Armenian Neopaganism (Hetanism)

A reconstructionist pagan movement rooted in ethnic nationalism, whose spiritual founder collaborated with Nazi Germany.

Armenian Neopaganism, known formally as the Armenian Native Faith and more commonly as Hetanism (Armenian: Հեթանոսութիւն, Hetanosutiwn), is a modern reconstructionist new religious movement that seeks to revive the pre-Christian polytheistic traditions of the Armenian people. The word “Hetanism” is possibly a cognate of the English word “Heathenism,” and its followers call themselves “Hetans” (Armenian: հեթանոս, Hetanos), a word meaning “Heathen” or “ethnic,” both of which are loanwords from the Greek ἔθνος (ethnos). Members of the movement also refer to themselves as Arordi, or the “Children of Ari,” and are alternatively called “Arordiners” in some academic publications. Neopaganism expert Victor Schnirelmann estimated the following of Armenian neopaganism to be “no more than a few hundred people,” making it one of the smaller new religious movements of the post-Soviet world, though it has maintained an outsized political presence relative to its membership.

Pre-Christian Background

The religious traditions that Hetanism seeks to reconstruct have their origins in the ancient polytheistic faiths of the Armenian plateau, a region whose spiritual history stretches back to the Bronze Age kingdom of Hayasa-Azzi and the later Iron Age state of Urartu. Armenia’s pagan traditions, being older, both influenced and were later influenced by many surrounding religions over the course of cultural exchanges across the centuries, sharing similarities with the Greek pantheon, Zoroastrianism, Mesopotamian religions, and local beliefs from Urartu, a proto-Armenian empire that had toppled by 585 BCE. Zoroastrianism in Armenia dates to the 5th century BCE during the Achaemenian and Parthian periods, and until Armenia’s conversion to Christianity, the country was predominantly Zoroastrian. The Armenian pagan triad consisted of Aramazd, Anahit, and Vahagn.

This pre-Christian religious world was largely overwritten when King Tiridates III formally converted Armenia to Christianity in 301 CE, making it the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion. Hetanist adherents maintain that this adoption of Christianity forcibly supplanted indigenous Armenian polytheistic traditions, leading to the destruction of temples, idols, and sacred knowledge systems central to pre-Christian identity. They argue that this shift prioritized values such as humility and pacifism over the martial virtues of courage and racial preservation emphasized in native lore, rendering Armenians more vulnerable to historical invasions and subjugations, including Ottoman massacres and forced migrations.

Garegin Nzhdeh and Tseghakron

The modern ideological roots of Hetanism trace back to the early 20th century and the figure of Garegin Nzhdeh (born Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan, 1886–1955), a philosopher, military commander, and nationalist revolutionary who left a profound and deeply contested mark on Armenian history. As a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, he was involved in the national liberation struggle during the First Balkan War and World War I and became one of the key political and military leaders of the First Republic of Armenia (1918–1921). In 1921, he was a key figure in the establishment of the Republic of Mountainous Armenia, an anti-Bolshevik state that became a key factor in the inclusion of the province of Syunik into Soviet Armenia.

From this base of nationalist credentials, Nzhdeh developed a religio-political philosophy he called Tseghakron (Ցեղակրոն), meaning literally “religion of the nation.” Tseghakron was among the core doctrines of the Armenian Youth Federation. In Nzhdeh’s poetic mythology, the Armenian nation is identified as Atlas upholding the ordered world, and he made reference to Hayk, the mythical patriarch of the Armenians, and to Vahagn, the solar and warrior god “fighter of the serpent,” as means through which to awaken the Armenian nation and raise its spirit. Tseghakronism posits the Armenian race’s blood purity as essential to the nation’s future survival and vitality, with Nzhdeh declaring, “I am a believer in my race and, behold, I worship another deity, the blood of my race, in whose unspotted purity lies the future of our people.”

Central to Tseghakronism were seven “cults” or moral imperatives: devotion to the fatherland’s soil, the nation as an organic entity, family lineage, individual self-mastery, productive labor, the pursuit of victory in struggle, and belief in eternal principles. This fusion of racial ideology with pagan symbolism rejected Abrahamic religions as alien influences detrimental to Armenian essence, promoting instead a cyclical worldview of renewal through national struggle and preservation of bloodlines.

Nzhdeh’s biography takes a deeply controversial turn during World War II. During the war, Nzhdeh suggested supporting the Axis powers if the latter would make a decision to attack Turkey. In 1942, Nzhdeh was invited to serve on the Armenian National Council in Berlin, a collaborationist body created by Nazi Germany to coerce Armenian prisoners of war into joining to avoid imprisonment in concentration camps. That year the Nazis created the Armenische Legion, composed mostly of captured Soviet Armenian prisoners of war. Together with others, Nzhdeh co-edited and wrote for Azat Hayastan (“Free Armenia”), the pro-German and anti-Soviet organ of the Armenian National Council. The Armenian Legion fought the Soviets in the Crimean peninsula and in the Caucasus region, and a detachment fought against the Allies in southern France as well.

After the war, Nzhdeh was arrested by Soviet authorities, held in Lubyanka prison, and in 1948 was convicted by the Special Council of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR for anti-Soviet activities and aiding Nazi Germany, and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment. He died in captivity in 1955. His wartime collaboration has remained a source of ongoing international controversy. In 2016, a monument to Nzhdeh was unveiled in the center of Yerevan, drawing criticism from Russia, which called on Armenia to dismantle it. Nazi hunter and scholar Dr. Efraim Zuroff stated, “The fact that they built the statue is quite outrageous. We must object to any glorification of individuals who fought with the Nazis or extended any assistance to the forces of the Third Reich.” After Israeli ambassador Joel Lion denounced a rally glorifying Nzhdeh in January 2024 and called him a “Nazi collaborator,” Armenia’s Foreign Ministry criticized him for “exploiting” actions based on national and religious intolerance.

Founding of the Modern Movement

The first organization of Armenian Native Faith, the “Order of the Children of Ari” (Arordineri Ukht in Armenian), was established in 1991 by the Armenologist Slak Kakosyan (1936–2005), whose given name was Eduard, or Edik. Kakosyan had belonged to a generation of Armenian dissidents who resisted Soviet rule. In 1979, he was expelled from Soviet Armenia for promoting nationalist ideas and fled to the United States, where he encountered the writings of Garegin Nzhdeh. While in exile, Kakosyan codified Nzhdeh’s ideas into the Ukhtagirk, a “Book of Vows,” in which Nzhdeh was nearly deified and compared to Vahagn, the pagan god of the sun and war.

Returning to Armenia in 1991, Kakosyan gathered a community, founded the Children of Ari, and began to hold rituals on traditional Armenian holy days. The Temple of Garni became the center of the community, and a Council of Priests was set up to manage the organization and rites. During the 1990s the group reached media visibility. According to ethnologist Yulia Antonyan, assistant professor of the Department of Cultural Studies at Yerevan State University, the emergence of Hetanism is attributable to the same causes that led to the explosion of other Neopagan, Krishnaite, and Protestant movements in other post-Soviet countries: it is the indigenous and ethnic answer to the social and cultural upheavals that followed the collapse of the Soviet structure and its atheist and materialistic identity.

Beliefs and Theology

The Armenian Native Faith is polytheistic in practice. The gods of the Arordiners include Aramazd, the chief of the gods; Hayk, the mythical founder of the Armenian nation; Aray, the god of war; Barsamin, the god of sky and weather; Aralez, the god of the dead; Anahit, the goddess of fertility and war; Mihr, the solar god; Astghik, the goddess of love and beauty; Nuneh, the goddess of wisdom; Tir, the god of art and inspiration; Tsovinar, the goddess of waters; Amanor, the god of hospitality; Spandaramet, the goddess of death; and Gissaneh, the mother goddess of nature.

The Arordiners have a cyclical view of reality, and they believe in the reincarnation of individual souls through the genetic lineage. Men are believed to come back to life in the following generations of their own descendants, in the kin which they begot while living. Funerary practices reflect this outlook, favoring cremation followed by exposure of ashes to the four elements — fire, earth, air, and water — to facilitate reintegration with natural forces and prepare for ancestral return. Abrahamic faiths, including Christianity, are characterized by Hetanists as bearers of “negative energy” antithetical to the “positive Aryan energy” of ancestral practices, which they claim foster national strength and continuity.

As an ethnic religion, Hetanism exhibits exclusivity, primarily addressing Armenians by descent and restricting full participation to those of Armenian ancestry, aligning with broader patterns in reconstructionist neopagan movements that prioritize folkish identity over universalism. However, despite this exclusivity, the priests of the Temple of Garni are not allowed to join any political organizations, parties, or make their personal political opinions publicly known. “Hetanism is for every Armenian” is the stated credo.

A notable internal distinction exists between rural and intellectual adherents. Tseghakronism is favored by the rural population, which often kept folk traditions and customs inspired by the old pagan religion. These rural practitioners often believe in the gods as physical entities, while neopagan intellectuals subscribe to the concept of Nzhdeh’s “divinely inspired” Ukhtagirk.

The Ukhtagirk

The central sacred text of Hetanism is the Ukhtagirk (“Book of Vows”), compiled and codified by Slak Kakosyan from Nzhdeh’s writings while in exile. The book is divided into seven parts: Astvatsashoonch (“Dictionary”), which explains the Armenian language as a mystical system of symbols related to the root “Ar”; Tsagumnaran (“Genesis”), which explains in mythical terms the origin of the world, the gods, and mankind; Avetaran (“Book of Testaments”) and Dzonaran (“Book of Odes”), which deal with philosophical and ontological categories to explain reality and values; Veharan (“Book of Greatness”) and Patgamaran (“Book of Commandments”), which present mythologized descriptions of Nzhdeh’s life and ideas; and Hymnergaran (“Book of Hymns”), which is a collection of poems written by Kakosyan and his followers, as well as by authors of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The mythological parts about creation rely upon Armenian medieval sources and folk knowledge. Chanting ritual texts from the book is considered to procure mystical experiences, and the physical book itself plays a role in certain ritual activities.

Rituals and Holy Days

There are three rites of passage in Hetanism: the Knunk, a baptizing or saining ritual for those who convert or revert to their ancestors’ religion; Psak, a wedding rite; and a death ritual. These ceremonies are held individually within smaller communities and kindreds, as well as regularly at the Temple of Garni.

The annual calendar of holy days observed by Arordiners draws from both reconstructed pre-Christian practice and surviving folk customs that persisted through the Christian era. The Arordiner holiday calendar includes Terndez, Zatik, Hambardzum, Vardavar, and Khaghoghorhnek, to which they add a holy day for the remembrance of ancestors on September 20, the New Year or Birthday of Vahagn on March 21, and the Navasard. Terndez, observed on February 14th, is comparable to a pagan Valentine’s Day, while Vardavar is connected with the goddess of beauty, Astghik, and her love with the sun god Vahagn.

Armenian Native Faith practices, rituals, and representations mostly rely on the instructions given by the Ukhtagirk. It is common for the priests to make pilgrimage to Mount Khustup, where, according to the book, Garegin Nzhdeh experienced the presence of the god Vahagn. In general, mountains are revered as holy, so besides Khustup, other mountains including Mount Ararat and Mount Aragats function as pilgrimage destinations for Arordiners.

The memory of Slak Kakosyan is also part of the cults celebrated by the Arordiner priests. The celebrations in honor of Vahagn at the Temple of Garni usually start at the memorial monument of Kakosyan, set up after his death on the site where his ashes were dispersed. A mythologization of his personality has begun, with a collection of poems by poet Arena Aykyan, published in 2007, in which he is characterized as a divine man.

Arordiners generally do not have problems visiting Armenian churches and treating them as holy places, since many were built on the sites of pre-Christian temples. Some figures of the history of the Armenian Apostolic Church are revered as Arordiners in disguise, including the catholicoi Vazgen I (1954–1994) and Garegin I (1995–1999). Vazgen supported Nzhdeh and on his tombstone, instead of a cross, has a letter of the Armenian alphabet which is considered a variant of the swastika and symbolic of seven Armenian gods.

The Temple of Garni

While all pagan temples in Armenia were destroyed after Christianization, with most having churches built in their place, the Temple of Garni, built in the Greek style, miraculously survived. It had been made into the king’s summer residence. The temple was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1600s, but rebuilt in the 1970s. It was originally a temple to Mihr, but Armenian neopagans eventually reconsecrated it to Vahagn in the 1990s and hold most of their ceremonies there today. The temple, located in the Kotayk province, dates to approximately the 3rd century BCE and stands as the only Hellenistic-style pagan structure to have survived Armenia’s Christianization.

Political Connections

From its founding, Hetanism benefited from connections to Armenia’s post-independence political establishment. The founder of the Republican Party of Armenia, Ashot Navasardyan, was a Hetan, as were many other members of that party, and the party provided financial support for the Children of Ari for a period of time. Former Prime Minister of Armenia Andranik Margaryan was among the sympathizers of Armenian neopaganism. Despite these significant political ties at the party level, the priests of the movement’s central institution at Garni are formally barred from partisan involvement.

Splinter Groups and Related Movements

Beyond the main Arordiner organization, Hetanism has generated more explicitly militant offshoots. One such group, “Hosank,” has attempted to transform the ideology of Tseghakronism into a militant movement with the stated goal of gaining power to create a racial-religious state based on Aryan ideas. The movement’s website states, “This is the only way to have a prosperous economy, a prosperous society, and a victorious army.” Its leader, Hayk Nazaryan, is 34 years old, was born in California, and graduated from California State University with a master’s degree in physics.

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