SVAROG – the Supreme God

Many gods were the object of their worship but, according to ancient stories and tales, it is believed that the Croats considered one God as the greatest and the mightiest of all, the creator of heaven and earth, the embodiment of honor and justice who created the world and the people in it. The name of that god was preserved in all Slavic peoples. He is to the most Svarog or Stari Vid, also known as Svarun, Prabog (or Ancient God), Staribog or the highest god (Višnji). His opposite and his enemy – Crnobog or the Black God, was born from his shadow. He is the force of darkness, suffering and misfortune, embodied evil, so powerful that in ancient times the world was always in danger of disturbing the balance of nature and falling into an era of darkness and suffering. Svarog, although benevolent and mild in nature, was the only one who knew how to put an end to Crnobog, or the Black God, and suppress his action by the power of his divine wrath.

Image source: goodfon.com
Svarog by Varyag1147

A messenger from the heavens

Before the nations began to believe in one God, faith was already smoldering in them, only it was not yet embodied in the divine image, but first in the animalized and personified natural forces. For the Slavs, in the animal world Svarog was represented by an eagle, which is found on his chest on many statues. This comes as a no surprise given that a huge eagle, Svarog’s Giant Bird or Div-ptica was a faithful helper and messenger of the old god that lived in the vast canopy of the world's trees since the creation of the world. An eagle was a gift of Svarog to his sons Perun and Svantevid, an animal with magical powers, an offspring of the Giant Bird adorned with courage, wisdom and the ability to speak.

According to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, no deity has a more significant and noticeable function than Svarog has. He is the only deity who, by his significance, takes on the role of a Christian God, while other gods are mostly associated with saints. Svarog is the Ancestor of all and his children are Svarozici, that is deities of the sun and the moon; thunder, rain and lightning. It was he who coined the sun and set it up in the sky and is considered to be the God of fire and the heat. Svarog also taught people how to process steel, and so he was given the function of the protector of blacksmiths. Svarog as a blacksmith himself could therefore have originated in the Iron Age when this blacksmith craft was considered to be magical and gifted to the people by the gods. Iron was processed by fire, and fire itself is sacred. Finally, his last and possibly most important contribution was the creation of the two circles of time, one of the ground and one of space.

Image source: wikimedia.org
Svarog by Dominika Sikora – makota

In many representations of him, Svarog was often depicted with a hammer, because during the creation of the Earth he struck the top of the Alatir mountain, from whose sparks other gods arose. Svarog is sometimes also portrayed as a sleeping god who created the world in a dream, which is why a great importance is given to his function as a god of the higher heavens, a god on a spiritual level. He does not act directly on the physical or material, but acts spiritually and affects the will of other gods he entrusted to take care of the world. It is believed that his awakening will mark the end of the world so the last thing we want is to wake him up isn’t it? I sincerely hope he sleeps like a log, but just to be on the safe side, let’s lower our voices and switch off the alarm.