Paganism labels a set of religions centered on the celebration and veneration of nature that understand and engage it in one way or another as sacred. To fully understand the natural dimension of contemporary Paganism we must apprehend its origins and diversity. Scholars who study such religion generally use “Pagan” or “Paganism” (with a capital P) to denote a religion as identified by its adherents, and “pagan” or “paganism” (lower-case) to refer to more general phenomena such as the pre-Christian religions of ancient Europe.

The origins of the name and of the revival of Paganism in the twentieth century arise from earlier cultural trends and movements. Many Pagans think that “pagan” derives from a Latin word meaning villager or “country-dweller” as opposed to a city-dweller. They associate it not only with rural and traditional values, but also with being close to nature or the land. Of course, this makes it difficult to speak of classical Roman “paganism” since that term must refer to temple-based religious observances in cities and towns. In reality the term originally meant something more like “parishioner,” a member of a community living in a particular place – rural or urban – who is therefore obligated to respect sacred places and people in that area.

The middle of the 13th century is traditionally viewed in Russian archaeology as certain limit dividing not only two periods in social and political history of ancient Rus’, but also two separate blocks of its material culture.

The idea on the disaster and following discontinuity in cultural traditions is based on impressive and reliable evidences of the written sources and abundant archaeological material that seem to fit perfectly.

The thesis on military crash Russian principalities underwent in 1237-1240 being directly connected with a number of transformations in Russian culture that had consequently lost numerous characteristic features formed in the 10th—12th cc. gradually has become a commonplace in the works devoted to medieval history and archaeology of Eastern Europe. Yet recent investigations of archaeological monuments of the 12th - 14th cc. in different regions of ancient Rus’ reveal more contradictory a picture of development displaying the qualities of crisis and discontinuity combined with those of cultural continuity and stability of the traditions established during the pre-Mongol period.

A pantheon of pagan gods, deities, and spirits ruled over Slavs’ souls in Kievan Rus (the political ancestor of today’s Russia) up until the 11th century A.D. Water had its own deities, most of whom were ruled by spirits known as rusalki (mermaids) or Vodanoi (water-spirits). Fire was personified by the god Svarozhich, and it was considered nearly criminal to spit into a fire.

Mokosh seems to have been given the greatest amount of respect. No one was allowed to strike the Earth with a hoe until the spring equinox, as celebrated during the pagan festival Maslenitsa, as the Earth was considered pregnant until then. The Earth was considered so sacred that oaths were sworn while holding a clump of it in one’s hand, sometimes in the mouth. Ancient wedding vows were taken while swallowing a small piece of earth or holding it on the head. The custom of asking the Earth’s forgiveness before death was still being observed far into the 20th century, and when a priest in the countryside could not be found it was considered appropriate to confess sins to the Earth.

Slavs’ lives in ancient Rus were, like all ancient peoples’ lives, ruled and regulated by nature as well as a healthy respect for the deceased. It should be no surprise that all the aforementioned gods, deities, and spirits were directly connected with the elements, the seasons, and survival.

In the following accounts we see the struggle between Christianity and the old Asa belief. Hakon, the foster-son of Athelstan, so named because he had been fostered by that king in England, came back to Norway a Christian, but his people clung to the old faith, and to strengthen himself in the country he at first found it necessary to observe the tenets of his religion in secret. He ordered the Yule-feast to be celebrated at Christmas, and persuaded some of his best friends to adopt Christianity.

"Hakon was a good Christian when he came to Norway; but as all the land was heathen, and there were much sacrificing and many chiefs, and he much needed the help and friendship of the people, he decided to conceal his christianity, and kept Sundays, and fasting on Fridays, and the greatest festivals. He made it a law that the Yule should begin at the same time as that of the Christians, and every man should have a certain measure of ale, or pay a fine, and keep the days holy while Yule lasted. It formerly began on hökunótt (the midwinter-night), and it was kept for three nights. He wanted to make the people Christians, when he got established in the land and had fully subjected it to himself. He sent to England for a bishop and other priests. When they came to Norway, Hakon made known that he would try to Christianize the land" (Hakon the Good's Saga, c.15; Fornmanna Sögur, 1).

The world tree is a motif present in several religions and mythologies, particularly Indo-European religions, Siberian religions, and Native American religions. The world tree is represented as a colossal tree which supports the heavens, thereby connecting the heavens, the world, and, through its roots, the underworld. It may also be strongly connected to the motif of the tree of life.

Specific world trees include világfa in Hungarian mythology, Yggdrasil (or Irminsul) in Germanic (including Norse) mythology, the Oak in Slavic and Finnish mythology, and in Hindu mythology the Ashvattha (a Sacred Fig).

Oshmarii-Chimarii (Mari El Republic, Russia)

Mari El is an autonomous republic of Russia located approximately seven hundred kilometers from Moscow. The ethnic Mari, formerly known as the Chermiss, who speak a Finno-Ugrian language, represent 43.3 percent of the republic’s population. Beyond Mari El, the Mari peoples are found also in Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Udmurtia as well as in the areas of Nijny Novgorod, Kirov and Sverdlovsk.

Upon the rediscovery of its indigenous pagan traditions at the end of the 1980s, the Mari El Republic underwent a nationalist reawakening. By granting legal status to longstanding religious traditions, the 1997 Russian law concerning freedom of religion promoted Mari Paganism as well. Nevertheless, the Mari have encountered difficulties.

In Slavic mythology, the word “zmey” (Bulgarian and Russian: змей, Macedonian: змеj) and its cognates zmiy and zmaj (Bosnian, Croatian, Slovene: zmaj), are used to describe a dragon. These words are masculine forms of the Slavic word for "snake", which are normally feminine (like Russian zmeya). In Romania, there is a similar figure, derived from the Slavic dragon and named zmeu. Exclusively in Polish and Belarusian folklore, as well as in the other Slavic folklores, a dragon is also called smok (смок, цмок, smok). In South Slavic folklores, the same thing is also called lamya (ламйа, ламjа, lamja). Although quite similar to other European dragons, Slavic dragons have their peculiarities.

Supernatural beings in Slavic folklore come in several forms and their names are spelled differently based on the specific language. Among the ones listed below there were also khovanets (as domovoi), dolia (fate), polyovyk or polevoi (field spirit), perelesnyk (spirit of seduction), lesovyk or leshyi (woodland spirit), blud (wanderer), mara (specter, spirit of confusion), chuhaister (forest giant), mavka or niavka (forest nymphs), potoplenytsia (drowned maiden, wife of vodianyk), vodianyk or vodyanoy (water spirit, aka potoplenyk), bolotianyk (swamp spirit), bisytsia (she-devil), potercha (spirit of dead, unbaptized child), nichnytsia (night spirit), mamuna (demoness), nechysta syla (evil power), scheznyk (vanisher), didko, antypko, antsybolot, aridnyk (other names for evil spirits), and many, many others. Those spirits or fairies are mostly out of the Ukrainian mythology, which have derived out of the general Slavic folklore.

Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice. It was also used as a political tool by both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, which gained political-military influence and control over all Slavic-majority nations between 1945 and 1948.

Origins

Extensive Pan-Slavism began much like Pan-Germanism, both of which grew from the sense of unity and nationalism experienced within ethnic groups under the domination of France during the Napoleonic Wars. Like other Romantic nationalist movements, Slavic intellectuals and scholars in the developing fields of history, philology, and folklore actively encouraged the passion of their shared identity and ancestry. Pan-Slavism also co-existed with the Southern Slavic independence.