Orisha Iansã: history, day, learn more about this goddess!

Iansã is a title of Oyá, a Yabá, that is, a female Orisha. There are several itans that explain the origin of this title, but the most popular is that Oyá received the title of Iansã for having nine children. Oyá is a warrior Yabá, lady of the winds and lightning.

She is one of the wives of King Xangô, the Orixá who dominates fire, from whom she learned to spit fire, and goes out in battles, conquering new territories. Iansã had many loves and, with each male Orisha, she learned to master a spell or to handle a different weapon.

In addition, it is also the Orisha that leads the spirit of the dead, right after the passage, and who helps lost souls to find the light. Thus, Iansã is a Yabá queen, lady of lightning, winds and storms, fire breather, mother of nine children, Orisha of war and leader of the dead. To better understand about it and all these aspects, follow our article!

Iansã, or Oyá, is a quality of female Orixás that have qualities of male orixás. Each attribute Iansã was gifted with makes up her range of skills, making her unstoppable like the wind. Find out more about her below!

Oyá is the daughter of Princess Ala, the result of a forbidden relationship. As soon as he discovered his daughter’s pregnancy, the king threw her into the river. Some time later, a baby was found offered to the king, who adopted it, seeking to redeem himself for the death of his daughter.

Later, the king discovered that the child was his real granddaughter and that he should return her to the river. Shortly afterwards, Oyá was found by the hunter Odulecê, her adoptive father.

Iansã is one of the best known orixás in Brazil, as his stories are passed down from generation to generation, since the time when the cult of the Orixás was prohibited by the slavers.

Unable to worship their deities as they should, far from their family and friends and surrounded by people from other peoples and nationalities, black Africans created new ways of worshiping their gods, mixing practices and Itans from different locations and seeking in Catholicism a disguise for their rituals. Thus, the Brazilian aspects of the cult of this Orisha emerged.

The mythology of the Orixás is based on the forces of nature and events considered supernatural. Therefore, it is common to find, among the Itans, stories that relate natural forces to a specific Orixá.

Therefore, Oyá is considered the Orisha who has dominion over the forces of the storm, lightning, winds, tornadoes and typhoons. She is the personification of nature’s fury, but she is also present in the gentle breeze, which calms and refreshes.

Iansã represents the wind and air movements, which is its main element. However, with each male Orixá that was related, Oyá developed a new skill, until he joined Xangô, his partner in life and conquests. Together, Oyá and Xangô formed the palm oil couple.

This nickname arises from the strong temperament of these Orixás, but also because they exercise dominion over fire. According to his Itan, Oyá went to the land of the baribas, to seek the potion that allowed Xangô to spit and release fire through his nose. On the way, she ingested part of the potion, acquiring the same ability as her husband.

The Orisha Iansã is represented by two main animals. The buffalo, which she wears the skin of and transforms to hide or protect her children, and the butterfly, which is part of Onira’s mythology, a quality of Oyá who drowned and was saved by Oxum, transforming her into a butterfly.

There is also an Itan in which Oyá metamorphoses into a white elephant to escape an attempted rape. There are several qualities of the same Orisha, with different life history.

Iansã’s colors range from red to earthy tones. In traditional worship, its color is brown, but in Brazil, red has become the most used color to represent it in Candomblé and yellow is used in some Umbanda houses. There are also Oyás who wear pink, in a salmon-like tone.

This hue is linked to Onira, who, according to Itan, was a ruthless warrior and lived covered in the blood of her opponents. But, upon entering the palace of Oxalá, an Orisha who wears white, he covered her with Efun, a sacred white powder that turned her robes pink.

Iansã, or Oyá, and Xangô form the palm oil couple. Together they share their domain. While Oyá represents lightning, Xangô represents thunder. One is closely linked to the other. For this reason, the day of the week on which the Orisha must be worshiped is the same for both, being Wednesday.

On this day, their children light their candles and make their offerings, in addition to singing songs and prayers to the Orisha. It is a day of meditation, contemplation, gratitude and reflection. In Umbanda, Iansã is also worshiped on Mondays.

In addition to colors, regencies and animals, each Orisha has a regency number, which is directly linked to the itans about it. In the case of Iansã, the number nine is even present in her title “Ìyá Mésàn”, which means mother of nine children.

Thus, Itan tells that Oyá could not have children, but he sacrificed a ram and was awarded nine. Thus, from that moment on, everyone began to refer to her as the mother of nine children, Iansã (Yánsàn).

In African-based religions, each Orisha has a specific greeting, which must be chanted with strength and joy, every time they arrive on Earth through the incorporation used at the beginning of prayers, or whenever one wishes to call the Orisha and ask for your protection.

Therefore, this greeting is a greeting, a way of saying hello and signaling that the Orisha is welcome and admired in this enclosure. In the case of Iansã, his greeting is “Eparrey Oyá!”, which can also be written: Eparrêi Oyá!

It is common to see Orixás and saints being related to the same force, according to their life stories. This was the way enslaved peoples found to understand Christianity and worship their Gods in secret. In this way, check out the religious syncretism present in the Orisha Iansã below!

In colonial Brazil, those who did not worship Christianity were persecuted, tortured and killed. Thus, the way out to keep his faith and stay alive was to disguise his cults in prayers to Catholic saints. This practice made it possible to resist the cult of the Orixás, but it also created distortions.

So, although they are very different religions to this day, Brazilian Catholicism is still permeated by the cults and practices of African religions. Likewise, they also incorporated elements of Christianity.

Santa Bárbara was a young woman isolated in a tower by her father. Her creation was delegated to tutors, who taught her the principles of paganism. At the age of marriage, Barbara refused her suitors and her father decided to allow her to know the city, where she discovered Christianity and converted.

Thus, the girl was persecuted and tortured, being beheaded by her own father, who was killed by lightning. Since her beatification, Santa Bárbara has been considered a protector against lightning and thunder and the patroness of those who work with fire.

The life stories of Santa Bárbara and Iansã are different, but, at the moment of his death, Santa Bárbara was avenged by lightning and was considered a martyr of Christianity since the third century, being sanctified later.

Life in captivity, death from religious persecution and the death of her executioner, added to the fact that she was considered protective against lightning and thunder and patroness of those who work with fire, made enslaved Africans relate her to the domains of Iansã. In addition, they became attached to the saint, asking for protection against their tormentors, ironically Christian.

In the traditions of African peoples, an exact date is not stipulated for the cult of the Orisha to be made. Even because, as far as is known, the cult of the Orishas dates back to four thousand years ago – at least two thousand, before the beginning of the counting of the Christian calendar.

Thus, here in Brazil, the possible date of Santa Bárbara’s death is used for cults to Iansã in Umbanda and in some branches of Candomblé, whose cults suffered more Christian influence.

The children of Iansã are seen as strong, dynamic, sensual, hardworking, courageous and passionate people. Regardless of the religion you follow, the vibration of your orixá will always be with you and this may or may not show up in some characteristics or passages in life. Check out the characteristics of the children of this orisha below!

The men, sons of Iansã, are strong and capable, getting rid of life’s problems with ease. Extremely warm and loyal, they are capable of showing deep emotions, but they are also controlling and difficult to deal with, tending to become vindictive if they feel betrayed.

In most cases, women are governed by female Orixás and men by male Orixás, but it may happen that the person needs the strength of a specific orixá, at some point in their life trajectory, and is born already under this regency.

The daughters of Iansã are strong and sensual women, studious, curious and intelligent and seek to exercise leadership positions. They are demanding and controlling mothers, but they are deeply loving and tend to have their attitudes understood by their adult children.

In addition, they are courageous women and tireless workers. They can’t stand betrayals and suffer a lot until they find their life partner. They have sharp intuition and can develop a high degree of mediumship. They are naturally mystical and easily attracted to the occult.

In love, the children of Iansã are intense, passionate, faithful and dreamers. They crave a solid and deep relationship, but tend to suffer betrayals, separations or widowhood. This is due to the odú of Iansã, which deals with the energies of life and death.

In addition, they seek polite, kind, romantic, seductive and fiery partners. They want a company that knows how to deal with their explosive temperament and their high level of demand. Therefore, your ideal partner must share the same intensity and burning desire.

The Itans of Iansã…