Why Are Obatala and Yemoja Husband and Wife? The White Cloth and the Blue Water

Why are Obatala and Yemoja husband and wife in Yoruba tradition? In the telling most widely published, Yemoja is the wife of Obatala - the king of the white cloth, the molder of human bodies, the eldest and most senior of the Orisha - and the marriage is the tradition's image of complementary powers: he shapes, she sustains; he forms the child in the womb and gives its bones and purity, she is the waters of the womb and gives its blood and motion. From this union came the generation of the great Orisha - the lists vary by region and lineage, the structure does not: the pantheon has a mother and a father. The marriage is also the tradition's image of the complete household - order and nurture, structure and flow, the white cloth and the blue water; a home with only Obatala is a museum, a home with only Yemoja is a flood; together, held and flowing at once. Anchored in fresh sources not used in Obatala rounds 1-3: Yemoja: Mother of the Waters, Queen of the Sea, Chapter 3 section 'The marriage to Obatala' (plus Introduction, Chapter 6 colors, Glossary), and Orunmila: Witness of Destiny, Chapter 4 'The Contest of the Wise' (the wisdom of the molder). Accounts summarised in outline with exact citations. Devotional/educational only; study is not initiation.