Miłosz i pogaństwo

ENSearching for a spiritual dimension in his own life, Miłosz returns to one of his peripheral themes, which he calls "pagan mysticism". Though he declares this peripheral, we can sense the great importance of this matter. Paganism acts as an important theme in his work in a variety of ways. First, it is one of the possible identity projects. Second, Miłosz reaches for the concept of the Slavic soul presented in Mickiewicz's Forefathers' Eve, intended as a cohabitation of the Christian and the pagan spirit. Third, the pagan side of Milosz's imagination is also a kind of tribute to his homeland. Fourth, paganism is an escape for the poet from the obligatory national Catholicism of Poles. Fifth and last, but not least, Milosz's paganism reaches out for the roots of belief in human nature; it touches the nerve, the instinct of faith. If we seriously want to ponder the inspirations behind Milosz's work, we must follow all the tracks that he suggests. One of these tracks undoubtedly leads through the pagan forests of Lithuania and through the pagan mysticism that lurks there to this day.