The precise origin of the symbol remains a mystery as no single hypothesis has been widely accepted. Over time, the ankh has come to symbolize life and immortality, the universe, power, male and female, and balance. The ankh can also represent zest, joy of life, and energy. It is important to note that the ankh is not a religious symbol, nor is YEMAYA a religious organization. 
YEMAYA is a New Jersey City University non-profit, non-religious organization under the auspices of the Black Administrators, Alumni, Faculty, Staff, and Students Organization (BAAFSSO) and supported by The Lee Hagan Africana Studies Center.
YEMAYA recognizes that women of African descent are women of vision, unified across our diversity and spirit. YEMAYA is committed in partnership to the respect for and celebration, evolution, promotion, and enforcement of our womanhood. Furthermore, it is a source of peer/professional support and information to develop leadership among women of African descent within the New Jersey City University community and elsewhere and to provide a voice for women of African descent who might not otherwise be heard.
Goals
- To provide support for women of African descent to foster self-esteem, visibility, self acceptance, and empowerment
- To promote love, honor, camaraderie, and integrity among women of African descent in our communities and in our society
- To encourage and nurture educational assistance through mentoring and scholarships for women of African descent
- To communicate expectations of and encourage the fulfillment of members graduating
- To support retention and graduation of women of African descent
- To aid in fostering personal and professional enrichment
- To offer community-based outreach which encompasses networking opportunities, social and cultural events, and economic awareness for women of African descent
- To produce and provide an annual egalitarian retreat or gathering to affirm the existence of women of African descent through a spiritual, social, and educational milieu
In West African tradition, YEMAYA is associated with female mysteries. Like water, she represents both change and constancy bringing forth life, protecting it, and changing it as is necessary. Portrayed as a beautiful woman, she intervenes in women’s affairs.
YEMAYA also represents surrender. Surrender in this case doesn’t mean giving up, rather giving over, asking assistance so that she may do what she wants to do. Wholeness is nurtured as one realizes the way through certain situations is to surrender and open to something greater. YEMAYA nurtures, heals, touches, blesses, comforts, and makes whole that which is incomplete.
Invoke YEMAYA for blessings, compassion, wisdom, riches, inspiration, creativity, creation, fertility, female power, women’s wisdom, protection of home, good health, true beauty, washing away sorrow, revealing mysteries, and learning not to give your power away.
Calendar
2012/2013:
At this moment, we are reminded of promises made to ourselves, and we renew
these promises as they take on new life. We promise:
- to fully embrace ourselves
- to speak to ourselves in whispered moments of love, kindness, and peace
- to believe in ourselves, our worth, womanhood, and beauty
- to cherish our sexuality, sensuality, femininity, and passion
- to always remember from whence we came
- to remain faithful and reach higher places as we live in the present with great expectations for the future
October 1 - Brown Bag Lunch, GSU MPR-A
Ocotber 31 - 2012 Rhonda Berry Health and Wellness Symposium, GSU MPR-B, 12-4pm.
*event topics subject to change.
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linkS
- Lee Hagan Africana Studies Center
- Black Administrators, Alumni, Faculty, Staff, and Students Organization
- Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library
- NJCU Counseling Center
- NJCU Health & Wellness Center
- NJCU Registrar