Samhain Blessings, everyone! It’s a beautiful evening for trick-or-treating here, and there is just the right amount of wind to feel the spirits as they pass among us. I thought a Goddess involved in the cycle of life and death would be appropriate for this special night.

Onile is the Yoruban Goddess of the earth. A special society called the Ogboni serves Onile, and one of their particular roles is in settling disputes that involve spilling of blood onto Onile’s sacred earth. She is said to have existed before the other orishas or Gods. Onile is very similar to the Ibo Goddess Ala, in that she represents both the fertile and the fallow earth, the beginning and the ending, life and death. Her name, which means “owner of the earth,” is also seen as Ile.

Quabso is the Sandawe Goddess of the moon and rain. The Sandawe of Tanzania say that the moon lived in the south and the sun lived in the north, until one day when he saw the moon and fell in love with her. The sun, later called Matunda, came south to be with the moon and they were married. Quabso rules over fertility and growth, which explains why women’s cycles follow that of the moon. The courtship of Quabso and Matunda is remembered in the ritual phek’umo dance, which promotes the land’s fertility.

Happy Mabon everyone! A Goddess of the harvest, of course.

Kaikara (pronounced KAH-ee-kah-rah) is the Banyoro Goddess of the harvest. The Banyoro of Uganda made offerings of millet to her before cutting their fields. Kaikara’s husband, Kalisa, was the God of the hunt.

Fohsu is the Fante Goddess of salt. She is said to reside near a large salt pond at Cape Coast, the center of the Fante peoples of Ghana. She is depicted as being a giantess with white skin. She supplies her worshippers with salt, a very valuable commodity.

Sodza is the Ewe Goddess of lightning, rain, and fertility. The Ewe reside in Ghana, Togo, and Benin in West Africa. She and her husband, the God Sogble, both control the lightning and when they speak to each other we hear it as thunder. Sodza blesses the fields with her rain, and the sound of her thunder frightens away evil spirits.

Marimba is the Wakambi Goddess of music. Marimba was known as the most beautiful woman in the world. Her first husband was Zumangwe, The Hunter. When Marimba was commanded by Watamaraka, Goddess of evil, to be one of her handmaidens, she refused, and Watamaraka cursed her, saying that any man who married her would be killed within her presence within three moons of their marriage. Three moons later, Zumangwe was trampled by an elephant while Marimba and their son, Kahawa, watched. When she married again, she kept her husband locked in their house and would not let him go out with the other hunters. After two months of his pleading, she agreed to let him walk in the forest, as long as she went with him. While they were out for their walk, they were attacked by a lion, and her husband was killed. Marimba swore that she would not marry again, but Watamaraka told her that she would indeed, in twelve moons.

Marimba’s son Kahawa was out hunting and caught a stranger watching him. He captured the stranger and brought him back to the village. The stranger was from another tribe, and he had a new kind of weapon with him, a bow and arrow. His people, the Masai, were approaching fast, intent on conquering the Wakambi. Marimba took the stranger’s bow and fastened a gourd in the middle of it. She had invented the first musical instrument, and then she began to sing. Her people were amazed—no one had ever heard anything like it before.

After peace had been made with the Masai, Marimba was wooed by the former captive, Koma-Tembo. She refused him for ten years, but finally relented and married him. Within three moons, he too was dead, killed while hunting rhinoceros. But a strange thing happened. The more Marimba suffered from misfortunes, the more beautiful the songs she created. She also created more instruments, including flutes and pipes, the xylophone, and drums.

Gbenebeka is the Ogoni Goddess of motherhood. This Nigerian tribe say that Gbenebeka came down from the sky and created their people. She sometimes appears to men, and if they are kind to her she will stay with them for awhile. One day, she will vanish, moving on to another deserving man. A shrine to Gbenebeka was burned down by the British in 1914 as a response to an Ogoni uprising. Her name means “great mother.”

Rasoalao is the Malagasy Goddess of wild animals and the hunt. She is one of the Vazimba, who are considered the original inhabitants of Madagascar and the ancestors of the Malagasy. The Vazimba were deified by the Malagasy, and are invoked in many situations. Rasoalao’s sister is Ravola, Goddess of tame animals, and her husband is the giant Rapeto. Rapeto created Lake Itasy in an attempt to trap Rasoalao’s cattle, which he wanted to use to trample his rice fields.

Gbadu is the Fon Goddess of fate. She is the daughter of Mawu and Lisa. She lived on top of a palm tree in the sky, where Mawu had told her to sit in order that she could watch what happened in the land, sea, and sky. Gbadu has sixteen eyes which she could not open for herself. Each morning when she awoke, her brother Legba would come to her palm tree and ask her which of her eyes she wanted open. Instead of speaking, she would place palm kernels in his hand to correspond to her eyes.

Gbadu had several children while living in her tree, including two daughters and numerous sons. Yet she was troubled, because she did not know why Mawu had told her to stay in the tree. She also saw that there was trouble in the land, sea, and sky, because no one knew how to speak Mawu’s language or how to behave properly. The only one who could speak Mawu’s language was Legba, so Gbadu asked him to help. Mawu told Legba to teach her language to three of Gbadu’s sons and send them to earth. She also gave Gbadu the keys to the future and devised a way for men to use palm kernels to open Gbadu’s eyes and see their fates. The three sons of Gbadu—Duwo, Kiti, and Zose—taught men how to divine their future, and also reminded them that they all come from Mawu, and that only she could give them life.

Olapa is the Maasai Goddess of the new moon. She is married to Enkai, the God of the sun. One day, the two had a terrible fight and both were left with many scars on their faces. Enkai was so embarrassed that he began to shine as brightly as he could, so that no one could look upon his face and see his scars. Olapa, on the other hand, was not embarrased by her scars, so she did not increase the light that she gives. At the time of the new moon, people ask Olapa to grant them a long life and throw a stone in tribute to her. Pregnant women similarly ask her for an easy birth.