MAKOSH, Mokosh, Makesh, Mokusha, Makusha, Ma-Diviya, De Metra, Ma-Kosh, Great Goddess, Goddess of Fate, Goddess of magic and sorcery, witchcraft, Mistress of the Transition from this world to the Other World, Giver of life and death, Possessing the secret of Rule and secret Kolo Svarog, Heavenly Mother, Spinner of Fates, Great Mother, World Duck, Moose, Mother of Cheese Earth, Paraskeva Pyatnitsa
–IT'S ALL ABOUT HER.
The goddess, who, as the ancient Slavs believed, embodying all the power of feminine energy, helped Rod and Svarog set our Earth in motion. The first Goddess is Woman.
The First Goddess, whose cult persisted even when Rod himself was forgotten, they stopped erecting the temple of Veles when the idol of Perun was overthrown and no longer asked the pervert to help cross the sea, when it was no longer Horse, but simply the Sun that was rolling across the sky.
Makosh, changing her incarnation, helped people either in the form of the World Duck, or Moose, or Rozhana, or simply as the Mother of Cheese Earth, eternal and generous.
Until the 16th century, the cult of Makosh was ubiquitous, all Slavic paintings are full of images of women - and every time it is a silent prayer, a request for intercession addressed to the Great Goddess. Also preserved are embroideries from a later period, where Makosh, whose cult was perceived as a synthesis of the Great Moose, Rozhana and the Mother of the Damp Earth, is depicted as a figurine with “horns,” or simply a female figurine surrounded by deer and ducks. All these are symbols of the Great Woman, the Foundation of Life, the Arbiter of Life.
The winds of time swept by, the fires of modern times burned, the ancient people's perception of the world changed, but the cult of Mokosh held on! She entered Christianity under the name of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, and all secret Epiphany fortune-telling takes place under the invisible blessing of the Heavenly Mother, who possesses the secret of Rule and the secret of Kolo Svarog. Did you know about this?
The most powerful property of Makosh, according to the ancestors, was that it was she who determined the Fate of a person. This Goddess of Fate, Heavenly Weaver. Dolya and Nedolya help her.
Makosh spins the Thread of Human Life - and Dolya and Nedolya make their contribution.
An amazing feature of the worldview of our Slavic ancestors was the absence of fatalism - our ancestors believed that a person himself influences how his life develops.
It was believed that the basis of life is the divine thread of Mokosh, from which day after day a person weaves his own lace. What ultimately happens depends only on the person himself. Day after day, day after day, we ourselves weave the lace of our lives. In the Old Slavonic language, the measure of time “day” sounded like “weaving,” which reflected the attitude towards life as weaving. To live means to weave the lace of your life.....
The Slavs have always had so-called “nauzniki”, wise men, who, by performing the ritual of weaving rope nauzniki, could influence the course of a person’s life.
And on this day, the publishing house “Northern Fairy Tale” gives you the opportunity to independently perform the Old Slavonic knot ritual of wish fulfillment.
This is the fulfillment of your most daring, most dizzying dream, a dream that just yesterday you considered unattainable and illusory.
New book from the publisher
“THE LEGACY OF THE GODDESS MAKOSH”
“Such is Makosh’s thread, such is human life.
Our mothers knew how to weave the red lace of life according to the behests of the spinner of fate, who knew the secrets of Rule and the secrets of Kolo Svarog, the great goddess Makosh.”
Now you can use ancient knowledge in order to attract your Share for good luck!
The origin of the name of the god Diva can come from the Old Church Slavonic word “divъ”, which literally means something wonderful, capable of greatly surprising. This is where the Ukrainian “divo”, the Bulgarian “diven” and other words in related Slavic languages came from. The meaning, regardless of variations in the original root, remains unchanged - this is a miracle. 
There is a possibility that the name of this deity comes from the Proto-Indo-European word "deivos", which means "god". The ancient Indian word “devas” and the Latin “deus” are similar in sound and meaning. In both cases it is "god". Considering that the ancient Slavs and the Proto-Indo-Europeans not only have much in common in terms of linguistic understanding, but also in terms of religious beliefs. That's why
This theory may well correspond to reality.
If we turn to the extinct Avestan language, we can find a mysteriously similar-sounding word to Div, “daeva,” which means evil spirit. Similar creatures are found in the mythology of the peoples of the Caucasus, Siberia, the Urals, Central and Asia Minor. These are giants, with a humanoid appearance, or with the body of a man, but the head of an animal. Various atrocities are attributed to such giants, including the abduction of beauties for the purpose of cohabiting with them and continuing their family line. In Slavic mythology, Div is not characterized as a positive character, which raises some doubts. There is also no direct mention of Div being evil. Among the Eastern Slavs, Div acts as a spirit-predictor, capable of taking the form of a bird, in particular an eagle owl or an owl. The bird foreshadows war and accompanies the army in battle, and circles over the heads of those who will inevitably face defeat.
Who is Div?
Div is one of the mysteries of the pagan past. Who is this - a mythical villain, or a bright god? Unfortunately, we have not received direct evidence that could completely refute one of these options. Diva has several variations of the name. This is Dy and Dy. We have already talked about possible origins of this name. Let us assume that Div is, if not a god, then a mythical figure endowed with great strength and power from the Slavic pantheon of gods.
The source “The Word of Saint Gregory” indicates that Div is the god who rules in the sky, and his strength and power are in the light of the heavenly bodies. In another source, in the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” Div appears as a harbinger of troubles. Perhaps, over time and under the influence of different foreign cultures, the image of Diya changed and was perceived differently by different generations. Perhaps even his grandfathers revered him as a god, and their grandchildren considered the same Diya an evil spirit. The migration of nomads and the resettlement of different tribes inevitably brought with them the assimilation and merging of the local culture with the incoming one, which over time could dramatically change the original images of gods and other phenomena.
In another historical source, “The Discourse of Gregory the Theologian on the Trial of the City,” Div is mentioned as the god of the sky, and his wife Divia is the goddess of earth and fertility. The mythology of ancient peoples is imbued with the dualistic idea of creating the world by merging the male and female principles. This is where one of the theories that exists among current researchers arises regarding the purpose of Div as a god. Perhaps Div was revered as the deity of heavenly waters - the source of primary power that flowed from the heavens and fertilized the earth's firmament and gave birth to life on it.
It is worth paying attention to another source, “The Lecturer of George Amartol.” In it, Diy is presented as the son of Cronus (Chronos), who reigned in Asyria, and was known as a cannibal who ate his own children. According to the traditions and foundations of the Persians, Diy was married to his sister Ira and had a brother Nina. The same source indicates that a certain Serukh instilled in the Babylonians the veneration of their ancestors and heroes as gods, which was common in the Hellenic states. Thus, those who made any discoveries, or were distinguished by their actions in society, were perceived as someone special, divine. Dyy is mentioned as the god of rain, which gives a reference to the assumption of his involvement in the celestial waters in Slavic mythology. 
There is also a completely different version that Div was the god of the night sky. It is worth mentioning that Amartol, Dyyu, the same Diyu, ascribes two cavities, “the ov is dyyu to eat, and the other is divy.” In Slavic mythology, the wife of Diva is Divia, who was revered as the goddess of the night sky and the moon. It can be assumed that the Slavs split the original androgynous essence of Dyya into two deities: Diva and Divia.
Div, according to this version, also acts as the Bird-Div, and he lived in the primordial heavens, which was earlier than the sky bound by Svarog. Div was born from the union of the Great Family and the heavenly Goat Seduni, and he was the brother of Svarog. If we turn to Amartol, he points out that in honor of Dyi, in ancient Egypt cattle, including goats, were sacrificed. Perhaps this is where the idea of kinship with the Slavic goat Seduni arose.
After Div touched the firmament of the earth with his spear, the mighty Indra was born. And from Divya, his sister, Diva gave birth to the beautiful Diva-Dodola and the handsome Churila. God Div is also credited with a secret relationship with the wife of the god Barma, Tarusya. According to legend, it was from this union that the people came that gave birth to the Divy people.
According to this theory, Dy lived in the Ural Mountains and sent rain to people in order to water fields and crops. In his service were giants, Divya's people, who were his great-grandchildren, from the children of Tarusya. He demanded too much tribute from them, and eventually the giants stopped honoring their ancestor. Then, in anger, Div called himself the god of the night sky and the wicked began to worship him: murderers, thieves and robbers. People who no longer received rain from Div asked for help from the wise Veles, who overthrew the dark Div into the Navi world. But Viy helped Diva, and he returned to his monastery. Deciding to make peace with Veles, Div invited the sage god to his chambers, where he invited him to drink from a thicket full of poison. As a result, Veles was poisoned and cast into the Navi world, where he found his wife, daughter Viya - Yaginya. There are suggestions that Viy helped Div for a reason, they say he wanted to get Veles as his son-in-law.
At the same time, the son of Div, Churila, together with the giants, defeated the Svarozhichi. As punishment for their insolence, Svarog locked the giants in the very heart of the Ural Mountains, and took the repentant Churil, who presented Svarog as a gift of gold from secret dungeons, into his service. The feud between the Irian gods and Div was over, and he again became a light deity.
Diva-Dodola(Dodola, Perunitsa, Lightning Goddess) - Slavic Goddess of Thunderstorm and Heavenly Moisture. The goddess Diva-Dodola became the wife of Perun. In Slavic myths she is mentioned as the faithful companion of the Thunder God. During a thunderstorm, Perun sends lightning, and Diva-Dodola sends heavenly moisture necessary for the fertility of the earth. In addition, Diva-Dodola is revered as one of the Goddesses of Summer, which begins with the first thunderstorms, and of youth. Especially often the Goddess becomes the patroness of young girls.
The Slavs turned to Diva-Dodola with requests for rain. According to tradition, only her priestesses - young girls - could turn to the Slavic Goddess of the Thunderstorm. They danced in white robes, presented the Goddess with needs, and the Goddess Diva-Dodola always answered their request. Often the Diva-Dodola herself is presented as a beauty who always walks in the company of her priestesses.
The Slavic Goddess Diva-Dodola is the daughter of Dyya, one of the oldest Gods. Once upon a time, Dyi was the God of the Night Sky, and it was then that the beautiful Diva-Dodola was born to him and Divya, the Goddess of the Moon. Over time, Dyi became the God of Wealth - secretive and unyielding. Perhaps the proud and headstrong Thunder Goddess is similar to him in some character traits. But, unlike Dyya, who strives to accumulate wealth, Diva-Dodola easily shares heavenly moisture with people.
Diva-Dodola became the wife of Perun, the God of Thunder, although other Slavic Gods also liked her. From Perun she gave birth to a daughter, Devan, Goddess of the Hunt. Diva-Dodola also has a son with Veles, the God of the Three Worlds - this is Yarilo, the God of the Spring Sun and Passion.
Legends and myths about the Slavic Goddess Diva-Dodola
The most famous Slavic myth about Diva-Dodol is the story of the birth of God Yarilo.
Once Perun and Veles were friends. Then they met the beautiful Diva Dodola and both fell in love with her. The proud and unapproachable Diva-Dodola immediately refused Veles, the God of the Three Worlds, and Perun fell in love with her, the Goddess of the Thunderstorm agreed to marry him. Then Veles turned into a magical white flower, which he met on the way of the Diva-Dodola. The goddess could not pass by and leaned over to smell the beautiful flower. After which she immediately fell asleep, and when she woke up, she gave birth to a son, Yarilo, God of the Spring Sun and Passion, similar to the one that Veles felt for Diva-Dodola.
The amulet is a symbol of the Goddess Diva-Dodola
The symbol of the Goddess Diva-Dodola is called Perunitsa, this is also sometimes the name of the Goddess herself. Perunitsa is an image of lightning. The Diva-Dodola amulet gives inner confidence, similar to the one possessed by the Thunder Goddess herself. In addition, Perunitsa is one of the symbols that protects from failures and disasters that bring happiness.
Attributes of the Goddess Diva-Dodola
Natural phenomenon- lightning.
Plant– lily of the valley (in other versions – snowdrop).
Treba (offering)– ribbons, wreaths, flowers, bread, poppy seeds.
Diva-Dodola in the northern tradition of fortune telling and magic
In the Slavic Rezes of Rod, the sign of the Goddess Diva-Dodola is depicted with the help of Perunitsa.
Reza number – 24.
Reza of the Goddess Diva-Dodola appears in the scenario when a person is waiting for the end of one period of life and the beginning of another. The appearance of the Thunder Goddess may indicate that the end of the past period will be stormy and difficult, like a thunderstorm. But after that everything will definitely get better, calm down, a calm, bright period of life will begin, just as the earth after rain is filled with moisture and the sky is cleared.
In rituals, Diva-Dodola is asked for rain so that the earth can produce a harvest. The girls turn to Diva-Dodola with a request to end the period of loneliness and meet their betrothed. For this there is a lesson Diva-Dodola “The End of Loneliness”.
Read more about the meaning of Reza of the Goddess Diva-Dodola in fortune telling in the article “Reza Roda Diva-Dodola"
Holidays where they honor Diva-Dodola, the Goddess of the Slavs
February 2- Gromnitsa. The day when Lelya-Spring and Morena-Winter meet for the first time. The Thunder Goddess Diva-Dodola and the Thunder God Perun help Vesna win. On this day, for the first time in the year, you can see lightning and hear thunder.
DIVYA - goddess of the bright night, goddess of the Moon, Divya's sign also resembles the moon.
It is believed that Divya, the Goddess of the Moon, was created so that people could learn to distinguish Light in Darkness, for Night is a symbol of inertia and darkness, illusions, delusions and the revelry of dark forces; and the night star with its soft reflected light helps us find a way out. And every night Divya appears in the sky with a beautiful golden crown on her head.
She illuminates the path of people in the darkness, protects dreams, and symbolizes with her behavior the unchangeable law of existence - day must give way to night, night must go away, because after it there will come a light time. So, people living under Divya - the Moon show us with their changeable character that everything in this life can change, and we just need to continue living in order to meet the dawn.
The name of the goddess Divia is found in the translated “Conversation of Gregory the Theologian on the Test of the City (hail)” in that part of it that is recognized as an insertion by a Russian scribe of the 11th century. Various relics of paganism are listed here, such as praying at wells to bring rain or worshiping the river as a goddess and making sacrifices. It follows: “Ov Dyyu eats, and the other - Divya...” It is unknown who is meant by the goddess Divya, but, in any case, it must be some kind of primary goddess, equal in size to Dyyu.
In the “Tale of Idols” the goddess Diva is mentioned after Mokosh and before Perun, which also speaks of the important place occupied by this goddess in the pagan ideas of the Slavs.
Div is one of the most controversial images of the Slavic mythopoetic system. It is obvious that Div (other, later and less common names are Dy and Diy) was directly related to the divine pantheon. According to the “Word of St. Gregory,” Div is the god of the sky, or rather, of heavenly light. L.A. Barkova in her research says that initially the name “Div” itself meant “heavenly god,” apparently having a fairly broad meaning that went beyond a single personification. Over time, the name “Div” acquired the meaning “wonderful” (hence – wondrous). At the same time, there is an obvious connection with Sanskrit, where the word “deva” means “shining” and comes from the form “div” (div).
It is curious that in “The Lay of Igor’s Campaign”, as well as in “Zadonshchina”, the image of Div does not carry positive imagery. In the mentioned texts, Div is, if not hostile, then at least clearly not a positive image. In fact, in the “Word” Div is an image of a catastrophe (“Div has already fallen to the ground”), so at the moment there is no consensus among researchers regarding the interpretation of this image.
It is possible that Div's functions as a god changed over time. In this case, there must have been legends describing these changes, but if any occurred, they were not preserved, either in oral tradition or as documentary monuments.
Since in almost all Indo-European mythological systems there is an earth-sky pair, it is quite logical to assume that Div and Diva are such a pair, since Div correlates with the sky and the light of the sky. Divya is the goddess of Mother Cheese-Earth, fertilized by the heavenly waters of Dyya. Divya, divitsa and other derivatives come from here.
DIVYA/DIVA
Goy, the earth is damp,
The earth is maturing,
You are our dear mother!
You gave birth to us all,
And endowed with land;
For the sake of us, your children,
You gave birth to potions
And she gave all sorts of grains to drink...
Spell for collecting medicinal herbs (32)
(Maikov, 1998, No. 254)
The name Dyy had a feminine form. Dyya’s wife is probably the goddess of the earth: “Create a demand on the staudenci, waiting for claims from him, forgetting that God is waiting to give from heaven. To eat the bearer of God, and to antagonize the God who created heaven and earth. I call the river a goddess, and the beast living in it, like naming a god, I demand to create. Ov Dyu eat, and the others Divi. And honor the city. Open up the shit, laying it on the head, take the oath; to create oaths with human bones. Ov kobeni petit look. I am confused about the meeting. Ov muschn cattle, creating kill. To do it a week and on holy days, he came to himself, creating his own destruction, and as much as he did in this week, the day he would destroy. I swear to swear to lies” (The Word of St. Gregory, Conversation of St. Gregory the Theologist about the beating of the city - Anichkov, 1914, p. 93).
Since in almost all Indo-European mythological systems there is a symmetry of “female and male”, the pair “earth - sky”, it is natural to assume that Div (Dy) and Diva (Diya) are just such a pair. That Div correlates with the sky (the Upper World) etymologically and thematically is clear from “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”: “Div is beating, calling to the top of the tree - commanding the unknown earth to listen” (does this mean the World Tree?); “I have already exchanged blasphemy for praise; The need has already burst into freedom; Diva has already thrown herself to the ground.”
According to the same Galysovsky, before the Greek scribes, the Slavs never had such a goddess - Diva. However, we would venture to suggest that there was still a goddess, they just began to call her in the Greek way. Or Divya is a proper name that goes back to the Indo-European root. Let us recall that in Lithuanian mythology it is known about the marriage of the highest male deity Dievas and the proto-goddess Deive.
Deiva, or Zhemina, is what Latvians call Zemes mate- Mother Earth. Dievs is her husband. In other words, Diva, Divia, is the goddess Mother of Cheese Earth, Slavic Gaia, who is fertilized by the heavenly waters of Dyya-Diva.
Protesting against the Christianity being introduced among them, the Prussians tell their missionaries that because of them (since they came with their own, alien rituals), the Prussian land will stop giving harvest, trees - fruit, animals - offspring (Lavvis, 1897).
Let us turn again to the teaching “The Word of St. Gregory was invented in masses about what kind of filth the Gentiles worshiped before idols and made demands on them,” where, as it seems to us, the name of Diva is also mentioned:
“...Who are more furious than the mothers of the demonic aphrodite goddesses. Corone. The crown will be destroyed and the mother of the Antichrist. and ArtemiDe. curses. Diomisee. stagnation and premature births. and the god of husbands and wives... requires the same god to store and create. and Slovenian language. Vilam. Mokoshya. diva, perounow. harsou. Rodou. and giving birth..."
When translated for some reason, Diva is often written as a maiden, although between a maiden and a diva, as well as between a maiden and a Diva, the difference is significant, magical, we would even say. And it turns out that such translators are like “Mokoshi-deve”, but this does not fit into any gates. At the same time, researchers, even the most blinkered, agree that the cult of Mokosh/Mokosh has been reincarnated in Orthodoxy as the veneration of Paraskeva Friday. This saint, of course, is not a boy, but not a virgin either; she seems to be a very respectable matron.
“Everything in nature has its own unique properties that can be known by those who are willing to look for them. Above all else in the Northern Tradition is deep respect for the earth, which appears in the guise of the goddess, Mother Earth. This idea is the same in all versions of the faith, although the goddess may be called differently. She is the personification of the Earth, viewed as a sacred entity, and not as a huge inanimate stone, and is the basis of the worldview. As a result, all manifestations of the natural world should be revered, as well as places of power - places where the gods are present... The Northern Tradition sees in planet Earth not an inanimate (cosmic body), but a living entity with a spirit, "ond, which appears in various forms corresponding to the fundamental qualities of the elements to which it belongs" (Pennick, 1989).
We salute you, O mother earth,
Mortal haven,
Be blooming and fertile
By the grace of the gods,
Full of food
What feeds our people.
Anglo-Saxon prayer (Ibid.)
The barren land spell in good old England was performed by taking seeds and putting them on the plow:
Erke, Erke, Erke,
earthly mother,
may the all-giver give you,
eternal sovereign,
rich lands,
flowering meadows,
fruitful fields,
multiparous, multiparous,
millet grown,
good grain,
barley too
excellent grain,
also wheat
The grain is good.
May he give
eternal sovereign,
and his saints,
mountain people,
master's lands
protection from ruin,
field and arable land
salvation from misfortune,
from an evil word
from an earthly spell.
Protect, all-giver,
Creator of the world
from a slanderous wife,
from an evil husband, -
my speech is strong
Yes it will be strong.
(Old English Poetry, pp. 23–24)
The pagan identity of the early Middle Ages in Rus' is also revealed as the cult of the Earth.
He, like the cult of the Family, in the opinion of the same V.L. Komarovich, “was in that era not only the lot of everyday or personal superstition of individual “neveglas”, but also a rather formidable social force. Its involvement, like the cult of the Family, in inter-princely relations is beyond doubt. Both cults were closely related in the views and experiences of their adherents. The denunciation against those who believe in the birth of children on earth also concerns their faith in the Family. Other denunciations that speak less definitely about Rod, however, invariably call women in labor next to him, or, as is read in the most ancient lists of monuments, Rozhanitsa (in the singular)..." (Komarovich, 1960, pp. 103–104)
The author makes the undisputed assumption “that the “Rod” and “Rozhanitsa” of our incriminating monuments will exactly correspond to the pagan cults of the Rod and the Earth, which were just as firmly united in ancient Russian life itself.” Taking into account the identification in teachings against paganism of one of the Mothers in labor with Artemis, it is precisely such a Mother in labor that is unlikely to be correlated with the giving birth Earth, although she undoubtedly performs midwifery functions.
But if V.L. Komarovich’s constructions are not entirely correct, he is right in the following: “If we look at all those places in the chronicle where more or less stable formulas of their customary law were put into the mouths of individual princes, then here too we will meet the same two concepts and even terms: clan and land. In particular, the cult of land was connected with princely ownership through the ancient Russian customary right to land ownership in general. The oath by the earth, which attracted the attention of Pavlov-Silvansky in this last one, is exposed as a forbidden relic of paganism already in the same “Word of how the trash of existence bowed down to an idol” (11th century): “O, tear up the turf (cut out) on the head, laying it down, to take the oath." The long dominance of this custom is also evidenced by its numerous later survivals collected by Smirnov (33). The pagan cult of the earth clearly appears in some of the surviving features of the princely life and rule. For example, Rurik of Smolensky had a son - on the way from Novgorod, in the city of Luchin; at baptism he was given “the grandfather’s name Mikhailo, and the prince Rostislav, the grandfather’s name”; what it meant to assign a grandfather's name - we already know in part; but this is not enough: where the princess found herself giving birth, “I erected the Church of St. Michael in the place where she gave birth.” Why it must be “in that place”, and not somewhere nearby - which would, of course, be easier and simpler - is again clarified from international data on the veneration of Mother Earth: how the dying were certainly laid on the ground “ut extremum spiritum” redderent terrae“ in the belief that the soul, exactly where the dying person is laid, will return to the mother’s earthen womb, so the exact opposite transition to the newborn of the soul of a deceased ancestor - most often just a grandfather - from under the earth was again imagined possible only where the birth took place.
In a random slip of the chronicler, precious everyday details reveal, as we see, both the veneration of the family and the veneration of the land at the same time, one with the other in an indissoluble connection. The earth is doubly honored: both for the fact that it receives deceased grandfathers, and for the fact that it gives back the souls of their newborn grandchildren; this family is doubly honored, as it has now become clear, an ancestor passing from generation to generation, now returning to the earth, now from it, with the first cry of a baby, emerging again for further above-ground life, like an epigone; in the exact sense of the word, or, if you prefer, like grass, tree or grain. Finally, one can see the extent to which the views inherited from pagan antiquity came into close contact with the sphere of princely customary law: having given his son both his grandfather’s names, marking the place of birth with a church building, the father of the newborn, Prince Rurik, in conclusion “gives him the city of Luchin, in which born"; that is, before us is one of countless examples of the princely “series,” happily distinguished from the rest only by the visual evidence of the circumstances that gave rise to it; but they, as we see, do not put up with either the presumption of the patrimonial theory, or the presumption of the theory of “ladder ascension”: from neither one nor the other can one derive the prince’s right to own the city as a “grandfather” only because he was born in it; A happy accident helped to derive such a right from the pagan cult: the momentary loquaciousness of the chronicler. But how many similar other customary rules remain unrecognized due to its annoying laconicism? ( Ibid.).
Having given a number of striking examples of this view, Dietrich notes: “Such a relationship (of a child with the soul of an ancestor) must have had a very deep basis in the once very specific views regarding the afterlife (Weiterleben) of ancestors, if grandchildren, according to the ancient customs of so many peoples, were consistently endowed the name of the grandfather... In our language, even the word “grandson” (Enkel) actually means nothing more than “little grandfather”” (see: Dieter ich Al Mutter" Erde, p. 25).
The cult of the Earth-Mother persisted for a very long time and is correlated by many researchers with the course of Strigolism:
“In the middle of the 14th century. under the Novgorod Archbishop Moses, who built 13 churches in Novgorod at the expense of the Sophia treasury and was forced to leave the department twice at a time of popular unrest, the church launched an offensive against all types of deviations from Orthodoxy, both towards the paganism of his great-grandfathers, and towards the newly emerged humanistic heresy of the Strigolniks . It was not for nothing that the Strigolniki celebrated the second passing of Lord Moses in 1359 by installing the famous Ludogshchin cross in one of the city squares, outlining the main theses of their teaching” (Rybakov, 1987).
“In the summer of 6884... the Strigolnik heretics, the deacon Nikita and Karp the simpleton and a third person with them were beaten in Novegrad, throwing them from the bridge, the libertines of the holy faith of Christ,” reported the “Piskarevsky Chronicler” (PSRL, vol. XXXIV. M., 1978 ).
The famous collector of teachings against paganism N.M. Galkovsky writes (Galkovsky, 1916):
“...The universal ancestor earth, nurturing in its bosom the flora and fauna, including humans, was in the minds of our ancestor a mother waterer and nurse during life, and after death she sheltered him in her depths. As such, she aroused reverent veneration, was a shrine, “The Earth is a holy mother.” According to popular belief, a foul speaker who utters “swear words” will not be forgiven, because with such words the mother of the damp earth is vilified. They swore by the earth in disputes about land ownership; the arguer put turf on his head and walked around a piece of land to prove that this land belonged to him. This is a very ancient custom, noted in the Slavic translation of the word St. Gregory the Theologian: “The shit is cut open (cut) on the head, laying down the oath.” The Church fought against this pagan way of swearing in, trying to replace the turf with an icon; As a result, they began to use both turf and icons in boundary disputes. We personally heard that even in recent times, robbers, having robbed travelers, but not wanting to kill them for any reason, took an oath of silence from the robbed, forcing their victims to swear with a lump of earth in their hands, and then eat this lump. Usually, those who swore in this way remained silent all their lives about what happened to them and only before death they opened up about the terrible event they had experienced. We believe that this method of swearing with earth in hands, which was then eaten, is an echo of hoary pagan antiquity. Equally ancient must be recognized the belief that it is easiest for a person to die on earth; It is especially difficult to die on a feather bed (for a rich person). If the patient was “difficult” (suffering seriously), but could not die, he was lowered to the floor (peasants used to always have an earthen floor; now, when the floor is usually made of planks, straw is laid under the patient). The touching custom of washing the dead and dressing them in everything clean is well known: in addition to natural respect for the deceased, there is also the old concern not to disturb the purity of the earth. We consider the confession to the earth to be an important proof that in prehistoric times the earth was an object of veneration. It is known that the Strigolniki heretics (14th–15th centuries) repented not to the priest, but to the earth. Prof. S.I. Smirnov pointed out what elements are included in the Eastern Christian custom of confession without a confessor, before shrines: the pagan cult of the earth; the popular idea of the earth as a judge and the idea of the earth as the redeemer of sin, developed in Eastern folk Christianity. Prof. Smirnov means Strigolniks. Confession to the earth still exists today among some schismatic sects and among the common people in general: if there is no one to repent, repent to the earth. It cannot be argued that the current confession to the earth is an echo of the Strigolnik heresy. But one might think that the psychological foundations of the Strigolniks and the schismatic-bezpopovtsy are the same. Close to confession to the earth is the ritual of farewell to the earth before church confession, when the speaker asks for forgiveness from the sun, moon, rain, wind and especially from the earth. Prof. S.I. Smirnov believes that this forgiveness with the earth before church confession is nothing more than a people’s confession to the earth, complementing church confession.
From the above we can conclude that the cult of the earth was inherent in our pagan ancestors. This was the most ancient cult, over which was layered a new formation of gods, personifying the sun and natural phenomena: Perun, Dazhbog, Stribog, etc., just as among the Greeks the most ancient Uranus and Gaia were replaced by a younger generation of gods. But the worship of the universal mother earth never fell into complete oblivion. The ancient Russian scribe instinctively felt the pagan element in calling the earth mother and saw in this a departure from Orthodoxy; denouncing the Latins, he reproached them for “swearing mothers at the earth.” We believe that the cult of the earth has been preserved in its most ancient form: it is veneration without temples, rituals, and even without a clearly expressed idea; at the basis of this cult is the consciousness of closeness and dependence on the earth, hence the reverent veneration of the earth, its universal mother. This consciousness is inherent in all people. Under the influence of a pure Christian worldview, this consciousness has its, so to speak, legitimate dimensions. But where there is no pure Christianity, the ancient cult of the earth expands, as we see among the Strigolniks and our schismatic-bezpopovtsy. This veneration is not alien to the modern peasant, as we see from the following fact, personally known to us. One peasant in Dorogobuzh district, Smolensk province, had no livestock and was dying. One good friend of the peasant, in great secrecy, advised the loser, secretly from everyone, to go out into the yard at sunrise and bow to the ground three times without a cross or hat. The peasant did this, and from that time on he began to keep livestock. But then he realized that he was bowing not to God, but to the earth, and, considering his act a sin, he repented of it. - This incident clearly shows us that the ancient cult of the earth secretly continues to live; this is precisely a remnant of paganism: it was necessary to bow without a cross and in secret.”
The Ust-Tsilma Old Believers, when invited by Orthodox priests to confess, responded: “We confess to God and to Mother - the damp Earth” or “I will put my ear to the damp Earth, God will hear me and forgive me.” They also asked for forgiveness from the earth in case of illness or approaching death. In the spiritual verse “The Unforgivable Sin,” the Earth appears as the bearer of moral truth, a special law of tribal life. According to the beliefs of the Eastern Slavs, dating back to the era of Ancient Rus', the righteous bosom of the Earth does not accept sorcerers, suicides and those who were cursed by their parents (Toporkov, 1984).
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