Goddess of the Month : Oshun
Descanso de Oshun by Milton Bernal
Oshun in Yoruba mythology, is a spirit-goddess (Orisha) who reigns over love, intimacy, beauty, wealth and diplomacy.
Oshun is beneficient and generous, and very kind. She does, however, have a horrific temper, though it is difficult to anger her. She is also known as Laketi, she who has ears, because of how quickly and effectively she answers prayers.Oshun is the primary divinity of Oshogbo, an African orisha religion, where she is honored with brass objects, as well as jewels and yellow copper. Her chief festival there celebrates the arrival of the ancestral family on the banks of Oshun's river. While bathing, one of the princesses apparently drowned, but reappeared soon after attired in gorgeous garments which, she said, Oshun had given her. The alliance with the river goddess has continued to this day.
According to the Yoruba elders, Oshun is the "unseen mother present at every gathering", because Oshun is the Yoruba understanding of the cosmological forces of water, moisture, and attraction. Therefore she is omnipresent and omnipotent. Her power is represented in another Yoruba scripture which reminds us that "no one is an enemy to water" and therefore everyone has need of and should respect and revere Oshun , as well as her followers.
Oshun is the force of harmony. Harmony we see as beauty, feel as love, and experience as ecstasy. When she possesses her followers she dances, flirts and then weeps- because no one can love her enough and the world is not as beautiful as she knows it could be.
Oshun, the Yoruban Goddess of love, delights in the creation of beauty and art, sensual delights and self-adornment. Her symbols are mirrors, jewelry, honey, golden silks and feather fans. Creativity in decorating home and temple is a way of honoring Oshun, who will bless any beautiful space created in Her honor. There is no object so common that Oshun will not appreciate more if it is made artistic and pleasing to the eye. Creativity in dress and self-adornment please her as well, and when Oshun is pleased, her blessings know no limits.
In Cuban Santería, Oshun (sometimes spelled Ochún or Ochun) is an Orisha of love, maternity and marriage. She has been syncretized with by Our Lady of Charity (La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre), Cuba's patron saint. She is associated with the color yellow, metals gold and copper, peacock feathers, mirrors, and anything of beauty, her favorable day of the week is Saturday and the number she is associated with is 5. Five jars of honey, five oranges, five eggs, or five pumpkins offered to Oshun will release her renewing powers in human life.
