![]() She is invoked for fertility, especially after chronic miscarriages. In Venezuelan Espiritismo, she has dominion over justice and memory. Oya presides over healing and necromantic divination. The winds she raises in West Africa manifest as hurricanes in the Caribbean. Oya is the woman warrior orisha of storms, winds, and hurricanes. When opportunity arose, she eloped with Shango, his dashing brother who made her his chief adviser. That’s one version of their divorce, anyway another suggests that Oya, the most intellectual of the orishas, was bored sick helping Ogun at the forge. Oya knew her secret was revealed she didn’t say another word but simply walked out of Ogun’s home-never to return-transformed back into her buffalo shape, and entered the Niger River, over which she presides. The other wives, eavesdropping by the door, heard all. One night Ogun and Oya argued he lost his temper and shouted out something about her true bovine identity. He loved her passionately, but his other wives weren’t delighted and sensed that there was something different about her. He agreed and brought her home to his forest compound. She first demurred but when he revealed that he knew her secret identity and threatened to expose her, Oya agreed to marry him but only if he never told anyone about her true identity. Ogun was smitten he approached her and begged to marry her. He surreptitiously followed this magical woman: she walked like a queen through the marketplace where she bargained intensely and successfully for fine cloth. According to Yoruba legend, Ogun, sacred ironworker, saw a magnificently horned water buffalo emerge from the Niger River and transform into a beautiful woman.
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