Download or read book Yemoja written by Solimar Otero and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the 2014 Albert J. Raboteau Prize for the Best Book in Africana Religions presented by the Journal of Africana Religions This is the first collection of essays to analyze intersectional religious and cultural practices surrounding the deity Yemoja. In Afro-Atlantic traditions, Yemoja is associated with motherhood, women, the arts, and the family. This book reveals how Yemoja traditions are negotiating gender, sexuality, and cultural identities in bold ways that emphasize the shifting beliefs and cultural practices of contemporary times. Contributors come from a wide range of fields—religious studies, art history, literature, and anthropology—and focus on the central concern of how different religious communities explore issues of race, gender, and sexuality through religious practice and discourse. The volume adds the voices of religious practitioners and artists to those of scholars to engage in conversations about how Latino/a and African diaspora religions respond creatively to a history of colonization.

Download or read book Yemoja written by Solimar Otero and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bridges theory, art, and practice to discuss emerging issues in transnational religious movements in Latina/o and African diasporas. This is the first collection of essays to analyze intersectional religious and cultural practices surrounding the deity Yemoja. In Afro-Atlantic traditions, Yemoja is associated with motherhood, women, the arts, and the family. This book reveals how Yemoja traditions are negotiating gender, sexuality, and cultural identities in bold ways that emphasize the shifting beliefs and cultural practices of contemporary times. Contributors come from a wide range of fields—religious studies, art history, literature, and anthropology—and focus on the central concern of how different religious communities explore issues of race, gender, and sexuality through religious practice and discourse. The volume adds the voices of religious practitioners and artists to those of scholars to engage in conversations about how Latino/a and African diaspora religions respond creatively to a history of colonization.

Download or read book Yemoja Olokun written by Awo Fá'lokun Fatunmbi and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yemoja/Olokun is the name is the name of two spiritual forces in the West African religious tradition called Ifa. The word Yemoja is an elision of the Yoruba Oriki (praise name ) Yeye mo oja, which means Mother of Fish. The word Olukun is a contraction of Olohun meaning owner, and okun meaning ocean. Both of these words are the names given to describe a complex convergence of Spiritual Forces that are key elements in the Ifa concept of fertility. Those Spritual Forces that form the foundation of Yemoja and Olokun's role in the Spirit Realm relate to the relationship between water and birth. .

Download or read book Black Critics and Kings written by Andrew Apter and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1992-04-15 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we account for the power of ritual? This is the guiding question of Black Critics and Kings, which examines how Yoruba forms of ritual and knowledge shape politics, history, and resistance against the state. Focusing on "deep" knowledge in Yoruba cosmology as an interpretive space for configuring difference, Andrew Apter analyzes ritual empowerment as an essentially critical practice, one that revises authoritative discourses of space, time, gender, and sovereignty to promote political—-and even violent—-change. Documenting the development of a Yoruba kingdom from its nineteenth-century genesis to Nigeria's 1983 elections and subsequent military coup, Apter identifies the central role of ritual in reconfiguring power relations both internally and in relation to wider political arenas. What emerges is an ethnography of an interpretive vision that has broadened the horizons of local knowledge to embrace Christianity, colonialism, class formation, and the contemporary Nigerian state. In this capacity, Yoruba òrìsà worship remains a critical site of response to hegemonic interventions. With sustained theoretical argument and empirical rigor, Apter answers critical anthropologists who interrogate the possibility of ethnography. He reveals how an indigenous hermeneutics of power is put into ritual practice—-with multiple voices, self-reflexive awareness, and concrete political results. Black Critics and Kings eloquently illustrates the ethnographic value of listening to the voice of the other, with implications extending beyond anthropology to engage leading debates in black critical theory.

Download or read book Yemoja written by Ahmed Yerima and published by Kraft Books. This book was released on 2002 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yemoja, according to Yoruba myth, is the goddess of the river. This re-working of the legend in dramatic form is a celebration of the river goddess and traditional Yoruba cosmology. The author tells the story in a language influenced by Yoruba symbolism and metaphor, inclusive of chants and speeches in the Yoruba language. He seeks to enhance knowledge and appreciation about the Yoruba cultural tradition, exploring the links between past and modern identities. The rendition emphasises the social preoccupations and human traits and emotions of the goddess according to her story: kindness, anger, jealousy, envy, trust and betrayal.

Download or read book Recovering the African Feminine Divine in Literature the Arts and Practice written by LaJuan Simpson-Wilkey and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-12-04 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recovering the African Feminine Divine in Literature, the Arts, and Performing Arts: Yemonja Awakening provides context to the myriad ways in which the African feminine divine is being reclaimed by scholars, practitioners and cultural scholars worldwide. This volume addresses the complex ways in which the reclamation of and recognition of Yemonja facilitates cultural survival and the formation of African -centric identity. These cultural practices are symbolically represented by Yemonja, the African female deity who is the mother of the entire world of the Orisha. Also known as Yemaya, Iemanya and Yemaya-Olokun, Yemonja is the deity whose province is the ocean and, given that the Middle Passage was the cultural and spatial crossroad to Africa’s numerous diasporas, this deity links the shared histories of African and African –descent cultural praxis worldwide. Since Yemonja also references sexual, creative, spatial and spiritual energies, the editors and contributors see her as pivotal to this project as an expansive and original cartography of impact of the African feminine divine globally. This work provides the context for understanding how the spiritual conceptualizations of the African feminine divine underpin critical cultural forms, even when it has been previously unacknowledged and despite the cultural encounters with European and Western models of being. Scholars of African diaspora studies and the arts will find this book particularly interesting.

Download or read book Yemaya written by Raven Morgaine and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 2021-09-01 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A celebration and practical guide to the renowned and beloved goddess and orisha. Yemaya, queen of the sea, first emerged in Yorubaland (now in modern Nigeria). A primordial deity, considered the mother of all, some perceive her to be at the root of numerous ancient goddesses, including Isis. During the Middle Passage, Yemaya accompanied her enslaved devotees to the Western Hemisphere, where her veneration took root and flourished. She is among the most beloved and prominent spirits of Candomblé, Santeria, and other African diaspora traditions. Through her associations with the Virgin Mary, devotion to Yemaya spread throughout Latin America. Cuban immigrants brought Yemaya with them to the US, where her veneration expanded exponentially. No longer a local water spirit, she became an internationally beloved goddess whose devotees derive from numerous traditions and who worship her in her many fluid forms. Yemaya currently ranks among the most beloved goddesses worldwide. Raven Morgaine, a priest of Yemaya for over three decades, shares his expertise and knowledge in Yemaya: Orisha, Goddess, and Queen of the Sea, the first full-length English language book accessible to general readers. Morgaine explores Yemaya’s history and her many forms, including her roles as mother, lover, witch, warrior, and mermaid. He describes her many paths, aspects, and incarnations. Simultaneously a celebration of Yemaya and a practical, hands-on guide to working with her, Yemaya explores her mythology in depth, as well as her special role in the LGBQT community. The book features: Spells and rituals associated with Yemaya appropriate for the uninitiated Instructions for building altars and shrines for Yemaya, as well as other methods for working with her, including correct, respectful ways to make appropriate offerings Recipes that will please Yemaya A detailed list of flowers, herbs, and other botanicals that radiate the power of Yemaya

Download or read book Maternal Divinity Yemonja written by Lloyd Weaver and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As there are spirits in the earth, so the Yoruba believe that there are spirits dwelling in the rivers, lagoons and the sea. These spirits are revered principally by those who dwell near rivers, lagoons or the sea and who believe that the spirits, if suitably provided can in return provide man's needs. They control abundance of fish, they prevent the capsizing of canoes and river accidents; some of the spirits supply children to the barren. "Yemonja", for example, is believed to be the goddess of waters generally and from her body, according to the people's belief, all rivers, lagoons and the sea flow out. Today she is associated with the Ogun River and is given elaborate worship in those areas through which it flows, particularly in Abeokuta.

Download or read book Skin of the Sea written by Natasha Bowen and published by Random House Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The must-read Black mermaid fantasy series that #1 NYT bestselling author Nicola Yoon calls “epic and original,” in which one mermaid takes on the gods themselves. Perfect for fans of Children of Blood and Bone and Beasts of Prey. “Riveting.” —NPR “Evocative.” —Entertainment Weekly “Remarkable.” —Buzzfeed A way to survive. A way to serve. A way to save. Simi prayed to the gods, once. Now she serves them as Mami Wata—a mermaid—collecting the souls of those who die at sea and blessing their journeys back home. But when a living boy is thrown overboard, Simi goes against an ancient decree and does the unthinkable—she saves his life. And punishment awaits those who dare to defy the gods. To protect the other Mami Wata, Simi must journey to the Supreme Creator to make amends. But all is not as it seems. There's the boy she rescued, who knows more than he should. And something is shadowing Simi, something that would rather see her fail . . . Danger lurks at every turn, and as Simi draws closer, she must brave vengeful gods, treacherous lands, and legendary creatures. Because if she fails, she risks not only the fate of all Mami Wata, but also the world as she knows it.

Download or read book Electric Santer a written by Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Santería is an African-inspired, Cuban diaspora religion long stigmatized as witchcraft and often dismissed as superstition, yet its spirit- and possession-based practices are rapidly winning adherents across the world. Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús introduces the term "copresence" to capture the current transnational experience of Santería, in which racialized and gendered spirits, deities, priests, and religious travelers remake local, national, and political boundaries and reconfigure notions of technology and transnationalism. Drawing on eight years of ethnographic research in Havana and Matanzas, Cuba, and in New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay area, Beliso-De Jesús traces the phenomenon of copresence in the lives of Santería practitioners, mapping its emergence in transnational places and historical moments and its ritual negotiation of race, imperialism, gender, sexuality, and religious travel. Santería's spirits, deities, and practitioners allow digital technologies to be used in new ways, inciting unique encounters through video and other media. Doing away with traditional perceptions of Santería as a static, localized practice or as part of a mythologized "past," this book emphasizes the religion's dynamic circulations and calls for nontranscendental understandings of religious transnationalisms.

Download or read book Black Critics and Kings written by Andrew Apter and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1992-04-15 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we account for the power of ritual? This is the guiding question of Black Critics and Kings, which examines how Yoruba forms of ritual and knowledge shape politics, history, and resistance against the state. Focusing on "deep" knowledge in Yoruba cosmology as an interpretive space for configuring difference, Andrew Apter analyzes ritual empowerment as an essentially critical practice, one that revises authoritative discourses of space, time, gender, and sovereignty to promote political—-and even violent—-change. Documenting the development of a Yoruba kingdom from its nineteenth-century genesis to Nigeria's 1983 elections and subsequent military coup, Apter identifies the central role of ritual in reconfiguring power relations both internally and in relation to wider political arenas. What emerges is an ethnography of an interpretive vision that has broadened the horizons of local knowledge to embrace Christianity, colonialism, class formation, and the contemporary Nigerian state. In this capacity, Yoruba òrìsà worship remains a critical site of response to hegemonic interventions. With sustained theoretical argument and empirical rigor, Apter answers critical anthropologists who interrogate the possibility of ethnography. He reveals how an indigenous hermeneutics of power is put into ritual practice—-with multiple voices, self-reflexive awareness, and concrete political results. Black Critics and Kings eloquently illustrates the ethnographic value of listening to the voice of the other, with implications extending beyond anthropology to engage leading debates in black critical theory.

Download or read book Shallow Waters written by Anita Kopacz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-08-09 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this “captivating” (Harper’s Bazaar) and lyrical debut novel—perfect for fans of The Water Dancer and the Legacy of Orïsha series—the Yoruba deity of the sea, Yemaya, is brought to vivid life as she discovers the power of Black resilience, love, and feminine strength in antebellum America. Shallow Waters imagines Yemaya, an Orïsha—a deity in the religion of Africa’s Yoruba people—cast into mid-1800s America. We meet Yemaya as a young woman, still in the care of her mother and not yet fully aware of the spectacular power she possesses to protect herself and those she holds dear. The journey laid out in Shallow Waters sees Yemaya confront the greatest evils of this era; transcend time and place in search of Obatala, a man who sacrifices his own freedom for the chance at hers; and grow into the powerful woman she was destined to become. We travel alongside Yemaya from her native Africa and on to the “New World,” with vivid pictures of life for those left on the outskirts of power in the nascent Americas. Yemaya realizes the fighter within, travels the Underground Railroad in search of the mysterious stranger Obatala, and crosses paths with icons of our history on the road to freedom. Shallow Waters is a “riveting and heartbreaking” (Publishers Weekly) work of ritual storytelling from promising debut author Anita Kopacz.

Download or read book African Goddess Initiation written by Abiola Abrams and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2021-07-20 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sacred feminine initiation of self-love and soul care rituals, tools, and exercises. Spiritual teacher, intuitive coach, and award-winning author, Abiola Abrams invites you to activate African goddess magic to transmute your fears and limiting beliefs, so that you can create more happiness, abundance, and self-acceptance. Africa is a continent of 54+ countries, and her children are global. There is no one African spiritual tradition. Our ancestors who were trafficked in "The New World" hid the secrets of our orishas, abosom, lwas, álúsí, and god/desses behind saints, angels, and legendary characters. From South Africa to Egypt, Brazil to Haiti, Guyana to Louisiana, goddess wisdom still empowers us. Writes Abiola, "Spirit told me, "We choose who shows up." And if you are holding this book, then this sacred medicine is meant for you. In this book, you will meet ancient goddesses and divine feminine energy ancestors, legendary queens, and mystical spirits. As you complete their powerful rituals, and ascend through their temples, you will: . Awaken generational healing in the Temple of Ancestors; . Manifest your miracles in the Temple of Conjurers; . Release the struggle in the Temple of Warriors; . Embrace your dark goddess self in the Temple of Shadows; . Heal your primal wounds in the Temple of Lovers; . Liberate your voice in the Temple of Griots; . Open your third eye intuition in the Temple of Queens; and . Surrender, meditate, and rise in the Temple of High Priestesses. Welcome to your goddess circle!

Download or read book The Deities Are Many written by Jordan Paper and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Deities Are Many is a lively and learned introduction to polytheism. Drawing from both his scholarly research and his personal experience, author Jordan Paper is the ideal guide into this milieu. Paper was drawn to polytheism through his love of nature, seeing it as a source of the divine. In this book he focuses on Chinese and Native American religious traditions, as well as West African, African-Brazilian, Hindu, Polynesian, and circum-Polar traditions, to describe the theology of polytheism. The book provides a topology of polytheistic deities, focusing on the cosmic couple, Father Sky and Mother Earth; animal, plant, and mineral deities; ancestral spirits; divine ghosts; and culture heroes and tricksters. Paper also shows how monotheists misunderstand polytheism and provides a polytheist perspective on what it means to be human when the "deities are many." This is a fascinating, illuminating book, especially for those raised in monotheistic societies.

Download or read book The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts written by Baba Ifa Karade and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to the spiritual source of the beliefs and practices that have so profoundly shaped African American religious traditions. Most of the Africans who were enslaved and brought to the Americas were from the Yoruba nation of West Africa, an ancient and vast civilization. In the diaspora caused by the slave trade, the guiding concepts of the Yoruba spiritual tradition took root in Haiti, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Brazil, and the United States. In this accessible introduction, Baba Ifa Karade provides an overview of the Yoruba tradition and its influence in the West. He describes the sixteen Orisha, or spirit gods, and shows us how to work with divination, use the energy centers of the body to internalize the teachings of Yoruba, and create a sacred place of worship. The book also includes prayers, dances, songs, offerings, and sacrifices to honor the Orisha.

Download or read book Archives of Conjure written by Solimar Otero and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-24 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Afrolatinx religious practices such as Cuban Espiritismo, Puerto Rican Santería, and Brazilian Candomblé, the dead tell stories. Communicating with and through mediums’ bodies, they give advice, make requests, and propose future rituals, creating a living archive that is coproduced by the dead. In this book, Solimar Otero explores how Afrolatinx spirits guide collaborative spiritual-scholarly activist work through rituals and the creation of material culture. By examining spirit mediumship through a Caribbean cross-cultural poetics, she shows how divinities and ancestors serve as active agents in shaping the experiences of gender, sexuality, and race. Otero argues that what she calls archives of conjure are produced through residual transcriptions or reverberations of the stories of the dead whose archives are stitched, beaded, smoked, and washed into official and unofficial repositories. She investigates how sites like the ocean, rivers, and institutional archives create connected contexts for unlocking the spatial activation of residual transcriptions. Drawing on over ten years of archival research and fieldwork in Cuba, Otero centers the storytelling practices of Afrolatinx women and LGBTQ spiritual practitioners alongside Caribbean literature and performance. Archives of Conjure offers vital new perspectives on ephemerality, temporality, and material culture, unraveling undertheorized questions about how spirits shape communities of practice, ethnography, literature, and history and revealing the deeply connected nature of art, scholarship, and worship.

Download or read book Soul of the Deep written by Natasha Bowen and published by Ember. This book was released on 2023-09-05 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stunning sequel to New York Times bestseller Skin of the Sea, in which the world must pay the price for one mermaid’s choice, and a dark force reverberates across realms. Perfect for anyone eagerly anticipating the live-action The Little Mermaid. One life. One choice. One sacrifice. To save those closest to her, Simi traded away everything: her freedom, her family, and the boy she loves. Now she is sworn to serve a new god, watching over the Land of the Dead at the bottom of the ocean. But when signs of demons begin to appear, it’s clear there are deeper consequences of Simi’s trade. These demons spell the world’s ruin . . . and because of Simi, they now have a way into the human realm. With the fate of the world at stake, Simi must break her promise and team up with a scheming trickster of a god. And if they succeed, perhaps Simi can also unbreak her heart along the way, and find herself again. "Epic and original . . . Simi's story will stay with me for a long time.” —Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Instructions for Dancing