White flowersCold waterAshesA grave tendedThe naming of the dead
Invocation Approach
Tone
Still and final
Address
YewaMother of the GraveShe Who Receives
Relationship
The earth that receives what is finished
Warning
She is not a comfort and she does not negotiate
Resonance
Those who tend graves those who sit with a death
Symbols
GraveWhite clothRiverShroudThe open earth
Mythology Summary
Yewa is the orisha of the cemetery and of death, and the Yewa River in Ogun State is hers; the Yewa (formerly Egbado) people take their name from the river and from her. In Cuba she is one of the orishas of the cemetery, and her cult there is small and specific. The tradition's account is not a ruler of an underworld but the grave itself, the earth that receives, and she is approached at burial and in the tending of graves.
Modern Practice
Yewa is served at the grave and at the river with white flowers, cold water and ashes, and her practice is the tending of the dead and the naming of the dead. She is called at burial, not for 'shadow work'. The silence and the white cloth are her protocol.