So, December 31, 2009 was the last official day of my working with Yemaya Assesu. Holiday schedules and stresses made it so I only had a few opportunities to sit and really talk with her.
She is amazing.
It's hard to get past the way she looks or the places in the ocean where she lives. She is bloated and dirty. Her hair is a tangled mess of oil, seaweed, and trash. She lives in the filthiest parts of the ocean. When I would journey to see her, I always found myself walking through a trash dump at the edge of the sea.
She is traditionally the one who eats the bodies of those who die at sea. In this way she reminds me of Oya or Brigette, the guardians of the graveyard and the protectors of the bones. It is with great love and compassion for the dead that Yemaya Asseu consumes the dead, for within her is their final resting place.
In more modern times, her role has been expanded. She does not just consume the dead, but all the pollution that humans have dumped in the ocean. She consumes the trash. She breathes in the polluted water and breathes out clean water. She works to maintain the ecosystem that we humans rely on to stay alive. I try and go to one of the major beach clean-ups around the Bay Area each year. From now one this work, and all environmental work around the ocean, will be dedicated to this specific path.
Ultimately, this is not going to be a path I deliberately go and visit, beach clean-ups not withstanding. I don't belong is the filth and muck. This path was important to get to know in an expanding my understanding of Yemaya sort of way. It's just not MY path.
Fascinating. I would imagine that working to keep the oceanic area of our ecosystem in balance would involve a lot of muck these days. It's good to strive to reach peace with that. Not contentment, but peace in awareness. I often get daunted at thinking about the landfill outside of our town, and it's not nearly as massive as all the horrific grotesqueness that we dump into what long ago gave birth to the first life on this planet. When we ignore these elements of nature, however, they certainly don't go away. Thank you for doing this work and drawing our attention to the womb of our mother.
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