Yemaya, Goddess of the New Year
Ready to plunge into the New Year, Sisters?
Yemaya, Yoruba goddess of the ocean, is one of my favorite goddesses. She is Mama Wata, Star of the Sea, Stella Maris, a Mother Creator goddess who gives birth to us in the New Year as we give birth to ourselves, with new skin, fresh eyes, and an open heart.
She grants wishes, midwifes our dreams into reality, buoys us to dance in the creative waters, helps us flow through life and swim in the liquid pools of our being. She encourages us to dive deep and find the essence of our soul’s yearnings and bring them up to the surface. She invites us to play like little seals and otters, allowing our creative juices to spill out and over the canvas of our lives.
There is no right or wrong, she says, when it comes to creating. Follow your intuition, let it flow! It doesn’t matter whether you step in and slowly find your footing, wading further and further out, or jump in feet first. She opens her arms to you. The water’s fine.
I accidentally brought this goddess into being three years ago before I knew much about her and before I started working with her intentionally. When I was creating my SoulCollage® card for my sacral chakra, center of creativity and emotions, sensuality and sexuality, I journeyed to meet my animal ally of this place.
There I was met by a manatee, a great, soft, gentle creature, which can be found in both salt and fresh waters. Manatees were once mistaken for mermaids because of their feminine, cowlike form. In the image I created, I included a mermaid queen who fed the manatee of my creative chakra. Behind her danced the goddess, Thetis, a Greek sea nymph, who like Yemaya, represents fertility, as well as pleasures found in dancing and singing. Only later, as I actively explored the mythology of the mermaid goddess Yemaya, did I realize that I had already met her and cast her in the important role of feeding my creative soul.
I started actively working with her in 2010 and got to know her well, calling upon her by literally sending a message in a bottle to her by dropping it into the ocean. She heard my call and helped me give birth to my SoulWork book, In the Lap of the Goddess: Connecting With the Divine Feminine in 2011. I kept the SoulCollage® card I made of her archetype (below) next to my computer as I worked. I thought sometimes of my creative work as the steady drip, drip, drip of water until it forms a pool. At times I imagined myself swimming around in the murky depths until I found clarity. I saw myself opening shells and finding pearls. I honored her with a chapter in the book about working with this creator goddess. With Yemaya’s help, I persistently kept moving through, diving deep and resurfacing, again and again.
And I call upon her now as I take another leap in 2012. My dreams include:
- adding another chapter to my book on Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. This chapter will be on self-love and self-care.
- launching Goddess Temple, where I will offer 2 e-courses based on my book, the first of which will run from March 4 – 31, and will explore The Triple Goddess, the maiden, mother and crone within each of us.
- sending my workbook to publishers to secure a book deal, which I envision in an expanded form with more goddess goodness to work and play with
- traveling to Greece to visit the sacred goddess sites, temples and caves, and soak in the Mediterranean beauty
Remember, Sisters, Dream Big. Size Matters.
What are your wishes and dreams for the New Year? Yemaya is waiting to hear your call.
Go here to register for the Goddess Temple e-course, a 4-week exploration of The Triple Goddess, Persephone, the maiden, Demeter, the Mother, and Hecate, the crone using my SoulWork book, In the Lap of the Goddess (discount available if you’ve already purchased the book): Goddess Temple
About The Author
Beautiful (as always), Stephanie. Have no doubt about you realizing your dreams…
Such a beautiful invocation of Yemaya. I could feel your close relationship with her through the flow of your words – gorgeous.
I’m am thrilled to hear of all your expansion plans this coming year. May they be so!
Thanks for sharing Yemaya with us!
Lovely post! I will be calling Yemaya to help me dive deeper this 2012
I do like this goddess! I worked with her last year and I created this illustration I’d like to share with you:
http://www.ilariaruggeri.blogspot.com/2011/05/yemanja.html
All blessings and cooperations and collaborations from the subtle realms of good guidance to you, Stephanie!
A Wild woman image search led me to your site and I just love your collage of the wild woman floating. Being a five-planets-in-fire woman, I never go to water as my home element, first, when thinking / being Wild Woman. So I was shocked and surprised when I saw Her / Us associated with water here in your work. I thought of Yemaya more as a mother goddess which to me is another face of Devi than her wild woman side… Meeting your ww free-floating here was like a delightful plunge into the intuitive liquid of the less-known!
Thank you.
I also do collage, and facilitate vision boards of focused and open-ended kinds… and I love your idea of Soul Collage. I have also relocated from coast to coast and continent to continent and find succor in my Silk Road Nomad archetype. Now living in Victoria, BC, I’d love to know if you ever do a workshop or simply find yourself travelling in the Pacific Northwest.
Blessings on your settling, and your putting down new roots. Think of the banyan tree, whose roots are air-roots, each one creating a new tree right there around the mother trunk, till there is a whole cluster of trunks, like the cluster-pillars in Gothic churches.
HUG
wait. you’re in nc? i am, too. western part of the state. love your plans, your vision for 2012. greece to visit goddess sites, temples, and caves? oh be still my heart.