Please pray for Poland and the people here, especially the oppressed minorities. There will be parliament elections on Sunday, currently we're ruled by an authoritarian right-wing party and things are only getting worse and worse. An actual fascist party is also gaining popularity. These elections are extremely important for the future of Poland, because the ruling party is destroying democratic institutions and we don't know how the next elections will look like if they win.

And please reblog so more people can see it.

🇵🇱 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️

Don't tell me I'm wrong.

This is post 7 of 13 in my annual series on SLAVIC PAGAN SUMMER SOLSTICE that I like to expand to on each year.  

Talk to me in the comments!  I’d love to get back on tumblr if I know that people are actually seeing/enjoying my posts here.

🖤💀🌿 ___________________________ Image: "FERN FLOWER", print available on my Etsy

Interested in Slavic Mythology? Check out my illustrated folklore book 31 Slavic Beings of Myth & Magic on ETSY or Amazon.

Thinking a lot about Christo-pagan syncretism lately. Have some Saint Veles

Deity Signs Be Like

Me: I think Artemis is reaching out

Marzanna: Guess again bitch

My prayer beads from left to right: a set dedicated to Morana/light half of the year, Granny’s rosary, a set dedicated to Morana/dark half of the year.

The Golden Thread

Prologue

Pairing: male kelpie x female OC (human)

Summary: Every action comes with a consequence, especially if you are foolish enough to interfere with the course of nature..

Tags/Genre: romance, fluff, mythology (mix of slavic and celtic mythology), (found) family, enemies2lovers kinda, a little bit of angst, horror and drama

Warning: none

Rating: 16+ (yandere, gore etc. in later chapters)

MASTERLIST │Next -> Chapter 1 (Coming soon)

The goddess weaves the delicate threads, her eyes fixed upon the intricate pattern as it unfolds. The threads of fate twist and turn in her fingers, glowing with a soft radiance that illuminates the darkness around her. She hums softly to herself, lost in the rhythm of her work.

Her fingers moving with precision as she decides the path of a young girl's life. The thread glows with a radiant golden light, pulsing with the promise of potential and possibility.

"Destiny is a fickle thing," the goddess murmurs, her voice low. "It can be shaped by many things, both within and without your control. Will you embrace your fate, or fight against it?"

Her fingers dance over the loom, manipulating the threads with a deft hand. "There are those who are born lucky, and those who are born to struggle. But no matter the path, every thread is woven with purpose and intention.

The goddess leans forward, her eyes burning with an intense fire. "Remember, dear one, that the thread of your life is your own to weave. You hold the power to shape your own destiny, to turn misfortune into opportunity. Will you take hold of the threads, or let them slip through your fingers?" A sly smile tugs at her lips, hinting at the secrets only she knows..

Digital Offering: Marzanna

She brings with her the snow

And the call of the crow

With the reminder of death

On her frigid breath

"...a winter-Mokosh, the unfertile, she who takes and who takes care of the dead, passes them on to Maty Zemlia and watches over the unknown. In that, she is the cold dark water to summer's bright dew, a mother of the dead birthing them out of being and into potential." - C. Winter

hiiii here’s a little bit about me! ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚

ੈ✩‧₊˚ paganism has my whole heart ✧.*

ೃ⁀➷ the main deities i work with are Vesna and Morena .ೃ࿐

⋆·˚ ༘ * i speak english, russian, and some french ✧ ˚ · .

༊*·˚ the main things i will use this blog for include:

posting witchy tips

sharing spells

sharing manifestion techniques

talking about my journey with paganism/ my journey with my deities

sharing information that could be useful to other pagans

rebloging stuff i like lol

i love love love slavic folklore so anything related to that

and overall just learning more and more about paganism ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚

*ೃ༄ i’m still learning everyday so if i make any sort of mistake please be kind<3

lots of love

Finding Identity in Purity is a Mistake.

One of the things I've really had to challenge myself on, as somebody who has been pagan for 15 years now, is how insular and venomous some pagan spaces used to be online compared to how they are now, and how much the culture shaped me. At one point I was a member of a very popular Ásatrú (Heathenry as a term really hadn't caught on at the time and the term wasn't as loaded then) group, with maybe five thousand members. I was a teenager, and like most teenagers, I wanted to be accepted. Badly. And this was The Group. It had big, important community members in it. The culture was aggressively reconstructionist. There were Rules, both written and unwritten, and if you followed them you got to dogpile people who didn't. It was incredibly toxic.

This group was very proud of its "Shame Culture." That's not me trying to coin a term to badmouth them, that's literally what they called it. If you stuck out, you were Shamed. There were frequent threads dedicated to mocking members who were bullied out of the group. If you were out of line with the group Opinion, you'd be dogpiled until you lost your cool, and then banned for being angry.

As you can imagine, after a while I quietly left, but that group left its mark. I was out of the community, but I still struggled with its demand of absolute historical purity. Even more so when many of the group's Approved Beliefs began being contested by new research and being less popular. Suddenly well defined pantheons were no longer the law of the land and verboten deities (It's Loki, I'm talking about Loki) were acceptable, and somehow at 20 I felt like an old man yelling at clouds. Those things couldn't be right. Blót meant blood and Loki was made up and there was a perfect historical recreation of Real, Authentic Heathenry that was just waiting to blossom, after all the fake heathens and Wiccatru crazies (labels that were, upon reflection, aimed by group members almost exclusively at women and LGBT+ people) were chased out or shamed into submission. This is not a healthy mindset.

I hope it is obvious that I have not retained these beliefs. I regret ever giving them credence. It's a shame that I fell for them, but I am also not surprised that I did. They prey exactly upon the worst excesses of the feelings that can draw young people (especially young men, I'd say) to paganism in the first place- this idea of a unique, rugged, authentic spirituality hidden behind misinformation that only the brave and intelligent care enough to find. I was an angry, socially isolated young nerd, and that's exactly the thing that angry, socially isolated young nerds desperately want to hear: "Not only are you special, you're special on a cosmic level. You're one of the only guys who worship the True Gods in the Right Way."

I feel like moving towards Slavic Paganism helped me break away from that toxic mindset. First, in that it allowed me to be a beginner again as an adult. No expertise, no seniority, I had to sit down and listen. Second, in what I heard when I did: "We don't know." That was terrifying to hear when I started. What if I did something wrong? What if I messed up? Tearing the bandage off and realizing that those things mattered less than I had believed allowed me to grow.

Third, and probably silliest, was that it's called Slavic Paganism. I know, it's got other names, but those are, uh, complicated. But that second word was important. "Heathenry" lets you be separate. You're not a nut like those eclectic Pagans, you're a real Heathen. You tell somebody in America you're a Rodnover (or whatever other label you might choose) and they ask you what that means, and you mumble back "pagan" as quiet as you can. You have an identity beyond that, but you're not better because of it.

Don't fall for the grift that young me did. Wanting historical authenticity is perfectly fine. I still try and make my practice as historically accurate as I can, and people peddling outright lies as divine truth are still causing harm. But basing your identity on Purity is another story. Don't chase Purity, because you'll never catch it. It's a bald faced lie. The chase is long and fruitless and you hurt people as you pass. If you become obsessed with Purity, it'll eat you from the inside out and turn you cruel. Purity is the white whale of reconstructionist paganism, and it'll drag us all under if we let it.

Here's my original ink drawing of Płanetnik and the colored illustration from my book, 𝟑𝟏 𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐂 𝐁𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐘𝐓𝐇 & 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 available on my ETSY 🖤💀🌿

This is Slavic pagan tumblr’s reminder that Patricia Woodruff is a hack that can’t take criticism with a fake PhD

*starts snowing heavily*

Me: Hail Skadi, Lady of Skis, and Hail Marzanna, Winter Mother!

*smacked in face with a huge sudden flurry*

Your choice of Lady Death

Prints can be ordered here:

I have a big nasty looking bruise on my arm and on my knuckle as well as two blisters from starting up training with archery. 😅

So worth it though! It’s so relaxing, I feel so much more connected to Devana and I feel glad to know I’m learning a useful skill as well! 🏹