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 most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples in Europe, extending from central Europe to the Pacific Ocean, are the Slavs. There are two subdivisions of Slavs - East and west Slavs. The south Slavs are a completely geographic division. West and east Slavs migrated south and were later separated by Hungary and Romania, in this purely geographic division, Bulgarians {though of mixed origin} belong to the east Slavs while Serbs, Croats and Slovenes are west Slavs.

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As amazing as the opportunities offered by these lands were, the dangers were equally great. Bulgaria’s location produced a history which eliminates all but the strongest.
The Thracians were an awe inspiring people. Until 46 AD {when Thrace became a Roman province} the Greeks and Romans lived in fear of a dark Thracian cloud descending from the north, devastating civilisation in the Balkans. Fortunately, this only happened twice. According to Herodotus: “… after the Indian, the Thracian people are the most numerous”. He goes on to say that: “Were they under one ruler, or united, they would, in my judgement be invincible and the strongest nation on earth.”

But the Thracians never united. And that cost them dearly. The destiny of Bulgaria’s lands is such as to mercilessly punish any weakness. The price that the Thracians paid for their failure to unite as one nation, was an end to their independent existence, the ultimate price. The Thracians did not unite into a single nation until they were assimilated into the state of the Salvs and Bulgars. The Bulgars who’s national consciousness helped them found not one but 3 states by the same name. The Thracians contributed greatly to the new state, they passed on a lot of their culture, customs, and traditions to the new nation. But it was a new nation, not a Thracian one. It was that Thraco-Slavo-Bulgarian nation, that managed to survive 1300+ years as a single unified nation, withstanding everything Bulgaria’s location could throw at it.
Continue reading Thracians, the oldest people in the Balkans Part 3