Oya oil

Oya can take the shape of a water buffalo, and in one Yoruba story she became a hunter’s wife only after he found the buffalo skin she had hidden in the forest.

Origin & Traditional Use

Oya (Ọya) is the Yoruba orisha of the wind, the tornado, lightning and the marketplace, a warrior wife of Shango. In Cuban Lucumí she guards the entrance to the cemetery and is honoured with the number nine, with maroon or many-coloured cloth, and she is syncretised with Our Lady of Candelaria. This oil is a botánica preparation used to honour her and call on her storm power.

Uses by Tradition

Santería & Lucumí

• Dress a maroon or burgundy candle with the oil and offer it with nine small eggplants, a traditional food for Oya.
• Anoint a horsetail fly whisk or a fan kept on her altar, since she is shown carrying one.
• Use a drop on a candle lit for the dead, calling on her as the guardian of the cemetery gate.

Hoodoo & Rootwork

• Dress a candle for court cases and sudden reversals, asking her to sweep away what stands against you.
• Add a few drops to a floor wash for a house that feels stuck or stagnant, working from the back to the front door.

A Simple Working

• On a windy day, take a maroon chime candle and dress it with Oya oil from middle to ends.
• Carve the number nine into the wax.
• Stand it on a plate with nine pennies around its base.
• Light it near an open window and say plainly what change you are asking her to bring.
• Let the candle burn down completely.
• Take the pennies to the gate of a cemetery or a busy market and leave them there for her.

Pairs Well With

• A maroon chime candle: her most familiar colour.
• Eggplant: a traditional offering to Oya.
• A horsetail fly whisk: her emblem, for the altar.
• Copper pennies: for leaving at the cemetery gate or marketplace.

Lore & History

In Lucumí patakís Oya is the fiercest of Shango’s wives, the one who rides into battle beside him with her sword and whisk. In Brazilian Candomblé she is called Iansã and is commonly syncretised with Saint Barbara, the saint invoked against lightning.

What You Receive

Oya oil, available in 2 dram, 1 oz and 16 oz.