As Damballa slithered under the ocean, Ayida-Weddo flew across the sky in the form of the rainbow until the two loa reunited in Haiti, bringing Vodou to the Americas. In Haiti, Ayida-Weddo 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. 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." The spiritual nectar that they created reproduces through all men and women as milk and semen. As the first rains fell, a rainbow encompassed the sky and Danbala took her, Ayida Wedo, as his wife. From its deepest core it released the sacred waters to fill the earth with life. It shot thunderbolts to the earth to create the sacred thunderstones. It scattered stars in the firmament and wound its taught flesh down the mountains to create riverbeds. Then the titanic snake began to move and heave its massive form from the earth to envelop the sky. "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. In some stories, Ayida-Weddo descends from the heavens with Adanhu and Yewa, the first humans created by Mawu. When it runs out of the iron that sates its hunger, it is said the serpent will devour its tail, finally causing the heavy earth to sink into the abyss. As it writhes from exertion under the world's weight, the serpent causes earthquakes in the land. 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. 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. Together, they held up the earth and the heavens. The rainbow serpent had a twin personality whose red half was male, and whose blue half was female. As they went across the land, the rainbow serpent's body left behind the canyons, rivers, valleys, and mountains. As Mawu-Lisa created the world, the serpent carried the goddess in its mouth as she shaped the earth with her creations. The Fon people of Benin believe the rainbow serpent Ayida-Weddo was a servant of Mawu-Lisa and existed before the earth was made. Matching her sacred color, appropriate offerings to her include white chickens, white eggs, rice, milk, as well as other white offerings decorated in rainbow colors. When Ayida-Weddo appears in ritual, she dons white cloth and a jeweled headdress, and embodies the serpent by slithering upon the ground. White, as the purest color, represents her in ceremony. In veves, she is invariably portrayed alongside Damballa as one of two dancing or intertwined serpents. When represented in art, she is often depicted as a serpent consuming its own tail.
Symbols and offerings Īyida-Weddo is symbolized by the rainbow, snake, thunderbolt, and white paquet congo. As his female aspect, together they represent dynamism, life, creation, and the intertwined harmony of male and female, earth and heaven, and body and spirit. In others, she is one with Damballa: a single entity sharing a dual spirit.
As his inseparable companion, she shares him with his concubine, Erzulie Freda. In many stories, she is married to Damballa. Family Īyida-Weddo is a member of the Rada family of loa, associated with protection, benevolence, and love. Ayida-Weddo bestows love and well-being upon her followers, teaching fluidity and the connection between body and spirit. Thought to have existed before the earth, Ayida-Weddo assisted the creator goddess Mawu-Lisa in the formation of the world, and is responsible for holding together the earth and heavens. Considered in many sources as the female half of Damballa's twin spirit, the names Da Ayida Hwedo, Dan Ayida Hwedo, and Dan Aida Wedo have also been used to refer to her.
Alongside Damballa, Ayida-Weddo is regarded among the most ancient and significant loa, and variants of her name include Ayida, Ayida-Wedo, Aido Quedo, Aido Wedo, Aida Wedo, and Aido Hwedo. Known as the " Rainbow Serpent", Ayida-Weddo is the loa of fertility, rainbows, wind, water, fire, wealth, thunder, and snakes. Ayida-Weddo is a powerful loa spirit in Vodou, revered in regions across Africa and the Caribbean, namely in Benin and Haiti.
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