Raven Morgaine - Yemaya: Orisha, Goddess, and Queen of the Sea

Raven Morgaine is a gifted storyteller and visionary in multiple disciplines. His jam-packed, beautifully illustrated book will lead you to understand, in laymen's terms, anything and everything you ever wanted to know about the African orisha, Yemaya, as a noninitiate. This book is an enveloping and compelling read. It will lead you to take meaningful action, following in Morgaine's footsteps, to immerse yourself in Yemaya's complex energies.

Stephanie Rose Bird, author of Sticks, Stones,
Roots, and Bones and 365 Days of Hoodoo

Not only a beautiful offering to Yemaya herself, Raven Morgaine's Yemaya: Orisha, Goddess, and Queen of the Sea is also a much-needed guide for those interested in respectfully honoring her. Filled with fluid stories, personal experiences, history, song, prayers, herbal knowledge, and more, this is a must-have for any water witch interested in honoring the radiant Goddess of the Sea.

Annwyn Avalon, author of The Way of the
Water Priestess and Water Witchcraft

Yemaya is a supremely well-written, engaging, and all-encompassing account of the goddess and her many attributes and paths. It includes real-life stories depicting the love that Yemaya has for humanity and the many miracles she has performed. Raven Morgaine has the grasp of Santeria, as did my Cuban elders, and his stunning artwork dedicated to Yemaya is breathtaking! Written for neophytes as well as seasoned santeros, this is a captivating tribute to Yemaya and destined to become a classic.

Miss Aida, santera and author of Hoodoo Cleansing
and Protection Magic and Hoodoo Justice Magic

What an amazing tribute to the goddess to whom I have been crowned for so many years. This homage to Yemaya will resonate with and enlighten any reader. Raven Morgaine delivers authenticity to the patak or parables that represents the African diaspora in its truest form. Yemaya is stellar literature.

Alexander Cabot, santero, high priest,
and author of Touched by the Goddess

Yemaya is a dedicated mother, powerful goddess, ruthless warrior, possessive lover, wise healer, and among the oldest deities in Africa. Venerated in numerous magical traditions and religions around the globe, her origin is so uncertain that it is quite easy to think of Yemaya as the first Mother Goddess of Africa, even perhaps as the first Mother Goddess of humanity, as, in the end, we all come from Africa, and, in one way or another, we all descend from her. In his book, Yemaya, Raven Morgaine guides you through Yemaya's myths and pataki and evokes her in her highest splendor. For followers of the Yoruba religion, Lucumi, Umbanda, Candombl, and Santeria, as well as the many paths of modern Vodou, this book is a pivotal tool.

Elhoim Leafar, author of The Magical Art of Crafting
Charm Bags and Manifestation Magic

This edition first published in 2021 by Weiser Books, an imprint of
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
With offices at:
65 Parker Street, Suite 7
Newburyport, MA 01950
www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2021 by Raven Morgaine

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-743-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

Cover design by Kathryn Sky-Peck
Cover illustration Bernadett Bagyinka
Interior photos/images by Raven Morgaine
Interior by Deborah Dutton
Typeset in Adobe Garamond and Frutiger LT Std
Printed in the United States of America
IBI

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This book is dedicated to my late baby sister, Kristina,
the little mermaid. You were the very best of humanity,
even at your worst. All my love forever.

As human beings, we have always sought to give faces and names to the natural and spiritual forces we encounter in order to understand and relate to them, to make them more personal, and to render them less frightening. In Yoruban tradition, these forces are known as orishas. Orishas are not gods or goddesses, in the Western sense. They are more like archangels or higher spiritsintermediaries between mankind and the transcendant forces of the universe. In the mythos of Yorubaland, a region in West Africa that encompasses western and southwestern Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Togo, and the Gulf of Guinea, the orishas were brought into being by a supreme creator named Olodumare. Since this region is home to many riversincluding the Oba, the Ogun, the Ogunpa, the Omi Osun, the Osun, the Otin, and the Ouemerivers in particular, and water in general, came to play a large role in the spiritual traditions of the region. Indeed, many Yoruban orishas, including Yemaya, were originally river spirits.

After Olodumare created the earth, gathering up all the dust and particles of matter in the universe, he created a vast hole into which he poured the remaining gasses accumulated during the creation of the planet, forming the first ocean. Immediately, a dark figure arose from the deepest depths, swimming in increasingly rapid circles until it breeched the surface of the water and emerged shining and magnificent. The figure was humanoid from head to waist, with the tail of a great sea serpent. As the spray of the ocean waters hung in the air around it, the figure proclaimed: I am Olokun, owner of the depths, of the waters. He then dove back beneath the sea and vanished into the darkness.

As the ocean spray brought forth by Olokun evaporated, it began to rain. When this rain touched the salt water, the spirit Yembo appeared, radiant and regal, glittering with sea salt and clothed in a gown of flowing water. I am Yembo, she cried. Where the light of sun and moon penetrate the water, there is my kingdom to be found.

Yembo is traditionally seen as the first incarnation of Yemaya, the intriguing oceanic Mother of All life. Few spirits are more beloved, adopted, co-opted, and assimilated than this one. She appears in many different faiths and is called by many different variations of her full nameYe Omo Eja, the mother whose children are as numerous as the fish. In West Africa, she evolved into the goddess Yemaya, whose appearance as Yembo heralded the beginning of the time of the orishas on earth. Many believe that the sojourn of the orishas here will end when hers does. In many traditions, she is considered to have given birth to the first fourteen orishas, as well as to the first humans and the sun and the moon. She brought the power of procreation into the world, becoming the patroness of pregnant woman and their children, both born and unborn.

After emerging as a West African river goddess, Yemaya left Africa to travel with her children in overcrowded slave ships during the Middle Passagethe transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas that began in 1518 and continued into the mid-19th centuryto try to protect them from the horrors to come. She and the orisha Oshun traveled with them across the seas wrapped in the rain in order to watch over them and succor them in their pain and despair. Indeed, so great is Yemaya's love for her children that no matter where they set foot, no matter how strange or foreign the land, she remains with them to guide and protect them.