#wołos

[m0th-g0th0]

The Kin's beliefs in pathologic are quite unique, but I've seen many similarities to slavic mythology, so imma write about this enjoy ig.

Just to preface slavic mythology is extremely obscure and most of it was lost to history (we love Christianisation :DDD), so be careful about sources always. Mind that I'm speaking from a Polish perspective - Slavic people across different regions had varied beliefs.

The Kin believe the Earth is alive - that's basically the case for Slavs too. Mother Earth, known also as Mokosz (Mokosh, Мокош), was said to be pregnant in the early spring, so it was forbidden to dig into it, plow it, build fences and generally harm it during that time. It was also always forbidden to spit on the ground, and tripping and falling was a bad omen. Offending the Earth was seen as a very grave crime.

Another aspect of Earth, or nature, was Marzanna (Morana, Morena, Śmiertka, Śmierciucha) who was the goddess of death and winter but also life and renewal - the cycles that rule us. She was also vaguely associated with plagues (мор - Морана etymologically). I like to connect that to the pest being death and life itself.

Obviously a very important aspect of cultural life all over Europe and Asia, cattle was also revered by The Kin. While Slavs didn't consider bulls to be a part of them, they were still quite sacred, providing meat and hides. The patron of cattle was Weles (Veles, Wołos), who was also a chtonic god of riches, promises and a ruler of the afterlife.

Slavic religion is very focused on unity with nature, gratefulness for its gifts. I wouldn't be surprised if IPL actually took from it while creating the Kin.

Just hand to ramble about my special interest and connect it to my patho brainworms

[openspacey]

[lamus-dworski]

Samples from the cycle ‘Bożki słowiański’ (’Slavic Idols’) by Polish artist Zofia Stryjeńska (1891-1976).

Source: Zofia Stryjeńska’s fanpage.

[zarya-zaryanitsa]

About Veles

Today I present you my amateur translation of a fragment of Religia Słowian by Andrzej Szyjewski. My own comments will be indicated by a „trans. note” disclaimer. I accept constructive suggestions for improving the translation.

Chapter 3: How to combat chaos?; Subchapter: The Adversary

From the perspective of structure of the Slavic world the most important thing is to discover against whom is the weapon of Perun directed, in other words, who is the Slavic counterpart of the Devil. Greek „diabolos” and hebrew „satan” is usually translated in slavic tongues as „bies” „czart” or „veles” (let’s forget for now about Helmold’s Chernobog who is not a deity in his own right but merely a pejorative epithet). Bies, especially in the Eastern Slavic regions is associated with something terrible and terrifying, the verb „zbiesić się” signifies falling into madness but also the convulsions that can accompany possession. Chart or chort is a class of evil spirits, that filled up the wild nature, especially woods, marshes, waters and winds; deceiving, bringing evil fate and misfortune. The term veles we know from XV-XVI century Czech texts where it appears in phrases such as „what devil, what veles, what dragon incited you against me?!” „oh what veles encourages them to commit such sins!” „go to veles!” „go to veles over the sea!”. Nowadays we say „go to hell” (trans. note: in Slavic languages we literally say „go to the devil” rather than go to hell, but I used the english phrase to give you a sense of how it resounds). This draws our attention to the person of Weles or Wołos, god known from numerous Eastern Slavic texts.

This name, encountered in many variations such as „Veles”, „Wieles”, „Velevit”, „Wołos” originates, depending on interpration that you accept, either from protoslavic „volstь” („power”, „domain”), „valas” („hair”, „fur”), or „wel-„ „vel-„ ( „to see”, but also „bewitching glance”). The looks and domain of this deity are hard to precisely pinpoint. He is most likely a Slavic derivative of indo-european Varuna, associated with the night sky and magic. Scholars also point to his close kinship with Baltic god of the dead, known as Vels or Velinas, also associated with the christian Devil. In Latvian the souls of the dead could be referred to as „veles”, and this word is used interchangably with „navia”. As a result Veles is commonly considered the god of chthonic spheres, watching over the dead but also the fertility of fields. Russian chronicles call Veles „skotiy bog”, „god of cattle” but list him on the same breath as great deities Perun or Mokosh. So he isn’t merely a protective spirit of the cowsheds.

When in „Tale of Bygone years” Ruthenians make peace with Byzantines the Greeks kiss a cross before swearing an oath of peace, while Ruthenians „swore on their weapons, on Perun and on Veles the god of cattle, and confirmed the peace”. Later where raising and bringing down of idols is briefly mentioned names of Perun and Veles are cited again. So Veles is not some lesser entity, but a powerful god, with might and influence roughly comparable to that of Perun himself. Keeping in mind Dumezil’s tripartite schema of the functions of gods in indo-european religions we can note that the warriors from princely team swear on Perun while commonfolk on Veles. The punishment for breaking an oath was, on Perun’s side death from warrior’s own weapon, and on Veles’ side „becoming golden like gold itself”. This leads us to believe those gods are sovereign masters of different spheres of activity: Perun rules over heaven, war and the knightly estate while Veles over earth, agriculture and the third estate. Let’s call back for a moment to the folk tale discussed in the previous chapter, in which, as a result of an agreement between God and Devil, the God holds dominion over the living and the Devil over the dead (or alternatively, human souls go to heaven to God and human bodies end up in the earth, with the Devil).

Semiotics have examined many texts in which Veles or Volos appears, not only discovering many traits shared by indo-european gods whose names are connected with the vel-/vr- core (like baltic Velinas, vedic Varuna, the demonic Vala or celtic filedhs) but they also noticed that christian characters were used to remedy the shortages that arose as a result of christianization and removal of pagan divinities from the language and cultus. Perun whose name as we know has been „desacrated” in the polish language and reduced to mean „thunder”, was replaced by prophet Elijah (Saint Ilya). „Veles” in Czech language became synonymous with „devil” and his person was replaced by Saint Nicholas (Nikolai, Mikuła). Why? Elijah ascended into heaven among stormy winds, in a burning chariot. In the consciousness of the people he is still there, riding in his mighty chariot, it’s rattling - the thunder, it’s fire - the lightning. Elijah becomes the Thunderer (trans. note: originally „gromowładny”,  „he who has power over thunder”), and in this function he is equated with Perun, who most likely was believed to ride the Big Dipper. Saint Ilya appears in ruthenian, ukrainian and Southern Slavic sources as the master of weather. On the orthodox icons he can be seen riding a white horse and holding a spear - a distant remnant of Perun’s original weapon. The same role can also be played by Saint Michael and Saint George, although for different reasons. This will be discussed in another chapter.

As we can clearly see on the basis of semiotic analysis the Saint put in opposition to Saint Ilya is Saint Nicholas. There are legends of Saint Nicholas protecting commonfolk from the wrath of Ilya and tricking the prophet to protect peasant’s field from destruction and in this way earning peasant’s undying gratitude. As stated by Uspieński in his articles „the dangerous, punishing, heavenly Ilya is put in juxtaposition with benevolent Nicholas, protecting from the ground”. Ilya is just and strict, Nicholas is merciful and gracious. This opposition translates also into eastern heroic epics where Ilya Muromec enagages in conflict with Mikula Seljaninovic.

What does kindly St. Nicholas (nowadays mostly associated with Christmas gifts) has to do with Veles? It’s important to bear in mind that in christian orthodoxy St. Nicholas is the most revered of Saints, one that sometimes replaces even the God himself. Russian folklore gives him, not Saint Peter, the keys to heaven, as well as patronage over cattle and fertility of fields. Upon analysing the person of Saint Nicholas in Eastern Slavic folklore one can confirm wealth, fertility of fields and cattle, souls of the dead, afterlife, oracle and witchcraft as the domain of Veles. The person of Nicholas-Veles is so crucial to the reconstruction of Slavic religion that we ought to ponder his characteristics in more detail.

Subchapter: Veles, Nicholas, the chthonic sphere

When Volos is referred to as skotiy bog (god of cattle) we should understand it to mean he rules over wealth, riches, abundance. This particular way of looking at things was carried by the indo-europeans out of their nomad days. That’s why so many heroes in so many myths face cattle thiefs: vedic Indra, greek Heracles, celtic Cuchulainn. The Persians poured gold in the shape of bull heads, and latin „pecunia” - „money” originates from „pecus” - „cattle”.

In Orthodox Church two saints are especially connected with cattle - Saint Nicholas and Saint Vlas, the former because of similar function, the latter - most likely because of close association of his name with the one of cattle’s previous protector. Their icons are hanged in cowsheds, their names called upon in spells to protect the animals, their sacred days were a holiday of livestock breeders. Veles-Nicholas protects grazing livestock from the attacks of wolves and wild dogs, closes predators’ jaws with his heavenly key, covers the eyes of the Bitch of Plague (trans. notes: an awkward but direct translation of the original „Morowa Suka”). He was able to do all that becuse distant pastures, wilderness and wastes are within the sphere of animalic nature (as opposed to human civilization and culture) as well as chaos, things that he clearly rules over. His sacred days would be the first days of grazing of cattle and horses. A three years old black bull (tryzna) was sacrificed to him. Let’s recall that in many Indo-european cultures white bull is the favored offering of thunder-wielding, atmostmospheric deities (Zeus, Jupiter, Indra) while the black bull is offered to chthonic forces.

Veles dwells primarily in the Afterlife known as Navia or Wyraj, he’s the protector of souls of the dead and the god of death, guiding souls to the other side (a psychopomp). According to the texts of charms and ruthenian zagovors (trans. notes: eastern slavic oral charms) he lives in a swamp in the very heart of Navia, where he sits on a golden throne among the roots of Cosmic Tree. In the folklore of Eastern Slavs his domain is described as land „beyond the see” or „across the river in the other world”, which is clearly confirmed by Czech curse „go to veles over the sea!” As for the analogical functions of his christian hipostasis all the way to XVIIIth century a dead person in Rus’ would be burried holding „a letter to Saint Nicholas”, who guarded the gates to Heaven. Ruthenian texts reveal to us the image of a fearsome warden at the heavenly gates, wielding a flaming sword in one hand and a key in the other. He opens the gates if he deems the soul worthy of Heaven, otherwise he destroys it with the flaming sword. He leads the souls into Heaven or he takes them across the Dead Waters, to their afterlife.

By logically combining two main functions of Veles we can assume that in Navia his main occupation is taking care of the cattle grazing on heavenly meadows, and that this cattle are in fact human souls (also called navias). This interpretation would remain in accordance with vedic texts and hittie rituals, on the basis of which the orginal indo-european view of afterlife was reconstructed - a large heavenly steppe full of grazing cattle/souls, whose name contains the well known to us core vel- (as in greek Elysion Fields, earlier velysion; hittie „vellu-”; scandinavian Valhalla). Let’s compare that with a famous cosmological riddle „the field unmeasurable, the cattle uncountable, the farm-hand horned, the host rich” (meaning sky, stars, moon and sun)(trans. notes: it rhymed in polish). Veles-Nikolai is then the shepherd of souls. This function, as well as common among chthonic deities guardianship of the riches hidden under ground, are what connects him with earthly wealth, trade, plowing and cattle. Another dominion of his was alcoholic fermentation, he is the god of beer, patron of feasts and festivities as manifestations of wealth.

The chthonic sphere in not an area valorized only in negative terms, it holds unmeasurable treasures and it’s connected with the fertile soil. In both those fields Veles-Nikolai is actively present. To understand that, one has to follow religious scientists-evolutionists James G. Frazer and Wilhelm Mannhardt in analysing certain harvest festivities pointing to the ideas of crops and fertility being personalized. Those harvest traditions, as explained in The Golden Bough, were the source for near-eastern idea of dying and reborn god of vegetation. The reapers work in such a fashion as to leave one sheaf of grain remaining in the middle of the field, there the spirit of grain dwells untill it’s also ritually harvested and preserved untill next year’s planting. Among Eastern Slavs this sheaf is called the Beard of Veles, or the Beard of Nikolai. Once the reaping is done a female reaper braids the sheaf three times saying „Bless me Lord/ May I twist this beard/ Strength for the reaper/ Head for the horse/ Beard for Nikolai” (trans. notes: It rhymed in polish. Sort of.)'

In eastern tradition Saint Nicholas is depicted as an old man with long yellow-grey beard. In light of the aforementioned Slavic harvest ritual this yellowish beard is also meant to represent the crops, something that the Saint inherited from his pagan predecessor. Ruthenian „obshchiy bog”, The God For Everything, protector of the people, „defender of peasantry”, in fewer words - Veles, he’s the god of agriculture, and he is the reason why it is said that „in the field Nicholas is the only god”. Folklore depicts him walking through the field margins and planting fertility in the fields.

The amount of spells, charms and zagovors calling upon Veles-Nicholas points clearly to his rulership over the sphere of magic and witchcraft. He is the keeper of law and oaths, and he punishes those who break them with various sicknesses, especially skin diseases such as warts or scrofula (also known as zołotucha, „golden sickness”, which explains the fear of „becoming golden like gold itself” among the oathing ruthenian warriors from the Tale of Bygone Years). From the same core as the name „Volos” came the russian word „volshebnyi” meaning „magical”; perhaps related to scandinavian seeress „völva” or even old irish „file”, a poet. Russian magicians, volkhvs are „the wizards of Veles” and according to the „Legend about the founding of Yaroslavl” after burning their offerings they would perform divinations and sometimes sing accompanied by gusle. Veles was the one that brought poetic inspiration to singers (skomorochy, skomorokhi). Ruthenian „Tale of Igor’s Campaign” calls the seer Boyan a „grandson of Veles”.

We have temporarily left behind the subject of Veles’ „hairiness” which leads us to a very rich sphere of animal symbolism. Without a doubt this god had his animal manifestations, one of which retained it’s significant place in rituals. The animal is, as name suggests the bull or the ox (trans. notes: „ox” - pl. „wół”, in connection with alternative spelling of Veles’s name „Wołos”), which in it’s reduced form appears in nativities and caroling groups (trans. notes: the specific traditions listed originally are herods and kolędowanie) as black shaggy goat called Turoń (from „tur” - „auroch”). Turoń’s presence in cult practices can be traced back as far as 1166. It’s worth mentioning that according to some researchers the names of polabian gord Wolgast (pl. Wołogoszcz), ukrainian Volhynia (pl. Wołyń) and the polish island and gord Wolin are all connected equally to both oxen and Veles - which does not seem implausible considering the chronicler Herbord’s claims that god Pluto was worshipped in Wolin or the attempts to connected polabian-pomeranian god Triglav with Veles/Volos. Finally it’s worth mentioning that among Western Slavs the most popular offerings to be placed in the foundations of buildings, rampants, castles etc., were aurochs. Auroch skulls were found beneath the rampants of Gniezno, Stettin and Wolin. Those ritual actions could correspond with the idea of cosmogonic duel between bull-shaped Veles and Perun, and sacrificial murder that was the origin of our world.

However the most important zoomorphic form of this deity was the snake, or his mythologized counterpart, the zmey - the dragon, serpentlike flying creature. In slavic mythology he’s an archaic character, taking it’s origin from the primordial monster of chaos, personification of destructive forces that decompose the cosmic order.  The connection between the chthonic sphere and crawling creatures is universal in religious symbolism. In slavic folklore we can notice a wide range of motives elaborating on those ideas. Fiery Zmey is de facto synonymous with the fiery river of the afterlife. His jaws, „ad'” in eastern slavic languages were synonymous with hell. In this form Veles can be called Zmey Tsar Ir (among Eastern Slavs) or Čorny Jurij, „Black Yuri”(among Lusatian Sorbs). Him and his wife Yuritsa („Jur” and „Jurica” are on one hand venomous, „jadowici”, and on the other characterized by great sexual potency - „jurni”) dwell in Heaven or Wyraj, a wonderous land where birds go for the duration of winter, only to return again in the spring - „wyroić się”. In Western and Southern Slavic folklore the serpentine master of the Afterlife is called „The Serpent King” (Poland), The Serpent Tsar (Serbia), or The Money Zmey (Lusatia). He takes the shape of a giant snake in a crown, basking in the sun, guarding a golden pile of treasures. Those who are able to sneak past hundreds of his reptile followers and steal his crown can count on a large ransom, but they shouldn’t keep the crown, for it will bring a flood of reptiles and misfortunes on their city. This connection to the riches hidden in the deep womb of the earth is expressed in the mentions of golden and red colors: gold, yellow and copper red are the colors of the afterlife and of Veles. Veles’ gold is juxtaposed with Perun’s iron, used for the production of weapons.

Although spells often mention a couple that’s ruling the Underworld there are very few remaining traces of Veles’ partner. In the writings of John Chrysostom a field spirit named Vela makes an appearence. Other versions mention Volosatka (pl. Wołosatka) who guards the cowshed and the cattle. In polish sources we find kashubian demon Velevitka. The children of Veles, if folk tales are to be believed, are the stars from the constellation of Pleiades. Aside from the mordvinian loaning of ugro-finnic „vele”, Slavs call them Vlašiči, Wołosynie or Stožary. This last name (signifying the central pole of the threshing floor, around which a couple of oxen walks in circles threshing wheat) has been amalgamated with the others and together they assumed the form of Volostožar’, however this name is assigned to the Orion’s Belt, not the Pleiades. It shows us that this constellation, assigned soteriological context all over the world was also connected with the cult of Veles. In ancient Egyptian texts Orion, the constellation of resurrection, allows the rebuilding of Osiris’ person in the Otherworld. The connection between the master of the Afterlife and the Orion constellation can be found in a folk tale naming the three stars of Orion’s Belt as „The Hoe, The Rake and The Plough”, „The Poles” or „Peter’s/Moses’/Jacob’s Staff”. This staff aside from being an obvious fallic symbol (connected with Orion’s potency and the pole that forms axis mundi) is also a weapon, a counterpart to Perun’s thunder. One of polish folk legends claims this pole is what Lucifer attempted to hit God with, which then, after hitting the firmament turned into a scythe. In this astral code we can recognize traces of the original myth, about a duel between Perun and Veles.

Veles art: Sukharev

[ivy-kissobryos]

Veles and the Otherworld

However, the figure of Charon (treated, of course, only figuratively, as a certain mythical motif of Indo-European origin), as a carrier of souls, deserves further attention. As mentioned above, the Slavic equivalent of Charon is Weles/Wołos. According to linguistic analyses, in Slavic beliefs, he was a god to whom all human souls went after death. His domain was located in a field (or meadow) far in the West, behind the water that separated the world of the living from the world of the dead (Nawia)

We know very little about the Slavic land of the dead. I have already mentioned that the words nav/nawie, known from textual accounts, referred to dead people or their ghosts and occasionally (in later times) malevolent spirits. The late medieval textual accounts from the Czech area confirm that Navia was the name of the land of the dead among the Western Slavs. ‘To go to Navia’ meant to die and ‘to prepare someone for Nav’, meant to kill 

According to Andrzej Szyjewski, the Slavs ‘originally did not distinguish Heaven from Hell, there was only one “otherworld” which surrounded “our world”, known as Wyraj, Raj, Irij. It was located somewhere behind the waters (especially the Milky Way) in the form of an abyss which pulled one inside by means of a vortex’. One theory that seeks to explain the etymology of the word Wyraj/Raj derives it from the Slavic linguistic roots and associates it with the pre-Slavic *rajь (to swim) and *gajь explaining it as a ‘ritualised part of earthly space, separated by water, a place where the souls reside’.

[...]

In the studies on Slavic eschatology, the Otherworld is sometimes located within a mythical pasture, which is also attributed an Indo-European genesis (Łuczyński 2012: 173). ‘Due to the undefined nature of its condition and the inability to distinguish the green colour, the pasture becomes a place of pulsating, invisible life, but at the same time represents a pre-cosmic void and land of the dead, in which the category of time is absent. The pasture, therefore, is a representation of a land that is no longer earthly, completely divine nor infernal. It is an Otherworld, a place between and at the border, through which it is possible to communicate with the sacred’ 

Imagining the Otherworld as a ‘divine pasture’ may also be reflected in the symbolic (in a structuralist sense) meaning of cattle and its attributes – fur and hair – in European folklore and prehistoric funerary practices it is a derivative of the ‘basic myth’. This leads us once again to considering the notion of funerary gifts and the frequent associations of spindle-whorls with the cultic and ritual role of animal fur and weaving (Kowalski 1988: 124; Kajkowski, Szczepanik 2014). These aspects are also closely related to the chthonic god Weles.

[wszechwieczna-cebula]

Wołos, Weles

[stupendousunknownstrawberry]

Zmiany idą w dobrym kierunku

Zmiany idą w dobrym kierunku

Marek Wołos, z ekspertem Izby Domów Maklerskich rozmawia Katarzyna Kucharczyk. źródło informacji: Parkiet Author:

[sciencespies]

A new chemical 'tree of the origins of life' reveals our possible molecular evolution

https://sciencespies.com/nature/a-new-chemical-tree-of-the-origins-of-life-reveals-our-possible-molecular-evolution/

A new chemical 'tree of the origins of life' reveals our possible molecular evolution

One of the greatest mysteries in our Universe is right here on our own doorstep. No, closer – it’s in every fibre of our being.

At least 3.7 billion years ago, a few simple molecules worked together to create something new. Then a few more. And, somehow, these snowballing combinations eventually produced the first very basic living organisms that would evolve and branch out to become all life on Earth.

We don’t know the order it happened in; heck, we don’t even know when or where it happened. But new research is showing us the possibilities.

With a specially developed software tool, scientists in Poland and South Korea have traced the potential synthesis routes from the simple precursor molecules (prebiotics) present on early Earth to the complex biomolecules that gave rise to the planet’s teeming life today.

“Although hundreds of organic reactions have been validated under consensus prebiotic conditions, we still have only a fragmentary understanding of how these individual steps combined into complete synthetic pathways to generate life’s building blocks,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

“We harnessed the power of computer-assisted organic synthesis to map the network of molecules that are synthesisable from basic prebiotic feedstocks.”

Illustration of the reaction tree. (Wołos et al., Science, 2020)

The software is called Allchemy, and the team developed it by encoding known prebiotic chemical reactions in a format that a machine can read. They included information about incompatible groups and conditions, and known reaction mechanisms under prebiotic conditions.

Six basic known prebiotic molecules that existed before life on Earth are fed into the program as a starting point – water, nitrogen, cyanide, ammonia, methane, and sulfur.

From there, the algorithm identifies possible successive reactions. These start with the original six molecules, and then iteratively progress, growing more and more complex. Each newly created molecule coan react with the products of all previous iterations in the chain, as well as the original six molecules.

Eventually, these chain reactions produce the building blocks of life, such as nucleic acids, lipids, and proteins like enzymes.

The team ran their software for several generations, and reproduced all the known pathways to prebiotic molecules.

Some prebiotic molecules, Allchemy identified, can form incredibly quickly – glycine, which our bodies use as a neurotransmitter, forms after just one reaction.

Urea, adenine (a component of DNA), butenedioic acid, and oxalic acid can form after just two reactions; and glyceraldehyde, isoguanine, aspartic acid, hypoxanthine, cytosine, phenylalanine, succinic acid, malic acid, glyoxylic acid and aldotetrose can form after three.

Within two hours, the software had produced 82 biotic molecules and 36,603 abiotic molecules, the researchers said.

In addition to the known pathways, the software identified several previously unknown synthesis routes to prebiotic molecules. These, the team tested by creating the molecules in a laboratory setting, according to the Allchemy recipe.

That would be an interesting enough finding on its own, but Allchemy was far from done. From the tree of life the software generated, the team identified three kinds of chemical emergence that are crucial to life.

Firstly, molecules created within the network can enable new kinds of chemical reactions, vastly expanding the number of potential products from a generation of molecules. Secondly, within a few generations, simple chemical systems emerge – including self-regenerating cycles. These were also verified in lab experiments.

And, finally, the network identified routes to surfactants. These molecules that spontaneously connect with each other to form enclosed bubbles. They form cell walls; without them, we wouldn’t have biological compartmentalisation as we know it, which is of crucial importance to the organisation of biomolecular systems.

The actual chemical pathways life took billions of years ago will likely never be known to us. But Allchemy shows that maybe it wasn’t as difficult as we might think.

And it could prove to be an extremely useful tool for exploring conditions that could give rise to life, not just on Earth, but possibly elsewhere.

“Taken together, the above analyses and synthetic examples lead us to suggest that computational reaction network algorithms are useful for identifying new synthetic routes to prebiotically relevant targets and indispensable for the discovery of prebiotic chemical systems that are otherwise challenging to discern,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

“Naturally, the prebiotic reaction networks should and will grow as distinct prebiotically plausible transformations are experimentally validated.”

Allchemy has been made freely available to the public. And the team’s research has been published in Science.

#Nature

[thecraftybear]

Mine was Veles, because back then I was absolutely in love with Slavic and Baltic mythology and Veles/Velinas/Wołos was my favourite Slavic deity.

i think a more interesting question than “when did you ‘join’ the internet” is “what was the first username you ever used”

my very first ever username (that i remember) was HunterKiller75 cause i thought starcraft was the coolest shit in elementary school & hydralisks were my fav unit, and 75 was my fav number

[surfingkaliyuga]

“Weles / Wołos” Piotr Wojciechowski 2009

[chopwkuchni]

Blumkołl i krowa (Danie inspirowane kuchnią turecką)

Blumkołl i krowa (Danie inspirowane kuchnią turecką)

Blumkołl1 i krowa to brzmi choby miano2 ôd jaki bojki3, ale sam to by trza pedzieć4, że ta krowa tak sie zapatrzōła na gornek ze blumkołlym, że do niego wleciała. Tyn miszōng je inspirowany kuchniōm tureckōm- niyrołz moje byzuchy5 sie wynołkwiōm6, jaki kraj, ze ftorego mōm co uwarzić, a joł sie potyn musza trołpić7 i wymyślać. Te wynołkwianie bōło richtich8 dobre.

Co potrza?

0,5 kg pomelanyj9woło…

[newoldschoolpoems-blog]

Rozdział VIII “Dziki Gon”

Jesienią, roku pańskiego 1845, szeptucha zaczęła podupadać na zdrowiu i wyprawa do Ujścia, była już ostatnią, którą razem z Michaliną odbyły. Ciało odmawiało jej posłuszeństwa, nie mogła chodzić i pracować, jedynie drobne zajęcia w domostwie swym i obejściu wykonywała.

Początkiem września, tegoż roku, podarowała babka dziewczęciu pewną pradawną księgę. Michaśka przez lat kilka uczyła się od szeptuchy pisma i czytania tak w języku polskim, jak i języku, którego nikt już poza nimi nie znał. Nie miała, więc ona problemu ze zrozumieniem zawartych tam nauk i zaklęć. Poleciła jej babka, aby manuskryptów tych nikomu nie ujawniała, jedynie w samotności je rozważając i w skupieniu, bowiem wiedza w nich zawarta to potężna moc, z którą należy obchodzić się ostrożnie i z wielkim szacunkiem. Studiowała, więc je nocami w odosobnieniu przez całą jesień i zimę. Zima ta, zaś była sroga i mroźna, obfitująca w śnieg i lód, to też Michalina zamieszkała w domu szeptuchy, by jej na ten trudny czas dopomagać. Sypiała na zapiecku, dbała o trzodę i wyżywienie, a babka odpłacała się jej swoją mądrością i zrozumieniem. Pradawne nauki zawarte w księdze i w babki opowieściach, dziewczę pojmowało szybko a rozważało w sercu i umyśle. Drobnej pomocy udzielały znachorkom także demony dobro czyniące, które zamieszkiwały komorę i strych chałupy. Jednym z nich był Domowik, którego latem tego roku, Michalina znalazła pod postacią młodego jeża, i którego otoczyła swoją opieką. Ten odpłacał się jej i babce całym swym dobrem, obdarzając je pomyślnością i spokojem. Nocą, zaś ów Domowik krzątał się po izbach, dbając o czystość i pożerając wszelakie robactwo. Przybierał on wówczas postać zgarbionego starca o wysokości jednego łokcia, z siwą brodą, podpierającego się na drewnianej laseczce.

Studiując owe manuskrypty, zatytułowane "Czarne Wedy", dziewczę poznawało wszystkich bogów i demony, które czcili przodkowie, prastare zwyczaje i obrzędy, zaklęcia magiczne i uzdrawiające, oraz receptury substancji leczniczych. Nie mogło się pomieścić Michaśce w głowie, jak wielka jest mądrość tych ksiąg i jak wiele przez nie zrozumieć można. Każdą, więc wolną chwilę poświęcała ona na naukę, tak czytając, jak i praktykując. Przyrządzała mazie i napary, proszki, nalewki i wonne kadzidła, wszystko tak, jak było opisane i jak jej szeptucha tłumaczyła.

Jednej nocy, w kilka dni po świętach bożonarodzeniowych, kiedy to już nastał nowy rok, młoda znachorka wczytywała się w kolejne wiersze zaklęć, korzystając z blasku miesiąca w pełni. Okno izby, w której zasiadała, wychodziło na skrawek lasu i na Morgi. Pola te bezkresne, pokryte były grubą pierzyną śniegową, co raz gładzoną wiatrem. Poświsty unosiły lodowe igiełki i miotały ich chmurami w księżycowym blasku i w świetle gwiazd, tak że migotały one niczym diamentowy pył. Stagnację tą i ciszę przerwał w momencie głośny wrzask, dobiegający gdzieś z czeluści ciemnego lasu. Krzyk ów kobiecy niósł się echem pomiędzy sosnowymi pniami i wraz z trzaskiem konarów, zbliżał się do chałupy. Zerwała się Michalina ze szlufanka, na którym zasiadała i z wielkim przelęknieniem wyglądała za okno. Kolejne drzewa kołysały się, poruszane wielką siłą, aż nagle z ostatniej, pochylonej nad polami, a rosnącej na skraju lasu, sosny zeskoczyła osobliwa postać. Wysoka i smukła, choć zgarbiona, w zimnym świetle ukazywała kościste ciało pokryte gęstym włosiem, potargane kłaczyska i piersi obwisłe. Długie swe ręce unosiła nad łeb, biegnąc ile sił w nogach. Przystanęła na moment zziajana i spoglądnąwszy na stojące w oknie dziewczę, raz jeszcze wydała z siebie okrzyk przerażenia. Dostrzec było można w wyrazie jej twarzy i w oczach wypisany lęk i rozpacz, jakby pierzchała przed śmiercią wcieloną. Zdumiona Michaśka wybiegła z chałupy, bowiem w postaci owej rozpoznała Mamunę i zobaczyć ją pragnęła z bliższa. Obiegnąwszy domostwo dokoła, dziewczę zamarło w osłupieniu, gdyż oczom jego ukazała się scena mistyczna i przerażająca.

Czerń lasu rozdarł na dwoje silny pęd wiatru, wzbijając zewsząd śniegi i formując z nich szeroki wir. Trąba ta wyrywała drzewa, rozrzucając je wokół, a z powstałego między nimi korytarza poczęła nagle wybiegać wszelka zwierzyna łowna: sarny i jelenie, dziki, zające i ptactwa wszelakiego stada, a nawet lisy i wilcza wataha na końcu. Rozbiegały się one po polach we wszystkie strony i w wielkim popłochu. Po chwili Michalina usłyszała donośny ryk, napawający jej serce strachem, a zaraz po nim dęcie w róg. I nad Morgami pojawiły się stada Strzyg krążące w poszukiwaniu ofiar, a spod śniegu wyłonił się wielki Żmij. Uniósł on swój łeb i wydał pisk przenikliwy tak, że aż ziemia zadrżała. Dźwięk jego głosu zwiastował nadejście Dzikich Łowów. Czytała młoda znachorka o tym wydarzeniu w owej księdze prastarej i wiedziała, że przynosi ono za sobą wojny i cierpienia, oraz niechybną śmierć wielkiej liczby ludności.

I po raz wtóry dobył się z lasu srogi ryk, a za nim dęcie w róg. Spomiędzy powalonych drzew wybiegać zaczęły Czarty rogate, z wielką chciwością w oczach poszukując krwi świeżej, jakby były w amoku. Naraz pojaśniał bór sosnowy od blasku niewiadomego i wybiegł z niego Chors- człowiek w poły, a na wpół wilk, który miał za zadanie strzec duchów po świecie się tułających. I blask ów się zbliżał do granicy lasu tak, że widać już było, że bije on od nawii, które do Zaświatów nie trafiły, jeno przez swe złe czyny za pokutę mają wędrówkę po świecie żywych. Pustka i pragnienie je ogarniające sprawiają, iż pochłaniają one dusze ludzkie, albowiem jedynie tak żądze swe ugasić mogą.

I raz trzeci, teraz już wyraźnie, usłyszała Michalina ryk demoniczny, a za nim głos rogu. Serce jej z piersi się wyrywało, a mimo mroźnego wiatru, cała zlana była rzęsistym potem. Bór rozbrzmiał okrzykami i gwizdami. Przybliżały się one do pól, a wraz z nimi przybliżało się światło pochodni i dostrzec się dało zarysy pierwszych postaci na żer wyruszających. Ujrzała znachorka źródło owego ryku, który po trzykroć wcześniej słyszała. Był nim potężny Bies, który w tej chwili wybiegł na spowite śniegiem pola. Budową swą przypominał on tura, albo rosłego byka, czy też żubra, tylko zamiast racic miał łapy niczym u niedźwiedzia, zakończone długimi szponami i pokryte twardą łuską. Cielsko jego potężne, zgarbione wieńczył potworny gadzi łeb. Z szerokiego pyska wystawały duże kły i sączyła się szkarłatna ślina, nozdrza buchały parą, a troje wyłupiastych, przekrwionych oczu, spozierało z morderczą pasją na wszystko dokoła. Ze sklepienia owego łba biesowego wyrastały trzy pary rogów jelenich, tworzących strzelistą koronę. A na grzbiecie tej bestii zasiadał Wołos- bóg Wyraju. Odziany w skóry dzielny wój, dzierżył w ręku miecz szczerozłoty z rękojeścią wysadzaną bursztynem, a przez ramię przerzucony miał łuk kościany, z cięciwą ze smoczego ogona i przy boku diamentowe strzały. Głowę jego zdobił diadem z bawolich rogów, przeplatany srebrnym drutem i kamieniami szlachetnymi inkrustowany.

Za Wołosem, na rumakach śnieżnobiałych wyjechali z boru dwaj jego bracia- Swarożyc i Perun, a po nich wyłonił się spomiędzy sosen, ich ojciec- Swaróg. Podążał on przez Morgi, niesiony w lektyce przez nawie. Postać jego jaśniała zimnym blaskiem, głowę miał nakrytą smoczą czaszką posrebrzaną i w smoczą skórę był odziany. W ręku dzierżył srebrny topór, którym miotając, ciskał pioruny.

Michalina tak wielce poruszona była owym widokiem, że aż upadła na kolana i zamarła w bezruchu. Orszak ów krwawy gnał przez pola, niesiony wiatrem a zabierał ze sobą kolejne dusze, które ulatywały za nim jako błękitne płomienie. I ponownie wzmógł się wicher, wzbił śniegi w powietrze i osłonił boskie łowy przed niepowołanym wzrokiem. Zerwało się dziewczę z klęczek i biec poczęło w głąb zamieci, smagane silnymi podmuchami i ranione lodowymi igiełkami. Kiedy znalazła się znachorka na pograniczu wiru, dostrzegła, że jej ciało zaczyna błękitnieć, a z owego wypalonego piorunem znamienia, które na prawej swej ręce miała, dobywają się płomienie. Poczuła jakby dusza z niej ulatywała, jakby żywot kończyła. Naraz wybiegł z zamieci Chors i pchnął ją z całych sił, tak że przeleciawszy w powietrzu, uderzyła o ścianę chałupy. Dobiegł do niej, uniósł z ziemi i wyrzekł: - Nie twój czas, o Pani. Niechaj Cię brak rozwagi, życia nie pozbawi, albowiem Tyś nam pisana za przewodniczkę. Dzisiaj nie twój czas.- to powiedziawszy, zbiegł w stronę burzy i zniknął w śnieżnych tumanach.

Z komina chałupy wylazł Domowik i ześlizgnąwszy się po strzesze, zeskoczył na dół. - Wszystko już dobrze? Boli? Jak boli to przestanie, bo ja się zaopiekuję. Chodź, Pani, to nie twój czas. On nadejdzie, ale nie teraz. Nieroztropnie uczyniłaś, to nie twój czas. Nie twój czas.- mamrocząc z cicha pod nosem, pochwycił Michalinę za dłoń i poprowadził do izby, gdzie opatrzył jej rany tak ciała jak i duszy.

Młoda znachorka przez dni kolejne ciężko chorowała. Miotała się w majakach i gorączce, zlewał ją pot lodowaty, budziła się z krzykiem i zasypiała, gasnąc w oczach. Nie miał się nią kto zająć, bowiem babka nie była na siłach, jeno ów Domowik dopomagał jej, podając przez szeptuchę nakazane lekarstwa. Dopiero po trzech dniach od tego zajścia, Michaśka ocknęła się z amoku, wspomagana modlitwami swej nauczycielki. Do sił powracała przez tygodnie następne, jednak długo jeszcze pamięć o Dzikim Gonie w sercu zachowała, wiedząc jak straszliwe cierpienia przynieść on może.