Critical situation: black 35%, grey 18%, brown 14%, …
Heller (1989)

The end of all things is black. Decayed meat turns black, decayed plants and dead teeth turn black. Whoever sees black from hunger, almost dies from hunger. Grim Reaper and the executioner wear black because they sow death and destruction. The painter Kandinsky described black as: “And like a nothing without possibility, like a death nothing after the sun has died out, like an eternal silence without a future and hope, black sounds inwardly.”
Heller (1989)

A numen that recurs in the doctrinal scriptures, ecclesiastical statutes, and confessional questions is described as Rod-Rozanica. These data show that Rod-Rozanicy:

• seem to personify fate (they are equated with the terms ‘fatum, fortuna’);
• have some connection with the cult of the dead. (On Boxing Day, a church-prohibited death feast is held in their honour);
• merge with Saint Mary in Christian-pagan syncretism.

Rozanica means: mother, fate, womb, genealogy, family tree.

Rod and Rozanicy form a mythical couple consisting of a parendros and a parendra (cf. Artemid-Artemis). The explicit equation with Osiris-Isis seems to place Rod-Rozanicy in the category of the mythical couple well known in the history of religion: mother-goddess-consort. We may consider the paredra Rozanica as a kind of rudimentary mother goddess, who ensured the fertility of the clan, the land and the cattle, and ruled over the realm of the dead. She was felt as a multiple being, perhaps threefold (three, or a multiple of three).

(Vyncke, 1969)

Dark gray shades in black&white photography reflect the seriousness of the undertaker’s profession.

In the vicinity of most Russian cities, large, open pits were dug into which the corpses of the murdered, drowned, suicides, etc. were thrown. These pits were only filled in after Easter. The people called such a pit ‘ubogij dom’ (house of the poor). This term means in Old Russian, as in practically all Slavic languages: “poor, needy.” It is a derivation consisting of the prefix u-: ‘away, down’ and the stem ‘bog’. So the original meaning is: ‘without bog’, i.e. ‘who has been deprived of his share of prosperity and fortune’, hence ‘poor, who knows no wealth’ and especially ‘dead, who has been deprived of his share in life’. Therefore, the pit of the violent dead was called “uboji dom”, i.e. “house of the dead or poor.”

(Vyncke, 1969)

The belief in vampires or Beregyni is common among all Slavic peoples. The basic meaning of the word seems to be ‘flying creature’ (Russian parit = to hover; pero = feather, plume). A vampire is understood to mean the spirit of a dead person or a corpse brought to life by the evil spirit. The vampire sucks the blood of people and animals, which results in death. Belief in vampires has developed strongly, especially in the Balkans and among the Ukrainians. A vampire is rendered harmless by opening the grave and piercing the corpse with a hawthorn branch, after which the corpse is burned.

The vampire appears in many guises. Sometimes he is hairy like a dog, with bloody eyes and teeth. It is also widely believed that he has no bones and is only a sack filled with blood. This is created when the devil rips off the skin of a corpse and blows it up.

The vampires or Beregyni grew out of the cult of the ancestors, the oldest stage of Slavic paganism dating back to the earliest antiquity, to the very origins of human culture. Originally they are mainly female nymphs and spirits of the dead. The deepest roots of the clan god couple (Rod-Rozanica, Artemid-Artemis, Isis-Osiris, etc.) therefore reach to the death cult.

(Vyncke, 1969)