Slavic Mythology - What is Prav Yav Nav

What is Prav Yav Nav

Prav Yav Nav is a Slavic concept that sounds similar to my name, and therefore I used it as the name for my channel. Slavs are an Eastern European ethnolinguistic group that includes Russians, Ukrainians, Slovenians, Slovakians, Czechs, Polish, Serbians, Belarusians, and so on. Before conversion to Christianity, they were followers of the Slavic pagan religion, which was one of many Indo-European cultures that went extinct.

While you may know about Greco-Roman mythology and Norse mythology from pop culture, Slavic mythology is a lesser-known interesting counterpart. Unlike Greek, Roman and Norse myths which still survive through documentation, nothing is left of authentic Slavic sources and most of what we know comes from local folklore and reinterpretation of the religion through comparative studies. 

Slavic Neopagan rituals

Slavic Mythology

Unfortunately, the Slavic mythical stories have been lost along with its culture. However, some folklore has survived through documentation by Christian monks. These stories may not be in their original form, and being written by Christian monks, they liberally use words like God and Devil for characters which may have been different from their source.

These stories show similarities with Vedic and other Indo-European myths and myths around the world in general. But it is difficult to weave these myths into an authentic story because most of them are local standalone folklore with variations and different regions had different gods, or different names for the same god or concepts. Getting into details will require a separate designated blog.

Dazhbog, the sun god

Main Slavic Gods

Similar to most polytheistic religions, Slavic gods are derived from forces of nature, and concepts of culture. But some important gods that make their concept important are:

Rod – The supreme creator God

Svarog – Fire god

Perun – Thunder god

Veles – Afterlife god, netherworld

The three realms of Heaven, Earth, and Netherworld are presided over by Svarog, Perun, and Veles respectively.

Veles is considered to be a Devilish figure probably due to Christian influence, but we don’t know if he was ‘evil’ or rather an aspect of nature that was worshipped.

Downfall and Revival

This pagan culture had a variety of local belief systems in different parts of the Slavic nations. It was never an organised religion with standardised scriptures. Therefore, it lacked a unified theology. By the 12th century, all the Slavic cultures converted to Christianity and lost their indigenous faith. However, their stories survived and assimilated into the new Christian culture that they adopted.

During the 19th century, there was a wave of ‘Aryanism’ and every Western culture tried to go back to their roots. Many neopagan movements developed in different parts of the world, and in Slavic countries attempts were made to revive this ancient religion. In recent times, many Slavic neopagan movements were founded like the Rodnovery, Ynglism and Native Ukrainian National Faith. They often refer to Vedic hymns, rituals and culture to bridge gaps within their culture, as they considered Vedic Hinduism as the closest cousin faith of Slavic paganism.

The idea of Prav Yav Nav

The idea of Prav Yav Nav comes from the ‘Book of Veles’ which is understood as a forgery and not an actual source. In the book, three words common in Slavic vocabulary were combined to form this concept. Prav means Right, Yav means Actuality, and Nav means Probability. Prav represents Heaven, Yav represents Earth, and Nav represents the Netherworld.

If compared to the Vedic concepts, Prav can be interpreted as Rta or Dharma, Yav as the world we live in, while Nav could be loosely compared to Pitraloka. These three concepts are sometimes represented by a three-headed god named Triglav. It is not yet confirmed if Triglav was a separate deity or a unification of the three main concepts. 

Prav Yav Nav - History Mythology Fiction

In the case of my channel, Prav represents cultural truth – Mythology, Yav represents reality – History, while Nav represents speculation – Fiction. It is where I discuss these three topics independently, and sometimes in correlation to each other.

In Pop Culture

Elements of Slavic mythology can be seen either directly or indirectly in pop culture. Baba Yaga is a creature commonly referred to in pop culture that is of Slavic origin. The concept of Vampire comes from Slavic Upyr or Vampir. But the heaviest influence of Slavic mythology is on the world of The Witcher – the books, videogames and series.

Slavic Mythology is interesting but still not part of the mainstream. My channel and blog name is Prav Yav Nav, and so I thought of giving an introduction to the concept.