Ilmatar, 'daughter of the air', also called Luonnotar, is the Kalevala's primordial being: a virgin spirit who descends from the air into the sea, is made pregnant by the wind and the water, and drifts pregnant for centuries until a scaup's eggs break on her knee and become the sky, the earth, the sun and the moon. She is Väinämöinen's mother and the epic's creation figure, but not the object of any cult. Lönnrot built the first runo from scattered creation charms and folk cosmology rather than from a single inherited narrative, which is why the details vary between tellings.
Modern Practice
Ilmatar is met at the beginning of a work and not at its bargaining: silence, water, a feather, and the patience of drifting until a shape appears. The practice is contemplative, and there is nothing to ask of her - only something to imitate.