Levashovism
Levashovism is a doctrine and healing system of Rodnovery that emerged in Russia, formulated by the physics theorist, occultist and psychic healer Nikolay Viktorovich Levashov, one of the most prominent leaders of Slavic Neopaganism after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The movement was incorporated in 2007 as the Russian Public Movement of Renaissance–Golden Age. Levashovite doctrine is based on a mathematical cosmology, a melting of science and spirituality which has been compared to a "Pythagorean" worldview, and is pronouncedly eschatological. Levashovism is influenced by Ynglism, especially sharing the latter's historiosophical narrative about the Slavic Aryan past of the Russians, and like Ynglism it has been formally rejected by mainstream Russian Rodnover organisations. The movement is present in many regions of Russia, as well as in Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Moldova and Finland.
Overview
Nikolay V. Levashov was educated in advanced physics and quantum mechanics. He began to practise psychic healing in Russia in the 1980s, and in 1990–1991 he held seminars on the subject. In 1991 he moved to California, in the United States, where he lived until 2006 and where he wrote his main books. In 2006 he returned to Russia where in 2007 he founded the Russian Public Movement of Renaissance–Golden Age, formally incorporating the movement of his followers. A few months before dying, Levashov ran for the 2012 Russian presidential election.Levashov claimed to be a bearer of genuine "Vedic" sacred knowledge of the "Slavic Aryans", and called on his followers to live in rational harmony with nature following the path of evolution represented by ancient Vedic culture. Levashovism is based on the Book of Veles and on the Slavo-Aryan Vedas first popularised by the Ynglist Church in the 1990s; Levashov reworked the teachings of these books into original publications, including some—such as The Tale of the Bright Falcon—presenting such teachings in the style of the Russian fairy tale. Levashov referred to the Slavo-Aryan Vedas as carriers of the "innermost knowledge of the first ancestors".
The Levashovite worldview has been likened to Pythagoreanism by Barbara G. Koopman and Richard A. Blasband, for its being "a rare meld of science and spirituality". However, Levashovism, together with Ynglism, was condemned in a joint statement issued in 2009 by the major Russian organisations of mainstream Rodnovery, which deemed it a non-genuine doctrine detrimental to the whole Rodnover movement.
Beliefs
Cosmology of Svarog
According to Levashovite doctrine, all the universe is living matter in quantised space. The universe, all universal creation itself, is the visible manifestation of the absolute God, Rod ; this visible manifestation is Svarog, the supernal God in the heights of Heaven—Svarga—, the abode of the gods—Asgard—, and the Slavic Aryan paradise—Iriy—, which correspond to the north celestial pole and its circumpolar stars, especially the seven-starred constellations of the Bear or Chariot at the centre of the zodiac. Svarog and the universal process of creation are represented by the swastika. The universe has three dimensions, Prav, Yav and Nav: Prav, meaning "Right", is the abode of the gods itself, from which all the right laws of nature come from; Yav is the "manifested" world of the living; while Nav is the "unmanifested" world where the dead go before being born again in Yav.Quantised space is the cradle of all creation and is anisotropic, that is to say non-uniform or non-homogeneous in its architecture, characterised by different qualities and properties in different directions, in which matter interacts in different ways taking different shapes. Qualities and properties of space in its different regions are constantly changing. This view is strongly supported in astrophysics, and is opposed to the classical view according to which the universal space is isotropic, that is to say uniform in its qualities and properties in all directions, in which matter manifests itself in similar ways.
In the Levashovite worldview, anisotropy has a central role in all creation, both microcosmic and macrocosmic; the process of creation unfolds through the eternal interplay, or "cosmic dance", between matter and the anisotropic space, governed by quantifiable parameters. The architectural patterns of any of the regions of space are quantised, and therefore expressible in numerical values. These architectural patterns "actually define and impose the limits within which its chaotically moving matter may exist and the degree of stability it may maintain". The architectures of quantised space, expressible in numerical parameters, are continuously changing, or fluctuating, due to perturbations exerted by electromagnetic waves, both in the microcosmic world of atoms and in the macrocosmic world of stars, and their fluctuations are "responsible for every expression of nature that happens in the universe". Levashov left a mathematical formulation for the representation of the architectural patterns of space.
Seven primary matters
Based on the presumed ancient Vedic knowledge of the Slavic Aryans, Levashov theorised that matter itself is differentiated into seven types, or "building blocks" of creation, which he called the "seven primary matters" or "seven primordial matters", conventionally identified by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G, and by the seven colours, respectively red, violet, blue, azure, green, yellow and orange. The seven primary matters are nonphysical, or subtle matter, that is to say not perceivable to the ordinary human state of consciousness. Primordially, they move chaotically in space, "ignoring" each other, but each of them has its own distinctive properties or qualities and a specific energetic potential that allow them to respond to the ever-changing patterns of space. Red matter A is the most important, functioning as a structural and energetic foundation for all the other matters when they coalesce to form entities.Local areas of anisotropy are created by fluctuations in the architectural patterns of space—likened to a stone tossed into water creating ripple effects—and these fluctuations influence the relationship between space itself and the seven primary matters. When the latter find themselves in a given region of space in proportions that match the numerical parameters of that given region of space, the seven building blocks become empowered to interact and coalesce with other blocks of compatible quality and energetic potential to form structures of hybrid matter, providing endless opportunities for cosmic creation. While the fluctuations of space mould the otherwise free-flowing matter within it, simultaneously matter itself generates further fluctuations, engaging in a continuous "cosmic dance" until this dance reaches an equilibrium and creates a stable system.
In other words, when the quantity of change in spatial parameters becomes critical, a quality emerges, as matter coalesces and stable manifestations of reality are created, such as the planet Earth, also called Midgard in Levashovism, borrowing the concept from Germanic Heathenism. Contrariwise, when the balance between the architectural parameters of the surrounding space and the qualities and energetic potential of the seven primary matters within it is broken, the structures of hybrid matter that were formed lose stability and disintegrate, returning to be chaotic matter.
Sevenfold bodies
According to Levashovite cosmology, when they are organised, the seven primary matters constitute seven "layers" of reality. Each layer is composed of different hybrids of the seven primary matters and they are separated from each other by almost unpenetrable qualitative barriers; for instance, the planet Earth has its physical body—its innermost sphere—, and six other interdigitating nonphysical spherical bodies. Any entity and the human being itself is constituted by seven interpenetrating bodies, including the innermost densest physical body and six other bodies of subtler matter, referred to as the "subtle bodies" or "spiritual bodies".The seven bodies are, from the densest to the subtlest, the physical body, the ethereal body, the astral body, the mental body, and three supramental bodies. Each of them is constituted by different combinations of the seven primary matters, though with a different one of them being dominant in each body, each of them expressing distinctive qualities and characteristics and representing a stair of spiritual evolution; together, they constitute the spirit, or higher consciousness, of an entity. The physical body is constituted by a balance, grounded on red matter A, of all the other matters; the ethereal body is entirely of orange matter G; the astral body is dominated by yellow matter F prevailing on G; the mental body is dominated by green matter E prevailing on F and G; the first supramental body is dominated by azure matter D prevailing on E, F and G; the second supramental body is dominated by blue matter C prevailing on D, E, F and G; and the third supramental body is dominated by violet matter B prevailing on C, D, E, F and G. Orange matter G is present on all levels, as the ethereal body is the first and lowest stage in the evolution of living, conscious entities: the animal consciousness. Each one of the subtle bodies is structurally a copy of the physical body on the corresponding subtle body of the planet Earth. They all possess the same structure—cells, organs, organic systems—corresponding to that of the physical body. Most humans have developed, in addition to the physical body, only the first two subtle bodies, while all the other four are rudimentary and inactive. A human has to develop all the seven bodies to complete the cycle of evolution and break out of the reincarnation cycle on the Earth.
In the Levashovite system, the seven matters dominating in each one of the seven bodies are associated to seven energetic centres in the body—chakras in Hindu terminology—functioning as antennas which convey the associated matter. The coccyx is the centre associated with red matter A, is the fundamental one, and red matter A corresponds to the Kundalini in the Hindu system, the fundamental cosmic force of all creation represented by the snake, which is necessary to awaken and steer for ascending towards the higher levels; the sexual organ is associated with orange matter G; the navel is associated with yellow matter F; the heart is associated with green matter E; the throat is associated with azure matter D; the forehead is associated with blue matter C; and the crown is associated with violet matter B. Levashov's seven matters and seven bodies have been compared to William A. Tiller's cosmological model, itself telling about seven levels of substances interpenetrating each other with minimal interaction until triggered by the mind; Tiller's cosmology itself was inspired by the Hindu system of the seven chakras.