Mara - the goddess of death from the ancient Slavs

In the old days, the pagans of many nationalities had their own goddesses of death in mythology. They were feared and worshiped to protect their home from illness and grief associated with the loss of loved ones. Our ancestors were not an exception in this respect. The goddess of death among the Slavs bore the name of Maren, which was abbreviated as Mara. In Sanskrit, the word "mara" means "destroying", "killing." The roots of this name stretch to the Indo-European "mar / mor" associated with moraine and the epidemic. Note that the goddess of death in the mythology of the Slavs was related not only to the transition to the world of the dead, but also to the rituals of calling rain and the seasonal periods of resurrection and the death of nature.

Genealogy

According to one of the myths, Mara is the daughter of the Black Snake, who guards the passage along the Kalinov Bridge from Yavi to Nav, and the granddaughter of the Lizard, the father of the universal evil and lord of the underworld. Her husband is Koschey (one of the images of Chernobog), who by her father is her brother. From him the goddess of death gave birth to daughters: Ledyanitsa, Nemochu, Vodyanitsa, Zamora, Snezhana and others associated with crop failure, dying, cattle, etc.

The image of Mary

In Slavic beliefs, the attitude toward this character is ambivalent. In some myths, the goddess of death appears in the form of a hunched old woman with loose and long hair or a shaggy high woman dressed in a dud and all black. In other legends, Marena is a beautiful dark-haired girl in white or red clothes, which sometimes appears among the ripening loaves. From this we can conclude that for the Slavs the goddess of death was neither good nor evil. For the ancestors, it was the embodiment not so much of a nightmare as fate, on which the changes in the lives of the inhabitants of the house depended. On the one hand, it brings death, but at the same time it gives a new life. The favorite occupation of Marena is needlework. And the ancient Slavs believed that it uses yarn in the yarn of the fate of living creatures on earth. Depending on how they are woven into the pattern created by the goddess, there will be those or other turning points in life. And if the thread is cut off, then the person or other living entity will cease to exist.

The abilities of Mary

The Slavic goddess of death knows how to stop the passage of time, both locally and globally. Its possibilities are infinitely great: it controls the death and life of not only ordinary beings, but also immortal gods. In addition, Mara is a beautiful sorceress, capable of changing the world beyond recognition, but only for a short time.

How the goddess of death was worshiped

In honor of Marena, it was not customary to build temples. The goddess of death had several permanent places in which she was honored. At the same time, rituals took place not just in the open, but in an idol carved from wood. In addition, for the same purposes, sometimes on the ground, a straw image of Mary, surrounded by stones, was installed. After the ceremony was completed, all this was sorted out and either burned or thrown into the river. Honored Marena on February 15, and as a gift she was brought straw, flowers and various fruits. Very rarely, only in the years of great epidemics, animals were sacrificed to the goddess of death, depriving them of their lives directly at the altar itself.