Slavic, Wheel of The Year

Slavic - Wheel of The Year

Slavic mythology tells of a persisting conflict involving Perun, god of thunder and lightning,
and Veles, the black god and horned god of the underworld.

Enmity between the two is initiated by Veles' annual ascent up the world tree in the form
of a huge serpent and his ultimate theft of Perun's divine cattle from the heavenly domain.

Perun retaliates to this challenge of the divine order by pursuing Veles,
attacking with his lightning bolts from the sky.

Veles taunts Perun and flees, transforming himself into various animals and hiding behind trees,
houses, even people.

(Lightning bolts striking down trees or homes were explained as results of this.)


In the end Perun overcomes and defeats Veles,
returning him to his place in the realm of the dead.

Thus the order of the world is maintained.^[41][42][43]

The idea that storms and thunder are actually divine battle is pivotal to the changing of the seasons.

Dry periods are identified as chaotic results of Veles' thievery.

This duality and conflict represents an opposition of the natural principles of earth, water, substance, and chaos (Veles) and of heaven, fire, spirit, order (Perun), not a clash of good and evil.

The cosmic battle between the two also echoes the ancient Indo-European narative of a fight
between the sky-borne storm god and chthonic dragon.

On the great night (New Year), two children of Perun are born, Jarilo, god of fertility and vegetation
and son of the Moon, andMorana, goddess of nature and death and daughter of the Sun.

On the same night, the infant Jarilo is snatched and taken to the underworld,
where Veles raises him as his own.

At the time of the spring equinox, Jarilo returns across the sea from the world of the dead bringing with him fertility and spring from the evergreen underworld into the realm of the living.

He meets his sister Morana and courts her. With the beginning of summer, the two are married bringing fertility and abundance to Earth, ensuring a bountiful harvest.

The union of Perun's kin and Veles' stepson brings peace between two great gods,
staving off storms which could damage the harvest. After the harvest,
however, Jarilo is unfaithful to his wife and she vengefully slays him,
returning him to the underworld and renewing enmity between Perun and Veles.

Without her husband, god of fertility and vegetation, Morana
— and all of nature with her — withers and freezes in the ensuing winter.

She grows into the old and dangerous goddess of darkness and frost,
eventually dying by the year's end only to be reborn again with her brother in the new year.<sup>[41][42]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_the_Year[/sup]

References:

41) Leeming, David (2005). "A-Z Entries". The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. New York, New York:Oxford University Press. p. 360. ISBN 0-19-515669-

42) Hlobil, Karel (2009). "Chapter Eleven:Slavic Mythology".Before You. Insomniac Press. ISBN 1-92-658247-0.

43) Lyle, Emily (2008). "Time and the Indo-European Gods in the Slavic Context.". Studia mythologica Slavica 11: 115–126.</sup>