The Russian Religion (
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
: Русская Религия), also termed Russian Vedism (Русский Ведизм), is one of the earliest doctrines of
Rodnovery
The Slavic Native Faith, commonly known as Rodnovery and sometimes as Slavic Neopaganism, is a modern Paganism, modern Pagan religion. Classified as a new religious movement, its practitioners hearken back to the Slavic paganism, historica ...
(Slavic Neopaganism) in
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, founded in 1992 in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
by the
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...
and
esoteric scientist Viktor Mikhaylovich Kandyba—revered as "Prophet Kandyba" within the movement—and his son Dimitry Viktorovich Kandyba. It is a
monotheism
Monotheism is the belief that one God is the only, or at least the dominant deity.F. L. Cross, Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. A ...
based on
Slavic heritage, and as such it has been compared to Ukrainian
Sylenkoism
The Native Ukrainian National Faith (, ; widely known by the acronym , RUNVira), also called Sylenkoism () or Sylenkianism (), and institutionally also known as the Church of Ukrainian Native Faith or Church of the Faithful of the Native Ukraini ...
. The concept of "Russian" in the name "Russian Religion" does not identify an ethnic identity, but a spiritual one, being used as a synonym of the concept of "
Aryan
''Aryan'' (), or ''Arya'' (borrowed from Sanskrit ''ārya''), Oxford English Dictionary Online 2024, s.v. ''Aryan'' (adj. & n.); ''Arya'' (n.)''.'' is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians. It stood ...
".
Overview
Viktor M. Kandyba grew up in the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, in an environment of
Marxist–Leninist atheism
Marxist–Leninist atheism, also known as Marxist–Leninist scientific atheism, is the antireligious element of Marxism–Leninism. Based on a dialectical-materialist understanding of humanity's place in nature, Marxist–Leninist atheism propos ...
which viewed religion as a merely political and social tool. He attended a naval school in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
(then Leningrad) and was possibly influenced by Viktor Bezverkhy, the founder of
Peterburgian Vedism
Peterburgian Vedism (Russian language, Russian: ) or Peterburgian Rodnovery (), or more broadly Russian Vedism () and Slavic Vedism (), is one of the earliest branches of Rodnovery (Slavic Neopaganism) and one of the most important schools of th ...
, who taught there in the 1970s. Kandyba graduated in
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
and studied
esotericism
Esotericism may refer to:
* Eastern esotericism, a broad range of religious beliefs and practices originating from the Eastern world, characterized by esoteric, secretive, or occult elements
* Western esotericism, a wide range of loosely related id ...
. He claimed to be the descendant of a line of ancient Russian priests, what he named Vedic "ideologists" or ''saman''s (саман). Together with his son Dimitry Viktorovich, he became popular in Russia in the late 1980s for their studies about the psychological "culture of trance" and their practice of hypnosis which they claimed to be unbroken traditions of "Russian Vedism".
In the 1990s, Viktor Kandyba began to elaborate and disseminate his own doctrine of "Russian Religion", first systematically presented in his book ''History of the Russian Empire'' published in 1997. In the creation of the literature about the "Russian Religion", Kandyba collaborated with the academic historian Petr Zolin. The "Russian Religion" does not acknowledge a hierarchic church organisation, as Kandyba himself preached that there is direct link between mankind and God, and therefore there is no need of mediating structures. Kandyba's doctrine has thus been defined by the scholar
Victor Shnirelman as a "highly eclectic" Rodnovery characterised by
monotheism
Monotheism is the belief that one God is the only, or at least the dominant deity.F. L. Cross, Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. A ...
, a "national Russian monotheistic religion" comparable to a "Russian Protestantism" and, within Rodnovery itself, to Ukrainian
Sylenkoism
The Native Ukrainian National Faith (, ; widely known by the acronym , RUNVira), also called Sylenkoism () or Sylenkianism (), and institutionally also known as the Church of Ukrainian Native Faith or Church of the Faithful of the Native Ukraini ...
. Shnirelman saw in Kandybaite Vedic cosmology a reflection of
Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...
cosmological dualism
Dualism or dualistic cosmology is the moral or belief that two fundamental concepts exist, which often oppose each other. It is an umbrella term that covers a diversity of views from various religions, including both traditional religions and scri ...
, and also saw similarities with
Helena Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian-born Mysticism, mystic and writer who emigrated to the United States where she co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an internat ...
's
Theosophy
Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...
and German
Ariosophy. The scholar
Alexey V. Gaidukov found Kandybaite Vedic historiosophy to be similar to that of
Aleksandr Dugin
Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin (; born 7 January 1962) is a Russian far-right political philosopher. He is the leading theorist of Russian neo-Eurasianism.
Born into a military intelligence family, Dugin was an anti-communist dissident during the ...
's
Eurasianism
Eurasianism ( ) is a Political sociology, socio-political movement in Russia that emerged in the early 20th century under the Russian Empire, which states that Russia does not belong in the "European" or "Asian" categories but instead to the Geop ...
.
Kandyba argued that the "Russian Religion", or the "Russian Vedism" that it represented, is the foundation of all later historical religions, and that it also corresponds to the original teachings of
Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
, which were distorted by the compilers of the
Bible
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
and by the creators of the
Christian religion who introduced the concepts of sin and atoning sacrifice. The book ''History of the Russian Empire'' draws and reinterprets content from the Bible and the
Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
''
Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...
'', including entire extracts such as the
Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount ( anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: ) is a collection of sayings spoken by Jesus of Nazareth found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7). that emphasizes his moral teachings. It is th ...
, expressions and prayers, and in doing so it claims to be returning ancient wisdom to its original possessors, the
Aryan
''Aryan'' (), or ''Arya'' (borrowed from Sanskrit ''ārya''), Oxford English Dictionary Online 2024, s.v. ''Aryan'' (adj. & n.); ''Arya'' (n.)''.'' is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians. It stood ...
s.
Beliefs
Theology and cosmology
Threefold essence of the One
According to Kandybaite Vedic theology, the universe arises from the "One"—''Yedinobog'' (Единобог, "One-God"; also Единый Бог, ''Yediny Bog'', "One God") or simply ''
Odin
Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...
'' (Один, which in Russian means precisely the "One")—which acts as the spinning force of the
north pole of the sky, which is the intracosmic paradise (''
Iriy'') image of the extracosmic eternal paradise (''Svarga''). The One is threefold in its essence, reflecting such structure in both the macrocosm of the universe and the microcosm of the human psychophysical system. The north pole is the "starry origination" (звездная прародина, ''zvezdnaya prarodyna'') of the Aryans or Russians, where the triune essence of the One shows itself most clearly.
The trinity of the One comprises: ① the Father God (Бог-Отец) – which is the primordial quiescent void, the ideal informational supreme, the unmanifested dimension, corresponding in the microcosm of the human body to the left hemisphere of the brain; ② the Mother Goddess of the Lights/Fires (Богиня-Мать Огни) or Mother Goddess of the World (Богиня-Мать Мира) – which is the spiritual movement, the ideal figurative transience, the manifested dimension, the universal gravity and the right hemisphere of the brain; and ③ the Son God (Бог-Сын), ''Ur'' (Ур) – which is the electromagnetic radiation generated by the God and the Goddess, and the human psyche itself, whose energy is the basis of life. Furthermore, ''Ur'' is the procreator of ''Oriy'' (Орий) or ''Oriya'' (Ория), the first god-man who gave cosmic knowledge to humanity and who acted as the forefather of all the Aryans or Russians.
In cosmological terms, the God and the Goddess are also described respectively as spirit and matter, the active life-giving masculine principle and the passive life-receiving feminine principle, and as the "two beginnings of the One" or "two eternal poles of the Great Void" (Великая Пустота, ''Velikaya Pustota''), while ''Ur'' is described as the informational "waves" which develop and awaken the material substance into the universe and its self-creating peak—mankind, building forms around the universal vortex of the quiescent void. The waves of ''Ur'' express themselves as sound, light and word, but at the very beginning as the image of the word in itself, which is the starry image of the God and the Goddess—the "starry fiery cross" (''
swastika
The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...
'') drawn by the
circumpolar stars.
Sevenfold manifestation of the One

Divinity is nativity and what generates everything is the power of the One, which is the universal spinning represented by the hooked cross rotating at the north celestial pole. The circumpolar stars themselves are the symbolic image of the Goddess, the figurative transient manifestation of the One. The rhythmic rotation of the pole (''
Prav'') is the information for the development of both the united unmanifested (''
Nav'') and manifested (''
Yav'') dimensions of reality. The unmanifested dimension is also the Great Void, and since every manifested entity comes from the unmanifested Great Void, everything in the manifested dimension carries within itself the Great Void. The rhythmic rotation of development is set by both the poles of the One, the masculine God and the feminine Goddess, and it proceeds from the unmanifested Great Void generating ''Ur'', the first light, which organises itself as the
five elements of the manifested dimension—the Force Field (Поле Сила, ''Pole Sila'') which functions as the fourfold receptacle of Fire, Air, Water and Soil. The light of ''Ur'' is like a fire which illuminates and drives the manifested world to its peak, that is the development of enlightened mankind, and which becomes aware of itself in such enlightened mankind, represented by ''Oriy''. ''Ur'' is the Father God itself coming in transient nature as ''Oriy'', thus the Son God and the Father God are One through the Mother Goddess of the Lights.
The complete expression of the One is thus sevenfold, as it includes the trinity of information (God), transient image (Goddess), plus the five elements of the manifested cosmos as expressions of light (''Ur''), and ultimately the perfected mind of a deified mankind represented by ''Oriy''. In Kandybaite Vedic theology there is an identity between divinity and humanity, especially the latter's mind informed by the "idea of God"; a founding dictum of Kandybaite Vedism is:
According to Kandyba, the One realises itself through mankind, through its imaginative thinking which is the means for realising the "Divine Kingdom":
The human being is actively involved in a co-creation with the One: in the psychic life of the human being the manifested dimension acquires the ability to radiate forms—images and informations—back into the unmanifested dimension and then again into the manifested dimension. In other words, God begins the creation and mankind develops and completes it. The left side of the human brain is the receptacle of the ideal informations of the Father God, while the right hemisphere of the brain expresses the ideal figures of the Mother Goddess of the Lights; the human psyche, as the begotten Son God and the progenitor ''Oriy'', closes the circle of being—from the One it descends and to the One its thoughts return. The left side is spiritual, theoretical and logical while the right side—which includes the oldest parts of the brain—is animal, practical and metaphorical; according to Kandybaite Vedists the left hemisphere is that which distinguishes mankind from animals, and should be developed as much as possible from an early stage of life.
Cycles of manifestation and demanifestation
According to Kandybaite Vedic cosmology, the universe is eternal and it exists in the manifested dimension (''Yav'') for a limited time known as the "Day of Infinity" (День Беспредельности, ''Den' Bespredel'nosti''), lasting for billions of years, at the end of which it disappears again reabsorbed into the unmanifested dimension (''Nav'') for a time known as the "Night of Infinity" (Ночь Беспредельности, ''Noch' Bespredel'nosti''), which lasts the same as the Day of Infinity. Days of Infinity and Nights of Infinity alternate one another ongoingly from always and for ever. The universe is only apparently time–space, as these two concepts are representations of the sequence of changing forms of the emanation of the One from ''Nav'' to ''Yav'', preserved as a unified whole by the constant wave of ''Ur''.
The manifested world is the battlefield of spiritual forces of good and material forces of evil, which are objective realities rather than subjective categories, as "good " is any force which favours the maintenance of the cosmic order (''Prav'') while "evil" is any force which disrupts it. Bright good forces are believed to come from the God of Heaven, from ''Svarga'' or ''Iriy'' at the north celestial pole, while dark evil forces are believed to come from ''Navya'' (Навья), the chthonic goddess of the Earth and of the south celestial pole, governed by her male counterpart
Yama
Yama (), also known as Kāla and Dharmarāja, is the Hindu god of death and justice, responsible for the dispensation of law and punishment of sinners in his abode, Naraka. He is often identified with Dharmadeva, the personification of ''Dharm ...
; bright forces and dark forces are associated respectively to the left side and the right side of the brain in the microcosm of the human body, and are collectively represented respectively by ''
Belobog'' (Белобог, "White-God") and ''
Chernobog
Chernobog ( "Black God") and Belobog ( "White God") are an alleged pair of Polabian deities. Chernobog appears in Helmold's ''Chronicle'' as a god of misfortune worshipped by the Wagri and Obodrites, while Belobog is not mentioned – he was c ...
'' (Чернобог, "Black-God").
The polarity of good and evil forces manifests itself in the four directions of space: good entities manifest themselves in the north and the east directions, associated with the heavenly seat of God and the movement of its law, and characterised by spirituality, light, purity and eternity; evil entities manifest themselves in the south and west directions, characterised by materiality, darkness, mixing and depravity. There is an eternal struggle between the two poles of the web of forces, as the southern and western forces try to corrupt the northern and the eastern spiritual entities, while the northern and eastern forces try to sublimate the southern and western material entities. In ''History of the Russian Empire'' Kandyba says:
''Oriy'' and the god-men of nations
''Ur'' is the god-builder of the manifested universe, drawing the images of the Mother Goddess of the Lights and realising them in structures, creating and recreating the manifested dimension in always better schemes which reintegrate and reorganise the images of the previous cycles. If the dimension of the stars lives according to the law of ''Ur'', the world of humanity lives according to the law of ''Oriy'', the first god-man, progenitor of all the Aryans or Russians, who drew from the order of the sky the holy laws for the spiritual realisation of a deified mankind. Sharing an idea similar to the
Nietzschean concept of the "god-man", Kandybaite Vedists believe that each man has the potential to become a deity, a folk spirit, that is to say a man conscious of his divine nature and ability to co-create with the One.
In Kandybaite Vedism, the concept of "
nation
A nation is a type of social organization where a collective Identity (social science), identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, t ...
" or "folk" (''narod'') is not understood as defined by geographical boundaries, but rather as a living entity generated by a divine spirit. According to the Kandybaite Vedic doctrine, the folk deity manifests itself as and through a network of characteristics which are transmitted genetically between generations of individuals; its core never changes and is potentially immortal, though its network is open to the assimilation of other characteristics through
miscegenation
Miscegenation ( ) is marriage or admixture between people who are members of different races or ethnicities. It has occurred many times throughout history, in many places. It has occasionally been controversial or illegal. Adjectives describin ...
and evolutionary transformations. Kandybaite Vedists therefore believe, like other Rodnovers, that collectivity is superior to individuality: it is the collective identity that gives life and meaning to the single individual entity, and immortality is achievable by the mortal individual only when he works within the spirit of the collective folk. In the case of the Russians, their guiding deity ''Oriy'' expresses himself as warlike attitude, abstract consciousness, aspiration to unrestricted freedom, and friendliness and hospitality. The Russians are also characterised by intuitive and imaginative thought, which are given by their high spiritualisation and intimate knowledge of God and its laws.
Historiosophy
Mythological origins of the Aryans
Viktor Kandyba's book ''History of the Russian Empire'' has been described by the scholar Victor Shnirelman as taking inspiration from the Bible, from the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
, especially in its presentation of a scheme of the development of humanity based on genealogical principles, a scheme whose core are the Aryans or Russians. As they are the progeny of ''Ur'' through ''Oriy'', these peoples are also called "Orussians" (Орусы) or "Urussians" (Урусы). According to Shnirelman, the
myth
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
about the origins of the Aryans of Kandybaite Vedism draws inspiration from
Helena Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian-born Mysticism, mystic and writer who emigrated to the United States where she co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an internat ...
's
Theosophy
Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...
and from German
Ariosophy. Alexey V. Gaidukov also traced it back to the Greek idea of
Hyperborea
In Greek mythology, the Hyperboreans (, ; ) were a mythical people who lived in the far northern part of the Ecumene, known world. Their name appears to derive from the Greek , "beyond Boreas (god), Boreas" (the God of the north wind). Some schol ...
, which is also the basis of
Aleksandr Dugin
Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin (; born 7 January 1962) is a Russian far-right political philosopher. He is the leading theorist of Russian neo-Eurasianism.
Born into a military intelligence family, Dugin was an anti-communist dissident during the ...
's
Eurasianism
Eurasianism ( ) is a Political sociology, socio-political movement in Russia that emerged in the early 20th century under the Russian Empire, which states that Russia does not belong in the "European" or "Asian" categories but instead to the Geop ...
.
Kandybaite Vedic mythology holds that ''Oriy'' was a being made of subtle substance; he did not have a dense body and thanks to this he could not only walk but also fly. Besides being associated to the power of the north pole, ''Oriy'' is also related to the constellation of
Orion. The Orussians whom he generated were a race of subtle-bodied men and they dwelt at the terrestrial
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...
, the
Arctic
The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...
—right under the divine
north celestial pole and the
pole star
A pole star is a visible star that is approximately aligned with the axis of rotation of an astronomical body; that is, a star whose apparent position is close to one of the celestial poles. On Earth, a pole star would lie directly overhead when ...
—, which was then occupied by a continent known as ''Oryana'' (Ориана), ''Arctida'' (Арктида) or ''Oratta'' (Оратта). The Orussians, like their forefather ''Oriy'', were able to fly, and their appearance when flying resembled that of
kite
A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have ...
s. Through millions of years,
hominids
The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); '' Gorilla'' (the ...
appeared in the southern hemisphere of the terrestrial globe and the Orussians—who had to abandon Oryana as it was destroyed by cataclysms and
glaciation
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate be ...
, and mostly settled throughout
Eurasia
Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...
in the northern hemisphere of the terrestrial globe—gradually mixed with such hominids acquiring a denser nature and giving origin to the modern Russian races—the
white race. They became mortal entities, entering the cycle of
reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the Philosophy, philosophical or Religion, religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan (disambiguation), lifespan in a different physical ...
and acquiring the knowledge of good and evil. Meanwhile, the
black race (Africans) who occupied the southern hemisphere of the terrestrial globe and the friendly
yellow race
Mongoloid () is an obsolete racial grouping of various peoples indigenous to large parts of Asia, the Americas, and some regions in Europe and Oceania. The term is derived from a now-disproven theory of biological race. In the past, other terms ...
(Asians) with whom the Russians had frequent exchanges emerged as direct evolutions of the hominids. From Eurasia, the Russians explored the world founding all high civilisations.
After the Orussians became materialised by mating with the hominids, the history of the Russians was an endless sequence of rising, blossoming and falling apart as their love for freedom prevented them from establishing an enduring centralised civilisation in Eurasia: as they strived to create the largest world empire embracing all of Eurasia, it always fragmented into multiple states and peoples at war with one another. They organised themselves in kindred communities of about one hundred people. In each community, the ideological power was represented by the Vedic ''saman''s (priests) who wrote down the principles of religious civilisation in the ''Rigveda'', the administrative power was exercised by chiefs and rulers, and the legislative power was exercised by the elders of the kin. Their society was strictly patriarchal, as the lineages proceeded from males, males governed the kins, and all the male sons of fathers-brothers were considered peers, although great importance was attributed to women in their function as reproducers of life. All properties, lands and livestock, were shared by the members of the same kin. A small number of kins were not sedentary farmers and chose to be
nomadic
Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...
herders.
In Kandybaite Vedism, the modern term "Russians" therefore identifies most of the inhabitants of Eurasia, including both those of the
white race (Europeans) and those of the yellow race (Asians). Being Russian is considered a spiritual identity which characterises all those people who retain the memory of the Arctic homeland and live in harmony in and with any territory where they find themselves. As the descendats of the god-men who created all civilisations, the Russians are considered a "chosen" and "holy people" of carriers of the idea of God. Kandybaite Vedists consider the
Jews
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
as part of the Asians, and as such as part of the northern and eastern spiritual humanity opposed to the southern and western material humanity, and at the same time they espouse the
Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry
The Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry, often called the Khazar myth by its critics, is a largely abandoned historical hypothesis that postulated that Ashkenazi Jews were primarily, or to a large extent, descended from converts to Judaism ...
, considering the Jews as a "branch of the southern Russians", that is to say of the "Volga Russians", and as descendants of the historical
Khazars
The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, a ...
. Their culture first arose in
Ur,
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...
, when contrarily to all the other tribes of the Russians, in which the spiritual side dominates the material one, their ancestor
Abraham
Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...
adopted a way of thinking and acting in which the material dominates the spiritual.
Ethical eschatology
In Kandybaite Vedism, the Russians are destined to an
eschatological
Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negative world ...
task for the sake of the One: the elimination of evil from the world and the establishment of the Divine Kingdom. Such work starts from the inside of every person, as God is both the external cause of everything and the internal drive to the realisation of goodness. Good is what develops the cosmos, while evil is what destroys it: good or evil thoughts and words produced by a person are believed to acquire an independent existence and to influence the surrounding context and everything in it, nourishing the cohorts of good or evil forces in the world; through the suppression of evil thoughts and earthly material drives and the development of good thoughts and heavenly spiritual motives a person may take part in the struggle against evil in the world.
Every manifested person has two natures: its spirit inside its animal nature; the spiritual mind awakens not when a person is born but later in life, when the instincts of the animal nature are already rooted in its existence. The instincts of material nature which pervade the body have not to be destroyed but sublimated and used as means for spiritualisation. Every manifested person has an allotted time during which it has to work through its given resources for its own spiritual self-realisation and for the preservation and further development of life according to the law of God. When the role for which a given person is born comes to completion, that given entity begins to decay towards death, after which its life experience is preserved and coalesces again into new forms of existence, more complex than the previous one.
In the ''Rigveda'', Viktor Kandyba paraphrases the ''
Gospel of John
The Gospel of John () is the fourth of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "Book of Signs, signs" culminating in the raising of Lazarus (foreshadowing the ...
'' 3:1–8 to explain such double nature of humanity:
Kandybaite Vedism is characterised by a
work ethic
Work ethic is a belief that work and diligence have a moral benefit and an inherent ability, virtue or value to strengthen character and individual abilities. Desire or determination to work serves as the foundation for values centered on the i ...
: labour is glorified to the extent that it serves public and not private interests, devoted to the highest end, that is the alignment of the people with the good forces of the law of God. By co-working with good forces and fighting evil forces, Kandybaite Vedists believe that the Russians will lead the way for the gradual transfiguration of humanity into immortal beings of light. Dimitry Kandyba wrote about a future macrocosmic "victory of ''Yav''" (the manifested dimension which he identified as being the same as the Canaanite ''
Yahweh
Yahweh was an Ancient Semitic religion, ancient Semitic deity of Weather god, weather and List of war deities, war in the History of the ancient Levant, ancient Levant, the national god of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Judah, Judah and Kingdom ...
'') through Russian values, which will be the reflection of a microcosmic victory of the bright spiritual side of a human being over his dark material nature.
The adherents of the Kandybaite Vedic doctrine insist on kindness and compassion, positive feelings and cheerfulness, at the same time blaming hopeless, weak and disabled people, holding that the quality of god-man and the realisation of the Divine Kingdom are reachable only through the complete overcoming of suffering. They refuse the idea of collective sin, and believe that suffering is always the outcome of the guilt of those individuals who choose and encourage lie, idleness, self-interest, thirst for power, intoxication, lust, adultery, and other vices. The adherents also refute luxury and call for a modest life, also coming to a critique of property as a hurdle to a sinless life. These sins, which progressively nourish the animal nature of a person while smothering its spiritual mind, are believed to be transmitted through the generations and to hinder the development of love and therefore of the spiritualisation of humanity in the Divine Kingdom. Also the harnessing of the faith in God into hierarchic church structures and lavish temples is believed to be a deception which hinders spiritual development and makes people believe that God is not in themselves and in every entity, but merely within the church and its representatives.
As good forces incarnate themselves in the north and east, and evil forces in the south and west, Kandybaite Vedists also envision a
geopolitical
Geopolitics () is the study of the effects of Earth's geography on politics and international relations. Geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them, it may also focus on two other kinds of states: ''de facto'' independen ...
alliance between the Russians and the Asians in opposition to the evil Western world, establishing a new Russian Empire spanning all Eurasia from
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
to the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
, and from the
Arctic
The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...
to the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...
. According to Victor Shnirelman, these ideas have antecedents in
Russian cosmism
Russian cosmism (Russian: Русский космизм), or simply cosmism, is a philosophical and cultural movement that emerged in late 19th- and early 20th-century Russia, integrating science, religion, and metaphysics into a unified worldvie ...
, and are particularly prominent in contemporary Eurasianism.
Practices
The ''Rigveda'' written by Viktor Kandyba provides descriptions of the celebrations and ritual practices of the pre-Christian Russians. It also provides descriptions and a specific lexicon for the reconstruction of the ancient Russian social structure, with words pertaining to the semantic field of the kin all containing the concept ''Ur'': for instance, relatives belonging to the same kin are called ''uruta'', the youngest in the kin are called ''urus'', while couples united in marriage are called ''uru''.
Worship rites and prayer
According to Kandybaism, Russians deeply feel their kinship with the cosmos and the environment, worshipping its elements as deities, on holidays or daily. The major ones are considered the gods of sky (''
Svarog
Svarog is a Slavic god who may be associated with fire and blacksmithing and who was once interpreted as a sky god on the basis of an etymology rejected by modern scholarship. He is mentioned in only one source, the ''Primary Chronicle'', which ...
'', ''Nebo''), fire (''Ogni'' the holy fire and ''Atar'' the home hearth) and water (''Voda'') as well as the god of cattle (''Skotybog''). Places of worship may be glades with poles representing the gods (''kapishche'') or temple buildings (''khram'').
The gods of nature are worshipped through ''zaotra'' (заотра) and ''treba'' (треба); the former are
libation
A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an Sacrifice, offering to a deity or spirit, or in Veneration of the dead, memory of the dead. It was common in many religions of Ancient history, antiquity and continues to be offered in cultures t ...
s and the latter are
sacrificial offerings. The ''yasna'' (ясна) is the daily ritual practised by the ''saman''s (priests), carried out near a river, stream of lake, in a flat place delimited by furrows forming a rectangle, consecrated by sprinkling holy water and reciting prayers; the priest sits cross-legged in front of a vessel at the centre of the rectangle which hosts the holy fire. A ''yasna'' has three components: two ''zaotra''s, respectively to fire and to water, and a ''treba''.
A ''zaotra'' for water gods is made of three components, namely milk, juice of jointfir and leaves of other plants, and the libation has to be performed by the priest in the presence of the head of a kin and poured in the stream or river nearest to the kin's residence. A ''zaotra'' for fire gods is made of other three components, namely dry clean firewood, herbal incense, and a small amount of animal fat from ''treba''. The latter is an offering, often involving the sacrifice of an animal, whose soul is consecrated through a prayer to ascend to the God of Heaven through the smoke of the cooked meat which is eaten by the priests and the participants to the ritual. The cattle god is offered the tongue and left jawbone of each sacrificed animal.
According to Kandyba's ''Rigveda'', another characteristic Russian ritual is the common worship of the "heavenly sword" (небесный меч, ''nebesny mech''), symbol of ''Oriy'', of the descent of divine awareness from the God of Heaven; the Aryan progenitor and God are also represented in images with blue halos around their head to symbolise the sky. Kandybaite Vedists also practise a style of
yoga
Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...
known as "Russian yoga" (русская йога), and emphasise the daily practice of
prayer
File:Prayers-collage.png, 300px, alt=Collage of various religionists praying – Clickable Image, Collage of various religionists praying ''(Clickable image – use cursor to identify.)''
rect 0 0 1000 1000 Shinto festivalgoer praying in front ...
as a "constant consciousness of the presence of God" and as a means for strengthening the spirit of a person over its sinful material nature. Kandyba's ''Rigveda'' recommends a version of the ''
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...
'' taught by
Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
, considered a great Russian Vedist:
Holiday celebrations and death rites
The major holidays are at the beginning of spring (Komoyeditsa or
Maslenitsa
Maslenitsa (; ; ; ), also known as Butter Lady, Butter Week, Crepe week, or Cheesefare Week, is an Eastern Slavic religious and folk holiday which has retained a number of elements of Slavic mythology in its ritual. It is celebrated during the ...
) and in mid summer (
Kupala Night), but any kindred community may organise celebrations on any occasion. The celebrations are characterised by games, competitions, and religious rituals always led by a priest.
Holiday celebrations always begin with a ritual in which a priest with nine boys to his right and nine girls to his left, forming a row, stand at the centre of three large concentric circles of people, the first of the kins' elders, the second of their kindred adult relatives, and the third of the youth. The priest takes a goblet full of the intoxicating drink ''
soma'' (сома) or ''sura'' (сура) made with
jointfir, kneels down on his left and while facing the sky to the east or the Sun to the south sings hymns asking for the blessing of the kins. The priest then takes a sip of the drink and passes the goblet to his helper boys and girls. He then takes another cup of the drink and does the same passing it to the elders of the kins standing in circle. The purpose of the ''soma'' is to facilitate the visit to the seat of the God of Heaven at the north pole, ''Svarga'', with the help of the god of fire as a guide.
Regarding funeral practices, the ''Rigveda'' recommends the
cremation
Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a corpse through Combustion, burning.
Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India, Nepal, and ...
of the bodies of the "clean" dead—those who have died of old age or in combat—, especially people of high rank, which have to be burnt on top of specially constructed stone altars (''
alatyr''), as their soul is believed to ascend with the smoke to the seat of the God of Heaven, the northern polar paradise; the bodies of "unclean" dead—those who have died of contagious disease, suicide, drowning or of a violent death not in combat—are instead buried, as they are believed to belong to the goddess of the underworld.
Numerical symbolism
Rodnovery in general rejects
numerology
Numerology (known before the 20th century as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, ...
and forms of
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
magic if numbers are conceived as abstract and not connected with objects of the real world, but accepts numerology if the numbers are seen in webs of symbolism with objects, as manifesting in objects of the real world; in such vision, which is systematised particularly well in Kandybaism, all the entities of reality may be regarded in connection with each other in the hierarchic process of creation emanated by the One, in which each stage of manifestation is correlated with a number.
Kandybaite Vedic doctrine associates seven iconic symbols to the seven stages of the emanation of reality from the One, the ''Yedinobog'' ("One God"): the number 1 is symbolised by the circle, which represents the unity of the entire cosmology, the eternity and cyclicality of time, the unmanifested Great Void and the ''Yedinobog'' itself; the number 2 is symbolised by the ''
swastika
The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...
'' in its two possible directions of rotation—rightward and leftward—, which represent all the tensional dualities proceeding from the One, like the unmanifested (''Nav'') and the manifested (''Yav'') dimensions, the Father God and the Mother Goddess, as well as the spatio-temporal dimensions of Heaven and Earth, ''Belobog'' and his bright rightwise forces and ''Chernobog'' and his dark leftwise forces, north and south, life and death, creation and destruction; the number 3 is symbolised by the circle containing three dots, which represent the trinity, the triune essence of the One as Father God, Mother Goddess and Son God (''Ur''), as well as the "starry origination" of the Russians; the number 4 is symbolised by the "heavenly sword" of ''Oriy'', pointing downwards with three dots inside the pommel and five rays emanating from the pommel, representing heavenly knowledge of the trinity of the One coming in the flesh as the progenitor of the Russians (''Oriy''); the number 5 is symbolised by the
five-pointed star
A five-pointed star (☆), geometrically an equilateral concave decagon, is a common ideogram in modern culture.
Comparatively rare in classical heraldry, it was notably introduced for the flag of the United States in the Flag Act of 1777 and si ...
, which represents the five elements of ''Ur'' in the manifested dimension, Fire, Air, Water, Soil, and Force Field; the number 6 is symbolised by the
six-pointed star, which represents the human reason, ''Ur'' coming in the flesh as ''Oriy'' and becoming conscious of itself and master of all elements; the number 7, the most sacred, reflected in the seven days of the week, has no iconic image for itself as it is symbolised by all the other symbols taken together, to represent the whole sevenfold nature of the One.
Kandybaite Vedic texts
Books written by Viktor Kandyba expounding the doctrines of the "Russian Religion" and Kandybaite psychology:
* 1. ''Basics of Hypnology'' (Основы гипнологии), 3 volumes
* 2. ''Technique of Hypnosis in Reality'' (Техника гипноза наяву), 2 volumes
* 3. ''World Techniques of Therapeutic Hypnosis'' (Мировые техники лечебного гипноза)
* 4. ''Hypnosis and Disease'' (Гипноз и болезни), 2 volumes
* 5. ''Magic of the Universe'' (Магия вселенной)
* 6. ''Russian Religion'' (Русская Религия)
* 7. ''Hypnosis Treatment'' (Лечение гипнозом)
* 8. ''Secrets and Wonders of the Human Psyche'' (Тайны и чудеса человеческой психики)
* 9. ''Miracles of the Past and Present'' (Чудеса прошлого и настоящего)
* 10. ''Practice of Therapeutic Hypnosis'' (Практика лечебного гипноза)
* 11. ''Secrets of Psychotronic Weapons'' (Тайны психотронного оружия)
* 12. ''SC-Method of Human Development'' (СК-метод развития человека)
* 13. ''Criminal Hypnosis'' (Криминальный гипноз), 2 volumes
* 14. ''SC. The Universal Technique of Hypnosis'' (СК. Универсальная техника гипноза)
* 15. ''Secrets of the Russian Land'' (Тайны земли русской)
* 16. ''Trance Miracles'' (Трансовые чудеса)
* 17. ''Great Mysteries of History'' (Великие загадки истории)
* 18. ''History of the Jewish People'' (История еврейского народа)
* 19. ''World Experience of Spiritual Self-Development'' (Мировой опыт духовного саморазвития)
* 20. ''Pharmacological Hypnosis'' (Фармакологический гипноз)
* 21. ''Unidentified and Incredible'' (Неопознанное и невероятное)
* 22. ''Forbidden History'' (Запрещенная история)
* 23. ''Miracles and Mystery'' (Чудеса и тайна)
* 24. ''History of the Great Russian People'' (История великого русского народа)
* 25. ''Great Secrets of the World'' (Великие тайны мира)
* 26. ''Mental Self-Regulation'' (Психическая саморегуляция)
* 27. ''Miracles and Mysteries of all Times'' (Чудеса и тайны всех времен)
* 28. ''Magic'' (Магия)
* 29. ''Popular Hypnosis'' (Эстрадный гипноз)
* 30. ''Miracles and Wonderworkers'' (Чудеса и чудотворцы)
* 31. ''Superpowers of Man'' (Сверхвозможности человека)
* 32. ''Technique of Mental Hypnosis'' (Техника мысленного гипноза)
* 33. ''History of the Russian Empire'' (История Русской Империи)
* 34. ''History and Ideology of the Russian People'' (История и идеология русского народа), 2 volumes
See also
*
Rodnovery
The Slavic Native Faith, commonly known as Rodnovery and sometimes as Slavic Neopaganism, is a modern Paganism, modern Pagan religion. Classified as a new religious movement, its practitioners hearken back to the Slavic paganism, historica ...
**
Peterburgian Vedism
Peterburgian Vedism (Russian language, Russian: ) or Peterburgian Rodnovery (), or more broadly Russian Vedism () and Slavic Vedism (), is one of the earliest branches of Rodnovery (Slavic Neopaganism) and one of the most important schools of th ...
**
Sylenkoism
The Native Ukrainian National Faith (, ; widely known by the acronym , RUNVira), also called Sylenkoism () or Sylenkianism (), and institutionally also known as the Church of Ukrainian Native Faith or Church of the Faithful of the Native Ukraini ...
*
Eurasianism
Eurasianism ( ) is a Political sociology, socio-political movement in Russia that emerged in the early 20th century under the Russian Empire, which states that Russia does not belong in the "European" or "Asian" categories but instead to the Geop ...
*
Russian cosmism
Russian cosmism (Russian: Русский космизм), or simply cosmism, is a philosophical and cultural movement that emerged in late 19th- and early 20th-century Russia, integrating science, religion, and metaphysics into a unified worldvie ...
*
Theosophy
Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...
*
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zoroaster, Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, ...
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
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External links
Viktor M. Kandyba's official website
{{Religion topics
Slavic neopaganism
Modern paganism in Russia
1990s in modern paganism