Aisyt

Aisyt (Aysyt or Ajsyt; Sakha: Айыыһыт Ayııhıt) is the Yakut mother goddess of the Turkic Yakut people from the Lena River region of Siberia. The name means "birthgiver" and may also be called the "Mother of Cradles".^[1] Her full name is given as Ajysyt-ijaksit-khotan, meaning "Birthgiving nourishing mother".^{[citation needed]} Aisyt brings the soul from heaven at the birth of a baby and records each one in the Golden Book of Fate.

Ajysyt was responsible for conducting the soul of a newborn child to its birth and attended every birth. Women would channel Ajysyt, believing that doing so would relieve them of pain during childbirth.^[1] She kept a golden book in which she recorded each one. She is said to have lived on a mountain top in a house with seven stories,^[1] from which she controlled the fate of the world. The word ajysyt is also used to describe a male spirit that oversees the birth of male animals, such as a male horse, while the use of the word is feminine when relating to the birth of a female horse.^[2]

In legend she appeared to a white youth out of the roots of the Cosmic Tree (or world pillar of Yryn-al-tojon) which itself stood beside a lake of milk. By suckling the youth from her breasts she caused his strength to increase a hundredfold.^{[citation needed]}

Aisyt was a daughter of Gok-Tengri (Sky-God) and Toprak Ana (Mother Earth) and was viewed with both fear and affection. She represented the night and was pictured as a noble woman. The night’s darkness heralded the emergence of malicious spirits from holes.

Contemporary representation

Ajysyt is a featured figure on Judy Chicago's installation piece The Dinner Party, being represented as one of the 999 names on the Heritage Floor.^[3]

References