List of Yoruba deities
Encyclopedia
Orishas
- AganjuAganjuIn Yoruba mythology, Aganju is the Orisha of volcanos, the wilderness, and the river. He is associated with Saint Christopher.As the third Òrìsà said to have come to earth, Aganjú is an Òrìsà of great antiquity. Lukumi followers of this religion believe that Aganjú is a force that, like the sun...
- Orisha of volcanoes, the wilderness and rivers - AjaAja (Yoruba mythology)In Yoruba mythology, Aja is an Orisha, patron of the forest, the animals within it and herbal healers, whom she taught their art.Among the Yoruba, aja also refer to a "wild wind". It's believed that if someone is carried away by aja, and then returns, he becomes a powerful "jujuman"...
- Orisha of the forest, the animals within it, and herbal healing - AyaoAyaoAyao is a minor orisha in the Lucumi/Santería pantheon. She is the orisha of the air. Ayao is considered to reside in both the forest and in the eye of the tornado. She works closely with Osain and is a fierce warrior. Ayao has among her implements a crossbow with a serpent, a quill and nine...
- Orisha of air - Babalu AyeBabalu AyeIn the religious system of Orisha worship, Babalú-Ayé is the praise name of the spirit of the Earth and strongly associated with infectious disease, and healing. He is an Orisha, representing the deity Olorun on Earth...
- Orisha of the Earth and strongly associated with infectious disease (particularly smallpox, leprosy and AIDS) and healing - Egungun-oyaEgungun-oyaIn Yoruba mythology, Egungun-oya is a goddess of divination. "Egungun" refers to the collective spirits of the ancestral dead; the Orisha "Oya" is seen as the mother of the Egun....
- Orisha of divination - ErinleErinleErinle, also known as Inle, is an Orisha in the Yoruba religion of West Africa. According to the patakis or stories of the faith of the Lukumi derivative of the religion, he is a hunter. As a spirit of abundance, he is believed to serve as both a healer and the patron of gay people. He is said to...
- Orisha of medicine, healing, and comfort, physician to the gods; in SanteríaSanteríaSantería is a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla Lucumi, or Lukumi. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumi....
he is also regarded as a patron of gay people - EshuEshuÈṣù is both an orisha and one of the most well-known deities of the Yoruba mythology and its related New World traditions.He has a wide range of responsibilities: the protector of travelers, deity of roads, particularly...
- trickster, psychopompPsychopompPsychopomps are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply provide safe passage...
and Orisha of crossroads, duality, beginnings, travelers, fertility and death - KokouKokou (god)In the Yoruba religion of Benin, a Kokou is one of the most highly feared warrior Undergods. It is the most violent and powerful of the Yoruba spirits and the voodoo rituals surrounding it involves its followers to fall into a deep trance with rapidly beating drums...
- a violent warrior Orisha - ObaOba (goddess)In Yoruba mythology, Ọba or Obbá is the first wife of Shango, the third king of the Oyo Empire and the Yoruba Undergod of thunder and lightning. Obbá is said to be an Orisha of the river. She was the daughter of Yemaja and one of the consorts of Shango. She is said to have given her husband her...
- first wife of Shango and Orisha of domesticity and marriage - ObatalaObatalaIn the religion of the Yoruba people, Obàtálá is the creator of human bodies, which were supposedly brought to life by Olorun's breath.Obàtálá is also the owner of all ori or heads. Any orisha may lay claim to an individual, but until that individual is initiated into the priesthood of that orisha,...
- creator of human bodies; Orisha of light, spiritual purity, and moral uprightness - OgounOgounIn the Yoruba and Haitian traditional belief system, Ogun is a orisha and loa who presides over iron, hunting, politics and war. He is the patron of smiths, and is usually displayed with a number of attributes: a machete or sabre, rum and tobacco...
- Orisha who presides over fire, iron, hunting, politics and war - OlokunOlokunOlokun is an Orisha in Yoruba religion, associated with the sea. Olokun is therefore considered the patron Orisa of the descendants of Africans that were carried away during the Transatlantic Slave Trade or Middle Passage, sometimes referred to in the United States by African-Americans as the Maafa...
- patron Orisha of the descendants of Africans who were carried away during the Atlantic Slave TradeAtlantic slave tradeThe Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
or Middle PassageMiddle PassageThe Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of people from Africa were shipped to the New World, as part of the Atlantic slave trade... - OshunOshunOshun, or Ochun in the Yoruba religion, is an Orisha who reigns over love, intimacy, beauty, wealth and diplomacy. She is worshipped also in Brazilian Candomblé Ketu, with the name spelled Oxum. She should not be confused, however, with a different Orisha of a similar name spelled "Osun," who is...
- Orisha who presides over love, intimacy, beauty, wealth and diplomacy - OshunmareOshunmareIn Yoruba mythology, Oshunmare is a divine serpent which is believed to create the rainbow, both male and female, and is a symbol of creation, human procreation and the link between the world of the mundane and that of the ancestors. This idea is more a part of worship in the Americas than it is...
- divine rainbow serpent associated with creation and procreation - OxossiOxossiOxossi is both the Orisha of the forest and one of the three warrior orishas referred to as the "Ebora" in the Yoruba religion. He is a hunter, and his role as an often solitary figure in the wilderness lends him another role as a shaman...
- Orisha of the forest - OyaOyaIn Yoruba mythology, Oya , is the Undergoddess of the Niger River. Oya has been syncretized in Santería with the Catholic images of the Virgin of Candelaria.-Aspects:...
- Orisha of the Niger RiverNiger RiverThe Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...
; associated with wind, lightning, fertility, fire, and magic - SoponaSoponaSopona is the god of smallpox in the Yoruba religion.The Yoruba people of Nigeria believed that smallpox was a disease foisted upon humans due to Shapona’s “divine displeasure”, and formal worship of the God of Smallpox was highly controlled by specific priests in charge of shrines to the God...
- Orisha of smallpox - ShangoShangoIn the Yorùbá religion, Sàngó is perhaps one of the most popular Orisha; also known as the god of fire, lightning and thunder...
- Orisha of thunder and lightning - YemajaYemajaYemanja is an orisha, originally of the Yoruba religion, who has become prominent in many Afro-American religions. Africans from what is now called Yorubaland brought Yemaya/Yemoja and a host of other deities/energy forces in nature with them when they were brought to the shores of the Americas as...
- a mother goddessMother goddessMother goddess is a term used to refer to a goddess who represents motherhood, fertility, creation or embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother.Many different goddesses have...
; patron deity of women, especially pregnant women, and the Ogun riverOgun RiverThe Ogun River is a waterway in Nigeria that discharges into the Lagos Lagoon.-Course and usage:The river rises in Oyo State near Shaki at coordinates and flow through Ogun State into Lagos State....