01/01/2026
Quoting Venus Reflections
💦🌀 HONORING YEMAYA ASHABA — My Orisha Mother, My Ocean Womb
📅 December 31st | Yemaya’s Sacred Day
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“She don’t come in waves—she is the ocean. And I was born from that tide.”
— Mama V
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🔵 WHO IS YEMAYA?
Yemayá (also spelled Yemanja, Iemanjá, Yemoja) is the Great Ocean Mother in the Yoruba spiritual system and across many Afro-diasporic traditions. She is not just the Orisha of saltwater. She is the divine womb of the waters, the matrix of creation itself. In Ifá, she is known as Yemoja — “Mother of Fish”, whose waters hold all life, memory, and emotional codes.
In Cuba, Brazil, and the Americas, she takes on different expressions, but her essence is always the same:
She mothers what others abandon. She washes what others shame. She births what others try to kill.
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🌊 MY YEMAYA — ASHABA PATH
Yemaya Ashaba walks with me.
Her name means “the one who brings down the sword when needed.” She is not soft just to be soft — she teaches protection, restraint, and spiritual law through the lens of divine feminine authority.
She came to me during one of the lowest emotional collapse spirals I ever had. I was standing in water, barefoot, screaming inside — and the ocean turned still. And then the words came through like the tide:
“If you want to stop drowning in others, stop pretending you weren’t born to lead the flood.”
That was her.
And she never left.
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🕯 TRADITIONAL ROOTS (YORUBA + DIASPORA)
• Yoruba Origin: Daughter of Olokun (or wife, depending on lineage), Yemaya was the source of the Ogun River, but became guardian of the ocean through myth and migration.
• Cuba/Santería: Associated with the seven seas and the moon. Her colors are blue and white. Often syncretized with Our Lady of Regla.
• Brazil (Candomblé): Iemanjá is honored especially on New Year’s Eve, with flowers sent into the ocean.
• Diaspora: She’s often mistaken as “just” a mothering figure. But her rage is ancient. Her law is final. And her womb holds judgment too.
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🌟 SAINTS & OTHER DEITIES LINKED TO HER
Let’s be clear: These are not Yemaya — they are mirrors of her energy in colonized or alternative systems.
Our Lady of Regla Catholic Saint: Calm waters, protector of sailors, syncretized in Cuba
Aphrodite Greek Goddess: Beauty, ocean birth, sensuality
Tiamat: Babylonian Primordial Chaotic ocean mother, raw power
Sophia (Gnostic): Wisdom that births creation Mental womb, divine codes
Isis (Kemet): Sacred mother and magical protector Rebirth, oceans of mystery
Olokun: Often confused with Yemaya Olokun is the deep — she is the tide
Mami Wata: Water spirits (Africa/Diaspora)
🗣️Yemaya aligns but is not them — these are interdimensional cousins
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💧 WHAT SHE TEACHES ME
1. “Cry on purpose.”
Your emotions are a currency in her ocean. Suppressed tears block blessings. Don’t confuse stoicism with sovereignty.
2. “Clean your altar like you clean your womb.”
Don’t just pray to her — maintain your vessel. She lives in the hygiene of your home, your body, your gut.
3. “Don’t beg the shore that can’t hold you.”
Stop reducing yourself for people with no depth. If they can’t swim in your truth, let them go.
4. “Hold the baby and the blade.”
Yemaya is mother and judge. You are allowed to protect what you birth. You’re allowed to cut people off.
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🐚 RITUAL TIPS FOR TODAY (AND EVERY DAY)
✅ Offerings:
• Watermelon, molasses, coconut milk, white flowers, sea shells
• Wear blue + white (or silver)
• Float a candle in water
• Whisper your intentions while washing your feet or womb
✅ Prayers/Decrees (say aloud):
“Mama Yemaya Ashaba, mother of waves and truth, I return to your waters as your daughter. Cleanse me, instruct me, shield me. I walk with your sword, and I stand in your sea.”
✅ Divination Tools:
• Cowrie shells
• Moon water
• Blue ink journaling
• Salt baths before sleep for dream messages
✅ Acts of Devotion:
• Clean your mirrors
• Braid your hair with intention
• Feed someone who mothered you when you had no mother
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🌀⚠️ Yemaya chooses her daughters before you even know her name.
If you are ever drawn to water during spiritual crisis — if your body cries before your words form — if you’ve been told you’re “too emotional,” but you still see through people…
That’s her.
You’ve already felt her mother you
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🧜🏾♀️ REAL TALK FROM MAMA V
I don’t walk with her.
She walks through me.
She is why I’m still alive. Why I mother like I do. Why my emotions will never again be a weakness.
So if you feel her today, don’t just pour libations.
Let her pour back into you.
Say it with me:
“Yemaya Ashaba — my ocean is sacred. My tears are divine. My rage is righteous. My womb is sealed.”
🕯 I love you, Mama.
Forever your daughter,
VENUS REFLECTIONS
