Myth and Fairy Tale – A Slavic Angle

I have always adored myths and legends. Growing up, I was addicted to stories of the Greek Gods, King Arthur and other such tales. I also enjoyed fairy tales and read them avidly. My favorite was one called Rumpelstiltskin. Imagine being able to turn straw into gold? Just like an alchemist. Old Rumpelstilskin is depicted as an Imp or Goblin-type creature but the name is also reminiscent of the German words for a poltergeist. The girl eventually goes ‘deep’ into the woods where she watches him singing and reveals his name. According to some sources, this story or a variant of it could be up to 4,000 years old! Notice how the girl goes deep into the woods… order to earn the name of the Imp.

Fairy tales and myths are stories brought to us through the centuries and were often from a verbal origin. These tales were passed from generation to generation as an oral tradition before being collected and embellished in more recent times. They contain great wisdom and I happen to believe great ‘occult’ wisdom too. They appeal to all and provide a way and a means to pass on knowledge to each new generation.

Recently, it struck me that living in the Czech Republic, I am not so familiar with the Slavic fairy tales and myths. Yes, I have alluded to some in my short book of Czech ghost stories such as the founding myth in which three brothers cast out of their own land find and found the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia (Čech, Lech and Mech). I have watched the very many movies made locally that cover a lot of the more common fairy tales over and over again (It appears to be a Czech tradition to have these movies on TV every year at Christmas and other significant times). Yet, having lived here 14-years, I have little knowledge of the Slavic Gods nor the myths and legends of that culture. It is time I learned a little.

I suspect it was the visit to Hostyn that caused me to realize this. As I searched to try to explain to my own satisfaction why an image of the baby Jesus was depicted like Zeus, I reached out to Sue Vincent and Stuart France. They pointed to a Celtic deity synonymous with Zeus and that was the link to Perun, the sky God of the Slavs. In turn, this led to the tales of the duality of Perun and Veles like this account from wkipedia……






And in that few words, we can see immediately a solar and a seasonal aspect to this myth as well as even perhaps a tree of life? Interesting too that the underworld God Veles is symbolized by a dragon or serpent representing earth energies? Interesting also that his world is watery. Meanwhile, Perun is airy representing the sky and upper world and fiery by virtue of the weapons at his disposal – so we have also four elements. The story also hints of finding balance between the elements as does the hexagram which is nothing but a representation of the four elements at a minimum. So there is also an As above, So below here. You see, there is so much occult knowledge communicated in just this paraphrasing of the myth, one has to marvel at our ancestors.




Now even before I really began, I can see some really intriguing elements to these Slavic Gods. The symbol for Perun is a Haxagon…. In their eternal battle, Perun is often depicted on horseback lancing Veles depicted as a dragon or serpent……. Now, where have I seen that image before?


8th Century image of Perun defeating Veles


So, in addition to exploring the land in search of earth energies in my adopted land, I am now wanting to explore Slavic myth, legend and fairy tale to try to understand how they – the Slavs who occupied this part of the world, saw the land that they had adopted when standing on the mount north of Prague called Mount Říp. Here, the three Slavs Čech, Lech and Mech, looked over the lands they would adopt and inhabit… so the myth says.


Mount Říp



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