Leshy (Lesiy Lesiye, Lyeshy, Lesovik) is a Slavic forest divinity or spirits, depending on the source. He is the protector of forest animals and often seen in the company of wolves or bears. This divinity regulates and assigns prey to hunters. In later times it is said that he has also become the protector of flocks and flocks. He is number 13 on my gods of the “graveyard” series. (I’m very surprised at the number of Slavic divinities that are on this list, but as my maternal ancestors come from this region, I’ve enjoyed learning about them.)
The next deity that I’m honoring from the atheist graveyard is Veles (#12) of the Slavic Pantheon. Now I’ve written several posts about deities from this pantheon under different names and every time I write about them, I grow a little more in knowledge. There is a lot of variety in names but with similar roles. Before I’ve described this divinity as the bad guy, but he reminds me a little bit of Loki in that he isn’t necessarily the bad guy but he does take on the adversarial or trickster role. It seems Christian influence made him appear worse than he really is.
The next divinities from the “God Graveyard" list are the Slavic divinities Belbog and Chernobog. They interest me because I have Slovenian (Bohjon) ancestry. I’ve been a bit intimidated in researching these divinities because I want to get it right. Unlike many other pantheons there are no firsthand accounts for this pantheon. There is no irrefutable evidence that the Slavs had any system of writing so all their beliefs and traditions were passed down orally. This creates or enables many individual characteristics within that belief system (a fancy way of saying that there are as many differences as similarities in the details of their belief system). While there are many archeological remains, there is no contextual understanding to be had. The only time anything was written down was by Christian missionaries who were not always interested in accuracy in depicted Pagan beliefs. Fragments of the old beliefs are found in folk customs, songs and tales. This is not to say that this pantheon is not still honored, for it is, but I imagine Slavic rely heavily upon similarities in other belief systems and on unsubstantiated personal knosis (aka UPG).
The existences of both of these deities, Belbog especially, are heavily contested. So let me tell you what I have found out about them and then offer an interesting possible conclusion that I stumbled across. Belbog and Chernobog are twins and, one could say, the mirror images of the other. One website stated that they were honored by the priestly class.
Anthony Gresham
It's taken me a while to finish writing this, but I accept your challenge to write a new myth of my own. Here goes:Narfi & NariI write of Narfi and N...
