Hungarian and Romanian Ethno-pagan Blogs

7/25/2019 Hungarian and Romanian Ethno-pagan Blogs

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A Comparative Investigation of Romanian and Hungarian

Ethno-Pagan Blogs

Hubbes Lszl-Attila, PhD

Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Postmodern sensitivity, together with globalization has brought about not only the revival ofreligiosity, but also an intense process of creation and re-creation of spiritual movements andorganizations around the world. In the ideological void of post-totalitarian Central-Eastern

Europe religious streams sometimes intertwine with nationalist movements returning to pre-Christian Pagan roots. The comparative study of Romanian and Hungarian Neopagancommunities with an ethnocentric or Ethno-Pagan ideology is an exploratory researchaimed at mapping the similarities and the differences. It also look at their connections topolitical movements, to radical right ideologies, and conspiracy theories as well as theirgeneral suspicion towards official establishment discourses and their ambiguous relations tomainline Christianity.

Keywords:Romanian and Hungarian Ethno-Pagans, web rhetoric, blogs

Introduction

The issue of Ethno-Paganism presented here constitutes the object of an ongoinglarger research project that explores the internet-rhetoric of Neopagan movements fromRomania and Hungary.1The theme, curious as it is, has drawn our attention not because of itsisolated exotic character, on the contrary, an ever more prominent presence of pagannarratives may be observed in the virtual space. The phenomenon, discernable in bothHungarian and Romanian context with strong ethnic or nationalistic undertones, with loudconfrontative rhetoric, with various levels of organization, offered itself to serious scholarinvestigation from several, interdisciplinary aspects. Thus we started an exploratory researchin February 2011, from which we published a study (Bak & Hubbes, 2011) with an emphasisof the organizational rhetoric; and also three conference lectures were presented analyzing thealternative self-images, respectively the extremist voices gaining strength in HungarianNeopagan online narratives (Hubbes 2011a, b, c), in which works we introduced the termEthno-Pagan.

For this conference concerning the role of new media in journalism we turned again toa contrastive analysis of Romanian and Hungarian blogs and web-pages with pronouncedethnic and pagan connotations, picking eight examples considered as representative for the

1This project of theSemeistos Research Group for Web Semiotics and Online Communication based at theFaculty of Technical and Social Sciences, Miercurea Ciuc of Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvaniais

supported through the research grant Web Rhetoric of Romanian and Hungarian Ethno-pagan Organisations ofthe Institute for Research Programmes, Cuj-Napoca, Romania. For details, see:http://semeistos.wordpress.com/projects/neopagans/


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investigated phenomenon: the Romanian Gebeleisis Association, Dacia Liberation Front,Dacia Revival International Society, and Kogaionon Info as well as the Hungarian AncientHungarian Church,Tengri Babba Community and We Are Seeds. In this present study we willtry to offer an overview of the founding narratives and symbolism of various Romanian andHungarian Ethno-Paganisms as mirrored on the chosen websites, representing different stages

of more or less institutionalized virtual organizations (see Bak 2011).

For a better understanding of the discussed phenomenon, we shall describe and define in relation to the wider terms of Neopaganism and ethnicity certain key notions, such asReconstructionism, Neo-Shamanism, protochronism, Zalmoxianism, and Ethno-Paganism.After this conceptualization, the main research questions along with their implicit hypotheseswill be briefly presented, to be answered in the discussion of myths and symbols in theargumentative part.

Conceptualization

Neopaganism, as perhaps the fastest growing marginal religious trend, infiltratingfrom the fringes of socio-religious landscape into the colloquial normality, and in oppositionto historical Pagans of ancient cultures, may be defined as an umbrella-term covering a wholerange of syncretic this-worldly anti-authoritarian nature-oriented modern urban protestreligions, originating from old European Mysticism as well as 18-19 Centuries Romanticismand reconstituted from ancient classical cults, Pre-Christian religions and non-European tribalbeliefs. They are generally polytheistic or conditionally monotheistic, privileging theexperience of personal ritual over belief, with some relevant common characteristics, such asre-mythologizing, ecologism, or recognition of the female principle. (Grieve, 1995; Kis-Halas, 2005; also Szilrdi, 2007, 72)

Neopagan movements include eclecticist, syncretic bricolage-cults (like Wicca, Neo-Druidism, /Urban/ Neo-Shamanism) on one extremity to culturally specific traditions, such asthe many experiments to reconstruct and revive monotheistic or polytheistic ancient paganreligions at the other end. (cf. Adler, 1979, 436-437) For our present purposes we areinterested in the latter form, the reconstructionist Paganism or Reconstructionism, whichstrives to rebuild meticulously a certain past religious tradition through a fairly scholarlystudy of ancient texts, folklore, archaeology, and languages believed to contain highlyauthoritative information regarding the creed to be revived, (Strmiska, 2005, 19) while strictlyrejecting eclectic practices and ideas, in order to keep the purity of the ancient religion.

Neo-Shamanism in general, in its various forms tends to incorporate bothreconstructionist and eclectic elements, but Hungarian (Neo-)Shamanist movements aimed

at recovering a supposedly lost spirituality, built-in into the deepest layers of Hungarianlanguage and cultural practices present a rather clear case of Reconstructionism. In ourearlier study (Bak &Hubbes, 2011) we named the Hungarian model Shamanist, since it isthe most common form of returning to the Asian ancestors cult whether they call themselvesTltos-Shamans, or Tengriists, or Arch-Hungarians. However, there might be a slightdifference in the case of certain Hungarian Neo-Shamanist movements from the generalcharacter of reconstructionist Paganism to which they undoubtedly belong. As a rule,Reconstructionism turns to recorded mythology, history and living folkloric traditions whilethe Hungarian followers of the Yotengrit (Mt, 2007) and the Arvisura [pronounced:arvishura] (Pal, 1998) rely primarily onto fictional mythopoetic works (considered ofcourse by them the genuine tradition).

Romanian Reconstructionism labeled Zalmoxianism in our earlier study (Bak &Hubbes, 2011) on the other hand, though certainly a religious phenomenon centered on


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reviving an ancient Pagan cult of Zalmoxis (or Zamolxis) is rather concerned with history.Zalmoxian movement in its all various forms at first glance looks like historicism, and isclosely attached to the phenomenon of protochronism. Protochronism, a term coined byRomanian historians (Papu, 1974) goes hand in hand with some given continuity theory. Itpromotes an idea of preceding others in time and an idealized heroic past. Here is how C tlin

Borangic describes the term: [protochronism] is a cultural current that appeared in Romaniaunder this name at the mid-seventies of the past century; not a brand new idea, it revives acertain type of nationalism; such a current may be easily identified in the cultures which claimtheir right to a given identity. (Borangic 2008, 119-137).

Though protochronism is considered a specifically Romanian term, the phenomenonitself is nonetheless present also in Hungarian variants (as it may be found in the thought ofother surrounding nations in this quarter of Europe). While original Romanian protochronismstarts off from historically grounded Dacian-Roman Romanian continuity theory, andventures into an imaginary Dacian, Thracian, Pelasgian cultural precedence, the Hungariancounterpart rejects the official Finno-Ugrian discourse of Hungarian ethnic history, adoptingone or another variant of the Turanist idea, again bursting into protochronist fantasies of a

prehistoric world-civilizing Arch-Hungarian culture (e.g. Tamana-theory see Vmos-Tth,2005, 2010). Protochronism then, in every manifestation of it is an exaggerated expression ofnational, that is: ethnic identity, where the historical importance of the ethnos is unnaturallyswelled and sanctified, usually in the detriment of other entities. This is clearly the case ofboth Romanian and Hungarian ethnic religious movements, in certain cases protochronic andethnic superiority ideas even might surpass the religious character of the given community.

The term ethnic religion might also be used for these Pagan movements, providedthe concept wouldnt have been booked for more classical ideas of ethnos-related religiosity.2In lack of a concise term we saw it fit for our needs to blend the two concepts ofreconstructionist Paganism and ethnicity in a special brand: Ethno-Paganism. In earlierstudies and presentations we thus labeled Hungarian and Romanian ethnic Neopagan groups,(Hubbes 2011c, Bak & Hubbes 2011) as Ethno-Pagans, which might be similarlyaccurate for a wide range of neopagan movements quite typical for Europe, especially theEastern part of it, denoting different Slavic, Baltic or even Turkic pagan groups. (Ferlat, 2003;Ivakhiv, 2005; Wiench, 1997)

Ethnicity at the same time, when joint with paganism, means an accentuatedethnocentrism, even ideas of ethnic supremacy or primacy, often finding expression innationalistic political movements. As Schnirelman (2002, 198) observed for the post-Sovietera and area, a fast development of Neopaganism was closely connected with a growth ofethnic nationalism, with activists of the national movements persistently calling for arestoration of the (ethnic, pre-Christian, pre-Muslim) folk religion. The same applies to the

larger Central-Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism.Without being a necessary corollary, radical right-wing organizations are oftenintertwined with Ethno-Pagan movements, a connection that involves political activism ofvarious intensities, turning ethnic Paganism a kind of political religion. This phenomenon hasbeen repeatedly investigated, we refer here to a recent study of Szilgyi: SacredCharacteristics of the Nation (2008) where the author charts a comparison between politicalreligion and civil religion, rendering neopagan movements as expressions of Hungarianism,interpreting radical right-wing movements as manifestations of a new religiosity. He also callsthe attention upon the fact that political religion, be it Christian-oriented or Neopaganist is

2It refers to either ethnic churches within a main religious denomination (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox) or

to contemporary indigenous traditional ethnic religions, that is: living (Asian, African, Pacific, Native Americananimistic, totemistic, shamanistic, theistic) cults that do not need reconstruction or revitalization due to theirunbroken survival to our days.


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inseparable from an alternative historicity and sacral geography a concept which is crucialfor our investigation. (Szilgyi, 2008, 3-5)

Research question and hypothesis

Since such liaisons between ethnic Neopaganism and politically active radicalnationalism are considerable, and in the case of Romanian and Hungarian Ethno-Pagans wehave found such correlations (see Bak &Hubbes, 2011) in various degrees, we now turn to acloser investigation. In this comparative study we continue our exploratory research mappingthe similarities and the differences between Romanian and Hungarian Ethno-Pagan onlinecommunities Zalmoxian groups promote the revival of Romanian spirituality through aprocess of reconnection to its ancient, supposedly Dacian-Thracian (Pelasgian) roots;similarly, Hungarian Shamanist movements are aimed at recovering a supposedly lostspirituality, builtin into the deepest layers of Hungarian language and cultural practices, andrecoverable from the shared culture of all extinct and contemporary Turanic nations.

We restrict now to a single research question for this study: to what extent do these

groups differ in their discourses from mainline nationalist and religious entities? What are thepoints in which they conform, and what alternatives do they adopt?Our implicit hypothesis partially based on our previous investigations is that (Neo)

Shamanist / Zalmoxianist movements variously differ in their narratives from the moretraditional (more Christian) radical nationalism, mainly as regards their alternative self-images, and use of alternative mythologies and symbolisms (Arvisura, Yotengrit, TestamentulZalmoxian and others).

For the purposes of this study we rely on contrastive web-content analysis bothvisual semiotic and textual rhetoric; through the means of unobtrusive investigation thatgathers data solely from publicly available sources posted on the World Wide Web, withoutcontacting the actors themselves in this stage of the research.

The background mythic narratives

We described earlier Reconstructionist Paganism as a strive to rebuild a pure ancientethnic religion of the ancestors, exclusively from authentic sources such as living folklorictraditions, folk legends and mythology from ethnographic collections, liable historical recordsetc. which theoretically should be the case of Ethno-Pagans. Still, neither Romanian, norHungarian Ethno-Pagan movements usually content themselves with that much. Actually, themajority of the studied websites rely rather (or also) on alternative historical theories,protochronist ideas and, even more importantly, mythopoetic works from the 19th and 20th

centuries that is: myths, legendaries, mythologies created by modern authors, combiningtraditional mythic stories with fantastic history and poetic imaginary. Such works havebecome holy scriptures for several Shamanist or Zalmoxian movements. In the followingparagraphs we will offer a brief review of such protochronist tendencies and mythopoeticsources.

Several Romanian researchers (Boia, 1999, 86-90; Babe2003; Tomi2007; Manea2011) have investigated the origins, early development, disgrace, revival, fade and post-revolution transformations of Romanian protochronism. The controversial history of an ideaof an idyllic Dacian past begins the romantic view of Nicolae Densuianu, (1913) whoadvanced the idea of Pelasgianism. In both the far-right Legionary doctrines and severaldecades later the enforced official National-Communist state ideology of the Ceauescu-era,Dacianism played the role of a founding myth for the nation-state (Manea, 2011). Prominentrepresentatives range from Edgar Papu, or Iosif Constantin Drgan (a legionary migr!) to


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the contemporary hard ideologists of dacology like Napoleon Svescu or Octavian Srbtoare.In brief, protochronism may be presented as a mythic history of Romanians descending fromthe pre-Indo-European Pelasgians inhabiting the Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic-Balcanic area,who invented writing (Trtria-tablets), conquered and civilized Eurasia, reaching as far asMongolia or Japan, later as Dacians-Getae, a tribe of Thracians, gave the world the first

monotheistic religion of the god Zalmoxis, forerunner of Christ. These Dacians being partiallyconquered by Rome in 106 AD lived through almost two centuries of Romanization andwhile official history teaches this process of Romanization as the basis of RomanianContinuity Theory, Dacologists declare that Romanization is a false doctrine and Romaniansare uninterrupted descendants of DaciansGetae, the latter being identified also with theGoths, thus ultimately contributing to the Fall of Rome. Naturally, there are countlessvariations in this plot, according to the personal convictions of each Dacologist author, but themain lines unfold along this constellation of ideas.

This phenomenon is predominantly seriously discussed in the same medium andcontext as it propagates: the internet. Though not taken from scholarly studies, but frumdiscussion forums, we will refer here to some very helpful short definitions and explanations

of Romanian Ethno-Paganism which is named by the quoted commenters somewhatpejoratively as Dacomania or Tracomania. Dacomania represents a heteroclite andunarticulated set of pseudo-scientific theories, convictions and clichs of radical nationalistcharacter, born from an exaggerated admiration and an uncritical idealization of the Daciansand their civilization, manifested in the tendency of considering the Dacians at the origin ofseveral planetary historical realities. (Olteanu, 2006) Also, another commenter, under theironic pseudonym plinul cel tanar [full the younger] considers that Tracomania in itself is areligious creed, or more precisely a modern form of a cult of the ancestors and bringsconsistent arguments to confirm his ascertainment, stating that 1. Tracomanians have got theirown myths, with the Dacian nation as the central collective personage of this mythology; 2.Tracomanians have their religious elite, with Densuianu as a kind of founding prophet andNapoleon Svescu as a contemporary spiritual leader followed by a range of adepts on theweb; and 3. Tracomanians produce religious art, virtual images, texts, clips and songs, evensometimes valuable in their own kind. (2006)

The same principles described above regarding mythopoetic religiosity, ancestor cultand protochronism apply to Hungarian Ethno-Paganism as well. However, it is worthmentioning that while in Romania Protochronism was a tolerated and later, during thetotalitarianism a severely imposed national history, in Hungary protochronist-like doctrineshave never managed to enter officially state ideology. In the wake of nineteenth centurystrives to reconstruct a presumably lost national mythology, and heavy linguistical-historical

debates over the origins and affiliation of Hungarian language and people (known as the[academic] Ugrian-Turkish War), official academic doctrines definitely rejected the theory ofScythian-Hun-Turkic-Hungarian continuity; a standpoint that left many adepts of this latterview deeply frustrated. Turanism however is not quite the central idea of Hungarianprotochronism.3Such thoughts emerged with the ideas of the Sumerian ancestry advanced bysuch scholars as Badiny Js Ferenc, Bobula Ida. Sumerianism has come today to engulfalmost all anti-Finno-Ugrian trends, but most importantly a strong wave of religiousnesssprung from Badiny Jss work on he Parthian provenance of Jesus. (1998) Protochronismhas found expression in the religious primacy over Abrahamic monotheisms, with Jesus beinga Zarathustra-like prophet of Light (ironically, Zalmoxians also consider their religion asbeing the first real Monotheism, and Jesus an initiate of Zalmoxis [Srbtoare, 2011]). Other

3For the purposes of this study we will use the term protochronism for the Hungarian ideas of historical orcultural primacy as well.


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historical and cultural primacies include a linguistical and civilizing firstness of the Magyarlanguage and people, the invention of writing, invention of horse-riding and an interestingrecent idea of geographical first presence and continuity in the Carpathian-Danubian area,competing and mutually excluding each other with the Romanian protochronist discourse.

For a comparison with Romanian protochronist ideas, we resume some variations4that

converge into a Hungarian protochronist mythology. In regard to origins, as opposed to theofficial Uralic, Finno-Ugric version, Hungarians descend either from Proto-Asian people(s)and/or Sumerians, Huns, Scythians, Parthians, Sabirs (see Gtz, 1989; Bobula, 1961; Kiszely2001; Padnyi, 1963; Pap, 1999) or according to some newer theories from primaevalProto-European (Carpathian-Danubian) populations. (Cser & Darai 2005) Further on, theHungarian or Magyar language preserves the most ancient form of the original protolanguagein its perfection, (Kiss, 1999; Varga, 2005) and based upon the clear logical peculiarities ofthis language the Hungarian runic rovs was the first form of writing ever, from which allother alphabets later evolved (Varga, 2005; also Maxwell, 2004) consequently this nation isthe direct descendant of the prehistoric proto-culture, while other nations diverged anddegenerated from it. (Vmos-Tth, 2005, 2010) Following this logic it should be no surprise

that also the Hungarians were the originators and only perpetuators of the real (Parthian) Pre-Christian Christianity. Jesus himself would have been a Parthian prince bringing the messageof Light into the world, which was then spoiled by the Jewish Bible. (Badiny-Js, 1998)Against all odds, and being Christianized by force, Hungarians still have succeeded to savetheir creed by the mystical program of the Holy Crown and keep a sacral order in theCarpathian-basin through the past millennium. (Pap, 1999) The sacral mission of Hungary dedicated by its first king Saint Stephen to Mary the Virgin has always been to serve asguardian of Light and Truth and to assure the spiritual bridge between East and West, at thesame time warding off from the crucially central Carpathian area both the eastern intrudingpeople and the western aggressive imperialist powers. (Balogh, s.a.)These ideas have neverbeen admitted into Hungarian official discourse, not even after the fall of the CommunistRegime however, recently seem to gain quasi-legitimacy through rightist political parties,first with the Magyar Igazsg s let Prtja (Hungarian Justice and Life Party) and now withthe rise of the Jobbik Party (word-play: Righter = Better Party). (Szilgyi, 2008, 2)

It is not by coincidence that the Romanian and Hungarian founding myths,protochronist theories of a mysterious prehistoric Carpathian culture show such strikingsimilarities. It is a shared idea of many nations in Eastern Europe, and in other parts of theworld, where some cultural or historical-political trauma has negatively affected the self-appreciation of a given nation (and this is pretty much the case of the entire eastern part of ourcontinent), adapted always and everywhere to the specific circumstances and traditions,sacralising language, culture as well as geography.

Blogs and websites investigated

In this chapter we present in brief some of the more representative Ethno-Pagan blogs,both Romanian and Hungarian, giving only a short description of each.

4presented as well in an earlier study of Hubbes Lszl,Signs of Times A Semiotic Content-Analysis ofVisual Apocalyptic Rhetoric on Hungarian Conspiracist Websites (Acta Universitatis Sapientiae. Philologica.ISSN: 20675151, 2(1), 2010, 176-192, also: www: acta.sapientia.ro


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The RomaniaDacia Casa Noastr (RomaniaDacia Our Home) Casa Noastra Blog central al Frontului de Eliberare a Daciei (Dacia Libera)5is the central blog of an entirenetwork of blogs and websites, from all over Romania. (see 1. Screenshot)This organization:

RDCN: Dacia Liberation Front, run by a young sociologist working in media (see Bak2011) is centered on the idea that contemporary Romania is the successor of Ancient Dacia,

and it needs to be freed from alien elements and influences. Focusing more on political andsocial issues, theLiberation Frontand its afferent blogs at first glance do not look like Ethno-Pagans proper however, all along the linked pages, videos as well as in the main body-textsprotochronist ideas are promoted, primarily of Dacianism and/or Pelasgianism, and strongreferences to Zalmoxis as religious model, along with the usual conspiracy theories of thestolen history of the nation. Though not univocally or overtly religious, the entire network isnonetheless a clear example of Dacomania/Tracomania with explicit links to the radical right.

The central blog presented here has a puritan design, with white background; themessage is purported by the posts themselves, which are usually highly multimediatic, as wellas by the favorites, linked in the column to the right. The logo of the organization, a black-brown wolf-headed draco (the war-standard of ancient Dacians) over the Romanian red-

yellow-blue tricolor, with the inscription RDCN also appears in the upper right corner with acall to join the organization.

TheDacia Revival International Society6(see 2. Screenshot)is an already establishedorganization. Presided by Napoleon Svescu, a Romanian physicist migr in the US, thissociety functions as a pseudo-scientific, pseudo-historian academic organization, withregularly organized international conferences (Congrese de Dacologie already at the 11 thedition), regularly published journal (Dacia Magazin) all built upon the protochronistDacian-Pelasgian ideas of Nicolae Densuianu. The aim of this society, with a very high levelof self-legitimation (see Bak 2011), is to study and promote the real history of the Dacians

as opposed to the official academic discourse, and to offer an institutional framework for allwho whish to join this noble case.The societys web-page, though very traditional and static, is nonetheless visually

quite elaborated, with a grim black-and-gold elegance and kitschy tendencies. The logo iswritten in golden traditionalizing letters along with a Thracian golden helmet over a blackbackground in flames, which is framing the greyish navigation surface as well.

The navigation surface is very tell-tale from start: the left column hosting the verticalmenu (articles, film, music, photos, maps, a virtual museum) has in its background the statueof a Dacian (probably king Decebal); the horizontal menu-bar leads us to DacologyConferences, the Dacia Magazin journal, the forum and contact, while on the left there is apoll inserted with the question whether visitors consider to change the name of the Romanian

country into Dacia7, under it other kin pages like Pelasgians, Dacologica, EnciclopediaDacica, Pelasgia.orgetc. are linked in; and within this trilateral frame the greeting messageappears in a striking red over a black background, telling the visitor the main objectives of theorganization.

From among the numerous Hungarian blogs and web pages we have chosen somerepresentative examples. First we present the homepage of the smagyar EgyhzAncient

Hungarian Church,8 (see 5. Screenshot) because it is the oldest surviving and officially

5http://casanoastra-romania-dacia.blogspot.com/

6http://www.dacia.org/dacia-rev/7Fro 4!2 voters "3#3$# that is 41% visitors voted for the change & as of 16.12.2%11."http://www.osmagyaregyhaz.hu/nyitooldal(No. of visitors: 63#5!!'


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registered Hungarian Ethno-Pagan organization of this kind on the net.9The Church itself ismeant to be a return to the creed of the ancestors before they had been forced to Christianity,but nevertheless it contains countless references and elements from the Christian Religion.Along the religious aspect, protochronist ideas are also present.

The welcome page, just as the rest of the site, is very conservative in its design and

simple too. On a whitish-ros background it displays a light red menu with white titles, underwhich a panorama-like photo of Budapest is stretched. The white and gold round logo onwhich the name of the church smagyar Egyhz is written in Hungarian with Latin andrunic letters around the central rising sun that shines onto the triple hilland the double crosstaken from the official coat-of-arms of Hungary inserted repeatedly in both the photo andthe centre of the menu stresses the authentic Hungarian character of the community. Themenu titles (and under them the hyperlinked contents) include Our Land of Origin,Tradition, Holidays, Way of Life, Mysteries, Living Wisdom, Research, Poetry,Maps and The Krsi Csoma10Society this by far non-exhaustive list makes visiblethe orientation of the site. The greeting message is a short presentation of the Church,presenting its aims and creed, telling us that God the Creator has created us Hungarians, and

since our souls, our thoughts are Hungarian, we confess and live our ancient Hungarian faithin accordance to Gods will.

An important community of Ethno-Pagan orientation, formed around the idea oforganic culture, and specifically the doctrine of the Holy Crownas well as the thesis ofJesus,the Parthian Prince is centred on the Dobog web-site11 (and journal see 6. Screenshot).This movement, highly critical of other Hungarian Ethno-Pagan shamans and groups, is leadby several respected prominent professors and scholars in art history, pedagogy, psychology,ethnography and similar domains12, and it is aimed to a more nationalist young intellectualelite. The movement has an ambiguous relation to (mainline) Christianity: on the one hand itpromotes scholarly reconstructed pre-Christian Pagan traditions (curiously resembling

Manichean ideas) and shows an overt aversion towards Christianity because of its Judeo-Roman nature, on the other hand seeks justification within both Roman-Catholic andProtestant Christianity13 and even makes proselytising among their rows, reaching up to thecleric ranges.

The name of the site Dobog (literally meaning: beating) is evoking the the heart-chakra of the Earth, which is commonly thought by the most Hungarian Neopaganmovements to be the Dobogk-peak (700 m) in the Pilis-mountain in Hungary. This nameappears written in golden historicizing letters on a logo representing the greenish-brownphysical map of Great Hungary, under which two slogans: Mythical Hungarian History andGod Fatherland Love, flanked to the left and right by the official red-white-greentricolour and the rpd-striped red-and-white flags of Hungary remind us the nature of thissite. The logo itself is placed over a stripe of black and white archive photos with historicalconnotations. The right column menu lists titles like: journal archive, bookshop, events in theCarpathian basin, excursions, downloads, forum etc.; while the main body on the left alwayspresents the actualities: open courses, presentations held in various locations or the content ofthe latest issue of the hard copy journal itself.

! founded in 1972 in the United States in Los Angeles, California by a Hungarian migr Nimrd Lszl Hajd,registered in Hungary in 1999 (see Szilgyi &Szilrdi, 2007, 74-75)1%()ndor *soa de +,rs# a repted 1!thcentr 0ngarian ingist and rientaist who started his

jorne to sia in order to find the ncestors of 0ngarians presed to sti ive in astern *entra sia.11http://www.doogot.h/doogo/ain.php- 8o. of visitors 5%!#7"! in 2%11'

129ersonaities ie ;)or 9ap# sef ?@gv)ri# ajos (>)ntai# sef ?. Aon)r13ne proinent eBape is the oveentCs reiance on the prespposed secret tradition of the

0ngarian Aonastic rder of the 9aine Fathers.


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Conclusions

At the end of our review, after taking into account the main theories and someexemplary blogs and websites, we are now able to formulate a summary answer to ourresearch question raised at the beginning of this study: to what extent do these groups differ intheir discourses from mainline nationalist and religious entities? What are the points in whichthey conform, and what alternatives do they adopt? Our implicit hypothesis was that (Neo)Shamanist / Zalmoxianist movements variously differed in their narratives from the moretraditional (more Christian) radical nationalism, mainly as regards their alternative self-images, and use of alternative mythologies and symbolisms which has been clearlyconfirmed.

An important observation was that Romanian and Hungarian founding myths,protochronist theories of a mysterious prehistoric Carpathian culture presented some strikingsimilarities. The primacy and supremacy of ones own nation and culture and religion isshared idea of many nations in Eastern Europe, and in other parts of the world, where some

cultural or historical-political trauma has negatively affected the self-appreciation of thatgiven nation, and such narratives adapted always and everywhere to the specificcircumstances and traditions, sacralising language, culture as well as geography.

Based on the above blogs and sites, Ethno-Paganism how ever diverse may it be in itsfaces, still forms a unitary phenomenon. Whether Hungarian Neo-Shamanism or RomanianZalmoxianism, the trend is to question or refuse official history, anthropology and linguistics,an overt aversion against current academic and political discourse, stressing uponprotochronist ideas and mythic fantasies. In this respect, they share their narratives with asignificant part of radical raight, ationalist movements. The same stands for the Pagansrelation towards the mainline denominations (Roman Catholic, Calvinist, Unitarian) or theofficial (Orthodox) Christian Church of the state whether in Hungary or in Romania in the

latter case. Some communities are clearly opposing Christianity, much visible in their onlinesites (Gebeleizis, ArvisuraVan); others show an ambiguous stance (RDCN, Kogaionon,smagyar Egyhz, Yotengrit, Tengri-Babba) still others even make proselytizing in the rowsof Christianity (Dobog). In any case, the discourse of Ethno-Pagans is that Christianity is aperversion of the ancestral pure faith, the monotheistic or polytheistic Paganism beingsuperior to the Judeo-Roman corrupt church(es), which distorted the real personality of Jesusand his original message. These narratives seek to bring back a lost sacredness and self-esteem into the lives of many people in Romania and Hungary (and generally post-Communist Eastern Europe) through an exaggerated counterbalancing of the dehumanizing,humiliating ideologies of the past half century.

References

Adler, M. (1979).Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans inAmerica, New York: Viking

goston, V. (2008).Magyar s romn szlssges honlapok. [Hungarian and Romanian Extremist Websites]Mhelytanulmny 35. Budapest: Eurpai sszehasonlt Kisebbsgkutatsok Kzalaptvny.

Babe, M. (2003). Renaterea Daciei? [Rebirth of Dacia?] Observatorul Cultural, 185.

Badiny Js F. (1998)Jzus kirly A prtus herceg.[Jesus King The Parthian Prince.] Budapest: sirksgnk Alaptvny

Bak, R.K. & Hubbes, L.A. (2011). Religious Minorities Web Rhetoric: Romanian and Hungarian Ethno-PaganOrganizations.Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 10, 30: 127-158.


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Bobula, I. (1961)A sumrmagyar rokonsg krdse.[The Problem of Sumerian-Hungarian Relation.] Buenos

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