Who is goddess yemaya

With anchored roots in the Yoruba religion, Yemaya was brought over to the New World by enslaved Africans as early as the 16th century. View on Twitter. Her strong and protective energy can be found virtually everywhere, but especially near oceans and lakes. Offerings for her include molasses, coconut cakes, white flowers, and watermelon. For practicing witches, Yemaya has a fierce, nurturing, gentle energy often associated with the moon and sorcery.

As the "Mother of All," she is said to help in matters of self-love, fertility, emotional wounds, trauma, and healing work. But if you cross her, disrespect her terrain, or hurt one of her children, she has a serious anger streak.

The story of Yemaya was originally brought over to Cuba via the transatlantic slave trade. Yemaya was strongly associated with the sea, in which she lived. Like the sea, she was beautiful and filled with generosity but if anyone crossed the goddess by disrespecting her terrain or hurting one of her children, her anger knew no bounds.

She could very fierce when angry and had been known to cause tidal waves and floods. The goddess loved with all her heart and women often developed a close relationship with her but they had to be careful when communicating with her near the sea.

While she never intended to cause harm to any living thing, Yemaya liked to keep everything she loved near her and would try to them into the sea, forgetting that her children had to live on land and not in the waters. Yemaya was often depicted as a spectacularly beautiful, queenly-looking mermaid or a young woman wearing a dress with seven skirts, which symbolized the seven seas. When she walked, her swaying hips would evoke the sea, causing waves.

She typically wore corals, crystals, pearls or tiny bells which tinkled when she walked in her hair, on her body or on her clothes. Her favorite colors were blue and white, which also symbolize the sea.

There are many symbols associated with the goddess including fish, fishnets, shells and sea stones since all of these pertain to the sea. As the mother of all living things, Yemaya loved her children and cleansed them of sorrow and suffering.

She was extremely powerful and would cure infertility problems in women. She also healed emotional wounds and helped the mortals to solve any issues they had with self-love. Women often invoked her aid when they had problems and she would always listen to them and help them.

She was a protectress of women and children, governing everything related to women, including childbirth, conception, pregnancy, child safety, love and parenting. Some legends tell of how Yemaya brought life to the world by creating the first mortals. The story goes that her waters broke, causing a great deluge, creating all the streams and rivers on earth and then, from her womb, the first humans were created.

When he tried to do it a second time, Yemaya ran away to a mountaintop nearby. Here she hid and cursed her son continuously until he finally dropped dead. After this incident, Yemaya was so full of sorrow that she decided to take her own life.

With anchored roots in the Yoruba religion, Yemaya was brought over to the New World by enslaved Africans as early as the 16th century. Her strong and protective energy can be found virtually everywhere, but especially near oceans and lakes.

Offerings for her include molasses, coconut cakes, white flowers, and watermelon. For practicing witches, Yemaya has a fierce, nurturing, gentle energy often associated with the moon and sorcery. As the "Mother of All," she is said to help in matters of self-love, fertility, emotional wounds, trauma, and healing work.

But if you cross her, disrespect her terrain, or hurt one of her children, she has a serious anger streak. The story of Yemaya was originally brought over to Cuba via the transatlantic slave trade. Under the highly-censored, Communist rule of Fidel Castro following the Cuban Revolution, the religion continued to be outlawed, and it was only until recently that it was openly recognized and legalized in the island country.

Like many religious practices outside the dominant norm, the Orishas and their symbolism, rituals, and folklore had to be kept a secret, and eventually syncretized with those of the Roman Catholic Church. And who is the reigning Lady in Catholicism? Mother Mary, of course.

In iconography, both holy mother figures are shown dressed in blue and white. One seen as giving birth to the son of God and one gave birth to all living things. Radiantly rising from the sea , her dark skin shining under the moon, Yemaya rules over her domain with grace, beauty, and maternal wisdom. Yemaya is also often depicted as a mermaid. But symbols and iconography have a way of grounding the spiritual into something more tangible so that we can better understand it.

And Yemaya exists outside narrow boxes of classification, outside of iconography. She takes all forms, yet we strive to put a face to her.