#jarilo

[nikoisme]

i thought it'd be funky if i had different designs for him,,

[lukesfrag]

[senka-mesecine]

― Slavic Gods, Sprits and Creatures Aesthetics, Part I.

''The first of the gods to notice Jarilo's return to the living world was Morana, a goddess of death and nature. The two of them would fall in love and court each other through a series of traditional, established rituals, imitated in various Slavic courting or wedding customs. The divine wedding between brother and sister, two children of the supreme god, was celebrated in a festival of summer solstice. This sacred union of Jarilo and Morana, deities of vegetation and of nature, assured abundance, fertility and blessing to the earth, and also brought temporary peace between two major Slavic gods. However, since Jarilo's life was ultimately tied to the vegetative cycle of the cereals, after the harvest (which was ritually seen as a murder of crops), Jarilo also met his death. Without her husband, however, Morana turns into a frustrated old hag, a terrible and dangerous goddess of death, frost and upcoming winter.''

[h0bg0blin-meat]

Vasant: Nothing feels better than winning Monopoly. Not love, not sex, not free pizza, nothing!

Vesna: I’m sorry, have you tried pizza?

Vasant: Yes, and it doesn’t compare to owning half the board and watching the light die from your friend’s eyes as you take their money and feel your friendship slowly deteriorate.

Yarilo: I like you.

[blue-lotus333]

Yarilo 🤝 Persephone

[zarya-zaryanitsa]

@certifiedsophist

Mock funerals of Morana and Yarilo belong to the exact same type of a holiday - a rather common form of ritual found in many cultures that is supposed to end one season and bring about another, and can be performed at the cusp of any season. There are many other rituals of this kind among the Slavs: funeral of rusalka, of a cuckoo, Maslenitsa, etc. The details and the character dying will vary but the principle remains the same.

Basically, every season of the year could have its special provody ritual that ended it. We can find the most striking similarities with the mock funeral of rusalka in the Kupalo festivities which took place on the summer solstice, that is on the Eve of John the Baptist, Ivan Kupalo (23rd–24th June), and in which a male ithyfallic effigy, called Kupalo, Jarilo, Kostroma, etc., was buried and sometimes resurrected again. Kupalo festivities took place near water and were replete with erotic symbolism, bathing, fire jumping, and dancing on the ritual fields called igrišta – church literature reprehended the orgiastic nature of this ritual.

Rusalki: Anthropology of Time, Death, and Sexuality in Slavic Folklore by Jiri Dynda

In some regions the start of spring was seen as domain of Yarilo (his very name is built from a word denoting spring or a year, which for the ancient Slavs most likely started in springtime). Western Slavs however seem to mostly celebrate Morana around this time, though of course we know Polabians had spring celebrations of Yarovit that didn’t survive the trial of time.

Similarly the summer solstice could be the domain of either, depending on the region. And so Kupalo/Kupala, another character belonging to the body of summer solstice rituals could be identified as related to either of them.

Some slavists studying Slavic midsummer rites came to the conclusion that they may represent a union of two deities, one of death and water the other of life and fire, and on the basis of some folk stories they further speculated the deities might perhaps be siblings connected by forbidden taboo love.

The idea that Morana and Yarilo as well as Perun and Veles need to remain separate at all times seems to me to be a neo-pagan addition. The concept of having to keep Perun and Veles separate was born because Veles was not among the deities whose effigies Prince Volodymyr placed on a hill outside his palace in Kyiv:

And Vladimir began to reign alone in Kiev. And he placed idols on the hill outside the palace: a Perun in wood with a silver head and a gold moustache, and Khors and Daždbog and Stribog and Simargl and Mokoš. And they offered sacrifices and called them gods, and they took their sons and daughters to them and sacrificed them to the devils.

- Tale of Bygone Years as translated in Sources of Slavic Pre-Christian Religion by J. A. Álvarez-Pedrosa

At the same time we know Veles did have an effigy in Kyiv but in a different spot.

And he himself (Vladimir), on entering Kiev, ordered the idols to be destroyed and beaten, breaking some and burning others, but he ordered the idol of Volos, who was known as the god of cattle, to be thrown into the River Pochaina, and the idol of Perun to be tied to a horse’s tail and dragged down the mountain by Borichev towards the river, appointing servants to strike the idols with sticks: this was not because the wood could feel, but to outrage the devil for deceiving us in that way. The infidels wept over this, as they had not yet received holy baptism.

- from the fragments of Life of Vladimir as translated in Sources of Slavic Pre- Christian Religion by J. A. Álvarez-Pedrosa

This is it - this is the reason people decided Perun-and-Veles-can-never-touch, even though we clearly also have sources mentioning them being invoked side by side:

Thus the Emperors Leo and Alexander made peace with Oleg, and after agreeing upon the tribute and mutually binding themselves by oath, they kissed the cross, and invited Oleg and his men to swear an oath likewise. According to the religion of the Russes, the latter swore by their weapons and by their god Perun, as well as by Volos, the god of cattle, and thus confirmed the treaty. (…)

But if we fail in the observance of any of the aforesaid stipulations, either I or my companions, or my subjects, may we be accursed of the god in whom we believe, namely, of Perun and Volos, the god of flocks, and we become yellow as gold, and be slain with our own weapons.

- Russian Primary Chronicle, Laurentian Text

It’s perfectly possible for gods to be opponents - functionally and mythically - and still be worshipped concurrently by the same people as part of the same pantheon. Additionally it’s important to remember that the pantheon of Volodymyr was likely a political tool and slavists have long debated how good of a representation for popular Eastern Slavic beliefs at the time it may be.

In principle, Vladimir’s pantheon was a response to internal socio-political changes and the external needs of the emerging Eastern Slavic state. It was a henotheistic and dynastic cult focusing on the deity which best served state building purposes - Perun. It was a product of the long evolution of the Eastern Slavic religion which in post-migration times diverged from relative conceptual unity of the common Slavic beliefs. Eastern Slavic beliefs evolved in specific geographic, ethnic and political conditions, characteristic of Eastern Europe. Its development was the response to those circumstances. Serving new needs and purposes, the Kievan cult had to incorporate new attributes and acquire a new dimension.

- Organized Pagan Cult in Kievan Rus’. The Invention of Foreign Elite or Evolution of Local Tradition? by Roman Zaroff

So tldr instead of solely looking at Morana and Yarilo separately as divine opposites I think it’s beneficial to look at both of them in the context of a larger body of similar Slavic rituals, some of which I presented in this post. Knowing how flexible those rites are can actually help significantly in building one’s personal sacred calendar to one’s needs.

[slavicpaganismisalive]

trying to figure out anything on yarilo is like lowkey impossible why is this so hardddd

[alexkujawa]

This is post 10 of 13 🌿🌿🌿 in my annual series on SLAVIC PAGAN SUMMER SOLSTICE that I like to expand in each year (and posting for the first time on tumblr).

Are you enjoying this series?  Gimme a like, talk to me!  I’d love to get back on tumblr if I know that people are actually seeing/enjoying my posts here.

🖤💀🌿 ___________________________ Image: ”Noc Świętojańska”, prints available on my Etsy

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

[15pantheons]

Perun, handing out popsicles: Which flavor do you want?  Jarilo: Blue flavor!  Perun: Uh, you mean Blue Raspberry?  Jarilo: Blue flavor! Blue flavor!  Perun: Blue is not a flavor!  Jarilo: BLUE FLAVOR! 

[nikoisme]

there's a version where jarilo is morana's consort (in the other version it's dažbog/dazhbog),, so here's them being together etc etc

[millardcrow]

Old Jarilo sketches

[nottatastellata]

my family patron <333

Slovenian post card depicting st. George as folk tradition understands him. He is bringer of spring and blooming flowers, substituting for fertility deity Jarilo. Author: Maksim Gaspari

[h0bg0blin-meat]

VASANT and YARILO's love child :3

Model: Kacper Ostrycharczyk (thanks @tum-naam-sochlo-merese-ni-hora

[tooboredtothinkofaname]

O, Jarilo, blaženų čas žnijů i živų, V toj epohě radosti tě pozdravijem. Tvoje święto znáči obilnòstь i plodnòstь, Zemjy cvětu v Twojì moci.

Matko Zemljo, Tvoja łaska otača našě polä, Tvoje blaženstvo v každěm kłosě zręva. Prosime Tě o plodnòstь i obilnòstь, O blaženstvo dlä našě žnijy.

O, Mokošь, čas života i růstů, Tvoje swětło rozjasnja našě dně. Dźěkujem za žnije, kotrě nam dajesz, Neđ Twoja sila približi nam obilnòstь.

Jarowita/Jaryły - kwiecień

tarcza Jarowita

zataczanie kręgu Tarczą Jarowita i mieczem/szablą

błogosławieństwo orężem (tarczą i mieczem, mające dodać siły i odwagi oraz chronić przed złem)

elementy związane z rolnictwem, zasiewami - Jaryło to głównie Bóg płodności i rolnictwa, Jarowit - walki i młodzieńczej odwagi

pieśń: "Włóczył się Jaryło po całym świecie..."

Jarovita/Jarila - kwiecień

štít Jarovit

zatačanje kruhu Štítom Jarovita a mečom/sabljom

blaženstvo oružjem (štítem a mečem, aby dodalo silu a odvahu a ochránilo pred zlom)

prvky spojené s poľnohospodárstvom, sejbami - Jarylo je hlavne Boh plodnosti a poľnohospodárstva, Jarovit - boja a mladistvej odvahy

pieśń: "Włóczył się Jaryło po całym świecie..."

[blue-lotus333]

Female (gender-bend) Yarilo :333

[sluaking]

Earth Deities.

🌱🌱🌱🌱

mythologies → earth deities