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Gate of the Orixás

While going through our gate of the Orishas you had met with art objects, decorative and for uses in everyday life. These are works that came to Aiê by inspiration, by the emanation of Orum.

I believe in souls, as a godmother taught me in my childhood daily life. Maria Leonir, with white skin and shimmering snow-colored hair. Dona Maria midwife, devotee of São Jorge, Benedito and Iemanjá, cried out to 'my souls' in the face of problems and hardships that could not be resolved by material means. In his Catholic devotion he worshiped souls, he saw the Orixá head on in the judgment he made of our temperaments. I wasn't aware of it, but she was the one who opened the first doors of the Orixás in my life. Ventura, 2016, manuscript.

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"The Orixás control and are the very forces of nature.

Without nature there is no Orixá. To do away with nature is to do away with the Orixás".

Eleomar dos Santos Rodrigues teaches that, "we can consider the Orixás as serving deities of humanity. They are deities of nature that link the Orum (immaterial and spiritual world) to the Aiê (material world). Therefore, the orixás are intermediaries between the Supreme God ( Olorum) and the terrestrial world.

(...) some would be primordial deities for living with the Supreme God at the beginning of everything. Other important figures such as kings, queens, founders of cities, who by their great deeds were deified, or else by fantastic connections with the elements of nature - on earth, wind, seas, rivers, plants, minerals, among others. The creation myths say that at the beginning of time there was only one supreme god that Afro-Brazilians call Olorum, the Lord of Heaven. This God was responsible for the creation of the orixás and assigned to them the mission of creation and the government of the world ...

Since then, Olorum interferes the least in what happens in earthly life. the Supreme God only acts in the great earthly problems. The word orixá is used exclusively to define the deities and not to forms of common spirits that have their own denominations. These deities bring to mind the image of beings with their own personality and temperament certainly similar to human beings."

Source: RODRIGUES, Eleomar dos Santos. Orixás and (environment): the making of confections in the terreiro of sociopoetics. Dissertation defended in the Graduate Program in Education, Fortaleza, 2011, p. 42. Available at: http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/bitstream/riufc/3092/1/2011_Dis_ESRodrigues.pdf

Orixás to Plant

irocus

Iroco, Iroko or Loko is a phytomorphic orixá, that is, it has plant forms. In Africa, it lives in the irocô tree ( Milicia excelsa ). The white gameleira ( Ficus doliana ) personifies it in Brazil.

In Cuba, the ceiba or samuna tree (Ceiba pentranda) is based on Iroco. This orixá symbolizes fertility, being sacred throughout the Guinea Coast. It is the protector of trees. "Trees have a soul and are associated with the Aziza spirits, who on the other hand give magic to men; on the other hand, they are associated with the cult of ancestors." (VERGER, Pierre. Notes on the Cult of Oryxas and Vonduns in Bahia de Todos os Santos, Brazil, and in the Old Coast of Slaves. São Paulo: Edusp, 2000.

Iroco1 (4).jpeg
Iroco, detail.

Iroc is protector of trees. "Trees have a soul and are associated with the Aziza spirits, who on the other hand give magic to men; on the other hand, they are associated with the cult of ancestors."

(VERGER, Pierre. Notes on the Cult of Oryxas and Vonduns in Bahia de Todos os Santos, in Brazil, and in the Old Coast of Slaves. São Paulo: Edusp, 2000, p.519.

Iroco1 (3).jpeg
Iroco vase.
Mixed technique on cement, 2020,
Strength.
36CM diameter (base) X40CM diameter (mouth) X38.5CM (height)
Available in store.
Iroco detalhe2 (2).jpeg
Iroco detalhe (2).jpeg
Iroco detalhe 3 (2).jpeg
Iroco vase. Detail.
Iroco4 (2).jpeg
Iroco vase. Detail.
Shango Afonja

"According to mythology, Shango would have been the fourth king of the city of Oió, which was the most powerful of the Yoruba empires. After his death, Shango was deified, as was common with the great kings and heroes of that time and place, and his cult became the most important in his city, to the point that the king of Oyo, from then onwards, was its first priest".

Source: PRANDI, Reginaldo; VALLADO, Armando. Shango, king of Oió. BARRETI FILHO, Aulus (org.). From yorùbá to kétu candomblé. São Paulo, Edusp, 2010, v. 1, p. 141-161.

Xango has many forms.

In Yoruba history Xangô Afonjá was a palace official who rebelled in 1817 and seized power in Oyó (former Yoruba city-state.

Xangô (3).jpeg
Shango Afonjá vase. Detail.
Xango detalhe 1 (2).jpeg
Xango 2 (2).jpeg
Xangô detalhe (2).jpeg
Shango Afonjá vase. Detail.
Xangô (2).jpeg
Shango vase
Mixed technique on cement, 2020,
Strength.
36CM diameter (base) X40CM diameter (mouth) X38.5CM (height)
Available in store.

Oxaguiã

Young form of Oxalá or Obatalá, Oxaguiã is the direct emanation of Olorum (Oladumaré, Lord of Orum creator of Humanity, in the Yoruba tradition).

Young warrior, Oxaguiã, king of Ejibô is called "Orixá-Eater-yam-Pilado". The pestle was his invention to make better use of the yam.

Courage and vigor are characteristics of this warrior orixá who protects peace. The dynamism of life is based on it in the face of daily struggles.

Source: VERGER, Pierre; Orixás, Yoruba Gods in Africa and the New World; 5th ed; Currupio, Salvador, 1997

Oxaguian detalhe0 (2).jpeg
Oxaguian vase. Detail.
Oxaguian detalhe 4.jpeg
Oxaguian detalhe 3.jpeg
Shango Afonjá vase. Detail.
Oxaguian2 (2).jpeg
Shango Afonjá vase. Detail.
Oxaguian1 (2).jpeg
Oxaguian vase.
Mixed technique on cement, 2020,
strength
36CM diameter (base) X40CM diameter (mouth) X38.5CM (height)
Available in store.

Oxum

"Yoruban Orixá of fresh waters, wealth, beauty and love. According to some traditional accounts, he is a superior deity, having participated in Creation as provider of fresh water sources. It is the tutelary name of the Óshun river, which rises in Ekití, in eastern Nigeria, and passes through the city of Oshogbo, where its first sanctuary is located.

In Bahian Candomblé, it is... Oshun-Pandá, Iabá-Omi, Oshun-Abaé, Oshun-Abotô, Oshun-Apará (the youngest) Oshun-Ioni, Oshun-Abalô (the oldest), Oshun-Timi, Oshun -Akidã, Oshun-Ninsim, Oshun-Ninsim, Oshun-Lobá, In Haiti , she is known as Mademoiselle Anaisé; in the Dominican Republic, as Anaísa, Anaísa Pié and Anaísa Pié Dantó. In Trinidad and Tobago their equivalents would be... Girebete and Demorlé. In Cuba, other manifestations of Oxum or entities associated with it are Alle, Ijumo, Logoún (Logun-Edé), Oloponda, Olueri, Onilaba, Suni, Tobochimelife and Yumí."

Source: LOPES, Nei. Brazilian Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora. São Paulo: Black Seal, 2004.

Vaso Oxum
Oxum-Apara vase.
Mixed technique on cement, 2020,
strength
36CM diameter (base) X40CM diameter (mouth) X38.5CM (height)
Available in store.
Vaso Oxum- Detalhe
Oxum-Apara vase. Detail.
Vaso Oxum - Detalhe
Oxum-Apara vase. Detail.
Vaso Oxum - Detalhe
Oxum-Apara vase. Detail.
obatala
"In the most popular versions in Brazil, Obàtálá is only the creator of human beings, as he cannot create the ayé, because he got drunk. In the poem we will rescue, on the contrary, he is the Òrìsà of the creation of the earth itself. , Obàtálá, solely and exclusively he, who brings the earth and creates the ayé (VERGER, 1997a, p. 83).
Although this version is not known in Brazil, the tradition and diaspora of Afro-Brazilian religions was strong enough to preserve Oxalá as the Grande Orixá, creator of the world and of men."
Source:MARINS, Luiz L..Òrìsà dídá ayé: òbátálá and the creation of the Yoruba world. São Paulo: Africa, São Paulo. v. 31-32, p. 105-134, 2011/2012, p. 106.
Available at: file:///C:/Users/Usuario/Downloads/115347-Texto%20do%20artigo-210566-1-10-20160512.pdf
Vaso Obatalá em Quintal Afro.jpg
Obatalá Vase in Afro Backyard
Available in store.
Obatal%C3%A1%20detalhe%204_edited.jpg
Obatalá detalhe.jpg
Vaso Obatalá - Detalhe 1.jpg
Obatala vase. Details.
Vaso Obatalá..jpg
Obatala vase.
Mixed technique on cement, 2020,
strength
36CM diameter (base) X40CM diameter (mouth) X38.5CM (height)
Available in store.
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