I’m begging you to expand on your views on cannabis and its connection to Mokosh
Yes! Yes! You don't have to beg me here. I just want everyone to know, what is about to happen in this post is exactly the reason I can't make short videos.
I guess I want to start by... calibrating who we are talking about when we say "Mokosh". I will try to present the pieces of information we do have - you can make your own conclusions as to which sound true, however I find it is useful to frankly double check all available information now and again. To be completely frank, Slavic goddesses underwent a certain tradwification in the popular understanding that says more about the mythmakers than about the goddesses.
By that I mean that our current understanding of their potential character or sphere of influence seems to have shifted towards the image of a hearth-keeper and a Traditional (in the sense of the modern ideology) wife.
So, what do we have de facto: she was apparently the only goddess mentioned in the Pantheon of Volodymyr, which possibly might have been a calque from another foreign list of gods in place of Astarte. One quote mentions her before stating that pagan worshipers engaged in masturbation. This mention may have been a separate statement, or may have been added in relation to her cult. In one source the author is potentially making a parallel between Mokosh and Hekate by mentioning them next to each other in his condemnation of local pagan holdovers. I will mention, the sentence is ambiguous, and might also point to an unknown local goddess that was for come reason equated with Hekate. Her name, Mokosh, is generally understood to be derived from the word "wet", and water is an element that likewise tends to connect the earth, our life on this side, and Underworld forces.
It is very possible that the spinner and women's labour imagery has entered her identity with the introduction of St. Paraskeva. In any case, both earth fertility and harvest, water, and even the products of spinning and weaving are all connected to the cult of the dead in Slavic cultures. All this together paints a picture of her as something much more primal and chthonic than what we usually describe her as. In that sense, she is, as far as her spheres of potential influence are concerned, seems very much alike Veles.
And as I have talked about before, to me the presence of Mokosh is in some ways a continuance of Api, the Scythian "Gaia", who herself is often linked to the ancestral Snake-Legged Goddess.
All that out of the way (phew!), let's just explore where there threads might lead us.
Fist and foremost, as the screenshot mentions, the consensus etymology of the word "cannabis" links it linguistically and culturally to the Scythians. Of course the nature and presence of their gods and their spirituality did not vanish once we started calling our experiences on the same land with other names.
The potential link to funeral rites is also particularly fascinating in the light of the underworld connection I discussed before.
Now, I find the link to self-pleasure and its core association with fertility of living things personally very true, but I would question the centrality of agriculture as such in our interpretations. In this aspect, cannabis can stand as a teacher of joy and satisfaction. For the earth to produce crops and for our cattle to bring in their young, this principle by necessity must exist in the parts of nature that are nor bringing us profit, otherwise our relationship becomes exploitative. In that sense Mokosh holds the realignment towards work with the natural forces and the understanding that every living thing in nature that is not burdened by existential overthinking truly strives to act from a place of satisfaction and pleasure.
And I want to circle back to Mokosh's role as a spinner. Now, as I mentioned, it is possible the reference may have arrived from the Christinized layer of spirituality, however, it does not mean we must dismiss it as untrue, or that Mokosh herself does not seem to show an affinity to the textile arts and their symbolism. Textiles are also a traditional offering to Rusalkas. Now, the primary imagery here is that of sheep and wool, however, there is really no source or reason that would suggest that is somehow the only fiber source legitimately connected to Mokosh. I would argue that in a lot of folklore, Ukrainian folk songs in particular for example, hemp is both mentioned frequently in love divination and nature renewal narratives, and is often connected with feminine imagery. Honestly, it is quite possible we are missing out simply because hemp plants is apparently not something you bring up in polite society.
So I hope you made it to the end, stranger, and that this satisfies your curiosity.
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