Georgian Religion

Georgian mythology is the mythology of pre-Christian Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia (a region located between Turkey and Russia) and the South Caucasus. Georgian myths and legends are preserved mainly as popular tales, many of which fused with Christian legends after the Christianization of Georgia seventeen centuries ago. The evangelizing of Georgia, however, did not occur uniformly. While the lowland populations embraced Christianity in the fifth century, the highlanders of the mountain valleys in the Greater Caucasus range were only superficially converted about ten centuries later. Survivals of pagan beliefs and practices in the Georgian plains therefore lack mythological unity and are, essentially, folklore rather than religion. Mountain dwelling Georgians, in contrast, preserved a rich and well-organized pagan beleif system up to the beginning of the twentieth century, with differentiated cults largely due to the persistence of a priestly class and an orally-transmitted body of knowledge. Georgian mythology beleives that men and women are only emanations of, or substitutes for, the gods above (in the case of men) and the demons below (in the case of women). The same principle applies for every created being or object. The entities and substances of the universe are divided into two opposing camps. One is wild and demonic, and the other is socialized and divine. The only entities or substances that are real exist in the upper world of Zeskneli or the lower world of Kveskneli. The universe is perceived as a sphere comprised of three worlds or levels, known as skneli. Zeskneli is the highest world, and the home of the gods. White is the color of Zeskneli. Earth is the middle world, the home of mortals. Red is the colour of the middle world. Kveskneli is the lowest world, or underworld. It is inhabited by ogres, serpents, and demons. Black is the colour of Kveskneli. The mountain Georgian equivalent of the shaman is the Kadagi, a person of either gender who has become permanently possessed by one of the class of minor divinities most often named the Hat'i (sign), but also as Dzhuar (cross) and Saghmto (divinity). An exclusively female second type of practitioner of shamanic type was the Mesultane (deriving from Georgian word for soul) who was capable, while in a trance, of visiting the spirit world. Upon awakening, they would describe their journey and communicate the requests of the dead to individuals or the community. The Georgian pantheon includes dozens of gods, demigods, spirits, and humans and animals who can be either mortal or semi-divine. In the Georgian kingdom of Kartli (Iberia) Armazi is the chief the gods. Complementary strands of research suggest that the origins of Armazi lie in a syncretism between conceptions of the Zoroastrian supreme being Ahura Mazda and a native Georgian supreme lunar deity that is a regional variant of the Hittite moon god Arma. An alternate chief god is Ghmerti, supreme divinity and the head of the pantheon of gods. He is the all-powerful Lord of the universe as well as its creator. His children include the moon (his son), the sun (his daughter), and the Ghvtis Shvilni who protect people against evil. His name was later used to refer to God the Father by Georgian Christians.