Venezuelan cult, stories, beliefs and religions of my country. VENEZUELA

First of all a cordial greetings to all the stemians of the world, there is much that is said about the existing beliefs in many countries in this case I want to emphasize VENEZUELA, where there is the marialioncero cult where Queen Maria Lionza is praised or better known as the India Yara.
María Lionza, María de la Onza, Yara, or Guaichía is a mythical female deity native to Venezuelan folklore.

According to Venezuelan anthropologist Daisy Barreto, the oldest references to the cult are found in oral testimonies that date back to the beginning of the century, in which peasants from the Yaracuy region and some adjacent areas discuss the existence of a peasant-like devotion. Afro-Venezuelan to Queen María Lionza in the mountains of the Sorte mountain in Chivacoa. At that time, the cult was circumscribed to that small region and was based on devotion to the ancestors, mostly indigenous caciques and heroes of Venezuelan independence.

The importance that María Lionza's religion has in Venezuela and in other nearby countries is such that, according to the American anthropologist at Tulane University, Wade Glenn, more than 5,000 devotees have participated in some "marialioncero" ritual.

Popularly represented as a goddess or queen, María Lionza is the central figure of the so-called Marialioncero Spiritism, a cult in which rites and Catholic, indigenous and African beliefs are mixed; and that it has absorbed elements of the Yoruba religion and mystical and theological elements of other cultures.

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Maria Lionza (Yara) was a maiden Nívar, enchanted daughter of a powerful cacique of Nirgua. The Shaman of the village had predicted that when a girl with strange eyes, water green eyes, was born, it would have to be sacrificed and offered to the Owner of Water, to the Great Anaconda because otherwise the perpetual ruin and the extinction of the Nívar would come. But his father was incapable of doing it. And hid the girl in a cave in the mountain, with 22 warriors who watched her and prevented her from leaving. She was forbidden to see herself in the mirrors of water. But one day the girl for no reason began to sing and her song being so beautiful and splendid had such an impact that it numbed the guardians and the beautiful girl came out of the cave and walked to a nearby lake, discovering for the first time her own reflection in Water. She was delighted with her vision. Thus he awakened the Water Owner to the Great Anaconda, who emerged from the depths, falling in love with her and drawing her to himself. In Lake Maria Lionza and the powerful serpent they celebrated a spiritual and mystical communion. When his father discovered the union, he tried to separate them. Then the Anaconda grew, became huge and exploded causing a great flood that devastated the village and its people. From that day Maria Lionza became the Goddess protector and owner of the lagoons, rivers and waterfalls, mother protector of nature, wild animals and queen of love. The myth of Yara survived the Spanish conquest, although it underwent some modifications. In this sense, Yara was covered by the catholic religion with the mantle of the Christian virgin and took the name of Our Lady Maria de la Onza del Prado from Talavera de Nivar. However, with the passage of time, would be known as Maria de la Onza, or María Lionza.

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During Holy Week and the Day of the Race (October 12), there are many pilgrimages to the mountain of Sorte, which is located near Chivacoa, in the state of Yaracuy. Devotees come to this place in order to make all kinds of requests to Maria Lionza, which can range from curing diseases, solving love problems, to obtaining wealth or power. For the favors to be granted, the believer chooses a corner in the forest or a bend in the river, where to build an altar from which to invoke it. The altar in question is decorated with photographs, figurines figures, glasses with rum or brandy, cigars, cigarettes in cross, flowers and fruits. Likewise, the altar should be presided over by Queen Maria Lionza, who in the spiritist world is the "monarch of forty legions, formed by ten thousand spirits each." Next to the Queen, they place Guaicaipuro, the cacique who fought valiantly against the Spanish conquistadors in the valley of Caracas and who presides over the Indigenous Court; and on the other side, they place the Negro Primero, the only black man with the rank of officer in the army of Bolívar, who presides over the Black Court.