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Oshun, Ochun in Yoruba mythology, is a spirit-goddess (Orisha) who reigns over love, intimacy, beauty, wealth and diplomacy. She is worshipped also in Brazilian Candomblé Ketu, with the name spelled Oxum.

In one story, she had to become a prostitute to feed her children and the other Orishas removed her children from her home. Oshun went insane from grief and wore the same white dress every day; it eventually turned yellow. Aje'-Shaluga, another Orisha, fell in love with her while she was washing her dress. He gave her money and gems which he collected from the bottom of the river he lived in. They were married and she was reunited with her children.


The story is complex and it would take pages to fill you in. Search her out in Wikipedia for start - so far she is one of the most complex and controversial Goddesses I've come across.

I gave her golden dress and copper bowl, where she can collect rain - isn't rain more valuable than gold in the fields of drought? She also wears shells, because her husband lives in the river. And pregnant, because in the creation myth after other gods tried to subjegate Osun, she removed her creative force from the work and nothing could be complete. She did eventually return, but not before giving birth to a son.

She is the supreme mother of all (because she was after all the only female deity to take part of creation), Ye Ye, the one to help you, patron of the dance, vultures, drums, divination, harmony, pregnant women...