In the shade of Jupiter-Perunus

Introduction to growing neo-romanist movement.

I met the High Priest of Jupiter Oleksandr Gorev, who now calls himself Marcus Corvus, at Brownie cafe in central Kharkiv in the middle of 2017. He was finishing up the first temple to Graeco-Roman deity on the territory of historical Sarmatia in quite a few centuries and was looking for sympathizers. As a former leftist with polytheist leanings, who was always dissatisfied with tolerance to self-righteous monotheist elements within leftist political circles, I jumped onto this occasion to learn more about the man, his plans, and theological views.

Gorev’s recognizably right-wing tattoos were my first impression. Just like their unfortunate contrast with some worryingly defeatist statements regarding the temporary strengthening of modernist laws in the European Union and its sphere of influence. He is not the kind of guy to openly support animal sacrifice just yet. And he did not have the answer to my question on what would prevent him from being a Christian in exotic clothes under the overwhelming pressure of mainstream culture.

We discovered many more differences during this two-hour coffee break. He said he believes in One Truth. Which, according to him, is that Gods are many. I’m of the opinion that there is a multitude of Truths and each God has its own. I believe in natural conflict, friendship, cooperation, and competitiveness between the Gods. In the possibility of their mortality and birth of the new ones. He is much more Platonic than me, treats them as eternal archetypes and egregores. Like me, he is a Eurocentrist and supports a greater Pax Romana with Ukraine as an integral part.

In order to highlight the spiritual connection with Slavic deities, a dual name of Jupiter-Perunus was chosen. To get an invitation and see the actual Temple everyone needs a favorable augury, which is performed according to the ancient customs. Such ritualistic thoroughness ensures that those who come into communion with the already rather large base of faithful do so due to the will of the Gods and birds as their messengers. Not because of money or favors. Helps to keep hostile pretenders away too, as one can hardly imagine monotheist fanatic agreeing to augury.

His own words can be found here, which is a first-person interview in the Russian language, conducted by the website of Ukrainian pagans a few months after the talk of us two.

Despite numerous dogmatic differences between us, I find his courage admirable and his general direction worth supporting. No matter what haters might say or do, this is both legal and historical precedent. Poltava, where it's located, is a perfectly centrist Ukrainian city - geographically and demographically. Building more temples dedicated to lesser deities in cities around it seems like a logical course of action for any genuine meta-modernist.

Local Christian right-wingers can no longer say that such practices are extinct, as Kievan conservative philosopher Eduard Yurchenko was doing only recently while defending his points from pagan supporters of the Azov movement. Muslims got themselves a proper counter-balance: genuine pan-European shirk. Which already spread across numerous countries in Eastern Europe, converting many former atheists. Hungary and Romania, countries which border Ukraine to the West, also have these. Not to mention the historical areal with dozens of fully-staffed temples: Italy, France, Greece, Spain. Globalist liberals will no longer have a monopoly on those people who don't like Christianity. And whoever decides to harm or badmouth this religion will have to deal with a heightened interest from Mediterranean Europeans, as well as risks the label of Islamic ally.

If you wish to support this tendency and are interested in funding the construction of the Temple of Dionysus near Kharkiv - don't hesitate to contact me. Failing that, spreading the message always helps. I will elaborate on what I see as religious and political Dionysism in upcoming articles later this year.