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Yoruba

Oya

the wind that clears the way for change

air

Oya is the storm-wind, guardian of the cemetery gate, mistress of change; to dream of a wind that scatters everything is to be shown that some doors open only after the old room has been swept bare.

Fragments

She stands at the gate of the dead with a horsetail whisk, turning the newly-lost gently toward the road they must take, and no other.

She goes before her husband Shango into battle, nine-coloured skirts whirling; where she has passed, the trees lie down and the market scatters like birds.

windstormchangedeathmarkets
Meet it in the dream →