Volkhv or Volhv (translated as Sage, Sorcerer, Magus, Shaman, Wizard, Gothi

Mythology, Legends, Folklore and Mysterious Things

Click on Images for Information

(#CommissionsEarned)

Shades of Current Image

(#CommissionsEarned)

Current Root

@Mythology, Legends, Folklore and Mysterious Things
03-Dec-2025 10 pm

Volkhv or Volhv (translated as Sage, Sorcerer, Magus, Shaman, Wizard, Gothi) was a priest in the religion of ancient Slavs as well as in the indigenous beliefs of modern Slavs i.e. Rodnovery. In modern Slavic Native Faith, the Volkhv is responsible for performing rituals of worship of the gods and for conducting major communities and religious festivals. Volkhv is the upper rank of the hierarchy of the priests, and the lower rank is that of the Zhrets. The function of the latter is merely to hold sacrifices and are not necessarily Shamans. The Proto-Slavic *žьrti is cognate of Slavic words for -- Offering. Consequently, the purpose of the Zhrets are merely to hold sacrifices. Though the majority of priests are men, but most groups do not exclude women from the priesthood. Therefore, the parallel female priesthood consists of two classes, zhritsa and vedunya (female seers). However, the religious authoity, dignity and prestiege of female priests are as highly regarded as that of the male priests. There is common criteria for priesthood and ordination process for being appointed as priest. Volkhv has been historically attested among the early Rus people. Volkhvs were believed to have mysterious powers, especially the ability to predict the future. The name of the Old-Russian divination book – Volkhovnik – comes from the term – Volkhv.

This article uses text information from the Wikipedia article -- Volkhv -- [Wikipedia-Article-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkhv ] which is released under the -- Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License – [License-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_4.0_International_License ] [List of Principal Authors (5 or less) of the Wikipedia-Article on the date of this Article being Created in this Website: - Eckhardt Etheling, Addbot, Noraskulk, Nikolay Omonov, PulauKakatua19] [Use the following Authorship tool to find out the author contributions:- https://xtools.wmcloud.org/authorship ] [The Current Article on this Website has been paraphrased from the above linked corresponding Wikipedia-Article and You may redistribute this, verbatim or modified, provided that you comply with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License] [License-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_4.0_International_License ]

[Image: Volkhv by Andrey Shishkin] [Wikipedia-Image-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Volkhv_by_Andrey_Shishkin.jpg ] [Image Availed Under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license] [License-Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en ] [You may copy, distribute and transmit the work (image) or remix the work (image) and attribute the work (image) with proper license link, complying with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license in distribution] [License-Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en ] [Please Also Relate to Original Individual Text and Image URLs for More Usage Property and Sharing, Remixing or Attributing the Contents]
[Contents on Wikipedia is covered by -- Disclaimer – [Wikipedia-Disclaimer-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer ] [Contents in this Website is also covered by Disclaimer linked at the bottom of the Page] [This website article means no intellectual appropriation by any way and only wishes to contribute in sharing of knowledge]