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Slavic Gods, Goddesses, Rusalka, Upyrs, Baba Yaga, and other spirits.

Slavic Pre-Christian Glossary

We will go back to pre-Christian Europe - the land of sorcerers, koldunij and volkhv. Here's a small introductory glossary providing explanations of some unknown words.

Alkonost -- bird of paradise, bird of grief and sorrow. She has wings, and woman's body and face. Alkonost's song makes a listener forget his worries.
Bania (banya) -- bathhouse
Bogi (Gods) -- sometimes used to refer to icons
Charodei -- sorcerer
Cvetnik -- book of magical charms
Dazhbog -- sun god, also god of blessings and son of Svarog
Dvoeverie (double faith) -- continuation of pagan beliefs and customs among the Russians long after their acceptance of Christianity
Finist (jasny sokol) -- origins are traced back to greek feniks, a legendary bird that rises from its own ashes.
Gamaiun (vesc'aja ptica) -- bird of paradise, also known as a wise bird. She has a woman's face and breasts. Her songs are a prophecy of future luck (good or bad).
Georgii (Svjatoj Georgij Pobedonosec) (St. George), also known as Egorii (Egor) or Iurii (Yurij) -- warrior saint (November 26 and April 23)
Gromovoi znak (thunder sign) -- a six-petaled rose inside a circle, associated with Rod
Gusli -- Russian folk instrument similar to a zither
Iarilo (Jarilo) -- minor god of male sexual potency, his effigy was destroyed at ritual funeral
Il'ia (Prorok) (Elijah the Prophet) -- corresponding to Perun (July 20)
Khorovod(y) -- circle dances, often around a decorated tree
Khors -- sun god
Koldun'ja -- female witch
Koldun -- male sorcerer
Koliada -- spirit of the winter solstice
Kudesnica -- female pagan priest or sorcerer
Kudesnik -- male pagan priest or sorcerer
Kupalo's Day (Ivana Kupala) (St. John the Baptist) -- celebration of the summer solstice (June 24)
Kupalo -- spirit of the summer solstice, associated with Kupalo's Day (June 24)
Lada -- variously thought to be the mother of Lel' and Polel', a god of the underworld and marriage
Lel' -- the son of Lada and brother of Polel'
Lelia -- the daughter of Lada
Lug -- meadow
Mat' syra zemlia (Moist Mother Earth) -- personification of the earth as a female deity
Mertvaja voda -- see dead water
Mokosh' (Saint Paraskeva-Friday) -- one and only female deity included among Vladimir's idols, associated with Moist Mother Earth, with fertility, bounty, moisture (October 28)
Molitva -- prayer
Nechistaia sila (unclean force) -- devil and lesser malevolent spirits
Oboroten' (changeling) -- magic persons who are able to transform themselves into animals
Paraskeva-Piatnitsa -- "woman's saint," associated with Mokosh' (October 28)
Perun -- chief of the pagan gods, god of thunder and lightning and of war, associated with July 20 (Elijah the Prophet)
Polel' -- the son of Lada and brother of Lel'
Porcha (spoiling) -- a disease caused by sorcerers and witches
Radunitsa -- originally a pagan holiday celebrating ancestors (the second week after Easter)
Rod -- god of birth, an early primary god of the east Slavs, a creator and god of fertility and light, associated with the winter solstice and July 20, replaced by Perun shortly before the tenth century
Rozhanitsy -- goddess of birth, associated with the harvest (September 9)
Rusalka -- Rusalka lives in lakes, rivers or springs.
Sirin (ptica sirin) -- bird of paradise with a human body. Her song makes a listener forget his worries and feel happiness.
Skazka -- folktale
Stribog -- god of wind, storm, and destruction
Svarog -- sun god, father of Dazhbog, divine smith
Svarozhichi -- sons of Svarog
Sviatovit -- god of the west Slavs, god of light, bounty, and divination regarding the harvest
Travnik -- book of magical charms
Upyr' -- vampire
Ved'ma -- female witch
Ved'miak -- male sorcerer
Vedun'ia -- female witch
Vedun -- male sorcerer
Vlas (St. Vlas) -- Christian counterpart to pagan Volos, patron of cattle (February 12)
Voda -- water
Vodjanoj -- Vodjanoj looks like an old man. Usually naked, with long hair and a beard. Vodjanoj lives in water and makes people drown
Volkhv -- pre-Christian male priest
Volos (Veles) -- god of cattle, commerce and the dead, associated with the winter solstice and spring equinox
Volshebnica -- female witch
Volshebnik -- male sorcerer
Vorozheia -- fortune-teller
Zagovor -- charm, an utterance with magical power
Zhivaja voda -- see live water

Major Concepts of Slavic Religion

In relation to Mat Syra Zemlya

A dry stone represents, a goddess of water, a happy omen, a state of sleep, a stream of the dnieper, able to kill the snake, ancient river, areas the mother goddess in the form of a doll, as a year god, as attempts to imitate the voice of perun, as perun's sword, as the corn goddess, as the fire hidden in the eyes of god, as the thunder god, as to feed the world, as to heal the world, at the beginning of the spring, at the crack of dawn, attributes of the sun and perun are, away the devil

Baba yaga, back to life, banya, barley in the birth rituals, bath-house, bathed in the pure waters, bathing in the pure, be married to the celestial water maiden, beer or wine, before the final battle, bel goruch kamen, belbog, belonged to the svetovit, between the world of the dead and the world of the living, blessing them with children, blood or tears, born from the dry earth, brought to the bath, brought to the table, by the thunder god perun

Chernobog, come to see the child

Dazhdbog, dead water, decorated with flowers, demon, dips in ice-holes or river waters, drenched in water and, drink honey and beer, drunk the fluids of life from the celestial

Enters the womb of the mother earth, evil-warding powers

Father to all stones, fire in the bath-house, flask with live water, flowing river, forces of nature, forces of winter, from the seven springs or wells, from under the stone, from under the tree, from under the white stone

Gives the groom water, good phenomenon

Heals wounds, himself incapable of impregnating the earth, himself represents the sun, his adversary the dark, his eyes in the holy water collected, his turning into stone, his voice in thunder, holds the fire-stone, horse-drawn

Ilya is different, ilya the prophet, in birth rituals, in death rituals, in the centre of the universe, in the open field stands an oak tree, in the spring perun overpowers the snake, is a sin to strike the earth, is rubbed with honey, is the dispenser of the water of life

Killing the demon

Latir stone, lies the snake, lifts the heaviest swords, like the oak tree, live water

Made from straw, made in an earthen, made of straw, magical efforts to protect the world from the evil, mat sera zimlia, moist mother earth, mokosh, mother earth, mother in the form of a virgin

Near the springs

Oak tree, ognionoi kamen, on nature worship, on the eastern slavic people, on the graves of relatives, out of the clutches of the forces of darkness, outdoors in a grove

Palace in the east in a two-wheeled, pantheon of gods, paraskova pyanitsa, perun is in the image of a man with a wooden, perun is the god of the heavenly, perun is worshipped, perun releases the holy waters, perun remained the central god, placed in the water tub, places stones in the wombs of women, possess the power of resurrection, power to tell the future, pre-christian slavic religion, pure waters

Rain water, raisins in the death rituals, rejuvenates the old, related to the life-cycle, represents the cycle of life, resurrects the dead, returns to the earth, rod or svetobog, rod or svetovit

Sacred rains, separates the worlds of the dead and the living, seven judges, shooting of fire arrows, similar to a death mask, soaked in female waters, soaked in holy waters, soaked in the female waters, sprinkled with dead water, sprinkled with holy water, sprinkled with live water, standing in the field, steals the holy waters, strikes the enemy hard, sun-god, svetovit or belbog

The belbog, the bath-house, the beating of drums, the black god, the bride to be becomes, the burning of the birch tree symbolizes, the central god, the creation of the world, the cult of the dawn, the dead hero, the defeat of the demon, the eastern slavs, the forces of nature, the god of the seasons, the grave stone represents, the image of perun overlaps with that of the sun-god, the male fire, the moist mother earth, the mother earth goddess, the mother welcomes the groom with a bucketful of water, the other of dead water, the perun cult, the sacred winds, the slavic deity, the sun and fire, the sun and the moon, the sun as the eye of god perun, the sun god, the sun the fire-stone, the water of life, the white god or the god of heavenly, the woman in confinement, the world tree, the zaria goddess

Union with the mother earth

Virgin women, virgins in white dresses

Water as queen, water collected from the seven springs to drink, water represents perun's, with live water, with water and fire made, with water and stone, wooden idols, worshipping the corn

Sacred Sign of Perun

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