The goddess represent stories of women and where we are in our lives. One of my favorite stories is of Oshun and her yellow dress.
In Yorbua mythology there are Orisha (similar to the Greeks Gods & Goddesses) who represent the different personalities or elements of us as people. One of them being Oshun who represents self love, self worth, prosperity, and sensuality among many other things.
One of the many stories of Oshun that I use to inspire me goes as follows…
Oshun & The Yellow Dress.
Today Oshun is known for wearing a yellow dress and in any picture you find of her she is in a yellow dress however a secret that many people aren’t aware of is that Oshun’s yellow dress (or in some cases pink dress) wasn’t originally yellow or pink, her dress is white and it’s been dyed yellow by the dust. Before her dress turned yellow all around the village Oshun was known for her sparkling white dress. It dazzeled like diamonds and flowed in patterns of waterfalls all over her body. Some of the villagers were jealous of Oshun, they were jealous of her powers, the way she dresses and who she was as a woman. Oshun was the single mother of twins and the villagers took her and her two little kids and threw them out of the village sending them to live in the dust by the water bank. Even then Oshun’s dress stayed white. Always the resourceful one Oshun began using her powers to create tie-dyes (which is a metaphor for something else. because she took the powers she was thrown out of the village for and dipped them into the “water” to create beautiful masterpieces. The villagers were memorized by Oshun’s works of art and even though they hated her they had to have her pieces and so they bought them from her and Oshun used the profits from her tie-dyes to build a little hut by the riverbank and provide a humble home for her twins. When the villagers saw Oshun rebuilding herself they realized their mistake and got together to devise the uglyist plot in the world. One day while Oshun was out in the river creating her tie-dyes they snuck in and stole her kids. They left a note saying that they were going to sell her children into child slavery and when Oshun saw that note, it broke her. The villages had offered her one glimmer of hope, “At the bottom of the light side of the waterbed are gemstones. If you can collect 150 trunks of these crystals by Friday then we will give you back your kids and never bother you or your children again. It was already Tuesday and Oshun worked all through the night and day, digging crystal after crystal up from the water desperately trying to get the money together to save her kids from being sold as slaves. She used her powers, her mind, her spirit, and even her dress. Her dazzeling white dress turned yellow with mud and the shimmer in her gorgeous gown had all but gone out . But Oshun didn’t care. She wanted her kids. To the villages dismay she somehow dug up 150 crystals in only 3 days. The villagers returned their kids to her and keeping their word never bothered her or her children again. To this day when women wear yellow it’s in the honor of Oshun and what she did for her children. See these stories of the goddesses exist with vibrations inside every woman. Even when we as a people have forgotten Oshun’s original dress, Oshun never did. Yellow or white her power was never in the dress but always in the woman who wore it. There is a secret to wearing a dress. Today when any woman puts on a dress it is a token to Oshun and a remember to us as women to never hang our heads – regardless of what life throws at us, to never drop our shoulders and to always give grace, love, hope, and beauty to the body that we are wearing. This post was written for all of the women who are coming home to their wings.
