Christianisation as Trauma 89 I self-confidence of nations and the connection that they have with their gods.46 One consequence of the “unculture” and decadence rampant in Europe, the organisation believes, is its willingness to accept migrants from Africa and Asia, something which is likely to destroy its indigenous culture.47 According to Rodzima Wiara, the Aryan-Slavic nation has been in deep crisis ever since it rejected “prehistoric Vedic principles”.48 Ethnocentric thinking shapes Rodzima Wiara’s ethics.49 It rejects “[...] mediocrity, ignorance, idleness and frailty, stupidity and fear, laziness and passivity, deceit and betrayal”. All of these are negative character traits and consequences of the “unculture” identified by Stachniuk that had purportedly been instilled in the Poles by the process of Christianisation and that should be replaced by an ethical system that is regarded as indigenous, focused on life before death, and characterised by heroism, collectivism, the warrior tradition and creativity.50 Like many of his fellow Slavic Neopagan activists in Poland, Rafał Merski – founder, mastermind and leader of the group “Watra” – believes that indigenous Slavic traditions and values have been preserved in traditional Polish customs right up to the present day and were only ever associated superficially with Christianity. In his work Słowiańskie dziedzictwo. Rodzima religia i filozofia (“Slavic Heritage. Native Religion and Philosophy”), he set out his version of an indigenous Slavic religion. In it, he writes: “We are still very Pagan, unconsciously linked to our ethnic religion.” 51 Belonging to one’s native religion, he says, is just as inherent in and natural to a human being as being part of one’s ethnic community.52 Fundacja Watra’s worldview is also heavily influenced by Stachniuk’s thinking. In his work Slavonic ethics, for example, in which he presents a philosophy characterised by heroism and nationalism, Merski claims that Christianity instilled a slave mentality in the Slavs and that its spread helped bring about various manifestations of “unculture”.53 Now there is the threat of Islamisation, he says: “We have already a destructive Christianization on our Continent, now we have Islamization. Islam grows more and more powerful and is just [as] alien to us Slavs as Christianity.” According to Merski, the only thing that can save Europe is a return to its pre-Christian beliefs and system of values: “The Ethos of the warrior, mother, family, community, according to the laws of our Ancestors’s laws and fundamentals bequeathed to us by our Ancestors.” 54 For him, Christianity and secularism are both products of “Jewish thought”: Those who promote such vile, subversive ideologies from Saul of Tarsus’s racially-subversive and proto- communist Christianity to its modern but equally Semitic secular spawn are the enemies of all European folk in Europe and the world over.55 Quoting Rodzima Wiara adherent Antoni Wacyk, Merski calls for the creation of a new legend as an identity- forming narrative to mobilise the members of the community and help to forge a collective consciousness.56 Merski sees the heroic warriors in the legend as the “archetypes”, i.e. the role models that the Slavs – especially the men – are expected to emulate.57 Fig. 3 Rafał Merski, Żerca (“priest”) of Fundacja na rzecz Kultury Słowiańskiej “Watra” at the historical reenactment festival Najazd Barbarzyńców (“Invasion of Barbarians”), Ogrodzieniec, Poland, July 2024.
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