A natural furrow additionally carved and shaped like a small rock basin, can be found approximately 1.5km southeast from the village of Oriahovo in the valley of the riverbanks. Throughout the year, it is filled with water that does not dry up even during times of drought. The liquid flows in the basin from a crack in the rock. There are reasons to believe that during antiquity, before the deforestation of the region, the natural spring was far more deep-watered.
The Ancient Thracians gave a divine notion to the springs and often turned them into sanctuaries dedicated to the water nymphs, called nympheums. The additional carvings in the basin of the vicinity of God’s Step were probably done for this purpose. It is apparent that this sanctuary was part of the huge cult burial complex on the land of the village of Oriahovo, which also includes several dolmen tombs and cult rock niches. They were used for performing rituals connected with the cult of the dead, as well as those connected with the Thracian belief in a cyclic recurrence of the permanently reviving nature.
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Zora - actually three Zori: Evening, Morning, and Night who guard the Wild Dog (sometimes identified as Simargl) held captive in the Little Dipper to prevent him from eating the world. [Probably borrowed, the Romans called this constellation Ursa Minor (Little Bear) and Simargl was imported from Persia.]
Rusalka - Water Fairy - beautiful maiden, one per body of water or river.
Baba Yaga - Evil witch of great power who lives in a chicken-legged hut in a marsh. Eats people and is generally disagreeable.
Rorag - Roc/Firebird/Phoenix - eagle with fiery plumage, associated with Rod’s Egg.
The Wolf - truly Slavic, a shape-shifter with great wisdom.
Diado Mraz - Grandfather Frost. {Also known as Diado Koleda.} The Slavic personification of winter, became merged with Santa, but this is one case where the pagan name won out and so today Santa is called Diado Mraz in all Slavic countries. The Christian Santa has barely made a dent in the tradition of Diado Mraz, mainly because he was known to give gifts of treasure to people who deserved it, long before Christ was born, so all the stories about Diado Mraz have survived virtually unchanged.
White God and Black God - White God from “bialy” - white. God of the waxing year. He would defeat his brother, the Black God in battle every Koleda to take his place as ruler of the waxing year. At Kupalo, they would battle again, but the Black God would win to rule the waning half. He was said to appear as an old man with a long white beard, dressed in white and carrying a staff. He was said to appear only by day and often assisted travelers in finding their way out of dark forests or reapers in the fields. The Black God survives in numerous Slavic curses and the White God’s, aid is sought to obtain protection or mercy in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Pomerania.
Veles, Volos, Weles, or Voloh is a major Slavic god of agriculture, animal husbandry and the dead. The Slavic Horned lord, ruled horned animals, earth, waters and Underworld, associated with dragons, cattle, magic, musicians, wealth and trickery. He is believed to have survived from the time of a common Indo-European pantheon. He was also a god of trade and oaths were sworn in his name. Weles is also the God of poets and bards and is often associated with magic. He was later associated with St. Blas, guardian of cattle. At Kiev, his statue was not among those on the hill outside the palace but was instead, erected in the marketplace. This is supposedly because he and Perun are great enemies and couldn’t be worshipped together.
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Svarog is Chief god of the heavens. From “svargas” - radiant sky, “svarati” - gleams. His name survives in the Romanian word for sunburnt or hot - sfarog. {Romanians, like Hungarians, have a lot of Slavic in them.} In Slavic mythology, Svarog is the Slavic god and spirit of fire and his name means bright and clear. So sacred was the fire that it was forbidden to shout or swear at it while it was being lit. Folklore portrays him as a fire serpent, a winged dragon that breathes fire. According to some interpretations the fire-god Svarogich was the son of Svarog. However, other sources refer to these names as one and the same god of fire.
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Rod, sometimes referred to simply as god (Div, Diy; in the Veda Slovena Diy or Dia), is probably the most ancient deity in the Slavic pantheon. It is likely that several other gods, most notably Svarog, were initially epithets or incarnations of Rod. Svarog Rod meant Heavenly Rod. Later on these incarnations separated from Rod and were worshipped as separate entities. Very little is known about actual worship of Rod. In Slavic mythology Rod is the first god—progenitor of deities, creator of the Universe and its manager. He is the supreme universal principle, which established the divine law Pravda (Prav). He is a protector of blood-ties and clan relations, a patron of kinship and clan unions. At the beginning of Time, at the very beginning of the Cosmos, only Rod existed and there was nothing around him. According to some believers, he later created the Universe and the three worlds Jav, Prav and Nav, and arranged everything inside them. Rod also introduced the superior principle of balance between elements and enforced the highest law Pravda, which every creature and power (physical or metaphysical, material or energy) must obey.
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The Hero god, also known as the Thracian Horseman, as he was worshiped by the Thracians, was not a specific person. Although ancestor worship of real people who had done great deeds bled into it, the Thracian Hero was an abstract figure, the idea of a Hero. It is this metaphysical entity around which worship centered. The Hero was no doubt the central figure in Thracian religion, the hope and faith of the people. Their hero was allseeing and allhearing, he was the sun and also the ruler of the nether world, he was the protector of life and health, and kept the forces of evil at bay. In modern Bulgaria he continues to perform that function going by the name of St. George.
The Thracian Hero was depicted all the time, all over the place. Always on a horse, slaying something, slaying anything, usually with a spear. Over 1500 stone reliefs and more than 100 bronze statuettes of the Horseman have been uncovered on the territory of present-day Bulgaria. From antiquity, through Roman times, through the middle ages, and today, the immage of the Horseman is inescapable in Bulgaria.
The Thracian Hero is also responsible for the Greek word ‘Heros’ from which the English word ‘hero’ is derived.
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