Yemaja: The Goddess of the Seas
Yemaja is the goddess who turned a river into an ocean. She began as the guardian of a single river…
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Ayao: Orisha of the Air and the Whirlwind
Stand at the center of a tornado and the wind stops. The funnel roars in a ring around you, and…
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Nana Buluku: The West African Primordial Creator
Before the sun and the moon, before the gods who run the world, there is a grandmother who made all…
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Olokun: Orisha of the Deep Sea
Somewhere below the last of the light, the water goes still. That is where Olokun lives: the floor of the…
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Oba: Yoruba Orisha of the River and Marriage
She cut off her own ear and stirred it into her husband’s dinner. Oba did it for love, on the…
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Mawu: The Fon Creator and Moon Goddess
A rainbow serpent carried the creator across the dark in its mouth, back before there was any ground to stand…
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Aje: Yoruba Orisha of Wealth and the Marketplace
The money came out of the sea. For centuries, a trader in a Yoruba market counted her price in small…
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Oya: The Yoruba Goddess of Storms and the Dead
Her name is a sentence. In Yoruba, ọ ya means “she tore,” and that is what the wind does to…
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Oshun: The Goddess Of Love, Fertility, And Abundance
Oshun is the goddess who proved that sweetness is a kind of power. When the other gods couldn’t populate the…
