The Changing Face of Veles

The great god Veles, Keeper of the Threshold, twice a year changes his face, determining the cycles of the great stream of life.
The winter face of Veles — the “bear” face, reflecting the sleeping character of his unbridled might, dangerous precisely in its awakening — gives way to the summer — the “bull” face, expressing the even, tireless flow of life-force.
As one of the manifestations of the Power of the Threshold, the surface of the earth is under Veles’s sway, and all changes occurring in the lower world do not take place without his life-giving influence.
In winter Veles’s power merges with the cold winds of the Lower worlds, ice and frost, allowing rest and recovery to the inhabitants of the Middle World. In summer Veles pours his strength into the Solar stream from Dazhdbog, creating support for the Upper worlds, which pour Yar across the earth.
Only when all three Powers — Veles, Dazhdbog and Mokosh — merge their streams into a single river does life arise as the constant seething of consciousness, stirring the depths of being. Veles gives the life-stream stability and individuality, while Heaven and Earth supply the moving force.
But it is not only the winter/summer cycle; the daily rhythm is also sustained by the changing faces of Veles.
The tavromorphic Veles clears a path through the exuberant bloom of unchecked solar force, allowing attractive and expansive forces to harmoniously balance one another. Veles the Bull rules the day, tempering the intensity of its manifestations against the uncertainties of the Interworld.
The arctomorphic Veles sustains the ice-cold breath of Mara and slows the winter life-stream, governing the ever-shifting fabric of dreams.
Indeed, in order that the fragile, changeable dream-reality not crumble, and that hordes of predators do not flood through its wreckage into the mind, a truly bear-like strength is required — one that restrains the mind’s leaps within fairly stable bounds.
Thus, the changing faces of Veles lie at the heart of the turning of the world’s cycles, ensuring eternal recurrence within the endless spiral of being.