Obatala: Santeria and the White Robed King of the Orisha

Obatala means "King of the White Cloth." This title refers to a particularly soft and beautiful white fabric associated with Yoruba Kings. This fabric's myriad threads are so masterfully interwoven that at first sight one cannot distinguish them. "To call an orisha the chief of white cloth is to make a symbolic reference to that substance which makes consciousness possible... It is a reference to the fabric which binds the universe together.