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Slavic Mythology & Goddesses

 

Akkan
(Northern Europe) The Akkan are a quadrinity of Saami Goddesses who oversee conception, birth and destiny. They are Madderakka, Sarakka, Juksakka and Ugsakka.

Baba Yaga
(Jezi Baba) says, "Intelligence ripens with age." In Slavic oral traditions, Baba Yaga was the old crone of autumn who lived in the last sheaf of harvested grain. Fittingly, the woman who bound that sheaf would bear a child the next spring, for the old Baba was also guardian of the fountain of the waters of life. Her legend suggests she was the preserver of herbal knowledge and medicinal healing. Let us return this wise crone to glory! Conversely, she is called the grandmother of the devil, and a cannibal; a hideous man-eating female demon. Her mouth is said to stretch from earth to the gates of hell.
Bereginy
The Bereginy, like the Nymphae of Greece and Rome, were spirits of nature. They were honored by women throughout the Slavic regions of Europe even through the Middle Ages.
Dazhbog
Also known as Dabog (Serbia) and Dazbog (Poland). The sun god. Son of Svarog (god of the sky), and brother of Svarazic (god of fire). In the Igor-song (1185) the Russians are mentioned as his grandchildren. He rides through the sky on his diamond chariot, starting out in the morning as a newborn and ending the day as an old man. Sometimes she is said to be married to Myesyats (the moon goddess) and to be the father of Zvezda Dennitsa, the Morning Star. (In some stories Myesyats is a male moon god and is married to Zvezda Dennitsa.)
Dennitsa
(Zvezda Dennitsa) The Slavonic goddess of the morning star. Her sister Vechernyaya is the evening star. Together they help Dorya, the Dawn, tend to the Sun's white horses. In some legends, Dennitsa is the wife of Myestas, the moon god. (In slavonic legend, the Moon and the Sun are typically male, but Myestas is sometimes female.)
Dolya
This spirit was said to live behind the stove. When she was in a fine mood, she was called Dolya, the little old lady who brought good luck; when annoyed, she was Nedolya, the shabbily dressed old hag of bad fortune. Occasionally she appeared as a young woman rather than the usual gray-haired granny; in either shape she presided over birth.
Drac
(Draca) An invisible female water spirit which tempts women and children by means of baubles in order to lure them into the water and there devour them.


Dugnai
Slavonic house goddess who ensured that the dough would not spoil.


Edji
The first woman; she had a fur covered body.


Erce
The earth mother who was honored each spring by the pouring of milk, flour, and water into the newly-turned furrows of the tilled farm.


Kikimora
A Slavonic domestic goddess, known in some locations as the wife of the house-god, the Domovi. She would trouble the children at night if the housewife was lazy. To placate her, pots and pans were washed in fern tea.


Krimba
A house goddess worshipped primarily in Bohemia.


Kupala
The Slavonic water mother who annually renews her virginity and vitality of nature with baptism. Her worshipers bathed themselves in rivers and purified their souls with the Dew of Kupala, gathered during the night of Her festival. The goddess of herbs, sorcery and sex.


Kupula
A Slavic goddess of water, sorcery and herbal lore. Kupula personifies the magical and spiritual power inherent in water, and Kupula's devotees worshipped her with ritual baths and offerings of flowers cast upon water. Since fire as well as water has powers of purification, her worshippers also danced around and leaped over huge bonfires. Frequently her effigy was burned or cast into pools of water. Kupula's cult preserved an extensive lore of magical plants and herbs which gave men the power to read minds, control evil spirits, find hidden treasures, and win the love of beautiful women.


Lady of Beasts
Surrounded by members of the animal kingdom, this Goddess displays her role in supporting life on earth. Her kinship with animal totems shows she is a driving force for fertility in the natural world and able to assume animal form herself. The lions link Her with an arc of Great Goddesses from Sekmet to Lilith, Cybele, Anahit, across to Durga. The alternating rabbits show the union of opposites and the beginning of the spiral of life.
Leshachikha
A Slavonic forest goddess (les = forest), wife of the forest god the Leshy and mother of the Leshonki. The Leshies died in October and were reborn in the spring. They were territorial, often leading those who entered their forests astray, but almost always releasing them in the end. To avoid their spells, one must remove their clothes under a tree, then put them on again backwards.
Marina
Slavic goddess of the moon.
Mati Syra Zemlia
Not a name, rather a title which means Moist Mother Earth. An earth goddess, the most ancient and possibly the most important of the Slavic gods. Ever fruitful and powerful, Mati Syra Zemlia was worshipped well into the twentieth century. Mother Earth was an oracle whom anyone could consult without any need for a priest or shaman as a go-between. The Slavs felt the profoundest respect for Mother Earth. Peasants settled property disputes by appealing to Mother Earth to witness the truth of their claims, and oaths were sworn in her name.
Mokosh
(Mokysha, Mokush) The Slavic goddess who both gives and takes life, the spinner of the thread of life, the giver of the water of life. Mokosh later became Paraskeva-Piatnitsa, a goddess of spinning, water, fertility, health with marriage.
Myesyats
The moon deity. In some myths he is the cold, baldheaded uncle of the sun-god Dazhbog. In other myths she is a beautiful woman, the consort of Dazhbog and mother by him of the stars.
Pereplut
Slavic goddess of drink and changing fortunes.
Samovila
The Eastern European goddess who lived deep in the woods and was a great protector of animals. If anyone harmed any of her creatures, they could be lured into a magical circle and danced to death, or perhaps caught in a landslide or drowned in a river. As a shape shifter, she could be a falcon, swan, snake, horse or whirlwind. She might agree to teach a human her skills if the proper ceremony were performed in the woods on a full moon Sunday before sunrise. A bear mother goddess figure was found at Kosovska-Mitrovica (Fafos II) Yugoslavia, of the Vinca culture, c. 5300-4000 BCE.
The Slavic goddess of the woods who has the ability to shapeshift into a falcon, horse, snake, swan or a whirlwind; and would not hesitate to cause harm to anyone who threatens her creatures. She lives deep in the woods and has great knowledge of plant medicine.
Saule
The Baltic sun goddess and, according to some myths, the mistress of the thunder god Perkuno. She was worshipped by Lithuanians, Prussians and Letts. Her worship took the form of looking after a harmless green snake. Every house kept one. Apart from ensuring a household's wealth and fertility, the kindness shown to the snake was regarded as a guarantee of Saule's generosity. To kill a snake was an act of sacrilege. Saule was usually depicted as pouring light from a jug. The golden liquid which she gave to the world was the basis of life itself; the warmth so necessary after the cold northeastern European winter.


Sudicy
The Slovenian fates.

Sudjaje
Female deities from Slavic myth who control destiny.
Tabiti
Tabiti was the Scythian Goddess who ruled the realm of animals and fire. The early Eastern Europeans swore their allegiance to her as part of the earth that witnesses everything. She was part of Eastern European culture before the Scythian nomads arrived, at first represented by a Goddess bearing a child and later, adopted by the Scythians, as half serpent with a raven on one side and a canine on the other.
Va-Kul
Zyrian Mother of Waters, worshipped throughout the Middle Ages as a powerful Goddess Whose displeasure could cause catastrophe.
Ved'Ma
A Slavic demon goddess who flies over the clouds and mountains on a broom or rake. Ved'ma causes storms, keeps the water of life and death, and knows the magical properties of plants. Ved'ma can be young and beautiful, or old and ugly as she pleases.
Vesna
Slavic goddess of spring.
Vila of the Forest
A guardian of the forest animals and plants, Vila was a shape-shifter and might be a swan, horse, snake, falcon or whirlwind. Born on a day of misty rain, she was a winged Goddess whose dress shimmered in the dappled light of the deep forest where she lived. She had a profound knowledge of herbal healing and protected the purity of streams. If anyone brought harm to her creatures, she would cause great harm to them in turn; perhaps they would be caught in an avalanche or even danced to death.
Zaria
(Zoria) The heavenly bride, goddess of beauty and morning. At down her worshippers greeted her as "the brightest maiden, pure, sublime, honorable."
Ziva
(Siva) Slavic goddess of life.
Zorya
They were three Slavic dawn goddesses. There was Utrennyaya, the morning star; Vechernyaya, the evening star; and the midnight Zorya. All have the same job: to guard a chained dog who tries to eat the constellation Ursa Minor, the little bear. If the chain should ever break and the dog should ever get loose, the universe will end. Thus the Zoryas are guardian goddesses.
Zvezda Dennitsa
The morning star goddess. The wife of the man in the moon.

 

 

 
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