Slavic Mythology and Ritual Updates

A couple of interesting articles concerning slavic folklore and folk belief have recently come across my Google Reader feed (that's the 21st C. variant of 'coming across the transom').

• Ria Novosti has a six-part series on Russian sects and 'out-there' religious groups and movements. Part IV deals with the continued propagation of magic beliefs throughout the former Soviet Union. The article focuses on papers and people advertising magical services.

  "People in Russia are far more drawn to magical services than to psychiatrists or psychoanalysts," Mikhail said. "They believe more in miracles than people in the West. And they really love a show."

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  Olga had her own theory as to the popularity of magical services in Russia.

  "It's much more interesting," she said. "When you go to a psychoanalyst, you have to tell him your problems. Here, psychics and clairvoyants tell you your problems. That's far, far better."

• The blog Dalton Road, has a rather extensive entry about Slavic Mythology, and the hurdles faced in trying to reconfigure a pantheon without a written theogony. Our understanding of ancient Slavic Myth is passed down from ritual, archaeological data and outsider accounts. The author gives the warning:

  When dealing with Slavic mythology, one cannot be too careful or too critical about the validity and authenticity of sources. Scholarly interest in beliefs of ancient Slavs has been continually waxing since the times of the Renaissance, and with it the overall number of confusions, errors, misinterpretations, and unsupported reconstructions (not to mention inventions) has also increased.

  The unnamed author of this article give a good account of the archaeological evidence of our knowledge of the Slavic pantheon. I would recommend this article for those looking for a thorough introductory overview to the subject. While doing my due diligence on this article, I found out that it is a word-for-word copy of the wikipedia entry on Slavic Mythology! Ha!
• Аргументы и факты announces the arrival of the first animated film to bring together all the heroes of Russian Tales. "Три богатыря и Шамаханская царица" (The Three Bogatyrs and the Shamakhan Princess) brings together the bogatyrs Alyosha Popovich, Dobrynya Nikitich and Ilya Muromets.