8417
A place for Aryan (European) Folkish Pagans
1552 Additional instruction of Sudebnik commands preachers to go to the markets telling the people not to go to the volkhvs, sorcerers and astronomers with threats of ostracism and excommunication.
1586 Patriarch’s letter of Lviv Dormition Brotherhood:
"if there is a witch or a spellcaster to be found in a village or any other place, the devil’s vessel or the sorceress…let her be shunned from the church and those who have succumbed to the witches and fortune-tellers and visit them are to be excommunicated."
1071 Two volkhvs organized a rebellion near Yaroslavl…and came to Beloozero and had 300 men with them. Jan ordered them to be beaten…they were caught and hanged… (Laurentian Codex).
1091 Volkhvs organize an uprising in Rostov and get executed.
1206 An idol of Mokosh (Slavic female Goddess) gets destroyed in Novgorod. Church of St. Paraskevi is built on top of the same hill.
1227 Traveling volkhvs and herbalists come to Novgorod and perform miracles. Eventually they are caught and burned alive.
When one thinks of christian witch burning today what comes to mind is probably the catholic branch with it’s inquisition or maybe puritans, but orthodox church also committed countless crimes all over the world, especially in Greece and Rus. I will now present some never-before translated material about the latter.
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Overall, The Hand of Oberon is the most fantastical and important (in terms of the story and lore) book in the series so far. It also ends on a great twist which makes one eager to start The Courts of Chaos as soon as possible which is exactly what I did. As always, the review will come after I finish it.
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Speaking of Dworkin, he is revealed to be the real founder of Amber and the royal family. He used to be a noble of Chaos, but rebelled and created Amber with the Jewel of Judgement thus bringing order into the universe. He then fathered Oberon and stayed by his side as the court wizard. Dworkin is without any doubt the most powerful being in the Amber Chronicles we’ve seen so far, but he is also plagued with madness caused by Brand, his best student. Dworkin is inspired by Wotan and other European deities of the shaman/artist type.
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From the very beginning what differentiates this book from the previous three is the amount of lore and universe insight. The Hand reveals who created Amber and also that the opposing forces are in fact not just monsters, but the Courts of Chaos. There is a lot of magic and this is where the Chronicles feel like high fantasy with Brand specifically, but displaying many strange powers. Still not as cliche as fireballs and lightning, but rather more advanced manipulations of reality such as teleportation, shapeshifting, mind-reading etc.
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Yesterday I finished reading The Hand of Oberon. Will write a review and post it tomorrow.
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The same Thracians, on other occasions, when he thunders and lightens, shoot with arrows up in the air against the sky and menace the divinity because they think there is no god other than their own.
Herodotus
The fact that Romanian folk mythology around their prophet Elijah contains many elements of a god of the storm proves at least that Gebeleizis was still active in the moment when Dacia was christianised, whatever his name was in this era. It can also be admitted that subsequently a religious syncretism, encouraged by the high priest and the priestly class, ended up on confusing Gebeleizis with Zalmoxis
Mircea Eliade
A runestone from Södermanland, Sweden bearing a depiction of Thor's hammer
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Thor by dewitteillustration
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In 1551 Ivan the Terrible wrote a latter to metropolitan Macarius complaining about the christian clergy.
"They become monks to laze around and drink constantly. Alcoholism, fornication and adultery. Desert fathers walk the streets with icons supposedly gathering donations for the construction of a monastery, but in actuality just to buy booze and get drunk."
Will start translating again. Some other projects had to be postponed. Will hopefully be done by the middle of the next week.
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Twenty centuries of flabby Christian fakery have not succeeded in changing our real natures one jot.
H.P. Lovecraft
1285 The Kórmchaia Book commands those visiting volkhvs to be excommunicated.
1411 Twelve seer women are burned alive in Pskov.
1462 Ioann of Mozhaisk publicly burned a boyar and his wife alive supposedly for practicing magic.
1499 The instructions for the clergy command not to accept donations from volkhvs, sorcerers and skoromokhs.
989-990 vladimir (volodimir) baptizes Rus and massacres people in Novgorod. Cities and villages of White Croats are destroyed. Church Statute of Prince Volodimir which dictates the burning of volkhvs is released.
1018 Kyiv burns heavily in a fire. christians blame it on evil magic and kill many old women thought to be witches.
1069-76 Slavic and Finnish Pagans of Beloozero are subdued by Yan Vyshatich. Gleb Svyatoslavich and bishop Theodor massacre Pagans in Novgorod.
I have translated some material about orthodox inquisition. Will post later today.
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Good Pagan Revivalist crafting activities with the children!
Credit:
Easter Tidings - Pagan Revival
carolynemerick.writer?si=04g11Ewh7jMdlhj3" rel="nofollow">https://youtube.com/@carolynemerick.writer?si=04g11Ewh7jMdlhj3
In The Hand Corwin deals with many relatives and friends, but Ganelon is most prominent among them. Not being an Amberite he provides an outsider perspective on the situation and comes up with creative solutions to some of the problems. Throughout the book he gives Corwin his advice many times and always supports his friend in time of need.
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Brand is the main antagonist for the book and it’s refreshing having one who won’t just duel with Corwin or send troops. Being a wizard Brand is much more subtle, he manipulates others and when the latter is not possible magic is used. He learned his mysterious skills from Dworkin and utilizes them through the book to achieve his ultimate goal which is the destruction of the world as currently known. After that’s done Brand plans to create a new one himself.
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The Hand of Oberon is the fourth book of the Amber Chronicles and is mostly focus on Corwin unveiling the reason why Chaos forces are attacking Amber and who helped them. As it turns out Brand was the real master mind behind all of this responsible both for creating the passage for the enemies of Amber and trying to kill Corwin back in the day.
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Above-mentioned puzzling custom is probably proof of Zalmoxis being a heretic after all and promoting misotheism towards the original Gods of Getae such as their thunder deity while usurping their traits for himself. The matter is an extremely confusing one though, so I am not sure.
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Others consider Zalmoxis to be a real Pagan deity, probably of chthonic kind or maybe a dying and resurrection one associated with the fertility of the land. Ultimately we know that at late stage Getae tradition was so heavily mixed and distorted with different elements of new belief it’s impossible to be certain.
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Some believe that Zalmoxis was a human slave who converted the Thracians to his own heretical religion which later mixed with local Pagan tradition, hence why Herodotus mentions that Zalmoxis was also called Gebeleizis.
"…whether there was a man called Salmoxis or this is some deity native to the Getae, let the question be dismissed."
Herodotus
Gaul by dewitteillustration
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Red sandstone Wotan pendant from
https://twitter.com/bjorn_brother
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/26/sacred-indigenous-site-on-sunshine-coast-defaced-with-religious-message
Christians at it, again.
We have already described the Fomorians as the gods of Death and of Night. Irish euhemerism, however, has converted them into sea pirates who used to ravage the coasts of Ireland.
The most important feature in the legend of the Fomorians is their war against the gods of the Solar Light and of Life, in other words, the Tuatha De Danann. Monstrous both in size and in shape, some of them having goat's heads, and others only one hand and one foot, they are the Celtic expression of conceptions identical with those which, in Greek mythology, have given birth to the monsters that war against the solar deities.
A. de Jubainville
The Macedonians planned to conquer the Scythians and the Greek city of Olbia (now in Mykolaiv oblast). Zorypion’s 30,000-strong army besieged the city but was unable to take it, with the Scythians in the rear. As the Macedonian army retreated, it was defeated by the Scythians near the Dniester estuary. At the time it was the only defeat of the invincible Macedonia.
For centuries after this event, enemies preferred not to touch Scythia. In the 4th century BC, the Greek historian Thucydides called the Scythians "the strongest not only in Europe but also in Asia".
O.Palii