Mami Wata
This is Mami Wata, an African goddess who is sometimes portrayed as a mermaid.
Now that image that was associated with Mami Wata somehow also started to be associated with a Voodou spirit named Lubana. Please check out my entry of Lubana at the link below.
Lubana
Now, I'm going to say this and be done with it. Remember, I'm talking about hoodoo/rootwork/conjure, here. That is not St. Martha. I get so many emails and comments from people who seriously don't know that that is not St. Martha. People have statues of this spirit on their altars and firmly believe they are working with St. Martha. They are mistaken.
I don't care if you decide to work with her or not but she is not St. Martha and she has nothing to do with conjure work. Both Mami Wata and Lubana have nothing to do with conjure work as they are associated with African Traditional Religions.
This is St. Martha. She is the one and only "St. Martha The Dominator":
St. Martha
St. Martha gets he role as dominator not because of the color of the skin, like some falsely teach that the "black Martha" is the dominator, but because in legend she dominated and subdued a dragon. Just as she dominated that dragon she can also dominate your enemies.
So if you want to work with Mami Wata or Lubana, go for it. If you are in those religions that venerate her, so be it and power to you. However if you are doing conjure work you really need to stop promoting the belief that this image of a black woman carrying a snake and having a child in her lap is St. Martha because it's not. In conjure work when we work with the saints, we work with the saints. This means they aren't masks for other spirits.
Again, I have no problem with people working with Mami Wata or Lubana. However the notion that she is also St. Martha needs to be nipped in the bud at least for conjure workers. I understand how people in those religions who equate African spirits with saints would think she is St. Martha but for conjure workers we need to realize she is not St. Martha. I mean, C'mon, her name isn't even Martha! LOL
Credit: about-world-religions.blogspot.com