Read the full myth about the shining sun. Folk myth about the sun. Cult of Veles - god of animals and the underworld

The mythology of the ancient Slavs was closely connected with nature. Our ancestors lived in symbiosis with the elements, and their rites and rituals were designed to emphasize this unity. Researchers note that the range of the nature of the religious traditions of the Slavs was quite wide: from peaceful agricultural to cruel and bloody cults.

Mother - Cheese Earth

Since time immemorial, the basis of Slavic mythology has been the cult of a goddess named Mother - Cheese Earth. She gave life, and she took it away. As the researcher of Slavic mythology Yu.I. points out. Smirnov, the Slavs represented her in the image of a woman: grass, bushes and trees - her lush hair, their roots - veins, rocks - bones, streams and rivers - living blood. They swore in the name of Mother Earth, eating a pinch of earth, and this oath could not be broken, because the earth would not bear an oathbreaker. The expression “So that I fall through the ground” has been preserved to this day.
Grain was brought as a requirement for Mother Earth.

Cults of love and fertility

An echo of Slavic antiquity was the veneration of the Family; It was he who sent the souls of people from heaven to earth. The clan was considered the patron saint of men, and the women were taken care of by his daughters, the women in labor. Among women in labor, two are known: Lada and her daughter Lelya.

Lada was considered the protector of the family, the goddess of love and beauty, as well as fertility. Collector of Russian folk tales A.N. Afanasyev wrote: “In folk tales, lado still means a dearly beloved friend, lover, groom, husband, and in the female form (lada) - mistress, bride and wife.” Goddess Lelya took care of the first spring shoots, flowers and favored girlish love.

Women brought gifts of flowers and berries to women giving birth. Rituals promoting fertility were associated with nudity.
A kind of ritual was performed in the grain field for the purpose of a good harvest. “The hostess lay down in the field and pretended to give birth; a loaf of bread was placed between her legs,” said Professor N.M. Nikolsky in the book “History of the Russian Church”. During Holy Week, the last week of Lent, they also cast a spell to make bread better. The owner shook the plow and imitated plowing. A naked woman collected cockroaches from the corners, wrapped them in a rag and carried them out onto the road. They also uttered slander against livestock and poultry.

In the Vyatka province, on Maundy Thursday, before sunrise, the naked mistress of the house had to run with an old pot to the garden and tip it over on a stake: the pot remained in this position on the stake throughout the summer - this protected the chickens from birds of prey.

And near Kostroma, until the 18th century, the following pagan ritual was preserved: a naked girl sat, like a witch, on the handle of a broom and “circled” around the house three times.

Yarilo

He was the cheerful god of the spring sun and fertility, the patron of love and childbirth. His name comes from the word “yar” - “strength”. The deity was represented not only by a young man in white robes and on a white horse, but sometimes also by a woman dressed in white trousers and a shirt and holding a stuffed human head in her right hand and a bunch of ears of grain in her left: symbols of life and death. On Yarilo’s head there was a wreath of the first wildflowers.

Yarilin's Day was celebrated on April 27. On this day, the girl was mounted on a white horse, which was led around a ritual pillar or tree in a high place. Then the horse was tied and danced around, chanting the arrival of spring. The second holiday dedicated to Yarila was celebrated in mid-summer before the Lent of Peter the Great. This time the deity was portrayed by a young man dressed in white clothes, decorated with ribbons and flowers. He led the celebration, which ended with refreshments and folk festivities.

Yarila was glorified as “spreading spring or morning sunlight, stimulating plant power in grasses and trees and carnal love in people and animals, youthful freshness, strength and courage in man” (P. Efimenko. “Zap. Imp. Rus. Geogr. General on the department of ethnography", 1868).

Cult of Veles - god of animals and the underworld

The winged serpent Veles was revered as the patron of livestock and forest animals. He also ruled the underworld, and an unquenchable fire was dedicated to him. When the bread was harvested, a bunch of unharvested ears of corn was left as a gift to Veles. For the health and fertility of livestock, a white lamb was slaughtered. The ritual of making human sacrifices to Veles is described in “The Tale of the Construction of the City of Yaroslavl”:
“When the first cattle came to the pastures, the sorcerer slaughtered a bull and a heifer for him, in ordinary times he burned victims from wild animals, and on some very difficult days - from people. When the fire at Volos died out, the sorcerer was removed from the keremet on the same day and hour, and another was chosen by lot, and this one stabbed the sorcerer and, having lit a fire, burned his corpse in it as a sacrifice, the only one capable of bringing joy to this formidable god" ( Voronin N. Bear cult in the Upper Volga region of the 11th century). New fire could only be produced by rubbing wood against wood: then it was considered “living.”

With the advent of Christianity, Veles was replaced by a Christian saint with a similar name - the holy martyr Blasius. As the researcher of Slavic mythology Yu.I. points out. Smirnov, on the day of memory of this saint, February 24, the peasants treated their domestic animals with bread and gave them Epiphany water. And if diseases attacked the livestock, people “plowed” the village - they made a furrow around it with a plow and walked around with the icon of St. Blaise.

Cult of fire

The god of fire was Svarog (his other names are Svyatovit, Radegast) and his son Svarozhich. Fire was considered sacred among the Slavs. It was forbidden to spit or throw sewage into it. When the fire was burning, it was forbidden to swear. Healing and cleansing properties were attributed to fire. A sick person was carried through the fire, in which the evil forces were supposed to die. Before the wedding, the bride and groom were held between two fires to cleanse and protect the future family from possible damage.

Breaking dishes at modern weddings is an echo of the worship of Svarog, only before they beat pots on the stove.

Bloody sacrifices were also made to Svarog, which were determined by lot or indicated by the priest. Most often these were animals, but they could also be people. “Among various sacrifices, the priest is in the habit of sometimes sacrificing people - Christians, assuring that this kind of blood gives special pleasure to the gods” (Helmold. Slavic Chronicle, 1167-1168). Adam of Bremen in the 11th century chronicle “The Acts of the Bishops of Hamburg” tells about the death of John, Bishop of Mecklenburg: “The barbarians cut off his arms and legs, threw his body onto the road, cut off his head and, sticking it on a spear, sacrificed it to their god Radegast as a sign victory."

Cult of the Gods of War

When princely power was strengthened, the primacy of the cult of fertility was replaced by the cult of war. Near Veliky Novgorod there was a temple - Peryn, where human sacrifices were made to the gods of this cult. One of the first written mentions of ritual murders can be considered a message in the Byzantine “Strategikon of Mauritius” (VI-VII centuries). It, in particular, talks about the Slavic tribes of the Sklavins and Ants.

In former times, Peryn was an island, but in the 1960s the water regime was disrupted by the construction of a causeway dam. As a result, the river around Peryn became shallow and the island merged with the shore. In the Kiev sanctuary, built by Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich in 980, there were several idols: wooden Perun with a silver head and golden mustache, Horse, Dazhbog, Stribog, Simargl and Mokosh. There is evidence of the sacrifices made to these gods in a number of foreign sources.

The German bishop Thietmar of Merseburg wrote in the Chronicles (11th century):
“How many regions there are in that country [Slavic - author's note], there are so many temples and images of individual demons that are revered by infidels, but among them the mentioned city [temple - author's note] enjoys the greatest respect. They visit him when they go to war, and upon returning, if the campaign was successful, they honor him with appropriate gifts, and what kind of sacrifice the priests should make in order for it to be desired by the gods, they guessed about this, as I already said, through the horse and lots. The wrath of the gods was appeased by the blood of people and animals.”

The Byzantine chronicler Leo the Deacon (mid-10th century) tells of the Byzantine siege of Prince Svyatoslav in the city of Dorostol. The author called all the northern barbarians Scythians, but, of course, real Scythians no longer existed, and we are talking specifically about the pagan Slavs and Rus:

“The Scythians could not withstand the enemy’s onslaught; greatly depressed by the death of their leader (Ikmor, the second man in the army after Svyatoslav), they threw their shields behind their backs and began to retreat to the city, while the Romans pursued them and killed them. And so, when night fell and the full circle of the moon shone, the Scythians went out onto the plain and began to pick up their dead. They piled them up in front of the wall, made many fires and burned them, slaughtering many captives, men and women, according to the custom of their ancestors. Having made this bloody sacrifice, they strangled several infants and roosters, drowning them in the waters of the Ister.”

The fact of the sacrifice of prisoners and infants among the Slavs is confirmed by other medieval authors, as well as archaeologists. B.A. Rybakov, in his book “The Paganism of Ancient Rus',” writes that the ancient settlement of Babina Gora on the banks of the Dnieper, which, in his opinion, belonged to the early Slavs, was a pagan sanctuary where babies were sacrificed. This is evidenced, according to the researcher, by children's skulls buried nearby without objects that usually accompanied burials. He suggests that Babina Gora “can be imagined as a sanctuary of a female deity like Mokosh,” where the victims were children.

Ibn Rust, early 10th century:
“They [the Slavs - author] have healers, some of whom command the king as if they were their leaders. It happens that they order that sacrifices be made to their creator, whatever they please: women, men and horses, and when the healers order, it is impossible not to fulfill their order in any way. Having taken a person or animal, the medicine man puts a noose around his neck, hangs the victim on a log and waits until it suffocates, and says that this is a sacrifice to God.”

The chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" mentions a Christian youth whom the pagans wanted to sacrifice: John, the son of Theodore the Varangian. The son and his father were killed by a crowd of pagan fanatics. Subsequently, the Church canonized them as holy martyrs. The chronicler does not specify which god the young Varangian was to be sacrificed to. B.A. Rybakov believes that Perun. But just 8 years after the creation of the temple in Kyiv, Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity and “ordered to overthrow the idols - chop some up and burn others. Perun ordered to be tied to a horse and dragged from the mountain along Borichev to the Stream and ordered twelve men to beat him with sticks. This was done not because the tree feels anything, but to mock the demon who deceived people in this image - so that he would accept retribution from people.” The beaten Perun was thrown into the Dnieper, and the princely people were ordered to push him away from the shore until he passed the rapids.

Many of us know the myth of Yaril the Sun from school. In many textbooks you can read the Slavic myth “Yarilo the Sun” - about the ancient Slavic god of the spring sun. Yarilo is a young god who appears to people in the form of a young man with a beautiful appearance. Yarila has blond hair flowing in the wind, beautiful blue eyes, a powerful torso and a pleasant smile. No wonder all these “charms” made him a real ladies’ man, since according to legend, Yarilo loved many goddesses and even earthly women. Likewise, the myth of Yaril has as its theme his love with Mother Earth.

The ancient Slavic myth begins with a description of how the Damp Earth lived in the cold and darkness. Darkness enveloped her from head to toe, and on her surface there was nothing living, light or pleasant. There was no noticeable movement of any kind, no sounds, no heat or light. This is how poor Damp Earth lived. This is how the eternally young and beautiful, warm and hot Yarilo saw her. The other gods did not share the desire of the young and ardent Yarila to bring light and warmth to Earth. They didn’t care about the Earth, but the zealous Yarilo himself looked at the Damp Earth and pierced the cold and darkness with his bright, warm gaze-arrow. Yar saw the sleeping Earth, and in the place where his gaze pierced the darkness, a red sun appeared. And through the sun, bright light and warmth from Yarila poured onto the Earth.

Mother Raw Earth began to awaken from sleep under the warm sun, shone with her youthful beauty, spread out in a riot of greenery and colors, like a bride on her wedding bed. The life-giving light spread throughout all the depths of the Earth, she drank the golden rays of Yarila, but could not get drunk. Life appeared on Mother Earth, and bliss spread over its entire surface, reaching the very depths. Here Yarilo fell in love with such a beautiful Earth. The sun god prayed to the Damp Earth so that she would love him and reciprocate. And for this, Yarilo promised to spread blue seas, scarlet flowers, yellow sands and green forests with herbs on it. From Yarila Mother Earth gave birth to a multitude of living things - a countless number.

And the Earth fell in love with Yarila. And in place of the hot divine kisses, cereals and flowers, dark forests and light meadows, blue rivers and blue seas began to appear. And the more the Earth drank Yarilov’s kisses, the more animals and birds, fish and insects appeared from its depths. They all came to life and began to sing songs of praise to Father Yarila and Mother Earth. But Yarilo did not let up, inviting the Earth to love him more than ever. And the Raw Earth fell in love, and gave birth to her most beloved child from the sun god - man. As soon as the man appeared on Earth, Yarilo hit him in the very crown with his lightning arrows. This is how wisdom and intelligence arose in man. This is where the myth of love between Yarila and Mother Earth ends.

Such myths are stories about the origin of life on earth. There are also several similar myths about how every year Yarilo lowers its bright rays onto the earth. Beneath them, the Earth comes to life from its winter sleep-death, again giving birth to new life. and so it repeats from year to year, and the tireless young Yarilo continues to make earthly children.

Hello, dear students!
Today we will talk about the only Slavic goddess who was not persecuted by Christianity. At least I haven't heard anything about it. This was the most beloved character of the people in Slavic mythology - Mother Earth of Cheese.

Herbs, flowers, trees and shrubs are her lush hair. The rocks are her bones. Tenacious tree roots replace veins. And her blood is the living water oozing from her depths. And, like a living woman, she gives birth to earthly creatures, groaning in pain in the storm. And when he gets angry, he causes earthquakes. Smiles under the warm rays of the sun and gives unprecedented beauty to all living things. He falls asleep in the cold winter and wakes up in the spring. She is burned by drought, but she is reborn from life-giving moisture.

Mother of Cheese Earth is always close to man. She is his nurse and water provider, and a person always resorts to her help, like the help of a mother, in difficult moments of life.
Suffice it to recall fairy tales and epics in which even heroes fall to the damp earth to gain new strength. They will strike the ground with a spear, and it will absorb the black, poisonous blood of the serpent and restore life to the ruined people.
Fairy-tale heroes hit the ground to transform into someone else and gain their power.

“Whatever you are sick with, heal yourself,” they said in ancient times and they advised to take those who were hurt to that very place and pray to the earth for forgiveness.
The earth itself was considered the most powerful medicine. The healer moistened the earth with saliva and applied it to wounds or a sore head, while whispering a spell: “As the earth is healthy, so will your head be healthy.”

They swore by Mother Raw Earth, and this oath was considered the strongest, it was sacred and inviolable. The earth will not bear an oathbreaker. “May I fall through the ground! “- such an oath has still been preserved.

They kissed the ground and asked for forgiveness when they did a bad thing. And such a traditional bow to the ground in ancient times is also from the great veneration of Mother Earth.

The gods in the sky changed, in the place of some others appeared, and only Mother Cheese Earth remained for people as an eternal nurse, giving life to everything that lived on it.

In ancient times, sorcerers knew how to tell fortunes from a handful of earth taken from under the left foot of someone who wanted to know his fate. “Taking out a trace” from a person is still considered to be bad intentions. If you whisper skillfully over him, you can bind the will of a person hand and foot. And then, in order to get rid of such a misfortune, they ask the Earth: “Mother, nurse, damp, dear earth, protect me from the fierce gaze, from any unexpected mischief. Protect me from the evil eye, from the evil tongue, from the slander of demons. My word is strong as iron. With seven seals it is to you, nurse Mother - Cheese Earth, sealed - for many days, for many years, for an eternal life.

The ancient Roman historian Tacitus wrote about the Slavs who lived on the island of Rügen: “They pay general worship to the goddess of the earth and believe that she intervenes in human affairs and visits nations. There is an untouched forest on an island in the ocean, and in it is kept a sacred chariot covered with a veil: only the priest is allowed to touch it. He learns that the goddess is present in the sanctuary, and, drawn on a chariot by cows, accompanies him with great reverence.”

The image of Mother Earth dates back to very ancient times. Later, they created harmonious artificial systems, where at the head of the divine pantheon there is certainly God the Father, and the gods are predominantly male, but all this happened during the time of long-established patriarchy. However, even through such artificial patriarchal schemes, features of stable ancient ideas about the cosmic female deity, about the Great Mother of the World are visible: be it Gaia, who gave birth to Uranus, or Cybele, the personification of mother nature, revered in Asia Minor.

In every mythology there is sure to be such a female deity - the personification of all nature. However, it was among the Slavs that the veneration of the Mother of the Raw Earth was the strongest, which remained until the beginning of the 20th century.

Many beliefs are associated with our native land. If a person went somewhere to a foreign land, he certainly took a handful of his native land with him. He poured it out on someone else’s land and, walking on it, said: “I walk on my own land.” It was believed that even there, in a foreign land, if something happened, the native land would help and give strength.

The earth was kept in amulet during travel as a talisman against evil forces.

Mothers had no greater grief than the news that their sons, who died in a foreign land, did not stock up on their native land and were buried without it.

The concept of “homeland, native land” was special for the Slavs. How many poetic works are dedicated to the homeland!

There is a special day, May 23 - the birthday of the Mother of the Raw Earth. The peasants, wanting to honor the birthday girl with dignity, do not undertake any earthwork on this day: they do not plow, do not harrow, do not dig, and are especially careful about driving stakes into the ground so as not to disturb the peace of the earth.
On this day, it is advisable to walk barefoot on the ground: this way you can draw from it the strength your body needs. It was also believed that on this day it was possible to dig up healing roots for medicinal potions, because they gained the greatest strength.

All her life, the eternal Mother of Cheese, the Earth, has been raising the daily bread for the people living on her. Of course, these are not only ears of grain, but also other plants edible for humans, various medicinal herbs. Just as grass cannot grow without a handful of soil, so the Russian people cannot live without a land-breadwinner.

The sun's rays warm the earth, rain showers nourish it, and the earth, warmed and moistened, grows grass, flowers, trees, and provides food for animals and humans. And this natural phenomenon for humans served as the source of the myth about the marriage of Heaven and Earth. Since our Earth is naturally feminine, mother, Heaven was assigned the masculine - this was the father-father. The summer sky embraces the Earth in its warm embrace, like a bride or spouse, scatters its warm rays over it and pours life-giving waters, and the Earth can then “give birth.” In winter, the earth turns to stone from the cold and becomes barren.

Therefore, it is no coincidence that a worldview has developed in the minds of the Slavs that the wealth of the country and people directly depends on the vastness of the Slavic land. It is these spaces that are the main wealth, both material and spiritual.
The exponent of this worldview was the epic hero Mikula Selyaninovich. His strength was granted to him by the earth itself, and he relies entirely on the earthly power of Rus'.
Mikula is the beloved son of Mother Raw Earth, the first Russian Oratai. Collective Mikul feasts were celebrated in his honor, songs were sung in honor of the upcoming name day of the Mother of the Raw Earth:

Mikula-light, with mercy
Come to us, with joy,
With great grace...
Mother of Cheese, the Earth is good,
Give us some bread,
Sheep for the horses,
Grass for the cows!

There is an interesting epic about Svyatogor and Mikul. Svyatogor is trying to catch up with a passerby on a wide path and cannot. And then the hero spoke these words:

- Oh, you, passer-by, stop just a little, I can’t catch up with you in a good field.
A passerby paused, took his purse off his shoulders and laid the purse on the damp ground. Svyatogor the hero says:
- What do you have in your purse?
- But get up off the ground, you’ll see.
Svyatogor got off his good horse, grabbed the purse with his hand, but could not even move; He began to smoke with both hands, only the spirit could let him under his purse, but he sank knee-deep into the ground. The hero speaks these words:
- What do you have in your purse? I don’t have enough strength, but I can’t even lift my purse.
- I have earthly cravings in my purse.
- Who are you and what is your name? Do they call you by your family name?
- I am Mikulushka Selyaninovich.

Mikula is the bearer of earthly cravings in the literal sense: he carries the power of the Mother of the Raw Earth in a knapsack over his shoulders, easily outpacing the mightiest hero. The earth's thrust, upon contact with the source, is nourished by the immense power of the Earth, then returns to Mikula's shoulders and is transmitted to him in full.

With the adoption of Christianity in Rus', the image of the Mother of the Raw Earth began to become closer to the image of the Mother of God herself. Gradually, the idea spread that a person has three mothers: the first is the Most Holy Theotokos, who gave birth to the savior of the world, the second is the Earth, from which everyone is created and to which everyone will return after death, and the third is the one who carried and gave birth in the womb.
And Christianity transferred the holiday in honor of Oratai Mikula to the veneration of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. That is why in Rus' the spring Nikola is so revered.

I think this is where we can finish our lesson about Mother Earth. In the next lesson we will talk about the possible spouse of the Mother of the Damp Earth, but now homework(you need to choose questions that will give a total of at least 10 points):

1. Why Mother Earth, and not just Mother Earth? And why did the heroes fall specifically on the damp earth? (0-1 point)

2. How do you understand the oath “May I fall through the earth!”? And what was originally included in it? (0-2 points)

3. Why was the sower always a man? (0-1 point)

4. Find fairy tales, epics (at least two), in which the hero resorts to the help of the Mother of the Raw Earth. Tell us about them. (0-3 points)

5. Find riddles, proverbs, sayings, and simply popular expressions associated with Mother Raw Earth (at least three). Explain how you understand them. (0-3 points)

6. Write a short essay (poetic or prose) dedicated to this deity or your native land in general. (0-4 points)

7. If you know how to draw, you can depict Mother Earth. (0-5 points)

8. You went to practice in Argemon (practice can be in any subject). Tell us how Mother Earth of Cheese was able to help you. (0-5 points)

9. Find a poetic or prose work dedicated to the Motherland, native land that you like. Tell us about it and the thoughts that appear after reading it. (0-3 points)

10. Why did the Slavs develop such veneration of the Mother of the Raw Earth? (0-2 points)

11. In ancient Greek mythology there is a character similar to Mikula. Find him and tell him about him. What similarities and differences did you find? (0-3 points)

1. STORY. “Mother Cheese Earth lay in darkness and cold, she was dead: no light, no heat, no sounds, no movement. Yarila decided to look through the pitch darkness to see if Mother Cheese Earth was good. His fiery gaze pierced the darkness that covered the sleeping earth, and it began to shine the sun, the hot waves of Yaril's light poured in. Mother Cheese the Earth began to awaken from sleep and revel in the rays of light, from which life began to arise in its depths. Mother Cheese the Earth fell in love with Yaril, from his hot kisses it became covered with forests, fields, rivers, lakes, grains and flowers with trees. Animals and birds appeared, fish in the seas and rivers. Everything came to life on earth. Mother Cheese the Earth continued to drink light rays and gave birth to man. When a man came out of the bowels of the earth, Yarila hit him on the head with a golden rein - a fierce lightning. From the blow, a person’s mind was born, he began to differ from animals. Mother Cheese Earth rejoiced: Yaril’s love has no end, but after some time it began to get colder, the days became shorter. She became clouded with grief and began to cry, and the tears of Mother Cheese Earth shed rains. “Don’t be sad, Mother of the Cheese Earth,” Yarila began to ask, “I’ll leave you for a while, otherwise you’ll burn from my kisses. In the meantime, sleep under the snow until I return. The time will come - I’ll send you a messenger, I’ll make spring red, after which I will return myself. Yarila said so and left, and the Mother of Cheese the Earth was covered with snow and fell asleep before the arrival of spring." (stat. "The Slavs' version of the origin of the world", Alter Carbon, 2018)

VOLKHA: It’s a beautiful tale, oh how beautiful!..But it’s just a pity: the characters are thoroughly Kievan, created no earlier than the 0-10th centuries AD. But it seems to me even later: “neopagan.” This does not mean that TODAY there is nothing You can’t even make it up!
It is possible and necessary... But take a closer look, reader, at the story itself, it’s time.

MOTHER OF THE CHEESE EARTH - actually, “raw” (having groundwater) was called arable land, i.e. villages/farms. EARTH is simply MOTHER Earth, in ancient times she was the goddess of Roda/Mormara from the pantheon of Roda ORa/Hyperborea. Also called by the people of Kiev her BIRTHMAN (parent, analogue of Rod). WHOM do they call this now? And MAKOSH, i.e. a completely DIFFERENT “goddess” who exists (created by the Magi) only in the pantheon of Svarog of the Kiev region.

YARILO is how the people of Kiev called the sun god of Kievan Rus, giving him the status of the ANCIENT god ORa/Hyperborea... But the “god” is clearly “renamed” from the real ancient god of the pantheon of the Rod ARa, because there is NO letter “I” in the proto-language (see below translation); we are talking about the same time as Makosh.

The essence of the tale: LOVE of the heavenly god and goddess of the Earth - a copy of the myths of Ancient Greece about Zeus and Hera/Gaia. So the myth was not composed at all on the basis of ANCIENT AROV - the ancestors of "all Rus" ... Goal setting: to distract some OTHER tale about the creation of the World.

CONCLUSIONS Magi: The tale was thoroughly reworked by the “magi” - “neopagan” (modern). This is indicated by its narrative style and world view in general.

2.MOTHER EARTH/MOTHER OF CHEESE EARTH. “The Slavic goddess is called: Mokush, Mokosh, Makosh, Mokesh. Mokush is the only female goddess among the male gods at the pagan temple of Prince Vladimir - the future baptist of Russia. According to scientists, the name comes from the Greek “mokos”; spinning.Fasmer: “Mokush” resembles the sound of the verb “get wet” - Mokush was the goddess of the harvest, it often depends on rain. Also, water has always personified motherhood, Mokush was in charge of it. If the word “mokosh” (“mokush”) is divided into 2 parts, then the meaning of each will indicate their common meaning: the ancient word “ma”; mother and “kosh”; lot/fate. Hence Mokush is the “mother of fate”, i.e. she has the right to decide what exactly awaits a person in that or another period of time. However, the word “kosh” also called a basket for grain, a barn and even a cart for hay, i.e. things associated with the village/farm. Mokush, as a rule, was depicted in the image of a woman of middle age with long hair with her hands. In them she held a spindle or a cornucopia. Sometimes on Mokushi’s head there was a kichka - a headdress with horns. On embroidery and in sculpture, Mokushi could be depicted as a tall figure with a large head (sometimes a cow’s), standing between 2 silhouettes of women in labor in the form moose cows. According to folklore sources, Mokushi could turn into a terrible hunchback on crow's feet or a shaggy kikimora. Sometimes she became completely invisible, helping the mistress around the house. Mokushi's favorite animal was a cat. Spiders served Mokushi: they spun and weaved. Mokushi figurines (idols) were made only from “female” tree species - aspen or linden. Mokushi was the patroness of the household, women's needlework - spinning and weaving. She was in charge of women's fertility, harvest, home and prosperity in it. Wives, mothers, housewives asked for help and protection from Mokushi. She was called the “woman’s intercessor.” However, Mokush played the leading role in people’s lives, being the eldest of the goddesses who spin fate. With threads, she connected each person with his good and evil deeds. Thus, a kind of lace of human life was born. Depending on , how much evil or good there is in the lace, Mokush decided its fate. The goddess was helped in her work by her sisters Dolya and Nedolya, Srecha and Nesrecha. Each of them, at some point, touching the threads or part of the matter, made a person at one time or another life happy or unhappy, poor or rich, successful or unsuccessful. Mokush knew everything both about a person’s present life and about his past and future reincarnations. Mokush was also the goddess of magic and sorcery. Fortune telling and witchcraft were performed only under her leadership. She stood on the threshold between the world of the living and the world of the dead. As a sacrifice for Mokushi, women threw yarn, threads or a tow into the wells; the ritual was called “mokrids”. Friday was considered Mokushi’s favorite day. On this day of the week it was impossible to spin, weave or sew. Otherwise, the goddess could get angry and tangle the yarn or interfere with finishing a shirt, and sometimes even appear with her hands pricked with a needle.” (stat. “Mokushi: what was the main goddess Slavs", Cyrillic, 2018)

WOLKHA: MOKUSH - MOKSH - "MO" (mother world, homeland) + "K" + "SHA" (the letter "SH" is not in the proto-language, interchangeably "SH-S"; SA - "With the firstborn"). MOKSHA - " To the homeland of the first-born" (Oras, inhabitants of OR), i.e. to OR/Hyperborea. Hence there was a great desire to make Moksha one of the original pantheons of Rod/Mormar, but the “not the proto-language” failed.
In addition, “COSHTS” are wallets (in the form of a drawstring bag, a pouch) for money. It is no coincidence that Makosh is declared the mother goddess of Doli and Nedolya, fate, etc. For a PRINCE, the goddess is just right for accumulating his princely WEALTH. That’s why Makosh is the only “female goddess” in the pantheon of Volodymyr of Kiev (it’s not a fact that they didn’t know others).
The rest about Makosh was published as an example of a UTILITARIC common people's "approach" to their own gods. Compare, reader, with the gods of Christ in terms of the scale and essence of the relationship. This is the purpose of the Temple of Christ: to turn the creation of the world into small gods.

OPINIONS of readers from Mail Ru: 1) "MakOsh" is initially not a Slavic character at all, not a goddess. The entire Pantheon of Prince Vladimir is borrowed from our ancient Turkic language, dating back to the times of the animistic view of Nature, when the Forces of Nature were respected as disembodied spirits .The two-root word belongs to agglutinative grammar, - here “Mak”, - praise, glory, - “Osh”, - handful. In general, Makosh, - Glorious handful and is the forerunner of the Roman goddess Fortune with her cornucopia. A little from the Turkic people. language: “koloosh”, - 1) a handful, 2) a lake with highly raised banks, - Russified “ladle”, “kolosha” (Galoshes)." - Alla.

VOLKHA: I completely agree.

VOLKHA: Here's to you, grandma, and St. George's Day! There is nothing more to say: the internal affairs and ideas of modern “advanced” CHRISTIANS do not concern me. But one CONCLUSION can be drawn: Christians declare Makosh to be SATAN!.. Hmm.

MOTHER CHEESE EARTH. “The earth was considered the embodiment of the reproductive force of nature, which is why it was likened to a woman. Traces of deification were reflected in the most ancient funeral rituals. During archaeological excavations, skeletons were found in the pose of a newborn. Probably, the funeral was interpreted as the return of the deceased to the mother’s womb. Echoes of the ritual are also visible in custom wear clean underwear when feeling imminent danger or death. In tradition, the earth was endowed with a feminine principle, fruit-bearing earth was correlated with a pregnant woman. With the strengthening of Orthodoxy in Rus' in the popular consciousness, the cult of Mother Earth began to be correlated with the veneration of the Mother of God." (stat. "Mother of Cheese Earth" ,Pantheon of the Glory Gods)

VOLKHA: People were BURIED (they hid their corpses) in the ground for only one reason: a degenerate or an outcast. Hope: Mother Earth will revive him in a new body and he will improve. The corpses of enemies were also buried. The funeral of an ordinary macaw from the macaws (aria): birthing on sort of - a funeral pyre (a kind of cremation). I don’t argue with the rest of the text, not for me.
MOTHER EARTH. "Mother Earth has always been the core of Russian ideology. Matter in the modern philosophical understanding corresponds to the ancient worldview concept of Mother Earth. In the past, it meant the beginning of all things. Children of the earth, love your mother! Whoever does not love the earth, does not feel its motherhood, - a slave and an outcast, a pathetic rebel against his mother, a fiend of non-existence. Mother Earth! From you grow the grain and the vine, the fruit of which in the most holy sacrament becomes the Body and Blood of Christ, and this holy flesh returns to you! "(Dyomin V .N.,"Secrets of the Russian people")

VOLKHA: Demin’s worldview is thoroughly Christian, judging by the text. But he is right: MATTER of the material world (bodies in nature) is a “work”, including the elements “earth”. The rest is on the conscience of the author.

CONCLUSIONS Magi: Makosha - Mother Earth... never existed in the northern OR/Hyperborea, because there NEVER was the DEIFICATION of the elements. Example: water - “VA” was the element of the gods MORMAR and MORMAR (Roda and Rodos). ..in the common people of one goddess Mary.
She was “responsible” for it with her functionality.

"Personification of one of the summer holidays in the Slavic folk calendar. The name Yarilo, like other words with the root yar-, is associated with the idea of ​​spring fertility." (encyclopedia) "Yarilo is the Slavic god of the spring sun, youthful strength, passion, unbridled thirst life.Differented by purity, sincerity and frenzy.Yarilo fired the sun's rays onto the earth, which in some cases are interpreted as love arrows.The Slavs imagined God as the life-giving force of the spring sun, which fills the earth with life and joy after a long winter, awakens from hibernation.Slavic Yarilo is considered the patron saint of people with kind, pure, bright and heartfelt thoughts. People turned to him for help in conceiving children. He was also responsible for fertility and was considered the embodiment of rage in the most sublime sense. Yarilo could be called Yarila, Yarovit and Ruevit. Yarilo seemed attractive to young people young men. Hair was light or reddish, eyes were light blue, clear, a red cloak fluttered behind his broad, powerful shoulders. Yarilo was seated on a fiery horse-sun. Many girls fell in love with a beautiful young man. Yarilo is the deity of bodily love between a man and a woman. This explains that the Yarilo doll was often made with a large phallus, which is the oldest symbol of fertility." (stat. "Patron Gods of the Ancient Slavs", glory.site)

VOLKHA: What can I say about Yaril? - Nothing, a complete copy of the Greek Zeus. But there is something to be said about his origin.

YARILA - "YAR" (IAR - "Master of the Family of the Firstborn", since "R" here is an abbreviation of the god Rod) + "IL" (OL - World of the Light of the Sun, i.e. the World of the Living) + "A "(ending).
YARILA - "Master of the First-born Family of the Living World." - Not a proto-language.

YAR in the Kiev region was included in the name of the founder of Kyiv (Kiy according to Nestor’s “Tale”) - KIYAR.
KIYAR - “To the master YAR”. That is why the title of “Prince-Sun” existed among the princes on the throne of Kiev: Volodimer - “Red Sun”, etc. But YAR - IAR - AR ("Parent of the firstborn"), i.e. .god Rod/Mormar.AR - sun god of the polar OR.

CONCLUSIONS Magi: The god YARIL is an emasculated “to the minimum” idea of ​​the ancient sun god AR (“Polar Sun ORa”).

GENERALIZATION according to the ARTICLE: The tale, as always, has been reworked by the Russian Orthodox Church beyond recognition and is intended to represent CHRIST. Captain of the World (ECM).

Target: to form an idea of ​​the god Yaril, to introduce people to the rituals of honoring him through the expressive means of literature and fine art.

Tasks:

educational:

form:

speech skills, reading, listening skills;

skills of educational, creative cooperation of children in the process of artistic and practical creative activities;

skills in paper and plastic techniques, graphics;

developing:

develop:

the ability to fully perceive a work of art and respond emotionally to what is read;

memory, imaginative thinking, creative imagination;

active interest in the origins of Slavic culture;

raising:

bring up:

love for the homeland, interest in its millennia-old history;

culture of moral and aesthetic perception and the need to preserve

artistic heritage of the Slavic people;

health-saving:

promote the preservation of the health of children with different types of mental perception of information by changing types of activities.

During the classes.

1. Organizational moment.

Literary reading teacher:

Guys, today we will plunge into the world of the past of our Motherland. At a time when people lived in harmony with nature, loved and deified it. These words can serve as an epigraph to our lesson ( )

A people who do not know their history, their ancient roots, are doomed to death. It is fortunate that our ancient tales about the Slavic gods have been at least partially preserved, transmitted to us by unknown storytellers, our distant ancestors. And after reading them, you can proudly say that you are the heirs of the ancient Slavs. You, just like them, will know and love your history, respect the traditions of your people and be proud of its thousands of years of history.

2. Repetition of learned material .

Traditions, legends, what else can you call them? (myths )

What is a myth? What signs of a myth do you know? (stories about gods, heroes, myths reflect the fantastic ideas of people)

The teacher, summing up what has been said, gives a definition of myth.

A myth is a story (narration) about gods, heroes, spirits, reflecting people’s fantastic ideas about the world, nature and human existence.

What myths of peoples did we get acquainted with in previous lessons? (Greek, Khakassian ) Name them.(“Arion”, “Daedalus and Icarus”, “Moon and Chilbigen”, etc.)

Returning to our words on the slide, tell me, what myth of the people will we get acquainted with today? (Slavic )

If a myth is a story about gods, and we get acquainted with the Slavic myth, we cannot help but remember the Slavic gods. Let's remember which Slavic gods we met in the lessons of the world around us ( )

On the slides are pictures with images of some Slavic gods, their names and brief descriptions. Students read out this information.

God Svarog – The Supreme Heavenly God, who controls the course of our Life and the entire World Order of the Universe.

God Perun – God is the Patron of all warriors, the protector of the Lands from Dark forces.

Mother of God Makosh – The Heavenly Mother of God, the Just Goddess of a happy lot and Fate, together with her daughters Doli and Nedolya, determines the Fates of the Heavenly Gods, as well as the destinies of all people.

Dazhdbog – Guardian God of ancient Great Wisdom, giver of all benefits, happiness and prosperity.

Stribog – God who controls lightning, whirlwinds, hurricanes, winds and sea storms.

Yarila - ….?( the picture and characteristics are not on the slide )

What is God Yaril like? Let's read the myth, and perhaps we will find the answer to this question there.

3. Studying new material.

A) Primary reading of the text.

The myth “Yarilo - the Sun” is read by four well-read students, according to the logical parts into which the entire text is divided.

What is the myth about? (about the origin of life on Earth, about the origin of man, about God Yaril)

What feelings did this piece evoke?(admiration, pride for a person, joy)

Teacher : Our main goal today in the lesson is to create an image of the god Yarila from individual information in the text, to draw his verbal portrait.

First let's try to understand why it is named like that? Let's select words with the same root for the word Yarilo(fierce, bright, furious). Let’s find the meaning of the word “ardent” in S. Ozhegov’s explanatory dictionary and read it.

B) Analysis of the literary image of Yarila

1 group : Read 1 paragraph in a chain one sentence at a time and answer the questions:

What was Mother Earth like before Yarila appeared?? (she was dead, no warmth, no sounds)

- Is there a description of Yarila in the text?(forever young, forever joyful bright Yarilo )

What did Yarilo do to wake up the Earth?(pierced, cut through the layers of darkness, hot waves of radiant light poured out)

2nd group : read paragraphs 2 and 3 “to yourself” and answer the questions:

How did the Earth change with the appearance of Yarila? (woke up, spread out in beauty, decorated with cereals, flowers, etc. )

How to understand the expression “she greedily drank the golden rays of life-giving light”? What means of artistic expression is used here? (personification)

- Who appeared on Earth under the influence of Yarilin's light? (fish, animals, birds)

3 group : answer questions to paragraphs 4 and 5 with selective reading.

How did man's birth take place and how did his mind arise?

How did Yarila greet the birth of a person?

What did Yarila leave in his place when his strength weakened?(fire)

Literary reading teacher sums it up G:

Thus, we can say that Yarila is the god of the Sun, bringing youthful freshness, flourishing and fertility into the life of nature, awakening life.

Physical education minute

And now they quietly stood up,
We raised our hands to the sky,
Stretched and smiled
“Hello, sunshine!” they said
“We bowed to the right, to the left,” says the art teacher and continues the physical education lesson.
Right left
We sat down together and got back to business!

C) Acquaintance with artistic images of Yarila.

Enters

- It would be interesting to know how the people portrayed God Yarila? To answer this question, let's collect his image. (Students collect an illustration of Yarila, cut into several parts)

Teacher:

- This is what Yarila looked like - a spring-like, young man in a white shirt, barefoot, with a wreath of wildflowers on his head, riding on a white horse. ( )

April 23 is the Day of Yarila Veshny. What happened on this day?

From the first group, three students tell the information that is on their table:

1st student: On this day, Yarila “unlocks” Mother Cheese-Earth and releases dew, causing the rapid growth of grasses to begin.

2nd student: People used to say: “Yarila unlocks the Earth, releases spring from under the bushel, drives out the green grass.”

3rd student: On this day, a ceremonial drive of cattle to pasture took place. According to custom, cattle and children were lightly hit with willow branches and said: “The willow brought health! As the willow grows, so do you!”

Teacher:

- ( ) - But the image of Yarila was not unambiguous, it changed during the summer, and many holidays were dedicated to this.

And on June 4, Yarilo seemed different to the people . In one hand he held a bunch of rye, and in the other a club. What day is this?

Three students from the second group leave:

1st student: Day of honoring Yarila the Strong, or he was also called Yarila the Wet.

2nd student: On this day, the owner always went to the field to “look at the life.” Why is a specially baked pie placed in the seedlings? Then the owner moves away a few steps and looks to see whether the pie is visible in the shoots or not. If the pie is not visible, it means the harvest will be good.

3rd student: Starting from this day, the Vernal power of Yarila declines all the way to Kupala.

Teacher:

July 7 is not only Kupala Day, but also the day of farewell to Yarila. Who is no longer thought of as a young man, but as a gray-bearded old man who gave all his life-giving power to the Earth. ( )

1st student: On this day it was customary to roll burning wheels from the nearest hill.

2nd student: A comic “funeral” for Yarila was held. For this purpose, a straw effigy of the aged Yarila was made, which, according to the Law of Similars, was buried by the same old man.

3rd student: Another option for seeing off Yarila was as follows: a round dance was performed around the old man portraying Yarila.

Fine Arts Teacher:

-We have learned a lot about the god Yaril and can conclude who he is.

( ).

- Yarilo is the image of the Sun God. God of awakening nature and fertility, symbol of strength and love. Patron of the plant world. In honor of him, people began to give names to their children in order to make them strong and ardent - Yaropolk, Jaromir, Yaroslav.

But we don’t know what words people addressed to Yarila. We will recognize them after we transform our Earth in the likeness of Yarila (on the board there is an image of the non-living Earth ). To do this, we will work in groups.

4. Fixing the material.

Creative work in groups. (while the work is being done, music with birdsong sounds)

Group 1: create images of people in folk costumes;

Group 2: create an image of a blooming Earth (flowers, trees);

Group 3: create an image of the sky (clouds, birds, sun)

5. Creating teamwork.

After completing the work in groups, a collective work is created depicting a holistic image of the world.

Fine Arts Teacher:

Have we transformed our Earth? What has she become?(beautiful, elegant, blooming)

Thanks to your creative work, words appeared in our work with which people addressed Yarila, honoring him.( )

The student expressively reads the words written on the slide.

Hello, Yarila Trisvetly!
Glorious and Trislaven be!
You brighten the fruits of our fields
And our brave strength!
Yes, for the glory of the Heavenly Family
And Mother Earth!
So it was, so it is
And so it will be!

6. Lesson summary.

Literary reading teacher:

Let's summarize the lesson. What new did you learn in the lesson? What have you learned? What did you find most interesting?

7. Homework.

1 group. Find and write out obsolete words, explain their meaning.

2nd group. Find and write out metaphor, comparison and personification from the text.

3rd group. An expressive reading of the passage “The Awakening of the Earth.”

8. Reflection.

Fine Arts Teacher:

If you liked the lesson, you learned a lot of new and interesting things, let each of you complement our sunshine(on the board on a sheet of whatman paper there is a sun without rays) your ray of knowledge.

You did a good job today, well done! And I would like to end the lesson with the words of the commandment left to us by our Slavic ancestors( )

Every deed you commit leaves its indelible mark on the eternal Path of your life, and therefore, people, do only beautiful and good deeds, for the Glory of your Gods and Ancestors, for the edification of your descendants!