Iansã (Oyá)
Iansã, or Oyá is the divinity of the Niger River .
Her name means the “Lady of the nine Orun” (spiritual worlds or heavens). She embodies two very powerful, indomitable and unstoppable elements of nature: wind and fire and represents any woman with a strong personality, but with a tender heart.
According to the myth, she taught Xango how to use fire.
Oyá is in all the obstacles to be overcome, in all the barriers to be broken.
There is no place she cannot enter, including the realm of the dead, with which she has a unique and intense relationship .
Oyá remains in passionate and irrational love, in the desire for conquest, in the urgency of happiness.
However, the moment she finds emotional stability, this is forever: precisely because she struggled to obtain it and overcame great obstacles, both physical and spiritual.
Oyá is the energy capable of overcoming prejudices, of asserting rights, of fighting for progress.
Due to her characteristics, Oyá is able to maintain stable relations, for which she fights without fear.
According to the myth she dated Oxossi and Ogum, but ended up dedicating her life to Xango, with whom she shared a life of great love and mutual dedication. She can really love unconditionally.
There is another wonderful myth about her, which explains how she was the first to introduce the ritual of the axexé (the funeral) to say goodbye to the dead, and how she started her unique relationship with the ancestors.
When a man, an odé, a hunter, whom she loved intensely because she regarded him as a father, died, she gathered all her possessions on top of a mountain; made a pyre and lit the fire, dancing and singing around this burning altar, day and night, for seven days in a row, as a tribute of love and dedication. This was the first funeral and that was how Oyá's exclusive relationship with all his ancestors began.
Her relationship with death is very strong: she can go from the world of the living to that of the the dead without difficulty, maintaining a connection between the two worlds.
Epa hey!
