Slavic Cosmology { The Cosmic Egg }
Part 2 of the Slavic origin stories
The story given to us by the gamayun tells of our beginnings. If you’ve heard creation stories from other cultures, you may notice similarities within these stories. And so we begin…
From Which We Were Born
It is said that there was once nothing but darkness, until the supreme creator Rod was born from a cosmic egg. { Interestingly, “rod” is also used to define family or clan }. He immediately created for himself Lada, the mother goddess of love. With this love he was able to cut through the darkness.
Rod began separating the light from the darkness, the sea from the sky, the dark from the light. Different parts of his body became elements of the universe. Dark nights from his thoughts, stars from his eyes, moon from his chest, winds from his breath, his voice became thunder and lightning and beyond.
He also created the three realms: Prav, the realm of the gods, Yav the mortal realm, and Nav the realm of the dead. At that point the world was all ocean and sky, so Rod created mother earth who immediately sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Rod was so busy creating the universe that he did not notice she was missing.
Meanwhile, Rod created Svarog, the god of the forge. Svarog in turn melded a path for the moon and the sun to follow, thus creating night and day. This alternation of day and night created waves and foam on the endless expanse of ocean.
It was then as Rod was admiring the waves that he noticed mother earth was missing. Rod frowned at this. All of his creations so far had flourished, but matka ziemia, moist mother earth, did not adhere to his whims. Undeterred, Rod asked Svarog to retrieve mother earth from the ocean floor. But Svarog was not of the waters. He worked with fire to forge and these simply did not mix.
On the horizon though, Svarog noticed a little duck. He asked the duck if she had seen mother earth. The duck replied that she was down at the bottom of the ocean. Svarog asked if she could fetch her. The duck agreed and dove down into the ocean.
After a year the duck returned, saying she couldn’t hold her breath anymore. Svarog called for Rod who created a large windstorm which churned up the ocean thereby helping to propel the duck down again, deeper this time.
She returned two years later saying she was closer but still could not reach mother earth. Svarog called upon Rod again and this time Rod created another storm, but also infused lightning into the duck. The duck dove down yet again. Then, after three years the duck returned with a branch in her mouth, a sign of mother earth.
Svarog took the branch and began creating the energy within the universe. “Warm sun, light up moon, blow wind, we must save mother earth, our nurturer”. So the wind blew the branch from Svarog’s hand into the ocean and the sun warmed the branch. As the water evaporated, moist mother earth appeared at the surface and the moon quickly cooled her down.
{ I think it’s also interesting to note here that the Slavs attributed feminine characteristics to the sun and male characteristics to the moon, which is contrary to many traditional beliefs of the sun as male and the moon as female. }
To prevent mother earth from sinking back into the ocean, Svarog created a great giant snake called Yggdrasil to hold mother earth up. If the snake moves, the earth will rumble causing earthquakes across the land.
And so mother earth was created from all of the energy, stardust, and elements of the universe along with the intentions of the gods. But that was not the end. To find out how humans came to be, we must jump to another story.
There was a time when all that existed on mother earth was barren rock { which interestingly is actually what the earth was millions of years ago before life crawled out of the sea }. Seeing the lifeless state of the Earth, Rod sent a rooster down to earth to fertilize the land and spread the human race.
The rooster went down to the cliffs and laid an egg of miraculous power. When it hatched, seven rivers flowed from the egg, and from this life giving water, flowers, fruit and greenery spread across the land. Eventually from this abundance, the first humans were born and populated the land.
Rooster Magic
One of my favorite things about Slavic lore and culture is that the simple things hold such importance. I love that the rooster, a rather common animal, was the bearer of life in this story. The rooster is considered all-seeing in Slavic folklore as they could foretell the rising of the sun { their calls always come just before dawn }.
People painted them on their walls as protection from nightmares as the first cry of the rooster at dawn scared away evil spirits and demons. The rooster was in fact seen as a symbol of fire and the sun and was often attributed with characteristics similar to that of a dragon. Aside from these rather bold attributes, the rooster was also seen as a symbol of fertility which we can see in this world creation story.
Egg Magic
The egg in this version of the story is also a very important symbol. We can see the reverberation of the significance of the common egg in Slavic culture, both as the incubator of Rod, the creator of all things, and life itself.
The egg is a symbol of rebirth and creation. It is an important element in the symbolic Polish easter basket too. These eggs are called pisanki and are meticulously dyed and decorated. They are made to honor the solar god Yarilo during the spring equinox.
The egg represents the source of all life and undoubtedly made a natural choice for heralding spring. These talismans were painted with symbols to represent rebirth, fertility and good fortune. As an extension of the egg from which Rod was born, they were seen as magical objects and decorated with the care and attention to detail that something of a magical nature would require. Some Slavic cultures even believed that the pisanki were essential to keeping balance within the world.
They believed that as long as pisanki decorating continues, the world will continue turning, but as soon as the skill is forgotten, the scales will tip. It is said that the same serpent, Yggdrasil, that holds up the world sends out its kin each year to see if the pisanki are still being decorated. If they are not then the strength of the mighty serpent dwindles, creating disharmony in the world, but if they are still being decorated or more people are decorating then the serpent’s strength is bolstered.
The first pisanki were made not only from eggs but also from clay and limestone. Archaeologists found remnants of these more permanent pisanki from Slavic strongholds dating back to the 10th century so we know Slavs have been carrying on this tradition for generations.
Each Slavic community has their own particular way of creating pisanki. The original dies were plant based. Onions were used to create red, rye for green, beets for pink, apple bark for yellow etc. The dyes were prepared at night in secret, a recipe passed from mother to daughter and men were actually strictly forbidden from the home when the pisanki were being made. This represents the relationship between the reproductive power both women and egg hold, and their place in the rebirth of the world.
The pisanki are traditionally decorated using wax applied by a needle attached to a willow branch. The egg was dyed multiple times as wax was added and removed to create intricate designs. The pisanki were then gifted to family members and other friends as a representation of life. The egg yolk was either left in the egg or blown out a small hole and preserved for many years. Other Slavic cultures used straw or paint to decorate the eggs as well.
Slavic healers also used eggs as an energetic tool. They would roll them across the body to extract fears, jealousy, the Evil Eye and sickness. “Eggs are excellent tools for healing…[t]he egg absorbs energy though the seven thousand pores of its mostly calcium shell…[a]ll life begins with an egg. Bird eggs are the largest single living cells in nature and are a metaphor for the universal life structure” (Shamanic Healing: Traditional Medicine for the Modern World). When infused with intention and process, the egg can become a great source of healing. The sacredness of the egg also lent to its use as a divination tool during these ceremonies. The egg was used to divine what illness ailed the patient, allowing the healer to then concoct a remedy.
Knowing the Slavic creation story brings so much more significance to our ritual traditions of making pisanki and even using eggs as a gentle magical massage tool. The traditions that seem the most odd, almost always have the most fascinating backstory.
I love this... thank you so much for sharing! Love the sun as female, moon as male. I have always loved the European tradition , of painting of the eggs! So many beautiful traditions, of our Slavic roots!
I'm interested in the similarity between the first part of the story and the story Robin Wall Kimmerer tells in Braiding Sweetgrass about Sky Woman coming down with seeds clutched in her hands but there is only ocean. Sea Turtle holds her up but the animals know she can't stay there so several try diving down to the bottom of the ocean. They fail until Muskrat tries. He is gone a long time and when he returns he dies but in his paw is clutched some of the Earth. Sky Woman spreads it on Turtle's shell and plants her seeds. This team effort of creation.