Oshun and the pumpkin patch is a powerful story about using your own healing for yourself. A king of a neighboring tribe saw how sensual Oshuns body is and wanted to experience her sensuality for himself so he took her for himself and hurt her as she picking pumpkins in a pumpkin patch. His wife heard the screaming and found them there and instead of helping Oshun she blamed her for her husband’s indiscretion and ostracized her- encouraging all the other villagers to join in shaming Oshun.
Oshun lost control of her body ( other people used it for their own things) and she abandoned herself, she had no love for herself anymore. One day, while bathing in the river Oshun saw a reflection of her body all disfigured and she began to cry. A rare fish in the water heard her bawling and came to the surface to console you- “Oshun why are you crying?” He asked.
” Look how ugly and used up I am! I don’t even recognize who I used to be.”
“Don’t worry Oshun!” The fish consoled her, ” There’s something that can heal all the scars and make all the wounds go away and it’s hidden in the forest. You just have to find it.” And with that the fish disappeared into the water again.
Oshun desperately began her quest to find this rare thing that would heal her. She tried every exotic plant she could find to no avail. She even tried the leaves of a calabas tree that only blooms once every 10,000 years but that didn’t even work. Finally, body shaking in sorrow she started to leave the forest. She was so turned around that she ended on the edge of the very same pumpkin patch that she had been hurt in.
A tiny little pumpkin spoke to her ” I can heal you Oshun, I can make all the scars go away.”
Oshun looked at the pumpkin in fear, pain, and distrust. She had always avoided this pumpkin patch and hadn’t meant to end up here. “This is where I was hurt the deepest.” Oshun vulnerably whispered to the pumpkin- ” How can I trust you?”
” Oh Oshun,” The pumpkin replied with understanding and deep pain in its voice ” What hurts you heals you.”
And with that the pumpkin instructed Oshun to dip inside of it and rub the golden pumpkin seeds all over her body and as she did all her scars and bruises disappeared and her body became even more radiant and beautiful than it was before.