Spinners weavers mothers and those holding a household
Symbols
SpindleDistaffWoolWaterEarth
Mythology Summary
Mokosh is the only goddess among the seven idols Vladimir set up in Kiev in 980 in the Primary Chronicle, and she is named in 11th-14th century Russian sermons against paganism (the Slova i poucheniya) beside the vilas, with no narrative attached to her anywhere. Etymological reconstruction links her name to moisture (mokr-) and makes her a goddess of waters and fertility; later scholarship reads her as the ancestor of Mat Syra Zemlya, the moist earth, and in the Russian North of the demonised kikimora called Mokusha. The identification with the folk-Christian Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, the claim that she was Perun's wife, and Rybakov's 'Makosh' etymology are all contested reconstructions.
Modern Practice
Mokosh's practice is the household one: spinning and weaving done with attention, water given at the threshold, bread, cheese and honey set out, and the Friday kept for her as it was kept for her folk-Christian successor. She is called by women for childbirth, for the work of the hands, and for the fate that a household holds.