Skip to content

Do you know the most revered female Orishas in the Yoruba Pantheon?

Orishas Women

They are the ones who cover us with their protective mantle, the warriors, mothers and wise women who listen to those prayers that are raised in search of comfort and help.

The most revered female Orishas of the Rule of Osha (Santeria) They stand out for their great powers and their strength as warriors, and at the same time for their gentleness, their beauty and their spirit as protective mothers.

And although all Yoruba deities possess equally important sacred powers and energies, some goddesses are more revered in Cuba and their cult has spread throughout the island.

Let us now know who are the most revered female Orishas of the Yoruba Pantheon:

Oshún, the Goddess of Love

The orisha Oshún

Oshun he is the personification of the immense powers of love. She is an Osha and is in the group of the head Oshas and is the Yoruba Goddess of Love and Rivers.

She represents the tranquility of the waters, its transparency and magic, the intensity of feelings and spirituality, human sensuality, delicacy and femininity. She is the protector of pregnant women, she is the womb that cares for women in labor and despite her immense beauty, she is represented as an internally severe, suffering and sad woman.

And it is that Oshún not only represents the beauty of life, but also the religious rigor and the implacable punishment for offenses. It is the most dire, you never know when its fury will unleash.

She is the one who intercedes with Olofin to implore for the beings of the earth and is considered the apetebí of Orunmila. The flowers that represent it are sunflowers.

It is related to jewelry, body adornments, and money. Oshún is the Orisha of fresh water and therefore her followers take offerings to the river and ask her for her blessings, especially in matters of love and money, because she is abundance and prosperity. Its color is yellow and gold, which symbolizes wealth, the energy of light and ostentation.

She is the sister and ally of Yemayá, who gave her the fortune that her home was sweet waters and because of her power, she requested the intervention of women in the council of the Orishas.

Queen Oshún and her Catholic Syncretism

Oshún syncretizes in Catholicism with the patron saint of Cuba, the Virgin of Charity of Copper, one of the saints most praised by the people. She is known as the Virgin Mambisa because the Cuban fighters were entrusted to her before each battle.

The Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre is venerated in the Shrine that bears her name in Santiago de Cuba. Hundreds of people, Cubans and foreigners, visit the place daily, to enjoy a symbol of history, religion and identity of this Island.

We pray to Caridad del Cobre for their well-being and ask for their eternal blessing.

Yemayá, the Mother of the World

The orisha Yemayá

Yemaya She is a warrior, orisha and mother, and as a mother, she is a strong protector of all her children. It is the womb of the world, the one that protects all her children on earth and represents the uterus as the source of life, fertility and motherhood.

It is in the group of the head Oshas and its element in nature is the waves of the sea, so whenever it goes down, it moves with the same compass as the calm sea.

She owns the waters and the sea, and is the very source of life. Dance like the waves, calm or furious, on the surface of the ocean, its colors are the same as the immensity of its waters.

But as the sea is changing, Yemayá can also abandon its calm. It is said that when he punishes he is inflexible and does not accept disrespect.

She is a fortune teller par excellence, since she stole the okpele from Orula and he later gave her the snails (diloggún). Its name comes from the Yorùbá Yemòjá, which means mother of fish.

The legend says that all humans are her children, because for 9 months we swam like fish in our mother's placenta.

Catholic Syncretism of the great Yemayá

Yemayá syncretizes in the Catholic religion with the Virgin of Regla, the protector of the Bay, representative of the waters of the sea and protector of those who cross them. Mother and warrior.

The Virgin of Regla is the patron saint of the town that bears her name and which is located in front of the Bay of Havana. There, at the current Sanctuary of the Virgin of Regla in the town of the same name, Catholics and followers of the Regla de Ocha often attend to worship the Virgin of Regla and the goddess Yemayá and ask for their blessing.

The Virgin of Charity and that of Regla are both symbols in the face of storms and invoked as shelters, as protective mothers.

Oyá, the Queen of the Sparkle

the orisha Oyá

Oyá She is the one who reigns over rainbows, sparks and strong winds, she is the emissary of death itself. And it is that she is closely related to Ikú, the divinity of death, because habita in cemeteries and guides the souls of the deceased.

As an orisha, she represents the storms and hurricane-force winds that lash out with her fury as a warrior. It symbolizes the violent and impetuous character of the passage from life to death.

It symbolizes the intensity of gloomy feelings, the world of the dead and together with Eleguá the owner of the roads, the fortune teller Orula and Father Obatalá, dominates the four winds. She dances on graves and in the dark, and with her power object, the iruke, she cleanses the osogbos from the lives of men.

Yansa, as it is also called, represents the reincarnation of the ancestors, the lack of memory and the feeling of regret in women. She is sacrificial, loving and very faithful, she greets herself saying Jekúa Jey Yansá!

She is one of the so-called Orishas muerteras along with her sisters Obba and Yewá, since she exercises a special power over the Eggúns, for being the mother of 9 of them. Her name comes from Yorùbá Òyá, owner of darkness, also known as Oyá Yansá from the Yorùbá Iyámsá, mother of nine.

Catholic syncretism of the warrior Yansa

A Oyá it is syncretized in Catholicism with Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, protector and guardian, a French barefoot Carmelite nun declared a saint in 1925 and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1997.

It is said of the saint that she performed miracles in terms of curing illnesses and conversions and her wonders were always associated with the sudden cure of different ailments.

She is the patron saint of missions and her autobiography is considered today one of the most famous spiritual classics. We pray to Santa Teresita for health and the cure of diseases.

Obba, the Goddess of Sacrifice and Repressed Love

The orisha Obba

Obba It is the Orisha of the Yoruba pantheon that represents repressed love and suffering, and symbolizes conjugal fidelity. She is the strong woman who knows how to make sacrifices for those she loves.

in nature habita in lakes and lagoons and next to Oyá and Yewá, forms the trilogy of the dead deities and wanders through the cemeteries looking for lost souls. Obba, specifically, guards the tombs of the deceased and habita the cemetery and the mountains where souls are abandoned.

Her name comes from the Yorùbá Òbbá (Òbè: soup – Obá: king), "The one with the king's soup", and is due to her patakí with Shangó, king of thunder, where for love of her husband she cut off an ear, losing his love forever.

He has a close relationship with the Yoruba Goddess of Love and Rivers, Oshún, and because of her, Obba also wears five gold bracelets.

The beautiful Obba and her Catholic Syncretism

Obba syncretizes in the Catholic religion with various saints, but fundamentally with Saint Rita of Cassia, patroness of the impossible.

Saint beatified by Urban VIII and canonized by Leo XIII on May 24, 1900, for a life dedicated to helping others and for all the miracles that were awarded to her.

Yewá, the Orisha of Solitude

The orisha Yewa

Yewa or Yegguá it is loneliness, the one that wanted to get away from everything and therefore is pure and innocent. It is an Orisha that represents fidelity, containment of feelings, female chastity, virginity and sterility.

She owns the cemetery and the grave, and lives among the graves and the dead. She is inside the coffin that is in the tomb, from there she takes care of the world because she is also a warrior and a death.

Yewá is the Orisha that is widely linked to death and therefore is part of the Trilogy of the Death and Reckless Goddesses, along with Oyá and Obba. She is in charge of bringing the spirits to Oyá and she is the one who dances on their graves.

Her name comes from the Yorùbá Yèwá (Yeyé: mother - Awá: ours) and it is said that her cult is stronger in the houses of Santiago de Cuba, where she gives herself as a tutelary Orisha and her children enjoy great prestige as sages and fortune-tellers.

Religious syncretism of deathra Yewá

Yewá syncretizes in Catholicism with various saints, but fundamentally with The Virgin of the Helpless, an invocation of the Virgin Mary and the patron saint of the Valencian Community.

She is venerated as one of the seven patron saints of the autonomous communities of Spain.aña and her image symbolizes the Virgin Mary who is characterized by having a slight forward lean, and for this reason over the years she is also called La Geperudeta (The Hunchback).

Above all, those who are in difficult living conditions pray to Our Lady of the Forsaken to achieve stability.

Most read content:

error:
send this message
Hello, I need to consult me. Can you send me the information and the price of the Spiritual Consultations guided by an Espiritista Santera? Thank you. Ashe 🙏