The Volga's Serpent Goddesses Who Give Power Through Divine Possession

The figure of the serpent goddess spans many cultures, be it the Egyptian, the Minoan, or the Indian.  However, deep in the uncharted territories of Eastern Europe, has been found a mysterious manifestation of the serpent goddess, going back in antiquity to about the 4^th century and the Cucuteni- Tripyllia culture ( 4800-3500 BC). Their religion and beliefs combine with what we would term the supernatural – that which is beyond what can be perceived. Archaeological evidence has been found to show that they used magic in daily life.

Hand crafted by Deepta.
Inspired by the archaeological finds at Sabatinivka

The Life Sustaining Goddesses

Old European cultures saw the snake goddess and the bird goddess as life sustaining goddesses. They could nourish, protect and renew.

Scholars like Gimbutas have delineated how snakes are associated with new life and changes in cycle. They live on both land and water. They hibernate in cold winters and emerge again with the coming of warmth. They shed their old skin and renew themselves. Gimbutas has also documented how they are also thought to embody the spirit of the ancestors.

In case of birds, they migrate from harsh climes to more moderate ones and again reappear with the turn of the season. The egg has often been seen as the giver of birth for the Universe. The egg is also viewed not only as source of new life, but also nourishment. Birds symbolized good health, new life and well being.

Thus the serpent goddess carried with her the power to provide all that life needed- protection, an ability to survive in all climes, and  to renew themselves. And very importantly, to be in themselves a link with the spirits guides of ancestors.

Worship of the serpent goddess was also then a form on ancestor worship, and a way to call upon the spirits.

 

A hidden shrine behind the Ural mountains

Sabatinivka lies on the west side of the Urals, by the Volga river. There,  archaeologists have found a strange and mysterious temple of the snake goddess. It goes back to about 4800-4600 BC. The altar still held small clay figurines of thirty two female figures. Their heads were shaped not like humans, but like serpents. They did not have arms. The shoulders smoothly blended into the torso. The legs tapered down from a wider shape to a fine smooth end. They sat on small horn backed chairs. One of them had around her, a coiling snake. In front of the altar were five grinding stones. An oven stood near the altar.

There was also, unusually, a large ceramic horn backed chair, of size which could be occupied by a full grown human. This chair was next to the altar, and faced the room. It is supposed that originally wooden planks covered the chair. This chair looked like a larger version of the miniature chairs which were occupied by the strange idols on the altar.

Taking on the power of the serpent goddesses

It would seem that the human sized seat was meant to provide a connection between the divine , personified by the small clay figures, and the person who sat on the large chair- possibly a priestess. Through this sacred imitation, the one who sat on the large chair would be able to perhaps have healed the sick, performed magical acts or foretold fate.

Imitative ( or Homeopathic) Magic

Imitative magic as a form of pagan rite has been well documented in history. By creating similarities, or simply put, by making copies, with the juxtaposition of chants, invocations and the force of will, great magic was often said to be made to happen. What we would call miracles as well.

Sir James Frazer has written of one of the main principles of thought on which magic is based, to be the Law of Similarity, which follows the concept that like produces like. So, by imitating something,  desired result can be produced. Throughout history, it has been used for both detrimental and beneficial purposes. Many old cultures believe that by creating an image of an enemy with saw, sand, or even wood, and pricking it with needles or harming it, will inflict misery on the person after whom it is names. On the other hand, it has also been used in many parts of the world, and through all ages, to facilitate healing, childbirth and aid a barren woman to have a child.

Offerings , healing and hallucinogens

The grinding stones and oven found on site would indicate that offerings of baked cakes or bread would have been given to the goddesses. The grinding stones specially open up the question, of what was put there. Was it grain? Or was it something else- healing herbs and recipes, to be ground and pounded in the presence of these goddesses? The other possibility is that hallucinogens were ground there, and imbibed by the one who spoke in the voice of the ancestors.  The area around the Volga is very fertile and while grain grew well there, so did other leaves. Samorini has marked the ‘oldest human relationship’ of cannabis with Europe was found with the Cucuteni. Small seeded fruit of cannabis have come to light at their old sites in Romania, Moldova and surroundings.  The Scythians ( who came much later) grew cannabis along the shores of the Volga and threw the its leaves and seeds on hot stones in steam baths to produce an intoxicating smoke. Cannabis is well known to alter consciousness and would have been an ideal psychoactive to induce trance and visions.

Divine Possession

It is very probable that when a priestess, a holy woman of the community, sat on the seat , built in imitation of the miniatures, she took on the powers which the serpent deities possessed. She would have been in ritual garb, cloaked in snakeskin, to bring closer the goddesses she invoked. She was their worshipper, for the community , she was the interceder who spoke on their behalf to these divine figures.  And at certain times of day and on special days, when the people gathered about , she would have spoken, as the voice of the goddesses, to them, answering their questions, giving advice and healing.

A priestess who invoked the power of the Sabatinivka serpent deities would have also channeled messages from the spirit world for the gathered worshippers. It could have been a state of trance enhanced by hallucinogens like cannabis which helped the barriers break. But for the shrine to have been such a centre of power and faith, the possession must have been far from being a drug induced haze.

 

Hand crafted by Deepta.
Inspired by the finds at Sabatinivka.

 A special place and people

The site itself even at the time of the Cucuteni was an old one. The Volga ran beside and the mighty Urals just beyond. The people  knew well  the concept of ley lines and certain places having an innate power. That could be why such a cult shrine was built there in the first place. There is a strange finding from archaeology which demonstrates how well the Cucuteni knew about the power of a place and the time to time shifting of the earth’s leylines. They would build a settlement in a certain area, and settle into day to day life. Then just a few years later, suddenly, they would burn down the entire place, moving on to another area, and again building afresh there. It is probable that their priestesses and heads of the community knew when something in the power of the land shifted, and so, they advised them to move in a certain direction. Maybe crops were failing. Maybe water was getting scarce. Perhaps there was sickness. The signs and messages would have been read and interpreted for the tribe.

The Cucuteni believed in and knew the ways of traditional magic. It came with living so close to the elements, and being in close attunement with them for their own survival. They made amulets of clay and used them to ward off evil spirits, and to gain fertility. Their shrines also show a primitive deification of pagan or elemental deities.

The leaders of the Cucuteni who looked after their temples and shrines would have been venerated not only as community leaders but for their special ability to be one with what they others could not readily see or sense. These were the people who were specially chosen to bring the divine closer to the simple everyday people.

 

Conclusion

The Sabatinivka shrine was at one time, a shrine of protection and great power. It was , I feel, a place where divine possession took place, and many answers were found. It was also a place where the spirits would speak. It was a place where messages and signs from other worlds were very close. As the mysterious figures emerge from archaeological digs, there is special meaning to be found in them , in signs and symbols etched on them, and the very location of the shrine. Sabatvanika is a place where many things came together , all those thousands of years ago and created a place of such powerful magic.

Reference

James George Frazer. The Golden Bough. Macmillan Press. 1890

Turcanu and Lazaruvici . Cucuteni: A Great Civilization of the Prehistoric World. 2009

Sulteev, Rustem. (2018). Arçura/Şüräle : Mythical Spirits of the Volga-Ural Forests. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 71. 45-69.

Richard Evans Schultes. Hallucinogenic Plants.1976.

Marija Gimbutas. The Living Goddess.

Samorini, G., “The oldest archeological data evidencing the relationship of Homo sapiens with psychoactive plants: A worldwide overview”, Journal of Psychedelic Studies, Vol 3 Issue 2, March2019