Editing Ayida-Weddo

{{Short description|Rainbow serpent loa}}
{{Infobox
| name             = Ayida-Weddo
| above            = Ayida-Weddo
| image            = [[file:VeveDamballah.svg|200px]]
| caption1         = [[Veve]] of Ayida-Weddo and Damballa, always depicted together.
| subheader        = Rainbow Serpent
| label1           = Venerated in
| data1            = [[Hoodoo (folk magic)|Vodou]], [[Folk Catholicism]]
| label3           = Patronage
| data3            = fertility, rainbows, wind, water, fire, wealth, thunder, snakes
| label2           = Attributes
| data2            = rainbow, blue, white paquet congo, ouroboros
}}

'''Ayida-Weddo''', also known as '''Ayida''', '''Agida''',  '''Ayida-Wedo''', '''Aido Quedo''', '''Aido Wedo''', '''Aida Wedo''', and '''Aido Hwedo''', is a powerful [[loa]] spirit in [[African diaspora religions|Vodou]], revered in regions across Africa and the Caribbean, namely in [[Benin]], [[Suriname]] and [[Haiti]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Teish |first=Luisah |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1261277604 |title=Jambalaya |publisher=Harper Sanfrancisco |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-06-250859-1 |pages=58 |oclc=1261277604}}</ref> Known as the "'''Rainbow Serpent'''", Ayida-Weddo is the loa of fertility, rainbows, wind, water, fire, wealth,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Lawal |first=Babatunde |date=2008 |title=Èjìwàpò |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/afar.2008.41.1.24 |journal=African Arts |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=27 |doi=10.1162/afar.2008.41.1.24 |s2cid=57564389 |issn=0001-9933}}</ref> thunder,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=van der Sluijs |first1=Marinus Anthony |last2=Peratt |first2=Anthony L. |date=2009 |title=The Ourobóros as an Auroral Phenomenon |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2979/jfr.2009.46.1.3 |journal=Journal of Folklore Research|volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=15 |doi=10.2979/jfr.2009.46.1.3 |s2cid=162226473 |issn=0737-7037}}</ref> and snakes.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Auset |first=Brandi |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/286420995 |title=The Goddess Guide |date=2009 |publisher=Llewellyn Publications |isbn=978-0-7387-1551-3 |pages=2 |oclc=286420995}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Monaghan |first=Patricia |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/969000530 |title=Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines |date=2014 |publisher=New World Library |isbn=978-1-60868-218-8 |pages=43 |oclc=969000530}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Owusu |first=Heike |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/52194154 |title=Voodoo Rituals |date=2002 |publisher=Sterling |isbn=1-4027-0035-0 |pages=43 |oclc=52194154}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=Alcide Saint-Lot |first=Marie-Jose |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1130907883 |title=Vodou, a Sacred Theatre: The African Heritage in Haiti |date=2003 |publisher=Educa Vision |isbn=1-58432-177-6 |pages=150 |oclc=1130907883}}</ref> Thought to have existed before the Earth, Ayida-Weddo assisted the creator goddess [[Mawu|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.<ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last=Dorsey |first=Lilith |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/62595057 |title=Voodoo and Afro-Caribbean Paganism |date=2005 |publisher=Citadel Press |isbn=0-8065-2714-5 |location= |pages=36 |oclc=62595057}}</ref><ref name=":4" />

==Family==
Ayida-Weddo is a member of the [[Rada loa|Rada]] family of loa, associated with protection, benevolence, and love.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/900016740 |title=The Voodoo Encyclopedia: Magic, Ritual, and Religion |publisher=ABC-CLIO |others=Jeffrey E. Anderson |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-61069-208-3 |location= |pages=167 |oclc=900016740}}</ref> In many stories, she is married to [[Damballa]]. As his inseparable companion, she shares him with his concubine, [[Erzulie|Erzulie Freda]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gordon |first=Leah |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44854654 |title=The Book of Vodou |date=1985 |publisher=Barron's Educational Series |isbn=978-0-7641-5249-8 |edition= |location= |pages=62 |oclc=44854654}}</ref> In others, she 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":9" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Coleman |first=Will |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/40631697 |title=Tribal Talk: Black Theology, Hermeneutics, and African/American Ways of "Telling the Story" |date=2000 |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |isbn=0-271-01944-1 |location= |pages=13 |oclc=40631697}}</ref><ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bellegarde-Smith |first1=Patrick |last2=Michel |first2=Claudine |title=Danbala/Ayida as Cosmic Prism |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.1.4.0458 |journal=Journal of Africana Religions |year=2013 |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=458–487 |doi=10.5325/jafrireli.1.4.0458 |s2cid=142805771 |issn=2165-5405}}</ref>

==Symbols and offerings==
Ayida-Weddo is symbolized by the rainbow, snake, thunderbolt, and white [[paquet congo]].<ref name=":1" /> When represented in art, she is often depicted as a [[Ouroboros|serpent consuming its own tail]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Hazel |first=Robert |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1132394622 |title=Snakes, People, and Spirits, Volume One: Traditional Eastern Africa in Its Broader Context |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-5275-4292-1 |location= |pages=234 |oclc=1132394622}}</ref> In [[veve]]s, she 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 [[Haitian Vodou#Spirit possession|appears in ritual]], she dons white cloth and a jeweled headdress, and embodies the serpent by slithering upon the ground.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Coulter |first1=Charles Russell |last2=Turner |first2=Patricia |title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities |date=4 July 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-96397-2 |page=141 |language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":10" /> Her favorite plant is cotton.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Gordon |first=Leah |title=The Book of Vodou |publisher=Barron's Educational Series |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-7641-5249-8 |pages=50–51}}</ref>

==Form and function==
The [[Fon people]] of [[Benin]] believe the rainbow serpent Ayida-Weddo was a servant of [[Mawu|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.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Washington |first=Teresa N. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/646474714 |title=Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Texts: Manifestations of Ajé in Africana Literature |date=2005 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00319-5 |location= |pages=65 |oclc=646474714}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rose |first=Carol |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48798119 |title=Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth |date=2001 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=0-393-32211-4 |location= |pages=306 |oclc=48798119}}</ref> The rainbow serpent had a twin personality whose red half was male, and whose blue half was female.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Coleman |first=Will |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/40631697 |title=Tribal Talk: Black Theology, Hermeneutics, and African/American Ways of "Telling the Story" |date=2000 |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |isbn=0-271-01944-1 |location= |pages=12 |oclc=40631697}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Wilkinson |first=Philip |title=Illustrated Dictionary of Mythology |publisher=Dorling Kindersley |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-7894-3413-5 |pages=114}}</ref> 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.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite book |last=Gordon |first=Leah |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44854654 |title=The Book of Vodou |date=1985 |publisher=Barron's Educational Series |isbn=0-7641-5249-1 |edition= |location= |pages=60 |oclc=44854654}}</ref> 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 the world to prevent its collapse. As it writhes from exertion under the world's weight, the serpent causes earthquakes in the land.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rose |first=Carol |title=Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore Legend and Myth |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2001 |isbn=0-393-32211-4 |pages=9}}</ref> 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 [[Adam|Adanhu]] and [[Eve|Yewa]], the first humans created by Mawu.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Philip |first=Neil |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/148756966 |title=Myths & Legends Explained |date=2007 |publisher=DK Publishing |isbn=978-0-7566-2871-0 |location= |pages=88–89 |oclc=148756966}}</ref>

<blockquote>"In 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 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."<ref name="auto2" /></blockquote>

In [[Haiti]], Ayida-Weddo 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.<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Dorsey |first=Lilith |title=Voodoo and Afro-Caribbean Paganism |publisher=Citadel Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-8065-2714-5 |pages=55}}</ref>

Ayida-Weddo is [[Syncretism|syncretized]] in [[Haitian Vodou]] with the [[Catholic]] figure of [[Our Lady of Immaculate Conception]] for her association with serpents and rainbow-colored cherubs.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/900016740 |title=The Voodoo Encyclopedia: Magic, Ritual, and Religion |date=2015 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |others=Jeffrey E. Anderson |isbn=978-1-61069-208-3 |location= |pages=70 |oclc=900016740}}</ref> Ayida-Weddo's days of service lie on Monday and Tuesday, and she is honored on December 8 with festivals for her blessings.<ref name=":11" /> Through prayer and ritual, she grants peace, love, prosperity, joy, and understanding to her devotees.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Conner |first1=Randy P. |title=Queering Creole Spiritual Traditions: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Participation in African-Inspired Traditions in the Americas |last2=Sparks |first2=David Hatfield |publisher=Harrington Park Press |year=2004 |isbn=1-56023-350-8 |pages=57}}</ref><ref name=":10" />

In [[West African mythology]], Ayida-Weddo is often equated to the Yoruba rainbow serpent [[Oshunmare|Oshumare]], with whom she shares many aspects.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hazel |first=Robert |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1132394622 |title=Snakes, People, and Spirits, Volume One: Traditional Eastern Africa in Its Broader Context |date=2019 |isbn=978-1-5275-4292-1 |location=Newcastle upon Tyne |pages=238 |oclc=1132394622}}</ref><ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rose |first=Carol |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48798119 |title=Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth |date=2001 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=0-393-32211-4 |location= |pages=282 |oclc=48798119}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Rainbow Serpent]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.readersandrootworkers.org/wiki/Ayida_Wedo Anida Wedo]

{{Afro-American Religions}}

[[Category:African dragons]]
[[Category:Dragon deities]]
[[Category:Fertility goddesses]]
[[Category:Fire goddesses]]
[[Category:Rainbow deities]]
[[Category:Snake goddesses]]
[[Category:Voodoo goddesses]]
[[Category:Water goddesses]]
[[Category:Wind deities]]