Rodnovery 101: Dola and Niedola
The concept of fate, as well as Gods responsible for spinning it, are known in pretty much all the cultures created by the human kind. They are – or rather: were – also known to the pre-Christian Slavs. Our ancestors believed that the task of creating or spinning the fate of a human belongs to Goddesses[1], most frequently called Rozhanitsy, Narecnitsy, and Sudzhenitsy (or versions of those names; to keep things simple I am going to call those Goddesses Rozhanitsy). According to the beliefs of our ancestors there were three (seldom two) Rozhanitsy, and they arrived at the time of birth of a child, to spin the child’s Dola (or, among the Southern Slavs – Sreća/Sudbina[2]; again, to keep things simple, I will use the term Dola). So we can say that Dola of a Slav was a Gods’ gift, given to a child when he/she was born. And it was a gift like no other.
Dola is frequently translated as “fate” or “destiny”, but it does not seem to be a quite accurate translation. Considering the importance of Dola in the life of a Slav, Dola should be seen rather as a set of personality traits, skills, abilities and talents assigned to a person at birth. In the literature the most commonly cited example of how Dola works, is an example of a “farmer” Dola “assigned” to a merchant. In this example the merchant, because of his “mismatched” Dola, is not able to achieve any success in trade or any other not agricultural business, no matter how hard he tries. And no wonder – a farmer, in order to do well in life, needs completely different personality, skills, abilities and talents than a merchant. The concept of Dola (or Niedola, so a “bad” Dola) does not involve fate or destiny – like length of life, quality of life, “destined” life partner or number of children. The Slavic Dola determines one’s attitude towards life, one’s temperament, talents or abilities required to achieve success in various, lets call it, career fields.
There can be no doubt that having properly span Dola was extremely important for our ancestors. When a child was being born, Pre-Christian Slavs not only prayed and gave offerings to Rozhanitsy, but also tried their hardest to create an environment, which was friendly and inviting for the Goddesses. They did that because upsetting or angering Rozhanitsy could affect the quality of the spinning of Dola. In the worse case scenario, if the treatment of or the offerings to the Goddesses were not satisfactory or even disrespectful, instead of a “proper” Dola Rozhanitsy could spin for the newborn Niedola – so a very, very bad “fate”.
Drop spindle (Upper Silesian Museum, Bytom)
It’s hard to say how many of the modern Rodnovers have Dolas which were spun by happy and content (with the offerings, prayers and good treatment) Rozhanitsy. I guess not very many. Most of us were born in unhospitable and sterile hospitals, without prayers, offerings or a beautifully set table, waiting for the arrival of Rozhanitsy – all of which was necessary to please the Goddesses. Therefore, I think, we can easily assume that our Dolas are, in the best case, span slapdash from a frail thread, or are in fact Niedolas – “bad”, “cursed” and “miserable” Dolas, created by angered by disrespectful treatment Goddesses. That is, of course, presuming, that we actually have any Dolas at all.
It is unfortunately not possible to establish with certainty why Rozhanitsy arrive in the time of childbirth and what makes Them spin Dolas. And, unless we discover new sources of information about pre-Chrisitan Slavs, we will never know. This is why not a single modern Rodnover can be sure if he or she has a Dola at all.
If it’s the act of childbirth that calls Rozhanitsy and makes Them spin a child’s Dola, it is possible that the Goddesses were present at the time of the birth of each of us. As long, of course, the Goddesses are not limited by the territorial reach of the Slavic land – in this case Slavs born on a foreign land would have no Dolas at all. It’s also possible, that Rozhanitsy arrive only when a child of Slavic blood is born, or – what cannot be ruled out – only if They are called in by with a proper ritual. All this unknowns regarding the nature and, lets call it, “motivations” of the Goddesses are really the only reason why some sort of “ethnical” element could be necessary in the Slavic Native Faith. Unfortunately it is not possible to say what “ethnical” element could be necessary here – is it the ethnicity of the child, of the midwife, or other people assisting in the childbirth, prayers, offerings and rituals performed to call in Rozhanitsy? Or, perhaps, this “ethnic” requirement is the place of birth, which in this case, would have to be “ethnically” Slavic land? But, if that’s the case we have another problem – which land should we consider “ethnically” Slavic? Lets not forget the geographical localisation of “the cradle of the Slavs” is not known, and, on top of that, the lands inhabited by Slavs in the over-thousand-years long history of Slavic people, are not necessary consistent with the borders of countries considered “Slavic” in the modern times.
Thankfully for the modern Rodnovers Dola (or Niedola) was not set in stone, and could be changed. A pre-Christian Slav could shape, influence or convince his or her Dola to change, although, obviously, it was not easy. It also seems that a pre-Christian Slav could exchange his/her Dola for a different one, or, for example, take over Dola of one of his/hers ancestors (which, possibly, led Procopius of Caesarea to claim that Slavs don’t believe in destiny – because Slavs believed that they can always change it). So, if our ancestors could shape, influence or even swap their Dolas, for sure we are able to do it too. Regardless of how frail, torn or not-existent our Dolas are, we can change it too.
To cheat the destiny
In the previous post we discussed the entry requirements necessary to step on and follow the path of Slavic Native Faith. Those requirements – known ancestors, abandoning daily prayers and becoming a member of a strong community of reasonable people – are obligatory for every Rodnover in order to, among others, find (or: change/swap), get to know and develop a mutually beneficial relationship with our Dolas. Such mutually beneficial relationship is absolutely necessary not only to achieve any success in life, but also to simply survive.
We know that Dola, if its expectations and needs are not met, can, in the worst case “become bad” and turn into Niedola, or – in a not so bad case – become malevolent and act against the Slav, to whom it was “assigned” with the power of Rozhanitsy. Those malevolent actions of Dola against “assigned to it” human always ended (and still end) bad for the human. On the other side however Dola, that is in sync with “its” human (so the expectations and needs of Dola are in line of what the “assigned” human does with his or her life) always acts in favour of “its” human, becomes a protective spirit, bringing prosperity and well-being to “its” human.
It is important to note that the expectations and need of any Dola are very individual and depend on the nature of a particular Dola. Therefore one can have a „farmer” Dola, a Dola that wants to live from cultivation of the land and “refuses” to make living in any other way – so brings misfortune to the “assigned” human, if he/she does for living anything else than cultivating the land. There can be Dolas, which want to, for example, live disorderly and wasteful life and help “their” humans live such lives, becoming angry and unhappy at the very hint of “their” humans attempting to straight themselves up. The existence of such Dolas explain cases of playboys or hustlers, who, despite lack of stability or responsibility in their lives, always seem to do well for themselves, and, if they try to abandon their hustling ways, they somehow can’t get it right. This is why is so important for a Slav to find and understand his or her own Dola, to identify the Dola’s individual preferences and: either respect and follow those preferences, or – if the Slav wants to change his/her life - take a well thought out and well planned steps to change the preferences of the Dola or the Dola itself.
And here we get to the point on the path of our ancestors, when close bonds with our ancestors become absolutely necessary. Knowing that a Dola can be “inherited” from previous generations, it suddenly makes sense, that knowing the life, personalities, talents and chosen lifestyle of our ancestors is one of the most essential tools, which we can use to identify, find or acquire a Dola which is synced with our needs. To better explain the above statement I will use an example, which, I’d like to stress, is not entirely made up.
Imagine that you’re a woman, in her 30ties, born and raised in Poland. Your whole life, both your family and the society kept telling you that having a husband and children is the only life goal worth achieving. So – either believing them, or wanting them off your case – you got yourself a husband, and you have children together. And you are miserable. What more, it seems that nothing goes right in your life. You argue with your husband constantly, your children are disrespectful towards you, your mother in law constantly criticises you, your work is exhausting and makes you depressed, and your parents keep telling you that you should pull yourself together. Because you have it all.
At a very boring family dinner, a cousin shows you a photo album. Or maybe you find this album yourself, while cleaning the house of your grandmother? However you find it – you look at old family pictures and on some of them you see an unknown woman. You ask around and you learn out that the woman, lets call her Jadwiga, was your grand grandmother’s sister. You didn’t hear about her before, because she was your family’s black sheep. It turns out that Jadwiga, when she was 16 years old, she ran away from home to live out of wedlock with a neighbour’s son. As it often happens the relationship did not last. After a few years or maybe even months the neighbour’s son married another girl and Jadwiga became a laughing stock for the whole town. She also lost any chances of ever finding a decent husband. And the fact she did not get pregnant with the neighbour’s son did not help. When the new wife of the neighbour’s son gave birth to twins, the town quickly concluded that Jadwiga was not only a whore but she also barren. Which zeroed any chances of finding any husband – good or bad – at all. According to any standards of the society in those times, that should be the end of Jadwiga’s life, but, somehow, Jadwiga did not give up. Quite the opposite, she fought back. She got herself a job, she ignored the hateful looks, she walked with her head up and one day she met a rich Frenchman, who fell in love with her. With the Frenchman she left for Paris and then, shortly before the 2nd World War, they moved to, let say, New York. Where, as the story goes, she quickly became a widow and spent the rest of her life wasting the Frenchman’s fortune. Which, for obvious reasons, the family could never forgive her.
As a deeply unhappy married mother of, lets say, two children, you listen to this story with excitement, awe and a bit of envy. The story of Jadwiga shows to you that a woman can be happy without children and a husband. What more – the blood of one of such women flows in your veins! You’ve always wanted to travel, learn languages and new cultures. Deep down you know, that you’ve never wanted children. For you being a mother is hard, tedious work, lacking any emotional fulfilment, promised by movies, women’s magazines, the society and your own parents. So you wonder – is it possible that you inherited the Dola of Jadwiga? Is it possible that the difference between your Dola’s expectations/needs and your own life, is the reason of the emptiness, sadness and lack of fulfilment you’re experiencing?
Let’s say that you’re a Rodnover, or at least sympathise with Slavic native Faith. Lets say that you know the concept of Dola and the ways in which an unfulfilled Dola can ruin the life of “its” human. Lets say that one evening, following your intuition, you sit at your kitchen table and start a conversation with your Dola, which used to be the Dola of your cousin-grand-grandmother Jadwiga. As the Slavic tradition dictates, you make a dinner for your Dola and you eat together, talking with painful honesty about the unfulfilled dreams, frustrations, sadness and powerlessness you both share.
What will come out of this conversation? It’s entirely up to you. Perhaps you will fully surrender to the needs of your Dola, you will file for divorce and start traveling the world. Perhaps you will reach an agreement - you and your Dola - you come up with a plan incorporating your husband, your children and your freedom. Or perhaps you will find another Dola to swap places with the Dola of Jadwiga. Regardless of the outcome, learning the truth about the gifts of the Goddesses, understanding - whether you like it or not - that those gifts are a part of who you are, it’s all necessary for you to start to better your life. Without understanding the nature of your Dola (or Niedola) you can’t really grasp what is wrong with your life. Without discovering and understanding the nature of the gifts of Rozhanitsy, you can’t change those gifts or swap them for better suited ones. And knowing and communicating with your ancestors (and - let’s be honest - to your living family too) it’s a necessary element to discovered the nature of Dola - the supernatural power influencing in your life in ways you can't even imagine.
To dispel the delusions
Every one of us has some sort of picture of oneself. Unfortunately in most cases the picture we have of ourselves does not entirely (or not at all) match the reality. But to get to know and understand our Dolas, to understand who we are, and what (if anything) is wrong with our lives, the picture we have of ourselves has to match the reality as close as possible. And this is why we need the friendship and advice of people, who are mentally and emotionally stable, and care about us enough to tell us when and how we fall into a trap of delusions. To better explain this I am going to give an example - this time an example fully based on actual people and events:
Imagine that you are a man, in his 50ties. And you have nothing. Once upon a time you had a dream to become a marine biologist and make your own under-water documentaries. You even had a plan how to achieve it, but the terrible, unfair life got in the way and shattered your dreams. Instead of making under-water documentaries, you had to go to work and tolerate dumb bosses, dumb co-workers and even more dumb clients. Your wife was always on your case, nagging. Your child required your time, attention and money – pulling you away from your dreams. Honestly, you don’t even regret your family leaving you. You also don’t miss seeing your child. And you don’t miss your job, which you lost because of this idiot – your boss. If only the bank gave you one more loan, for sure in 6 months, a year at the most, the world would finally notice and appreciate your talent and unique ways you – only you – can capture the mysteries of the coral reefs. But the bank – as mean and stupid as your ex-bosses – doesn’t want to give you this loan. “Well…” you tell yourself, pouring your soul into hateful and mean comments on the social media, “such is life. Such is my Dola”.
If you really understood the concept of Slavic Dola, you would know that lack of success in your life is the result of “having” Niedola – which you either created yourself, by not listening to your Dola, or you got your Niedola from Rozhanitsy and you were too lazy to change it. If you really understood the Slavic concept of strong and supportive community, you would have listened to the advice or suggestions of people, who, truly caring about you, pointed out the mistakes in your plans. But, because you live in delusions, which you replaced the reality with, you pushed away those people, calling them toxic. And you found yourself “friends”, who, like you, have Niedolas, and who “support” you and reassure you in your delusions.
In the XXI century, the Western culture, which most of were brought up in, is a culture that takes away responsibility for our actions. According to psychologist and even scientist, nothing we do wrong, nothing that goes wrong, is really our fault. Our obesity is the fault of hormones, corporations, mass media, governments – the fault of everything, but not ours. Addictions are caused by childhood traumas, toxic society, genetics, everything but never ever by the fact that we allow ourselves to become addicted. Divorce, crime, domestic violence, ecological disasters, pollution, pandemics – it’s all caused by something or somebody else, but never in the million years has it ever been caused by us. Nowadays even if you jump into a pool, knowing that you cannot swim, and you drown, it is not (according to the modern theories) your fault, but the fault of those, who did not warn you that, if you cannot swim, you can drown in a swimming pool. According to the incontestable doctrine of the modern, Western civilisation, we, the regular folk, we are amazing. We are unique, one and only. We are rough diamonds and we can do anything. And if this omnipotence of ours doesn’t work – we should never ever blame ourselves. We should instead blame the society, genetics, parents, corporations, patriarchal hierarchy, and other evil “them”.
It’s really easy to ride the waves of the modern trends, stripping us from any personal responsibility. It’s so easy to wrap yourself in layers of delusions and self-deception, explaining your life failures in a way, that allows you to remain an innocent victim. Although such self-deceptive view of reality allows us – in the short term – to feel better, in the long term it only makes our situation worse (because, living in delusions, we don’t address the real issues) and opens the doors for pathologies such as alcoholism, drug addition, Nazism, racism, xenophobia, family breakdown etc, etc.
Lets not forget: Slavs, who live in sync with their Dolas, are happy and content with their lives. Their lives are going well and good fortune follows. Because Dola is not only fate, but also a protective spirit. If you live in sync with your Dola, whatever you do – you find it enjoyable and – most importantly – it just works. If you live in sync with your Dola you don’t feel ashamed, disappointed, empty or frustrated. You don’t have to suffer, live in delusions or lies, including self-deception.
Lying to yourself, pretending to be somebody you’re not, rejecting responsibility for your own actions and following more or less narcissistic delusions is not healthy, neither for you, not for the people closest to you. Hiding or being ashamed of congenital traits – such as, for example, lack of maternal instinct – increases the risk of many illnesses, the risk of premature death and pretty much makes it impossible to build a fulfilling life. This is why it’s so very important that we, the modern Rodnovers, firstly: find and embrace our Dolas; and secondly: stop rejecting or criticising the Dolas of our brothers and sisters. Every one of us should focus on following his/her own path, following the wisdom of the ancestors and the old Slavic Gods. Our Dola (or Niedola) is our guide on this path. If we notice that we are losing strength, when our feet become heavy and the path – full of hardship and misfortune, we should start paying very close attention to the whispers of our Dolas. We can hear those whispers through discovering the life of our ancestors, through confronting the lies we are telling ourselves to feel better, and thought the help and advice of people, who live in sync with their Dolas – and therefore – their lives go well.
Slava!
Bibliography:
S. Urbańczyk „Religia pogańskich Słowian”
A. Cerny „Istoty mityczne Serbów”
R. Trives „ Deceit and Self-Deception“
Warm thank you to Душан Божић, from Луг Велеса, for sharing his knowledge about beliefs and traditions of the Southern Slavs.
[1] The beliefs of Western Serbs are an exception here. Western Serbs believe, that human fate is created by a God called Usud. It’s hard to say how old or Slavic is Usud, but considering the dominance of Rozhanitsy in the rest of the Slavdom, I will mention Usud here, without considering him in my reasoning.
[2] In beliefs of some Southern Slavs fate, span for a child by Goddesses (or a God, see above) consist of unchangeable Sreća, which in turn is a part of changeable Sudbina. Sreća stays the same for the whole life of a person, but the negative influence of “bad” Sreća can be, if needed, overturned or avoided by, for example, marrying a person with “good” Sreća and signing over all the material goods to the spouse. In this way the material goods of the person with “bad” Sreća are taken over by the person with “good” Sreća – hence the “bad” Sreća cannot control it.
An example of such a smart move to change one’s fate is beautifully shown in a tale of Usud, which you can read here. The tale is written in Serbian, but Google translate actually doesn’t do such a bad job in translating it, so hopefully the not-Slavic speakers can enjoy the story too.