Yemọja

Yemanjá
Statue of the godess Iemenjá, the Queen of the waters, Barra do Chuí, Santa Vitória do Palmar, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Orisha of creation, water, motherhood, rivers, lakes, streams, wells, pregnant people, fishermen, and shipwreck survivors
General Information
Species	Orisha
Biological sex	Feminine
Aliases	Yoruba: Yemọja, Iyemọja, Yemọnja, Iyemọnja, Iyemẹja or Yemẹja in some Yorùbá dialect variants Brazilian Portuguese: Yemanjá, Iemanjá, Janaína, Mãe da Água Pidgin/Creole Languages: Mami Wata
Titles	Mother of Water, Mother of all Orishas, Patroness and Protector of Children and Fishermen
Symbols	River stones, cowrie shells, fans, cutlass, fish, white and indigo cloth
Moral alignment	Good
Relationships
Parents	Olókun
Spouses	Orunmilá (formely),Okerê (formely),
Children	All Orishas
Languages
Español(Spanish)	Yemayá, Yemallá, Madre del Agua
Français(French)	La Sirène, Mère de L'Eau

Yemanjá (Yoruba: Yemọja) is a water goddess from Yoruba religion and is one of the Orisha spirits. She is the mother of all Orishas.

History

She is an the patron spirit of rivers, particularly the Ogun River in Nigeria; and oceans in the Cuban and Brazilian orisha religions. She is often syncretized with Our Lady of Regla in the Afro-Cuban diaspora, and with several other figures of the Virgin Mary of the Catholic Church, a practice that emerged during the era of the transatlantic slave trade.

It is said that Yemanjá is maternal and strongly protective, and that she deeply cares for all her children, comforting them and cleansing them from sadness. She is also said to cure infertility in women, and cowrie shells represent her wealth. She doesn't lose her temper easily, but when angered she can be quite destructive and violent, like the floodwaters of turbulent rivers.

In American countries such as Brazil and Cuba, she is primarily worshiped as a sea and ocean goddess, in contrast to West Africa where she is worshiped as a high-ranking river deity.

In Brazilian religions of African origin, for example Candomblé and Umbanda, she is said to be the Queen of the Ocean, the patron spirit of fishermen and shipwreck survivors, the feminine principle of creation and the spirit of moonlight and Saturday is her consecrated day. She is syncretized with Our Lady of Navigators (Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes) and Our Lady of the Conception (Nossa Senhora de Conceição).

Gallery

In the video game "Smite", Yemoja is a playable character, part of the Yoruba pantheon.

Statue of Iemanja. Praia-do-Meio Beach - Rio Grande do Norte - Brazil.

Iemanja's Statue (Mother Iemanjá) in Barra Velha Beach - Santa Catarina -Brazil

Iemanjá Statue in Praia Recôncavo (Beach) - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil.

Iemanjá in the Beach Praia de Dona Luisa - Sepetiba -Rio de Janeiro -Brazil.

Iemanjá Statue - Praia-do-centro (Beach) - Caragua- São Paulo- Brazil.

Yemanja statue in Salvador-Bahia-Brazil.

A vandalised statue of Iemanjá - Praia-do-olho-d'Água- São Luís-Maranhão-Brazil.

A old statue of Iemanjá ,famous for being decapitated twice, first in 2013 and a second time in 2016 by vandals (both times the crime go unpunished). Orla-do-cabo-branco (Beach)João Pessoa-Paraíba-Brazil.

Iemanja By Luciana Futuro.

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Yemọja (view authors). As with Myth and Folklore Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported).