The religious community that originally. Monastery. About the norm of parish life

04.11.2019

The purpose, area of activity and tasks of the church community (Orthodox parish) do not differ in any way from those of the entire Church. Parish is manifested in a concrete and tangible community. In a general sense, the task of the church community can be defined as the salvation of man in Christ. The center of the life of the church community is the Eucharist, the area of activity is worship, the implementation of spiritual life at the parish level and their expression in external service, that is, the gospel in word and deed. Having partake of Christ in the Eucharist, Christians are called to bring His gift into the world through their own and Christian, including social, service.

The active life of the community outside the liturgy flows naturally from the life of the Eucharist and must be directed, first of all, to the parish itself. Only then can it be spread outward in missionary and social service.

2. Principles of relationship between clergy and laity

The basic principles of the relationship between the rector and the church community can be defined as family, brotherhood and fatherhood, expressing love and trust between all members of the parish, both priests and parishioners. In spiritual terms, the situation is ideal when the rector and other priests of the parish are the spiritual fathers of the parishioners. On the other hand, parishioners and priests must observe a certain subordination in their relations, since it is not uncommon to encounter cases of distortion of the paternity principle, for example, the model of relations “friend or foe” or the elite self-consciousness of a particular community. It must be understood that such relationships are sometimes nurtured and provoked by the priest himself.

It should be noted the importance of the parishioners' obedience to the priest due to the conscious choice of him as a spiritual leader (in the field of personal spiritual life), as well as due to the status of the priest's ministry (in the field of doctrine and administration). At the same time, the priest is called to remember that the laity in their fullness is, according to the Apostle Peter, “the royal priesthood, the holy people” (). Therefore, in making important decisions related to the life of the community, the participation of the entire parish is desirable.

The fatherhood of a priest in relation to the parishioners is expressed in primacy in love, active participation in all the affairs of the community, as well as in teaching, spiritual guidance and sacramental service. The parish is a family, and all members of this family, and especially those who carry out pastoral ministry, are called to actively participate in the life of the community. The role of a priest only as an executor or cult "intermediary" between the people of God and God is unacceptable - the parishioners expect a lively and active participation in the life of the community from the pastor.

3. Difficulties of a young man in the church community

The arrival of a young man in a community that does not have established traditions of life outside the liturgical life puts him in a position of loneliness. In such parishes, most often there is no desire to carry out any extra-liturgical activities. This is partly due to the composition of such parishes and the inertia of the priesthood. On the other hand, the communities of churches that have developed extra-liturgical activities and carry out active Christian service present a qualitatively different picture. It is in such communities that young people most often come, and their advantage lies in the fact that young people are given the opportunity to actively realize themselves in the service of others.

One of the main problems of a young person in the parish is to find an application of his abilities in the life of the church community. The main factor contributing to the unity of the parish and the emergence of extra-liturgical communication is the presence of a common direction of activity in which all parishioners are engaged. In turn, such communication helps to attract new people to the temple. Therefore, the problems of a young person are connected with the absence of communal life as such. Another important factor for a young person in a church community is the availability of a priest for conversations and personal communication.

It is important to note that the involvement of a young person in the activities of the community should take place in the spirit of Christian love, gradually and without violence against his will. The rector is called upon to build the life of the community around liturgical worship in such a way that parish life outside of liturgical services would be its consequence. In this activity, the rector acts as a pastor, educator, father and primate of the church community.

4. Liturgical life of the community

1. Every member of the Christian community needs to fully participate in the liturgical life, the necessary aspects of which are:

a) Active participation in the Liturgy, striving for more frequent communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, ideally at each Liturgy at which a person is present: “Many, I see, do not often commune: this is the work of the devil, he interferes with the frequent acceptance of the Body of Christ. And it is obvious that the one who infrequently takes communion gives great power over himself to the devil, and the devil accepts his will over him and leads him to all evil ”( Hierarch). At the same time, one should remember the words of the same saint: “Whom shall we approve? Is it those who commune once, or those who often, or those who rarely? Neither one nor the other, nor the third, but those who commune with a clear conscience, with a pure heart, with an impeccable life.

b) Meaningful, prayerful and active participation in worship and prayer at home. To implement the latter, it is highly desirable to create a special short prayer book in Russian for novice young Christians.

c) Christian service, inseparable from the liturgical life of a Christian. As His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II said, "service is the fruit of sanctification in Christ and the continuation of witness to Him." Archbishop Anastasios Yiannulatos (the current primate of the Orthodox Church of Albania) writes about it this way: “The Liturgy must be continued in personal and everyday life. Every believer is called to continue the liturgy on the sacred altar of his own heart and thus bring about a living proclamation of the Good News for the life of the world. Outside of this continuation, the temple liturgy will remain incomplete.”

d) community life. Without friendly and sincere relations, mutual help and support between members of the community, a person cannot fully participate in the liturgy.

e) An intense spiritual life, which includes constant self-examination, forcing oneself to follow the commandments of Christ and do good deeds, true repentance, abstinence, etc.

The intense spiritual life to which a Christian is called depends on the will of the Christian himself and on his pastoral care. But there are external reasons that cause serious damage to understanding and participation in worship and make it difficult for newly arrived young people to lead a correct and meaningful liturgical life. The main ones are the following:

I. Separation in the minds of believers of worship from real life. In today's church reality, due to many historical and spiritual and moral reasons, temple worship to a certain extent has lost the significance of conciliar prayer, and has come to be perceived as an "individual" means of salvation. People often come to the temple only for their own sake, they do not know, and often do not want to know who is standing and praying next to them. Communion is started for the purpose of personal consecration; the feeling of the one body of Christ is not present in our parishes. Yes, and the very process of prayer in the temple is often accompanied by a forced effort aimed at "fencing off" from other people, so that because of the noise, whispering, unauthorized singing along with the choir, etc. "Prayer did not fail."

II. Problems of liturgical life, manifested in a misunderstanding of the meaning of worship:

1. Modernity and the demands of the churching youth have revealed the problem of the closure of the Eucharistic service for the parishioners. This is not a new problem, but for young people it is one of the most important. Serious damage to understanding is caused by the reading by the priest to himself or quietly of the so-called “secret prayers”, because of which “the vast majority of the laity does not know, does not hear the very text of the Eucharist, is deprived of this most precious gift. And after all, no one has ever explained why “the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the holy people, the people taken as inheritance in order to proclaim the perfections of Him who called you out of darkness” (), cannot hear the prayer that they offer to God?

2. Indistinct, quiet, quick reading and singing of liturgical texts, including the Apostle and the Gospel, as well as a long commemoration of the living and the dead at litanies.

3. Texts that are incorrect from a theological point of view, for example, the burial services of the Mother of God. Correction of such texts by the liturgical commission of the Russian Orthodox Church is desirable.

4. The closeness of the primate with the royal doors, as a result of which the spirit of conciliar prayer is lost and often even the exclamations of the priest are not heard.

5. The incomprehensibility of the language of worship, especially for beginners. Patriarch Alexy II notes: “The Slavic language is not understood by everyone: therefore, many liturgists of our Church have long raised the question of translating the entire range of liturgical texts into Russian.” Bishop Sergius of Starogorodsky (the future Patriarch) wrote about “simplification of the liturgical Slavic language and granting the right, wherever the parish wishes, to serve in the native language.” It is necessary to speed up the process of updating the Slavic translation of the text of divine services and correcting errors in it, about which the saint wrote: “There is something extremely necessary. I mean a new simplified and clarified translation of church liturgical books. Our liturgical hymns are all instructive, thoughtful and sublime. In them is all theological science, and all Christian morality, and all consolations, and all intimidations. He who listens to them can do without any other instructive Christian books. Meanwhile, most of these chants are completely incomprehensible. And this deprives our church books of the fruit that they could produce, and does not allow them to serve the purposes for which they are appointed and have. As a result, a new translation of liturgical books is urgently needed. Today or tomorrow, we must start it if we don’t want to bear reproach for this malfunction and be the cause of the harm that comes from this.

6. An unreasonably long pause between the communion verse and communion, which negatively affects the integrity of the perception of the Liturgy by the faithful.

III. Large differences in the requirements for the conditions for the participation of Christians in communion. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II stated that "sometimes believers are not allowed to take Communion without sufficient grounds." Due to the fact that the deprivation of Christians of Eucharistic communion is established by canon law for quite serious violations, the conference participants advocate the unification of the requirements for communicants (see Appendix).

IV. Distracting moments at worship in the temple.

1) Trade and noise in the temple.

2) The presence of non-canonical images and icons.

3) Unintelligible and unnecessarily "opera" singing

4) Making confession during the Liturgy, not justified by necessity.

5) Conducting several services at the same time (prayer services, memorial services, funeral services) in one church, etc.

In order to facilitate the entry and stay of young people in the Church, these negative factors can be mitigated by granting parishes the right to conduct special missionary services, which would include elements of catechesis and which would have the following features:

Divine services without violating its integrity and the prayerful mood of the believers, if necessary, are interspersed with catechesis and explanation of prayers.

During the service, reverent silence is maintained in the temple, trade is stopped in the temple and other distractions are removed.

Closing and opening of the royal doors is carried out according to the hierarchal rank.

The Gospel, the Apostle, proverbs and other readings of Holy Scripture are read or repeated in Russian.

Reducing the pause between the sacramental verse and communion to a minimum.

With the blessing of the ruling bishops, similar divine services for missionary purposes are already being held in various dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church. Their wider application would be an active solution to the problem raised back in 1996 by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of "bringing the liturgical culture of Orthodoxy closer to the understanding of our contemporaries for missionary purposes."

5. Opportunities for the realization of a young person in community life

The parish intra-communal life is called upon to shift the emphasis from the need to perform external rituals to the inner life of a person and make life itself a divine service and communion with God. The church community is called to give the young person the same thing as the whole - "the fullness of being." The main thing in Christianity is communion with Christ and life with Him and in Him, which is by no means provided by an external form of piety and a semblance of spiritual life, but only by the realization of the Gospel in one's life. The Eucharist and the non-liturgical life of the community flowing from it as a source is this fullness of domestic, official, leisure and other aspects of human life and activity. In this sense, the performance of works of mercy is also not the absolute goal of the Christian life. Thus, all church, liturgical, missionary, spiritual, etc. life is only a way of communion with Christ.

There are parishes with a dominant line of business. This area of activity can be expressed in social, missionary, educational service, etc. At the same time, the life of such parishes is not limited to a pre-selected area of activity. If the principle of fatherhood and family is fulfilled in the community, then life itself determines specific goals, roles and types of service. The first task of the community is to build a life around the Eucharist as the center of the gathering. The church community, like a real family, by itself absorbs and realizes the ministry, the need for which arises daily. Thus, the extra-liturgical activities of a young person in the community depend primarily on his desire, abilities, the intensity of his parish liturgical and family life, as well as the experience of the rector.

These activities may include:

Assistance to the clergy in worship.
Economic obediences within the parish.
Sunday school activities for children.
Missionary service.
Educational ministry.
Social service.
Youth ministry, etc.

6. Spiritual dangers for a young person in the community

Spiritual dangers and problems most acutely confront a young man during the neophyte period. This happens in connection with the wrong direction of spiritual efforts, the idealization of the external life of the Church, excessive ideologization of any phenomena, the tendency to seek indisputable spiritual authorities (including priests) in order to shift responsibility for one's life onto them.

In particular, the following contributes to this. Firstly, an inexperienced person is inclined to perceive the particular practical recommendations found in patristic literature to individual people as general church laws of spiritual life. As a result, the monastic way of life is transferred to the daily life of a Christian. Such a perception of particular methods of solution as universal for the life of any other person seems dangerous. Ascetics of piety individually approached each specific person, so their experience should not be taken without taking into account the cultural and historical context.

Secondly, under certain conditions, a churchgoing person is inclined to idealize priests, believing that the grace-filled gifts of the priesthood provide the pastor with personal holiness. As a result of this approach, some Orthodox Christians mistakenly perceive the priest as the highest authority, trying to build their whole life in accordance with any of his opinions and wishes.

A separate danger for the church community is the placing of extra-liturgical activities in the first place, i.e. the desire to turn the temple into a club of interests.

One often encounters the elementary irresponsibility of a member of the community who has taken on certain duties and has not fulfilled them. This problem can have not only spiritual, but also psychological causes, and, unfortunately, it is common in parish life.

7. About the norm of parish life

The experience of missionary work and catechesis testifies that the most beneficial churching of youth occurs in parishes whose life includes:

Weekly communion of members of the community.
Temple and home prayer for each other.
General parish conversations with the rector, taking place in an informal setting.
Visiting parishioners by the rector (because of his spiritual paternity).
Financial support and social assistance to those in need, care for parishioners who are unable to come to the temple.
Joint pilgrimages.
Joint work of parishioners and clergy to improve the temple.
Family-type Sunday school, where, if possible, the clergy and parishioners of the temple teach.
Parish kindergarten on weekends (during worship), carried out by parishioners with experience in raising young children.
A youth club in which friendly and prayerful communication of young members of the parish would take place.
Parish Mutual Aid Fund.
Out-of-service prayer meetings of parishioners with reading of the Holy Scriptures in small groups.
Missionary and social activities of community members.
Parish Library.
Active performance by members of the community of administrative and economic functions in accordance with their competence and abilities.
The performance of the Sacraments of the Church and the requirements solely for donations, and not at the established rate, a voluntary "tithe" for the needs of the temple and the maintenance of the clergy, adequate remuneration for the labor of the temple workers, which takes them a lot of time and effort.

8. Parish and family

The family of a young Christian should participate as fully as possible in the life of the community. It is important that Weddings, Baptisms and other Sacraments and rites be performed in the community with the participation of the majority of its members.

The community is called upon to take part in the life of young families, delicately support them in domestic and other ways. In turn, the priest is called to participate in the life of the family of his parishioners, to know family members, to visit them. But, the situation is unacceptable when the priest intervenes in intra-family issues, such as marital relationships, the upbringing and education of children, as well as the life of the family. Shepherds are called to help new converts build Christian relationships with their parents and neighbors.

9. Conclusion

It must be admitted that most of the problems listed above, as a rule, have their roots in a long-term persecution of the Church, which caused a break in spiritual and church traditions, as well as a misinterpretation of them by modern man. In most countries of Eastern Europe, parish communities were destroyed, and there was no question of their revival. Those temples that had not yet been closed were perceived only as places for the provision of religious services to the population.

Unfortunately, in our days, when times of relative freedom have come, the process of reviving parish communities has met with new difficulties. The natural conservatism of the Orthodox Church sometimes plays a negative role here. The traditions and way of life of parishes, which have developed over several decades as a result of certain historical factors, are beginning to be perceived almost as patristic, from time immemorial Orthodox. As a result, some parish priests are afraid to change anything in their parish, including building community life.

Today it is already becoming obvious that it is important to reorient the attention of the church community from the revival of external church forms and care for material well-being to the creation of community life and creative church work.

The ongoing processes in the Church and society give us the right to look to the future with optimism. Despite all the difficulties, people turn their eyes towards the Church with hope, the number of parishes is increasing, including at the expense of young people. Having gone through neophyteism as through a natural growing pain, people acquire the true meaning and joy of life in love for Christ and unity with Him, missionary and catechetical activity is revived, and the level of church self-awareness is growing. Faith rooted in the words of Christ: "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (^

Mormonism is a religious community that arose in the United States in the 30s of the 19th century. It combines elements of Judaism, Protestantism and other religions. Mormons are members of this community.

Founder

Religion owes its origin to Joseph Smith, who had the ability for mystical visions, which appeared in him at a young age. The first vision visited Joseph at the age of 15. In it, God and Jesus made Smith the chosen one for the revival of true Christianity, which should not be adjacent to the existing church. Three years later, Joseph had a second vision. An angel named Moroni appeared to him and told him that "golden plates" were hidden on Mount Cumor with important messages from the ancient history of the United States. These "sheets" were supposed to help Joseph in restoring the True Church, but he could only pick them up in 1827. For the next three years, Smith deciphered the letters and looked for like-minded people in preparation for the opening of the church.

Church opening

Mormon history begins on April 6, 1830. It was then that their church was founded in New York, consisting of only 6 people. But in the same year, the number of the organization increased dramatically due to the conversion of very famous Protestant preachers of that time - Sidney Wrigton and Parley Pratt. In addition, the Mormons were actively involved in attracting representatives of different faiths to the sect. From that moment on, a hostile attitude appeared towards them, and persecution began. In 1838, the commandment of tithing (donation) was approved, which allowed the Mormons to make a considerable fortune.

In 1844, John Bennett (Smith's assistant) openly declared the practice of plural marriage in their church. According to various sources, Smith had about 80 wives. This topic was actively covered in the Novu Observer publication, which stated that the Mormons are a sect that defrauds people of money and corrupts society. The founder of the church decided to use force against the publication. For this, he was sent to Karthag Prison. The indignation of the townspeople knew no bounds, they took the prison by storm. Smith died in the shootout and was proclaimed a martyr. After his death, the church was led by Brime Young. Since 2008, the president of the organization has been Thomas Monson.

Mormon life

Adherents of this religion live by strict rules. It can be said that Mormons are an example of a highly moral and healthy life. They are prohibited from smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol, drugs, and caffeinated drinks. Abortion and divorce are also prohibited. The key to spiritual and material well-being is a family with a large number of children and a pious, hard-working life. Thanks to the strict observance of these principles, many representatives of the religion became the owners of large fortunes in the industrial, insurance and banking sectors. Despite this, among Protestant denominations, Mormonism is considered unusual. He's not very welcome. This is probably due to the beginning of its history, when religion was of a marginal and sectarian nature. Now the Mormons are a representative religious community (it includes more than 11 million people), which supports scientific progress and helps its members find their destiny in the modern world.

Religious communities and churches that today represent the world's largest religions - Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and sometimes less common ones - Judaism, Shintoism, etc. - have a significant impact on political processes, the formation of political and legal culture, the functioning of the state, the position of man in society and the state. The influence of religious communities and churches on political life depends primarily on the level of development of democracy in the country, which, in turn, is determined by the level of its socio-economic development.

Most countries of the world are poly-confessional, that is, their population professes different beliefs. In multinational, polyconfessional countries, religious problems are often intertwined with national, racial, ethnic ones, but there are now few purely national confessions left (Armenian-Gregorianism among the overwhelming number of believing Armenians, Shintoism among the main part of the Japanese, and others). In most countries, the church is separated from the state and freedom of conscience is proclaimed, however, in some democratic constitutions, a special role is noted for one religion and the church (Oriental Orthodoxy in Greece and Bulgaria), while in others, on the contrary, there is an anti-church orientation (the Mexican Constitution did not give the church legal status). person, forbade her to own real estate, banned religious rites in public places). In the UK, the monarch is the head of the Anglican Church.

In democratic states, as a rule, the equality of religions and churches, freedom of conscience and religion are recognized, the church is separated from the state, and the school from the church, any privileges and any discrimination on religious grounds are prohibited. The Church acts mainly as the guardian of the moral, cultural and historical traditions of the people. In countries with a traditionally strong influence of the church, a prominent role is played by Christian democratic parties that combine the principles of democracy with the basic tenets of Christianity in their political platforms (Germany, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Hungary).

In Italy, where the influence of Catholicism is historically strong, relations between the state and the Catholic Church are built on a constitutional and contractual basis. According to Art. 7 of the Constitution, both subjects are independent and sovereign each in their own sphere, and their relations are regulated by the Lateran Agreements, concluded in 1929 and novelized in 1984 (the novelization of the Lateran Agreements does not require a change in the Constitution).

In a number of countries, the status of religious communities and churches is regulated in detail by current legislation. For example, in France, under the 1905 Separation of Church and State Law, the Republic does not recognize or subsidize any church or pay its ministers.

In the conditions of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, three main tendencies are actively manifested in the relations of religious communities and churches with the authorities: a) religion and the church are persecuted by the authorities or are completely subordinate to them; b) religion and the church acquire a state character; c) religion and the church are in active opposition to the authorities.

In more than 30 Muslim countries, Islam is recognized as the state religion. Thus, the preamble to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Morocco of 1972 reads: "The Kingdom of Morocco is a sovereign Muslim state." According to Art. On the 19th the king enforces Islam and the Constitution. The provisions of the Constitution relating to the monarchical form of government and the Muslim religion cannot be revised (Art. 101). In some Muslim countries (Algeria, Iraq), the declaration of Islam as the state religion only means that the state respects the Islamic religion professed by the majority of the population and generally declares its adherence to certain Islamic traditions that are part of the cultural heritage of the people. In other such countries (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan), Islamic law - Sharia - has a higher legal force than the law and even the constitution.

In many countries religious associations are subject to general constitutional and legal regulation of the status of public associations.

The most important factor in the microenvironment that forms the religiosity of an individual is the religious community.

specifics of a religious community as a special social group:

1 community of religious beliefs and cult activities.

2. A religious community, as a rule, does not exist in isolation. It is an element of a more complex system, usually uniting a significant number of religious communities that share common beliefs and practice common rituals.

There are basically two types of religious communities in our country. One of them is religious communities without a fixed membership, "open". The second type of religious communities is distinguished by a firmly fixed membership of their believers. This type is characteristic of a number of confessions, which are usually referred to as sectarian in Soviet atheistic literature. These include Baptists, Adventists, Pentecostals and some other religious associations. between members of the community, in most cases, personal psychological relationships arise, their direct contacts are repetitive and stable. In communities of this type, there is a much stronger and more permanent ideological and psychological impact on each of the members, many phenomena of group religious consciousness (general stereotypes, attitudes, etc.) are formed more intensively.

3. The smaller and more united the religious community, the greater the impact it has on the consciousness and behavior of its members.

4. In any religious community, along with the formal one, there is also an informal socio-psychological organization (or structure). The formal organization is determined by the dogmas, canons and traditions of a given denomination. In the informal structure of interpersonal relations between members of the community, family ties play an important role.

5. Community leaders and activists play an active and very significant role in the formation and reproduction of group religious consciousness. 6. The stable existence of a religious community largely depends on the presence of religious "activists" in it.

7. The influence of a religious community on its members is carried out through many channels: 1 cult actions (worships). Worship through a system of socio-psychological mechanisms (suggestion, imitation, emotional infection), intensifies religious feelings, provides emotional relaxation, resumes and strengthens the existing he has religious stereotypes and social attitudes.2. sermon. 3. religious manuscripts circulating in religious communities.

8. The tendency of "alienation" of believers from the reality around them, from problems, aspirations and interests that are alien to the group religious consciousness, is characteristic of many religious communities.

Community functions: 1. illusory-compensatory, which is practically implemented primarily through the administration of religious worship.2. worldview, 3.regulatory, 4.communicative, 5.integrating.

The religious community has a daily - and often very strong - influence on the behavior of its members, approving and sanctioning some forms of behavior and condemning, rejecting others. Group pressure on members of the community, not always taking the form of explicit prohibitions - or even more so sanctions - as a rule, is felt by each of its members, especially when it comes to communities with a firmly fixed membership. Regulatory influence on members of the community is carried out through group opinion, which often affects not only the behavior of the believers themselves, but also their relatives, neighbors, etc.

The cohesion of the members of a religious community is facilitated by their daily communication (primarily during worship) and mutual support and assistance, both moral and material.

Thus, the influence of the community is realized through the satisfaction of not only the religious needs of believers, but also many others: the need for communication, consolation, moral and material support, and so on.

Rites

As evidenced by archaeological and ethnographic material, there is no reason to talk about a certain set of “primordially Slavic” rituals common to all Slavic peoples. Apparently, already in the Proto-Slavic era, there were significant regional and tribal differences in the performance of rituals.

Fundamental transformations occurred with the funeral rite. As noted above, the Proto-Slavic era was marked by a sharp turning point - the transition from cremation to cremation. At the same time, however, we are not talking about a complete replacement of one rite by another, but about the predominant type of burial. From barrow burials (XVI-XIII centuries BC), the Proto-Slavs, together with other ancient Europeans, moved to barrow-free burial grounds with the burial of cremated remains in burial urns (Central European cultural and historical commonality of burial urn fields, XIII-VII centuries BC e.) 1 . Among the tribes of the Lusatian culture (VI-V centuries BC), with which many researchers associate the ethnogenesis of the Slavs, burials were made "in soil pits, into which the remains of cremations were poured." “The custom is emerging and gradually becoming widespread to cover the remains of cremations with a large bell-shaped clay vessel turned upside down (“klosh” in Polish)” 2 . Existing in the V-II centuries. BC e. the archaeological culture of the under-klosh burials can be considered early Slavic.

The population of the Slavic Przeworsk culture (end of the 2nd century BC - beginning of the 5th century) buried their dead in barrowless burial grounds according to the rite of cremation. The tribes of the Chernyakhov culture (II-V centuries), in which the Scythian (Iranian-speaking), Germanic and Slavic populations mixed, mostly still cremated their dead, however, there are quite a few inhumed burials. Among the Slavs of the Prague-Korchazh group from the 6th-7th centuries. the kurgan rite of burial is born, while "for a long time mounds and ground burials coexisted." Meanwhile, the Slavs of the Penkovskaya group, who settled between the lower Danube and the Seversky Donets,

Cm.: Sedov V.V. The origin of the Slavs and the location of their ancestral home. The resettlement of the Slavs in the V-VII centuries.//Essays on the history of the culture of the Slavs. M., 1996. S. 21.

Sedov V.V. The origin of the Slavs ... S. 27.
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and their descendants, "the custom of building mounds was absolutely alien." The Krivichi, having settled on the lands of the Ilmen-Pskov basin, began to bury the remains of the cremation in long mounds, while the Ilmenians who settled near the Slovenes buried cremated bodies in rounded mounds - hills 1 .

Changes in the funeral rite took place under the influence of ethno-religious contacts and the internal evolution of Slavic religious beliefs. Each Slavic type of burial corresponded to special religious ideas, which had their own temporal and territorial boundaries. At the same time, along with significant differences in the Slavic funeral rite, some stable elements can also be distinguished.

Slavic burials, as a rule, have no inventory. The cases of weapons and funeral food found in the graves should rather be attributed to foreign cultural influences (Germanic, Scythian-Sarmatian). It is noteworthy that the custom, apparently adopted by the Iranian-speaking tribes, to put red-hot charcoal and ashes in the grave was preserved in the Russian North until the 20th century: “A pot of coals was an indispensable attribute of a funeral procession; after the funeral, the pot was placed on the grave upside down, and the coals crumbled” 2 . During excavations of places of worship related to the culture of barrow burials, many broken clay vessels were found; broken earthenware pots were also found in the graves of the zhalniks of the Russian North next to the deceased 3 . Among the different branches of the Slavs, ethnographers have witnessed the custom of turning over the deceased or objects of the funeral ritual. Breaking, breaking, turning over during the funeral rite has broad parallels in religions and is usually interpreted as a change in the nature of an object, opening up access to the “other world” for it 4 .

Cm.: Sedov V.V. The origin of the Slavs ... S. 60, 67, 78-80.

Tolstoy N.//. Turning objects in the Slavic funeral rite / / Tol-stay N.I. Language and folk culture. Essays on Slavic mythology and ethnolinguistics. M., 1995. S. 216.

Cm.: Volkenstein A. L. A few words about the anthropology of the zhalniks of the Valdai district // Proceedings of the II Archaeological Congress in St. Petersburg. SPb., 1881. S. 12.

On this occasion, N.I. Tolstoy writes: “In general, turning an object (body) over is an action that is included in a wider semantic and semiotic sphere of actions of transformation, transformation, metamorphosis, taking on a different appearance, transition from one state to another, and finally, to the sphere communication of "this world" with "the next world" (Tolstoy N.I. Turning objects in the Slavic funeral rite / U. Tolstoy N. I. Language and folk culture. Essays on Slavic mythology and ethnolinguistics. M. 1995. S. 221).

Above, we have already talked about the general idea for the Slavs of death as the beginning of a long journey and the corresponding funeral rites.

The Slavs preserved a tradition dating back to the Indo-European era to arrange competitions and a feast - a funeral feast - at the funeral. Slavic word trizna meant both a feast at a funeral and an intoxicating drink - beer, mash or honey 1 . The main religious meaning of ritual competitions and feasts was the magical activation of the forces of life, in victory over the forces of death. The memorial meal has retained its place in the syncretic Slavic religion (strava). Together with intoxicating drinks, the basis of the memorial meal was porridge from cereals - kutya. “In addition to porridge or kutia, they use grain and baked bread at funerals. Grain is sprinkled on the bench where the deceased lay, or on the road along which he was carried. Among the Serbs, Slovaks and Czechs, a piece of bread is placed at the head of the dead man, which is then divided among those who were at the burial. Broken pots in the grave - a trace of the memorial meal.

The funeral rite of the Slavs corresponds to the type of "rites of passage". Just as clearly, wedding and birth rites belong to the "rites of passage" in the Slavic tradition. Like the funeral rite, these rites were associated with the magic of death and rebirth: in wedding rituals, the bride and groom "died" in their former social status and were "born" in a new one. The archaic layers of Slavic maternity rites suggested that in the act of birth, a child comes into this world as an unclean and alien being. Special cleansing actions removed "impurity" from the newborn and mother. The maternity rites also included the ritual recognition of the child as the father, only after them the newborn became a full member of the family. A child who died before the administration of these rites, in a syncretic religion - before baptism, turned out, according to Slavic beliefs, in the position of a malicious dead man.

In syncretic religion, ideas rooted in archaic beliefs about the magical producing power of a wedding, which enhances fertility in nature, were widespread. These beliefs also assumed the reverse effect of natural fertility on the childbearing of the young: the fruitful power of the earth was transferred to the young through the rituals of sprinkling the married couple with grain, hops,

Cm.: Toporov V. N. Equestrian competitions at the funeral // Research in the field of the Balto-Slavic spiritual culture: (Funeral rite). M., 1990. S. 17.

Sumtsov N. F. Bread in rituals and songs // Sumtsov N. F. Symbolism of Slavic rituals: Selected works. M., 1996. S. 200.

eating ritual breads and other magical ways. Concern for the productive power of the married couple and nature was due to numerous methods of protecting the wedding from evil witchcraft - conspiracies and amulets were widely used, often a specially invited "good" sorcerer played a prominent role.

Initiations, a special kind of "rites of passage", did not leave a noticeable trace in the syncretic religion of the Slavs. First of all, some folklore stories that tell about the extraordinary trials of the hero: leaving home and wandering in wonderful lands, competitions, death-rebirth, finding magical objects and helpers, etc., remind of their presence at more archic stages.

In archaic cultures, calendar rituals are closely connected with the "rites of passage". The stronghold of the ancient Slavic division of the year was the winter solstice. The change that took place in December with the sun, the “solstice”, marked the beginning of a two-week period of “holy days”, “Christmas”, which were accompanied by calls to deities and ancestors, ritual songs and games, ritual meals 2 . The ancient idea of Christmas time is the awakening along with the "birth" of the sun of natural life and participation in this awakening of man. Condensed in the rituals of Christmas games, erotic entertainment, ritual meals, the archaic idea provoked a surge of cheerful energy in the religious community, which, according to the participants, combined with the emerging energy of fertility, doubling it.

Christmas time, one of the most archaic holidays, in its psychological content is not only a fun, but also a terrible period. According to beliefs firmly held in the syncretic religion, the solstice and the days following it are marked by rampant demonic power. It was also believed that deceased relatives returned to their homes at Christmas time. Families gathered at the Christmas feast for a joint meal with their ancestors, who were exposed to separate appliances and offered treats. By the end of Christmas time, the ancestors were "escorted" back to the "other world."

In the East Slavic syncretic religion, one of the main links of winter Christmas time is caroling, a rite of collective detour

See more about this: Eremina V.I. ritual and folklore. L., 1991; Sumtsov N.F. Bread in rituals and songs / / Sumtsov N. F. Symbolism of Slavic Rites: Selected Works. M., 1996; Ethnography of the Eastern Slavs. Essays on traditional culture. M, 1987;

See details: Chicherov V.I. The winter period of the Russian folk agricultural calendar of the 16th-19th centuries./LGruda of the Institute of Ethnography. New series. T. 40. M., 1957.

yards in order to collect food gifts (sacrifices to Kolyada), which were then eaten with songs and dances by carolers 1 .

An important milestone in the division of the year was the March holidays, especially Shrovetide. Shrovetide marked the beginning of spring, and hence the economic year of the farmer. Ritual bonfires were burned at Shrovetide, the main ritual dish was prepared - butter pancakes, which symbolized the sun with their shape. Colored eggs were also prepared for the spring holidays. For a long time (approximately from the 10th century), the custom was to use specially made ceramic painted eggs - Easter eggs. It was believed that a painted ritual egg has magical properties: for example, it can heal a sick person, put out a fire caused by a lightning strike. The cycle of spring holidays ended with the summer solstice - the feast of Ivan Kupala (June 24). The spring rites, like the Yuletide ritual, were largely motivated by the desire to protect themselves from the harmful influence of evil spirits and exorcise the demons who were outrageous during this period.

In the Slavic calendar, winter and spring were definitely distinguished, while “summer had neither a clear beginning nor an end; it was a continuation of spring; likewise, the timing of the beginning of autumn is not exact; autumn in some manuscripts begins to count from the harvest, and in some from July 1 ... ". The situation was similar with the autumn-winter frontier - "the transition from autumn to winter was shaded like the transition from summer to autumn" 2 . Therefore, apparently, the calendar summer and autumn rituals did not have such obvious forms as winter and spring ones.

In the archaic picture of the world, calendar rites and holidays set stable reference points in the flow of time. Religious consciousness endowed segments of time, as well as loci of space, with qualitative certainty, bringing them under the signs of the sacred and profane.

In Slavic societies, agricultural by the nature of their main economic activity, calendar rituals were closely connected with fertility cults. Calendar, natural-cosmic, cycles acted in archaic culture at the same time as production cycles of preparation, beginning and completion of agricultural work.

See details, e.g.: Vinogradova L. N. Winter calendar poetry of Western and Eastern Slavs: Genesis and typology of caroling. M., 1982.

Prozorovsky D. On the Slavic-Russian pre-Christian reckoning of time / LGruda of the II Archaeological Congress in St. Petersburg. Issue. 2nd. SPb., 1881. S. 203.

See details: Sokolova V.K. Spring-summer calendar rites of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. M, 1979.

Each stage, in addition to purely economic, had its own magical component 1 .

Since natural fertility was thought to be the result of the sacred intercourse of the Earth-mother and Heaven-father, since the productive agrarian rites primarily assumed ritual sexual practice, or actions that symbolically replaced it. Both forms were present in the Slavic tradition. Old Russian church authors wrote a lot about the "fornication" that accompanied the administration of agrarian rites. Thus, written texts and ethnographic materials point to a ritual rolling across the field or a man lying on the ground, motivated by the idea of magical copulation with the earth 2 . The symbolic substitution for magical copulation was Christmas games of erotic content (“playing the goose”, “playing the bull” 3), ritual exposure, sprinkling with grain or dousing with water, ritual erotic songs, ritual foul language and other actions designed to magically influence the natural power of life-creation. . It is clear that the productive rites were not entirely reduced to varieties of ritual copulation. So, among some groups of Slavs up to the 20th century. the ceremony of baking a large ritual cake was held, behind which the owner of the house tried to hide, and in ancient times among the Pomeranian Slavs - a priest.

In addition to producing rituals, agrarian rituals also included protective magical actions. Ethnographic materials point to the special role of ritual bonfires and brooms, scaring away evil spirits, plowing the village to protect against the loss of livestock. The propitiatory agrarian rituals were aimed at maintaining good relations with the deities of fertility: for example, after harvesting, the Eastern Slavs left several uncompressed spikelets on the field - the “Veles beard”, hoping to ensure fertility next year with this gift.

The agrarian rites were performed mainly by the agricultural population. With the formation of a socially differentiated society and the isolation of the "druzhina" layer, professional

See details: Propp V. Ya. Russian agricultural holidays. L., 1963.

“Even walking on a plowed field means losing virginity,” A.A. Po-tebnya noted (Potebnya A.A. About some symbols in the Slavic folk poetry/Shotebnya A. A. Word and myth. M., 1989. S. 375-376. See also e.g.: Kagorov E.G. Magic in the economic and production life of the peasantry // Atheist. 1929. No. 37.

See for example: Maksimov SV. Unclean, unknown and cross power. T. 2. M., 1993. S. 298-300.

flax engaged in military craft, military cults are further developed. The veneration of maces, axes, and arrows goes back to deep Indo-European antiquity. In East Slavic culture, battle axes and arrows became the subject of religious cult as attributes of Perun, the warrior god, the patron of the princely squad. Some Slavic warrior gods (for example, Perun, Sventovit) had their own sanctuaries, where special rites were performed in their honor. Slavic squads, according to ancient authors (Procopius of Caesarea, Leo the Deacon, author of The Tale of Bygone Years, etc.), having fallen into a difficult situation in a war, resorted to sacrifices, sometimes to human ones. Archaeological data indicate that military people used amulets (nauzes, as they were called in Ancient Russia) as magical protection. In the syncretic religion, one of the most common types of military amulets were serpentines - metal amulets with an image (often a snake, a dragon) and inscriptions. Folklore texts have preserved numerous military incantations, some of them have archaic features in their content.

An essential part of the military cults was the poetry of squad singers, who praised in songs - "glories" of the patron gods, the deeds of ancient heroes, the victories of the prince and squad. The singing of the retinue singer accompanied the burial of fallen soldiers, princely ritual feasts in honor of victories and other important religious ceremonies. The singer's speech was perceived as a magical act of addressing the gods, to the patron ancestors, as a conspiracy word that appeases the higher powers or escorts the deceased to another world. The inspiration of the singer served as a sign of a special ecstatic state of involvement in the divine mysteries of the past and future, due to which singing was interpreted as divination. A vivid monument of the squad cult of the era of syncretic religion is the "Tale of Igor's Campaign", which depicts the characteristic figure of the squad singer - "prophetic Boyan".

Apparently, the word that arose in the Proto-Slavic language to denote singing rap was originally associated with ritual practice. According to O.N. Trubachev, rap arises from the word pojiti“to give to drink, to give to drink”, “to make libations” 1 . Singing was an integral part of the "drinking" of the deity, the ancestor in the act of libation of the sacrificial drink. It is known that the custom of giving water to the dead, making libations at the grave or leaving the deceased with intoxicating chara, has been preserved in East Slavic culture up to the present time.

Ancient Slavic prayer, one of the most important types of ritual, is associated with the archaic practice of sacrifice. Prayer Acts

Cm.: Trubachev ON. Ethnogenesis and culture of the ancient Slavs. S. 183.

and their nomination already existed in the Proto-Slavic religion, being a legacy of the common Indo-European culture. This is definitely indicated by the fact that "Proto-Slavic modlity refers to the oldest part of the Indo-European vocabulary" 1 . Proto-Slavic modlity has close correspondences in Hittite ma-al-ta, ma-al-di "to make a vow, to ask something from the gods, promising to sacrifice". Hittite parallels, Czech modla "idol, temple" and such Russian expressions as, for example, prayer beast, where pray has the meaning "to beat the cattle" (cf. also: pray beer, prayer beer), reveal the original semantics of the Slavic modlity- "to make a request to the deity, performing sacrificial rites, sacrificing livestock, food, drink" 2 .

Linguistic indications contained in the original semantics of the Slavic peti, modliti, clarify the direction of evolution of the verbal side of the archaic ritual. In the Proto-Slavic religion, a prayer appeal to the gods, a ritual song was originally an organic part of the ritual complex, which also included physical manipulations with objects or living beings. Gradually, verbal accompaniment part of its formulas is separated from the physical ritual actions. There is a functional change in verbal texts: from the accompaniment of physical manipulations, they become an independent method of magical operations. Prayer formulas acquire the meaning of a direct appeal to a deity, which over time in a developed religious consciousness will acquire the meaning of personal verbal contact.

Sacrifice until the era of Christianization remained the main link in the pagan rituals of the Slavs. They were part of both regularly performed calendar and occasional rites, the appeal to which was dictated by the situation that arose.

The type of sacrifice depended on the significance of the event and the nature of the deity. The beliefs of the Slavs required, under certain circumstances, human sacrifices. The Tale of Bygone Years mentions that the religious reform of 980 was accompanied by numerous sacrifices of young Kievans before the idols of Perun, Khors, Dazhbog, Stribog, Simargl and Mokosh. Under 983, the chronicle tells that in honor of Vladimir's victory over the Yatvags in Kiev, lots were cast "on youths and maidens" to be sacrificed.

Much more often than the blood of people, the blood of animals and poultry was shed during rituals. Often chosen as a victim

1 ESSAY. 19.90.

2 ESSAY. 19.89.

horse. Slavic rituals are related to the ancient Indian ritual of sacrificing a horse. The Romans, after the solemn slaughter of the horse, played out ritual rivalry for the right to possess the severed head of the animal.

However, the most common in Slavic culture were bloodless sacrifices of bread, porridge, intoxicating potion, money and other valuables. Ritual food served as a treat to the deities, if it was not burned or heated, rarely remained untouched. After pronouncing prayer addresses, the participants themselves ate it. The collective eating of sacrificial food took the form of a ritual feast in Slavic culture. The memory of ritual feasts, especially the feasts of Vladimir, was kept by folklore for many centuries. From the concept of a sacrificial meal, in which the god invited by prayer participated simultaneously as a host and a guest (Proto-Lavonic guest), the ancient Slavic word is formed lord with the original meaning "master of the ritual feast" ("master of the guest/guests" 1).

Divination played an important role in the religious life of the Slavs. The archaic ritual, like its variety - the archaic mantic, was a single complex of mental, mental, verbal and physical actions. The Proto-Slavic concept, denoting one of the forms of mantika, is gatati “tell fortune, guess, predict”, “guess”, “heal with a conspiracy”, “tell” (a related word - gadati - “guess”, “predict”, “speak”). The ambiguity of the semantics of gatati/gadati indicates the variety of actions that fell under the idea of divination. The similarity of the most ancient meanings allows us to establish that the Proto-Slavic practice of divination, nominated gatati/gadati, in its original form - a verbal omen, which had the form of rhythmic speech. Obviously, the rhythmic prediction was made by the prophet in an ecstatic state of mediumistic trance.

The Proto-Slavic mantic arsenal was not limited to the practice of mediumistic trance. One of the key words of the Proto-Slavic mantic vocabulary is koby- "Divination by signs", "Divination". Ancient authors name among Slavic fortune-telling according to the signs of prediction by the cry of a bird, by a chance meeting, by lot, by the behavior of a horse. The last two types of mantle suggested preliminary

1 See: ESSYA. 7, 61.

See: ESSYA. 10, 101. See also: Dictionary of the Old Russian language (XI-XIV centuries). T. 4. M., 1991. S. 230.

cooking and certain ritual manipulations. So, the Baltic Slavs kept a white horse at the temple of Sventovit, which in the rituals of divination had to step over three rows of spears; among the Eastern Slavs, and later, a similar practice was preserved: if a horse, which was taken out of the stable in the ritual of divination, stepped over the barrier with its right foot - a good sign, the left - a bad one.

Divination was perceived as one of the ways of communicating with the creatures of the other world, sending from the "other world" in one way or another the answer to the fortuneteller. Since the “other world” in the religious picture of the world was separated from this reality by a water barrier, manipulations with water played a significant role in the rites of divination. In a syncretic religion, fortune-telling about marriage required a girl to put a vessel of water at the head of her bed before going to bed, and then solve the dream as a sign of the future. “Fortune-telling is marked by the simplest ritual actions, during which one simply had to look into the water in order to see the face of the betrothed. It was typical for the southern and eastern Slavs to go for this purpose to springs, rivers, to the ice-hole” 1 .

The idea of divination and mantic manipulations were due to the general idea of predestination. In the words of the prophetic singer, in the sounds of the "bird fay", in the behavior of animals, in dreams and meetings, the archaic consciousness imagined signs of the future. The mantic act was a meeting point with the mysterious line of fate, arbitrarily or under the influence of magical techniques, revealing itself in sensually accessible signs. It is characteristic that the semantics of Proto-Slavic koby includes the meanings of "meeting", "clutch", "intersection with something", reflecting archaic ideas about the manifestations of fate.

In the pre-Christian period, divination rites were an important part of private and public religious life; in developed religions, for example, in the East Slavic 10th century, some mantic rituals were performed as an official princely (state) cult. With the adoption of Christianity, the situation changes. In the syncretic religion, the mantic was wholly related to witchcraft. All otherworldly forces and creatures with which the fortuneteller sought to make contact acquired a demonological nature under the influence of Christianity. Of great importance in the rituals of divination began to play magical methods of protection from the "evil spirits" with which the fortuneteller came into contact. However, neither the ecclesiastical censure, nor the reduction of the religious status of man-

Vinogradova L. N. Maiden fortune-telling about marriage in the cycle of Slavic calendar rituals (West-East Slavic parallels) // Slavic and Balkan folklore: rite and text. M., 1981. S. 54.

tics to "disobedience" did not force her out of religious life. On the contrary, along with the spread of book culture and the expansion of cultural contacts, mantic texts enter the Slavic environment from Byzantium and Western Europe, which, together with the Slavic ones, constituted a rather impressive library of “forsaken books” (“Magician”, “Charovnik”, “Rafli”, “Gromnik” and etc.).

Along with magic aimed at ensuring fertility, health and safety, harmful magic was widespread in the Slavic environment. Relics of ancient Slavic harmful magic are embodied in folklore - in incantations, fairy tales, spiritual poems and other monuments. In the syncretic religion, judging by written, folklore and ethnographic data, belief in witchcraft and rites of harmful magic was further developed.

The archaic layer of harmful magic is reflected in the spiritual verse "A verse about the soul of a great sinner" 1 . The verse lists depriving cows of milk by magical “calling out”, creases (knots of ears) in the fields with the aim of magically suppressing the growth of bread, pitting the fetus or cursing the born child, as well as witchcraft separation of families and spoiling weddings as harmful actions. The actions described in the verse are typical. Harmful magic is aimed at undermining the foundations of the existence of an agricultural community that lived on the fruits of the earth, and a patriarchal way of life that rested on large families: the object of magic is the power of reproduction of children and fertility, the ability of natural growth, marriage as a condition for communal well-being.

A significant part of the harmful conspiracies and magical techniques were directed at an individual and were aimed at provoking death, illness or lack of will, longing - in essence, the same force of life acted as their object. It is no coincidence that East Slavic conspiracies often call upon the dead as associates of magical sabotage.

Church persecution did not eliminate Slavic magic. Even the judicial reprisals of the 17th-18th centuries did little to eradicate it. It existed in all strata of society. "Court cases of the 17th century. testify that magic and conspiracy were not necessarily the property of any one circle of people or any individual person; a conspiracy was needed both in the city and in the countryside, at the royal court and in the peasant family, when the opportunity arose, everyone studied it, and very many knew it. Ancient magical rites

See: Spiritual Poems / Comp., entry. Art., prepared. texts and comments. F. M. Selivanova. M, 1991. S. 213-215.

Eleonskaya E. N. To the study of conspiracy and witchcraft in ?osspi/1Eleonskaya E. N. Fairy tale, conspiracy and witchcraft in Russia. Sat. works. M., 1994. S. 103.

supplemented by Christian elements, continued its existence in the forms of syncretic religion.

Archaic consciousness did not set up insurmountable barriers between this world and the other world. Therefore, the religious community included in its composition not only the living, but also the ancestors who had gone to another world. Compliance with mutual obligations, punishment or, on the contrary, good deeds, the exchange of gifts and other ritual actions, up to marriage ceremonies, regulated the relationship between this and other parts of the archaic religious community.

The primary cell of religious life was the family or the consanguineous community of families - the clan. The main character in the performance of household rituals was the head of the family. Worship of common gods, genealogical heroes, local spirits united clans and families within a settlement or tribe. Initially, the most important sacred rites of the tribal community were performed by the "elders", boyars or princes. Under the year 983, in the Tale of Bygone Years, it is written that Prince Vladimir “with his people” himself makes sacrifices to the gods, and in Kyiv the verdict on human sacrifice by lot is passed by “elders and boyars”.

The administration of the most important sacred functions was assigned to the prince in the archaic collective. “It is possible that in the conditions of the primitive tribal system, the prince (from the root “kan” - the basis) was both the head of the family and the main performer of rituals. [...] At such a family-clan level, the “prince” was obviously regarded as the head of everyday affairs and as the head of family religious spells” 1 . It is significant that in Czech and some other West Slavic languages the meaning of "priest, priest" is preserved in the word knyaz. The materials collected by J. Frazer in The Golden Bough convincingly testify to the typicality of the archaic figure of the king-priest.

“Vladimir was defeated by lust ...”, reports “The Tale of Bygone Years”, confirming the “womanly love” of the prince by listing his five wives and a certificate of eight hundred concubines. Perhaps the notorious “gluttony in fornication” of Prince Vladimir, which the Christian chronicler reports with condemnation, is explained by archaic views, according to which the ruler’s sexual potencies are magically connected with natural abundance, growth, excess.

Rybakov B. A. Paganism of Ancient Russia. M., 1988. S. 294.

Returning to Slavic names with the element svet-, let us pay attention to the fact that their prevalence in the princely environment and their semantics could be motivated by magical ideas. It is known that according to archaic beliefs in magical "powers", the presence of these extraordinary "powers" in a person is recognized by the presence of special abilities of the individual - fighting spirit, mental insight, obsession, outstanding skill or enterprise. It is clear to an archaic person that an individual who stands out from the collective with one of these qualities is the bearer of an extraordinary “strength” and therefore he is destined to become a leader, a sorcerer, a great warrior, etc. svet-, taken in the meaning of life-giving power, the name could be due to a similar logic of religious thinking: it indicated the possession of an extraordinary “power” or acted as a magical blessing to a youth of a princely family.

The existence of a special layer of clergy in the archaic Slavic religious communities is problematic. In the Slavic environment, the founders of the priesthood entered the stage of isolation, apparently in the second sex. I millennium. In this era, the Slavic tribes gradually settle on the occupied lands. The arrangement of tribal life was accompanied by the creation of sanctuaries (temples) - from small rural to large ritual centers that served intertribal associations. The emergence of large, permanent ritual centers creates proper religious prerequisites for the concentration of people professionally engaged in serving the cult and their consolidation into a special community. The process of isolation of the priesthood advanced most far in the Eastern Slavic religious communities and among the Baltic Slavs.

However, as far as can be judged from the materials that have come down to us, in the Proto-Slavic society, the priesthood has not yet become a separate religious group, clearly separated from the rest of the religious community. The absence of special priestly corporations among the Eastern Slavs is indicated, in particular, by the fact that in Kiev the “elders and boyars” cast lots when determining a human sacrifice, they, apparently, sent this ritual. Meanwhile, both categories were not exclusively religious groups 1 . There is no reliable evidence of the existence in the Proto-Slavic society of a special priestly ritual (ritual

In an archaic sense, the word starb. as noted by O.N. Trubachev - "chief, having power, power", it was used to "designate an elder, head of a clan, tribe" (Trubachev O.N. The history of Slavic terms of kinship and some of the most ancient terms of the social system. M., 1959. S. 178-179). Moreover, the word “boyar” (“bolyarin”), apparently borrowed from the ancient Turkic bai in the meaning of “noble, rich”, was not a specifically religious term.

fishing of initiation, etc.), special rules that regulated the way of life and the status of the priesthood, special plots of mythology that supported this status. Finally, in the Slavic pantheon there are no gods who especially patronized the priests.

Although there were no priestly corporations in the structure of the Proto-Slavic religious community, the circle of individuals professionally engaged in the performance of religious rites, the preservation and transmission of religious knowledge was quite wide. In addition to people who served at large temples to communicate with the gods, it included various categories of connoisseurs of magic. Magi - the general name of all connoisseurs of magic or a large group of them. The very word magi indicates a type of religious specialization - magic, that is, witchcraft. The category of sorcerers also included persons called sorcerers, sorcerers, kobniks (specialized in koby - divination, divination), cloud-persecutors (it was assumed that they magically influenced the weather), balinese (healers who healed with conspiracies), and some others. Not only men, but also women labored in witchcraft, and in terms of the number of women there could be more than men.

With the adoption of Christianity, the ancient Slavic priesthood and all categories of sorcerers in their official status moved to the position of religious outcasts. The Church publicly dismissed all forms of Proto-Slavic magic. However, it could only partially prevent the processes of merging Christian magic with the Proto-Slavic magic that took place in the depths of religious life and the preservation of witchcraft in the forms demanded by medieval and subsequent cultures (quackery, divination, etc.). Therefore, in the era of syncretic religiosity, sorcerers still occupied a prominent place in Slavic religions.