Veles Tattoo Meaning
The underworld, wealth, magic, and the fertile darkness beneath the earth.
Veles is the Slavic god of the fertile underworld — the chthonic power of the root-world beneath the world tree, lord of the dead, of cattle and wealth and magic, ruler of the dark and generative depths beneath the surface of the world. To carry Veles is to carry the underworld, wealth, magic, and the fertile darkness beneath the earth — the Slavic god of the root-world where the dead and the serpents dwell, the chthonic power below the surface, the dark depths from which wealth and life arise.
Veles is one of the most important gods of the Slavic pantheon, the great power of the world below: the god of the underworld, cattle, wealth, magic, and the dead — Veles rules the root-world beneath the world tree, the place where the dead go and where the serpents live. Veles is the chthonic counterpart to Perun the sky-god: where Perun rules the heavens above, Veles rules the underworld below — the dark, watery, root-world beneath the great world tree, the realm of the dead, the serpents, and the hidden powers of the depths. He is a complex and powerful deity: lord of the dead and the underworld, but also god of cattle and herds, of wealth and prosperity, and of magic and hidden knowledge.
Veles is the eternal adversary of Perun, the chaos-serpent of the great Slavic myth, who rises from below to challenge the thunder-god and is struck back down — but he is no mere evil; he is the necessary power of the underworld, the lord of the realm of the dead and of the fertile depths, the god of wealth and magic and the herds. He rules the root-world at the base of the world tree, the place to which the dead descend and where the serpents dwell, the dark generative underside of the cosmos. The Slavic Veles is thus the lord of the root-world — god of the underworld, the dead, cattle, wealth, and magic, ruler of the dark depths beneath the world tree. The Slavic Veles is the god of the underworld, cattle, wealth, magic, and the dead — ruler of the root-world beneath the world tree. The Slavic Veles is the lord of the root-world beneath — the god of the underworld, cattle, wealth, magic, and the dead, who rules the root-world beneath the world tree, the place where the dead go and where the serpents live; the chthonic counterpart to Perun the sky-god, ruling the dark, watery root-world beneath the great world tree (the realm of the dead, the serpents, and the hidden powers of the depths) — a complex and powerful deity, lord of the dead and the underworld but also god of cattle and herds, wealth and prosperity, and magic and hidden knowledge; the eternal adversary of Perun who rises from below and is struck back down, yet no mere evil but the necessary power of the underworld and the fertile depths.
Veles is the great counterpart to Perun in Slavic cosmology — where Perun rules sky and mountain, Veles rules the underground and waters. He is associated with cattle (and therefore wealth), with serpents, with the dead, and with magic and trickery. Unlike many underworld gods, Veles is not evil — he is necessary. The dead belong to him. The wealth in the earth belongs to him. The magic that operates outside ordinary rules belongs to him. In tattoo symbolism, Veles represents the power of deep knowledge, the wealth that comes from the root-world, and the understanding that what grows above ground depends entirely on what happens below it.
Veles across cultures
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