As we enjoy the last month of Summer here in the Southern Hemisphere, and the last month of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, I want to introduce you to Yemoja, Goddess the of the Ocean.
Half human and half fish, Yemonja is the mother of all orishas in the Yoruba tradition of Africa. She is considered the mother and nurturer of all and represents Creation, water, motherhood, rivers, lakes, streams, wells, moonlight, pregnant women, and watches over fishermen and shipwreck survivors. She is often depicted as a mermaid and cowrie shells represent her abundance.
Her name is derived from Yeyé (meaning “mother”) and Omo (meaning “child”) and eja (meaning “fish”), so quite literally “mother whose children are the fish” thus her children are uncountable.
Yemonja is wise, nurturing, strong and very protective. She cares for all of her children fiercely and when provoked or angered her sea storms will match her power. She rules the sea and demands respect. She is stern but fair, strong but soft and her morals bend for no one. When we are feeling challenged by circumstances or find ourselves giving our power away, we can call on Yemonja for strength and nurturance with an offering by the sea or body of water.
Just as the Earth is known as our mother in sacred traditions, so too is Yemonja. All life started in the sea. Inside our own mother’s womb, the amniotic fluid is a sea where we begin as an embryo before transforming and evolving through the form of a fish and into a human baby. This is the beginning of life; of Creation, and the energy that continues to grow within us until we take our last breath.
She is loved and worshipped in many cultures. In Central America, she is Yemanjá, the Queen of the Ocean, who brings the fish to the fisherman and guides a safe passage at sea. In Haitian Vodou, she is worshipped as The Goddess of the Moon and brings protection mothers and their children. In Christian theology, she is syncretised with the Virgin Mary. In her path of Okutti she is the queen of witches carrying within her deep and dark secrets.
Yemonja dresses in seven skirts of blue and white and adorns herself with coral. Like the seas and profound lakes she is deep and unknowable. Her favoured number is seven for the seven seas.
You may honour Yemonja and seek from her a blessing, a clearing or anything your heart desires. Go to the ocean, take some flowers or something of sentiment to you but which you are happy to leave behind. Place them in the water as an offering, put your feet in the water and knock three times. Talk with her and as that whatever you have brought (both as an offering and to be released) be washed away in the waves. The waves are her way of gathering your thanks and hearing your prayer.
No matter where she sits within any culture one thing remains, Yemonja is a mother, a nurturer and our all-powerful protector. She is the Mother of waters and Mother of all.
Ase
Featured Image by Claudia Krindges
