Celebrate the Goddess Yemaya

This ritual is originally from Brazil, however you can ask Yemaya to bless you with this ritual from anywhere! You can do with a friend, a group or by yourself.

Create a sacred space

Pick a body of water that you feel most safe and sacred. You don’t need to be physically there. It can be a waterfall, a pool, lake, stream, ocean or your bathtub.

Define your desires

Write your dreams, goals, and desires. Be specific. You can write them in a journal, speak into a tape recorder.

Flower-power

Put on some white clothes that make you feel pure and ready to start fresh. Find a flower or bunch that are in full bloom.

Meditate

If you can get to your special place physically, find a comfortable place to sit. Have your flower in your hands. Otherwise, close your eyes and imagine that you are there – smelling, hearing, feeling everything you would if you were there. Float on your back and surrender to Yemaya, allow her to hold you. Now, think of your desires. Release them to Yemaya. Ask her to take your dreams and send them back to you how she sees best fit for you. Acknowledge to Yemaya that it is not within your power to manifest your goals, but she has the power to bless you. Ask her to illuminate the path to your dreams, so that you see the signs along the way. Promise to her that you will do your part. Pray to her that you recognize what your dream will look like once she has returned it to you. Now gently open up your eyes and look at the ripe flower in your hand. Look at how open and full it is. This is your dreams and how they will look.

Offering

Truly surrender your wish to Yemaya and give thanks in advance for her blessing by placing your flower in water. You can release your own will by throwing the flower into the ocean, a shallow bowl or your bathtub, saying, “It is done! Blessed Be!”

Waterfall Ritual in Hawaii

The day Martha captured these images was transformative, powerful, and magical. I was at a private waterfall that was once an ancient Hawaiian birthing pool with a group of women from my GoddessLife Teacher Training retreat. We were all wearing white, as they do on New Year’s Eve in Brazil to honor Yemaya, Goddess of the Ocean thought to be the essence of motherhood and birth. As we entered the lush tropical rainforest surrounding the waterfall, Hawaiian-born Hiwa chanted to her ancestors to ask permission for us to be on the aina(land). Then one by one, each woman released a red hibiscus flower into the waterfall, asking Yemaya help us make our dreams into reality. To honor, celebrate and truly connect with Yemaya, I danced in the waterfall. Dancing in the heart of nature united me with the Goddess and made me feel sacred, feminine, and empowered. With my feet feeling the strength and stability of the rocks, my hands brushing the sky like wings, the water rushing over my body, I truly felt connected with the divine. The message was clear: To dance your dreams, dance where you feel most sacred!

Celebrate like the Brazilians!

No one celebrates better than the Brazilians on New Year’s Eve. No Hollywood premiere or awards show, no Royalty Wedding, no political inauguration even compares to the massive party in Brazil. It is an incomparable combination of beauty, decadence, spirituality, joy, love, unity and sheer fun!

Everyone dresses in white and goes to the beach. Now, I don’t mean like most costume parties in which there are always a few party-poopers that don’t dress up and wont leave the kitchen. I mean, literally, everyone dresses in their finest whites and packs every beach from Rio to the small villages in Bahia. It is a vision of beautiful loveliness.

It is summertime and the weather is warm and so are the hearts of the people. There are no cliques or people trying to be “cool” or pretentious. It doesn’t matter if you are extremely wealthy (and there are people so rich in Brazil, they fill their swimming pools with Evian water!) or if your home is under a palm tree, everyone parties together! There is a magical feeling of harmony and connectedness.

There are bands playing music and people dancing everywhere – even in the ocean. You can go into anyone’s house along the beach and be served delicious food and make instant best friends. There are fireworks going off and the party lasts all night.

On New Year’s Eve, they celebrate a Goddess of the sea named Yemaya. She was originally a West African Goddess brought to Brazil by the slaves and now has become a fully realized Brazilian Goddess of prosperity and abundance. To ask Yemaya to answer their prayers, worshippers come to the shoreline with flowers and candles as offerings. They place them in the ocean and then jump seven waves to ask her to bless them. It is gorgeous to see the ocean filled with candles and flowers and it makes the night filled with magic, hope and dreams. When was the last time you went to a party with your intentions, goals and resolutions?

Now that you have fully realized that you are a Goddess, its time for you to celebrate! You’ve worked hard, challenged yourself and now its time to let your hair down, step off the pedestal and have some outrageous fun! Life is far too short, you blink and years speed by. Why not?