Praise Her
A Goddess for Giving and Receiving Love
Call forth Oshun’s energy for self-love and abundance
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In an ideal world, relationships would be easy. We would give love freely and generously, and receive love with ease. We would be upfront with our wants and desires and rationally communicate with one another if our needs aren’t being met. We would not try to coerce someone to feel a certain way — including ourselves. And, if our needs couldn’t be fulfilled, we would respectfully move on without a lot of drama.
Unfortunately, relationships are rarely that easy. We enter relationships with trauma from childhood and previous experiences, we let our ego fixate on the things we’re lacking rather than what we are receiving, and we either withhold our affections to get what we want, or provide too much affection in an attempt to prove that we are worthy. We make it difficult.
We can connect with the goddess Oshun to give love with ease, and to help us move on if our love is not being reciprocated. She reminds us that the only love we need is the love for ourselves. We can then act from a place of abundance, from which we can attract and sustain healthy relationships.
The story of Oshun
Oshun is the Orisha goddess of love, healing, fertility, and fresh water. Orisha deities belong to the Yoruba religion. Originating in Western Africa, Yoruba is one of the 10 largest religions in the world, with about 100 million global practitioners. Oshun is both a creator and a healer. Followers call on Oshun for help with fertility and to cure ailments when medicine doesn’t work. Oshun’s energy can heal and create life, but she can also take it away if she feels that we are ungrateful for what she has given. She represents everything that is lush, fertile, and juicy in our world.
According to the Orisha legend, Olodumare, the god of all gods, sent the female deity Oshun down to earth to create a world with a group of male deities. Oshun wore a gold dress and jewelry. She was dark, beautiful, and quite flirtatious. While they admired her beauty, the male gods didn’t think that they needed Oshun’s help to create a world. Frustrated that she wasn’t getting the reverence she deserved, Oshun left this boy’s club…
