The Proto-Uralic worldview according to Vladimir Napolskikh (1992).

Deciduous trees were seen as mediators between the middle world and the upper world, whereas coniferous trees were mediators between the middle world and the lower world. Even today sacrificial offerings are given under deciduous trees among the Finno-Ugric peoples, such as the Mari.

In the upper world there is a spring that feeds the world stream, and a lake or ocean of life, from where all human life originates and where migratory waterfowl spend the winter. The Goddess of life, the consort of the Creator God, decides over births and rebirths. She also sends the waterfowl along the Milky Way ("bird's track" in Finnish) to the middle world.

The world stream runs down to the lower world, where illnesses and all kinds of harmful things reside. This realm is guarded by the hound of the underworld, and in later times he became the helper of sages.

In the middle world there was no single supreme deity, but a host of lesser ones.