I got up this morning and after my injection of caffeine picked up some molasses and corn meal and drove to Portuguese Beach to make my annual offering to Iemanja, Orixa of the ocean.  It was a cold. grey, blustery day, and the coast was even colder and more blustery.  Almost no one was out.  Portuguese Beach is big, and I saw maybe two people at a great distance.  That was great as I wasn’t there to socialize.

Taking my shoes off and rolling up my pants, I went a bit into the water, but not too far.  Whenever I make an offering to Her the water comes up suddenly, sometimes spectacularly so, and today I didn’t want to get drenched. let alone carried a distance by a giant wave.  

As expected, the waves rose when I sprinkled in the corn meal, and rose still higher when I added the molasses.  

Accepted!  A good start to 2011.

(Two nice videos on Iemanja, one is a performance of Her ritual dance, the other a Brazilian honoring of Her.)