What we actually know
The pre-Christian Slavs didn’t write down their myths. What survives comes from outsiders and later Christian writers: a Byzantine historian of the sixth century, German chroniclers describing the Baltic Slavs, and the Kyivan Primary Chronicle, compiled in the early twelfth century. Folklore collected in the nineteenth century fills some gaps, and archaeology adds sanctuaries and carved idols.
Much of what you’ll find online about “Slavic paganism”, including neat lists of gods with matching days, colors and crystals, is modern reconstruction. Some of it is thoughtful; some is invented. On this page we stick to the figures that historians widely accept and flag the rest.
The gods
- Perun, the thunder god, is the best attested. The Primary Chronicle names him first among the idols Prince Volodymyr (Vladimir) of Kyiv set up on a hill in 980, with a silver head and a golden mustache. He ruled the sky, the oak and the warrior’s oath.
- Veles (or Volos) was the god of cattle, wealth and the underworld, and later scholars see him as Perun’s great opponent: thunder striking the serpent hiding in the roots of the world tree. That “divine battle” is a reconstruction by twentieth-century linguists, convincing to many but not proven.
- Mokosh, the only goddess on Volodymyr’s list, was linked with spinning, women’s work, water and moist earth. Her memory lingered in folk taboos against spinning on certain days.
- Dazhbog (the giving god) and Khors were sun-related deities; Stribog is often linked with wind, though the evidence is thin. Svarog, a heavenly smith and father of Dazhbog in one medieval text, appears mainly in a single gloss.
- Among the Baltic Slavs, Svetovit was worshiped in a great temple at Arkona on the island of Rügen until the Danes destroyed it in 1168. A Danish chronicler describes his four-faced statue and the horn of mead used to read the next year’s harvest.
The wheel of the Slavic year
The old calendar followed the sun and the farming year, and many of its feasts survived by attaching themselves to Christian holidays:
- Koliada, around the winter solstice, merged with Christmas. Carolers in animal masks, especially a goat, went from house to house singing for treats, and the nights until Epiphany were full of fortune-telling.
- Maslenitsa in the East and Carnival in the West sent off winter with feasting and pancakes before Lent.
- Marzanna (Morana), a straw figure of winter and death, was carried out of the village around the spring equinox and drowned or burned. Polish schoolchildren still do this on the first day of spring, March 21.
- Kupala, at midsummer, brought bonfires, floating wreaths and the search for the fern flower. Read more on our Kupala Night page.
- Harvest festivals, called dożynki in Poland and obzhynky in Ukraine, closed the summer with a wreath woven from the last sheaf of grain.
- Dziady, in autumn, welcomed the ancestors home. See our page on Dziady.
Divination through the year
Fortune-telling followed this wheel. The twelve nights of Christmas were the great season for winter divinations; Kupala Night was for love and herbs; St. Andrew’s Eve in late November became the favorite night for wax pouring, shoe divination and names under the pillow. Each feast stood at a turning point of the year, when people felt the future was a little easier to glimpse.
If you keep your own seasonal practice, you can follow the same rhythm: a reflection at the solstices, a fresh start in spring, gratitude at harvest, remembrance in autumn. Our full moon calendar adds the monthly beat.
Rodnovery today
Since the late twentieth century, a modern revival called Rodnovery (from rod, meaning kin or ancestry) has built new rituals around the old gods in Poland, Ukraine, Russia and beyond. Like most modern pagan movements, it combines historical sources with new creation. Some groups are open and peaceful; a few have been criticized for nationalist views. If you explore it, read widely and choose your sources with care.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the main Slavic gods?
The best-attested are Perun, god of thunder; Veles, god of cattle, wealth and the underworld; and Mokosh, a goddess of spinning and moist earth. Dazhbog, Khors, Stribog and Simargl appear on the list of idols in the Primary Chronicle, and Svetovit was worshiped by the Baltic Slavs.
Is there a Slavic wheel of the year?
Not as a fixed eight-point wheel like in modern Wicca. The Slavs followed the solar and farming year with feasts such as Koliada, the drowning of Marzanna, Kupala, harvest and Dziady, many of which merged with Christian holidays.
Who was Marzanna?
A figure of winter and death in Slavic folk custom. A straw effigy of Marzanna is drowned or burned around the first day of spring to send winter away, a custom still practiced by Polish schoolchildren.
How much of Slavic mythology is reconstructed?
A great deal. The pagan Slavs left no written myths, so scholars rely on chronicles, folklore and archaeology. Lists that assign each god a day, color or crystal are modern inventions.