Today, we celebrate the feast day of Oshun (also known as Ọṣun, Ochún, and Oxúm) the river goddess orisha associated with love, sexuality, fertility, femininity, water, destiny, divination, purity, beauty, wealth, and prosperity.
Popularized by pop stars, fashion designers, and other artists, Oshun is one of the Seven African Powers (Las Siete Potencias Africanas) and an incredibly powerful orisha, holding dominion over life-giving forces.
Oshun brings forth sweet waters of the earth, prosperity, and wealth. She is a protector of the sick and poor, bringing them health, joy, music, dance, and healing.
Oshun also stands out in Yoruba cosmology for the role she plays in universal harmony and balance.
Ever protective of her followers, Oshun attends to the well-being of her devotees, assuring abundance and fertility. She has been known to wake me from my sleep with warnings of ill design when someone has cast negative intent in the direction of me or my house.
Possessing the great powers of the rivers, untempered, Oshun also possesses the human ways of vanity, jealousy, and spite.
It is said that she who brings forth life also takes it back in fits of anger, bringing forth floods (physical and metaphorical), destroying bounty and the livelihood of her beloved devotees. Upon appeasement, Oshun pulls back the flood and blesses her devotees with wealth and fertility to multiply.
In spite of her anger, Oshun is considered the mother of everything sweet and good.
Also known for her beauty and often depicted with a golden mirror, some consider Oshun vain, but they are mistaken. Instead of vanity, Oshun's mirror reflects who we really are - who we are on the inside that deceitful acts of vanity attempt to cover.
Through the use of her mirror, Oshun teaches her devotees self-love and confidence, and that beauty comes from inner reflection and appreciation of one’s true self.
Those who need help with love, prosperity, pregnancy, and/or success usually call on Oshun for assistance.
Syncretized Catholic Saint: Our Lady of Charity of Cobre
Sacred Place in Nature: Rivers
Number: 5
Day of the week: Friday
Feast Day: September 8
Colors: yellow, gold, amber, coral, white (some roads of Oshun do not like yellow as it reminds her of when she was poor)
Her sacred objects and symbols include:
- Oars
- Brass and gold
- Brass bracelets
- A fan
- Mirrors
- Honey
- Peacock feathers
- Rivers and waterfalls
- Sunflowers
Ritual foods or adimús:
- Honey
- Cinnamon
- Oranges
- Pastry cakes
- Baked yams
- Pumpkin
- Mead
- Champagne
- Sweet, sparkling wine