Cowrie Shell Tattoo Meaning

Wealth, fertility, divination, and the oldest money in the world.

The cowrie shell is the small, glossy sea shell that served humanity as money, sacred object, and divination tool across the world — the oldest currency in history, the emblem of wealth and fertility, and the instrument through which the divine is consulted. To carry the cowrie shell is to carry wealth, fertility, and divination — the oldest money in the world, the sacred shell of the orishas and the goddesses of the waters, the fertility amulet and the instrument of divine knowing, currency and holy object at once.

In the Yoruba tradition the cowrie shell is a sacred instrument of the highest importance, central to divination and the worship of the orishas. The sixteen cowries (owó eérindínlógún) are a primary instrument of Ifá divination: cast and read by the diviner, the way the cowries fall — how many land mouth-up or mouth-down — reveals the answers and guidance of the spiritual world. Each orisha is associated with a specific number of cowries, binding the shells intimately to the divine powers.

The cowrie is especially sacred to Oshun, the orisha of fresh water, love, and fertility, and to Yemaya, the great mother orisha of the ocean — the goddesses of the waters from which the shell itself comes. As the instrument of divination and an object sacred to the water-goddesses, the cowrie shell is a holy and powerful thing in Yoruba spirituality: the vessel of divine communication, adorning the shrines and regalia of the orishas, the sacred shell through which the wisdom of the spirits is read. The Yoruba cowrie is the sacred shell of Ifá divination, holy to Oshun and Yemaya. The Yoruba cowrie shell is the sacred shell of Ifá divination — the sixteen cowries (owó eérindínlógún) a primary instrument of divination, cast and read by how they fall (mouth-up or mouth-down) to reveal the guidance of the spiritual world, each orisha associated with a specific number of cowries, and the shell especially sacred to Oshun (orisha of fresh water, love, fertility) and Yemaya (great mother orisha of the ocean), a holy vessel of divine communication adorning the shrines and regalia of the orishas.

The money cowrie (Cypraea moneta) and the ring cowrie (Cypraea annulus) were used as currency from approximately 1200 BCE in China, across the Indian Ocean trade network, throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and into the Americas via the slave trade. The Chinese word for money and the character bèi (貝) preserve the cowrie shell's image — it is one of the oldest pictographs in Chinese writing. In the transatlantic slave trade, cowries were used as currency to purchase enslaved Africans in West Africa — the same shells that were sacred in Yoruba tradition became the medium of the trade that dismembered Yoruba communities. Cowrie shells in Ifa divination: the sixteen cowries (merindilogun) cast by a babalawo generate one of 256 possible patterns (odus) that determine the reading. The shell's opening — the slot on its underside — is called its mouth.

Cowrie Shell across cultures

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