When the Wind Speaks: Lessons from Orisha Oya

When the wind starts talking, you better listen. This week on Sh8peshift Your Life, we’re channeling the fierce, untamed power of Orisha Oya — Mother of Storms, Keeper of the Marketplace, and Guardian of the Ancestral Gates. Oya don’t play small — she clears out what’s stale so we can rise new, rooted, and ready.

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Power of Fall and Oya's Energy
• 7:10 Oya: The Transformative Orisha
• 13:12 Navigating Change with Oya
• 19:23 Embracing the Winds of Change

Transcript

Sh8peShift YourLife (00: 0:00

00) you She should get back you Welcome back, Shapeshifters, with another episode of the Shapeshifter Life podcast. So you know that it's fall, and you know that we are going deep into all the power that fall brings. We started with talking about the fall equinox, and last episode we talked about the power of ancestors, and it was Ancestor of Interation 101. And deepening our conversation, I thought it would be prime time to talk about a very, powerful orisha, which is honored during this time, but really is honored all year round. And I can't think of a more potent time on the planet to really learn more and deepen about this powerful, powerful energy of Boya and what we can learn from her in this time. So I want you to start by thinking about a time you've been in a storm. Maybe there was a lot of rain, rumbling thunder and lightning. You saw the wind blowing at record speeds, things getting flown and strown around like they were like rag dolls. That is the energetic frequency of Boyot energy. That is how powerful it is, transformative. Both the destroyer of what was and creator of what will be. Storms bring tremendous, sometimes violent transformation in a very accelerated, often unexpected time. Pave the road, clear the way. for something new to be built, imagined. So who is Oya? Oya, a Yoruba word, the Yoruba empire populated all throughout West Africa, including Togo, Benin, modern day Nigeria, parts of Ghana. And we know that these tribes existed and it was through colonization when white people came in and carved up Africa and said, we're going to make this country here, that country there, that all of those tribes became. part of different nation states. The Yoruba Empire was one of its greatest empires of the time. The spiritual tradition, the way of life, so heavily visible because it represented one of the largest and last waves of African people transported throughout the diaspora. So Oya being an Orisha, an Orisha represents a human being that at one point walked the earth, lived a human experience. and then became a venerated ancestor because their life symbolized character, resilience, and traits that they wanted to impart to their descendants. So just as we may look at a Malcolm X or Harriet Tubman, they may not be from your actual bloodline, but you look at the way that they live their life, testimony, the aspiration for the way that we can learn to live in our life today. So, oi ya rep... presents one of those Orisha who was venerated. Oya was a foreign woman. So, you know, sometimes even in this day and age, when you see people who are from another town, maybe their language is different, their food is different, the way they rock is different. So people kind of looked at Oya a little bit sideways. So she had to navigate what it felt like being in a foreign land. And I think that's so powerful because many of us can identify with what it feels like to be other, where maybe no one looks like you or has the same customs that you have, but you're here, you're home. Boya had more than one husband. She was married to Ogun, who was a blacksmith, was one of the Orisha of war, rules transportation and communication. And she played a very pivotal role in building up his business, his business of that of being a blacksmith. And so the bellows, like when we fan the flame and you pump that, you squeeze that thing together, that is what Oya gave to Ogun. And that is why in the Lukumi or the Santaria or the tradition that she carries all of Ogun's tools with her, the machete, the tools of farming, tools of labor, because Ogun is the one, the blacksmith forages those tools. But when she left him, She took those tools with her as well. She said, look, I gave you the billows. This is part of my intellectual property. So I'm going to take it with me. And when you see the shrines in the Lucumian Santaria tradition, you will see these tools typically fortified in copper because copper is the metal of Oya. Copper is a very, powerful metal against radiation, electromagnetic frequencies. Copper is antibacterial. I'm wearing my copper bracelets today. It is used for protection to fortify the physical body as Oya fortifies us. Oya is most famously known for her relationship with Shango. Shango being the king of the Yoruba people and the head of the Yoruba empire at one of its highest points in history. It is Oya who is known to go ahead of Shango in battle. He trusted her so much in her strategizing skills and her combat skills were so powerful that it was her that went ahead. She's also someone that when Shango did go to battle, he felt most confident having her next to him, having her by his side. When you see Shango, there's a traditional hairstyle of hair corn road all the way up into a ponytail. You'll also see the vertical skirt sewn together by long patches. Again, Oya's symbolism that Shango even took on her dress. He took on her hairstyle. So again, this is why I always say I'm not a feminist because African women don't need to look for feminism to see images of women. at the highest levels of society. Oya, foreigner, someone who did not come from the royal palace, being able to navigate multiple marriages and find her way in the palace. It speaks to the charisma of Oya, the accomplishments that she was able to ascend to. The word Oya means to tear, the one who rips. And that can be a very, very scary place to be. Everybody's saying revolution, revolution, we want something new. But when what you want new requires your own death or the burning up of your house or the tearing up of life, you know, Oya is the energy that brings transformation. And so also Oya represents Odo Oya, Odo meaning river. Every female Orisha represents a body of water, a river spirit. We can learn from the Ishe-Shei tradition that the divine feminine, this idea of water make no enemy, water taking the shape of any form, being a shape-shifter. That women have the ability to claim that movement, that vitality, fluidity of water, just as we are birthed the cosmic womb of the earth, which is majority water. When you are in a womb, you are in water. So water and the divine feminine go hand in hand, and Oya is part of this lineage of the river. The Odo Oya is also called the Niger River, the largest body of water in that region. Wherever you find water, you find wealth. People who live near the Nile, people who live near oceans and rivers are able to access and harness the power and the wealth. So that vitality of Oya as a warrior, she's one of our first freedom fighters. She is the courageous one. She's worshiped throughout the diaspora because you can imagine our ancestors going through and dealing with the oppression of slavery, the oppression of white supremacy and white psychosis required a warrior spirit, required courage, required someone who was willing to fight. As we say in Ifa, we come from heaven, but earth is the marketplace. Earth is not just the marketplace when we think of where we go to buy goods and trade goods, but also the market place of life, that you live a life in the marketplace, that you are born to have your own skills, your own gifts, and you have to trade them, barter them, exchange them, harness them. So Oya also represents the queen of the marketplace. Oya is a grand, grand businesswoman. Oya is the original shapeshifter. She was known to be able to transform. sometimes from a leopard, sometimes from a buffalo. She would live in the forest as a wild animal and then she would literally take off her animal skin and then she would hide it in the forest and go off into the marketplace where she would then trade her goods. She represents this idea of what it means to be very rooted in the earth. When you think of buffalo, leopards, they are ground animals, animals that are about strategy, observation. The Yoruba people studied how animals and forces of nature moved and gleaned how we could learn from these characteristics and alchemize them in our own life. So we know as this force of transformation, Oya is symbolized by the number nine. Nine represents a full cycle. It takes nine months to have a child. So you go through this nine cycle and then you return to one. But then also earth being the marketplace, you go through your full human cycle from being in the cosmos, in heaven, down to the earth. You have your transition from childhood into adolescence into adulthood, into eldership, into ancestorship. And then the cycle repeats. So Oya rules the entire cycle from beginning to end, 360 degrees. And when you add up the number three plus the number six plus the number zero, you come back to nine again. And this is the year 2025 that also adds up to nine. So we have this energy connected to death and rebirth. This is also why Oya has a very particular relationship with the ancestors. She actually gave birth. to the egungun, egungun meaning bone bone, the masquerade festivals that you will see throughout West Africa. It is Oya who gave birth to that. And this was a secret society that before it was taken over by men was actually ruled by women. She's connected to the lungs, to the breath. So Oya representing that 360 degree cycle of life. You can go without water, you can go without food, but you cannot go without breath. The first breath that you take, And the last breath that you take, because she is the one to meet you at the end of your life cycle. She is the one to open the doors into the ancestral realm. She also has her tools that she carries, her implements, like all Orisha. One of them is a machete, because she is a fighter, because she is a warrior. The horse tail, the fly whisk, everything about her dances, everything about her movements are shape shifting, channeling. Swift movements, catalyzing, picking things up, moving us from one state to the next. That fluidity of movement. And for that reason, she was a fantastic dancer. Oya representing this buffalo, leopard, sometimes horse. All of these images represent power, protection, courage. Her grand horns of the buffalo, the horned woman, the horned primordial mother. goes all the way back to the times of Horace and ancient Kemet, that many indigenous cultures have this symbol of the warrior horned goddess. She is a mother, she is a wife, she is a warrior, she is a market woman, she is a dancer, she is an innovator with Ogun helping to innovate new levels of technology. She is a protectress, she is a power holder. She shows us that we come from a lineage of powerful, powerful women and that we can call upon the power of Oya. So how do we then bring all of that energy down into the world? Oya is the one who comes up in deep times of change. And I honestly can't think of a deeper time of change than the time of change we're living on right now. I would say change greater than anything we've ever known, greater than anything we've ever seen. Every time you look at the news, pick up that phone. You're being told about something that maybe you could not even conceive was possible. Things like flying cars. Okay, yeah, watch the Jetsons. There's going to be a flying cars. And now there's actually flying cars. We are living in the last stand of whiteness. We are watching the fall of Western civilization. And that is why they're trying to put up such a big fight. This is why they're trying to scare people. This is where the fascist regime is rearing its ugly head to try to beat people into submission. But what they don't recognize is this is a spiritual war. You could spin a globe and pick any country in the world. And I guarantee you that country is revolting. That country is speaking truths of power. That country is coming out against its governments. And it is claiming peace for the people. Reclaiming. It's its own self-determination. It is rebelling against the one percent, oligarchs, the billionaires, and it's saying we are reclaiming our power. Those of us with eyes to see and ears to hear have to also know that we can't just look at the world at face value, have to know that no, shit is going to crumble. Things will fall down. This empire is going to fall and we're part of it. So if the house is collapsing, and you live in a house, your ceiling might start caving in. And that doesn't mean something's wrong. And what Oya teaches us is in the midst of the whirlwind, how do we hold on to the eye of the storm? How do we hold on to that place of I started this episode by asking you if you've ever been in a storm. I was born in Richmond, Virginia, and my parents would send me from Oakland, California to be with my family during the summertime. And I remember being in one of my first storms and my aunt was like, okay, a storm is coming. And you know, I'm from California. We don't really have storms like that. So I'm like, okay. And she's like, we're going to unplug everything. We're going to turn off all the lights. We're going to go sit out on the sun porch. It had screens, so we weren't going to get bit by mosquitoes. And we're just going to sit and let God's do its business. And when I tell you I was terrified, I was like, I want to call my mom. I want to go home. What is wrong with these people? Why are we sitting in the dark watching the storm, watching the lightning strike through the sky with rumbling thunder that literally felt like as it was Cracking it was gonna crack open your heart and so even you know And this is my Christian family and so big ups to them But when that storm was over and the Sun came out and it dried all of the water that was on it was one of the most beautiful beautiful days So what do we learn from this? We have to learn that even with the storm kicking everything around things being broken ripped apart Heart as we know it, jobs as we know it, relationships as we know it, bank accounts as we know it. In the end, that cleansing storm brings a level of new beginning. And so it's our ability to navigate change, navigate the career shifts, navigate the relationship changes, spiritual awakening. That is what Oya represents. She is a righteous disruption. She is coming into clear stagnant systems, emotional debris. And she's showing us that another world is possible. Oya teaches us surrender. When that storm came in and Auntie said, no, no, no, baby, we're going to turn these lights off and sit down. And and what I didn't say is Auntie said, we're going to pray. She was praying to God. She was humming that gospel music. And, you know, one of the things that Oya has done in my life is she has brought me closer and given me a great, great respect. For all of my Baptist and Protestant ancestors from Virginia, she has brought me back to my ancestral lineage that yes, is in West Africa, but first is right here in the Americas. That there's times that we just have to sit down and surrender to what is happening. Surrender is a place of power. So I have. been initiated to Oya now coming up on six years. I talked a little bit about this in my Journey to Ifa episode, so you can go back and check that out. As a child living in a world that didn't honor, welcome, nurture my gifts, the first, I don't know, 25ish years, maybe 30 years of my life, I had a lot of unbridled fire, fire that was just burning itself. That was quick. not wise, that would make rash decisions and harm myself. I had an immense amount of power, but it was through my initiation to Oya that I learned how to channel that power, alchemize that fire towards business, apply it towards my coaching practice. I've been the one who has died and rebirthed herself time and time and time again. I've had to have an intimate relationship with the concept of change because when you're a daughter of Oya, Life is life be life and in life be shifting and life be changing. That's why I call myself a shape shifter because I have embodied the water spirit, the ability to change and transform. But the core of who I am, the essence of who I am is still there. And so it allows me to be rooted and anchored, but also not to be attached. That fixation or yas always shaking up within me. So I got a chance to embrace the dance of Oya. of being fluid, motion. That is what Oya is giving me, but she's giving it to all of us right now because this is a powerful time to honor her. So one of the things that we can do to honor Oya first and foremost is just to take a deep breath, just taking a deep breath, knowing that the longer you breathe, the slower you breathe, the more you breathe, you are oxygenating your body, oxygenating your cells. As you oxygenate your cells, you create the blood flow. nourish all the organs in your body, calm your parasympathetic nervous system that controls your stress, that makes you a stronger vessel. And as you are a stronger vessel, you emit your own frequency. The more you're emitting higher frequencies means that your ability to broadcast and magnetize what it is that you're desiring in life. So just the power of breath can transform our entire lives. So Tapping into your breath, I am dressed in the colors of Oya today. She is dark red, purple, eggplant, wine, plum, burgundy, even dark, dark brown. When I received my initiatory clothing, celebratory clothing for Oya, they actually dressed me in dark brown skins of a leopard. Spending time outdoors, listening to the wind, right? I pay so much attention to the wind now. I speak my intentions into the wind. I speak my prayers into the wind because I know that Oya is carrying my messages out into the universe. When you honor your ancestors, you're actually honoring Oya. When you honor yourself and your business and your career and you making money, Oya is a wealthy woman. Oya was living in the palace, honey. Oya was a business woman. She's not out here giving it road. She's nurturing her gifts. One of the greatest currencies is navigational capital, being able to navigate different scenarios, being able to navigate change to get to the bag. That is the energy of Oya. So when you honor your own business, when you honor your own gifts, you are also honoring Oya. And so when we're looking at the news, following ourselves in a challenging position, at a crossroads. in a time of tremendous shift. Oya is the one that we call upon to say, dear mother, support me in navigating. I welcome the winds of change. I surrender to the winds of change. Elevate yourself into the realm of Oya, which is the wind, the higher place. Ascend to the highest point. Tap in to who it is that you are, the power that you have to give, the gifts that you have to bring, the ancestors that are from your lineage. the movement and the embracing of change that only you can do. And I promise you, Oya will meet you there in the Yoruba calendar that is every four days. We honor Oya and we also honor Shango. They rule the end of the week and we name it Chakuta Victory because we know that when Oya is present and Shango is present. We're victorious. Even praying for your own victory is something that you can do to know that our people will continue to be victorious, regardless of all of the disruption and the transformation that is going on right now. We can root ourselves in her power. OK, that is what I have for you today, Shapeshifters. Let me know in the comments how you are going to harness the power of Oya during this powerful, powerful season of the fall. And until then, I will see you next time. Keep shipping. Bye. Supreme gratitude for tuning in today, Shapeshifters. Your presence is a gift and I truly appreciate you. If you're feeling like it's time for an energetic reset, I got you. Download my free chakra tune-up, a transformative seven-day guide to realign your energy, harmonize with nature's rhythms, and recharge your spirit. Head on over to shapeshiftyourlife.com. That's one word, S-H, the number eight, P-E, shift your life. and grab your copy today. Keep shifting