Ayida Wedo, Aida Wedo (also known as Aida Hwedo, Ayida-Weddo, Aido Quedo, Ayida, Agida) is a powerful loa spirit in Haiti vodoo, revered in regions across Africa (including the former Dahomey kingdom/Benin,Togo and Southeastern Ghana) and the Caribbean, a part of the African diaspora religions.
Ayida has Danbala (Damballa, Damballah, "(Papa) Dambala",) as her male counterpart and sometimes the two divinities have been construed as a married couple, but it is often seen as a dual spirit with both male and female aspects The dual god may be collectively called Damballa-Ayida suggestive of both genders combined (cf. below). The twain are regarded among the most ancient and significant loa.
General description
Also known as a "Rainbow Serpent", they are at once a rainbow and a serpent god, and associated (especially) with water, as she is said to reside in springs and rivers, or sharing the abode with Dambala at the waterfall of Saut-d'Eau She is more broadly associated with other of the four elements: air/wind, fire, and earth). Connection is also made to thunder or thunderbolt/lightning. The deity is also tied to wisdom. and fertility (cf. benevolent force, below).
In a more cosmic mythical context, the deities are thought to have existed before the Earth, Ayida Wedo assisted the creator goddess Mawu-Lisa in the formation of the world, (cf. ) and is responsible for holding together the Earth and heavens (cf. ) .
Danballa is further described as a "life force" over the "cycle of life and death" or "source of all that is dynamic" that resists the forces of "stagnation and death".
Ayida Wedo is a benevolent force, as is Dambala. They are thus believed to bestow material wealth upon the faithful, or those who manage to capture the rainbow spirit (see which elaborates on this). It is prescribed that Damballa be provided offerings of white food (milk, eggs, etc.), usually on Thursday, (Cf. for further details). Ayida Wedo also bestows love to her followers and "teaches integration of the mind, body, and spirit".
One source describes the presence of a Petwo/Petro lwa "avatar" called "Damballa la Flambeau" (cf. image right). The babalawo chant associates this being with "fire down below", and Dorsey observes parallel with the kundalini serpent of Hinduism.
Ayida Wedo is syncretized in Haitian Vodou with the Catholic figure of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception for her association with serpents and rainbow-colored cherubs. Likesise, conflation has occurred between Danballa and the Irish Catholic Saint Patrick, famed for driving out snakes.
Nomenclature As for the African roots, the Haitian loa (lwa) Ayida Wedo was originally the West African vodun Aida Wedo (, ,) of the Fon people of Benin (or formerly Dahomey).
Around Wydah (Ouidah) and Porto-Novo in the south edge of Benin, the name was transcribed as by Burton and or by French missionaries.The Abbé , quoted in Cortambert (1874) "", Revue de France 10: 594
The snake is known to the Ewe people (of nearby southern Togo and Southeastern Ghana, speaking a related language) as or (, ). Regionally, is used among the western Ewe; among the eastern Ewe). (Cf. and for a piece of Ewe folk belief).
Etymology The term is perhaps a corruption of (in the Ewe language), composed of /anyi ('earth', or 'under-part'), ('edge'), ('large snake'), and ('large'), which together combined means "The great snake of the under-edge/earth's edge".
Or, the first half of Ayida Wedo denotes a terrestrial connection, while the latter half hints at the sky, or more precisely, () being the "sun".).
The deity is broadly referred to as dañhdañh (danh) in West Africa (including Dahomey), but (eastern Ewe) or (western Ewe) means any ordinary snake. The rainbow spirit may be referred to simply as "Dan" by some of the Fon people.
It has also been suggested that the "" (in "Damballa") might signify "life essence", "life force" or fecundity.
The latter part of "Danbala" perhaps derives from "Allada (Ardra)", name of a Dahomey kingdom.
Dual spirit names Other names reflecting the nature of the twin spirit are Dan Ayido Hwedo, Dan Aida Wedo (also Dã Aido Wedo, Dambala-Wedo may be used to refer to the dual spirit, rather than Damballa Wedo for just the husband).
Another alternate spelling was given by Julien Alapini.
Color symbols, service, and offerings
Both Damballa and Ayida Wedo are associated with white color. Damballa is connected to white, representing his purity. Ayida Wedo is associated with blue and white, the colors of the sky and cloud. Appropriate offerings to her include white chickens, white eggs, rice, milk, etc., decorated in rainbow colors. Damballa is likewise offerings of white cake and liquor of white color.
Ayida Wedo's day is Thursday, or rather perhaps Damballa's service day is Thursday while Ayida Wedo's days of service lie on Monday and Tuesday, and she 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.
The medium of the Ayida Wedo during a spirit possession ritual dons white cloth and a jeweled headdress, and embodies the serpent by slithering upon the ground.
Haitian Vodou employs the veve symbol of the Ayida Wedo (she is portrayed alongside Damballa as one of two dancing or intertwined serpents, cf. image top) in its rites.
Danbala is one of the three major lwa depicted on the (drapo servis, ceremonial embroidered flag, sewn with sequins or beads, cf. image right).Cf. Kansonai (2010). Vodou - Kunst und Kultur aus Haiti image 135 (cf. 120, 121) and explanation on flags, image 187.
African traditions A special piece of pottery is dedicated to the Anyi-eẃo by the Ewe people (as it is the general practice to make offerings of such pottery to various deities across the Slave Coast of West Africa). The piece is made with a crude model of a clay snake coiled around a shallow earthenware pot or a calabash, with small red feathers stuck on the snake to represent horns. This vessel is whitewashed and usually placed at the base of a silk-cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra). It is also said that Ayida Wedo's favored plant is the silk tree or cotton tree (cotton plant).
18th century rites
According to 18th century descriptions given by Moreau de Saint-Méry of Haitian vodou ceremonies, snake cult practices involved the use of caged live snakes, presumably representing Damballa. An initiation ceremony was presided over by a "king and queen", and according to Moreau de Saint-Méry, an initiate to the cult received a packet containing herbs, hair, and other substances, which in today's terms would be called a paquet congo.
Creation myth The Fon people of Benin believe the rainbow serpent Ayida Wedo was a servant of Mawu-Lisa (Mawu/Mahu the moon goddess, Lisa the male sun god) 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. It is also said that wherever the Ayida Wedo/Hwedo spent the night, a mountain formed out of its excrement, hence ("serpent dung") has become a term for minerals and stones mined from underground.
Another version explains that during creation, "a divine snake coiled itself round the earth to bring it together... and gave men a place in which to live" The coils holds terra firma in place, by binding the soil together and not allowing it to crumble off. "It is said that there are 3,500 snake coils above the and 3,500 below". Of the 7000 coils it is also said:
"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 taut 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". requoted in .
In Haiti, Ayida Wedo 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 Wedo flew across the sky in the form of the rainbow until the two loa reunited in Haiti, bringing Vodou to the Americas.
World-bearing animal myth As noted the above quote, it is clear that a part of the creation myth describes "Damballah holding the universe together", and some parallels to this are seen with Ancient Egyptian myth. The dual deities together held up the Earth and the heavens. 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. But whenever it writhes from exertion under the world's weight (or stirs only slightly from feeling uncomfortable), the serpent causes earthquakes in the land.
There is a more elaborate version of this myth by the Fon people where the Ayida Wedo acted as a sort of World Serpent propping up the sky; it set up pillars in the four cardinal direction to support the firmament, but also twisted itself around the pillars (and hence around the earth) in tri-colored braid (of black, white, and red).
It is also stated that Ayida Wedo's rainbow body encircling the earth and seas secures the link between Heaven and earth. Likewise, the Haitians say that Dambala and Ayida Wedo secure a link between thunder (sky) and the sea. Or, it is said, 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.
Eschatology According to Dahomey eschatological myth, the serpent Aido Hwedo feeds on iron bars which the Creator instructed red monkeys from the sea to forge, but when this ore runs out, serpent will devour its own tail (cf. ouroboros motif under ); when this happens, it will ultimately cause the Earth, overburdened with the exploded human population, to "slip into the sea".
Weather myth It is said that the Anyi-eẃo of the Ewe people only appears when it becomes thirsty, and while resting its tail on the earth, it rears its head into the sky above the clouds where the Mawu deity keep store of water, and devour the water. The spilled moisture during this guzzling turns into rainfall. Another version asserts that the Anyi-ewo of the Ewe, "when thirsty, comes forth from the sea, stands on its tail at one side of the earth, and bends its head over to drink at the other side". Yet a third version explains that the true physical Anyi-eẃo resides in earthen mounds deep in the forest, but emerges in order to graze on grass, or to drink water in the clouds. The rainbow that appears in the clouds is the serpent's reflection, as the missionary explains it. But the native myth is that when the Anyi-eẃo emerges, its soul first ascends to high heaven (to frolic with mighty celestial spirits) but eventually descends into the clouds, and then is seen as a rainbow. The intelligence gathered from the hunters (of the Ho tribe of the Ewe) is that the snake burrows inside termite mounds, and as the snake was believed to devour humans, the hunters feared the snake as well as the mounds.
Occurrences of double rainbow will prompt a native to say that the rainbow serpent has descended with his consort (wife).