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 Julia Andreeva For many religious groups in Russia the references to “folk”, “traditional” and “heritage” play an important role in their popular theology. Usually these markers allow them to emphasize an antagonism of one’s own cultural and a historical richness to modern western lifestyle and&#160;its ‘wrong’ values. This contrast is combined with the appeal to come back to pristine origins, which can be interpreted in various ways. New Age culture also uses the traditional ‘label’ and reproduces it among the creators of intentional communities or ecovillages.The Anastasia movementThe ideological base ofRussian ecovillages was the book series “The Ringing Cedars of Russia”. Itcaused the Anastasia movement, one of the Russian New Age movements that emergedin the mid-1990s. The main heroine of these books is Anastasia, who has livedall her life in the forest but possesses information of ancient ancestors,which she receives directly from God. The story says, that the author of thesebooks – Vladimir Megre – met her in Siberia, she told him her knowledge aboutchanging the world and getting special abilities (like teleportation,telekinesis, communication with animals) and asked him to transmit it throughthe books (Megre 2008).A heterogeneous milieuof spiritual seekers, who build their lives along the contents of Megre’s“Ringing Cedars of Russia” books, also stresses the national traditions. One ofthe main ideas of this group is the construction of intentional communities(ecovillages, literally Kin’s Domains) where they want to escape from the urbanmiseries and find God's presence, good ecological environment, have a familyand reconstruct national values.Each Kin’s Domainshould be not less than one hectare of land; it is owned by a family and handeddown from generation to generation. This Space of Love has a connection withthe Universe, which bestows spiritual strengths and powers. The project of the Kin’s Domains is declared as the mostsuccessful way for prosperity in Russia and the whole world. It is worth notingthat it is a fully urban project because most of the participants do not haveany experience with life in villages. According to the website Poselenia.ruthere are almost 500 Anastasian ecovillages and 6,000 inhabitants in Russia andabroad (http://poselenia.ru/statistic).These ecovillagesdiffer significantly from many other European ones. There is a GlobalEcovillage Network, which unites different ideological projects including someof Russian Kin’s Domain Settlements. But Russian intentional communities do notput stress so much on ecological questions as on kinship territory and ancienttraditions. That is why most of them prefer to distance themselves from worldmovements considering them as a positive, but still mostly spoiled phenomenon.The ecovillagers speak about unanimity when all details of co-existence meet innegotiations, although they do not have a communal life insisting on a harmoniousfamily project. Traditions Many aspects ofeveryday life in Kin’s Domain are filled up with traditional markers wherereferences to traditions are more important than real practice of thesetraditions. The attempts to come back to nature are combined with ideas ofrevival of the national customs.  1. Khorovod-dance in Belgorod  region ©Julia Andreeva, 2014. The picture shows the traditional dresses, which are just a contemporary interpretation of the peasant clothes. This khorovod-dance is accompanied by instructions of the specialist. Some traditions are rather new, but presented as an old and pure custom of imagined Vedic times. Below is the picture of the celebration of traditional holidays called Kupala-night (Ivan Kupala holiday[1]) that is related to summer solstice.Talks about crisis ofthe modern world are the popular motive in traditionalists’ narrativesincluding reference to RenéGuénon[2] and other theorists. Today’s traditionalists followthis mode in finding new reasons to lament about the spoiled moderncivilization. They note inverted family values, loneliness, bad ecology andproblems with health. New Agers offer a simple solution to all the miseries –construction of Kin’s Domains; they see this process as the restoration of ancienttradition.2. The bonfire on Ivan Kupala, Belgorod region ©Julia Andreeva Moving to Kin’s Domain new farmers have some problems with making a living, and selling traditional products is one of the resources to get some money.Ivan-chaiOne of the most popularproducts of intentional communities in the north-western part of Russia is afireweed tea (Ivan-chai). Usually Ivan-chai is declared as anindigenous and authentic beverage of Russian people. Russian farmers used todrink it as a substitute of tea, which was very expensive and unavailable forthe majority of population.Russian New Agersattribute traditional practices of tea-making and tea-drinking to the lostancient Russian civilization. There are no any historical sources to prove it. Theidentification of herbal tea as a Russian tea is especially relevant forproducers who live in ecovillages and share some ideas of Slavic paganism. Theyuse a conspiracy theory to prove that the fireweed tea was very popular inancient Russia and even was exported to other countries. The legend explainsthe neglection of Ivan-chai by the secret agreement of Western producerswho spread false information about the bad quality of Russian tea. That causedthe loss of export sales and replacement with Indian tea. Only Russian peasantskept drinking Ivan-chai. The modern farmers serve Ivan-chai whenyou visit any Kin’s Domain, for everyone the choice of drink is obvious: youcannot have any other foreign and harmful beverages. This tea suits for bodyand soul of Russian people.3. Presentation of Ivan-chai story on ‘Russian Tea’ Festival, Leningrad region ©Julia Andreeva, 2016 The salespeople now usea good marketing, orienting the potential audience to the past. They sell notonly the products but also information and service. For example, there arespecial tours to ecological and spiritual places to collect medicinal herbs andespecially fireweed tea. Moreover, the collectors promise that Ivan-chaihas a healing and relaxing effect on people. The Anastasians saythat besides the internal market (among like-minded people) ivan-chai is bettersold in souvenir shops than in usual supermarkets. It shows that the tea ismore symbolic than a real product. So, the majority of consumers are theinhabitants of these ecovillages, like-minded people in the cities and amateursof herbal tea.The founders ofGrishino ecovillage in Leningrad region were among the first who startedcollecting and selling Ivan-chai. Several years ago, they could organizethe festival of Russian tea with support of local administration. Sales of Ivan-chaiand other folk goods are accompanied with folk dances and music, baking breadin the oven, and master-class of making tea. 4. The Handmade Fair on Russian Tea Festival, Leningrad region ©Julia Andreeva, 2016New Age is oftenpresented in public sphere as a commercial movement in the spiritualsupermarket that centers its ideas on the money issue (Mikaelsson 2014). The world-affirmingmood includes material prosperity and self-spirituality, which was extensivelydescribed by Paul Heelas (2008). New Age ecovillagers are very inventive inselling different services and products to urban society and praise well-being,but still cannot forget about the mysterious Russian soul and do not want tocompromise on specific questions like gender equality and capitalist economy.Rejecting western lifestyle and values, they still view and use original andauthentic tradition as a service and сommodity.NotesIvan Kupala holiday (St. John’s Day) is a traditional Eastern Slavic holiday related to summer solstice. On Ivan Kupala Night, young people wear wreaths symbolizing purity, people sing and dance around bonfires and jump over them. It is believed that the acts of jumping over bonfires and water pouring purify people to have curative powers.René Guénon (1886–1951) is a French philosopher who considered to be one of the important writers of the Traditionalist School. According to this philosophy, there is a primordial wisdom in all world religions, which was lost in the modern world.ReferencesHeelas, Paul. Spiritualities of Life. New Age Romanticism and Consumptive Capitalism. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008.Megre, Vladimir. Anastasia (The Ringing Cedars Series, Book 1). Ringing Cedars Press, 20082.Mikaelsson, Lisbeth. “New Age and the Spirit of Capitalism: Energy as Cognitive Currency.”  New Age Spirituality: Rethinking Religion, edited by Steven J. Sutcliffe and Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, 160–173. London and New York: Routledge, 2014. This blogpost in RussianCite this article as: Julia Andreeva, "Traditional" in the Russian New Age Community of Ecovillagers", in New Age in Russia, 17/10/2019, https://newageru.hypotheses.org/1524.