Russian Magi, who are they? Where did the Russian Magi go? Who are modern Magi?

It is known that until the 10th century paganism reigned in Rus'. Magi and magicians, who had great authority among both the tribal nobility and the common people, were considered intermediaries between man and the gods, of which there were a great many in the pagan pantheon.

After the official baptism of Rus' in 988 by Prince Vladimir between the followers pagan beliefs and Christians began a struggle that lasted for centuries. 8 of the famous epic about Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber, according to legend, describes the battle of a Russian hero with a fugitive pagan magician who was hiding in the Murom forests from the oppression of Christians.

Flight to the East

The Magi, who wanted to preserve the ancient faith and secret knowledge, climbed into the dense forests of the Central Russian Plain and fled far to the east. Information about that has been preserved. that already in the X111-X1/ centuries some of the pagans reached the Stone Belt (the ancient name
Middle Urals - approx. ed.) and even settled in the vast territory of the Trans-Urals, free of Christian beliefs. According to one legend, the famous Golden Idol, which until the 10th century stood on the high bank of the Dnieper, was secretly taken there. On the territory of modern Bashkiria and Tatarstan, in the Northern Urals, along the banks of the Tobol and Irtysh, Russian explorers and settlers of the 16th-11th centuries found secret temples where pagan masses with bloody sacrifices were performed.

Mysterious hut

In the memoirs of the explorer of Siberia at the beginning of the 19th century, Semyon Andreevich Beketov, a description of a pagan temple that he discovered in the north of the Tomsk province was preserved. According to Beketov, the place of worship of pagan gods was located in a vast clearing,
hidden from prying eyes by the centuries-old taiga on the left bank of the Ob. The huge scorched space was surrounded by granite boulders with some kind of mysterious signs and facing towards sunrise. In the center of the clearing, on high stilts, stood a windowless log hut with a low door, which was surrounded by a palisade of wooden idols, facing the log structure. Multi-colored ribbons were tied on wooden idols in great numbers, fluttering like flags in the wind.

In the hut of S.A. Beketov came across a pile of bones lying in a large metal smoked bowl, some of which, no doubt, belonged to a person.

Bloody Sacrifice

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the authorities of Tsarist Russia waged a tireless struggle against pagan sorcerers and magicians, as well as their bloody rituals, in which an important role was played by human sacrifice. Thus, in 1905, the Irkutsk governor ordered a thorough investigation into the “case of sorcery.” Then a resident of the small village of Zhzhenovka turned for help in treating her seriously ill daughter to a magician who lived as a hermit a hundred miles from Irkutsk. To cure the girl, the sorcerer demanded that the unfortunate woman steal a girl of the same age from her neighbors and bring the baby to him. In his monastery, the magician killed the brought girl, and the daughter of the kidnapper woman regained her health...

"Engaged in antisocial religious activities"

Strange as it may seem, even in the 20th century, the ministers of ancient Slavic pagan cults did not stop their activities. Thus, from the archives of the Sverdlovsk department of the NKVD of the USSR it is known that in 1952 in the workers’ village of Gagarsky, Sverdlovsk region,
a man was detained who, as stated in the case, “was engaged in anti-social religious activities, illegally provided medical services, collecting fees from workers for this.” From the case materials it appears that the detainee did not have a passport, had never
worked and lived in a dugout thirty kilometers from the village.
The investigation established a circle of people who at one time used the services of the detainee. The interrogated residents of Gagarskoye and a number of other villages testified that they turned to the man to solve their problems related to health, love relationships, for predictions...
In particular, a resident of the village of Zaprudny, Ekaterina M., told investigators that the detained man predicted to her that her missing husband would return in two years alive and well.
Svetlana T. from Sverdlovsk had a husband under investigation for several months on charges of embezzlement of government funds. The man she turned to made sure that the court acquitted her husband. It is also known from the archives that a similar case was considered in 1965 in Blagoveshchensk. Only there, among other charges, was the arrest of an Orthodox church by the detainees.

Horned deity Lutobor

The story of Krasnoyarsk resident Irina Matveevna Sorina (last name changed) seems very interesting. For almost ten years, this woman, who was in a happy marriage, could not give birth to a child. Despite all the efforts of the doctors, her miscarriages followed one after another. Once in the early nineties, one of her friends advised her to seek help from a certain old man-magician who lived far away in the taiga.

It took Irina almost 24 hours to get to the place on the crossroads. Despite the woman’s fears, the magician received her warmly in his very squalid home. In the evening of the same day, he performed a certain ritual with Irina, which she could not see: she fell asleep after that. how I drank a potion brewed by an old man. And in a dream she saw a terrible-looking horned creature with whom she entered into a relationship. Waking up, Irina told the old man about the strange dream, and he explained to the woman that she had been visited by the ancient Slavic deity Lutobor, and now she should wait for an addition to the family.

Nine months later, Irina had a son. But the firstborn did not bring joy to the woman - he was diagnosed with severe brain pathology. The baby was sent to an orphanage, where he did not live for even six months. Irina Matveevna never had any more children.

Birth of Yaropolk

At the end of the turbulent 20th century, the fashion for pagan beliefs, witchcraft and sorcery began to spread in Russia. The bookshelves were filled with literature of relevant content, and the newspapers were full of advertisements for the provision of services by newly minted magicians. However, true pagans, possessing truly ancient and secret knowledge, try not to advertise their existence. Such wise men include a sixty-year-old resident of the Tyumen region, who calls himself Yaropolk. According to Yaropolk, his parents were deeply religious Orthodox Christians and tried to instill this faith in their son.
At first, Dmitry - that was Yaropolk’s name in childhood and adolescence - went to church and observed fasts. But at the age of thirteen, while picking berries in the forest, he met an old man who took him to his secluded hut, told the boy about the ancient Slavic gods... Dmitry began to visit the old man almost every week, and as he grew up, he left the family altogether. home and settled with him in a hut lost in the forests on the border with Ugra...

By the age of sixteen, Dmitry learned everything about kikimors and igoshas, ​​goblins and water goblins, shishigas, brownies and other mysterious creatures that, according to uninitiated people, only exist in fairy tales. Dmitry learned to cure almost all known diseases, control forest and river creatures, summon nature spirits and communicate with deceased ancestors. When Dmitry was sixteen years old, the old man shaved his head, leaving only one strand of hair in front, and named the young man Yaropolk.

Soon Yaropolk's teacher died. The young man burned his body and from that time devoted himself entirely to serving the pagan gods. According to Yaropolk, paganism in Russia will never disappear, since its faithful followers - the Magi and Magicians - will not disappear. Their secret knowledge today, like centuries ago, is needed by people, for the ancient gods are still
powerful and capable of showing their strength even in our age of high technology.

The Synodal translation of Scripture, in particular, introduces some confusion regarding the term “magician”. On the one side, we're talking about about people who came to worship the newborn Jesus Christ. They are mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (chapter two), and they are certainly positive characters. On the other hand, in the eighth chapter of Acts, it is told about a certain Simon who practiced sorcery. Seeing that the condescension of the Holy Spirit on a person allowed him to perform great miracles, he brought money to the apostles, asking them to sell this gift. Since then, trading in church positions has been called simony. Thus, the magician mentioned in Acts is a warlock trying to impersonate someone great. In a word, a charlatan. So what does “magi” mean, what is the etymology of this word?

and Church Tradition

Let's first clarify the complexities of translation. If we look at the original Gospels, written in Greek, then the magov, “magi” mentioned in Matthew are wise men, astrologers, interpreters of dreams, priests. The Hebrew translation is more severe: these are sorcerers, fortune-tellers. Both Greek and Jewish interpretations agree on one thing: the people who came to worship the Child were no strangers to magic and astrology. That’s why they were guided by the star that appeared in the east. The Gospel does not mention either the exact number of the delegation or their names. All this information relates to Church Tradition, and therefore can be questioned. But Simon’s sorcery mageu/w is also translated as “witchcraft,” “enchantment,” “casting spells.” Do you feel the difference: sages and sorcerers? Let's figure out what exactly the Tradition of the Church brought into the history of the worship of the Magi.

Matthew's story

The evangelist is quite stingy with information. “Wise men from the East” came to Herod and asked: “Where is the king of the Jews, since we saw His star?” Hearing about a possible competitor, Herod became excited. He gathered a council of scribes and folk sages who knew the Torah so that they could point him to the exact place of birth of the Child. They, having studied the books and prophets, pointed to Bethlehem. The Magi went there. They followed the star and found the Baby in the manger and his Mother. They bowed to them and brought frankincense, gold and myrrh to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into this world. Having been admonished by an angel in a dream, they did not return to Herod, but went to their lands by another route. That's it, end of story. Why are these characters mentioned only in Matthew, and nowhere else? Biblical scholars claim that the message of this Gospel is directed to the Jewish population of the Roman Empire. It most often mentions the Prophets, and the entire first chapter is devoted to the genealogy of Jesus, although all Christians know that He is the son of the living God, and has nothing to do with Joseph from the line of David. In Matthew, the “eastern wise men” are experts in the Jewish Scriptures who calculated by the movement of the stars when the Messiah would come to earth.

A beautiful Christmas tale

The Christian tradition has reinterpreted the Jewish myth about the coming of the King of Israel. First, the Church accepted that there were three wise men, according to the number of gifts. Further, she decided that the Magi are the three sides of the world who left paganism and accepted the light of the new faith. Despite the fact that Matthew mentions magicians from the East (Persia, Mesopotamia), European tradition insists that, together with Asia, black Africa and Europe worshiped the Child. It is also generally accepted that people of all ages are subject to the new faith. In numerous paintings depicting the worship of the Magi, the African appears as a young youth, the European as a middle-aged man, and the Asian (sometimes depicted as a resident of the Middle East) as a gray-haired old man. This is somewhat contrary to the Holy Tradition of the Church itself, which in the eighth century decreed that the wise men were kings. One ruled Arabia, the second - Persia, and the third - India.

The tradition of Slavic nativity scenes is close to biblical history. Some of the characters in this half-Christian, half-pagan theatrical performance are born of folk culture (the Devil, Death, the Jew), and some reflect the narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (Herod, a soldier representing the king's army, an angel). Sometimes the whole action seems somewhat politicized (remember, for example, the nativity scene on the Kiev Maidan in 2014), but always cheerful and with a happy outcome. Among the characters there are always biblical wise men, who symbolize wise people of good will.

Rituals of veneration

Celebrating Christmas in Western Europe and here, Eastern Slavs, differs not only in time (December twenty-fifth and January seventh), but also in ritual. The tradition of the Roman Catholic Church does not forget the adoration of the magicians, whom it renamed “kings”. Thus, three ordinary people began to symbolize the peoples of different continents who adopted Christianity. The Church also came up with the names of the wise men who came to Jesus. These are Balthazar (an African youth), Melchior (a European in the prime of life) and Caspar, or Gaspar (an elderly Asian). In the first days of the year in different European countries, people remember these three characters and try to recreate the Gospel story about the coming of the Magi.

Particular mention should be made of how Three Kings Day is celebrated in Spain. Large or small street costume processions take place in all cities and villages of the country. Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar, surrounded by a large retinue, on horseback, greet the crowd and shower it with candy. On this day it is customary to give gifts to all children, especially the youngest. Christmas wise men are revered on a special scale in Germany. And this is not surprising - after all, the relics of these three sages, as the Church assures, rest in crayfish in the Cologne Cathedral. But these processions consist of only children. They go from house to house, and everywhere they are generously presented with sweets. And in gratitude, the little petitioners draw in chalk over the mysterious letters “B+C+M”, supplementing this inscription with an indication of the year. The owners do not wash it for many years, until there is no room left above the hospitable threshold. After all, the inscriptions mean that Balthazar, Caspar and Melchior visited under the roof of this house and met here with the warmest welcome. Why did this dwelling receive the blessing of the saints?

Gifts of the Magi - what is it?

Now let's talk about what the wise men (or, as they are also called, kings or magicians) brought to the Baby Jesus Christ. The Evangelist Matthew indicates what these gifts were: firstly, such a precious metal as gold, and secondly, aromatic resins - frankincense and myrrh. It is clear that all three gifts have symbolic meaning. Otherwise, it becomes unclear why a newborn baby needs all this. The meaning of the gifts of the Magi is also revealed in Church Tradition. According to him, gold is a symbol of royal glory. Matthew is silent about the form in which the Magi presented this precious metal - in ingots, in the form of coins, or some other way. But Christ is the Heavenly King of all earthly rulers, and it was this fact that the wise men from the East wanted to note.

Well, what about frankincense and myrrh - other gifts of the Magi? What does this mean? The aromatic resin of incense was burned back in the symbolism of people of that time, this incense was identified with something divine, not of this world. By presenting incense to Jesus Christ, the Magi made it clear that they perceived Him not only as the King of Glory, but also as the Son of the Living God. In Ethiopia and Arabia there are trees whose bark and resin, after appropriate treatment, also act as an aromatic rub. The type of plant itself is called “dewy incense,” but the incense obtained from it is myrrh or myrrh. In the Judeo-Hellenistic tradition, this substance was anointed with the dead before burial. It was believed that this helped people heading to another world. The gift of myrrh to the Baby symbolized the future sacrifice that Christ would make for people.

What happened to the relics later?

Despite the fact that neither Matthew nor any other evangelist mentions what happened to the Magi after they returned to their land (Mesopotamia), church tradition did not think of forgetting them. The cult of veneration of the remains of saints, martyrs and saints appeared in the fourth century and developed extremely in the Middle Ages. The more relics, the larger the flow of pilgrims, and therefore the greater the amount of donations. Guided by this simple logic, the Church began to develop the cult of the Magi and everything connected with them. It was proclaimed that the wise men from the East received baptism from the Apostle Thomas and later suffered martyrdom in their own countries. It is not surprising that the relics of the Magi were soon discovered. They were found by the Empress of Byzantium Helen of Constantinople, as usually happened to her, in a dream.

How did it happen that the remains of people who left Bethlehem for the East are suddenly discovered in the Byzantine (now Turkish) city of Sheva? Matthew does not mention where exactly the native lands of the three magicians were located, but an indication of this is contained in Old Testament. (60:6) says: “They will all come from Sheba and proclaim the glory of the Messiah, bringing gifts of incense and gold.” But in the Psalter (71:10) something else is written: “The kings of the islands and Tharsia, Sheba and Arabia will bring Him tribute; and all nations will worship Him.” As we see, the native lands of the sages (or the kingdoms of the three kings) lie far from Sheva. But sacred tradition found a way out. A legend arose that at the age of one hundred and fifty years each, all three wise men met in Sheva to honor the memory of Our Lord. There they rested in peace. And the bones of the Magi were preserved by the Christian community and transferred to Constantinople.

Journey of Relics

The remains of the saints did not remain in Constantinople for long. Already in the 5th century they were worshiped in Mediolan, the capital of the Duchy of Lombardy (modern Milan in Italy). In the twelfth century, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa conquered this territory and took the relics to Germany. Written evidence has been preserved that the relics were presented to the Archbishop of Cologne, Rainald von Dassel, who in 1164 took them out of Italy, first on carts, and then on a ship along the Rhine. It is said that the construction of the tallest Gothic cathedral was initiated by the desire to create a majestic “ark” for the incorruptible remains of the three kings. And now the relics of the Magi rest in the reliquary, which was created by the skilled craftsman Nikolai of Verdun, in the altar part of the Cologne Cathedral.

But what did Marco Polo see then, when he visited Sawa, a city located south of Tehran, at the end of the thirteenth century? In his notes, the traveler reports that he visited three nearby and beautifully decorated tombs of the Magi. The bodies exhibited there were not at all affected by decomposition. Marco Polo especially emphasized this circumstance: “Like recently dead people, with beards and hair.” Unfortunately, these relics from Sava were lost without a trace. But in Cologne, only bones are kept. They are shown to the crowd only from afar during the celebration of the Three Kings Day (January 6th).

Where are the gifts of the Magi kept?

If with the relics of the three magicians everything is so ambiguous and doubtful, then with their gifts the picture looks simpler. According to legend, she herself Holy Mother of God preserved the gold, incense and myrrh presented to Her Son. Even before the Dormition, she gave these gifts to a small community of Christians in Jerusalem. When the apostles decided to go preach to the pagans in all lands, the relics were transported to Constantinople. Hagia Sophia became their frame - great temple, sample Byzantine architecture. But in the fifteenth century, Constantinople was captured by the Turks. Queen Mara, daughter of Prince George Brankovic of Serbia and stepmother of the great conqueror Mehmed II, took Christian relics from Ottoman Empire and transported them to Athos. She wanted to hand them over to the monks with her own hands, but on the way the Mother of God appeared to her and asked her not to violate the strict monastery regulations prohibiting women from climbing the holy mountain. Mara obeyed and handed over the relics through her guard. There they rest to this day, in the local monastery of St. Paul. And on the site of the appearance of the Virgin Mary, a chapel was built.

The gifts of the three wise men are undoubted shrines for all Orthodox Christians. Not all pilgrims can come to Greece to venerate the relics. On Holy Mount Athos there is a ban on women visiting monasteries and monasteries. Therefore, the relics themselves make journeys to their believers. For example, in December 2013, the Athos monastery complex, where the gifts of the Magi are kept, blessed Father Nicodemus to accompany the shrines on their journey through Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. A natural question arises: can ordinary metal, albeit precious, as well as incense work miracles of healing? In response to this, the monk Nicodemus refers to a passage from the Gospel (from Matthew, chapter nine, from Mark - fifth, and from Luke - eighth), which speaks of a woman who recovered only by touching the hem of the Savior's robe. If the ordinary fabric of vestments has such power, then what kind of power does the objects that were once touched by the hands of Jesus and the Blessed Mary radiate?

All Muscovites and guests of the capital could see with their own eyes what the gifts of the Magi look like. The relics were exhibited during the Christmas holidays for worship in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Things directly related to the earthly life of Our Lord are in ten precious, richly decorated arks. They are twenty-eight gold plates of triangular and square shape. Each of them is decorated with a unique filigree pattern. A relic is also a silver thread on which sixty-two beads, each the size of an olive, are strung, made from a mixture of myrrh and frankincense.

But believers from Ukraine were not fully able to verify with their own eyes what the gifts of the Magi looked like. They were delivered to Kyiv in the second half of February this year, after they had visited Belarus. The relics were put on public display in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra (belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate). But in those days, the Ukrainian people were just involved in the revolutionary events in Kyiv, so not everyone was interested in the shrines from Mount Athos.

Lost in translation

The Synodal presentation of the New Testament has brought confusion into the consciousness of ordinary Orthodox Christians. Mentioned in “Acts,” Simon is a negative character who wants to purchase the Holy Spirit with money in order to perform greater miracles than he previously performed through sorcery. Why then should we honor the magicians who came to worship in Bethlehem? The very word “vulkhv” in the Old Slavonic dialect means wizard, sorcerer, sorcerer. We will not go into the etymology of this term now. Whether it comes from the word “hair” or “vlesneti” (to speak vaguely, to mutter) is not important. Let's take a better look at who the Magi were Ancient Rus'.

Not only in our lands, but also in other lands, pagan religions revered “knowing people.” They were knowledgeable in herbs, black and white magic, astrology, and knew how to predict the future. This was a special caste of priests who were engaged in conducting religious rites, fortune-telling, prophecies, as well as preparing potions and treating the sick. We can say that among the Celtic tribes the Magi were called Druids. Representatives of this unique spiritual caste occupied a fairly high position and enjoyed great authority among the people. Great princes came for their advice, as well as prophecies (let’s remember the Prophetic Oleg or Gostomysl). What can I say! Some princes from the Polovtsian dynasty also possessed the gift of magic. Bryachislav Izyaslavovich defended the pagan priests from the persecution of Yaroslav the Wise. And his son - Vseslav Bryacheslavovich Polotsk - was born from sorcery. All his life he wore the “veil” in which he was born as a talisman. If you believe “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” Vseslav was a werewolf, mastered the techniques of obsession and knew how to tell fortunes.

With the adoption of Christianity by Prince Vladimir Slavic Magi began to be subjected to repression. Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv was especially zealous. Around 1010 he destroyed the temple of Veles. In its place, the prince built the city of Yaroslavl. Gleb Novgorodsky and Jan Vyshatich also took up arms against the Magi. Doctor historical sciences I. Ya. Froyanov believes that in this struggle one can see the confrontation between the old pagan beliefs of the Slavic people and the new religion. After all, Christianity was “descended from above”, imposed by secular authorities. Written sources mention sorcerers up to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in particular in Pskov and Novgorod. But gradually the meaning of the word “magician” is transformed. During the days of unrest, churchmen called religious dissidents and heretics this way, attributing to them the practice of magic, communication with demons, causing crop failure and loss of livestock. In times of peace they were called Magi traditional healers, healers.

Modern Neopagans

At the turn of the 20th-21st centuries, after the discredit of the Orthodox Church, many people appeared in our country who considered themselves neo-pagans. These magicians of Russia are actively engaged in preaching and publishing activities. They are the religious authorities and priests of their communities of believers. At the same time, on the pages of magazines and newspapers you can read many advertisements about healers and magicians who drain wax, remove the crown of celibacy, and the like. Russian Orthodox Church considers the activities of both to be displeasing to God, since all sorcery and magic are warlocks. But let's be lenient. If we analyze historical sources, and also take into account the opinion of art historians, then the holy gifts of the ancient Magi, carefully preserved by the monks on Mount Athos, are nothing more than fiction. Why?

Written evidence does not mention the gifts of the Magi as relics until the eleventh century. Around 1200, Archbishop Anthony of Novgorod visits Constantinople and writes that Hagia Sophia contains golden vessels, which “the sorcerers brought to the Lord with gifts.” The first mention of the current form of gold - as we remember, gold plates - dates back only to the fifteenth century. Having studied the ornament and filigree technique on them, art historians came to the conclusion that they once formed one piece of jewelry - a belt decorated with post-Byzantine filigree. The jewelry was made in the 15th century.

mamlas in Where to look for the Magi today

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Russian priesthood
Where did the magicians and priests disappear to? Who has ruled us for the last 3000 years? Will a new socially just Russia be reborn? / Victor Efimov

Priesthood is an effective system of managing society that existed not only in Egypt during the time of the pharaohs, but also in Ancient Rus'. Priestly structures determined the activities of any society and were never hidden. Main function The priests had life-giving wisdom - inconspicuous in appearance, the priests ruled society at the egregorial-matrix level: they understood the laws of the world order and could convey this knowledge to the rulers. More Viktor Efimov

Victor Efimov, the rector of the St. Petersburg State Agrarian University, discusses how the priests knew how life worked and how they admonished the pharaohs or kings?
What did the Magi and Kaliki passers-by talk about? When was the Varna system of government destroyed in Rus' and where did the priests disappear? Was Stalin a priest and what did he teach his son? How was the knowledge of the priests preserved and reached our days? Who are modern priests, do they wear long robes and beards, and what awkward questions do they ask? Is it possible to revive the priesthood in modern conditions? How is the collective Russian spirit manifested today? What can Rus' not exist without and what underlies the genetic code of Russians? Why are so many eyes and hopes turned towards Russia today? Is it possible for Russian civilization to flourish and create a socially just state?
Victor Efimov:— If we talk about the past, then the priestly structures of antiquity, they were manifested, they were never particularly hidden. And in Russian civilization we have already talked about the presence of sorcerers, Kaliks, on the move, these are specialists who were interested not in a separate branch of science, but in the idea of ​​life. We say that priesthood is a synonym for life-speaking, in the sense that as one speaks, so life will flow, life-speaking. There have always been people in Rus' who admonished both princes and kings; they were nothing of themselves in terms of wealth, prosperity, they simply understood how life works. And if you look at history Ancient Egypt, then there too, take the novel by Boleslav Prus, there you will see how detailed the system of government of Ancient Egypt is described, when priestly structures stood above the pharaohs, eleven priests of the north, eleven priests of the south. And Boleslav Prus “Pharaoh”, he just gives a complete picture. Another thing is that later these priestly structures of the West, they left worldly life and became invisible to society, but they, of course, did not lose their management function.

As for the Holy Russian priesthood, then, of course, at the moment of the baptism of Rus', it did not fulfill its mission, and it lost the function of life-speaking; it fell, in a sense, under those global control schemes that were imposed on Rus' from the moment of baptism. But the very egregor of the Holy Russian priesthood, the bearers of this system of knowledge, they, of course, did not disappear anywhere, they were always preserved, just many family lines that carried this either meaningfully, or consciously, or simply at the level of genetic memory. And man is designed in such a way that at certain stages of time this genetic memory emerges and becomes the property of humanity already at the level of vocabulary. And if we talk about Russian conceptual power, then its revival in full, of course, must be attributed to the moment of equalization of the frequencies of biological and social time, and in accordance with the law of time, when the power of the previous conceptual power is lost, it is at this time that replacement takes place . And today the influence of the concept of public safety, the influence of those people who understand what life-giving is, on everything that happens in the world is quite obvious.

And if you look now at the calls of the world’s leading analysts, then all their hopes are directed towards Russia, that is, they understand that something is being revived in Russia, they don’t really understand what. And we simply endow everything that happens with a measure, that is, we assign certain terms, civilizational codes, and say that yes, there was a global predictor that controlled at the egregorial matrix level for the last three thousand years. And we are talking about the fact that an internal predictor of a conciliar socially just Russia has now been formed. Why is it named like that? Because social justice is at the heart of the genetics of our people, that is, we still cannot live without it. Either Rus' will exist on the basis of social justice, or Rus' will disappear if this code is exterminated from the civilizational community of the globe.

Therefore, today, perhaps, is the heyday of the priestly structures of Russian civilization, and the most important thing is that you need to understand that these are not some individual personalities with long beards in robes and special clothes, but these are just young guys with whom we are today we meet, they are bearers of this special Russian spirit, and this is to a large extent a collective spirit. Remember, Stalin, when he was raising his son, he very harshly told him that remember, you are not Stalin, and I am not Stalin, Stalin, and he pointed to the portrait. He understood the difference between a specific person, the bearer of this knowledge, and the matrix egregorial community formed on the basis of this term. So, on the basis of the term Holy Russian priesthood, the conceptual power of modernity, a matrix is ​​formed, and a large group of carriers of this idea is formed. This is a manifestation of priestly structures. If you look at the Kalik Magi passing by, they also didn’t stand out in any way, you meet your grandfather in the forest, he starts telling you such things that your head is spinning. And exactly the same thing is happening today with our youth, when they meet with experienced specialists, economists, financiers, these guys ask questions that then ask: “Listen, just don’t ask me these questions publicly again, I’ll give you an A.” it doesn’t matter, just don’t ask questions.” This is a manifestation, if you like, of priesthood in modern conditions.

Despite the fact that the Magi for pre-Christian Rus' were people, perhaps comparable even to princes and tribal elders, quite little information about them has been preserved. Most of this information is contained in Christian teachings against paganism and condemnations of paganism, as well as historical facts about pagan revolts against the new religion. Many glorious magicians, priests and ministers of pagan cults “sank into oblivion” and absolutely no information about them has been preserved.

However, the meager information that we got, bypassing the censorship of Christianity, can tell a lot about who these Magi were, what their names were, what they did and what deeds they became famous for before the entire Slavic people. It is also worth noting that the Magi were not only men, but also women, who are referred to as “magician” or “magician”.

Magi are the main ministers of the pagan faith. Since ancient times, the Magi were not only the main servants who conduct rituals and holidays that instruct people, help them understand the Gods and their lives, but also sorcerers, conspirators involved in magic, herbalism, healing, fortune telling, predictions, and so on. Since ancient times, special attention was paid to the Magi. It is worth noting that the Magi were so revered that people considered their opinion much higher than even that of a prince. Even representatives of the nobility and authorities turned to them for predictions and advice. Perhaps it was this factor that destroyed paganism in its time, since Prince Vladimir wanted sole power, wanted to be a single ruler, above and more important than whom no one could be. As a result, Vladimir chose the religion that offered him this power, and the Magi found themselves outlawed and recognized as accomplices of satanic forces. They were persecuted, imprisoned, brutally tortured and killed.

Magi and priests are a category of people social status which are very difficult to determine. Magi could be ordinary people, sorcerers, elders, hermits who lived in all alone in the forests and so on. There were also magi among the royal blood. For example, Vseslav Polotsky, aka Volkh Vseslavyevich (Vseslav Bryachislavich, Vseslav the Prophetic, Vseslav the Magician, Volga Vseslavyevich, 1029-1101), who was the son of Bryachislav, was considered born from sorcery and wore a certain “shirt” in which he was born, which is regarded as birthmark, as part of the placenta remaining after birth or as an atavism in the form of excess skin. In “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” it is said that Vseslav had the gift of werewolf, fortune telling and obsession. The epic tells that Volkh Vseslavyevich learned three wisdoms from childhood: he turned into a clear falcon, a gray wolf, and a bay aurochs. It also says that the father gave his son to be taught by the Magi, where he acquired his werewolf skills. In the person of Volkh Vseslavyevich the functions of both a sorcerer and a prince were combined. This is not at all surprising, since many sources claim that elders often took on the role of chief sorcerer in various settlements of ancient Rus'.

During the time of Vseslav of Polotsk, the movement of the Magi with the troops of the pagan Slavs was a widespread phenomenon. A number of protests, which were suppressed by the current government, took place in Kyiv, Novgorod, near Yaroslavl and Beloozero. The activities of the Magi, which were considered illegal, were brutally suppressed. By this time, Christian leaders had already established in the minds of many people that the Slavic Magi, who from time immemorial have been revered in Rus', are evil sorcerers, heretics, apostates, terrible criminals and warlocks who contacted demonic forces and wished only evil to people.

One of the most famous episodes with the participation of a sorcerer, there is an incident in Novgorod “the sorcerer stood up under Gleb (Svyatoslavich, the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise)... It was not enough for the whole city to say to people that God and many deceits were happening - and there was a rebellion in the city and everyone wanted to destroy his faith bishop... And they were divided into two: Prince Gleb and his squad stayed with the bishop, and all the people went to the sorcerer....” This event is quite well known and described in detail. The Magus, who was an ardent opponent of the new religion, organized a rebellion in the city of Novgorod. At the same time, the conflicting parties were divided into two sides. His squad and Christian ministers spoke out for Prince Gleb. All the people living at that time in Novgorod and, probably, its environs, followed the sorcerer! This division of power speaks volumes, in particular about the tyranny of the authorities, who had absolutely no regard for their people, who did not want to accept Christianity and, even after so many years, without any doubt went over to the side of the sorcerer. However, everything was decided by the cunning and vile plan of Prince Gleb, who approached the sorcerer with an ax hidden behind his back, unexpectedly pulled out the weapon and hacked to death his opponent. People deprived of the main sorcerer had to disperse.

The name of the sorcerer who fell at the hands of the prince, unfortunately, has not survived to this day, but the strength of his faith and the strength of the faith of those people speaks volumes. This episode is very famous, but, unfortunately, not for the reason that all people preferred the sorcerer to the prince, but for the reason put forward by the new faith, calling Gleb’s act heroic and even “funny.” In the Radzivilov Chronicle, this incident was even illustrated by an ancient Russian artist in the form of a small miniature. Judging by this miniature, we can roughly imagine what the Magi of that time looked like. He wears a long white robe reaching to the ground with wide sleeves and large number large buttons. The sorcerer's mantle has traditional ornaments. Also, the Novgorod sorcerer does not have a beard. Of course, this miniature cannot be considered a kind of photograph, but the artist was still able to convey some details. It is also little known, or rather omitted by “official” sources, that historical fact that the Novgorodians did not calm down at all on this and took revenge on Prince Gleb for protecting the bishop and killing the sorcerer. The Novgorod Chronicle describes: “And Svyatoslav imprisoned his son Gleb and drove him out of the city and fled beyond Volok and killed a man,” i.e. Svyatoslav placed his son Gleb in Novgorod to reign, but the Novgorodians, outraged by the injustice, kicked out Gleb, he fled and was soon killed by the Chud (tribe). This happened in 1078.

The Magi were dangerous for the princes not only for their influence on people, who for thousands of years considered them the main spiritual guides, but also for their witchcraft and magical abilities. No one doubted the power of the magical abilities of the Magi - neither people, nor the princely authorities, nor even church ministers. For example, Jacob Mnikh wrote to Prince Vladimir the following words: “I created many miracles with my demonic dreams...”.

Probably the same one Dobrynya, who entered into fairy tales and epics as the glorious hero Dobrynya Nikitich, but in reality who, on the orders of Vladimir, destroyed idols, killed pagans and baptized Kyiv and Novgorod, was originally a real sorcerer. This is not a 100% statement, but still such an assumption exists. It is based on the fact that it was Dobrynya who established the cult of Perun for Novgorod, who became dominant over all other Gods and who was called together only with Veles. Who else, if not the main sorcerer, can establish a cult, erect shrines and idols? In the epics, Dobrynya had magical abilities, and is also shown as a guslar-storyteller. It is worth noting here that the Magi were noted for such a feature as playing musical instruments and the ability to tell epics and legends. For this reason, the same Magi were often called guslars, blasphemers, baenniks and other names. But, as we can later see, the sorcerer (if he was such) Dobrynya turned out to be the ordinary leader of the princely squad, and the word of the prince was much greater for him than the word of the Gods.

For the reason described above, that is, due to the involvement of the Magi in the musical art, in storytellers, many researchers of Slavic sorcery classify the well-known ancient Russian singer, whose name was Boyan the Prophetic. The prefix “Prophetic”, which was assigned to the famous singer and storyteller, also speaks in favor of the fact that he had a special gift and could be a sorcerer. The singer and storyteller Boyan was also credited with the ability to transform, just like Volkh Vseslavyevich.

Perhaps it was precisely for the reason that musical instruments were one of the important attributes of the magi and priests, their rituals and customs, that the new religion so zealously set about destroying the art of music. The chronicles say that harps, nozzles and other instruments were taken out of the city by whole cartloads and burned. Music, except for church music, has become practically illegal.

The most famous magician-priest, who became a cult and revered figure thanks to the riot he staged against Christianization in Veliky Novgorod, is Bogomil or Bogomil Nightingale. There are two versions of why Bogomil was called the Nightingale. According to one version, he was very eloquent and therefore people gave him the epithet of a beautifully singing bird. According to another version, Bogomil, like other Magi-songwriters, knew how to handle musical instruments and sang his pagan stories to people like a nightingale. It was this man who was at the head of the people who rebelled against Dobrynya and Putyata, who, on the orders of Vladimir, came to Novgorod from Kyiv to overthrow the pagan Gods, destroy temples and sanctuaries and forcibly baptize people. Bogomil’s assistant became no less famous - thousand(tysyatsky - a military leader who led the ancient Russian city militia “thousand”) Novgorod Ugonay. During the riot, he traveled around Novgorod and shouted everywhere: “It is better for us to die than to let our gods be desecrated!” At this time, people destroyed Dobrynya’s house, destroyed churches, which by that time had already appeared in different parts Novgorod, destroyed the homes of Christians. Putyata, who was an accomplice of Dobrynya, together with the soldiers, under the cover of darkness, made his way to Novgorod undetected and staged a brutal battle with the residents of Novgorod and supporters of Ugony and Bogomil. Dobrynya burned the houses of ordinary people, which confused the residents and with such cunning he was able to break the resistance. This is where the expression came from: Putyata baptized with a sword, and Dobrynya with fire. Magus Bogomil died in 991.

Pay attention to the prefix to the name “Nightingale”, explained above. In Rus' there was another nightingale, which some researchers of Slavic epics and legends attribute to the magicians or priests who actually existed in ancient times. We are talking about the epic “villain” Nightingale the Robber. For example, M. Zabylin, in one of his publications “The Russian people, their customs, rituals, legends, superstitions and poetry” in 1880, wrote: “... when in the time of St. Olga and St. Vladimir, the Christian faith penetrated into Russia, then it did not suppress Slavic paganism everywhere and not now, which we see from the fight of Ilya Muromets with the Nightingale the Robber, who, according to legend, was none other than a fugitive priest hiding in the forests, which could happen to many priests and idolaters who stubbornly held on to their paganism and fled from persecution...” Indeed, Ilya Muromets, who, according to legend, also served Vladimir, who fought against paganism with all available means, could well have hunted the wise men, priests and adherents of the Native faith hiding in the forests and remote villages, and the battle with the Nightingale the Robber was so vivid and memorable that the legend about the sorcerer Nightingale and his killer Ilya Muromets became part of legends and fairy tales.

In 1024 There was an uprising of the Magi in Suzdal. The uprising was suppressed by Prince Yaroslav, some of them were expelled from the city, and the rest were put to death. Around the same time, a mysterious sorcerer and soothsayer appeared in Kyiv. Judging by the chronicles, he told people that in five years the Dnieper would flow back, the lands would begin to change places, the Greek land would take the place of the Russian one, and the Russian land would take the place of the Greek one. The fate of the sorcerer is unknown, since one night he went missing and after that no one heard from him again.

In 1071 near Yaroslavl, two magicians rebelled with their supporters numbering 300 people. Judging by the chronicles, this happened as a result of famine. The Magi, together with ordinary people, began to beat the local rich nobility, who hid supplies of bread and other food, and doomed the people to an existence of hunger. Then the army of the rebels came to Beloozero, where they encountered Yan Vyshatich (a representative of the Kyiv nobility, a thousand, brother of Putyata, son of Vyshata, governor of Yaroslav the Wise, was close to the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery), who on behalf of Svyatoslav collected tribute from local lands. The princely squad turned out to be stronger, and the Magi were captured. Jan ordered the beards of the Magi to be torn out with a splinter. During this execution, he asked the Magi: “What do the Gods say to you?”, to which the Magi replied: “We should stand before Svyatoslav!” After that, they were tied up, tied to the mast of the boat and rubles were put in their mouths. Having stopped the boats at the mouth of the Sheksna, Yan asked: “What do the gods tell you now?”, to which the captives answered: “So the gods tell us: we will not be alive from you,” to which he replied: “They told you the truth.” . After this, the Magi were killed and hanged on an oak tree.

Another very short mention of the sorcerer refers to 1091, when the sorcerer appeared in Rostov, but died soon after under mysterious circumstances.

In 1227 Magi appeared in Novgorod. Arriving in the city, they practiced magic and sorcery. Church adherents grabbed everyone and brought them to the archbishop's courtyard. Here the princely squad itself stood up for them, temporarily protecting them from reprisals. After that, they were brought to Yaroslav’s courtyard, where they built a fire and burned everyone alive. In one of the chronicles there is the following entry: “In the summer of 6735 (1227) the Magi 4 were burned - their deeds were actively carried out. Otherwise, God knows! And I burned them in the Yaroslavl courtyard.” Who were these 4 wise men who were burned alive in the princely court, of course, will remain a mystery to us. However, the fact that the Magi were burned publicly, in the center of the city, at the prince’s court, spoke of the significance they had, the fear they instilled in the apostate princes and how they wanted to intimidate the people, turn them against the Magi, if not with their convictions, then fear of cruel death. The church charter of Vladimir prescribed the punishment for the Magi - burning. The charter of Prince Vsevolod included the same punishment.

The Magi were persecuted and destroyed. The authorities did not want to come to terms with the fact that people, even decades and centuries after total Christianization, still follow the Magi, placing them above Christian priests and above princely power. The Magi, even knowing what punishments awaited them if they were caught, continued their activities.

Everyone knows the story Prophetic Oleg and the sorcerer who predicted his death. The sorcerer said that Oleg would die from his beloved horse. The power of trust in the Magi was so high that Oleg, without thinking, removed his horse from himself and ordered to take care of it for the rest of his life, and when he died, he wanted to look at his bones. His faith in the sorcerer’s prophecy was shaken, but everything was decided by a snake that settled in the horse’s skull and, having bitten Oleg, made the sorcerer’s words fatal. Judging by various church scriptures, even the monks who condemned sorcery did not doubt for a second the capabilities of sorcerers and witches. Their abilities are often described not as deception or an attempt to fool people, but as real and active magic, which is incomprehensible to them and therefore was called devilish, satanic power.

In 1410 In Pskov, twelve “prophetic wives” were burned. During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich (1629-1676), wise men were burned at the stake, and sorcerers were buried up to their chests in the ground. Also popular was the exile of the Magi to monasteries, where they were kept in torture dungeons, where they were mocked in every possible way and subjected to torture.

As a conclusion, I want to say that the fate of the Magi and priests, as well as pagans in general, was unenviable for a whole millennium. And yet, having crossed the threshold of ten centuries, bypassing all the mortal dangers, all the obstacles and confrontation of the newest religions, the ancient faith has survived to this day, and we are happy witnesses of the revival of our native culture. Today, the Magi are reappearing in our cities and villages. Nowadays, nothing threatens them, and we can finally fulfill the lost dream of our distant ancestors - to revive the original beliefs, traditions and bright culture of the Slavs again!

Russian priesthood
Where did the magicians and priests disappear to? Who has ruled us for the last 3000 years? Will a new socially just Russia be reborn? / Victor Efimov

Priesthood is an effective system of managing society that existed not only in Egypt during the time of the pharaohs, but also in Ancient Rus'. Priestly structures determined the activities of any society and were never hidden. The main function of the priests was life-giving - inconspicuous in appearance, the priests ruled society at the egregorial-matrix level: they understood the laws of the world order and could convey this knowledge to the rulers. © More

Victor Efimov, the rector of the St. Petersburg State Agrarian University, discusses how the priests knew how life worked and how they admonished the pharaohs or kings?
What did the Magi and Kaliki passers-by talk about? When was the Varna system of government destroyed in Rus' and where did the priests disappear? Was Stalin a priest and what did he teach his son? How was the knowledge of the priests preserved and reached our days? Who are modern priests, do they wear long robes and beards, and what awkward questions do they ask? Is it possible to revive the priesthood in modern conditions? How is the collective Russian spirit manifested today? What can Rus' not exist without and what underlies the genetic code of Russians? Why are so many eyes and hopes turned towards Russia today? Is it possible for Russian civilization to flourish and create a socially just state?

Victor Efimov:- If we talk about the past, then the priestly structures of antiquity, they were manifested, they were never particularly hidden. And in Russian civilization we have already talked about the presence of sorcerers, Kaliks, on the move, these are specialists who were interested not in a separate branch of science, but in the idea of ​​life. We say that priesthood is a synonym for life-speaking, in the sense that as one speaks, so life will flow, life-speaking. There have always been people in Rus' who admonished both princes and kings; they were nothing of themselves in terms of wealth, prosperity, they simply understood how life works. And if you look at the history of Ancient Egypt, then there too, take the novel by Boleslav Prus, there you will see how detailed the system of government of Ancient Egypt is described, when above the pharaohs there were priestly structures, eleven priests of the north, eleven priests of the south. And Boleslav Prus “Pharaoh”, he just gives a complete picture. Another thing is that later these priestly structures of the West, they left worldly life and became invisible to society, but they, of course, did not lose their management function.

As for the Holy Russian priesthood, then, of course, at the moment of the baptism of Rus', it did not fulfill its mission, and it lost the function of life-speaking; it fell, in a sense, under those global control schemes that were imposed on Rus' from the moment of baptism. But the very egregor of the Holy Russian priesthood, the bearers of this system of knowledge, they, of course, did not disappear anywhere, they were always preserved, just many family lines that carried this either meaningfully, or consciously, or simply at the level of genetic memory. And man is designed in such a way that at certain stages of time this genetic memory emerges and becomes the property of humanity already at the level of vocabulary. And if we talk about Russian conceptual power, then its revival in full, of course, must be attributed to the moment of equalization of the frequencies of biological and social time, and in accordance with the law of time, when the power of the previous conceptual power is lost, it is at this time that replacement takes place . And today the influence of the concept of public safety, the influence of those people who understand what life-giving is, on everything that happens in the world is quite obvious.

And if you look now at the calls of the world’s leading analysts, then all their hopes are directed towards Russia, that is, they understand that something is being revived in Russia, they don’t really understand what. And we simply endow everything that happens with a measure, that is, we assign certain terms, civilizational codes, and say that yes, there was a global predictor that controlled at the egregorial matrix level for the last three thousand years. And we are talking about the fact that an internal predictor of a conciliar socially just Russia has now been formed. Why is it named like that? Because social justice is at the heart of the genetics of our people, that is, we still cannot live without it. Either Rus' will exist on the basis of social justice, or Rus' will disappear if this code is exterminated from the civilizational community of the globe.

Therefore, today, perhaps, is the heyday of the priestly structures of Russian civilization, and the most important thing is that you need to understand that these are not some individual personalities with long beards in robes and special clothes, but these are just young guys with whom we are today we meet, they are bearers of this special Russian spirit, and this is to a large extent a collective spirit. Remember, Stalin, when he was raising his son, he very harshly told him that remember, you are not Stalin, and I am not Stalin, Stalin, and he pointed to the portrait. He understood the difference between a specific person, the bearer of this knowledge, and the matrix egregorial community formed on the basis of this term. So, on the basis of the term Holy Russian priesthood, the conceptual power of modernity, a matrix is ​​formed, and a large group of carriers of this idea is formed. This is a manifestation of priestly structures. If you look at the Kalik Magi passing by, they also didn’t stand out in any way, you meet your grandfather in the forest, he starts telling you such things that your head is spinning. And exactly the same thing is happening today with our youth, when they meet with experienced specialists, economists, financiers, these guys ask questions that then ask: “Listen, just don’t ask me these questions publicly again, I’ll give you an A.” it doesn’t matter, just don’t ask questions.” This is a manifestation, if you like, of priesthood in modern conditions.