Orishas

Orishas are spirits or deities in the Yoruba religious tradition of West Africa, regarded as intermediaries between Olodumare (the supreme creator) and humanity. They personify forces of nature, elements, and aspects of human life, and are invoked in prayer, offerings, and ritual practice. The concept and practice vary among Yoruba communities and in diaspora communities.

Prominent orishas include Obatala (wisdom, justice, and the elder), Yemaya (Yemoja, mother of the seas), Oshun (river goddess of love and fertility), Shango (thunder, lightning, and power), Ogun (iron, war, and labor), Oya (the winds and storms, and change), and Osanyin (herbal medicine). Orunmila, associated with wisdom and divination, plays a key role in making the orisha-centered worldview accessible to humans through divination.

In Yoruba practice, worship centers on altars, offerings of food and drink (and sometimes animals), drumming, dance, and oriki (praise poetry). Divination by a trained priest or priestess—Babalawo for Ifá—guides devotional activity and identifies which orishas are active or present in a given moment. Ceremonies may include possession by an orisha as a means of communication with the divine.

In the African diaspora, orishas are central to Santería (Regla de Ocha) in Cuba, Candomblé in Brazil, and related Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latin traditions. They are often syncretized with Catholic saints and honored through feast days, music, drumming, and ritual practices that adapt to local contexts while retaining core associations with natural forces and human lifeways.