Yemaya Mother Of All And Goddess Of The Ocean

Yemaya is an orisha, one of the spirits of the Yoruba religion of West Africa, each of whom carries an aspect of the divine. She began as a river goddess in what is now Nigeria, tied to the Ogun river specifically.

What happened to her afterwards is the part that matters. Yoruba people taken as captives on the Atlantic slave ships carried her with them, and on the far side of that crossing she became the goddess of the ocean rather than of a river. She is worshipped now in Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad, St Lucia and the United States, under names including Yemoja, Yemanja and Iemanja, in Santeria, Candomble, Umbanda, Trinidad Orisha and Yoruba practice in Nigeria itself. She is most often shown as a woman in the waves or as a mermaid. Mother of all is her epithet in the Cuban houses, and it is meant broadly: of the other orishas, and of the people who took her across the water.

Good to Know

Stands approximately 3.5 inches tall.

Cold-cast bronze, which means real bronze powder blended into resin rather than poured metal. You get the surface and the fine detail of a cast bronze at a fraction of the cost, and real heft in the hand, though it is lighter than solid metal and it ships already sealed rather than developing a patina over time. Veronese Design make these, and the detail is where the money went.

How to Use It

These are living traditions with initiated priesthoods, houses and lineages, not a closed book of correspondences. If you are drawn to Yemaya and you are outside those traditions, the respectful route is to learn from practitioners rather than from a product page. A statue is a fine place to begin paying attention; it is not an initiation and it does not stand in for one.

Pair It With

For water work of any kind, the Palo Santo Cleansing Water and the abalone shell. White flowers go into the sea for her at the Brazilian festivals, and white rose petals are the usual ones here. Offerings vary by house and by lineage, so take yours from your own teacher rather than from a shop. More in totems and statues.