wends, Antes, and so on. But these are by no means Russian gods. And there is very little information about these gods. Then, even before his conversion to Christ, he tried to bring all the pagan gods of different Slavic tribes to the same denominator. Fans of paganism cannot choose either Russian or Slavic gods "in general." ancient land Vyatichi resisted Christianity the longest (until the 12th century), and it also became the first land that began the path to liberation from Christian foreignness. This people, having come to new lands, was already Christian. Were there human sacrifices in the cults of the Slavic tribes? There was one Varangian, a Christian ... and he had a son ... on whom the devil's envy fell. Arkona is a city of the Baltic Slavs. In Arkona, in addition to Sventovit, the pagan god Radegast was also revered.

See what "Paganism in Russia" is in other dictionaries:

All other so-called. “Russian pagans” or “neopagans” are nothing more than charlatans or simply outright sectarians who pulled knowledge and gods from a pine forest for their “religions”. The fact that they celebrated Easter means nothing. There is nothing similar to Orthodoxy. That's just the fact that they celebrated Easter for the sake of appearance, while worshiping their gods, and is called "external Orthodoxy." They believe that they support the real traditions of Russia, but in fact they will come up with something that they like. Because all the official churches are for non-resistance to evil by violence.

Paganism is a term denoting forms of religions of polytheism that preceded theism. It is believed that it comes from fame. "tongues" are non-Christian "peoples" hostile to Orthodoxy. Paganism - (from the Church Slavonic languages ​​​​peoples, foreigners), the designation of non-Christian religions, in broad sense polytheistic.

However, any action of a pagan should also be based on his personal spiritual experience, while not entering into an imbalance with World Harmony. It is worth noting that paganism in Russia today is not some kind of cult, but a unique and all-encompassing philosophy, which continues to be a national phenomenon. This difference is especially pronounced when comparing the program principles that pagans profess in large cities, as well as pagans in rural pagan associations.

Ardent animal rights activists, they all put animals above humans and do not allow them to be killed just because, in their opinion, it is “wrong”. This is nothing but animal worship.

After the removal of the ban on religiosity, people got the opportunity to believe in anything or not to believe at all. Someone discovered Orthodoxy, someone - other religious confessions and cults, but many decided to start looking for pre-Christian beliefs. If Rodnoverie is a subculture built on pagan beliefs, then in addition to it there is still a huge number of pagans who do not belong to Rodnovery. I have already spoken above about astrology and various superstitions, which are also a manifestation of paganism. In Christianity, as in Islam and Buddhism, in order to change your future, you must change yourself, but in paganism it is different. In this regard, a huge number of Christians do not really understand what Christianity is, and treat it as paganism.

Orthodoxy is not necessary and it is not possible to invent. Even non-church people imagine what exactly Christianity evaluates as sin. And in response they say (through the mouth of a certain singer) - “It’s so hard for me! And here you can’t imagine anything better than the “ancient Rus”. This is our gospel too!” Yes, there was duality.

Some Rodnovers call themselves "Orthodox". In their opinion, the concept of “Orthodoxy” arose from the “Vles-Knigovoi triad: Yavo, Pravo, Navo” and the phrase “Right to praise”.

They say you can go back to pre-Christian times, because Russia is there too. But is Orthodox Christianity really a religion of slavery, a religion of non-resistance to evil by force? This view of Christianity is completely wrong. Christianity is better than paganism, not because it created such an Empire, and not because we have become accustomed to it for a thousand years. Only Christianity explains the meaning of human life and the meaning of history.

It turns out that the pagan Germans, like the pagan Slavs, have the same source of power. This is the realm of death. Everything else is dead and alien. The rest is a strange world, as I wrote above - world of the dead. And if paganism is established in the present, then the entire Christian heritage must be destroyed. Otherwise, the triumph of paganism is impossible, for it and Christianity are opposites. But do not think that Christianity is only temples, clergy, culture, in general - all sorts of "heritage".

There will be no place for Orthodox Christianity in this new society. It won't because the reality they are building has nothing to do with historical Russia. And in general, according to the same Mr. Brzezinski, we are a “black hole”. Hence the inevitability of civilizational conflicts. Perhaps some of us believe that states at the turn of the 21st century are guided by the norms international law and sacredly observe the rights of all, even the smallest nations? All Russian history testifies that this faith is Orthodox Christianity.

They are very fond of calling themselves patriots and stigmatizing the enemies of "Light Russia", by which they primarily mean Christians. Since ancient times, Russian people have perceived their Fatherland and their statehood as a God-given vessel, which is called upon to preserve Orthodox faith before the Second Coming of Christ. In the West, Christianity was first corrupted into Catholicism and Protestantism. And what about the new pagans?

What is modern paganism

The self, without sufficient grounds, is identified only with polytheism. From the realization of the relationship of man with the ever-reviving deified nature, an optimistic life-affirming type of pantheistic worldview developed.

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 been the last 5-8 years - the years of the rapid development of Internet technologies and Internet resources. Many people appeared who began to call themselves pagans. Modern paganism became a subculture, and being a pagan became kind of fashionable.

A huge number of communities devoted to paganism have appeared on various social networks, and groups of related topics (for example, esoteric groups) have begun 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 fascinated by paganism, but many are.

After the removal of the ban on religiosity, people got the opportunity to believe in anything or not to believe at all. Someone discovered Orthodoxy, someone - other religious confessions 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 Orthodoxy is treated 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 at school, at some point I began to be interested in something metaphysical, well, it's understandable: sooner or later a person asks himself such questions. On a bookshelf at home, I found a book dedicated to astrology, various signs of the zodiac, their descriptions, and more. The inclination of my mind and predisposition to "humanities" aroused my great interest in this entertaining reading. I began to study descriptions of various signs of the zodiac, memorizing them in order to be able to obtain information about a particular person, to know what could be expected from him and what kind of character he had, 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 understood this pseudoscientific teaching.

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! He believed that if I performed a certain ritual (for example, do not say hello through the threshold, look in the mirror before going out, sit down "on the path", etc.), then I would definitely expect success or at least there would be no disappointments today and unpleasant situations. For unpleasant situations could have been very disappointing and stressful, which I really didn't 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!

“What did the old men or old women come up with from the beginning? They decided that a child under six weeks old should not be carried out, nor shown to a stranger, otherwise they would immediately jinx it. This means, in other words: give the newborn peace, do not unfold, do not open, do not disturb and do not drag him around the rooms, but cover him a little completely, and with his head. Here is another similar case: do not praise the child - jinx it. V. I. Dal. "About the beliefs, superstitions and prejudices of the Russian people".

Growing up, becoming interested in various natural sciences, and also 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 now so popular. I wasn’t there for one simple reason: I didn’t know anything about it and I couldn’t get such information from where, although Rodnoverie already existed. If I grew up in the modern age, with all these gadgets, social networks and such a saturated Internet, then I might have become interested in this phenomenon. However, my views evolved earlier, long before my acquaintance with Rodnoverie and modern paganism.

Those. being at that stage of development of my views, I was greedy for various unknown, esoteric things. I was attracted by this mysterious and unknown. But what if I can learn something from smart books and learn to do something that I didn’t know how to do? A perfectly reasonable and healthy desire. Paganism is very attractive because it offers easy ways to solve problems, but these ways in practice turn out to be wrong and dead ends. AT young age a person wants everything, immediately and quickly, which is why pagan elements are so attractive to young people 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 only just arrived at this point. I was lucky and became interested in this at school, but many are not so lucky, 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, in damage and the evil eye, in love spells and lapel, in various voodoo cults, black cats, tarot cards and other heromancy. However, many continue to adhere to their beliefs, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the objective criticism of neo-paganism.

Rodnoverie or Slavic paganism?

Rodnoverie- this is a cultivated form of pagan views, an attempt to build a certain subculture on a pagan foundation, an attempt to unite people into a society within the framework of pagan views. Rodnovery is the modern paganism of the Slavs, or rather, people from the post-Soviet space of Slavic appearance. Analogues of Rodnoverie exist in different parts Sveta. In Scandinavia it is Asatru, in Great Britain it is Druidism, in Latin America the descendants of indigenous peoples are trying to revive their beliefs (Maya, Aztecs, Incas, etc.). India is officially a pagan country.

Rodnoverie (Native Faith, Rodoverie, Rodolubie, Rodobozhie) is a new religious movement-reconstruction of a neo-pagan persuasion, proclaiming as its goal the revival of Slavic pre-Christian rites and beliefs. Rodnovers perform "cleansing" and "naming" rites, as a result of which they receive a new name. Wikipedia.

Rodnovery is neo-paganism, namely "neo", i.e. new. However, the 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 preserve and revive the old faith. However, this is not true: the faith of the pre-Christian Slavs and the faith of modern Rodnovers - not the same!

If Rodnoverie is a subculture built on pagan beliefs, then in addition to it there is still a huge number of pagans who do not belong to Rodnovery. However, their circles are replenished at a rapid pace. Having pagan views, a person sooner or later stumbles somewhere in the social network on the publication of materials that are interesting, in his opinion, and correspond to his worldview. He decides to join the community, albeit virtually, but de facto becoming a member of this society. Those. if I were browsing the Internet at that school age and stumbled upon such materials, they would obviously 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 outwardly attractive information.

Modern pagans (Rodnovery) at the temple

At that moment, I was interested in the Vikings, Scandinavia, nature and aesthetics of the north of Russia, taiga, ancient times, Germanic and Slavic tribes, and so on. The neo-pagan materials attracted me, first of all, for their aesthetics. After all, most of the publications of modern pagans and now are various pretentious pictures, which depict daring warriors in armor, Vikings, chopped luxurious huts with carved platbands, beautiful girls with braids and dresses with ornaments, fairy-tale worlds in the fantasy genre, happy people who lead round dances - and everything is clearly done in a propaganda style. In general, drawn pictures attract attention, and under them is a text that supposedly 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 did not happen in reality. Plus, the lion's share of all 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 engage in composition, the assumption of how it could be then. But after all, you can assume 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 was the case with me when I abandoned astrology and superstition.

An important point will be the fact that the lion's share of adherents who sympathize with neo-paganism are people in a state of neophyteism, i.e. undecided, doubting, those who have just stumbled upon neo-pagan propaganda and perceive it as something patriotic. Those. the number of seasoned neo-pagans is not so 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 on faith. Despite the objective criticism, which is now quite enough, people who are greedy for neo-paganism are still led to all these fabulous pictures and fictional stories. The charm of a fictional past is so beautiful that sometimes no amount of 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 non-critical thinking: people who are prone to abstract thinking, fantasizing, in general, are 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, where many people profess Hinduism. Once upon a time, Buddhism arose from Hinduism - as a more perfect form, based on the dharmic concepts of South Asia. Buddhism is an evolution of views, it is a progress, a way forward, while Hinduism is a regression, a movement in place. It doesn't matter whether it is Christianity or Islam - monotheism was precisely that very evolution of human views from a wild, primitive person to a higher and more civilized one. A return to paganism is a way back, a regression, it is a cultural degradation, a decline. All attempts by modern pagans to present paganism as something highly cultured, pure, good are futile, and, apart from their painted fairy-tale pictures, there have been and are 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 on primitive human instincts. Blood for blood, an eye for an 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 jarls could change almost every day, dying from the sword of a new applicant. Society was built on a primitive biological dogma of power, dominance hierarchies, slavery and submission.

Household paganism

And yet, most of today's pagans do not belong to the Rodnover subculture, while de facto remaining pagans. For paganism runs through all spheres of our activity. If a Rodnover is most often a person prone to something archaic, ancient, traditional, then the one I'm talking about may not love and despise it at all.

I have already spoken above about astrology and various superstitions, which are also a manifestation of paganism. Astrology- this is an attempt to study certain events on Earth by the stars and celestial bodies, an attempt to predict events according to the "celestial book of fate". The nature of superstitions is such that all superstitions are built on the principle of either protection from something negative or to attract something positive.

Therefore, any pagan cult has always been built precisely on superstitions - on the fear of people of some objects, situations and on an attempt to correct these situations. Therefore, in any pagan cults there have always been priests, sorcerers, sorcerers, oracles who were engaged in predicting events and trying to correct them. In this regard, the clergy of traditional denominations, 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 a priest was called witchcraft, and the activity of a priest was akin to the activity of a shepherd - a teacher, sage, mentor, because the priest does not change anything. The believer himself is engaged in changes - through his repentance and the sacraments, and the priest is only an intermediary.

fortune teller

In Christianity, as in Islam and Buddhism, in order to change your future, you must change yourself, but in paganism it is different. You come to the sorcerer, pay him money for the service, and he either predicts something for you, or tries to change the course of events with some actions, rituals. In this regard, a huge number of Christians do not really understand what Christianity is, and treat it as paganism. They spend crazy money on various icons, gold chains, candles, "to build a temple", to pray for themselves by the clergy, thinking that the more money they spend, the better their future will be. And they themselves do nothing to improve themselves. "I paid you, God, why don't you help me?" - Entrepreneurial attitude towards God, as towards one's business partner. They are not Christians at all, but real pagans. Exactly the same as those who go to sorcerers and soothsayers, witches and fortune-tellers. They have constancy of intentions, one sorcerer did not help - I will go to another. They represent an Orthodox priest as a sorcerer, a priest, mentally endowing him with qualities unusual for him.

idolaters

money worship

However, not only such people can be called pagans. There is much more modern paganism. For example, paganism can also be called faith in the Golden Calf, the service of mammon - craving modern man to material well-being and the cult of money. When material wealth is the goal of life, and the desire for enrichment is the only activity. Such people go to church to light a candle for the success of their enterprise, for their next business transaction to be successful, for more profit, etc. When all the main traditional denominations call for non-possessiveness, moderate asceticism, and the observance of the measure in one's needs, the pagan, on the contrary, achieves the highest material indicators.

"No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be zealous for one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24)

All big bourgeois, bearers of big capital, oligarchs are just such pagans. Instead of engaging in ordinary, socially useful work, they are engaged in investment and speculation. They get money out of thin air, selling already created goods and services, giving money in growth at interest. Such pagans I would call money worshipers.

Chinese talisman for increasing money

It does not mean at all that they worship money in the literal sense - they put a bunch of bills in front of them and bow down - worship happens in a different way. As others 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 the form of superstitious rituals. For example, some pagans (mostly women) use various conspiracies which, in their opinion, will bring more money. They pronounce some 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.

"Everything grows and multiplies from the sun, and money - from the moonlight. Grow, multiply, add. Enrich me (your name), come to me. Amen!" W contract to raise money.

Others constantly count them, repeating that "money loves counting." Still others put them in a wallet in a special way, others put some amulets in a wallet, or not in a wallet, but simply keep them in the house. Chinese amulets in the form of a toad with a coin or just a coin with a hole on a string are popular. There are hundreds of them...

Nevertheless, the worship of money is paganism, not monotheism (monotheism), because money worship is only part of a large pagan view of man, and besides it there are others, because the pagans have many gods.

Bestiality

Another kind of idolatry animal worship. This disease affects people who are fond of various vegetarian diets, and most of all - vegans. Refusal of animal food due to the poor quality of meat products (sausages made from I don’t 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 "delicious" food, i.e. refusal as asceticism, as an element of control over oneself and one's vices, but only for a while.

However, another thing is when a person refuses meat because he believes that "killing animals is not good!" Extreme representatives of vegans refuse not only food, but also leather and any animal products. Ardent animal rights activists, they all put animals above humans and do not allow them to be killed just because, in their opinion, it is "wrong". This is nothing but animal worship.

food worship

The next type of modern paganism is food worship. When people pay excessive attention to the food they eat. They eat something specific, or, most often, on the contrary, they refuse something, bending over this or that food. Raw foodists can be attributed to food worshipers. Instead of being omnivores and eating all kinds of food, they exclude animal foods and cooked foods. 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 the raw food diet, in their opinion, is the so-called "prano diet", when the body no longer needs earthly food, but enough "energy replenishment".

Among the raw foodists there is not a single churched Orthodox, believing Muslim, Jew, and it is also unlikely that 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, no matter who they call themselves. The vast majority of raw foodists are fond of esotericism and the occult, there are many raw foodists among Rodnovers.

Food worship is also any endowment of food with some properties, for example, the belief that a healing tea or infusion can save me from cancer is also food worship. Food worship is also any gluttony, when a person indulges his stomach with various delicacies - "a feast during the plague." Such a person serves his stomach as a 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 human worship, i.e. erection in the framework of the cult of a particular person. For example, the "cult of personality" of a famous person, such as, for example, I. Stalin, or V. Lenin. Endowing a person with magical power or something powerful. Icons with Stalin differ from icons of saints in that on the icons of saints, unlike any idols, the face of a saint is depicted, and the person praying does not pray to the icon as such (a piece of wood), but to the saint. In the same way, you can pray without an icon. Whereas the role of an idol lies precisely in the fact that the worshiper prays to a specific idol, believing that this particular idol is capable of bringing him benefits, or vice versa, adversity (if not pleasing him). Therefore, in ancient times, many pagans had their own personal idols, to which they made sacrifices.

Such a cult of personality still exists among many, when, for example, they put water in front of the TV for a conspiracy, believing that the speaker's voice has healing powers. Other unbelieving atheist communists for some reason keep figurines of Ilyich and carefully store them. In reality, the personality cult of Stalin and Lenin, of course, was exaggerated, but this took place.

Serious types of human worship is the cult of the mother or the cult of a woman in a matriarchal society - when all activity is associated with activity for the sake of a woman (wife, mistress, mother). I wrote more about this in an article about matriarchy. Then a man is ready to break into a cake for the sake of a woman, and women, taking advantage of this, manipulate such a man who worships women. Such a man is too dependent on women, he cannot live without them. To be honest, all these flowers, confessions, inscriptions under the window on the pavement - this is all pagan worship. Traditional denominations do not recognize such behavior; in them, the roles of men and women are built hierarchically and patriarchally.

Like it or not, 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 do they experience: "So I finally touched Myself! I can shake give him a hand, kiss him, take an autograph" and so on and so forth ... What is this, if not a cult of personality?

"Do not make for yourself an idol and no image of what is in the sky above, what is on the earth below and what is in the water below the earth. Do not worship them and do not serve them;" - second commandment. Ref. 20:2-17

materialism, material worship, fetishism

Next current view paganism is material worship, or materialism, fetishism - when people worship material objects. Various talismans, amulets, pebbles from "places of power" - all this is fetishism.

Fetishism is a religious worship (cult) of inanimate material objects - fetishes, to which supernatural properties are attributed, which has become widespread among primitive tribes. Wikipedia.

However, not only talismans can be objects of worship and instill some kind of faith in a person - the cult of ordinary household items, for example, items of clothing, is most often a cult. When a person wears one or the other fashion item on himself, then subconsciously he endows her with something magical. For example, if I wear this jacket or this coat, blouse, watch, I will look "cooler". I will feel more confident in this, however, no other changes will happen 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".

"Several hundred people lined up at the entrance to GUM on Red Square in Moscow to become owners of the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus smartphones. According to some reports, people have been queuing since the evening." News report from the media.

The pagan amulet "Red Thread", distributed by the followers of the occult Jewish movement of Kabbalah. Sold to stupid tourists in Israel.

Who played in computer games fantasy genre, he will understand: when a hero finds some thing (armor, helmet, sword, amulet, etc.), then by putting it on, he becomes better in some way, depending on the value of this thing. Those. it is this thing itself that adds +1 to magic, +10 to dexterity, etc. to him. 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 it on. From the feeling that we consider ourselves better, we experience joy, satisfaction (endorphins are produced), which means that this very thing influenced the improvement of well-being and we realized at the same time 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 organization - this is their business. In our country, even now, in many ways, 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 at the same time. Paganism still permeates many spheres of our activity, it never left us and was always next to us; paganism will 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. Paganism lives in politics and economics, in science and art - in all spheres of our activity.

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 not agree with something, but I respect the conscious choice of people, the rejection of something, or vice versa, acceptance. If you want to accept certain pagan beliefs, this is your right. With this article I would like to show what they consist of and what they are. Thank you for attention!

I publish new article Belarusian philosopher, Baltic identiter and musician, leader of the group "Kryvakryzh", Ales Mikus "Notes to the Fifth Paganism".
“Who is a pagan? A pagan is one who prays to the gods." So they usually say, and nothing else is added. Of course, everything is more difficult. Regardless of the environment, such words are like a tree uprooted from the ground and amusingly suspended in the air.
Modern paganism is not at all the paganism that was in antiquity. And also not at all what remained in our villages until recently, a hundred years ago, before the invasion of the economic structure, the scattering of the villagers and penetration into their culture. Modern paganism exists in society and feels the same that society feels, lives with it in the same rhythm. It cannot be otherwise, if modern pagans are included in their contemporary society and have no other support that would nurture them. Modern paganism here refers to the attempts of pagan revival over the past hundred years. The territory under consideration is the whole geographical Europe.
Modern paganism is heterogeneous. It endured the trends of society, even the influence of world processes that were reflected in society. One can speak of three waves of modern paganism. All of these have taken place over the past hundred years. All three were due to what was happening in society, in the public mind, and also on a global scale. This is the main point that is being made here.

Three Waves of Modern Paganism
The first wave of modern paganism - the first half of the twentieth century, before the war, more specifically, the 1920-1930s. Pagan movements, while in their infancy, arose in Eastern Europe- mainly in new states. These are Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine (respectively, “Visuoma” by D. Shidlauskas, “Dievturi” by E. Brastynsh, “Circle of Admirers of Sventovid” by V. Kolodzey, “Order of the Knights of the Sun God” by V. Shayan). This did not occur in Belarus, but, one might think, under similar conditions, V. Lastovsky might have created something similar (his work was similar to the work of the Lithuanian Vidunas, the Ukrainian V. Shayan).
What supported these emerging movements, what gave them strength? Obviously: in Western Europe at that time, nothing of the kind arose. In the case of Eastern Europe, two factors played a role: the first was the liberation from the yoke of the Russian Empire, the second was the desire, having freed, to emphasize one's uniqueness and justify one's newly acquired independence.
The second was facilitated by the fact that over a century before, interest in the “spirit of the people”, the culture of the “silent majority” - in folklore, legends, fairy tales, songs, spread from Western Europe (from Germany). It was not a sudden peaceful interest in popular culture. At the same time, medicine, chemistry, and psychology developed. Along with this, interest in folklore was another impulse to destroy the integrity of what still remained integral - the rural community and the mental ties that held it together. Recording, fixation, detachment from living media and living environment accompanied this activity.
For Poland and Ukraine, Z. Dalenga-Khodokovsky, a native of Logoyshchyna, was such a culture-trager. For Latvia - a collector of folk songs-dain K. Barons. For Lithuania, the author of the first history in Lithuanian was S. Daukantas (he did not record folklore, but rewrote data on ancient Lithuanian and Prussian mythology). All of them sincerely loved what they did, and those from whom and for whom they adopted these oral riches.
On this basis, movements arose to revive paganism in Poland (1921), Lithuania (1926), Latvia (1926), Ukraine (1937). These movements were under the sign of strengthening the unity of nations - new nations that arose as a result of the events of the early twentieth century. This was especially strong in Latvia, where the movement of E. Brastynsh was the most populous, and he himself called his position as the head of the dievturs “great leader” (dizhvadonis).
Thus, the leitmotif of this, the first wave of modern paganism, was, by constructing or reconstructing, to strengthen the unity of the newly acquired independence and historical subjectivity of modern nations - Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Ukrainian. This momentum is still maintained among the Latvian and Ukrainian émigré supporters of modern paganism (respectively, Dievturs and Runvistists).
The second wave of modern paganism is the junction of the 1960s-1970s. At this time, independently of each other in 1972, movements for the revival of the Old Norse religion Asatru arose in Iceland (S. Beinteinson) and Great Britain (soon - also in the USA). In Lithuania, a powerful student movement of local lore and folklore is emerging, in 1967 the celebration of the Summer Solstice is organized (the movement was strangled in 1973, and the organizer J. Trinkunas received a "wolf ticket" to work). In Poland, V. Kolodzei unsuccessfully tried in 1965 to register his pagan community. In the United States, a Ukrainian emigrant, the founder of the RUNVira movement, L. Silenko (an ungrateful student of V. Shayan), wrote his book Maga Vira in the 1970s.
What was the driving force behind these pagan movements in postwar period? Here the arena of action is more shifted to the West, and the strengthening of the unity of the newly fledged nations did not play a role here. Obviously, the impetus came from the youth protest unrest of the late 1960s. 1968 - the most powerful student demonstrations of the left wing in Paris. At the same time, the rise of the hippie movement in the United States, as well as the emergence of a whole counter-culture (literature, music) in the Western world. This was the field in which the sprouts of the modern paganism of the second wave broke through.
The keynote of the second wave was liberation. Sensitive youth freed themselves from the oppression of the rules of the Western “modern” world, clearing the way for the “postmodernity” that followed (immediately after, books of the Pleiades began to be published one after another French philosophers postmodern). Forces were recruited from the East - politicians from China, esotericists from India. In the Icelandic Asatru movement, the second person after S. Beinteinson was one of the leaders of the Reykjavik hippies, Jormundur Ingi Hansen. In Lithuania, in the late 1960s, the Lithuanian-Indian Friendship Society operated. (Lithuania seems to have been the only one from Eastern Europe who was in line with the tendencies of the Western world at that time.)
The second wave of modern paganism marked the transition of the Western community (and then the world community) to new conditions, to a new worldview.
Finally, the third wave of modern paganism is the beginning of the 1990s. This wave is again associated with global changes- with the emergence of new states (somewhere it was a revival) on the ruins of a huge Soviet state and bloc. Therefore, it is not surprising that the relief of pagan movements in Western Europe was not affected in any way. But affected in Eastern Europe.
The leitmotif of the third wave is the return. The collapse of the communist empire and exit from it was conceived as a kind of return to the point of departure - for Russia it is the 1910s (Russian Empire), for the rest - 1939 or 1945. The calls of modern pagans for a return to the forgotten, destroyed, exiled, driven underground.
In Poland, the "Native Church of Poland" by E. Stefansky and the "Native Faith" by S. Potshebovsky appear. In Ukraine - "Association of Ukrainian Rodnovers" G. Lozko (Runists also transfer their activities here, L. Silenko often visited from across the ocean). In Lithuania - "Romuva" by J. Trinkunas. In Latvia - whole line communities, both independent and cooperating with each other (most of them are now cooperating within the framework of the “Commonwealth of Latvian Dieuturists”, headed by V. Celms). In Russia, the first pagan festivals were held in 1989 and 1990 by A. Dobrovolsky (Dobroslav). Subsequently, a motley number of pagan and near-pagan communities and movements arose here (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Omsk, Kaluga).
It is interesting that the connection with the "second wave" (1960s) among the Eastern European leaders of the "third wave" can be traced not only by J. Trinkunas, but also by A. Dobrovolsky. Having participated in the anti-Soviet movement of dissidents, in 1967 Dobrovolsky testifies against them in court, and in 1969 he sells family icons and buys to study many books on esotericism and the occult.
In turn, the continuity with the paganism of the "first wave" is especially prominent among the Polish pagans. E. Gavrich, the official successor of V. Kolodzey, joined the "Native Church of Poland". Another Polish organization - "Native Faith" - can boast of the membership in its ranks of A. Vatsik (from his Wroclaw community "Native Faith" and left), who in the 1930s was the closest associate of the Polish near-pagan philosopher J. Stakhniuk.
Differences between modern and traditional paganism
Having outlined the three waves of modern paganism, we note their main difference from traditional paganism.
The main feature of modern paganism is that from the very beginning it was (and is) an "open system". And this system is subject to outside influences. Such paganism ignites and goes out not according to its own laws of development, but according to changes and trends in society. And society includes many other components, including ideological and religious movements.
It can also be noted that if at first such paganism was part of the system of the national society and was in accordance with its needs, then the subsequent stages of modern paganism (the second and third waves) are already included in the system of the world community and reflect its trends and changes. (The collapse of the Soviet empire here is not a regional phenomenon, but a link within world processes).
What was traditional paganism like? First of all, it should be said that at the root it was not different - namely, in its inner essence. The rituals differed a little, the understanding of natural elements also differed a little, communication with the sacred differed a little, and the forms of requests, and the desired answers, and the desired results, and illogical magical methods of influence, and the mechanics of sending and receiving messages from non-human beings and elements. Everything that made up the inner essence differed a little. Everything that was inside was enclosed in a complete shell.
But the fact is that during the existence of that traditional paganism, the boundaries of this integrity more or less coincided with the boundaries of the social “system” itself. It was even 100 years ago, and in some places even later. Nothing broke through this shell, and even if it tried to break through (power relations, economic innovations, religious changes), there always remained a core that crushed these invasions under itself. This core transformed novelties into those forms that allowed this integrity to continue to exist.
What was the core? It was based on a "slow rhythm". It was held together by many threads-connections that really go back to the mists of time, but manifest themselves here and now. These were family relations, these were friendly relations - which, in turn, were based on both kinship and friendship between relatives. It was an economic structure, fastened both by the power of transmission from ancestors-relatives (vertical bond), and by the force of habit, connecting in domestic relations (horizontal bond). These were the taboos of the family, the taboos of the clan, the taboos of the village - which “sank to the bottom” of consciousness, but from there determined many actions and relationships.
And most importantly, it was extremely difficult (and hard) to get out of such an integral system. All members of such a micro-society were in their places, everyone performed their function (not only in economic terms, but also in the mental landscape - any society needs its own outcast, its own rich man, its own sorcerer, its own kind man, its business manager, etc. .). Fulfilling their function and not being able to “reboot”, everyone had to cope with what they had, in stable external conditions: to get angry, put up, seek, coordinate, be in conflict (but withstand confrontation, do not jump out), i.e. maintain natural order within such a micro-society.
It is easy to see how the described reality differs from the communities of modern paganism. You can come into modern pagans, you can leave them, this has become another identification, changed at your own discretion. Someone found what he wanted to find, or was disappointed in something - and you can leave with peace of mind.
Starting from the first wave of paganism, from the very first stage of “post-traditional” paganism, the pagan movement was no longer a whole (it was not even a community, rather it was a movement). Moreover, people who were mentally quite close gathered there - and they gathered, were attracted precisely from all over society. Society needed to strengthen its unity - this was done by a social group of pagans. Or society had to focus on the return of the former blessed order - and this was done by a social group of pagans. (Of course, their own differentiation occurs in pagan communities, as well as in every collective, but this is a phenomenon for any collective.)
Even the attempts of modern pagans to “stick” to the remnants of traditional paganism, to identify with them, as if ignoring the surrounding modern society, is only a reflection of the need of this society in the roots.
Thus, this is the main difference between traditional paganism and modern paganism. It is on the scale "integrity - incompleteness." Traditional paganism itself was the framework of society (it can be said that that society was paganism), while modern paganism is an element in the framework of modern society.
Speaking about modern paganism, about the paganism of the early 2010s, one must, firstly, clearly distinguish it from traditional paganism (paganism, so to speak, “first”), and secondly, keep in mind the presence of three layers in it, according to the stages in its development during the 20th century: 1920-30s, 1960s-1970s, 1990s.
If the first, traditional paganism could be called "paganism of integrity", then the subsequent forms of modern paganism - "paganism of unity", "paganism of liberation" and "paganism of return".
It is obvious that on different stages modern paganism, the backbone of pagan movements were different people- mentally different, and one or another main leitmotif was close to them.
Unity Paganism, 1920s-30s: Experiencing Oneness with One's Nation.
Paganism of Liberation, 1960s-70s: Let go of the old shackles that shackled the spirit and rejoice in a new freedom.
Paganism of the return, 1990s: to turn to what was behind, what was forgotten and left behind.
Twenty years have passed since the last wave. This is not so little - the same amount separated the second wave from the third. Modern paganism is disoriented and, lacking nourishment, is prone to isolation. Not seeing their dependence on trends modern world, not seeing its involvement in its processes, it began to identify itself with traditional paganism.
This leads to dreams of the return of the entire ancient culture and its replacement with modern culture, of the return of a hierarchy headed by new emerging priests, of the creation of a new state formation similar to a pagan empire, and so on. Most likely, such dreams are fundamentally at odds with the surrounding reality, even in its futurological dimension.
Modern paganism today is multi-layered. Three layers, at least, and these three layers correspond to the three stages that it has gone through. One can also say that there is no single message in modern paganism, and the leitmotifs of different layers intertwine and collide. As a result, the unification of various parts within modern paganism is problematic (this is true even for the pagan movement in one single country), and it itself takes on a patchwork look.
Someone lacks a sense of unity, a sense of shoulder, and he is looking for it. Someone feels suffocated and longs for freedom - here the feeling of a shoulder will seem squeezing. Someone wants to overcome the feeling of abandonment and (God)forsakenness - and for him the desire to free himself from the framework will be completely incomprehensible, and the feeling of a shoulder will be too hasty. In turn, the one who seeks the feeling of a shoulder will consider the thirst for freedom as a “digging” under the order, and appealing to the repressed and looking pitiful as retrograde and weakness.
The paths of modern paganism
How is the development of modern paganism possible? Two paths are being looked at.
First, some transformative event happens in the outside world, and paganism connects to it, building one of its meanings into a new channel. But such an event should be a transition to something new, to new formations, and also carry a tinge of liberation. That is, if you look at all three previous cases, it should be a split of some integrity and the emergence of smaller units from it. And this should happen in Europe.
What is left to be liberated in Europe from what has not yet been liberated? It is really difficult to answer, if you do not take into account the frankly demonic phenomena in relationships and bodily transformations. Moreover, the local phenomenon of “change of the constitutional order” in a single Republic of Belarus. But, it must be repeated, this is a local phenomenon. Although it really is the “last integrity” (with all the possible resulting historiosophical conclusions), the last integrity of Europe.
The second path would take a completely different direction. This is not a split of integrity, as in all three cases of modern paganism, but the preservation of integrity. But it is no longer about the integrity of the collective type - because such the last integrity, thanks to information flows, today is rather the whole of humanity. It is rather about preserving the integrity of a particular human being, a conscious individual. Integrity, both mental and, say, spiritual.
The preservation of individual integrity presupposes the commonwealth of like-minded people and even requires it to enhance the effect of one's action. But the main emphasis then shifts from strengthening the team to strengthening the internal integrity.
That this is becoming more and more relevant - this is evidenced by an increasingly active penetration from the outside both into the psyche and into the body (the latter only at the initial stages). The mass cultural space is overflowing with an incompatible multitude of informational, figurative, auditory impulses, and their unhindered penetration into the psyche leads to the destruction of mental integrity. The psyche is intact if a person understands what is happening and why it is happening. And if he does not understand, the psyche becomes a passage yard, where the wind walks and every passer-by does what he wants.
Integrity is not closeness, not tightness from the world. First of all, it is the presence of a center, an axis. This is what has always been the essence of traditional pagan rituals. The combination of four elements - fire, stone, water, wood - during the ritual creates both an axis in a person (spiritual, supporting everything else), and integrity. The creation of an axis as a result of the ritual destroys all unnecessary multiplicity - all informational garbage, noise. All superfluous impulses from the outside simply do not penetrate the barrier of the spiritual type, which arises when the spiritual axis is created and operates.
The world has reached its borders (now the “world” is the world, without what is “beyond the line”, beyond the border, further). He himself had no external goals left due to overcrowding with people, intentions, and actions. (Even the cosmic enthusiasm was gradually "leaked" a few decades ago - the reasons could be similar to what Lem wrote about in Solaris; it is quite possible that the consumption race was so hyped because of this.)
At this time, it seems that there is nothing left for a person but to be the same as the world (and this is a deeply pagan attitude). It means keeping your boundaries. And to draw strength and a feeling of being alive precisely from this state - keeping one's boundaries, feeling the presence and tension of one's boundaries.
Given what we have, in the absence of changes, this is precisely what will be the content of modern paganism - the fourth in a row since the beginning of the twentieth century, and the fifth - if we count from the traditional paganism that we have lost.
Unity, liberation and return - all this has already been realized or is being actively implemented in a world that itself is uniting, in which ever smaller and more specialized social groups and phenomena are being liberated, and an increasing number of forgotten and contradictory nuances of the past are returning.
It seems that we are again faced with the relevance of "paganism of integrity." Only now in a new format - in the format of the smallest integrity of the possible system, the integrity of a person. The world seemed to be shattered and crushed. Reduced to the size of a human body.
Do not think that this is something unknown to traditional thinking. In mythology, giants are known who lived before, but then came down from the world. There are also phrases like “Are there people behind the light? There are, only fractional ones. This is quite a traditional mythology. And we live in it now.
Ales Mikus