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Heathen Altar 'Zine


Vladyka

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Couldn't find the place for it. If it is forbidden or whatever just delete it. I would like to promote here my 'zine - Heathen Altar. Although I like many musical styles, I focus here mainly on Black/Pagan/Folk/Atmospheric music (yes, music, even if most of that music is metal). From time to time I also write something about european paganism and history. Oh, and there will be for sure limited paper edition - but I can't say when I am going to release it. Interviews I have done lately: The Flight of Sleipnir (USA) Sear Bliss (Hungary) Skyforger (Latvia) Caladan Brood (USA) Radogost (Poland) I am currently waiting for the answers from: Summoning (Austria), Kroda (Ukraine), Belenos (France), Waylander (Northern Ireland) and Moss of Moonlight (USA). From time to time I will be posting here what's new on HA'Z (reviews, interviews and articles). Cheers! Vladyka / Heathen Altar 'Zine Heathen Altar 'Zine

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It's cool man, I'm just a little jaded since in the two years I've been a member here I can count on one hand the number of people who came here to promote and contributed in other ways as well whilst I've lost count of the number who have come through solely to talk about whatever they had going on.

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In this week: Interview with legendary Summoning. Review of Din Brad's "Dor" BTW - usually I try to post three things a week, and I was suposed to write one additional review today. But I am so hangovered that I think I'm not gonna make it, not mention to write enything :P Yet still the interview is quite long, so there is really something to read!

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I'm planning to put a Slavic pagan character in this story I'm writing - could you perhaps tell me if there's any important philosophy or set of commandments in Slavic paganism? All I could find on Wikipedia were a group of political organizations that occasionally celebrate feasts.

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Well, germanic people and slavic people shared quite similar values. So you can use nine noble virtues as a base for you characters' inner codex. And about philosophy - it was more or less "you should become better and better in what's your doing". So if you were a warrior -you had to be as brave and strong as it was possible. If you were a trader you had to be canny. Et cetera. Hmm, speaking about more subtle things all Slavs are very often described as very impulsive; they easily got angry, and also very quickly they were forgiving small insults. In Russia there was also a tradition called stenka na stenku - it was a kind of feast-fighting. Or they could love a certain girl in one moment, and in another there could love another. And speaking of women - the Slavs were kinda randy. It was totally OK when a girl went to a bad with a guy beloved by her. Other thing is that Slavs were very rigorous when it comes to oaths. So for example if you married a girl (and sweared her love before gods), and than you cheated her with another women you got punished by a community in this way: the guy was being taken to the woods (or on the bridge; anyway it was done on the road). He was undressed, and his balls were nailed into a tree or a bridge. He was left alone, with just a knife in his hand. So he could endure the shame behind a passing people, cut his genitales off or do a most honorable thing in that situation and kill himself. Generally speaking Slavs were affraid of swearing something on gods, especially on a god of magic and underworld (but also... oath) Veles. It was believed that if you break an oath on Veles you will suffer a terrible fate in this life, and a damnation in another life. It should be an interesting addition into your story. Also slavic people believed in (propably) reincarnation within a kin as well as outside the kin and destiny. A child's fate was believed to be determined by Rodzanicas, the daughters of a god Rod (something like Norns or Moiras). Every Slav had a female guardian-spirit called Dola (litteraly "fate), similar to the guardian angels in christianity. Well, I've written it in a bit chaotic way. But I think it should be useful, especially that I wanted to show you those more interesting sides of slavic paganism. There are many more though, so if you want to know something more specific just ask. This subject is really vast.

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Well' date=' germanic people and slavic people shared quite similar values. So you can use nine noble virtues as a base for you characters' inner codex. And about philosophy - it was more or less "you should become better and better in what's your doing". So if you were a warrior -you had to be as brave and strong as it was possible. If you were a trader you had to be canny. Et cetera. Hmm, speaking about more subtle things all Slavs are very often described as very impulsive; they easily got angry, and also very quickly they were forgiving small insults. In Russia there was also a tradition called stenka na stenku - it was a kind of feast-fighting. Or they could love a certain girl in one moment, and in another there could love another. And speaking of women - the Slavs were kinda randy. It was totally OK when a girl went to a bad with a guy beloved by her. Other thing is that Slavs were very rigorous when it comes to oaths. So for example if you married a girl (and sweared her love before gods), and than you cheated her with another women you got punished by a community in this way: the guy was being taken to the woods (or on the bridge; anyway it was done on the road). He was undressed, and his balls were nailed into a tree or a bridge. He was left alone, with just a knife in his hand. So he could endure the shame behind a passing people, cut his genitales off or do a most honorable thing in that situation and kill himself. Generally speaking Slavs were affraid of swearing something on gods, especially on a god of magic and underworld (but also... oath) Veles. It was believed that if you break an oath on Veles you will suffer a terrible fate in this life, and a damnation in another life. It should be an interesting addition into your story.
This is great, exactly what I'm looking for. He's a journalist, so I suppose his goal would be to become better at extracting the truth from people and proclaiming it? Just a couple of questions about sexuality; if a marriage oath was made with a woman who'd had premarital sex with a number of partners (including married men) - would it be necessary to...well, for lack of a better word, 'sanctify' the marriage before Veles by making some kind of sacrifices on her behalf? Also, would there be any kind of purification necessary for a Slavic pagan man who married a woman of a different faith tradition who did not worship any of the entities in the Slavic pantheon? And finally, is there an official term for Slavic paganism? I've heard Perunism before but I know that really only applies to one entity.
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Well, the women were also punished if they cheated their husbands. I am not sure in what way, but propably they were sentenced to death or for some dishonouring stuff (similar to men). Hmm, but if nobody knew about it I suppose that they could make some sacrifices to Veles to apologies for breaking the oath. Also a sex with a married man, even if a girl was free, was punished too (but propably not so hard for her as for him). Polytheistic religions are very tolerant towards other religions (well, usually). So it was OK if you made sacrifices for other than yours gods, as far as you were respecting your own tribal deities. Moreover, it was in good taste to for example participate in sacrifices towards other gods if you were a guest in, let's say, norse home. So as you might already guess - "mixed" marriage mentioned by you would be OK. It was nothing strange, for example in Russia, when a Varangians became an important part of the society, such merriages were quite normal. And by the way - very often pagans associated their own gods with foregin ones. So for example Thor was seen by Slavs as some equivalent of Perun. Same was in ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt etc. Haha, I've never heard about Perunism, but I guess that it is an analogy for Odinism. In fact, there is no term used by people from Middle Ages for their religion. For them there were their "customs" or "tradition", because rituals were the most important part of their religion. Believing in gods was somethin like on the 2nd, or maybe even 3rd place. But modern neopagans call their religion native (slavic) faith, so you can use a russian term Rodnovera. In every slavic language there is a different term, e.g. in polish it is Rodzima Wiara. But it all means the same.

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Good! The man I'm talking about marries a former escort who had a number of clients, so it sounds like he could still make some sacrifices on her part to 'atone' for her liasons with married men. Again, thanks a lot, this is very helpful.

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