Veles

Culture: Slavic   Domain: The underworld, cattle and wealth, magic, trickery

Veles is a shape-shifting underworld god associated with cattle, wealth, magic and the earth's depths, locked in ongoing mythic conflict with Perun; unlike the strictly celestial gods, Veles moves fluidly between realms, making him a natural god of boundaries, herders, poets and magic-workers alike.

Associations

The underworld, wealth and cattle, magic, boundary-crossing, cleverness.

Ways people honor him (modern)

• Practice magic or divination as a genuinely boundary-crossing craft
• Reflect on wealth understood broadly, not only as money
• Keep dark soil on the altar as an underworld token
• Research the Perun-Veles conflict as reconstructed from Slavic folklore and chronicles

Approach any deity with respect and do your own research. Practices vary widely between traditions, and modern devotional practice often goes beyond what survives in ancient sources.