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20-449: According to myth, Mawu is the sole creator of human beings from clay, while her husband/brother Lisa was instructed by her to teach humans how to build civilization. As the myth goes, after creating the Earth and all life and everything else on it, Mawu became concerned that it might be too heavy, so she asked the primeval serpent, Aido Hwedo , to curl up beneath the earth and thrust it up in

40-408: A twin personality whose red half was male, and whose blue half was female. Together, they held up the Earth and the heavens. The female half was said to arc thunderbolts and rainbows across the sky with its body, and lived among the clouds, trees, springs, and rivers. Asked by Mawu-Lisa to help support the weight of her creations on the Earth, the rainbow serpent's male half coiled its body underneath

60-410: Is cotton. The Fon people of Benin believe the rainbow serpent Ayida-Weddo was a servant of Mawu-Lisa and existed before the Earth was made. As Mawu-Lisa created the world, the serpent carried the goddess in its mouth as she shaped the Earth with her creations. As they went across the land, the rainbow serpent's body left behind the canyons, rivers, valleys, and mountains. The rainbow serpent had

80-574: Is honored on December 8 with festivals for her blessings. Through prayer and ritual, she grants peace, love, prosperity, joy, and understanding to her devotees. In West African mythology , Ayida-Weddo is often equated to the Yoruba rainbow serpent Oshumare , with whom she shares many aspects. Paquet congo Paquet congo ( Haitian Creole : Paket kongo ) are Haitian spiritual objects made by vodou priests and priestesses ( houngans and mambos ) during ceremonies. Their name comes from

100-474: Is invariably portrayed alongside Damballa as one of two dancing or intertwined serpents. White, as the purest color, represents her in ceremony. When Ayida-Weddo appears in ritual , she dons white cloth and a jeweled headdress, and embodies the serpent by slithering upon the ground. Matching her sacred color, appropriate offerings to her include white chickens, white eggs, rice, milk, as well as other white offerings decorated in rainbow colors. Her favorite plant

120-419: Is one with Damballa: a single entity sharing a dual spirit. As his female aspect, together they represent dynamism, life, creation, and the intertwined harmony of male and female, earth and heaven, and body and spirit. Ayida-Weddo is symbolized by the rainbow, snake, thunderbolt, and white paquet congo . When represented in art, she is often depicted as a serpent consuming its own tail . In veves , she

140-839: Is said to have crossed the ocean with her husband Damballa to take the ancient knowledge and traditions of Vodou from Africa to the Caribbean. As Damballa slithered under the ocean, Ayida-Weddo flew across the sky in the form of the rainbow until the two loa reunited in Haiti, bringing Vodou to the Americas. Ayida-Weddo is syncretized in Haitian Vodou with the Catholic figure of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception for her association with serpents and rainbow-colored cherubs. Ayida-Weddo's days of service lie on Monday and Tuesday, and she

160-418: Is the loa of fertility, rainbows, wind, water, fire, wealth, thunder, and snakes. Alongside Damballa , Ayida-Weddo is regarded among the most ancient and significant loa. Considered in many sources as the female half of Damballa's twin spirit, the names Da Ayida Hwedo , Dan Ayida Hwedo , and Dan Aida Wedo have also been used to refer to her. Thought to have existed before the Earth, Ayida-Weddo assisted

180-616: The Akoro/Okoro quarters of Porto Novo into Aklon. Both ethnological research/data and oral accounts collected from the Fon themselves attest to these facts. Among the Gbe speaking people, Mawu in particular but also the twinned Mawu-Lisa duplex was elevated to occupy the apex position in the hierarchy of Voduns. It became the state deity of Dahomey, but ultimately, Mawu was not originally a Fon phenomenon. Among other Gbe speaking people especially

200-435: The sacred waters to fill the earth with life. As the first rains fell, a rainbow encompassed the sky and Danbala took her, Ayida Wedo, as his wife. The spiritual nectar that they created reproduces through all men and women as milk and semen. The serpent and the rainbow taught humankind the link between blood and life, between menstruation and birth, and the ultimate Vodou sacrament of blood sacrifice." In Haiti , Ayida-Weddo

220-573: The Ewe, Mawu has been elevated to the omnipotent God by the influence of Christian missionaries. Ayida-Weddo Ayida-Weddo , also known as Ayida , Agida , Ayida-Wedo , Aido Quedo , Aido Wedo , Aida Wedo , and Aido Hwedo , is a powerful loa spirit in Vodou , revered in regions across Africa and the Caribbean, namely in Benin , Suriname and Haiti . Known as the " Rainbow Serpent ", Ayida-Weddo

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240-520: The ancient Kongo Kingdom in Africa , where similar objects called nikisi wambi are found. Kongolese nkisi use different materials from the Haitian paquet, however. A paquet is a collection of magical ingredients - herbs, earth, vegetable matter - wrapped in fabric and decorated with feathers, ribbons and sequins. Paquet congo are said to have the power of “heating” or activating the loa . Hence

260-452: The beginning there was a vast serpent, whose body formed seven thousand coils beneath the earth, protecting it from descent into the abysmal sea. Then the titanic snake began to move and heave its massive form from the earth to envelop the sky. It scattered stars in the firmament and wound its taught flesh down the mountains to create riverbeds. It shot thunderbolts to the earth to create the sacred thunderstones. From its deepest core it released

280-551: The creator goddess Mawu-Lisa in the formation of the world, and is responsible for holding together the Earth and heavens. Ayida-Weddo bestows love and well-being upon her followers, teaching fluidity and the connection between body and spirit. Ayida-Weddo is a member of the Rada family of loa, associated with protection, benevolence, and love. In many stories, she is married to Damballa . As his inseparable companion, she shares him with his concubine, Erzulie Freda . In others, she

300-488: The people and teach them about the use of palm kernels as omens from Mawu-Lisa. When Awe, the arrogant monkey, climbed up to the heavens to try to show Mawu that he too could give life, he failed miserably. Lisa made him a bowl of porridge with the seed of death in it and reminded him that only his wife Mawu could give life, and that she could also take it away. From a historical approach, the cult of Mawu-Lisa actually diffused westwards from Yorubaland where its roots are, into

320-446: The sky. When she asked Awe, a monkey she had also created, to help out and make some more animals out of clay, he boasted to the other animals and challenged Mawu. Gbadu, one of the first Loa Mawu birthed from her love making with Lisa, saw all the chaos on earth and told her children to go out among the people and remind them that only Mawu herself can give Sekpoli - the breath of life. Gbadu instructed her daughter, Minona, to go out among

340-582: The socio-religious consciousness of the Gbe speaking peoples, first from the Agbome (Abomey) plateau which had come under the control of the very centralized Dahomey kingdom. Mawu is Mowo (Yeye Mowo), who is female and consort of Orisa (Obatala) in Ife, while Lisa is Orisa also known as Obatala, the creator and sky deity of the Yoruba. In Ife, the cultural cradle of the Yoruba, both deities are twinned as Orisa-Yemowo in conjoined temples. The gradual transformation from

360-405: The term pwen cho (hot point) sometimes used to refer to them. Paquet serve as power objects and are kept on vodou altars and used in healing ceremonies. They are also used as protective amulets in people’s homes, bringing health, wealth and happiness. Their efficacy supposedly depends on a technique of careful wrapping - seven or nine times – symbolic of an umbilical cord connecting the charm to

380-463: The word Orisa to Lisa is in congruence with the general rules of transmutation of borrowed words of Yoruba origin in Gbe lexicons to fit the Fon-Gbe phonology, which are characterized by certain sound shifts such as; the dropping of Initial Vowels i.e Ogun to Gun/Gu , the phoneme [B] to [V] i.e Oba Adjo to Avadjo or Oyinbo to Yovo , and a switch from [R] to [L], i.e Iroko to Loko , and

400-410: The world to prevent its collapse. As it writhes from exertion under the world's weight, the serpent causes earthquakes in the land. When it runs out of the iron that sates its hunger, it is said the serpent will devour its tail, finally causing the heavy Earth to sink into the abyss. In some stories, Ayida-Weddo descends from the heavens with Adanhu and Yewa , the first humans created by Mawu. "In

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