Ynglist Church Headquarters In Omsk, 2016

Ynglism ( Russian: Инглии́зм; Ynglist runes: ), institutionally the Ancient Russian Ynglist Church of the Orthodox Old Believers–Ynglings (Древнерусская Инглиистическая Церковь Православных Староверов–Инглингов, ''Drevnerusskaya Ingliisticheskaya Tserkov' Pravoslavnykh Staroverov–Inglingov''), is a direction of Rodnovery formally established in 1992 by Aleksandr Yuryevich Khinevich (b. 1961) in Omsk, Russia, and legally recognised by the Russian state in 1998, although the movement was already in existence in unorganised forms since the 1980s. The adherents of Ynglism call themselves "Orthodox", "Old Believers", "Ynglings" or "Ynglists".

The Ynglist Church was described by some scholars as having a complex and well-defined doctrine and liturgy, an authoritative leading hierarchy, and as focusing on esoteric teachings. The Ynglists regard themselves as preserving the true, orthodox (i.e. in accordance with the universal order, right), religious tradition of the Russians, of all Slavs, and of all white European "Aryans". Other Rodnover groups in Russia are strongly critical of Ynglism; at a '' veche'' of Russian Rodnover organisations Ynglist doctrines were formally rejected. In the mid 2000s the church faced judicial prosecutions for ethnic hatred, and Khinevich himself was convicted with probation between 2009 and 2011. After the central organisation in Omsk was dissolved, the movement proliferated into multiple groups in all the regions of Russia, and also in various countries of Europe and North America. The holy writings of Ynglism are the four ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas''.

Overview

Terminology

The term "Ynglism" refers to the Ynglings, the oldest royal kins of Scandinavia, a branch of the early Indo-Europeans or Aryans, whom the Ynglists believe to have originated from the Omsk region of Western Siberia, Russia. According to the Ynglists, the term has cosmological significance, referring to the order of the universe carried by the primordial fiery radiance — the ''Ynglia'', personified as ''Yngly'' — emanated by the supreme God, ''Ramha''. They also call their religion "Orthodoxy" and "Old Belief".

According to Ynglist history and terminology, the Slavic term for "Orthodoxy", ''Pravoslavie'' (Православие, that like the Greek counterpart precisely means "right honouring", or "honouring" 'slavitthe "truth, order" 'Prav'', is older than Christianity. The term, which means the right way of living in accordance with the law of the universe, was appropriated by Eastern Orthodox Christianity among the Slavs only by the 17th century, through the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow, in order to wholly absorb the indigenous religion which was then still prevalent among the population. Prior to the reform, Christianity used the Greek-based loanword ''Ortodoksalnost'' (Ортодоксальность). The term "Russian" and related ones would derive instead from the Aryan root ''ros'' (рос), referring to "brightness" and "holiness".

The definition "Old Believers" (Староверы, ''Starovery''), which today is employed to refer to Christians who preserved pre-Nikonian rituals, who are more correctly called the "Old Ritualists" (Старообрядцы, ''Staroobryadtsy''), was imposed on the latter during the same Nikonian reform. Their previous name was "Righteous Christians" (Праведные Христиане, ''Pravednye Khristiane''), and "Old Believers" referred instead to indigenous Slavic religion. According to the Ynglists, these theories would be proven by 13th-century documents preserved by a sect of the Christian Old Believers.

Characteristics

Aleksandr Y. Khinevich (b. 1961) is a native of Omsk and graduated from the Omsk State Technical University. He began to give an organisation to Ynglism between the 1980s and the early 1990, starting from the community ''Dzhiva-Astra'' (Джива-Астра) which practised exorcism and traditional medicine, and formally founded the Ynglist Church in 1992, in Omsk. In the same year he published a book entitled ''Ynglism, Short Course'', in which he put forward the backbone of his doctrine, and he visited the United States where he claimed to have established branch groups of the Ynglist Church. Later in the 1990s he published the ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'', the fundamental books of Ynglism. As the head of the Ynglist Church he is known by his followers as ''Pater Diy'' (Патер Дий, meaning "Divine Father" or "Shining Father"), or '' volkhv'' Kolovrat. He does not qualify Ynglism either as a "paganism" or as a " religion", but rather as a "cosmic wisdom" brought by the Aryans, and preserved since ancient times in the region of Western Siberia. The scholar Elena Golovneva argued that it is accurate to classify Ynglism a " new religious movement", or an " invented tradition", which nonetheless contains elements drawn from very old sources. Scholars have identified influences from Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Helena Blavatsky's Theosophy, and German Ariosophy within Ynglism. The scholars Alexey V. Gaidukov and Kaarina Aitamurto described Ynglism as a movement focused on esotericism, with an authoritative leading hierarchy and a well-defined doctrine and liturgy.

In the 1990s Khinevich had in all likelihood an acquaintance with Viktor Bezverkhy (1930–2000), the founder and major ideologist of Peterburgian Vedism. Khinevich would have been granted the title of "honorary Wend" by the Union of Wends, the Rodnover organisation founded by Bezverkhy in 1990. Although there was not a full-fledged cooperation with the Peterburgian Vedists, and they never accepted the ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'' of Ynglism, Khinevich reportedly took inspiration from Peterburgian Vedism and reprinted many materials of the Union of Wends. In the 2000s, Nikolay Viktorovich Levashov (1961–2012), after having elaborated his own teachings widely based upon Ynglism, established another organised Rodnover current, Levashovism, which recognises the ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'' as its fundamental sources.

The scholar Polina P. Kocheganova noted that the "cosmic religion" proposed by Ynglism may be regarded as a " modernist" approach to Rodnovery, different from other currents which represent a "traditionalist" approach. Similarly, Gaidukov defined Ynglism as an eclectic or "polysyncratic" (i.e. mixing together elements from different sources) form of Rodnovery. For its characteristics, Ynglism is not regarded as genuine Rodnovery by some other Rodnover groups; in 2009, two of the largest Russian Rodnover organisations, the Union of Slavic Native Belief Communities and the Circle of Pagan Tradition, issued a joint statement against Ynglism, Levashovism, and the doctrines of other authors, deeming them "pseudo-Pagan teachings, pseudo-linguistics, pseudo-science and outright speculation." Kocheganova observed that, however, also the teachings of those Rodnover groups which criticised Ynglism are based on hypotheses about ancient Slavic religion.

Writings and authors

The central holy writings of the Ynglist movement are the ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'' (Славяно-Арийские Веды, ''Slavyano-Ariyskiye Vedy''), purportedly ancient texts allegedly passed down generation by generation in Western Siberia, whose most ancient parts would be tens of thousands of years old. They were allegedly originally written on ''santy'' (сантии, сантьи, саньтии), tablets made of noble metals, which would now be kept in a secret location by the high priests of Ynglism and would contain texts composed of 186,000 " Slavic Aryan runes", first transliterated into Cyrillic script and printed on paper in 1944. Four hundred Dacian golden copies of the original Siberian tablets would have been discovered in 1875 at the Sinaia Monastery in the Bucegi Mountains, Romania, and handed over to the king Carol I of Romania, of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family, who ordered to recopy them in lead before melting most of the golden ones to replenish the royal treasury; known as the "Dacian Santies", they would be preserved in various private vaults and museums of Romania. The ''Vedas'' were effectively published by Aleksandr Khinevich since the mid 1990s, and were preceded in 1992 by the book ''Ynglism, Short Course'' in which Khinevich put forward the core of his doctrine. The Ynglists claim that the Scandinavian '' Eddas'' are a western European Latinised version of their ancient ''Vedas''.

The first Veda comprises the ''Book of the Wisdom of Perun'' (Сантии Веды Перуна, ''Santy Vedy Peruna''; also translated as Книга Мудрости Перуна, ''Kniga Mudrosti Peruna'') and the ''Saga ob Inglingakh'', a Russian version of the Scandinavian '' Ynglinga saga''.List of the ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'' as it appeared on thei
official Russian website as of 27 June 2017
The second Veda comprises the ''Book of Light'' (Книга Света, ''Kniga Sveta'') and the first part of the ''Word of Wisdom of the Wise Velimudra'' (Слово Мудрости Волхва Велимудра, ''Slovo Mudrosti Volkhva Velimudra''). The third Veda comprises the ''Ynglism, the Ancient Faith of Slavic and Aryan Folks'' (Инглиiзмъ, Древняя Вера Славянскихъ и Арiйскихъ Народовъ; ''Ingliizm, Drevnyaya Vera Slavyanskikh i Ariyskikh Narodov'') and the second part of the ''Word of Wisdom''. The fourth and last Veda of Ynglism contains the ''Source of Life'' (Источник Жизни, ''Istochnik Zhizni'') and the ''White Way'' (Белый Путь, ''Bely Put''). A fifth book, though not part of the canonical Vedas, is ''Slavic Worldview, Confirmation of the Book of Light'' (Славянское Мiропонiмание, Подтверждение Книги Света; ''Slavyanskoye Miroponimaniye, Podtverzhdeniye Knigi Sveta''). After they were published by Khinevich, the Ynglist ''Vedas'' were sold in many thousands of copies. According to Golovneva, such popularity of the books proves that they are "far from being marginal", as they represent "the basis for a certain kind of popular knowledge of ancient history".

Besides their ''Vedas'', the Ynglists also rely upon the '' Book of Veles'', and also upon various Gnostic scriptures, including the ''Secret Gospel of John'' and the ''New Testament of the Holy Apostle Thomas'' discovered in 1945. Apart from Aleksandr Khinevich, another important Russian author of Ynglist literature is Aleksey V. Trekhlebov ('' volkhv'' Vedagor), one of the earliest and closest disciples of the former. Trekhlebov came from the study of Indian religions, and he is a yogi; he claimed to have received initiation in Nepal from a high lama, whom, however, advised him to seek the truth in his own native traditions. He has dedicated his life to the "spiritual and moral education of the Slavs, the spiritual revival of the Russians towards mental health and enlightenment"; for this purpose, he has written various Ynglist books, including ''The Blasphemers of Finist the Bright Falcon'' (Кощуны Финиста Ясного Сокола, ''Koshchuny Finista Yasnogo Sokola''). In Ukraine, a notable spreader of Ynglist ideas was Volodymyr Kurovskyi, who contributed to the making of the documentary ''Igra Bogov'' ("Play of Gods").

Beliefs

According to the Ynglists, their beliefs represent the original religion of the Indo-Europeans or Aryans, which was preserved in the purest and most detailed forms by the Slavs and the Iranians, while the Indo-Aryans who migrated into the Indian subcontinent mixed with native Indians and corrupted the original Vedic doctrines. According to the prolific Ynglist writer Aleksey Trekhlebov, one of the closest disciples of Aleksandr Khinevich, the Slavic tradition offers three postulates for knowing truth: word (''slovo''), vision (''vedy'') and experience (''opyt''). It is therefore open to a certain degree of personal gnosiology: in estimating the validity of a given truth a person should listen the opinion of his spiritual teacher, read what the ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'' say about it, and ponder whether it seems reasonable in the light of his own experience.

The scholar Victor Shnirelman observed that the Ynglist doctrine owes much to Slavic, Germanic, Iranian and Indian sources, but integrates gods and concepts from other cultures as well. For instance, Ynglist beliefs include the idea of reincarnation matching that of Hinduism, and the idea of a struggle between good and evil forces matching that of Zoroastrianism. The scholar Robert A. Saunders described Ynglist doctrine as influenced by late nineteenth and early twentieth-century German Ariosophy. The Ynglists themselves believe that their doctrine systematises ideas already contained in the original "Russian spiritual culture", and that it would be the way for saving mankind from degeneration.

Theology

Shnirelman described Ynglist theology as esoteric, and, citing the words of Aleksandr Khinevich himself, as "neither monotheistic nor polytheistic" as were the beliefs of the "early ancestors" — the earliest Indo-Europeans, whom Khinevich identifies as the Slavo-Aryans. Ynglist theology is monistic: all the deities of nature and the entities that they generate are regarded as the manifestations of the energy emanated by the supreme universal God. According to Ynglist sources, Ynglist theology and Slavic spirituality in general may be defined as a "rodotheism", that is to say a "worship of the gods of the kins" which links mankind back to the supreme God of the universe, which is the supreme ancestor of the universe itself.

The utmost God and its order

According to Ynglist theology, the ''Ynglia'' (Инглия; Ynglist rune: ), called ''Yngly'' when personified (Ингли, Инглъ; cf. the Germanic '' Yng, Yngwi'', whose Scandinavian runic consists of square symbols → , and cf. the Germanic suffix "-ing", implying the action of generation and production) is the structural order of the universe and of all phenomena, characterised as a fiery radiance emanated by the supreme God, the "One Indivisible God" (Единый Неделимый Бог, ''Yediny Nedelimy Bog''), named ''Ramha'' (Рамха, also spelled ''Ramkha''; Ynglist runes: ) in Ynglist terminology. Ramha is absolute, unknowable, unfathomable, and yet manifests itself as the gods generating all phenomena in accordance with the supreme order, the Ynglia. The latter is personified as Yngly, the intelligence of God, keeper of the source of the fire of the universe, and model of the earliest progenitor of humanity, ''Rod''. Yngly-Ynglia is represented by the ''swastika'' symbol, which Ynglists call the "image of Yngly" and consider the first written symbol of humanity, as well as the symbol for the "defense of the native land and of the holy faith".

Apart from the similarity of the names of the Ynglist Ramha and the Indian '' Brahman'', '' Brahma'', and '' Rama'', Ramha is also identified with the ancient Egyptian concept of '' Ra'' central to the other Russian Rodnover movement of ''Vseyasvetnaya Gramota'' (the "Universal Script"). Alexey Gaidukov observed that the Ynglist name for the supreme God is also similar to that of ''Ramtha'', the entity allegedly channelled by the American New Ager J. Z. Knight.

A hymn to Ramha declaims:

A hymn to Yngly declaims:

The gods of nature

In Ynglist theology, below Ramha and Yngly, and in the matrix into which the energy of Yngly becomes incarnated — the Earth, also called '' Midgard'' ("Middle-Realm") by the Ynglists according to Scandinavian terminology —, there are Rod — the archetype of humanity, progenitor of all the ancestors — and the multitude of the gods of nature. These gods are described as immutable, informational personal laws who harmoniously generate the different forms of life in the universe and support them in their course. They are all in accordance with the order (the Ynglia) begotten by the supreme God, but at the same time they may exceptionally intervene in the course of phenomena helping the spiritual evolution of mankind along the right path, if people are motivated by sincere creativity and love. An Ynglist dictum is that "the gods are our fathers, and we are their children". In other words, the gods are the progenitors, ancestors of all entities.

The Ynglists distinguish four cathegories of gods:

① "Highest Gods" (Вышние Боги, ''Vyshniye Bogi''), those orchestrating the deepest processes of the universe;

② "Gods-Protectors" (Боги-Покровители, ''Bogi-Pokroviteli''), those patronising the celestial bodies, the stars and planets, the Earth, the Moon as well as the "Rods", the progenitors of human lineages of the bright Aryan "great race";

③ "Gods-Governors" (Боги-Управители, ''Bogi-Upraviteli''), who control various elements, desires, the measured flows of life on Earth;

④ "Gods-Guardians" (Боги-Охранители, ''Bogi-Okhraniteli''), who influence various locations on Earth, such as arable lands, forests and the countries of the Aryans.

In the hierarchy of the Highest Gods there are: Vyshen (Вышень, Slavicised ''Vishnu''), Kryshen (Крышень, Slavicised ''Krishna'') and Svarog — the ecliptic north pole; Perun, Indra and Simargl — the celestial north pole, '' Iriy'' or ''Svarga''; Dazhbog — the Sun; Chislobog — the great year or great time; Svetovid and Ramkhat — the year; Dzhiva and Marena — life and death; Veles — the patron of the Earth; Mokosh and Lada — aspects of the Earth; Rod and Rozhana — male and female progenitors of human kins. In the hierarchy of divinity, gods act in triads, ''Triglav''s, of which the main one is Svarog-Perun-Svetovid, representing conscience, freedom and light. On the level of the cycle of the Sun, Yngly manifests itself as the eight gods who govern the eight phases of the year: Kolyada, Veles, Lelya, Yarilo, Kupalo, Perun, Mokosh and Marena.

In their incarnated form, materially functioning as progenitors of genealogical lineages, the gods of the northern polar astral planes, especially of the ''Svarga'', are known as "Ases" (Асов, ''Asov'') and they are believed by the Ynglists to be the forefathers of the four ramifications of the Slavo-Aryans: Da'Aryans (Да'Арийцы), Kh'Aryans (Х'Арийцы), Rassenians (Расены) and Svyatorussians (Святорусы).

"Rod-Forefather" (Род-Породитель, ''Rod-Poroditel''; Ynglist runes: ; also translatable as "Kin-Progenitor") is the archetype of all the progenitors of the genealogical lineages, and is described as one and the same with Ramha, through Yngly. He is without image, like Ramha, but Ynglists worship him through the symbol of Ramha constituted by the three runes of its name. The protection of Rod flows through Prav, Yav and Nav, the three worlds of traditional Slavic cosmology.

A hymn to Rod-Forefather declaims:

Cosmology

Prav, Yav, Nav, and Slav

According to Ynglist cosmology, reality consists of three dimensions, recognised by common Rodnover cosmology as well: ''Prav'' (Правь, " Right"), ''Yav'' (Явь, "Manifested") and ''Nav'' (Навь, "Unmanifested"). The Ynglists, however, distinguish a fourth concept defining a part of Nav, that is to say ''Slav'' (Славь, "Glory"). Prav is the transcendental, spiritual dimension of the gods, who follow the right law (the Ynglia) of Ramha, Yav is the material dimension in which all entities are incarnated, and Nav is the dimension of the soul/movement, which can be Bright Nav (Светлый Навь, ''Svetly Nav'') or Dark Nav (Темный Навь, ''Temny Nav''). The Bright Nav is otherwise called Slav, and is the orderly northern polar ''Svarga'', the dimension of celestial deities, while the Dark Nav is the unorderly deep-space dimension of demons. In the cosmological scheme, the Bright Nav is above while the Dark Nav is below, and Yav is the boundary in-between the two and may develop according to the models of one or the other Nav. Also, Prav is spiritual, supra-mental, while Nav — consisting in the movements of the celestial asterisms — is merely astral if dark but astral and mental if bright (Slav), and Yav is physical, phenomenical.

Cycles of life

According to the Ynglists the soul of the human being is eternal and undergoes a cyclical journey which begins from the dimension of Prav, where it is identified with the radiance of the utmost God, then passing through the other dimensions of Nav, Yav and Slav, where the soul has to acquire knowledge of darkness in order to objectively recognise light, develop itself according to the bright order of Slav, and finally ascend back to Prav. The soul is created out of the infinite light of God in Prav by Dzhiva, the goddess matrix of life; then, from Prav the soul passes to its own "sovereign star" (звезда-владыка, ''zvezda-vladyka'') in the astral dimension of Nav, especially Slav (the Bright Nav); then, from Nav the soul comes as a stream of light to the physical dimension of Yav on some planet, where it incarnates and develops in matter with the aim of ascending to the mental plane of Slav and ultimately having once again access to Prav. The incarnations are governed by the goddess Karna.

From the matrix of life in Prav, the soul brings with itself throughout the other dimensions the energy and the information — a "figurative structure" — necessary for the completion of its cycles of incarnation; in the material dimension of Yav, the knowledge brought from Prav joins the specialised Rod of a kin, the progenitor deity of a given genealogical lineage, which provides the soul with a compatible body, context and information inherited from the blood of the ancestors, by means of which the soul may improve itself in its given situation, although the soul always has the free will for acquiring new abilities to improve itself towards Slav. The purpose of successive incarnations in different worlds of Yav is to discern between bright ways and dark ways, to act as creators in accordance with the bright order of the utmost God, and to favour the sublimation of matter; if the purpose of a given incarnation in Yav is not fulfilled over the course of a lifetime, Karna makes the soul reincarnate in the same world until the goal has been completed.

Historiosophy and eschatology

The Ynglists reject official historical narrative, which they believe to be manipulated, and argue that it should be replaced with history as told in their ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'' or with ''koshchunosloviya'', that is history based on Russian folk tales (''koshchuny''). They believe that " Yngling", a name that identifies the earliest royal dynasties of Scandinavia, means "offspring of Yngly", and that the historical Ynglings migrated to Scandinavia from the region of Omsk, which was a spiritual centre of the early Indo-Europeans or Aryans. They hold that the ''Saga ob Ynglingakh'', their Russian version of the Scandinavian '' Ynglinga saga'' (itself composed by Snorri Sturluson on the basis of an older '' Ynglingatal''), proves their ideas about the origins of the Ynglings in Omsk, and that the Scandinavian '' Eddas'' are ultimately a more recent, western European and Latinised version of their own sacred books, the ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas''.

Ynglism presents itself as the true spirituality of the Indo-Europeans or Aryans, a term which means "harmonious men", those who live in accordance with the laws of God and therefore manifest bright physical features and clear thoughts. The Aryans were spiritually influenced by the northern celestial pole and its circumpolar stars, especially the astral images of the Big Dipper and Little Dipper, respectively parts of the Great Bear and Little Bear; these constellations, spinning around the pole, draw the changing image of Yngly (the ''swastika'') in the four phases of the day and the year. The Aryans would be the incarnation in Yav of gods of such northern polar astral plane, which is the ''Iriy'' or ''Svarga'' and corresponds to the Bright Nav; these gods are called Ases and the Aryans would be the "heavenly kin" (небесный род, ''nebesny rod''). The first Aryans dwelt at the geographic North Pole, the Arctic, and because of this they are known in Greek sources as the " Hyperboreans", the inhabitants of "Hyperborea" (literally "over the north"). Hyperborea was named ''Daarya'' (Даария) by the Aryans in their original language, and is also known by the Ynglists as "Arctida".

After leaving their original homeland ''Daarya'', the Aryans settled in what is today the vast expanse of Eurasia, where the richest occurrences of hooked cross symbolism in historical testimonies have been found, in patterns of architecture, weaponry, and tools of everyday life. The Aryans gave this vast territory the name "Asia" (the land of incarnated gods) or ''Rassenya'' (Рассеня), a term which would have evolved into "Ruthenia" and "Russia". The Ynglist author Trekhlebov claims that most of the ancient peoples of Eurasia, known by a variety of ethnonyms, were in fact ramifications of the Slavo-Aryans, and that the same term "Russians" and related ones come from the Aryan root ''ros'' meaning "radiance", "light" and "holiness".

The precise area where they established the centre of their civilisation was that which in Russian folklore is known as ''Belovodye

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