Kolo Dazhdbog: The Fertilization of Intention

The fourth kolo that a pagan magus traverses on his path of development is the Kolo Dazhdbog.

The Life‑Giving Face of the Sun, Dazhdbog, was not only one of the most revered Slavic gods; he was their Sacred Ancestor, and his blood — the power of the Sun — animated and illuminated the lives of the tribes dwelling among the forests and rivers.

Accordingly, Dazhdbog’s power fertilizes not only the Earth, bringing it to life; it can also awaken the creative forces from winter sleep of the Psychocosmos, which is precisely what the rituals performed according to the scheme of the Kolo Dazhdbog are intended to do.

This scheme is graphically represented by the closure of the Kolovorot:

And also by the division of the rune Ingwaz into the descending and ascending Sowelu:

In any case, the Kolo Dazhdbog reflects the process of enlivening — for example, the sprouting of a seed — and naturally includes 8 key steps, which, together with entry and exit points, yield 10 stages.

1. The seed is cast into the earth;
2. The earth enfolds the seed;
3. The seed “becomes” earth, dissolving into it;
4. The earth gives the seed life;
5. Life awakens within the seed;
6. The seed puts down roots and separates itself from the earth (asserts its individuality);
7. The power of growth awakens in the seed;
8. The seed sprouts;
9. The seed receives the power of the Sun, uniting Sun and earth, neutralizing their duality;

10. The emergence into independent existence, growth, and development.

Passing through the Kolo, consciousness journeys through its elements, at first dissolving into them, and then — re‑crystallizing into an independent unit.

This approach (immersion in the depths for purification and gathering strength) is a general strategy of transmutations and underlies all the Kola, but at the level of the Kolo Dazhdbog it is tinged with a keen desire for creativity, manifestation, and expansion, since the Sun, whose power propels this Kolo, is the sublimation of the Life Force in its active, manifestation‑seeking aspect.

Just as in the Kolo Velesa the primary active principle is the Call of the Way, in the Kolo Semargla it is the Call of Liberation, in the Kolo Svarog the Call of Manifestation, so in the Kolo Dazhdbog the driving force is a thirst for creativity and a drive to expand one’s self — that is, a thirst for fruitfulness.

In all his manifestations Dazhdbog is the Lord of the stream of life, and in this aspect he is a son of both Svarog and Veles; this nature is most evident in Dazhdbog’s earthly manifestation — the God of the Forests. Accordingly, the Kolo Dazhdbog awakens creativity in its transcendent sense — not merely as a desire to transform reality, but as an impulse to introduce new elements into that reality, and therefore, in a certain sense, as overcoming the threshold. Thus all great creators — artists and musicians, scientists and writers — pass through the Kolo Dazhdbog, and, of course, Magi cannot do without it.

The form this Kolo takes in each particular case depends on the individuality of the practitioner, but for Magi aligning that form with the Scheme of the Kolo ensures the most effective passage through it, reducing the likelihood of errors and the danger of straying from the Way.