Love Letter to Iemanja

Beloved Goddess

Mama, I wake at daybreak with the other women. We are all dressed in white... I am wearing a long sheer linen sarong wrapped about my body several times. I stayed up late the night before last to sew seed pearls and cowrie shells along the hem. My feet are bare, but my ankles are layered with bracelets that shimmer in the early light of day. Wild is my long hair, my 'mermaid hair' as Rhia says. Braided with blue ribbons that have crystals and tiny bells tied to the ends...

We sing and dance to summon you with our strong yet gentle voices, and our bodies of every goddess shape imaginable. Beautiful are your daughters. Together, we leave prayers with our feet which the waves erase and carry away to your watery unseen realm. Can you hear us?

Mama Ocean soul; Sea of tears that belong to all women and girls. How I long to meet you on this side of dreams.  How I long to nuzzle my face against your soft black breast, wrap my arms around you and hug you for as long as you'll allow me. I sense that you will not pull away as others do, when it gets too intimate, when we begin to feel too fragile or vulnerable or something no one names... Were you to hold me, and look into my deep blue eyes, I know the tears would flow like rivers to reach you... to find their way back home. There are so many, I fear I might drown in them. And yet, I sense that I would be forever healed, were I that brave. 

Big Mama: Womb of the Earth, from where we all are birthed, how is it that I am comforted by your song, by your rocking, by your mystery and your magickal lore in some primal, intrinsic, ancient way, and still, so afraid? I tried swimming once in your depths, but was thrown against a big black rock that broke my toe. I cried in pain and surprise, and thought I might die before I could make it back to solid land. I haven't tried again.

Though, I listen, and linger by your side for long endless hours... lulled by your constant song. Your heartbeat matches mine. I listen, and hear the wisdom deep within my ocean ears.  I hear the voice of the oracle and share her message as she bids me. I hear her call my name sometimes when no one is in sight, and I am startled but unafraid. I listen and hear her secret language - the one I knew before I came here, but somehow, have forgotten how to speak and translate verbatim. Please help me remember.

Mama, Mama Iemanja, Mama mine... Come and be with us. Come show yourself and let us love you. Let us find our natural rhythm in yours. Let us give a token for a simple childlike wish. Let us remember what it's like to live in your sacred flow. 

Thank you.

-Yours devotedly