What is Baltic Paganism? | Obscure Mythologies

[Music] now i'm sure you've heard of greek myth with its tales of zeus and the olympian gods or norse legend with its skaldic sagas about thought loki and the frost giants but what about baltic paganism and obscure mythology from the frozen forests of northern europe featuring the storm god perconas who hunts the forest of latvia in search of his one-eyed rival velenats or how about the supreme deity dievance and how he accidentally formed humanity out of his saliva long story enter your log cabin grab your pint of grass and a healthy amount of potato dumplings it's time to introduce you to the mythology of the baltics europe's last pagan religion the baltic region is in northern europe situated below scandinavia and finland straddling the aptly named baltic sea here lie the small countries of lithuania latvia and estonia about half of the region is blanketed in pine forest the trees seem to continue endlessly and you can go days without seeing any sign of human life the land here is also very flat causing murky bogs and swamps to develop winters are known to be harsh from december to march temperatures can dip well below freezing these nations are some of the wildest regions in europe as well as the least populated people have lived in the baltics for millennia mostly in networks of loosely connected tribes until the middle ages they had little contact with the outside world as a result christianity was the last to reach them starting in the 12th century the church launched a great northern crusade and brought christianity into the region through violence and warfare after the brutal conflict and the shedding of much innocent blood many natives renounced their religion in favor of christianity others however held on to their ancestral beliefs and continued to worship the old gods in secret it's time you outlined the mythology and beliefs of baltic paganism the thing is however there's no strict list of deities or centralized pantheon much of what we know about baltic religion is from outside sources particularly crusaders we therefore only have a rough idea about the beliefs and religion of this ancient people but an idea nonetheless prepare for my bad pronunciation of baltic gods here goes let's start at the beginning of the universe with divas the primordial creator divas existed before anything else existed there's no account of how he came to be simply put he was always there sometimes dievis is depicted without a body just an intangible universal concept other accounts give him the form of an old traveling beggar who roams the forests alone exploring his creation in silence and solitude divas is the lithuanian word for god a bit like how in english god can either mean the god of the bible or simply any deity a really interesting tidbit however is that the lithuanian word deavas is related to a bunch of other languages and their word for god the latin word for god is deus the greek word for god is deos even as far away as ancient india the sanskrit word for god is deva all of these sound very similar to our baltic god divas this ancient linguistic connection may show just how old baltic paganism may really be divas is not the only god abound after he created the universe he brought forth a pantheon of other gods first up is mara the earth goddess also known as mother earth she's the patron goddess of motherhood and breastfeeding as well as the protector of the environment when people die it is said mara takes their bodies back into the soil while divas takes their souls up into the sky when christianity arrived in the baltics mara was confused with the virgin mary perhaps due to a similarity in name in fact across the baltics today there's an uncomfortable fusion between christianity and old paganism in northern lithuania there's a site known as the hill of crosses on a single hill there are 100 000 statues and effigies dedicated to the virgin mary now although it's a christian monument it certainly has a pre-christian feel to it it bears resemblance to the many carved wooden idols across the region that were once dedicated to the goddess mara i'll let you decide on this one after creating mara divas then created talia velez the smith god he's responsible for technology and innovation and helped dievas craft the universe one of his first jobs was to forge the sun once televellist finished crafting it he threw it up into the night sky and it illuminated the earth the sun was then personified into saule the sun goddess not long after creating saole televeles made menueuo the moon god the two fell in love and got married ruling the night and day as a couple between them they had thousands of children the stars now manuel was not a faithful husband to saleh not long into the marriage he had an affair with austrian a the morning star saole found out about this and was horrified especially since austrine may or may not have been their daughter as a punishment every month menuho is cut up into pieces and stuck back together later on resembling the various stages of the lunar cycle let's leave this marital crisis for now and explore how the first humans came to be according to myth humanity came about from a drop of dievis's spit having wiped it from his mouth the spit droplets splashed down onto the earth and from them the first humans sprang forth in this story humans were a complete accident and divers doesn't really seem to care about them unlike the bible humans are not the privileged custodians of the earth we're just well saliva [Music] up next is the strongest of all the gods and the de facto leader his name is perconas the god of thunder he is depicted as a giant bearded man wielding an axe and riding a strider chariot wheeled by two goats as he roams across the sky thunder and lightning flash in his wake now this god might sound familiar either through thor from norsmith or zeus from greek myth this does not seem to be a coincidence across a bunch of ancient european religions there's an archetypal figure who rules in the heavens and creates lightning some scholars have called this person the sky father perconas is the baltic interpretation of this sky father archetype and is distantly related to thor and zeus perchnas is constantly on the hunt he's searching for velenas the evil god of the underworld some myths depict velenas as a one-eyed prophetic trickster responsible for all the world's woes a bit like the norse figure loki in that regard velanas resides in lowland places like bogs and swamps so he's very much at home in the baltic region in order to hide from perconas velenas will transform into rocks trees and even sometimes as other people [Music] as seen already with mara and felinas a number of the baltic gods are closely associated with mortality but none as much as giltne the goddess of death itself she is depicted as a thin pale woman robed in white and she could be found roaming graveyards licking corpses with her long tongue if you don't like the sound of giltne and who would you may prefer her sister lima the goddess of fate luck and pregnant women when a baby is born she is the one who will decide their destiny what they will do whom they will love and most importantly how they will die like it or not in baltic mythology everything that happens in your life has already been determined by lima in ancient days those wanting protection and safety will pray to lima with the hope that she will grant them with good luck nowadays however protection is something you don't want to leave to chance especially when it comes to the internet that's why this video is sponsored by nordvpn vpn stands for virtual private network it's a useful tool that encrypts your internet traffic and hides your ip address and virtual location it's basically an internet cloaking device meaning that third parties like cyber criminals can't spawn you whilst you're online with nordvpn you can log into your accounts make bank transfers and shop online without needing to worry about anyone stealing your data there are plenty of other benefits of getting a vpn aside from internet safety one i particularly like is the ability to stream shows that aren't even in your own country nordvpn allows you to change your virtual location with over 60 countries to choose from so if you want to take your internet security back into your own hands and access all the other great perks on offer go to nordvpn.com forward slash hotel argo or use code ho chilaga to get 73 off the first two years plus four additional months for free as well as all the interesting gods and goddesses baltic paganism is full of monsters and spirits here are a few of the most famous the most common supernatural beings are the aitfaras nature spirits they have the ability to shape-shift and transform into a variety of different things most commonly it's snakes roosters and even fire many however can be found as trees or rocks within each one is supposed to be an eye terror who grant you protection provided you offer a small sacrifice of course and that's why there are so many sacred groves across the baltics there are plenty of shrines dedicated to the largest of trees or the heaviest of boulders on the other end however there are the baubai they are small impish creatures who work on behalf of velenas their job is to haunt children particularly the ones who have been badly behaved deep in the forest you'll also find raganos the baltic witch once a beautiful human woman she's now become wretched and hag-like ragonos is known to curse unwary townsfolk by turning them into frogs pigs and tree stumps on the darkest day of the year the winter solstice raganos is most active so many advise to stay indoors or to light a large bonfire to scare her away [Music] by the 14th century baltic paganism had been replaced with christianity however these ancient beliefs stuck around a bit and never quite went away one attempt to bring back the paganism of old is the remover religion practitioners of removal believe in all the gods and myths that we've seen so far as was done since ancient times they make fire offerings to the supreme deity de avas and maintain the forest groves home to the aitfaras today the religion is seeking to establish itself as an officially recognized faith in lithuania and they're making significant steps in potentially bringing back ancestral beliefs in the baltics baltic paganism is a fantastic mythology rich with history and steeped in magic i can only hope to have given you a rough introduction to this diverse belief system if you wish to do further reading on this topic i've added a bunch of links in the description below we'll leave the mythology of the baltics for now but i want to turn the question on to you the viewer what obscure mythology do you want to see next let me know all the overlooked and underrated mythologies that interest you who knows i might cover it in a future video hey thanks for watching this video i really hope you enjoyed this one if you'd like to see more why not subscribe a like and a comment also go a really long way [Music] anyway i look forward to seeing you next time goodbye [Music]

Channel: hochelaga

Views: 383,324

Keywords: baltic, paganism

Id: YaF1eAaIJgw

Length: 11min 18sec (678 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 16 2021