Goddess Devana wandered through the forests day and night. Her vestment was a bearskin, and in her hands this girl tightly clutched a bow. She hunted down sick animals, breeding predators, poachers and strangers, maintaining the delicate balance of the ancient forest ecosystem. The day of the goddess Devana was celebrated by our ancestors as a tribute to this patroness of hunting and fur farming. She helped both animals and hunters. "The moon shines on everyone: both hunters and victims" - that's her motto. Who is she, the Slavic goddess Devan?
Origin
Our heroine was the daughter of Perun and Diva Dodola, also known as Perunitsa. From childhood, she was distinguished by remarkable strength and dexterity, and therefore she became interested in hunting quite early. Growing up in the halls of her father Perun, she had a secret passion for thickets, tundras and wide fields, and therefore more often than her other relatives visited the mortal world.
Having taken her niche in the pantheon of Slavic deities, the goddess Devana became the patroness of hunting and everything connected withnature. Animals fear and respect her, because only this fragile girl with a bow and in a bearskin really decides their destinies, in the heat of rage destroying entire biological species if they did not fit into a harmonious forest ecosystem. The hunters revered the goddess Devana, because it was she who patronized their difficult and dangerous craft.
Functions
As mentioned earlier, it is this goddess who is responsible for order in the forest thicket. Sometimes she helped negligent hunters, leading them to the desired game. Well, sometimes, on the contrary, she took the side of the unfortunate animals, if the truth was on the side of the latter. For example, the goddess Devana will never allow the killing of a pregnant female of any animal. Since she is accompanied by two ferocious wolves, she has a special, inseparable bond with these predators. She is also connected to the Moon through the wolves.
Ruthless and fair
Besides wolves, goddess Dewana obeys bears, foxes and owls. They all fear and respect her. The gaze of the goddess can turn back a large brown bear, disperse a pack of wolves, kill a deer and cause a heart attack in a negligent hunter who dares to encroach on a virgin forest thicket.
Getting the grace of this goddess is very, very difficult. Some Slavs believed that she helps only those hunters who she liked with something - say, a daring disposition, a hunting talent or a pretty appearance. Unable to give her heart and share a bed with a mortal she likedAs a man, the goddess Devana gave him her trademark "love gifts": she could bring a deer right under a flying bow arrow, direct a hunter to a coveted and rare game, save his life at the most dangerous moment. Despite the harsh temper and atypical craft for a woman, the character of this goddess is still very feminine.
Parallels with ancient mythology
For sophisticated connoisseurs of mythology, it is quite obvious that Dewana is the absolute analogue of the ancient Greek Artemis and the ancient Roman Diana. With the latter, it is also united by a clearly similar name. As in the case of these two representatives of the ancient pantheon, the bow and arrows are the symbol of the goddess Devana. She also has a militant, mysterious, somewhat stern disposition, but at the same time she is prone to amorousness and manifestations of femininity. Just like Diana and Artemis, Devana simultaneously patronizes hunting and wildlife. However, the figure of Artemis is much more universal and meaningful, which, however, does not detract from the special charm and charm of our Slavic Devana.
From the point of view of Jungianism and integral traditionalism
According to the Jungian school of psychology, every god and every mythological creature is only a reflection of the ancient archetypes encrypted in our subconscious. If we apply this logic to mythological parallels, it becomes obvious that Artemis, Diana and Devan are the expression of the same archetypes, manifested differently in three different peoples. And if you remember that many otherspeoples, including non-Europeans, also had their own goddesses patronizing hunters, it becomes obvious that the Jungian approach, if not entirely correct, then at least very remarkable and gives food for thought.
From the point of view of the philosophy of integral traditionalism, developed by René Guénon, all religions and mystical traditions have one common primordial root. In terms of this approach, Artemis, Diana and Devana are the same goddess who took different names in three different but common mythological traditions.
