Oshun
Ọ̀ṣun, Oxum
Yoruba & diaspora Living tradition
Water Love Fertility Beauty Wealth
The orishas are honored in living traditions: Yoruba religion in West Africa, and Lucumí (Santería), Candomblé and others in the Americas. Practices vary by house and lineage.
Orisha of sweet waters, love, fertility and beauty, linked to the Osun River in Nigeria.
Oshun's sacred grove at Osogbo, on the Osun River, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and her festival there draws thousands each August. In one well-known story, when the other orishas excluded her, the rains stopped and the world began to fail until they honored her again.
Symbols
Mirror Brass and gold Honey Fan
In the ancient sources
Ifá verses and Yoruba tradition
- Ifá verse Ọ̀ṣẹ́tùrá Sixteen male orishas are sent to order the world but ignore Oshun, the only woman; everything they do fails until they beg her pardon and honor her.
- Osogbo founding tradition The river goddess lets the first settlers build beside the Osun River in return for yearly offerings, renewed at the Osun-Osogbo festival.
Yoruba sacred knowledge lives mainly in oral form: Ifá divination verses and oríkì praise poetry, written down from the 19th century and differing from town to town. The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.
Cross-checked against these texts and records, in public-domain or freely available versions where they exist. Line, section and chapter numbers follow the standard editions, so a particular translation may differ slightly.
Correspondences Explore all
- Festival
- Osun-Osogbo Festival (August)
- Element
- Water
- Number
- 5
These come from the tradition itself, and practice differs between regions, lineages and houses. To go deeper, learn from the people and communities who keep this tradition.