Omosi-mama, the Divine Grandmother
Manchu · deity · Manchu traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Omosi-mama ('Grandmother of Descendants', also Fodo Mama, 'Willow Grandmother') is the Manchu divine grandmother, the goddess of fertility and the giver of souls who 'causes leaves to unfurl and roots to spread properly'. She bestows souls upon the newborn and protects children, and she appears as a named figure in the Tale of the Nišan Shamaness: when the heroine journeys through the underworld she comes to the grandmother-goddess's dwelling and learns that it was Omosi-mama who had ordained her to become a great shaman. Reckoned among the host of life-giving spirits brought forth by the Sky-Mother Abka Hehe.
Parentage
- maternal: Abka Hehe, the Sky-Mother
Domains
- fertility and childbirth
- souls and life
Powers
- to give souls to the newborn and bring living things to flourish
- to ordain who shall become a great shaman
Epithets
- Omosi MamaMargaret Nowak and Stephen W. Durrant, The Tale of the Nišan Shamaness: A Manchu Folk Epic (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977) (secondary)
Relations
- patron of: Nišan, the ShamanessWhen the shamaness Nišan reaches the divine grandmother's dwelling on her journey through the underworld, Omosi-mama discloses that it was she who ordained Nišan to be a great shaman, making the goddess Nišan's heavenly patron.Stephen W. Durrant, 'The Nišan Shaman Caught in Cultural Contradiction', Signs 5, no. 2 (Winter 1979): 338-347 (secondary)
Sources
- Omosi-mama ('Grandmother of Descendants'), the divine grandmother of Manchu religion, is the goddess who gives souls to the newborn and protects children, and who in the Nišan epic ordained the heroine's shamanic calling.: Margaret Nowak and Stephen W. Durrant, The Tale of the Nišan Shamaness: A Manchu Folk Epic (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977) (secondary); Stephen W. Durrant, 'The Nišan Shaman Caught in Cultural Contradiction', Signs 5, no. 2 (Winter 1979): 338-347 (secondary)