According to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, Mokosh is a goddess whose influence on people is almost equal to Perun. It was the personification of the Mother of the Raw Earth, as well as the daughter of Perun, who in some beliefs turns into the moon
She was like a mediator between heaven and earth. Women weaved wreaths in her honor on the new moon and burned fires, asking for luck in love and family life. This veneration was preserved in later legends, where Mokosh acts as fate. She was portrayed with a cornucopia. She could be surrounded by mermaids, who were ordered to irrigate the fields.
Being the goddess of fertility, Mokosh, in the form of a woman with a large head and long arms extended upward, personified the interaction of the forces of earth and sky. She was the patroness of rain - and at the same time, small livestock, goats and sheep, even a belief has survived: "A sheep, like wool, is not sheared, still sometimes wipes a bald patch, then they say: Mokosh sheared."
In general, she patronized women and their affairs, as well as trade. Over time, the "woman's kingdom" completely passed under her authority, and Mokosh began to be represented as the same long-armed, big-headed woman spinning at night in a hut: beliefs forbid leaving the tow, otherwise Mokosh will spin away. However, if the woman managed to please the goddess, she at night prepared for her a ready-made thread, spun perfectly. In this, the image of the ancient goddess of women's crafts merged with the image of Friday, to which they offered sacrifice, throwing yarn and tow into the well; the name of such a ceremony - "Mokrida", like the name Mokosh, is associated with the words "wet", "get wet".
The name of the goddess appears regularly in teachings against paganism in the 15th and 16th centuries. So in the 16th century, among the standard confessional questions to church parishioners was the following: "Didn't you go to Makosha?" This question itself means that somewhere there is an accessible temple with a statue of a goddess. There are also records of faith in Mokosh in the Russian North in the 19th century.
The name of the goddess literally translates as "mother of the full basket", mother of the harvest, mother of abundance. In a sense, Mokosh should also be understood as the goddess of the lot, the giver of future events. Time of Mokosha - autumn gatherings, which began with a ritual act - the weaving of an ordinary cloth (made in one day).
In general, the feasts of the female goddesses lie in a calendar cycle known as twelve Fridays. This apocryphal calendar was preserved until the 19th century, about which see the article by B. A. Rybakov "The Birth of Gods and Goddesses" in the book. "Myths of the ancient Slavs", Saratov, 1994. This calendar is associated with an archaic technology for making fabric, from growing flax to creating thread and linen. The creation of the canvas falls on the most important: the tenth and eleventh Friday of the calendar.
Mokosh is the most ancient Woman in labor, which was comprehended by human consciousness. She stands at the beginning of life on Earth. Her presence is inevitable at the birth of all living beings. She also creates the vegetative power of plants, gives herbs and grasses the beginning of life, and ends it at her own discretion. Being in agreement with the goddess, people take away the bread, and therefore honor her at the harvest festivals. Since the time of matriarchy, she was understood not as the mistress of people, but as the embodiment of the feminine principle in the universe.
Women in labor or Women in labor are the goddesses who participate in the birth of all life on Earth. These are also earthly women during the period of bearing a child. The most important business of women in labor is participation in the birth of children and endowing them with Shares. The number of the goddesses of women in labor was understood differently. Slavic astrologers understood seven planets as women in labor. Understood by women in labor and Hair - the goddess, wife of Veles, whose image is captured in the stars - the Pleiades. They were called Hair or Stozhars. These stars resemble the headdress of a married woman. These stars called the shepherds, and addressed them as well as Veles - they asked to fence off the flocks of sheep with hot fires (Stozhary). With the advent of Volosyn, it was possible to go out to hunt for the beast of Veles - the Bear.
Since the Vedic era, a tradition has been known to ask the wives of the gods to ask their husbands to fulfill it. Therefore, women in labor, and in general all female deities (including the Virgin Mary, who carries the antique status of a woman in labor), had to be often disturbed by people. In addition to their female functions, they also fussed before the gods about human requests.
As a goddess who helps people of the magical class, Mokosh perfectly possesses magical knowledge, knowledge of healing herbs. She spins yarn for magical purposes. The threads of this yarn determine the timing of the germination and life of grasses, cereals, leaves on trees, the ripening of fruits. Just like Parks, she can measure human life with a thread. Mokosh-spinner is called Friday, after the day dedicated to her. On this day, spinning is not allowed, because on this day the goddess herself works as a spinner. On other days, she helps spinners and needlewomen.
And it must be borne in mind that the dull Christian image of Paraxeva Friday does not reflect the deeper meaning of the goddess.
Mokosh gave people a comb, a spinning wheel and a spindle. According to the matrix picture of the creation of the world, during the act of creation, the sky whirled, whirled and twisted. So the spindle turns out to be the axis of the universe on which the thread accumulates - the events of the universe, and the rotation of this spindle itself is the flow of world time. This mythological picture follows from the work of O. V. Lysenko "Fabric, ritual, man", ed. Museum of Ethnography, in St. Petersburg, in 1992.
From the conspiracy of the Voronezh province. 1862, we learn an interesting picture. This is the whole conspiracy. “Nicholas in her arms, the Mother of God on the cross, a wonderful cross seven miles away! My angel, my guardian, save my soul, enlighten my body for a day without sin, amen!"
This conspiracy is a witch doctor. It has a preparatory character for a healing magical operation, but can be used at the beginning of any important and worthy business. A person is preparing for a work in which there should be divine light in his body. The Vedic Aryan had a similar need, and today's Magi has it.
"Nicola in her arms" - expresses the presence of an object of idol content in the hands of a healer. It is a sacred personal item. But the Mother of God on a seven-verst cross is in full agreement with the image of the great goddess Mokosha, who stands above the world and spreads her arms crosswise in both directions.
It is she who is, according to another conspiracy: Mother of the highest god, warm Intercessor, ambulance.
As the oldest woman in labor, Mokosh is obliged to be the mother of the gods. It is surprising that the conspiracy has retained the phrase: God above! It is not surprising that, in unconsciousness, the people began to regard Christ as the highest god, but at the same time they were aware that there were no higher gods. Who is this highest god, the son of Mokoshi? It can only be Veles.
As one of the first founders of earthly life, Mokosh has a woody essence. Every tree has a spirit that owns a part of the power given to it by Mokosh. This spirit understands a person and can fulfill his request. Careful attention to the plant leads to a state of dialogue.
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Mokosh is the spirit of the largest, world tree, world ash, world pine or world birch. Different Slavic tribes have different ways. Mokosh is represented as a tall woman with raised arms, from which wide sleeves fall down. This pose symbolizes the world tree: the body is the trunk, the hands and fingers are the crown.
The world tree originates in the sky of white light, which is above the blue firmament. Its branches and crown penetrate the above-ground sky and go into the Earth. With its roots in the Sky, and with its crown in the Earth, the world tree keeps the world - Heaven and Earth in balance, as we see them. The tree is always green. Its juice, originating from heavenly waters, falls to the ground and brings to life medicinal herbs and grains.
Gathering at the roots of the world tree, the gods decide the fate of the world. Along its trunk, they descend and rise from Earth to Heaven. In honor of the world tree in the north of Russia, in the gorges, on the mountains near the springs and near the waterfalls, an idol was installed - a tree trunk with its roots up. Among the northern rocks, it happens that a tree falling from above sticks its top into the ground, and its roots up - this image is suggested by Nature itself.
And yet the image of an inverted tree, coming to us from the Vedas, turned out to be abysmal for the common people. And when the people sang in carols about the world tree, they always mentioned the ordinary pine tree, which is the highest and greenest of all, and which is a bridge for the gods. A birch tree was represented by women at Green Christmastide. In winter, the birch is not green, but along the female line of Slavic paganism, the beginning of the year falls in the spring.
In the Vedas, and generally in the East, the world tree is represented by a fig tree. According to the Vedic hymn: “In the bottomless space, King Varuna holds the top of the tree straight with pure force of action. The branches are directed downward. Their base is at the top. Let the rays take root in us!”(I, 23,7).
Some shamans use the power of the world tree. In the process of initiation and after, during rituals, the soul of the shaman, moving along the world tree, going deep into the earth or ascending to the sky, gains spirits and accumulates strength. The spirits serving the shaman are often of the female gender. They are subject to Mokoshi as the supreme goddess.
Is the world tree palpable, why don't its branches and leaves interfere with us? This tree is not tangible and not said. Starting in the kingdom of white light, it brings it to us and is perceived as white light. Therefore, the image of the goddess Mokoshi is combined with the idea of white light. When they painted light in human form, they wrote Mokosh - a tall woman in white. It was also embroidered with colored threads on white towels. On the embroidery of the Russian North, Mokosh is placed among two horsemen, birds and heavenly bodies.
Mokosh is depicted two to three times taller than the riders, her head is placed against the background of the solar disk, her clothes are covered with solar signs. Thus, we know Mokosh as a spinner and a sorceress, as the goddess of harvest and vegetative power of plants, as a woman in labor, as a goddess of white light and the world tree. Appeals to Mokosh occur in spring and autumn, and are agricultural holidays, for Mokosh showed people how to cultivate cereals and how to cause their growth with spells. The first spring festival of Mokosha takes place in the form of worship of the Rusals.
The feast of the first fruits and the solemn conception of the mermaids took place in the church of childbirth, where the main figure was Mokosh. This is a temple of a very familiar hip-roof architecture, it was built like an octagon on a quadrangle. Eight fires were lit around the temple. Inside, under the tent, the priestesses cooked the first fruits on the sacrificial fire. An appeal to the goddess was pronounced here, and words were pronounced on her behalf. From the side of the entrance, tables and benches were placed, where the cultivators were seated for a sacrificial meal.
In the center of the temple, on a stone dais, there was a bonfire, its smoke escaping into the upper windows of the tent. At the same time, the white light falling through them became tangible. This light snatched out the idol of Mokoshi, which stood on the other side of the fire with the horsewomen Lada and Lelei on both sides. These goddesses from the kingdom of Svyatovit are carried to the earth by magic horses along the world tree.
The walls of the Church of Childbirth were covered with images of flowers, trees and birds carrying a message from people to the goddess. These birds of the air are spirits. The lower part of the wall was occupied with towels with signs giving the harvest, signs of the Sun, signs of Perun, carrying clouds and rain. In the spring, Russian dances were performed in the temple. A beautiful woman chosen from the nobility wore a dress similar to that of Mokosha - white with long sleeves, the movement of which is likened to the movement and vibrations of the waters carrying vitality. This dance excited the mermaids to merrymaking and the manifestation of passion. Once such a magical dance was performed by the Frog Princess.
The common people celebrated this holiday in honor of Mokosha and mermaids in natural conditions - in an open, green glade, under a mountain by the water.
Since the crown of the world tree goes into the bowels of the earth, Mokosh also carries part of the power of Mother Earth. To emphasize this role of the goddess, idols were placed for her near wells with good water.
Excerpt from the book by Irina Tsareva "Unknown, rejected or hidden"
Engineer Pelzer has not been doing well in recent years. Physical ailments rained down on him like a horn of plenty. And then this nightmare began to appear to him with mystical constancy. As soon as he fell asleep, Alexander Borisovich began to fall painfully for a long time into a deep hole in a dark well. There, at the bottom, sat a terrible woman with disheveled hair and a huge head. Seeing the approaching Pelzer, she began to shout: “Eat the spider! Eat!"
The strength of her voice threw the engineer up. He flew out of the well like a shell from a cannon barrel, and woke up in a cold sweat …
“I am not of good health anyway,” says Alexander Borisovich, “but this dream just started to hurt.
The head was splitting from incessant migraines. Everything literally fell out of hand. Finally, at my wife's insistence, I went to see a psychiatrist. But no deviations were found in me …"
Pelzer went from hospital to hospital, from doctor to doctor. In vain. The excruciating headaches did not stop. No pills could save them from them. But now, while waiting for an appointment at the next medical luminary, the engineer got into conversation with a neighbor in turn. And he said that, most likely, it is not a bad dream that causes pain, but some hidden illness provokes a nightmare: "The subconscious is trying to tell you something … Try to decipher this message!"
“These words have sunk into my soul,” says A. Peltser. - And when at night a terrible woman appeared to me again, I mentally asked: “Who are you? What do you need from me?"
“I am the goddess Mokosh! - came the answer. "Eat the spider!" And again the rolls of a thunderous voice threw the engineer out of the nightmare …
“I could hardly wait for the next night to continue the emerging dialogue,” continues Pelzer. - But that's a miracle! - the nightmare never recurred. Now I understand that "the Moor did his job and left." But then I was very saddened by this turn of events. Because I was already intrigued …"
Thus, engineer Pelzer inherited from a strange dream an incessant migraine and also the mystery of the name of the “woman from the well”. The fact is that, whoever he asked, no one knew about such a goddess - Mokosh …
But Pelzer still had another key word from his nightmare - spider. And with a stubbornness worthy of respect, the engineer began his investigation.
He learned that in the minds of ancient people, spiders were a living personification of the gods, bringing happiness, good luck and health. Perhaps these beliefs had a very realistic basis. At least Muscovite A. Peltser is firmly convinced of this …
“I rummaged through a lot of literature about spiders,” he said, “and discovered interesting facts that confirmed that I was on the right track … It turned out that at all times magicians and sorcerers used spiders as a healing agent.
Spiders were also used in "official medicine". I will cite one such recipe - from a medical reference book compiled by a certain Watson for doctors back in 1750: “Carefully cover a living spider with bread crumb, but so as not to damage it, and let the patient swallow it quickly. This is a very effective medicine …”In total, I found no less than a dozen similar recipes in medieval manuscripts. Even Pliny (79 AD) recommended hanging a live spider around the neck - in a bag or nut shell. This supposedly helps with malaria and other ailments.
"Eat the spider!" - ordered the goddess who lives at the bottom of the well. And in this our hero saw a certain meaning …
The squeamish may not read further. Driven by a headache to the limit, engineer Pelzer was ready to eat not only a live spider, but also take potassium cyanide, just to get rid of an unbearable migraine. One fine day, Alexander Borisovich caught a couple of spiders and … Either the "live pills" really helped, or it was the belief in an unusual healing agent that had its effect on the body … But over the next few days, migraine attacks became more and more bearable until the headache did not go away at all. And along with her, the rest of the sores went away …
This would be the end of our story, if not for the goddess Mokosh!..
“I swear I have never heard such a word before,” says A. Peltser. “I don’t know from what depths of my subconscious this name emerged. But soon after I miraculously (otherwise you can't say it!) Healed, I was surprised to learn that the goddess Mokosh is not a figment of my sick imagination, but a very real character of East Slavic mythology …"
The engineer admits that this discovery changed his worldview in many ways.
There are too many strange coincidences. Mokosh, as we managed to find out, is the only female deity in the pantheon of ancient Russian pagan gods. Her stone statue even stood on the top of a hill in ancient Kiev. According to ethnography, the goddess Mokosh appeared to the ancients as a woman with a large head (!) And long arms, spinning a tow. Sacrifices were made to her, throwing skeins of yarn into the well (!) …
Let us recall Pelzer's nightmare - in the well, where he fell in a dream, twisted woolen threads were stretched everywhere (like a spider's web).
The Slavic goddess Mokosh is akin to the Roman goddesses of the parks, the ancient Greek moiras or the Germanic norns …
All these ancient characters "spun the threads of fate." And Roman parks were even depicted as spiders.
Interesting coincidences.
“I have never been able to explain everything that happened to myself,” says materialist Peltser. - But now I am sure that ancient myths are not just fairy tales, but a kind of description of the universe, where instead of physical laws appear gods responsible for this or that natural phenomenon. And, as I now understand, not all of these gods have been translated by modern scientists into the language of mathematical and physical formulas …"