Category: Orisha

Oya is an Orisha over the winds, fire, rain, storms, transformation, commerce, and the dead.  She is an Orisha of hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms and lightning.  Her colors are multi-colors, purple or red.  Her sacred number is 9.  Her sacred animal is the water buffalo.  She can shapeshift into the buffalo and is a hunter.  She is a warrior woman armed with a sword and protects the sacred from impurities.  She is the goddess of transitions and death.  Her breath is the life-force of all things and the death of all things when it is taken away.  She is a fierce mother who is said to be fiercer than Her husband, Shango.  Oya loves eggplants, water, rum, red wine, beer, grapes, plums, and gin.

To the Ones Who Call Me

by JewelofAset

I am the Witch here.

I am the one who knows Her herbs.

I am the one who knows Her spells.

I am the one who knows Her heart.

What I want,  What I need

is known to Me.

What you want, What you need

is known to you.

I am the Orisha

granting desires and boons.

Giving blessings to those who honor Me.

A calabash filled with offerings.

Libations poured out onto the Earth,

which Olorun made.

I am the Wind.

I am the Thunder.

I am the Lightning.

I am the Storm.

I am Oya–She tore.

One who tears down trees in My path,

One who topples houses,

as towering trees fall.

I bring destruction for new growth to occur.

I bring swift cleansing and change.

Faster I, twirl and My power

enchants  and terrifies,

as things are uprooted in My path,

things that make one complacent or stagnant,

the ones who resist change fear Me.

Some loathe Me as they fear change

more than their own death.

more than their own demise.

And yet, I only come when you can’t quite see

what you are stuck in.

You can’t move on in a stagnant place,

or in a relationship that isn’t feeding you–

or worse, one where you are a victim.

Get out of your own way.

Accept My blessings and move.

Act.

Don’t sit idly by

and do nothing.

Take action in your life.

Do something–anything–

one thing–then two–then three

to help you change.

to help you move forward.

Then ask for My aid,

bring Me offerings in the calabash

or on your home shrine

and I will come.

Swiftly and without delay

I will come.

For I come to all those who call My name,

For I am Oya, of the Buffalo Horn.

For I am Oya,

the one who comes

when My children call.

Poem previously published in Divine Words, Divine Praise: Poetry for the Divine Powers.