June 29 Oggún Day: Let us attend and ask for strength from the Lord of Iron

This June 29 we celebrate the Lord of the Irons, to the eager worker of the Ocha, the great Oggún.

His celebration includes that we show him strength and a lot of faith, so that Oggún continues to protect us and guide us along the path of life.

Oggún is a major deity of the Yoruba Pantheon, known as the lord and master of iron and one of the 7 African powers in Santeria.

It symbolizes the beginnings, the beginning, the mañana, spring, and also the powers of command, force, violence and authority.

What is asked of the great warrior Oggún?

We ask Oggún for courage and courage, because this Orisha, patron of blacksmiths, wars, technology, anyone who works with metals, is one of the warriors who protect those initiated into the Yoruba religion.

Described as strong, violent and very powerful, he protects his devotees fiercely.

We also ask Oggún for stability and new job opportunities, since he is the god who works eternally in the forging of metals, a solitary hunter and gatherer, who also studies the secrets of sorcery and witchcraft.

Treat the indomitable worker of La Ocha on his day How to attend it?

To Oggún, who dominates all the mysteries of the mountains, and can be a witch, healer and sorcerer, we entertain him in his day with samples of faith and much devotion, so that he is always with us and protects us from all evil.

We can go to the mountain to offer him our offerings, but we can also create an altar for him in a quiet part of our house, in order to offer him our samples of faith and our affection.

To start the day by Oggún:

We can light a white candle for him, we spread corojo butter on his tools, we blow brandy and tobacco smoke to make him feel honored and we thank him from the bottom of our hearts and with great faith for all his blessings.

Some offerings for Oggún that he likes:

Some fruits that we can offer as an offering are the plantain, pineapple, yam, and among the desserts he likes coconut candy a lot.
Items are offered to you to this deity as honey, smoked fish, corojo butter, roasted corn and liquor and tobacco.
Their ewes (herbs) They are avocado, carob, seedling, almond, atiponlá, cow's tongue, chicken leg, Ceiba, blackberry, blood grass, poppy, basil, aroma, rompersaragüey, romerillo, holy thistle, ginger, pomegranate, pendejera, peony, tobacco, always alive, among others.
In sacrifice, The Yoruba warrior can be offered as an offering rams, goats, chickens, roosters, land snails, as well as sea snails.

Any animal that is slaughtered for him is said to be willingly accepted.

After the offeringsWe thank Oggún for all his blessings and we ask him not to take away his immense protection from us or our family.

At the end of the article we leave some of the offerings that you can make to the orisha:

A short prayer to Oggún to thank him:

Oggún owner of all hunters and holy vigilante, hunter does not sell me and all the children of the earth, give me a good path and with your arrow for all evil that comes to me, thank you, my father.

Representation of the Orisha Oggún on the mountain:

The brave Oggún — **Photos courtesy of Lachi Owen Martínez**

Oggún with his machete — **Photos courtesy of Lachi Owen Martínez**

El June 29 Oggún and San Pedro unite in syncretism

Why do we celebrate Oggún in Santeria on June 29?

Due to the transculturation process associated with the slave trade, the Orishas were syncretized with Catholic saints.

For this reason, currently the celebration of Oggún in Santeria is associated with the saints of powerful and courageous Catholic saints such as Saint Peter, disciple of Jesus and prince of the Catholic Church.