Yemaya, Queen of the Ocean, epitomizes womanhood and motherhood and rules all issues pertaining to women. She is among the most powerful and beloved of the Seven African Powers, the sexy matriarch of the Yoruba spirits known as orishas. The translation of her name, “The Mother Whose Children are Fish”.
When her people were hoarded onto the slave ships, Yemaya went with them, thus becoming their Goddess of the Ocean. She traveled with them from Yoruba to distant lands, comforting them in the holds of the slave ships that took them far away from their homeland in Africa.
Yemaya is a mother goddess, the goddess of home, fertility, love and family. Like water she represents both change and constancy bringing forth life, protecting it, and changing it as is necessary. According to legend, Yemaya's first gift to her beloved humans was a sea shell in which her voice could always be heard. To this day we honor Yemaya when we hold a shell to our ear in order to hear her voice, the ocean.
Yemaya is a goddess of comfort and inspiration. She reminds us that even the worst catastrophes can be endured and that, with her help, we can learn to negotiate the ebbs and flows of change in our lives with her wisdom, courage, and grace.
Never mistake her kindness for weakness. Her fury can be seen in the elemental forces of nature when defending or avenging her children. A fierce protector of women and children. deeply empathic and sympathetic towards surviors of abuse. Who wouldn't be drawn to our wonderful Ocean mother Yemaya.