Folk Orthodoxy

[uralmaenad]

Any baptized Orthodox Christians that practice folk Orthodoxy here? I was raised folk Orthodox but have been a practicing pagan for over 13 years. I am a devout polytheist engaging in the worship of Slavic deities and maintain a separate Mediterranean occult and worship practice. At the same time, I definitely feel a hidden longing for the community and established tradition that the Orthodox Church provides. I can never fully dive into it because I cannot deny my belief in (and love for) the multiplicity of gods but at the same time, Orthodoxy does draw me back in.

Does anyone have any insights and experiences with folk Orthodoxy that they would like to share? Or any discussions to be had? It’s not something I can go to my family for help with because at this point they look to me for spiritual perspectives (for better or for worse, I’m not sure if I know any more than they do aside from a degree in religious history, which doesn’t necessarily provide wisdom).

Are there any saints you are particularly fond of? Any specific practices you’ve been raised with or have established? Special prayers you recite?

 

[Amadeus]

A few experiences.
I experimented with the Slavic deities for a short brief period of time. There were some texts which I used to call to them, similar to the Orthodox saint prayers. I kept spamming them for a while and then something happened, dreams, some outcomes. This was a very long time ago though and I can barely remember what happened. I picked some of those main deities like Veles. The approach was all about prayers, as an offering, spamming and directing it to them. It did catch the attention of something, I can remember very vivid and clear dreams of them appearing like smoke & mist and fading away like that.

These practices are more common in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine. I have a feeling though that there aren't many of such practitioners here.

I don't have those prayers anymore though, I had them on my old PC and the hard drive messed up, probably got them off the search engine somewhere, a collection of invocations & prayers to the Slavic deities, should be easy to find. They were like hmm... praises-calls-requests to the deities. I also improvised a few lines. Maybe the library has something over here

The Orthodox saint work, prayers, psalms and hesychasm made me spiritually very open. This made it possible to somehow easily get connected to those deities too.

 

[uralmaenad]

A few experiences.
I experimented with the Slavic deities for a short brief period of time. There were some texts which I used to call to them, similar to the Orthodox saint prayers. I kept spamming them for a while and then something happened, dreams, some outcomes. This was a very long time ago though and I can barely remember what happened. I picked some of those main deities like Veles. The approach was all about prayers, as an offering, spamming and directing it to them. It did catch the attention of something, I can remember very vivid and clear dreams of them appearing like smoke & mist and fading away like that.

These practices are more common in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine. I have a feeling though that there aren't many of such practitioners here.

I don't have those prayers anymore though, I had them on my old PC and the hard drive messed up, probably got them off the search engine somewhere, a collection of invocations & prayers to the Slavic deities, should be easy to find. They were like hmm... praises-calls-requests to the deities. I also improvised a few lines. Maybe the library has something over here

The Orthodox saint work, prayers, psalms and hesychasm made me spiritually very open. This made it possible to somehow easily get connected to those deities too.

Yes, I have a good and established relationship with the Slavic deities I worship, particularly Mokosh and Veles. I do find that they respond well to prayers, even better when there are offerings involved. I wonder if praying to their folk saint counterparts would be redundant or provide an added layer of connection? Something I will experiment with starting today.

My babushka had/still has many, many icons surrounding her despite the fact that she primarily prays to the ancestors and local spirits and they’ve always provided me with such comfort. Balancing my polytheism and my folk Orthodox upbringing is tricky because I don’t feel fully welcome in either pagan circles or Orthodox circles.

Do you happen to remember the Psalms that you used the most and what you used them for? Or was it more contemplative for you?

 

[Amadeus]

I see, interesting. Folk saint counterparts, I suppose it could be interesting to experiment with that.
Yes the babushka. In my family there were such people too who had lots of icons and were devout to Orthodoxy. I don't know whether they dealt with the Slavic deities or not. I know my great grandmother was a very religious person. Unfortunately nobody knows anything about her, almost no information. This was just so long time ago. A lot of this information has gone missing, nobody knows, what a shame. I'm always wondering whether there were any interesting people 4-5-6-7 generations ago. Oh well... can only guess.

I've always had some interest in the Slavic deities, somewhat. I'm more interested in the Orthodox and Catholic saint work though, I've done that for a very long time and I feel very connected to all that. I have many cheap icons too, everywhere, to boost the effects. More than 50 of them in all cardinal directions, the atmosphere is like in a monastery. Small icons though but they still work well.

The psalm work is one of my main practices along with the hesychasm. I work with them a lot, so all the psalms. Which ones have I used the most? Probably 23 and 91, they have amazing effects. They make you spiritually very open, sensitive, stacked and loaded with energy (or drained, this is possible too). What I was told by some practitioners is that the psalms, when you spam a lot, you get connected to the "servants", this guy was into Sufism so they all talk about the verses and prayers having servants, servitors. The servant who is given the energy through the recitations will bring the other deities around if requested, This might be the reason why I managed to get a few of them to show up, also happened with voodoo deities. I kept spamming the psalms, then some prayers to the deities, and suddenly had dreams of them where they spoke about helping me with some goals. I know for certain that the psalms do bring around something as I've had some direct communications with them, this happened sometimes, not often though. I lack the ability to communicate with them properly, when it happens it's like a distant voice from somewhere very far and if the request gets fulfilled then you can be sure that you did not imagine it.
The Orthodox hesychasm is good for getting into altered states and clearing the mind so this makes it easier to get some interesting images, thoughts, intuition gives you some signals, messages.
If you are into both things, Orthodoxy and Slavic practices, you might want to experiment with hesychasm to crack yourself more open, become even more sensitive and then perhaps notice a big increase in the practices. The fire burns through the channels so higher sensitive unlocks.

 

[Galahad]

Any baptized Orthodox Christians that practice folk Orthodoxy here? I was raised folk Orthodox but have been a practicing pagan for over 13 years. I am a devout polytheist engaging in the worship of Slavic deities and maintain a separate Mediterranean occult and worship practice. At the same time, I definitely feel a hidden longing for the community and established tradition that the Orthodox Church provides. I can never fully dive into it because I cannot deny my belief in (and love for) the multiplicity of gods but at the same time, Orthodoxy does draw me back in.

Does anyone have any insights and experiences with folk Orthodoxy that they would like to share? Or any discussions to be had? It’s not something I can go to my family for help with because at this point they look to me for spiritual perspectives (for better or for worse, I’m not sure if I know any more than they do aside from a degree in religious history, which doesn’t necessarily provide wisdom).

Are there any saints you are particularly fond of? Any specific practices you’ve been raised with or have established? Special prayers you recite?

I converted to Orthodoxy through the Greek Church in my teens. I remained there for a few years and, then, took a hard pivot into the Left Hand Path and haven't really engaged since. There are times when I miss the Church. It still speaks to a part of me though I think it's extremely difficult to practice Orthodoxy properly. It essentially involves a form of self-evisceration which I have moved beyond the ability to do. Still, I have an odd admiration for those who can.

 

[Xingtian]

I converted to Orthodoxy too in younger years (was never raised Christian so I was baptized and all), spent about a decade in the church. Since it was in a western country, a few things I noted that might not apply as much in Greece, Russia, etc.:

• Western orthodoxy is highly bookish/pedantic/intellectual, which comes naturally to converts but which is also pretty widespread among "cradle" orthodox who are highly involved in the church. That means, on the one hand, the clergy and many of the laity tend to be better educated, but it also means they are imbued with a highly official, clericalist version of the religion.
• "Folk orthodox" practices, insofar as they are acknowledged, are either dismissed as peasant corruptions, dangerous and heretical, or they are rationalized and glossed over in a way to make them palatable to a Protestant audience (where many of the converts and convert clergy come from). I remember coming back from Turkey with a few icons I got there that had nazar amulets hanging from them and the American deacon exclaimed, "That's pagan! Those crazy Greeks put evil eyes on everything!" Whereas the priests I met in Istanbul would not have batted an eye. Suffice to say that I was presented with a very cleaned up orthodoxy as presented in dogmatic textbooks and popular catechetical books. Much like the Council of Trent can be said to have produced a Catholic religion very different in spirit from what preceded it in medieval Europe, I think this modern rationalized, sanitized Orthodoxy is something of a rupture.
• Another source of revisionism is the exaggerated contrast between western and eastern Christianity. The West is rationalist, the East is mystical, experiential, and this divide is taken to explain every disagreement and even seemingly innocuous pious practices are not immune to attack. This modern polemical attitude also thrives in "the old country" but it is counterbalanced by the weight of history and communal practice and memory, whereas in Western orthodoxy it is totally unchallenged and dominant.
• There is an overall attitude that laity should try to imitate monks as much as possible in their spiritual life, and particularly the monks who practice in accord with the prevailing program of Mount Athos. This often leads to laity bypassing parish priests to confess to monks, and taking on onerous prayer rules. Popular devotions that have a whiff of "western" influence are purged or discouraged. Alternate but equally orthodox spiritual approaches, such as that advocated by Nicholas Cabasilas, seem to have been largely forgotten except by academics. Instead laymen are trying to be hesychasts which seems to me a sure recipe for burnout, disappointment, or total delusion.

But back to you, @uralmaenad - I'd love to hear about what your experience was growing up, what orthodox practices you observed or did that you would consider "folk," how these were received in the surrounding religious climate, etc.