PERUN

Perun (thunder, lightning), God of Thunder, son of Svarog or Svarog himself, master of heavens, Sun which, in anger, throws thunderbolts and lightning at witches and evil ghosts and releases captured rain by raising a storm (that is the reason for making noise and banging, as a symbol of protection against evil forces, in some folk customs).

He is accompanied by Perunika (later transformed into Veronika), i.e. Ognjena Marija (Fairy Mary), who wears a rainbow as her belt. She is a goddess of lightning, weddings, and motherhood. Later, under Christianity, her importance was degraded and she was regarded as an evil goddess, described as an evil and ugly woman named Irudika, who was in turn a daughter of Poganica (exiled by Perun). Perunika punishes people with a heavy sledge. God of Thunder has thunder at his disposal (symbols of his sexual male potency), she has lightning at her disposal. The lightning comes in two so-called forms: elongated watery type and glassy type. The latter is ball lightning, a rare meteorological phenomenon, embodied during old times as apple, rosette, or female genital organ, in the mythical perception of the world. Thanks to Perunika's lightning, people learned about the fire and water in clouds.

God of Thunder makes fire by striking two sharp flint stones. Thus, the ancient people imagined him as a hairy man, often with several heads (depicting his multiple aspects), who can belch fire and carry flint stones, i.e. has a stone ax, sledgehammer, or trident. Rejuvenated Perun, or some of his successors, carries a stick/bludgeon, arrow (in Medimurje, northern Croatia, a thunder is called "arrow" - "strela"), spear, saber, sword, or gun. These objects are symbols of sexual male potency, or destruction of dark, ignorance, and passion. If used improperly, they turn into their reverse bad side. It is interesting that there is a custom in Medimurje of putting a grindstone on a table before Christmas because of the belief that a cow udder will give more milk if this grindstone is slid over it. Here the table represents the heaven and the grindstone, i.e. a hard stone used for sharpening tools, is another Perun's tool with special powers. Until recently, northwestern Croats believed that the Neolithic little axes, which they often encountered during plowing and digging, are bosomed out by the earth at the places of a stroke of lightning seven years earlier. They called them Perun's little thunder axes, "arrow" (thunder) stones, or (stony) "arrows" (thunders) and believed that they protect the house against a lightning strike if kept in the attic or below the doorstep (since the lightning never strikes twice at the same place). In addition, they were used in the traditional pharmaceutics, hunting, or buried in a field to stimulate fruitfulness.

God of Thunder is also the god of rain, or fruitfulness and agriculture, since he drives carts full of water (rainy cloud), and thus thunders of his cart's wheels, below which sparks fly out, are following him wherever he goes (people in Medimurje have a saying that then St. Elijah rolls big vessels over the sky). The first thunders in a new year represent unlocking of the seven heavens (in order to release rain) and announce the spring. In general, thunders are the words of God, making order from the initial chaos. With the appearance of Christianity, God of Thunder is replaced by St. Elijah (July 20, the day with the most severe and most frequent thunders of the whole summer), who rides a šarkanja (flying snake). Occasionally, he is replaced by St. Peter (July 30; when a thunder hits a tree, people in Medimurje say: "After he hit a white poplar forest, Peter jumped down" ("Jagnjed počil, Peter doli skočil")). In the same way, Ognjena Marija (Fairy Mary) is replaced by Marija Magdalena (Mary Magadalene, July 22) or Bogorodica (how the people who speak kajkavian - Croatian dialect - call a rainbow).