Snail Shell as Sacred Object

In Havana I wore similar for my daily walks from the casa particular (AirBnB) to the Cuban National Ballet where our Mid Eastern dance classes were held.  In Cuba I think they are more aware of the stories surrounding the snail shell as sacred object.  I felt I had many stares at my necklace from the Santerias.  Santeria is influenced by and synchretized with Roman Catholicism.  In the Yoruba creation myth, the entire world was once water.  Obatala in Yoruba mythology is the sky father and he possessed a magic snail shell which contained earth. Acting on instructions from the supreme divinity Olódùmarè, Obatala cast this land upon the oceans, thus creating the continents.  Obatala then molded the land into men and beasts.  As he crafted the Earth and its inhabitants he drank so much palm wine that his mental clarity became dulled and the humans he made while drunk did not look like the others.  Eventually he passed out altogether and Oduduwa (Owner of the Womb of creation) was left to finish the work.  When Obatala saw what happened to the humans he created while he was drunk, he agreed to protect all children for future generations.  Obatala is synchretized with christian Jesus.  

Our pieces are assembled by a community of artisans some of whom have disabilities.

The snail shell holds meaning for the Tainos as well, the shape of the shell is a pattern that recurs throughput nature.  The Greeks called this pattern the "Golden Mean".  It is a series of expanding circles that get progressively larger at a steady rate.  It occurs in trees, plants and sea life.  It is the same pattern that regulates the distance of planets from the sun.  The snail shell as sacred object associated with Obatala symbolized the expansive quality of evolution.