NAME: Oya, Oya-Ajere, Ayaba Nikua, Queen of Death, Lady of the Wind, Goddess of the Nine Skirts, Lady of War, Carrier of the Container of Fire. Bearded Amazon, Thunder Maiden, Iya Yansan "Mother of Nine," Ayi Lo Da "She Who Turns & Changes," Oia, Yansa, Yansan, Olla, Aido-Wedo, AREA OF CONTROL: Change, Chaos, Transformation, Wind & Storm (though she must get her mother Yemaya's permission before she can create a hurricane,) the Marketplace, Women's power. the Gates of Death. She brings the first breath of new borns and takes the last breath of the dieing to the Gates of Death, the Graveyard, the dead can not be raised without her. The Harmattan Wind & Haze, a dry and dusty wind blowing northeast and west off the Sahara into the Gulf of Guinea between November and March (winter,) that like the Santa Ana wind in California is blamed for frayed nerves, and other unpleasantness. SYMBOLS: The Niger river and it's 9 tributaries, the number 9, Machete or Sword, Multi-colored skirt which she fans and brings the winds, Crown of Copper with nine with 9 charms, a hoe, a pick, a gourd, a lightning bolt, a scythe, a shovel, a rake, an ax, and a mattock. A spear or a metal rendition of a lightning bolt (which is central to the altar of Oya,) Wind, Storms, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Thunderbolts, Water Buffalo, Buffalo Horns, Flywhisk. Weather Vanes, Kites, Balloons, Pinwheels (9 or placed around her alter,) the Amazon River in Brazil. COLORS: Red, Purple, Burnt Orange, Brown, Burgundy, Copper, Maroon, Aubergine (dark purple,) Plum. USUAL IMAGE: Striking black women, sometimes shown bare from the waste up cupping her breasts, sometime show with a beard. HOLY DAYS: November 25th, Feast of Oya. RELATIVES: Yemaya the Great Sea Mother (mother,) Shango Storm God ( either husband and/or brother.) Egungun (son, along with 3 sets of twins who are her other children.) OFFERINGS: Eggplants, Coins, Chocolate Pudding, Fine Cloth in her 9 colors, Red Wind, Star Fruit, Dark grapes, Black Chickens, Rice, Black Beans (cooked in a doublt boiler.) Rain Water. All her food should be liberally laced with cocoa butter. TABOOS: Palm kernel oil, Offerings of Ram (which make her particularly angry.) or Pork. Some say Oya does not eat any four legged animals, but others say that she likes an offering of female goat. SYNODEITIES: lwa Maman Brijit (Vodoun) / Bride (Celtic) / Eris (Greek) / Kali (Hinduism.)

DETAILS:  Oya is the Yoruba Goddess of many different things, the wind, from gentle breezes, to fierce gales, to deadly tornadoes, to the Harmattan wind that blows hot and steady like the Santa Ana, fraying nerves as it raises the Harmattan haze, she is also the Goddess of the graveyard, the Niger river, and the marketplace.  But those are just the effects of her main, her actual attribute. Oya, to use Occam's razor, is change, sudden and relentless. Not the slow predictable change from summer to fall, or twilight to dawn, but the change of a wind that comes out of no where up roots trees that have stood for decades, and blows a house to rubble.   Oya is also the Goddess that bring the first, and takes the last breath of those being born and those dyeing, in-between those two pole of life she brings other vast changes.   Oya is a good goddess to have as a friend, and an awful one to piss off. A boundary breaker, she was known to go hunting, a thing that was forbidden for women to do in the West African lands were she was first worshipped, she is also first into battle, charging into battle before her husband Shango,   Oya is the goddess of female power, the ultimate amazon, and the goddess of personal transformation, both mental and physical.   Oya is around at the birth of her people, and their death, and after that even at their return, which can't happen without her permission.   Oya is old, around in prehistory, and around still today.   Oya may control the breeze, but she's not to be taken lightly!

May Oya's winds bring you only fair & gentle changes.