The spread of different versions of Slavic neopaganism in recent years has made quite popular such a character of Slavic mythology as a god named Rod. We will talk about who this is and what role God Rod belongs to the Slavs in this article.
The essence of the genus
As you know, in pre-Christian times, the Slavs were polytheists, that is, they worshiped many gods. Together, they make up the pantheon, which within itself has a certain structure and hierarchy. God Rod is one who stands at the very top of this hierarchy. In a sense, he even surpasses her, standing behind her, since in itself a number of gods and goddesses are only manifestations of the Sort. In other words, this is the progenitor god, the source of all things, the origin.
On the rule of the Kin
It is sometimes said that the god Rod is the supreme god among the Slavic peoples. This is not entirely true. The supreme among others is Perun. Sometimes this place is also assimilated to Svarog, the father of Perun. But whoever is higher among the rest, his supremacy emphasizes his difference from other gods. Therefore, Svarog is not Perun, and Perun is not Veles, and so on. The race is that deity which overcomes all differentiations in itself. In other words, the Russian god Rod is a collective image, a personification of the fullness of everything. All other gods, as well as the whole world, are only particular manifestations of the Sort. Therefore, he is not the supreme god, but a god who is the source of divinity, the source of all things - he is above any hierarchy. Conventionally, we can call him the supreme supreme god, emphasizing his independence from the principle of hierarchy and superiority over it.
Description of the Genus in Modern Neopaganism
Theological research of modern neo-pagans of Slavic exodus usually comes down to the assertion that Rod is the most ancient god. The race is the creator and creator of the world, which makes it related to the image of the Creator in Orthodox Christianity. However, the pagans themselves, like Christians, tend to fiercely deny this identity. The God clan among the Slavs was also considered the ancestor of the first generation of deities, called gods-fathers. He is the cause of all causes, the founder of the universe, the primary creative force, first thought and the sources of everything. Genus is infinite and transcends the concepts of time and space. Pagans, speaking of Rod, also recall a certain world egg - a symbol of the primary world, common to many cultures.
It is believed that before the manifestation in the act of creation, Rod was in a kind of world egg that exceeded the limits of the material world. This egg is a symbol of the nascent world hatched by divine power. When an egg breaks, a world arises from it - heaven and earth. It is also believed that there is no being outside the Genus, as well as nonexistence. In other words, God Rod is omnipresent and timeless. And all that can be conceived is in it. And there is nothing to be superior or separated from him.
Light and darkness, good and evil
Since the God Rod is a god in whom everything abides, he surpasses in its qualities such concepts as good and evil. Accordingly, one cannot speak literally about his moral qualities, since all ethical categories are only human concepts and cannot be projected onto a deity. Thus, it cannot be said that Rod is good or evil. He is superior to both.
Gender and birth
Neopagans insist that on behalf of the god Rod the verb "to give birth" occurred. That is, birth is an act of assimilation to a given God, complicity in his creative act of creation. However, what was actually primary - the name of God or a word meaning a natural act of reproduction is not known for certain. Therefore, the affirmation of adherents of paganism can be taken only on faith.
Rod in mythology
The image of the Kin represents him as the one who directly created this world as we know it. Earth and sky, stars, the sun and the moon, mountains, plains, ponds, plants and animals - all this is the work of Rod. And all this in its entirety is God Rod himself. He divided the universe into three parts - right, reality and nav - three fundamental categories of pagan Slavic cosmology. Appears in this system is called the world in which people live. That is, this is the world that we see outside the window, the world of matter. Really, this is the upper world, the world in which the gods live - the children of the Family. This is a world of the triumph of truth and justice, the personification of all the best and good. As for Navi, this is the lower world. The Navis are inhabited by the dead. Some myths, or rather attempts at their modern interpretation, report that in Navi there is a kingdom of darkness - the so-called Pekelnoy kingdom.
The image of the kind god in Slavic mythology is also closely connected with the image of the world tree, the role of which in the Slavs is played by oak. His crown goes back to the right, the roots go back to the Navi, and the trunk, accordingly, represents the middle world, that is, reality.
Myths describe how Lada appeared from the breath of the god Rod, the goddess of harmony, beauty, love and wisdom. Lada in the embodiment of the owl played the role of the messenger of the Sort and the forerunner of his will to people and all living things. In addition, according to one version of myths, during the creation of the world by Rod, the deities Share and Nedol were created. They are called great-gods and their role was to weave together with Makosh the threads of fate that determine the course of the history of people and gods. However, other myths suggest that these characters were born much later.
When the world was created, Rod saw that it was beautiful, but chaotic. There was no order in it; there was no one who could control it, cultivate and store it. Therefore, the next step of Rod was the creation of Svarog. The latter represents the great god of the Slavs, the blacksmith god. As a craftsman, Svarog chained chains with which all parts of the universe were connected. Thanks to this, order was brought in space and the world became structured. Thus, Rod eliminated from affairs and plunged into rest, and Svarog continued his work of creation, and then - management.
Often, together with the Rhode, so-called women in labor are also mentioned - divine essences in the feminine hypostasis. Some believe that they mean the goddess Lada and Lelya. Others insist that at least one of these women in labor is the goddess Alive.