Madre Tierra/la Mère de la Terre/Ile Aye

On Saturday Evening, I was walking in the East Village wherein I happened to stumble upon this mural above. It was an advertisement for a plant shop. It said "Mother Earth, Loves You, Love Mother Earth." It inspired me to take a picture of it.
All of this brings to mind the present condition of our Mother Planet and how we treat her. At the last meeting at the Caribbean Cultural Center, I heard the orisha and lwa traditions referred to as "Earth Based Relgions". This is a good designation for our faiths as we do honor the forces of Nature as well as work with various herbs to conduct rituals. In this sense we do have elements in common with the Native American traditions and those of pagan religions, the main difference is that Orisha and Lwa beliefs are centered on limited montheism. This is the belief in a Supreme Being, Olorun, Bondye, Nzamabi, a force more powerful than the orisha/lwa and yet the deities are aspects or parts of the One.

This being said we do revere Mother Earth in the Yoruba traditions. In Nigeria she is called Ile which means House. Ile Aye means the House of Life or Earth. She is also known as Onile. Yoruba religion looks to the earth and the waters not to the stars or celestial objects like other African ethnic groups such as the Dogon or the Egyptians. The Yoruba proverb states "Aiye l'oja. Orun n'ile. (The world is a market place. Heaven is home.) This world we live is a marketplace in that it has all the beauties and sorrows that life has to offer. Sometimes the buyer must beware and sometimes you find that rare gem of an item. Also this means that there is so much diversity and opportunities in life, the Divine created us to enjoy the wonders of life not run away from them. However Heaven/Ile Orun or the world of Spirit is our true home and we must remember that we came from spirit and shall return to that plane. It is like that saying, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience we are spiritual beings having a human experience."

Onile, the orisa of earth is honored in the Orisha Religion of Trinidad. Here She is also Mamman L'Terre or Mother Earth. Sometimes the spirit of La Madama is used to represent her. La Madama is depicted below as an elderly black woman with a broom and is usually revered by Spiritualists.Onile is also seen in Trinidad as an elderly woman. The third drum in Trinidadian Orisha ceremonies always beats to the heartbeat of the earth and Onile when she possesses a devotee she will move to the beat, albeit slowly since she is an old woman. I received the above information from a priest of the Orisha Religion of Trinidad.

No matter what different cultures around the world call Her, the Earth is Our Mother and we must care for Her as She always provides for us. Without Her we cannot exist, however she can exist just fine without us. She was here before us and She probably will be here long after we are gone. Adupe Onile!