Czernobog (Chernobog) “The Black God” is the dark, accursed god of the night and hell, of chaos and the diabolical realm of darkness. Chernobog rules over the evil fate and stands for the principles of darkness and chaos. He is thought to reside in the West, the direction of the sunset. From this direction, the night advances, and with it, unseen forces.
Regardless of these attributes, he was venerated by the Old Slavs with numerous sacrifices for he could alter the destiny of men, in exchange for blood sacrifice.
Like many Demonic and Chthonic deities, Chernobog controls acquiring wealth and understanding of the material world. He teaches us the importance of reason, logic, and egoism. He is also the one who presides over the revelation of mysteries and arcane knowledge. Like Lucifer and Prometheus, he was once punished and sought refuge in the dark realms because he broke the great Heavenly Laws and he let the sacred knowledge be spread to lower worlds. A parallel could be drawn with Azazel, who taught mankind the art of war, and the occult arts. In his animal form, Chernobog is usually seen as a wolf or a snake. He is said to take on the form of a young raven-haired man dressed in a plain black priest robe whose penetrating gaze burns and freezes you at the same time.
He is associated with Morana, the goddess of death, with whom he has spawn several demons.
A fascinating insight into a little-known pantheon. Cultural and ethnic associations are always, I think, very significant and must be cherished and recorded before they are lost. One curious aspect of devotion to such ethnocentric entities and practices is that that action, to a considerable extent, mitigates against a uniform, international and, for that reason, anodyne or universal orthopraxy. My intuition tells me it is more powerful too.
That is not to say, however, that we are necessarily bounded by recent experience of our present or current incarnation. For example, though I draw deeply on the various British traditions (including Ancient British/Celtic/Welsh) at this point, I have a connection I cannot rationally fathom with Finnish magical traditions which speak as powefully.
The more we learn about deities such as Chernobog, the better.
They feel very close to the Celtic gods.