Oya the Mother of Nine and Nature's Force for Change
Oya is the fierce and powerful female warrior orisha from West Africa. She is the owner of the marketplace. She lives in the marketplace and steers the changing fortunes made through business. She owns the gates of the cemetery and will escort the spirits of the dead to the threshold of the graveyard. As a warrior, she wields lightning and rides the winds into battle with her machetes. She raises the armies of the dead as her soldiers and uses the tornado as her weapon. She is known as the “mother of nine,” and she dresses in nine different colored scarves around her waist in memory of her children. My youngest children’s heads are ruled by Oya. My daughter grew up tomboyish and experienced many episodes of whispers from the dead especially near cemeteries. Like her brother, she is brave, stubborn, strong and hard-working. She is graceful and prefers the company of men more than women. She works as a nurse and has a great head for mon...
