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25 September 2012

s is for Sretya

A little over a year ago, I began a new spiritual path with the goddess Sretya. I didn't know much about her at the time. I still don't feel as though I know enough. There's precious little information available online, and less in texts which are available in English, and on amazon. She's one who has been relegated to the dreaded repeating paragraph, much-copied but never cited:

(doh-lya | sret-yah | srech-ah) goddess of good fortune and luck, bringer of joy and happyness, assistant of the household and welfare goddess Makosh. Sryashta is represented as a gold-curled maiden, who, just like Makosh, often spins golden yarn. Inside it she weaves people's fate or better - the good parts of their fate. Often Sryashta travells around the world and can appear before everybody - once as a girl, once as a boy. She would request a small favour, ask this or that and, if the man is good, helpful and respectful, she gives him good luck. If the man is peppery, unobliging or say bad words for gods, Sryashta turns her face off him and happiness hever comes to such person. Dolya is the East-Slavic variant of South-Slavic Sryashta."

That's one of the more robust versions, which I found here

More commonly, this is the precise paragraph I found: 

"Sreća (English: happiness, luck, also spelled Sretya, pronounced "srech-ah") is a Serbian goddess of fate.
She spins the thread of life, as an assistant to the great Goddess Makosh. Her role is the same as the Slavic Goddess Dolya, bringing luck to those Makosh smiles upon, except that she was also responsible for protecting the flocks and fields of farmers. Her name is also seen as Sreca, Sretja, and Sretya."

Yep, good ol' Wikipedia. At least that one cited its source... which didn't have any additional information, nor did it give any indication of its source(s). 

Le sigh.

At times, she seems to be conflated with a Domovoi...

Note where this blogger said Sretya (Dolya) lives. 

"Dolya (pronounced DOLE-yah) is the Slavic Goddess of luck. She is said to live behind the stove in the family home. When she is happy, she appears as a beautiful young maiden and bestows good luck on all the inhabitants of the house." 

To compare

The protector of the house. Every home had its own domovoe who dwelled behind the oven and who might abandon the house if he was not properly honored. The Domovois protected not only the human inhabitants of the house but their herds and household animals as well."

I have to wonder, after seeing these, if Sretya wasn't confused with Domovoi in both where she lived (behind the stove seems like a very unlikely place for such a mobile and happy goddess) and in her domain - note the barely-paraphrased wording describing her protection of farmers' production as repeated in the Domovoi description. 


Each of these, trying vainly to be a primary source, fails to cite their sources in any capacity. I'm not even necessarily looking for academic citations, just something  to indicate their legitimacy; even "my grandma told me so" would work. 


So here's a little of my own UPG/semi-educated guesses: 

Sretya is life - the nurturing side of fate. She is warm as a sunny day, but though endlessly kind, she does not suffer fools. Her mercy is in leaving, which she will do with a smile on her face, pity in her heart, and a song on her lips. 

She's difficult for me to work with, primarily due to my difficulties with negative thoughts. She's there, smiling at me, but I have trouble letting go of those things which keep me from being happy, and thereby keep me from fully embracing life. Obviously, it's worth the work for me to keep trying. 

I haven't yet found any literature referencing any sort of animal connections with her, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if she were fond of otters, dogs, or songbirds. 


  1. I do love it when the gods of Wikipedia *grin* get their things straight and make my work easier.

    Love your take on Sretya.

  2. I feel your pain, as my Goddess is rarely found anywhere either. Love your explanation (does that word fit?) of Sretya though. Very beautifully put!

    Thank you for linking up to PPBH!