Yemaya

For our Dianic initiation, all of us spend three months at a time with a Goddess which represents the wheel of a woman's life. First, there was the Maiden (mine was Diana), then the Warrior (mine was Durga), now it's the Mother period. Next it will be the Crone. My mother is Yemaya, who is the great mother of all and the oceans from the Yoruba tradition. She is an Orisha. It's lucky that I picked her, since she is the patron of mothers, especially pregnant women. She is quite the lovely goddess, very nurturing and kind. My fascination with her originally stemmed from the images shown of her as a mermaid. I've been obsessed with mermaids in the ocean since I was a wee lass.

After we found out we were pregnant, it seemed like a good time to visit Yemaya and discuss our worries. Luisah Teish suggests a ritual in her book Jambalaya, which we adapted during our visit to Half Moon Bay over Labor Day weekend. In a local shop near the beach, I bought a concrete statue of a mermaid, which I held in the ocean water under the sparkling sunlight and asked to be my representation of Yemaya. I collected some ocean water in an empty 2-liter bottle which was laying on the beach, and both this and the statue I took home to be on my Yemaya altar in my bathroom. We brought a pineapple with us as an offering.



I cut the top off the pineapple. This was the time when I meant to insert a blue candle and light it, but, unfortunately, I forgot to bring the candle. (Sorry, Yemaya!) I suppose it was a bit windy that day anyway, so maybe it would have been a poor idea to try to keep it lit.



Then I poured molasses on top of the candle. It seems to me that Papa Legba appeared in the form of the "Brer Rabbit" molasses!



Next, I poured corn meal on the pineapple.



Then I placed seven shiney dimes around the pineapple.



I wrote her name in the sand, just to show love.



Then my husband and I faced the ocean, watching the sunset and speaking our concerns about Raspberry and finding a new home to Yemaya. We talked about what we'd like to be able to provide for Raspberry, and what our vision of a good place to live would be. I trust that Yemaya heard us and is helping. I sang a song for her which most of you know, which was written by Z. Budapest and goes:

"We all come from the Goddess,
And to her we shall return,
Like a drop of rain,
Flowing to the ocean."



We left the pineapple and the dimes on the beach for her. It was a beautiful evening, and it was good for our relationship to do this together. Before we left the beach, just as the sun was dipping into the sea, I called my mother on the phone. She didn't know I had just done a ritual for my "mother," but it seemed right to send love to the woman who gave me birth. The ocean is her favorite thing in the world, especially in this corner of the world, and she was delighted to hear the waves crashing across the miles (she lives in Ohio). Much love to Mom!