The mysterious Kalash people practice an ancient form of Indo-European paganism in an unbroken tradition having survived against all odds in a remote mountain region of northern Pakistan. The isolated Chitral Valley is home to Dardic people who speak an ancient Indo-European language called Nuristani. This is what remained when the Indo-Iranian and Indo-Aryan subgroups cleaved off after their invasion of the Indian subcontinent. Their religion descends from the Rigvedic period and they have close genetic ties to modern Europeans.

Some of their religious customs echo pre-christian Slavic ones – a cosmic dualism pitting a thunder god against a chthonic rival, a polymorphic fertility deity, animal sacrifice, use of wooden idols and a corpus of nature spirits. Their pantheon even includes a female deity of death named Mara. The women’s clothing bare remarkable resemblance to Slavic folk costume, especially the Ukrainian type. Watching the videos below you will notice their use of sun-wheels, the eight petal flower and even the gromovit znaki.

Whats more, the Kalash have a winter solstice ritual thatmay yield precious clues to the meaning behind Slavic yule log (Bozic/Badnjak/Budnik) tradition. Here a young boy assumes the role of the polymorphic solar fertility hero by taking to the hills during summer. He returns to his community and completes the rite of passage during the night of the winter solstice.

In the old pagans many nationalities had their own goddess of death in mythology.They were afraid, and bowed to protect your home from illness and grief associated with the loss of loved ones.Our ancestors were not exception in this respect.Goddess of death among the Slavs was named Madder, which reduced sounded like Mara. In Sanskrit, the word «mara» stands for «scathing», «kill». The roots of the name are drawn to the Indo-European «March/sea» associated with death, and with the epidemic. Note that the goddess of death in the mythology of the Slavs was not only related to the transition to the world of the dead, but also to call the rain rituals and seasonal periods of dying and resurrection of nature.

Morena (also known as Morana, Marzanna, Mora) was a Slavic goddess of winter, night and death. Although she is generally referred to as a goddess, some scholars consider her a demon. She symbolized the destructive power of nature. Her name most likely derived from the Old Slavic root mar or mor, which is associated with death.

Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2002
VICTOR A. SHNIRELMAN

ABSTRACT A rapid growth of new religious movements, in terms of both their numbers and variability, was a surprising outcome of the move to democracy in post-Soviet societies. One of the movements is Neo-Paganism whose emergence paradoxically coincided with the celebration of the anniversary of the baptism of Rus 1,000 years ago and the birth of Christianity 2,000 years ago. The Neo-Pagan movements challenge Christian values—with regard to ethics, attitude towards the natural environment, view of the past, and approach towards cultural variability. The Neo-Pagan impact on Christianity in the post-Soviet lands is rooted in ethnic nationalism—a common phenomenon at the turn of the 1990s. Neo-pagans are searching for both a primordial past and a pure ethnic culture, which they view as invaluable resources to overcome the hardship and ideological vacuum of the transitional period. However, they do this in various ways and thus, various forms of Neo-Paganism manifest themselves between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia.

A faith with its roots in pre-Christian culture is still attracting converts. Neil Hudson talks to the man behind the country’s oldest Pagan gathering

MENTION the word Paganism to most people and it will probably conjure up images of ancient rituals conducted by people in hoods tramping round the mist-filled fields of pre-Roman Britain.

The reality is that Paganism is very much alive and well and Yorkshire has the longest running Pagan moot in the country.
In Leeds alone there are three active moots and another two in Wakefield, with others in Huddersfield and beyond. Earlier this month the Wakefield Pagan Moot celebrated its 25th anniversary, making it the longest running in the country, and Steve Jones, who founded the moot, believes for many people Paganism offers an alternative to the mainstream religions.

Part I – The Ancient Religion

A lot of ethnic Europeans are reluctant to call themselves Pagans, although they would like to call themselves Pagans. The reason for that is amongst other things that: «There are so many dirty, filthy, ganja-smoking hippies who have taken use of the term» (to quote a friend of mine), and sensible people don’t really want to be associated with such people.

In Norway I have been seen as a reason for people not to call themselves Pagans too, and some of the so- called Pagans in Norway have also campaigned against me to ostracize me and alienate me from the whole Pagan movement, but ironically the people who don’t want to be associated with me are the same dirty, filthy, ganja-smoking free-love hippies who in turn scare others from calling themselves Pagans.

A Review Essay on the Handbook of Contemporary Paganism

Murphy Pizza and James R. Lewis (eds.) (2009). Handbook of Contemporary Paganism. In the series Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion 2. Series editor James R. Lewis. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

Abstract

This review essay takes a critical look at the new field of “pagan studies” by examining the Handbook of Contemporary Paganism. It demonstrates that pagan studies is dominated by the methodological principles of essentialism, exclusivism, loyalism and supernaturalism, and shows how these principles promote normative constructions of ‘pure’ paganism, insider interpretations of the data, and theological speculations about gods, powers, and a special “magical consciousness.” It seems thus that the methodological discussions in MTSR have little effect on pagan scholars and other religionists within our discipline. In the concluding discussion, I raise the questions why this is so, and how we might do better in promoting a naturalist and theoretically oriented approach to studying religion.

White and dishevelled, she looks outrageous,
Rushing about, brisk and courageous.

Dark is the night, it is scared to death, and
Clouds, like kerchiefs, have covered the crescent.

Wind, letting out hysterical hoots,
Whirls like a shot to the back of the woods.

Fir-trees are threatening to hit with a spear
Owls lie hidden, a-wailing from fear.

Waving her harridan’s clutches, she shouts.
Up in the sky stars are winking from clouds.

Vipers, like rings, hanging down her hair,
Spinning with blizzard, she whirls in the air.

Ringing, the pines make the witch dance and cry.
Clouds grow dark as they, trembling, float by.

Sergey Yesenin
1915

I'll be yours if you want. Understand if you can
If I like anyone in this world, you're the one.
I'd been cold, pale and feeble before I met you.
Well, I come from the bottom, deep, quiet and blue.

No, don't hurry. The moon will be shining for us.
There it is! Can you see it? New moon. Now it shines!
Look, the darkness is breathing. Come. Kiss me. You're mine.
Here and there. That's it. You are sweeter than wine!

Konstantin Balmont
(Translated from the Russian by Alec Vagapov)

This article is intended to provide a very general introduction to modern Paganism, a small but fast-growing religion within modern Western culture. I’ve no particular claim to authority on this subject beyond extensive personal involvement in many aspects of the modern Pagan community for over thirty years. I’m a former President of the Pagan Federation and have been its Scottish Interfaith Officer since 1994. While I will be referring to both modern and ancient literary sources, what I have to say derives mainly by personal experience and observation, from shared religious practice, and from very extensive discussions with a fairly large number of other Pagans – running into several hundreds - across Scotland and many other European countries, and to a more limited extent, the USA and Canada.