Maiden
What you need to sow
Send your longing out as song.
Cape Verdean
Mãe d'Água
Mother of the Waters
Cape Verdean and Lusophone folk belief
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Her story
Historical context
spirit · Cape Verdean and Lusophone folk belief
Mãe d'Água, 'Mother of the Waters', is a water spirit of Lusophone Atlantic folklore, remembered in Cape Verde where the sea shapes life, migration and saudade.
Mythology & traditions
Cape Verdean stories of female water beings belong to a wider Lusophone Atlantic family of Mãe d’Água and mermaid traditions, reshaped by island life rather than inherited unchanged. In a society formed by fishing, drought and migration, the ocean is livelihood, distance and return at once; her mythology gathers those feelings into a listening presence beneath the waves.
Domains
- sea
- longing
- migration
- song
Symbols
- panu di terra cloth
- waves
- morna song
In the oracle
Her guidance
Mother
What you need to grow
Grow ties across distance.
Crone
What you need to know
Know that the sea carries you home too.
Her tradition
Cape Verdean Tradition
The water mother of island longing and song.
Explore this tradition