The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

This echoes a myth written of by Gintaras Beresnevicius, for the Lithuanian Institute of Culture and Arts.

"The cosmic mountain, on the top of which Dievas or Perkunas lives, is the centre of the afterlife. The heavenly abode of the dead is right behind it or at its top, where it is warm and light, a wonderful garden. Sometimes it is believed that in climbing that mountain souls have to use their own nails and those of predatory animals that are burnt in the funeral pyre."

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There is actually a ton of scholarship on Slavic paganism and folk belief; most of it is in Russian, however. The best and most accessible source for information is Russian Folk Belief, by Linda Ivanits.  There's also Andreas Johns' book on Baba Yaga, which has some good information, but is too psychoanalytic for my taste -- Johns was a student of Alan Dundes, who was basically the only folklorist who could consistently get away with psychoanalysis; Johns isn't nearly as careful.  But with that caveat in mind, it's still got a lot of useful material.  I also love Ryan's The Bathhouse at Midnight, on Russian folk magic, but that's definitely advanced reading -- don't tackle it until you've properly digested the Ivanits, at the very least.

I'm new here, but thought I'd chime in.
 
I was born in Poland. Slavic paganism, specifically in Poland, is an interest of mine too. I have not been able to discover much either. I think, part of the problem, is that Poland accepted Christianity sometime in 966 (this is a very general date, I forgot the specific one). On top of that, Poland has been through quite a few wars. WWII pretty much destroyed most pagan sites, statues, artifacts. Then, of course, at one point in history, Poland wasn't even on the map as other countries divided it up between them.

These are the bits I have (excuse the lack of Polish accent marks; I don't know how to make them on this computer):

Kleczanow Wood in Poland has burial mounds. 36 or 37 of them, I believe. It's the only one of its kind in Poland, and it was probably a sacred place in pagan times.

There is a town in Poland called Poganowo, which (according to some) was a place of pagan worship. It's abandoned now, but digging has unearthed a few pagan elements (stone circles, a few statues).

There is a statue of Swietowit in Poland, as well as several smaller ones in museums.

There are a few rituals/superstitions still current in Poland. A black cat crossing one's path is considered unlucky. To ward of the bad luck, people take their index finger and middle finger, and point them at the ground. Letting the bad luck be absorbed into the ground, as opposed to into their lives. My Catholic family still does this!

Young girls in the country will drip candle wax in a glass of water for divination. Same with herbs thrown into a fire - see what shapes the smoke makes.

There are pisanki at Easter.

There is the celebration "Zielone Swiatki. Which is, essentially, a celebration of Spring, even a worship of spring. In rituals, this translates to a worship of trees or tree spirits. Tree branches budding were one of the first signs of spring, so there is an association of power, fertility, virility, etc.

There is something called "the magic belt of Poland." It sounds kind of cheesy in English. It was a belt that had symbols on it. Some of the symbols were, apparently, supposed to be from folk practices. Another theory is that some of the symbols were, supposedly, the same ones as on the key of Solomon. This belt could have been Christian magic. Or, it could have had had symbols much older. However, this belt hasn't been seen since WWII. It was on display in a museum in Warsaw, but disappeared during the war. Probably burned or otherwise destroyed. The belt was supposed to confer protection on the wearer.

Poland, of course, has the Baba Yaga stories.

Nomad of Nowhere: I am going to check my Polish fairy tales book now. Your ideas have me intrigued. I've never tried to read the fairy tales through such an interpretive lens. I'll come back to post more once I've done this.

Wonderful thread, by the way. I'm glad I found it!

For instance, in one story I discussed with Kayah is the Glass Mountain. In it, the hero climbs up a glass mountain with a lynx's claws. There, he discovers a tree bearing golden apples (which are another motif showing up in multiple eastern European tales. They show up in stories all over Europe, but particularly in Slavic folklore) and a number of other supernatural things. This echoes a myth written of by Gintaras Beresnevicius, for the Lithuanian Institute of Culture and Arts.

"The cosmic mountain, on the top of which Dievas or Perkunas lives, is the centre of the afterlife. The heavenly abode of the dead is right behind it or at its top, where it is warm and light, a wonderful garden. Sometimes it is believed that in climbing that mountain souls have to use their own nails and those of predatory animals that are burnt in the funeral pyre."

Does anyone agree with this method of analysis? There are obviously pitfalls, but at the same time, there is a huge treasure trove of folklore that is no less pagan for being difficult to interpret. Few deny that it contains pre-Christian elements.

I dug up a recent edition of folktales and re-read The Glass Mountain. Interestingly - it had very little in common with what you describe!

The story focused on three brothers, how their father died and the youngest did the entirety of the sitting-by-the-dead-for-three-nights thing. A dwarf would come out of a tree with a horse on each night, first night silver, second night gold, and third night a small shaggy pony that would do "whatever you asked it to".

When the part of the princess in the tower on a glass mountain came around, the first two brothers set out immediately - the third much later. There is a line describing how some of the knights that gathered under the mountain attempted to use eagle talons as climbing tools, but none succeeded.

I can only come to the conclusion that the tale has been reworked in a very major way from the version you have. I have several other books of legends and "klechdy" and will see if The Glass Mountain is in any of them. This is quite curious.

On another note - have you ever heard of the Legend of the Golden Duck, or the Warsaw Basilisk.. or.. the myth of the founding of Poland, Russia and Chech - I forget the title but it's the one with Lech, Chech and Rus, and how they all go in three different directions..

Just mentioning these as they are my favorite tales.

I think in this, Slavic tribes were closer to North America's natives, rather than any other Pagan religions in Europe or Middle Asia.

Animism is pretty common though. The belief in local spirits attached to bodies of water, trees, and various other features of the land is common to all of Europe, and has never been exclusive to polytheism.

The brief writings of the 6th century Byzantine scholar Procopius on the Slavic religion seem to support mixed animism and polytheism. He said they worshiped the creator of lightning, but also rivers and "nymphs"- practices which are animistic, but not necessarily un-European. Procopius himself was probably comparing the Slavic beliefs to Greek beliefs in nymphs inhabiting rivers, as well as other locations or parts of the land.