On The Archetypal Symbolism Of The Red Rooster And The Firebird

On The Archetypal Symbolism Of The Red Rooster And The Firebird
On The Archetypal Symbolism Of The Red Rooster And The Firebird
Anonim

I practice the active imagination technique in a group form. This allows me to get acquainted with the images of the collective unconscious of ordinary Russians without regularly sitting on local forums or referring to the nonsense feeds of social networks. Once in a group, in the story of one of the participants, we met the archetypal image of the Firebird.

This is how the archetype of this symbol became clear to me. In Russian folklore, there is the Red Rooster, also known to us as the Golden Cockerel from Pushkin's fairy tale. Its fiery, destructive symbolism is quite transparent. In fact, this is an ancient Slavic animalistic deity Svarozhich. This is not at all the son of Svarog, but a mistake of the chronicler of the Tale of Bygone Years.

Recently, N. I. Zubov suggested that there was no deity Svarog in Slavic mythology. Unlike the personified fire, Svarozhich, the name of Svarog is mentioned in sources only once. In this single mention, the erroneous interpretation of the name "Svarozhich" as "the son of Svarog", which was made by the scribe to adequately translate the legend from the Chronicle, is quite probable. In fact, there is no great reason to consider the name of God "Svarozhich" as a patronymic (patronymic). Nobody considers Muscovites to be Mosca's children:)

I like the origin of his name from the word swara. This is exactly how Svarozhich behaves with Pushkin.

According to the testimony of Titmar of Merseburg, the idol of Svarozhich was installed in the land of the rats, in the city of Radagost, which later chroniclers, due to an error, began to call Retra. Svarozhich was the most revered deity of the ratars. In his Chronicle, Titmar reports:

In the city [Radegost] there is nothing but a sanctuary skillfully constructed of wood, the base of which is the horns of various animals. Outside, as you can see, the walls are decorated with skillfully carved images of various gods and goddesses. Inside, there are handcrafted idols, each with a name carved, dressed in helmets and armor, giving them a scary look. The main one is called Svarozhich; all pagans respect and revere him more than the rest.

It's funny how in the light of the understanding of the fact that the rooster is the spirit of fire, the Russian fairy tale Fox and the Hare is transformed. The fox (animal of Winter-Kostroma) takes away his house from the Hare (totem of the spring sun-Yarila). The spirit of fire comes to their aid. Yes, this is the mystery of Komoeditsa, she is Shrovetide. But here the fire is aggressive.

The Firebird is different. She is not just one of many in a series of Slavic birds of paradise: Gamayun, Sirin, Alkanost … But unlike the last bird-maidens, she only lives in the Garden of Eden of Iria, in a golden cage. At night, she flies out of it and illuminates the garden with herself as brightly as thousands of lighted fires.

The catch of the firebird is fraught with great difficulties and is one of the main tasks that the tsar father and sons set in the fairy tale. Only the youngest son manages to get the firebird. The mythologists explained the firebird as the personification of fire, light, sun. The Firebird feeds on golden apples, which give youth, beauty and immortality; when she sings, pearls fall from her beak. The feathers of the firebird have the ability to shine and with their brilliance amaze a person's eyes, wings are like tongues of flame. The singing of the firebird heals the sick and restores sight to the blind.

But this is creative, healing and transforming fire. How did food, clay, sand and ore change in the fire for our ancestors? They not only transformed, like the firebird itself, who knows how to turn into a girl. They became something new, shiny, beautiful and useful - glass and metal. Think about what the usual fairy tale about the Hare and the Fox looks like after that. If you remember that the dolboslavs consider the hare to be the avatar of the god of the spring sun and fertility Yarila, and the Fox as the goddess Mary or Kostroma. Here is the cockerel, who comes to Yarila to help out in order to drive the Fox out of the bast hut, not a simple Red Rooster burning Kostroma on Shrovetide, but Svarozhich himself.

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