Yemayá
Yemayá is the oricha of the sea and the archetypal mother, 'mother whose children are the fish', from whose watery womb much of the Lucumí pantheon is said to have issued. She rules the surface of the ocean and is at once the nurturing source of all life and, when angered, a drowning, storm-tossed force. Her colors are blue and white, her number seven, and her emblems are seashells, a fan, oars, and a small anchor kept in a blue-and-white tureen. She manifests in several avatars keyed to moods of the sea, from the deep and majestic Awoyó to the turbulent Okute. She is sister to the river-oricha Ochún and mother or foster-mother of Changó. In Cuba she is syncretized with Our Lady of Regla (Nuestra Señora de Regla), the black Madonna venerated across the bay from Havana.
Children
Domains
- sea and ocean
- motherhood and origin
Powers
- gives birth to the orichas
- commands the ocean and its tides
Epithets
- Awoyó — the vast one of the deep oceanBolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)
- Yeyé Omo Eja — mother whose children are the fishCabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: OchúnYemayá and Ochún are the two great water-orichas, sisters of salt and sweet water.Cabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary)
- child: ChangóShe is named as the mother or foster-mother of Changó.Bolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)
- child: OggúnCounted in some patakí among her offspring.Cabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary)
Sources
- Yemayá is the oricha of the sea and of motherhood, mother of many orichas, syncretized in Cuba with Our Lady of Regla.: Lydia Cabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary); Mercedes Cros Sandoval, Worldview, the Orichas, and Santeria (2006) (secondary)
- Yemayá appears in several avatars (Awoyó, Asesú, Okute, Mayelewo) associated with different states of the sea.: Bolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)