Mokosh

Culture: Slavic   Also spelled: Mokoš   Domain: The earth, fertility, women's work, wells

Mokosh is a major mother-earth goddess in the Slavic pantheon, closely tied to fertility, spinning and weaving, wells and moisture in the earth; she is one of the few clearly female deities named directly in early medieval Slavic sources, and folk veneration of her persisted, sometimes blended with later folk-saint figures, well after Christianization.

Associations

Earth's fertility, women's communal work, wells and moisture, quiet, continuous strength.

Ways people honor her (modern)

• Take up spinning, weaving, or another traditionally communal women's craft
• Tend a well, garden, or other moisture-giving source with care
• Keep soil and thread together on the altar
• Research how her veneration persisted in folk practice long after formal Christianization

Approach any deity with respect and do your own research. Practices vary widely between traditions, and modern devotional practice often goes beyond what survives in ancient sources.