Oya – Goddess of Change

This week – Oya, Goddess of Change.  I need to make changes!!!!

 

The Mythology

In Africa, Oya (pronounced oh-yah) is the Yoruban Goddess of weather, especially tornadoes, lightning, destructive rainstorms, fire, female leadership, persuasive charm, and transformation.  She is also one of the most powerful of Brazilian Macumba deities.  When women find themselves in hard-to-resolve conflicts, she is the one to call on for protection.   Wearing wine, her favorite color, and exhibiting nine whirlwinds (nine being her sacred number), she is depicted here with a turban twisted to appear like buffalo horns, for it is said she assumed the shape of a buffalo when wedded to Ogun.

 

The Lessons of this Goddess

 

Oyastorms into your life to tell you that change is calling, beckoning, and camping out on your doorstep.  The way to wholeness for you lies in embracing change.  Have you been too busy, too stressed, to attend to the changes needed in your life to nurture yourself?  Is change so fearful a concept that you push it aside, play hide-and seek with it, or just ignore it?  Have you arranged your life so perfectly that there is no room left for potential?  Time for change.  Time to sweep out, sweep up, and be swept away.  Resistance to change brings more persistent change.  Choosing to dance with change means you will flow with it.  Let yourself be unsettled, prepare yourself for growth.  Enter deeply into change’s chaotic dance and you’ll be richly blessed with abundant possibility.  It is time for something completely different.  The Goddess says that the earth must be dug up before anything can be planted and that change always brings you what you need on your path to wholeness.