The Yoruba Mother Goddess – Nigeria
Star Queen of the Sea
Yemaya, the Ocean Goddess, came west from Africa on the transatlantic slave trade to grace many religions as the Mother of all Orishas - the Yoruba gods and goddesses, sacred powers ruled by the universe. Her name came from the Yoruba words Yeye – mother, omo – child, eja – fish as the human fetus evolving in the womb has gills. She became a Virgin Mary icon in the Caribbean islands where her rituals merged with Catholicism. She is the Queen Spirit of the moonlight and feminine mysteries, protector of women, childbirth and the unconscious mind.
Sing for me
Dance for me
In your green crystal ocean’s endless foaming roar
Waves after wave after wave
Maiden, Mother, Crone
Grass baskets
Filled with pearls and perfume
Prayer boats
Float far on the warm blue sea
Before time
When the face of the waters covered the earth
It mirrored the clouds swift flight
Over the deep
A red rose swam on ocean waves
Pulled by the moon’s timeless tides to the
Sandy shore
Sun scorched black for millennia
The burnt rose lay in a conch shell
Tunneling echoes of the sea
When a fierce salt wave birthed Yemaya
A tall black woman walked the horizon
Her arms stretched high in the sky
With moon shadows receding in the dusk
She drove into the surf
Dancing, swirling, spinning
Bringing sea creatures into being
From her womb came fishes, coral reefs,
Dolphins, sharks, crocodiles, alligators, whales
When ocean galleys swirled across the sky
They rained on mountain peaks freezing to glaciers
Shimmering ice sculpted by seasons’ gales
A melting deluge torrents down steep slopes
Moving water purifies the earth
Forming lakes that flow into world rivers
Streams that run down to the salt ocean
Heated by the equator’s tropical sun
Water rises then twists on the earth’s orbit
Stretching continent to continent
Dark cloud winds blow Yemaya into fierce storms
From sky ocean to ocean
The eternal cycle never sleeping
After time the face of the waters will cover the earth
Born by Yemaya’s dance around the sun.
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