From Soviet Shadows to Pagan Revival: Rediscovering Ancient Spirituality in Modern Latvia

A firsthand account of Latvia's transformation from Soviet rule to a vibrant society embracing its ancient pagan heritage. Discover the resilience of Baltic traditions & their connection to nature...

Louise and I just returned from a fascinating trip to several of the Baltic nations. We’d visited them back in 1992, as they were emerging from Soviet domination, and the contrast with today was startling. Most interesting was the introduction we got to ancient Baltic pagan religious practices that have seen a huge revival.

Back in 1992 when we visited, there were no stores or restaurants that one could easily find; everything was a drab gray or dirty brick, and the little kiosks on the street that sold booze and cigarettes were largely run by the Russian mafia. People were terrified to speak with strangers, particularly Americans. Today, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are vibrant, modern places with generally progressive governments, and members of both the EU and NATO.

In Riga, Latvia we spent a day with a woman in her 50s who told us terrible stories of how the Soviets had terrified and oppressed the people of that country when she was young. As was common across the nations controlled by the Soviets, nearly a third of the country were employed to spy on the other two-thirds. What was most fascinating, though, was the deep dive into Latvian traditional pagan spirituality that she shared with us.

Latvia is a bit more than twice the size of the US state of Massachusetts, but while Massachusetts has a population of almost 7 million people, there are only 1.8 million in all of Latvia. More than half of the entire country is dense forest, and the people traditionally considered the forest and its spirits to be a vital part of their spirituality.

While the Catholic conquest of most of Europe around a millennia ago (they conquered Latvia in the 13th century) outlawed the old pagan religions and destroyed most all of the ancient sites, the Latvians first brought back their ancient religion of Dievturība and its practices in 1850 as part of the “First Latvian National Awakening” (which was primarily political/nationalistic).

From then through the early decades of the 20th century it was based on folk stories and practices that had been secretly passed down through the generations. In the ancient Baltic religions, the god of the moon is called Mēness, and is also sometimes considered a god of war. Virtually all of the Baltic sky gods and goddesses have families, with elaborate stories of weddings and lineages. In one of the stories, Mēness is a competing suitor with Auseklis, the morning star.

All of the ancient gods are associated with natural phenomena, often protecting nature against despoliation. While most of the sky gods are male, the underworld is ruled by goddesses. The Earth is called the Earth Mother (in Latvian, Zemes māte, who is principally responsible for the welfare of humans along with the goddess of human fate, Laima.

There is also, in Latvian, Smilšu māte (“Mother of the Sands”), Kapu māte (“Mother of the Graves”), and Veļu māte (“Mother of the Ghosts”). Crops are overseen and helped by Jumis and a number of female gods, including Lauka māte (“Mother of the Fields”), Linu māte (“Mother of the Flax”), and Mieža māte (“Mother of the Barley”).

All of the Baltic people have forest divinities; in Latvian there’s Meža māte (“Mother of the Forest” sometimes also called Medeinė) along with Krūmu māte (“Mother of the Bushes”), Lazdu māte (“Mother of the Hazels”), Lapu māte (“Mother of the Leaves”), Ziedu māte (“Mother of the Blossoms”), and Sēņu māte (“Mother of the Mushrooms”).

Our Latvian friend told us that mushrooms are incredibly important to Latvians and the best places to find them and wild blueberries in the forest are often tightly guarded secrets passed from generation to generation. Meža māte also oversees the welfare of forest animals.

There are also water deities like Jūras māte (“Mother of the Sea”),, wind deities like Vēja māte (“Mother of the Wind”), sea deities like Jūras māte (“Mother of the Sea”).

The ancient places of worship are typically round and typically 15 feet in diameter, although all that survives are the post-holes as they were made from wood. It’s believed that many are the ancient forerunners of saunas — which are culturally significant throughout the region — much like Native American sweat lodges.

The tenacity of these religions is attested to by the neighboring Lithuanian king Algirdas in 1377, being burned after death in a massive funeral pyre in a fully pagan ceremony, defying the Catholic church authorities. His closest relatives and friends threw lynx and bear claws into the fire to help him climb up into the afterlife.

Back in 1925, a Latvian named Ernests Brastiņš, along with his colleague Kārlis Bregžis, published a manifesto, Latviešu dievturības atjaunojums (“The Restoration of Latvian Dievturība”); the movement it sparked spread quickly across the nation. It was the codification of the ancient pagan practices that emphasized egalitarian social perspectives, a deep reverence for nature, and the ancient gods.

But then the Soviets showed up in 1940, outlawed all religion including Dievturība, and in 1941 sent Brastiņš to a Siberian labor camp, where he was executed in 1942. The movement he helped found, though, lived on. A 2016 study found that roughly 20 percent of Latvians claim Dievturība or a variation on it as their religion.

The Latvians are fiercely independent and frankly terrified that if Trump is elected he’ll help destroy NATO and hand their country to Putin. They erected a giant poster of Putin’s face with a skull-like visage, two stories high, across the street from the Russian embassy, as well as a collection of Ukrainian flags in the park across the street from the embassy.

Children come every day to bring their stuffed animals to lay across the street from the embassy in remembrance of the 100,000+ Ukrainian children who’ve been kidnapped and shipped to Russia, the world’s second-largest producer of child porn, and the tens of thousands who’ve been killed and maimed by Russian bombs and missiles.

We lived in Europe for a bit over a year in the 1980s and have spent a fair amount of time in the Baltic region, particularly Finland and Denmark. I’d never thought of Latvia as a place it would be fun to hang out for a week or more, though, until this trip. Now I’d love to spend a month getting to know the country, it’s people, and its ancient religion better.