A few things Oya has taught me


Heykua hey iya mi, hekau hey Yansa. Oya is in and around me. She has always taught me the impermanence of things and to be right, Right meaning as opposed to wrong or contractive/contraction. Yansa says be here now and move in ways that are in the present. She reminds us of our short, unpredictable time on earth and requires us to walk in balance and in a good way in the strength of our youth and vibrance as well as our feebleness and declining years on earth. Humans often become cocky and too self confident in the time of their good health and youth.They can become rude, mean, selfish and self centered and only become loving, empathetic, receptive, quiet and giving when they have a health crisis or lose their job, home, their mind, their bodily abilities and the lives of loved ones. They see and fear the gates of the cemetery at that point or get a glimpse into loss and begin to correct their imbalanced way of living on earth. Sometimes they revert back to their contractive ways then suddenly they have a recurrence of the diagnosis or trauma that spurred them into change in the first place and they begin the cycle all over again. Oya’s winds are usually not predictable or calm and she reminds us that we don’t always have time to make it up, redo, repair things, say things. Suddenly we are out of time and life.

Oya is not patient and is part of the cutlass/machete posse and wears fire for a skirt. She severs things, strikes them down, puts an end to them, takes away to make room for necessary growth. Her winds can change on a dime. She is secretive and serious and hard to get to know. Her location on earth isn’t where you think it is, physically or otherwise. Arrows cannot easily find her. When she is not assisting her children in battle or balancing things in the world, she is deep in the woods. Oya dislikes greed, monopolies, meanness, deceit and dishonesty and brings unexpected change for everyone. She speaks the truth even when it’s hard to hear and guts the belly of the liar. Initiates of Oya often rile people up and they become rattled in her presence. Change often makes people anxious and uncomfortable and Oya kicks up the winds of people’s //stuff// When asking an initiate of Oya for their opinion or advice, make sure you don’t have an answer in your head that you’d like to hear. Chances are likely that their words will be unexpected and cut like a knife. To fear change is to fear the essence of Oya, and many are afraid, understandably. It’s common for one to be in the presence of an initiated priest of Oya for a quick chat or visit and then directly after, find their world has quickly changed. She brings transformation to people’s seen and unseen worlds so that they may move from stagnation, calcification and inflexibility into movement growth, healing, evolution and elevation.