Oya, Saint Teresa Medal (large)

Synchronized with Oya, the Orisha of winds, lightning, and violent storms, Teresa of Ávila, OCD (Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada - also known as Saint Teresa of Jesus), was a Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic and religious reformer. St. Teresa of Ávila was the first of only four women to have been named doctor of the church.

Her autobiography and books are prominent works on Christian mysticism and Christian meditation practice. In her autobiography, written as a defense of her ecstatic mystical experiences, she discerns four stages in the ascent of the soul to God: mental prayer and meditation; the prayer of quiet; absorption-in-God; ecstatic consciousness. The Interior Castle, written as a spiritual guide for her Carmelite sisters, uses the illustration of seven mansions within the castle of our soul to describe the different states our soul can be in during our life.

The ultimate preoccupation of Teresa's mystical thought, as consistently reflected in her writings, is the ascent of the soul to God. Her ascetic doctrine and Carmelite reforms shaped Roman Catholic contemplative life, and her writings on the Christian soul's journey to God are considered masterpieces.

Beautiful oxidized silver medallion, approx. 30mm/1.18" in length.