Baltic neopaganism is a category of autochthonous religious movements which have revitalised within the

Baltic people The Balts or Baltic peoples ( lt, baltai, lv, balti) are an ethno-linguistic group of peoples who speak the Baltic languages of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. One of the features of Baltic languages is the number o ...

(primarily

Lithuanians Lithuanians ( lt, lietuviai) are a Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another million or two make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Unite ...

and

Latvians Latvians ( lv, latvieši) are a Baltic ethnic group and nation native to Latvia and the immediate geographical region, the Baltics. They are occasionally also referred to as Letts, especially in older bibliography. Latvians share a common L ...

).Wiench 1995 These movements trace their origins back to the 19th century and they were suppressed under the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

; after its fall they have witnessed a blossoming alongside the national and cultural identity reawakening of the Baltic peoples, both in their homelands and among expatriate Baltic communities, with close ties to conservation movements. One of the first ideologues of the revival was the

Prussian Lithuanian The Prussian Lithuanians, or Lietuvininkai (singular: ''Lietuvininkas'', plural: ''Lietuvininkai''), are Lithuanians, originally Lithuanian language speakers, who formerly inhabited a territory in northeastern East Prussia called Prussian Lithuan ...

poet and philosopher

Vydūnas Wilhelm Storost, artistic name Vilius Storostas-Vydūnas (22 March 1868 – 20 February 1953), mostly known as Vydūnas, was a Prussian-Lithuanian teacher, poet, humanist, philosopher and Lithuanian writer, a leader of the Prussian Lithuani ...

. During the Pope Francis's visit to the Baltic states in 2018 the Dievturi and Romuva movements sent a joint letter to

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013 ...

calling him to urge fellow Christians "to respect our own religious choice and cease impeding our efforts to achieve national recognition of the ancient Baltic faith". The movements have said that they dislike the usage of the term "pagan" as it is "loaded with centuries of prejudice and persecution".

Movements

Dievturība

Lokstene Dievturi Shrine in Liepsalas, Klintaine Parish, Pļaviņas Municipality, Latvia

Dievturība ( Latvian compound derived from ''

Dievs Lithuanian Dievas, Latvian Dievs, Latgalian Dīvs, Old Prussian Dìews, Yotvingian Deivas was the primordial supreme god in the Baltic mythology and one of the most important deities together with Perkūnas and he was brother of Potrimpo. He w ...

'' "God", plus ''turēt'' "hold", "uphold", "behold", "keep"; literally "Godkeeping")С. И. Рыжакова
Латышское неоязычество: заметки этнографа
/ref> is a Latvian Pagan revival, also present among

Latvian Canadian Latvian Canadians ( lv, Kanādas latvieši) are Canadians of full or partial Latvian descent. At the 2011 census, there were about 27,355 people of Latvian descent in Canada. History Although by 1921 the Canadian government considered all pers ...

and

Latvian American Latvian Americans are Americans who are of Latvian ancestry. According to the 2008 American Community Survey, there are 93,498 Americans of full or partial Latvian descent. History The first significant wave of Latvian settlers who immigrated ...

expatriate communities. It is characterised by a

monistic Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: * Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...

theological approach to

Baltic paganism Baltic mythology is the body of mythology of the Baltic people stemming from Baltic paganism and continuing after Christianization and into Baltic folklore. Baltic mythology ultimately stems from Proto-Indo-European mythology. The Baltic region w ...

viewing all the gods and all nature as expression of the

.Vilius Dundzila.
The Ancient Latvian Religion - Dievturība
'. ¶ DIEVS. ''Lithuanian Quarterly Journal of Arts and Sciences'', 1987. A common view is that the Dievs is at the same time the transcendent fountain of reality, the matter-energy substrate, and the law ordaining the universe. The movement was started in 1925 by

Ernests Brastiņš Ernests Brastiņš (19 March 1892 – 28 January 1942) was a Latvian artist, amateur historian, folklorist and archaeologist. He is known as the founder and driving force behind the neopagan religion Dievturība, which he started in the 1920s and ...

with the publication of the book entitled ''Revival of Latvian Dievturība''. After the annexation of Latvia to the

the Dievturi were repressed, but the movement continued to operate among exiles. Since the 1990s, Dievturi was re-introduced to Latvia and began to grow again; in 2011 there were about 663 official members. The Lokstene Shrine of Dievturi was inaugurated in 2017.

Romuva

Romuva is a modern revival of the traditional ethnic religion of the

Baltic peoples The Balts or Baltic peoples ( lt, baltai, lv, balti) are an ethno-linguistic group of peoples who speak the Baltic languages of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. One of the features of Baltic languages is the number ...

, reviving the religious practices of the

before their Christianization. Romuva claims to continue living Baltic pagan traditions which survived in folklore and customs. Romuva primarily exists in Lithuania but there are also congregations of adherents in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. There are also Romuviai in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

. Practising the Romuva faith is seen by many adherents as a form of cultural pride, along with celebrating traditional forms of art, retelling Baltic folklore, practising traditional holidays, playing traditional Baltic music, singing traditional '' dainas'' or hymns and songs as well as ecological activism and stewarding sacred places.Dundzila and Strmiska (2005), p. 244.

Other

The re-enactment group Vilkatlakai, originally named Baltuva, formed in Lithuania in 1995 and is distinguished by its masculine vision of Baltic paganism.Pranskevičiūtė and Aleknaitė (2014), p. 172. The Kurono movement formed in 2003 as a split from Romuva, expressing dissatisfaction with the Romuva leadership's emphasis on ethnographical studies at the expense of theology. They were also critical of Romuva's openness to the media and other outsiders at religious events.

References

Bibliography

* Gatis Ozoliņš: ''Die aktuelle kettische Dievturi-Bewegung''; in:

René Gründer René Gründer (born 1975) is a German sociologist. Career René Gründer was born in 1975 in Zittau. He completed his doctorate at the University of Freiburg in 2010. Since 2013 he is professor of social work at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperat ...

et al.: ''Der andere Glaube''; Ergon Verlag, 2009. * Dundzila & Strmiska, ''Romuva: Lithuanian Paganism in Lithuania and America'' in Strmiska (ed)., ''Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives''; ABC-CLIO, 2005. * Dundzila, V. R., ''Baltic Lithuanian Religion and Romuva'' in ''TYR'' vol. 3; Ultra Press, 2007. * Ignatow, G., ''Cultural Heritage and the Environment in Lithuania'' in ''Transnational Identity Politics and the Environment''; Lexington Books, 2007. * * Misane, Agita. 2000. ''The Traditional Latvian Religion of Dievturiba in the Discourse of Nationalism''. ''Religious Minorities in Latvia'' 4, no. 29: 33–52. * * Naylor, A., '' The Shadow in the East''; I.B. Tauris, 2020. * * Wiench, Piotr. ''Neopaganism in CentralEastern Europe'', ''Spoleczenstwo otwarte'' 4, 1995.; 5th World Congress of Central and Eastern European Studies in Warsaw, 1995. * Schnirelmann, Victor:
“Christians! Go home”: A Revival of Neo-Paganism between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia
'. Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2002. * Strmiska, F. Michael. ''

Modern Paganism in World Cultures ''Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives'' is an academic anthology edited by the American religious studies scholar Michael F. Strmiska which was published by ABC-CLIO in 2005. Containing eight separate papers produced by va ...

''. ABC-CLIO, 2005.

External links

Latvijas Dievturu sadraudze

Dievsēta — American DievturiFoundation Māras Loks

Kurono Academy of Baltic Priesthood

Lithuanian Romuvan Church

Vilkatlakai
;Articles * Jonas Trinkunas.

'. {{Neopaganism

Neopaganism Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Afric ...

Modern paganism in Lithuania Modern paganism in Latvia Modern pagan traditions