MAMA WATTA - A  REBIRTH ON THE MISSISSIPPI
 
by Louis Martinie

 
 I looked and saw Priestess Miriam coming up to the rite; she was all
 dancing steps and bright fabric.
 
 "Oh Lord," I thought. "Here comes somebody." I had just gone over the
 Order of Service with the drummers. Now I knew that it wouldn't hold,
 Miriam was already taken by a loa.
 
 Priest Oswan had always said that it was downright disrespectful to plan a
 rite too closely. The loa will come and tell you what they want. Part of
 our job is to be respectful and to listen.
 
 It turned out that the loa ridding Miriam was Mama Watta and that loa had
 a lot to say.
 "Legba is not going to open any door if Mama doesn't want him too" Mama
 has got to ease his way. She has got to open up her legs or he might as
 well just get his little drink and go on home.
 
 The year was 1998 and this was the most dramatic way Mama Watta ever
 entered a ceremony conducted by the New Orleans Voodoo Spiritual Temple.
 Her trip from India to Africa to New Orleans and its Voodoo had been long
 and arduous.
 
 The fist time I heard of Mama Watta was from John. He had just arrived
 home from taking an initiation and doing research in Nigeria. He brought
 back lithographs of a Goddess quickly growing in popularity there. This
 was about 13 years ago.
 
 John said that the image of the Goddess originated in India as an art
 wrapper covering fine soap or incense. The esoteric art and the exoteric
 product it covered were shipped to Nigeria and the image evolved into a
 icon of the great Goddess. Her figure is that of a strong woman with
 spreading black hair holding a large snake in her upraised hands and one
 of her primary attributes in Nigeria is to confer wealth. It is reasonable
 to assume that the image, in its origin, reflects an Indian deity.
 
 From India, to Africa, to New Orleans her devotions spread. New Orleans is
 below sea level, a city of water, and the Snake she holds is perfect for
 the serpent cults of New Orleans Voodoo. There are at least three types of
 Voodoo; African Voodoo, Haitian Voodoo, and New Orleans Voodoo. Perhaps of
 the three, New Orleans Voodoo is the most personal. Therefore in writing
 about Mama Watta in the context of New Orleans Voodoo it is proper to
 write in a personal manner. All of the while hoping to show the truth of
 the words of Ursula LeGuin when she commented that she seemed to be at her
 most universal when writing in the most personal way.
 
 Less than five minutes ago, while writing this article, I learnt of the
 suicide of one of the Great Waters most ardent devotees, a man named
 Bruce. Mama Watta is vast. At this moment vastness seems to be her most
 important aspect. She can take into herself, into her sea's and into her
 wombs, all the suffering, all of the pain of her children. The oceans are
 filled with the tears of mother earth. The same salt tears that flow down
 our cheeks eventually flow into her. With the sweet sound of her currents,
 of her all penetrating voice, she can give the rest that prefaces renewal
 to all of those who have heard her speak her Name. Bruce, for all of his
 pain and all of his suffering, has heard her speak her Name. May I learn
 to listen as well as he.
 
 His ashes return to the Great Waters as the ashes of the Indian devotees
 return to the Sacred Ganges. The great tantric mother in her myriad forms
 accepts all. The great mysteries of life and death reside equally within
 both Mama and Papa. Though perhaps there are times when Papa is feeling a
 bit weary and the entreaties of Mama must be added to those of the
 Voodooist to soften Papa's heart and refresh his hands so the gate between
 the Visible and Invisible Worlds is quickly opened.
 
 Mama shows herself to her children in many aspects. She can come as a
 great waterspout that pierces the heavens and lifts her children to the
 stars. The waves are her harbingers, riding steadily to the land, taking
 the bodies of the ancestors into her bosom.* Deep within the veins of the
 earth she flows as lava, fire beyond fire.
 
 Between 1997 and the present I have records of at least 7 New Orleans
 Voodoo rites in which Mama Watta figures heavily. These rites run the
 gauntlet from weddings to possible missteps that caused the toilet
 adjacent to the Temple to overflow with, if not disastrous, then less than
 appealing results. Mother of Waters, vast, inclusive beyond knowing. In
 New Orleans Voodoo, Mama Watters is all of these things and so much more
 yet to be heard, yet to be uncovered.
 
 Louis Martinie'
 Drummer and Spiritual Doctor
 Sea Of Marrassa
 Island of Saint Rose
 
 

 *It is one of the greatest mysteries of New Orleans Voodoo that the land,
 organic soil, is literally the bodies of the ancestors.

Note: This is reprinted here with full respect for the implications it has now, many years later, in the wake of the flood.