Iemanya

IEMANJA
Ile Axe Bomi's Orixa

Orixa mother of all Orixas, she is the force of the ocean. There are three kinds of Iemanja; being the three the same essence different in her manifestation.
Iemanja Nana Borocum: she is the original mud, the union between earth and water. Represented by an old woman, wise, but grumbler.
Iemanja Bomi: she is the force in the wave of the ocean. She is represented by a young woman, with all the potencial of youth, able to listen and to give advice, but also easy to blow up if her recomendations are not obeyed; she is a kind mother but rigorous and self-consistent.
Iemanja Boci: She is the wave that gets to the beach, she is a girl.
Iemanja is mother, but she is the mother that educates her children. Children of seven years old on are under her protection. The other mother that takes care of children since they are conceived and up to the seven years of age is Oxum, goddess of rivers and sweet waters.

We believe that everyone is born under the protection of an Orixa, as well as catholics speak of a guardian angel, and we say we are "children" of that Orixa. The people that comes into the files of Africanismo "becomes" Omo-Orixa (child of Orixa). This process that begins with a ritual of bapthism, approaches that Orixa to the people and engages him/her to guide his/her son or daughter along his or her earthly life, while the engagement for the child is to follow that guideness so that his/her life could be productive and full.
So, according to the kind of engagement the "child" would accept, that Orixa will go linking with him and will stamp in his child characteristics of herself. That's why we can find grumbler children of Iemanja (His/her Iemanja will be Iemanja Nana) and other children of Iemanja not grumbler at all (their Iemanja will be Bomi or Boci not Nana).
And speaking of engagement, the many degrees of engagement of each Omo-Orixa are stablished by themselves and the comandments of their Head Orixa (we call that the guide Orixa). We spoke about bapthism and they end up with the clerical ordination. Not every Omo-Orixa becomes a priest, nor all of them stay only with a bapthism. The clerical ordination is only obtained after being by a Babalorixa (High Priest) in a process of learning during eight years. The Babalorixa is the one who teaches the children of the house (temple) customs, rituals, secrets, etc. that form the Africanist teology.

OMIO , OMIO-ODO , ODOCIABA, ODO-YERERE, SALUBA NANA BURUKE, THESE ARE HER GREETINGS IN YORUBA, OUR RELIGION'S LANGUAGE.

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