Slavic Paganism

Slavic mythology or Slavic paganism is the religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianization, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century. The South Slavs, who likely settled in the Balkans during the 6th–7th centuries, came under the sphere of influence of bordering Byzantine Eastern Christianity. They were also influenced bythe adoption of Christianity in Bulgaria in 864 and in Great Moravia in 863. The East Slavs converted after Vladimir the Great became a Christian in 988. West Slavic Christianization was more gradual and complicated. The Moravians accepted Christianity as early as 831, the Bohemian dukes followed in 845, and the Slovaks accepted Christianity somewhere between the years 828 and 863. The first historical Polish ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity much later, in 966, around the same time as the Sorbs. Polabian Slavs only came under the influence of the Catholic Church from the 12th century onwards. For the Polabian Slavs and the Sorbs, Christianization occurred in tandem with full or partial Germanization. The introduction of Christianity encountered resistance by the Slavs. The West Slavs of the Baltic strenuously resisted it until it was violently imposed on them through the Northern Crusades. Among Poles and East Slavs, rebellions broke out throughout the 11th century. Christian chroniclers reported that the Slavs regularly reverted to their original religious practices. Many elements of the Slavic indigenous religion were officially incorporated into Slavic Christianity.  The pagan Slavs were polytheistic. Their gods are known primarily from a handful of chronicles, letopises (semi-fictional compilations of historical documents and oral traditions), and inaccurate anti-pagan Christian sermons. More numerous are sources which preserve Slavic theonyms including proper names, place names, the names of folk holidays, as well as folk wisdom. Based on reconstructed myths about gods Perun and Veles, some scholars believe that both of these are chief deities. Perun is the god of lightning, thunder, and war. Veles rules over the underworld and conducts the souls of the dead into the meadows of the beyond. As the god of wealth, he is associated with the care of cattle, the primary form of Slavic wealth. Dazhbog is a sun god. His name means god of giving, suggesting that he was also a god of abundance. Svarozhits is a fire god who is mentioned in minor East Slavic texts. Other deities are personifications of human and natural attributes. Dola is the personification of fate and destiny abd was assigned to a person at birth. It may be inherited from ancestors. It is generally invisible but may have manifested in human or animal form. The opposite of Dola, who is associated with good fortune, was Nedola, the personification of bad fortune. Mat Zemlya, who appears mainly in East Slavic texts, is a personification of the Earth. Rozhanitsy (Givers of life), Sudenitsy (Givers of fate), and Narechnitsy (Givers of destiny) are female spirits or deities of fate. They are manifested either as a group or as a single entity. A person's fate is symbolized by the thread of life, the length of which is measured by the Rozhanitsy. Bloodless sacrifices were offered to these goddesses of fate. Zorya is the personification of the dawn. She lives overseas on the mythical island of Bujan and opens a door for the Sun to begin its daily journey across the sky. Zvezda, Utrenica, or Danica is the personification of the Morning Star, the planet Venus. The worship of Slavic gods has persisted in unofficial folk religion until modern times.