Assianism - the pantheist (non-dual) folk religion of the Ossetians in the Caucasus

[Fleetinglife]

Just discovered an interesting folk religion, via a Canadian scientist, scholar, and specialist on the history of Indo-Iranian civilizations and religions named Richard Foltz, who wrote about it in his recently published scholarly book in 2021 about the history and culture of the Ossetian peoples in the Caucasus called The Ossetes: The Modern Day Scythians of the Caucasus, the Scythians, of course, referring to the famous group of migratory nomadic tribes that ancient Greek historians gave a collective term for after the ancient Greek term 'Skuthoi' meaning 'Archer' or 'Archers' and wrote extensively about during the time they once occupied the Eurasian steppes in the first millennium BC and implying that modern-day Ossetians have a direct ancestral lineage to one of those groups of Scythian nomadic tribes, namely the Sarmatians, better known in history as Alans (i.e. 'Aryans' or the i.e. 'Iranians') genetically wise and through the retainment of the culture, religions and folk practices of those ancient nomadic peoples that inhabited those areas.

It is called 'Assianism' meaning the religion of the "As" or "Os"—an ancient name of the Alans, from which the Greeks drew, Foltz says, the name of "Asia", which is preserved in the Russian and Georgian-derived name "Ossetians", that started to be revived in a conscious and organized way in the 1980s, as an ethnic religion among the Ossetians. Its collection of 'holy writings' that it draws its inspiration from are called the 'Nart Sagas' which are a series of tales that form much of the basic mythology of the folklore of ethnic groups in the North Caucasus including the Abkhazians, Circassians, and to some extent the Chechens and the Ingush, the author Richard Foltz defines them as a ''"typical Indo-European heroic epic".

Despite claims to antiquity, categorizes it and analyzes it in the framework of it being part of 'new religious movement' phenomena and terms it as being a kind of 'Scythian Neo-paganism' but immediately notifies the reader that he uses the term 'neo-paganism' to classify it and describe it for the purposes of the practicality of scholarly work and scientific research in religious studies since he warns in advance that: ''the adherents of Assianism object to the use of the term "Paganism" to refer to their religion, such term having strong derogatory connotations in Ossetian language and being still used by Christians and Muslims to ridicule traditional Ossetian beliefs and practices.''

Foltz, Richard (2020). "The Rekom Shrine in North Ossetia-Alania and its Annual Ceremony". Iran and the Caucasus. Brill. 24 (1): p. 42. note 2.

To the extent that the culture and practices of most well-known and famous peoples among the group of Scythian nomadic tribes in Western European History the 'Alans', to whom the modern-day Ossetians are the sole existing and still surviving modern population that can the most claim direct descendency from in terms of  keeping their cultural and linguistical lineage mostly intact and preserving beliefs and rituals likely dating back to times of their Scythian religion, impacted the development of culture and civilization of early Western medieval Europe, Foltz details:

''Allied with the Germanic Goths, the Alans penetrated west into France, Italy, Spain, and other territories under the Roman Empire. The Romans tried to manage the threat by hiring them as mercenaries in the cavalry, or, particularly in France, by buying them off as landed gentry. Many toponyms in France, such as Alainville, Alaincourt, Alençon, and others, testify that they were territorial possessions of Alan families. Alan equestrian culture formed the basis of Medieval chivalry, and in general Alan, culture had a significant role—though rarely recognized—in the development of Western European culture.''

and also according to Foltz and the Russian author Shizhensky:

 [the Scythians] ''widely worshipped [chief among their lesser deities, which in some cases were later adaptations of the names of Christian saints, whose original Scythian names of the deities were not kept, Uastyrdzhi (whose name derives from "Saint George"), the god of contracts and war (the Iranian Mithra), but also the general archetype of men and of disadvantaged people] through altars in the form of a sword planted in a pile of stones or brushwood, a cult perhaps reflected in the Arthurian legend of the sword in the stone, likely brought to Britain by Alan regiments settled there by the Romans in the first century. The cult of the sword continued among the Alans as late as the first century CE.''

Foltz, Richard (2019). "Scythian Neo-Paganism in the Caucasus: The Ossetian Uatsdin as a 'Nature Religion'". Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture. 13 (3): p. 315. and pp. 318. - 320.

''The most important symbol in Assianism, according to the Dzuary Lægtæ ("Holy Men"), is the Uatsamongzh (Уацамонгж) or Uatsamonga (Уацамонга), a bowl, goblet or cup mentioned in the Ossetian Nart epics whose name means "indicating (amongzh) truth (uats)" or "revelator of divinity". It is a symbol of truth representing the inverted vault of the sky, which can saturate the worthy ones (the hero of the Nart epics) with unearthly knowledge. The origins of this symbol go back to the earliest Indo-Europeans and it is also present in later Celtic and Germanic cultures. In medieval Western European legends, the magic chalice took the Christianised form of the Holy Grail.''

But to get to the point here is the most interesting thing I found about this 'neo-paganist' Ossetian folk religion, is the Assian theo-cosmology which their leaders themselves define as being based around a form of 'pantheism' and 'non-dualism', it's tenants are as follows:

''Assianism contemplates the worship of a supreme God, Xwytsau (Хуыцау), who is the creator of the universe and of all beings and is the universe itself, or the universe is "the body of God", comprising both the immanent material world of the living and the transcendent spiritual world of God, where the dead make a return. It has "no tangible, personal qualities, nor extension in space and time", and it is pure light. The transcendent spiritual dimension of God is the "World of Light" (Рухс Дун, Rukhs Dun) or "True World" (Æцæг Дун, Ætsæg Dun), while the immanent material dimension of life is the "Illusory World" (Мжнг Дун, Mæng Dun). The supreme God may be called upon by a multiplicity of epithets, including simply "Styr Xwytsau" (Стыр Хуыцау), meaning "Great God", but also "Duneskænæg" (Дунескæнæг), "Creator of the Universe", "Meskænæg Xwytsau" (Мескаенаег Хуыцау) and "Xwytsauty Xwytsau" (Хуыцаутты Хуыцау), meaning "God of the Gods". Assian theology affirms that God is within every creature, is "the head of everything", and in men, it manifests as reason, measure, and righteousness (bar).''

Schmitz, Timo (2015). "Etseg Din – Caucasian paganism from Ossetia" pp. 1-2

''God and its triune manifestations:

The supreme God unfolds in triads. The fundamental triad is that of God–matter–spirit:

Xwytsau / Xuitsau (Хуыцау, "Heaven") — is the supreme God of the universe, the source of it and of the highest wisdom attainable by men, creator, and patron of worlds, without either image or form, ineffable and omnipresent;

Iuag (Иуаг) or Iuæg (Иуæг) — is the substance-matter of everything, both uncreated and created worlds;

Ud (Уд) — is the universal self, that is attained by an individual soul when it identifies with Mon (Мон), the universal mind-spirit, i.e. God's manifestation; ultimately, Mon and Ud are the same, and they are Xwytsau's manifestations.

On the plane of the phenomenon, God's universal mind-spirit further manifests as the triad of:

Uas (Уас = "Truth", "Good Word") or Ard (Ард = "Right", "Law") — the order of God, which produces well-being in reality;

Uastyrdzhi (Уастырджи) — the good-spell incarnated in men, who are bearers of divine reason, enlightened consciousnesses, awareness of God; in other words, Uastyrdzhi is the archetype of the perfected man, follower of the order of God, and is the mediator of all other deities;

Duagi (дуаги; pl. дауджытæ / дауджита → daudzhytæ / daudzhita) or duag (дуаг) and barduag (бардуаг) — gods, deities, forces which continuously mold the world alternating forms according to the order of God; the most important among them are the arvon daudzhita (арвон дауджита), the seven deities of the seven planets.

Another distinction is established between the three cosmological states of:[39][40]

Zedy (зэды, pl. задтæ → zadtæ) or zhad (жад) — tutelary forces, generative deities, which accompany the birth and development of beings according to the order of God;

Uayugi (уайуги, pl. уайгуытæ / уайгуыта → uayguytæ / uayguyta) or uayug (уайуг) — destructive forces which violate the order of God and distance from light; in mankind they are the cause of passions, fears, pride, and nervous diseases;

Dalimon (далимон) — the lowest possible state of mind when it identifies with the brute matter, chaos; its meaning is "lower (dali) spirit (mon)" and is also a category comprising all terrestrial unclear entities, contrasted with ualimon (уалимон), "upper (uali) spirit (mon)", which comprises all celestial clear entities.''

Shizhensky 2018a, pp. 130–131.

''According to Assian doctrines, human nature is the same as the nature of all being. Mankind is a microcosm within a macrocosm, or broader context, and the same is true for all other beings. The universe is kept in harmony by Uas or Ard, the order of God, the foundation of divine reason, measure, and righteousness (bar). The deities (daudzhita or ualimon) form the world according to this universal law, while demons (uayguyta or dalimon) are those entities which act disrupting the good contexts of the deities, and are the causes of illness and death. Every entity is governed "by it itself" within its own sphere of responsibility; God and its order are not seen as an external force of coercion.

These positive and negative forces also influence humanity's consciousness: A man may take the side of either deities or demons, and this choice will shape this man's life and action. If a man is able to subdue passions, not putting exclusively egoistic material motives in his actions, he becomes open to the Uas, or its receptacle (уасдан, uasdan; good-spell receptacle), a wise noble who perceives the order of God and higher spirits and receives their energy, acting like them by producing good, truth and beauty. On the contrary, if a man's actions are driven by egoistic material ends, Dalimon and demons own him and he becomes a source of evil, lies, and ugliness. In the words of Khetag Morgoyev, mankind is endowed with the free will to choose between good and evil, deities and demons.''

Shizhensky 2018a, p. 130.

''The "Three Tears of God" (Trislezi Boga), a symbol representing Assian theology and three most important Ossetian shrines, was first "perceived" and drawn by the architect and painter Slava Dzhanaïty, and has become the most common symbol of the faith, "seen everywhere throughout North and South Ossetia on t-shirts, car stickers, and advertisements". Within the three "tears" of Dzhanaïty's symbol there are three equilateral crosses; "cross" is said dzuar in Ossetian, the same term for the manifestation of divinity. The three most important Ossetian shrines that the symbol represents are the Rekom Temple, the Mykalygabyrtæ Temple to the southeast of Rekom, and the Tarandzhelos Temple located south of Mount Kazbek in Georgia.''

Foltz, Richard (2019). "Scythian Neo-Paganism in the Caucasus: The Ossetian Uatsdin as a 'Nature Religion''' pp. 328-330

So what do you guys think is this just an attempt to revive, reinvent, or reconstruct a traditional basis for Ossetian nationalism and its traditional national folk religion, that survived through the millennia and centuries in the culture of their folk practices, through a 'new religious movement' that gained traction and became popular again in the 1980s and that bears strong resemblances and similarities to other 'neo-paganist' ones around the world (including the Rodnovery one among the Slavs that refers to the movement of reviving, preserving and repopularizing the 'Slavic Native Faiths' - which is were this image of Russian Rodnover Ynglists in Omsk, Omsk Oblast practicing the Scythian ritual of the sword planted in brushwood is from), though according to, one of the researchers and scholars on this subject, the Canadian scholar and author Richard Foltz, that if that is the case then: ''the movement has become so widespread among the Ossetians that its success is "unrivalled" among all Neopagan religious movements. 

According to the 2012 Arena Atlas complement to the 2010 census of Russia, 29.4% of the population of North Ossetia (comprising Ossetians as well as ethnic Russians) were adherents of the Ossetian Pagan religion. Authorities of the religion itself claim that a large majority of over 55% of the ethnic Ossetians are adherents of the religion.

Ruslan Kurchiev, president of the Styr Nykhas in 2019, prefers to define Assianism as a "culture" rather than a "religion", claiming that what it champions are rituals and values which are encapsulated in the Ossetian tradition. Similiarly representatives of the Dzuary Lægtæ ("Holy Men"), the council of the priests of the Ossetian sanctuaries, define Assianism, by citing the folklorist and ethnographer Soslan Temirkhanov, as "[...] a worldview [...] that arouses that holy spark that raises a person, illuminates and warms his soul, makes him strive for good and light, gives him courage and strength to fearlessly fight evil and vice, inspires him to self-sacrifice for the good of others". According to them, this Ossetian worldview is "not some form of perception abstracted from the material, productive activity, but on the contrary, it is interwoven and reflects all aspects of being, at the same time being the very basis of being, an ontological principle, which we can phenomenologically characterize as pantheism", a worldview characterized by "intertwining, interconnection, interdependence" which favors a natural "logical-conceptual type of thinking and discursive thinking". They articulate a historical critique of Christianisation: For them, Orthodox Christianity is an "alien religion" that "seeks to captivate and corrupt the souls of the conquered", and in Ossetia, it was spread by foreigners and by the tsarist autocracy through coercion, by police measures and by luring children and the poor with gifts, a process which led to the disintegration of families and to the ruin of farms. According to them, Islam spread among the Ossetians as an alternative to avoid forced Christianisation. The Russian Orthodox Church is for them a "socio-cultural and cultural-political problem" in Ossetia, as it has "neither knowledge of the peculiarities of Ossetia, nor interest in its culture, nor concern for its future.

The movement of Scythian Assianism has attracted strong hostility and complaints from Christian and Islamic authorities. The Russian Orthodox archbishop Leonid in Moscow sought to silence Makeyev by trying to ban his books as "extremist literature", calling on his personal contacts when he was a general in the Federal Security Service. The Russian Orthodox Church has also been trying to have the Rekom Temple destroyed and a church built in its place, but without success so far.''

Foltz, Richard (2019). "Scythian Neo-Paganism in the Caucasus: The Ossetian Uatsdin as a 'Nature Religion''' p. 331

or is there some deeper spiritual non-dual teaching that can be derived from it from its seeming claim to stem from some sort of universal perennialism?

Thanks to anyone who sets their personal energy and is interested and has the time to share their thoughts and views and engage with me in a discussion of this particular topic, question, and subject! As always much appreciated by me in advance  

 

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Fleetinglife