Maiden
What you need to sow
Begin by going toward the water and asking plainly for help. Start by being helped.
Caribbean / Afro-Cuban
Yemayá
Mother of All, Owner of the Sea
Yorùbá West Africa carried to Cuba and the Caribbean through the slave trade; actively worshipped today
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Her story
Historical context
goddess · Yorùbá West Africa carried to Cuba and the Caribbean through the slave trade; actively worshipped today
Yemayá crossed the Atlantic with the people who were stolen, and she came out of that crossing as the ocean mother of the Caribbean. She is the sea in every mood: cradle, road, grave. Her devotees give her offerings at the water's edge and ask, mostly, for their children to be safe.
Mythology & traditions
The seven skirts are the seven seas and the seven layers of her temperament. She is remembered as the one who held people together through the Middle Passage — which is why her comfort is never soft. She will carry you, but she will also tell you to get up, and she has no patience for a person abandoning their own children while grieving.
Domains
- The ocean
- Motherhood
- Protection
- Dreams
- Survival
Symbols
- Blue and white beads
- Cowrie shells
- Fan and boat
- Watermelon
- Seven skirts
In the oracle
Her guidance
Mother
What you need to grow
Nurture the people who depend on you — and count yourself among them.
Crone
What you need to know
You come from survivors. What feels like fragility is often unprocessed inheritance.