PAGAN
By Gloria Kivytaitė O’Brien
As the Crusades in the
Raids, looting, slave-taking and
burning ensued for the next few centuries. This resulted in the eventual
extinction of the Old Prussians, and the subjugation, colonization and
absorption, by the Teutonic Knights (“Brothers of the Sword”), of
the area known as
The ostensible reason, or purpose,
for these wars was a desire to rid the world of “the defilement of
paganism”, and to convert
Piracy and highway robbery occurred
everywhere in the
So let us try, from our great
distance of time, culture and geography, to examine the beliefs and religious
practices of the pagan Lithuanians. What is known about their faith and
customs? Can we guess what sort of influence their gods had on their behavior,
at home and in regard to the world around them? How many gods did they honor,
and were some more important than others?
First and foremost, they honored Dievas,
the supreme god, sometimes called Praamžius, who created the
universe, and even some other gods. Ponas Dievas was so exalted an almighty
being as to be regarded with great respect, but not much affection and little
familiarity. According to Maciej Stryjkowski, a Polish-Lithuanian
historian (1547-1593), people would sacrifice white cocks to the supreme
deity by beating them and dividing them into three parts, the first to be eaten
by peasants, the second by druids or priests, and the third part to be burned.
Second in order of importance stood Perkūnas,
god of thunder, also sometimes called Dundulis. Perkūnas was
regarded as the most powerful of the gods. His presence was imagined and felt
in every occurrence; his influence was ubiquitous, and his main shrine was in
the heart of
Laima was the goddess of
fortune. She governed luck, marriage and childbirth, and was petitioned
by serious matrons and their daughters, praying for her help in the
all-important matter of a successful birth, by ordinary individuals praying for
a happy and lucky life, as well as by gamblers hoping for a winning. She was
connected with the Fates, Deivės Valdytojos, sisters who made the garments of
people’s lives: Verpančioji (thread-spinner), Metančioji (threw the rim of
life), Audėja (weaver), Gadintoja (thread-breaker), Sergėtoja (scolder of Gadintoja),
Nukirpėja (who cut the cloth of life), and Išskalbėja (the laundress).
Gabija, also called Dalia, was the goddess of fire and
guardian of the home’s hearth, to whom the Lithuanian housewife spoke a
prayer as she rekindled the fire each morning, and “put it to bed”
overnight. In Gabija’s honor the sacred fire was tended by the Vaidilutės.
These were virgin priestesses, comparable to Ancient Rome’s Vestal
Virgins, who swore to remain untouched throughout their lives, and maintain the
eternal flame. A terrible fate awaited any one of them who broke her vow: Death
by drowning, sewn up in a sack with a
Teliavelis was a hero, the powerful smith who made the sun, and
threw it into the sky. He was honored by smiths and craftsmen.
Žemyna (Mother Earth, Žemelė) was the
goddess personifying the fertile earth, honored by those cultivating the soil.
Called Žemininkas
in the male aspect, this deity was honored by the sacrifice of black hens, and
by allowing grass snakes to occupy a corner of the home, and feeding them milk.
House animals were protected by Sutvaras, and herds by Ganiklis,
while Javinė
and Jievaras
were household spirits who protected grain during growth, harvest, and while
stored in barns.
Another guardian of the home was Dimstipatis,
who protected the home from fire. Once each year, the family would hold a
feast, and sacrifice two black hens, which they consumed, and all the remains -
bones, soap dishwater and dishrag - would be thrown into the fire and burned.
Housewives, in honoring Dimstipatis, would sacrifice a suckling piglet,
slaughtered by the eldest female, and the meat consumed.
The goddess Krūminė
was honored as the inventor of agriculture, and protected the new growing crop.
Krūminė can be compared to the Greek goddess Demeter. Every aspect of
agriculture was ruled by ancient custom that prescribed homage to the spirits
of the earth.
Spirits of the fields and meadows, Laukų Dvasios,
were seen in everything that moved the crops in the fields, and were named
after various animals according to their characteristics. Among them were Kiškis
(hare), Meška
(bear), Lapė
(fox), Katinas
(to
Kupolė was the spirit of springtime vegetation and
flowers, whose festival, Kupolinės, also known as Rasos,
(Rasa - Dew) came to be associated with Joninės, in honor of John the
Baptist.
Dvynai Ašvieniai - the twin white stallions who pulled the
cart of the Sun through the heavens, and symbolized the annual round of farming
and all its duties. Their feast day on April 23 has grown into the Feast of St. George -
Jurginės - when horses are brought out of the barns, and
taken to the river to be bathed. Their stalls and troughs are blessed with the
blood of a black rooster, and they must not be required to do any work that
day.
Medeina
was the goddess of hunting and forests, certainly important to almost everyone
in the olden days, but now she is protecting forest wardens and watching the
doings of the privileged elite and foreign nobility who travel to
Bubilas and Austėja were male and female aspects of the
God of beekeeping. Bitininkystė - beekeeping - has always been, and still
is, very important to the Lithuanian kaima. The
Raugo Žemėpatis, Rūgutis
or Raugupatis
was the deity of sourdough, leaven and fermentation. He governed the baking of
bread and the brewing of beer, as well as wine and other similar products.
People would sacrifice the first swallow of fresh beer, and the first loaf of
bread.
Lakes and rivers were protected by
spirits named Ežerinis and Upinis, who were invoked by
fishermen and boatmen, and by those walking across a frozen river in
Winter. Bangputyswas
the fishermen’s fierce god of seas and storms, whose boat had a golden
anchor, and who angrily blew away unwary sailors when he had a mind to
stir up the oceans.
Velnias was the devil himself. The early Lithuanians were wary
of the devil, but they didn’t really fear him. As a matter of fact, they
held the devil up to scorn and ridicule, as a determined trouble-maker who
often found himself a victim of his own machinations. People had to be careful,
that they should not become involved in the devil’s doings, that they
shouldn’t be lead astray and find themselves in the demon’s
clutches, but the devil could easily be outsmarted by a shrewd Lithuanian
person. The Devil’s Museum, lo
Giltinė was the Grim Reaper, the goddess of death, wearing
raggedy grave clothes or a long white sheet and carrying a big sickle, with her
bare skull grinning at the world. She was accompanied by her sacral bird, the
owl, and proclaimed disaster everywhere she went. She had a poisonous tongue,
collecting poison from bodies of the dead in graveyards, and if she licked a
person’s face, they would die instantly. She was familiar with the
goddesses of Black Death, Maro Deivės, who were said to build fires on the
hills, spreading the black death wherever the smoke would reach.
Pykuolis was the master of the underworld. The Lithuanian
historian Teodoras Narbutas, in 1841, told the story of Pykuolis, who kidnapped
Nijolė,
the daughter of Krūminė, and took her with him to his home in
Pragaras. This legend is comparable to the Ancient Greeks’ myth of
Hades and Persephone.
Lithuanians also looked to the sky
for guidance, and honored a wide group of heavenly bodies including Mėnulis
- the Moon, Saulė
- the Sun, and all the rest of the stars - Žvaigždės.
Aušrinė
was the morning star, who ushered in the dawn (Aušra) and Vakarinė,
the evening star, who prepared a bed for Saulė‘s nightly rest.
The Milky Way, as we call it, was known by early Lithuanians as Pauksčių Takas
- the Way of the Birds. The positions of various stars and events of the
celestial calendar had influence on a deeply agrarian society. Farmers accepted
guidance from auguries that they received from priestly interpreters regarding
the best days and times to turn the soil, to sow, to water, weed and harvest
their precious crops. Wedding days and other family festivals were also
determined by the celestial calendar.
Vejopatis (Lord of the
Wind) or Vejas
(Wind) was honored by the Lithuanians and their nearest cousins, the Prussians.
He was the father of the winds, and depicted as wrathful, with a beard, wings,
and two faces, with a fish in his left hand, a dish in the right, and a rooster
on his head. His sons were Rytys, Pietys, Šiaurys
and Vakaris
- gods of eastern, southern, northern and western winds. Dausos or
Dangus
was heaven on a high mountain between two rivers, where golden apple trees
grew, and it was always daylight. Vejopatis was the ruler of Dausos, and
the gatekeeper, along with Auštaras, the northeast wind. Auštaras stood
at the gates and welcomed good souls, while Vejopatis blew bad souls away and
into oblivion.
Other Spirits were: Laumės - feminine fairies or pixies; Nykštukai
- gnomes; Vėlės
- spirits of the dead; Baubas - the Lithuanian
boogeyman; Ragana
- a witch; Žiburinis
- forest spirit - a phosphorescent skeleton; Milda - goddess of love; Aitvarai
- mischievous spirits who lodge in a house and refuse to leave, causing both
good and bad luck for the inhabitants; Kovas - the god of war;
Rasa
- Kupolė’s daughter, goddess of summer’s greens and flowers.
Besides these few, there were several score other minor gods, spirits and
mythical heroes in the Lithuanian pantheon.
It should be obvious that medieval
Lithuanians paid homage to a great many forces that controlled their daily
lives and agricultural activities. But it doesn‘t seem that they would
have spent much of their time in carrying out the kind of barbarisms imputed to
them by Christian Europe.
Mindaugas accepted Baptism with his
family and retinue in 1251, in an attempt to stop the attacks by the Germanic
orders, but the rest of
Pagan Lithuania is not quite dead,
however. It lives in Christian traditions that were adaptations of ancient
pagan festivals, such as Vėlinės, Užgavėnės, and
Rasos, or Joninės. And a new version of the ancient pagan religion is
alive and well in Lithuania and elsewhere.
Romuva is a modern
religious community espousing Baltic nationalism and revival of regard for the
beautiful ancient mythology of Lithuania and the other Baltic countries.
Adherents celebrate traditional festivals and art forms, gather information on
folklore and traditional music, and practice ecological responsibility.
This faith supports the practice of
ancestor veneration and affirms the sacredness of all nature. They gather
before a stone altar with a ritual fire which they may approach after washing
hands and face, singing dainas or hymns, then food, drink or flowers are
offered to the flame. Participants may offer their own contributions, and all
believe their offerings are carried to the gods and ancestors with the smoke
and sparks of the flame.
Romuva is led in Lithuania by its
Seniunas, Jonas Trinkunas, former director of Division of Ethnic Culture of the
Ministry of Culture and Edu
That I may love and respect my mother, father and old people; that I may
protect their graves from rending and destruction; that I may plant oaks,
junipers, wormwoods and silverweed for their rest in cemeteries. Those who do
not love and respect their forebears will await hardship in their old age or
will not grow old at all.
That my hands may never become bloody from human blood. That the blood of
animals, fish or birds may not soil my hands, if I might kill them satiated and
not hungry. Those who today kill animals with delight will tomorrow drink human
blood. The more hunters live in Lithuania, the further fortune and a happy life
escapes us.
That I may not fell a single tree without holy need; that I may not step on a
blooming field; that I may always plant trees.
That I may love and respect Bread. If a crumb should accidentally fall, I will
lift it, kiss it and apologize. If we all respect bread, there will be no
starvation or hardship.
That I may never hurt anyone; that I may always give the correct change; that I
may not mistakenly steal even the smallest coin. The Gods punish for offenses.
That I may not denigrate foreign beliefs and may not poke fun at my own faith.
The Gods look with grace upon those who plant trees along roads, in homesteads,
at holy places, at crossroads, and by houses. If you wed, plant a wedding tree.
If a child is born, plant a tree. If someone beloved dies, plant a tree for the
Vėlė (shade of the deceased). At all holidays, during all important
events, visit trees. Prayers will attain holiness through trees of thanks. So
may it be!
Sources:
Lietuvių Folkloro Chrestomatija - B. Kerbelytė & B.
Stundžienė
Of Gods & Holidays - The Baltic Heritage - Ed. by Jonas Trinkunas
Encyclopedia Lituanica
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_mythology
http://www.geocities.com/athens/oracle/2810/romuvawhatis.html
© English
Translation - Gloria O’Brien - 2008
Printed in Lithuanian Heritage May/June 2008