8611
A place for Aryan (European) Folkish Pagans
The gods were, in a sense, literally present in their sanctuaries. Greeks constantly, in documents and contexts of very different kinds, referred to what we would call a statue of a particular god simply by that god’s name; in representations on vases of scenes set in temples, it is often unclear whether we are looking at a statue or at an actual god. To be sure, they knew that statues were made by craftsmen from physical materials; and plain statements that statues are gods, or that gods are statues, are not to be found. Nonetheless, they constantly behaved and spoke as if their statues were gods: when a statue of Dionysus was brought in procession to the theater at the start of the Athenian Dionysia, this was not a “representation of the bringing in of Dionysus” but quite simply “the bringing in of Dionysus”; and so on in numerous other cases.
R.Parker
A bit further on the text again equates Thor himself and the idol.
The king spoke with his allied Kolbeinn so that the farmers did not notice: “If it happens during my speech that they look away from their god, then strike him a blow the hardest you can with your cudgel.”
Then they saw a great multitude of farmers coming to the assembly and carrying between them a huge image of a person, adorned with gold and silver. And when the farmers that were at the assembly saw that, then they all leapt up and bowed down to this monstrosity. After that it was placed in the middle of the assembly field. On one side sat the farmers, on the other the king and his men. After that Dala-Guðbrandr stood up and said:
‘Where is your God now, king? I think that now that he is carrying the beard on his chin rather low, and it looks to me as if your bragging and that of the horned chap that you call bishop and sits there next to you is less than yesterday, for now our god is come, who rules all things, and is looking at you with keen eyes, and I see that you are now frightened and scarcely dare raise your eyes. Now put aside your superstition and believe in our god, who has you entirely at his mercy.
In Olafs saga helga chapters 112–113 (a part of Heimskringla) Snorri tells a story about a christian king Olafr Haraldsson and a Pagan chieftain Guðbrandr which indicates the same treatment of idols as Gods as the accounts of Slavic christianization above.
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When king Vladimir became christian he vandalize Perun’s idol in Kyiv. The idol was beaten and when it was going down the river the people ran alongside it crying.
Later when christianization spread to other Slavic territories beyond Ancient Rus similar vandalism took place. For example in Novgorod, Perun’s idol was also vandalized and drowned in a river, reportedly it spoke while being taken down. As it was going down the river (called Volhov) the idol passed a bridge and threw his club onto it. A club is, as we know, Perun’s sacred weapon which he was depicted with all the time before ignorant rodnovers betrayed traditions. The idol leaving the club to the people of Novgorod started a custom of ritualistic club fighting on that bridge.
Hercules and a centaur
Das Pastoras
I believe Terminator premise was done with ancient warriors instead of future robots. Must have been. But the only movie I remember is Warlock 1989. Was pretty fun, albeit christian.
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Oupyr (vampire)
Andrea Boloch
The brave lad followed them to the local cemetery. There were two open graves. One of the priests jumped in. The other was about to do the same when the lad caught and held him.
-Let me go, the sun will come soon, it’s time to return to the grave.
-I will, but give me your robe first!
With the vampire back in the grave and its robe in hands, the brave lad went back to the church.
The priests came early thinking that there was a new body to bury, but to their surprise the lad was still alive and waiting for them. He showed the robe and said:
-Do you want to know who came here? A real monster, just like you. Here’s its robe. You priests swindle honest folk your whole lives, you eat and drink oh so well and sleep in fancy houses. That’s why you can’t find peace even in death.
A Brave Lad and a Haunted Church
A Transcarpathian fairy tale
Long time ago there lived a very brave lad. He heard about evil spirits and monsters, but has never seen any. The lad decided to travel and find them. One day he came to the village which had a haunted church. Every night something came and killed a guard there. The lad spoke with the local priests and told them that he wants to stay the night in the haunted church.
Found an interesting fairy tale. Somewhat spooky, somewhat comedic and, of course, anti-clerical. Perfect for the season. Won’t take long to translate. The working title is A brave lad and a haunted church.
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The Fairy Ring
Walter Jenks Morgan
^ Don’t agree with Pierce on everything, but he’s 100% on point here.
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In captivity or under domestication many of an animal's built-in behavior patterns become inoperative or distorted, and this is especially true where mating is concerned. When confined, bulls may mount mares, roosters will sometimes attempt to copulate with ducks, and baboons have been known to lust after women.
The domestic dog, Canis familiaris, provides the classic example of the breakdown of the psychological inhibition against miscegenation, where races as divergent as the St. Bernard and the Chihuahua are not only interfertile but are willing to mate.
W.L.Pierce
With these examples from three different pre-christian religions one sees a common concept of God=God’s statue. But we still can’t say if every statue/godpole/idol/figurine was seen as the God in wooden/stone/metal etc flesh at all time.
Obviously, there were many statues of the same deity venerated at the same time. Maybe only the biggest and most glorious of statues were treated as Gods themselves? Hard to say. If only we could ask the ancients directly about things like that. Alas, all we can do is be as accurate as possible which means that modern Pagans should start treating idols with even more reverence since they are, at least somewhat, inhabited by the Gods even when not actively prayed to.
Now on to the Greeks, who also, seemingly, considered Gods and their idols/statues as one and the same
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Note, again, how Guðbrandr refers to the idol his men brought as his god who is come now and is looking at his christian adversaries. Would a Pagan chief like Guðbrandr talk of a mere hollow piece of wood in such way?
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When they had all gathered there, Guðbrandr stood up and stated that a man called Óláfr had come to Lóar and he wanted to preach to them a faith different from what they have had previously. This man also suggested that they must break all their gods to bits (brjóta goð . . . ọll í sundr), since his god was much greater and mightier than their deities. When the farmers heard this they suggested that Þórr should be taken out from the sanctuary (berum út Þór ór hofi) in order to scare the king when he was approaching.
Here breaking the idols of the Gods is seen as the same as breaking the Gods themselves. And an idol of Thor being taken out of the temple is described as moving Thor himself, rather than a symbolic piece of wood.
What’s interesting in those accounts is that they show how idols were seen not just as vessels for the Gods to inhabit on special occasions (which is the most common belief today), but rather actual physical forms of the Gods. Hence the humiliating vandalism and mentions of the idols talking and moving.
This, of course, brings up some difficult questions. Was it indeed believed that every idol of a deity is inhabited by that deity all the time? Does he/she switch places? The sources don’t go in much detail and (so far) it seems impossible to solve the matter once and for all.
Slavic Pagans were not the only ones who treated idols/statues as literal Gods. Same belief is found among Greek and Germanic tribes.
A great German fairy-tale Three Dogs illustrated by one of my favorite artists Igor Vishinsky. The book provides both German original text and Ukrainian translation on the same page. Reading old folk tales like Three Dogs is a great way to learn foreign languages, a shame it’s rare.
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Hercules and his labors
Das Pastoras
Scythian Terminator
A.Klimenko
I have a lot of nice Transcarpathian and other Ukrainian fairy-tales to share, but translation can take a while. Subscribe to my Slavic only channel if you want to read them in the original.
@Slavic_Pagan
As the sun began to set the priests hurried out and left the lad standing watch on a choir stand (kliros). At midnight a figure sneaked into the church. The lad didn’t even notice it at first. The figure began lighting up the candles. Soon another one came in as silently as the first. When the two came closer the lad saw that those were priests, but not the ones he has seen earlier that day. They were much older and thinner. The odd pretest began praying and kept at it for a while. Then the candles began dwindling and the two priests started leaving.
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Time for the special spooky season translation release. A tale I decided to call…
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Two types of Paganism. Only one is correct.
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Fairy Circle
Arthur Rackham
Man, of course, is the most domesticated of all animals, and it is not surprising that his natural inhibition against miscegenation has become confused—even without the perverse efforts of the egalitarians to promote racial mixing. We should instead wonder at the degree to which this healthiest and most essential of our natural sexual predispositions has survived centuries of a most unnatural lifestyle.
W.L.Pierce
Animals that live in complete liberty and only obey their natural instincts seek ordinarily for their amours other animals that are altogether similar to their own kind, and mate almost always with their own species.
Paul Broca
French surgeon and naturalist