When Ayida-Weddo appears in ritual, she dons white cloth and a jeweled headdress, and embodies the serpent by slithering upon the ground.

The female half was said to arc thunderbolts and rainbows across the sky with its body, and lived among the clouds, trees, springs, and rivers.

[20] Asked by Mawu-Lisa to help support the weight of her creations on the Earth, the rainbow serpent's male half coiled its body underneath the world to prevent its collapse.

[18][13][21] When it runs out of the iron that sates its hunger, it is said the serpent will devour its tail, finally causing the heavy Earth to sink into the abyss.

[22] "In the beginning there was a vast serpent, whose body formed seven thousand coils beneath the earth, protecting it from descent into the abysmal sea.

"[20]In Haiti, Ayida-Weddo is said to have crossed the ocean with her husband Damballa to take the ancient knowledge and traditions of Vodou from Africa to the Caribbean.

As Damballa slithered under the ocean, Ayida-Weddo flew across the sky in the form of the rainbow until the two loa reunited in Haiti, bringing Vodou to the Americas.

[23] Ayida-Weddo is syncretized in Haitian Vodou with the Catholic figure of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception for her association with serpents and rainbow-colored cherubs.