VENERATION OF THE HOLY STONE VOLAS: HISTORICAL EVIDENCE AND MODERN PRACTICES

Abstract

The paper is about the tradition of worshiping the cult stone Volas near the village of Kryzhovka, Minsk region. All known published and unpublished information about the cult stone is analyzed. Based on the author’s observations and polls, the modern cult of this boulder is characterized. The worship of the Volas stone is not associated with pre-сhristian times. The cult arose in the end of the 19th – early 20th century.
 The case of the Volas stone is interesting and peculiar because of combining various rather rare and archaic elements of traditional cult practices. Such an atypical combination may call into question the reliability of known information about the Volas stone. However, as it was shown in the article, the name, topography, motive of the legend, the function of treating animals, donations (towels, wool, horns, tails) and skulls hung on the trees around boulder, find their correspondences both in the Belarusian tradition and among other peoples.
 It is assumed that originally the boulder was not a place of religious worship of a deity, but was used in ritual and magical folk practices in order to save animals from diseases and protect them from harmful effects. The process of new mythologization, the emergence and evolution of a new custom of worship in the mainstream of modern paganism is clearly traced on the example of the stone Volas. Today this place is considered as the sanctuary of Veles/Volos. The formation of the modern tradition of veneration, as we can see, was influenced by the literary reconstructions of the Veles/Volos cult. Some of the new forms of worship do not contradict popular traditions. This can be explained by the good knowledge of special literature by modern pagans. At the same time, it’s not mechanical reconstruction, but natural worship with the appearance of new meanings.