The Old Believers in Slovenia respected nature and regarded it as a deity

Fortunately, he gained the trust of the Old Believers, collected their stories and published them several decades later (as he promised with an oath) in a book entitled From the Invisible Side of the Sky. The director and screenwriter Emi Kugler managed to make this huge pile of stories incredible, because in her hour and a half long documentary entitled Once Upon a Time in Posočje, we move straight into the embrace of the Old Believers – among their customs, rituals and beliefs.

Ema Kugler found herself facing a big challenge, especially because she would never have undertaken something like this – if not for chance – she said at the premiere of the film in Cankarjev dom. The director who planned to shoot the film died suddenly. The then producer turned to Ema, she knew nothing about the Old Believers and was therefore not close to the topic, but in the end she just accepted the challenge. She realized how big it was when she started flipping through the book with almost 600 pages and with so many interesting stories that each of them could be made into a movie. Another problem was how to record an hour and a half of material when none of what the book is about exists anymore. It is not known exactly when the Old Faith appeared. The only documented information is that in 1331, bringers of a new religion (Christianity) came from Čedad and began violently Christianizing Posočje. They destroyed the sanctuaries of the Old Believers and persecuted them, and killed many of them. Because of this, the Old Believers committed themselves to silence, their faith was passed down from generation to generation only through oral tradition. In 1953, however, he started collecting it Pavel Medvešček and did so until 1975. Kugler begins the film with a mythical story about the creation of the world, then we move to Posočje, where the camera captured beautiful images of nature with which the Old Believers were strongly connected and dependent on it, we get to know the holy places and the life of the Old Believers through various rituals. The director says that she wanted to create an approximate feeling of how people lived at that time. They also adjusted the acting scenes to this.

“Strange” faith. Pavle Medvešček, who worked for many years as a folk heritage conservator at the Institute for the Protection of Monuments in Gorica, had his work routes all the way from the Trenta Valley to the Croatian border. He met many people, and being of a curious nature, he asked many questions. That’s how he heard rumors about someone “strange” believe, they piqued his interest and he browsed on. The path led him to an Old Believer Janez Strgarhe slowly gained his trust and that of other living Old Believers and patiently peeled hints and stories from their narratives and wrote them down. It is to his credit that despite skillful concealment and deception and a conspiracy of silence after the death of the last dehnar, the priest of the Old Believers, they did not die out without a trace from the right bank of the Soča. “I have come to the conclusion that perhaps you are the ‘real one’ to whom these things must be told in detail,” Strgar told him when, after much thought, he finally decided to speak. He was aware that when the last Old Believers were gone, no one would know anything about this religion. It would be as if they had not lived on this earth for all the past centuries, perhaps even millennia. “They will say that there were hills up there where they had nothing, where they knew nothing and lived like sheep,” Strgar encouraged the rest of the Old Believers to talk to Medvešček in the 50s, 60s and 70s of the last century, but then he was not allowed to publish the book until 2007 due to an oath.

In harmony with nature. People of this old religion lived completely in harmony with nature. “They clung to the earth and worshiped it, they respected nature and took it as a deity, because they depended on it. The Old Believers had sacred stones, sacred trees, sacred springs of water… But they did not have an anthropomorphic deity. The highest was Nikrmana, the all-encompassing spirit of nature who lived in the sky but was never defined by form. Below her were the spirits of all things: the tree spirit, the water spirit, and the like. Blind windows were installed in the houses and special stones that stood out due to their shape or color were placed in them. These then represented the stone house spirits,” said Medvešček in Outsider magazine in October 2020. The people of Nikrman gave thanks for the grain they harvested, for the potatoes they dug up, they gave thanks for the tree they cut down so they could burn it. They felt like a part of nature, because it is she who sustains them. It was a regular practice for a person to sit under an old tree, take a nap and draw energy from it. Everything they worshiped was in nature.

A breather. Every Old Believer had his or her guardian – guardian and confidant. He talked to him and asked him about everything that interested him and excited him. Zduhec was the spirit of the deceased who took up residence on Earth in another form. The sanctuaries of the Old Believers were natural places created by Nikrmana. They chose places that were different from others. They were attracted by such interesting shapes. They believed that everything flows in a natural cycle, which for all living beings begins with birth and ends with death, which repeats itself in another form – and so on to infinity. In what form he should come back into the world, the individual himself decides just before death. “Death, which came slowly, was taken very naturally,” in the book Strgar tells Medveščka. “Everyone knew it was coming, so they were ready for it. But they also knew that one day they would probably see each other again. So they only gave the deceased something that will remind him of home. They went to the cemetery more rarely, because they were sure that the deceased lived somewhere else.”

A wedding. Instead of a wedding, they had a coronation. This was done in front of the bride’s house. The bride first placed a wreath of meadow flowers on the groom’s head. The groom also did this and at the same time offered her both hands, palms up, on which the bride rested her head. Dehnar covered their hands with a special napkin, which the bride then kept. With that, the coronation was concluded and valid.

Birth. Women gave birth in a chamber, only women were always by their side. The main one was, of course, the grandmother, who commanded and advised the rest. When the child was born, she wrapped him in a prepared towel and hid the crib in another. She then showed the child to the mother, and one of the participants hit the floor three times so that those waiting in the lower room learned about the offspring. His father was the first to come to see him, if he wasn’t at home, nono. The two chosen women took the hidden crib unnoticed to a previously designated place that was considered a secret. The grandmother then took the child to the kitchen, where she washed him in the healing spring water brought by his father, wiped him and swaddled him, and handed him over to his mother. While the newborn was sucking his mother’s milk, she said his name out loud, and those present repeated it. The father then carried the container of water to the chosen tree and watered it. The child learned about his tree when he came of age.

Dehnar led the community. The Old Believer community was led by a priest or spiritual leader, who was called a dehnar. Already in the cradle, Nikrman chose him, but he was a man who passionately believed in this religion and knew the most about it. He acted as confidant, encourager, arbiter and expounder of all that pertained to the old belief. But he was different from everyone else. He could have been an unmarried uncle or had his own family and farm. The first dehnar was not elected, but was appointed to this position. He was also a seer who was respected by all people, mastered healing and possessed supernatural strength. He could read, write and count. Every autumn, when the work in the fields ceased, he chose boys who he thought were bright and taught them these “arts”. Among other things, he had the right to give, in the name of Nikrmana, the perpetrator, for serious procedures such as rape or murder, the opportunity to choose the punishment for the evil he had caused. In the presence of the locals, he brought three identical containers – he sprinkled buckwheat flour in two, and fly ash powder in the third. The accused had to choose one and consume its contents immediately. The consequences could be fatal, but not a single such case has been preserved in folk lore.

The Old Believers believed in the trinity – threefold (virtual connection of three points in a triangle). “All the invisible forces that flowed from one point to another in the trochan had a beneficial effect on humans, animals and plants. The point that connects two or more trochanians had magical power.” Strgar explained to Medveščka. “Tročan was present everywhere, in the design of settlements, homesteads, orchards. It was the most important artistic building block of their designs. At the beginning of the construction of the house, they first determined the trochan. They were always looking for a stone of the right size that was already in place and actually served as a foundation. They carved it and started building the corner of the house from it. This was the first stone of the trident. The second point of the trochan was, depending on the homestead, in the house, barn or stable. The third point of the trochan was always somewhere near the homestead, but in nature. The location of the third stone was a secret known only to the master. If someone found the third stone and destroyed it, it was believed that this would upset the balance in the house, and the residents could get sick or even die as a result. Those who deal with bioenergy and similar matters these days say that there is great power embedded in the triangle. If you place three stones, there is great energy between them.” said Medvešček in Outsider magazine.

Every homestead had a brtin or magic wand. This is a stick made from manure to last forever as this wood does not rot. Brtin had only the master of the house and always kept it above the door of the room. When one of the sons or a son-in-law took over the homestead, the master handed it over to him. According to the popular legend, Brtine was made by a person who treated with herbs in the area. They were two fingers thick and a cubit long. At both ends, an equilateral triangle, i.e. a three-sided one, was cut into the cross-section of the rod. At the tips of the triangle, a groove was cut along the length of the rod. These three grooves thus connected the triangle at both ends of the rod. Those who had problems with veins on their legs, with cramps or frostbite, rolled their bare feet on the floor in the morning and evening. The improvement was soon visible. They also stroked sick livestock or those that did not lick themselves with the broom. In the same way, they helped patients or a woman who could not conceive. Brtin also took care of the fertility of fields and seeds.

To conclude. As the director of the film Once Upon a Time in Posočje Ema Kugler said, each story in the book From the Invisible Side of the Sky opens up new and new stories about the customs, life and rituals of the Old Believers. When a person reads them, he only deepens and merges with the spirit of their time and with nature. There are still a lot of topics that could be covered. Above all, the incredible respect of these people for nature, on which they were completely dependent, because they lived so far away, radiates from all the stories. Respect and humility towards this mighty force, from which we have moved too far, but which reminds us of ourselves more and more often!

Read more interesting content in the new edition of Jana magazine.