TALE OF TALES

She hadn't the beautiful blue eyes of European tales’ girls. Neither her skin was purely white, like the little girls playing around the Pyrenees.  But she was a real princess and this is a real fairy tale. She was spiritually devoted to Oxum, the Goddess from African religions.  

This is the kind of tale that evokes some ancient stories that allow us to comprehend the facts and its influences. I don't understand much of Greek Mythology, but I can talk a little about gods from the African Pantheon, that we call Orixas - that means in Yoruba "the owner of the head" - which have almost the same symbology of Greek Pantheon.

According to African religions, since we are born, we receive some kind of energy, which will guide and protect us along our lives. For whom that are identified with the African gods, these energies linked to us derive from all kinds of these gods, and we use to say that this someone is "son" or "daughter" of this or that god, a gift composed by tempers, patterns of behaviors, physical similarities and, in many times, common roads and obstacles in life.

By the time I've started reading Jung's manuscripts, I've found a question posed by him that clarified my mind about the liaison between Greek and African Myths: "Which Myth am I living now?" That simple question made me think about spiritual and archetypal influences according to African religion and Mythology. And I also started thinking about this present energy of each Orixa in every moment of our lives, energies that can change or become mixed with other Orixas influences, concerning our psychological and spiritual growing urges. In Candomble - the main African-Brazilian religion - as many similar religions around the world, like Umbanda in Brazil and Santería in Central America, these energies that come and go along the time are called "Odus".  

And now, I present you Oxum, the Goddess of Love and Richness. Some people say that she is just the Goddess of Love, because Love is the major richness of life, but material prosperity is also associated to her. As a woman, Oxum is elegant, charming and naturally seductive. She's the kind of person you fall in love at the very moment you meet.

Oxum is a calm and controlled woman most of the time. The natural element linked to her is the natural water that comes from waterfalls, inside the forests, surrounded by white lilies, her preferred flowers. Many ancient sages say that this is the final home of Oxum, besides her beloved husband and king, the God of Justice, Xango.

All seductive artifices used by Oxum have the aim of seducing Xango. After that, the war is over. And she stays forever as a great spouse and a wonderful mother of many children.  

Nevertheless, just like Greek gods and goddesses, they are not perfect like the Christian god and his saints. African gods are made from the same kinds of thoughts, feelings, behaviors and emotions presented in human nature. They were real people turned into gods as a consequence of their acts. Not good acts like spiritual conversions or religious acceptances, but victories in war or salvation of entire populations from invasions or other kinds of disgraces.

So Oxum was a woman under her inner deism. She was as possessive as dedicated; as jealous as lovely and passionate. And as far as we know, most African kingdoms were polygamist and dominated by man, and that was something Oxum had never accepted very well. She couldn't fight against Xango having many other women, but she could secretly avoid their approximation.

There is a funny story about her female artifices to avoid that other women approached Xango. Oba, the Goddess of Fire, was a beautiful young and hot woman that was trying to become one of Xango's wives. But, as Xango was a little indifferent to her, she asked Oxum what she could do to get the King's attention and love.

Smart and winding as a snake, Oxum told her that she ought to cut her ear and put it to cook with the black beans that Xango loved so much and, at the moment he was eating, tell him about it. And, as she made it and told Xango, he got a huge repulse from her, expulsing her from his home. That's the reason that, when Oba comes to Earth, she arrives with the hand over the ear, remembering the pain caused by love and immaturity, crying deeply.

But Oba was obviously an easy enemy. As Xango was known for being such a handsome stocky man, a wonderful lover, a great husband, father and above all, one of the most respected kings of all Africa, he was a very desired man of many, many women.

And, as we can expect, the more women approached, the more Oxum had to fight against them. But there were some women that Oxum was not able to avoid or ban from Xango's life. Iansan was one of them. Iansan was a beautiful, shinny warrior that met Xango during a war. She was the wife of Ogum, the God of War, and Xango, as a symbol of his victory over Ogum, took her from him.

Iansan had a great life beside Ogum, bur she also fell in love with Xango. And that was her way: inconstant, always moving, strong and belligerent woman. As she was taken by Xango as one of his wives, she pretended some kind of resistance, so Xango had to fight a little for her love. But these were just Iansan's loving games.

And that was why Oxum and Iansan became enemies, in the same house, fighting for their beloved and passionate king. But they were a very different kind of enemies: they had to keep silence about that and pretend being good wives and good friends in front of Xango. And they were not enemies all the time. There were many times that they became important allies to maintain the union and the happiness of Oyo, the Kingdom.

Nowadays, we see many people, mostly women and also men living under the influences of Oxum and Iansan, behaving in life in a very similar way of Orixas legends. But I believe that this influence doesn't come like an inevitable living pattern; they come in a certain way that can allow us to comprehend and to transform our lives.

And what the relation between this legends and Mythology with the little princess?  That was why I decided to talk a little about them all, so we could understand better what happened to her. She was a dedicated daughter of Oxum. As many Oxum’s daughters, she was not fragile. They are strong and determinate women, but they have a huge sensibility that comes by crying. Crying, for these women, represents the very approximation of Oxum's energy in crucial moments, but it tends to be, as a social convention, for them and the others, a signal of weakness. When Oxum and one of her daughters cry, it is like the soul being washed and renovated, all cleaned up by the pure waters.

And so the princess met a powerful warrior, wich was more influenced by the power of Iansan. They didn't have a male rival. The "prize" was not a man, was not Xango, neither a son of him. The conquest was about a huge masculine force represented by a great kingdom that Iansan's daughter was very used to and desired as much as her husband, her family or any other thing in life. Not the kingdom itself, but power.

At first, the princess thought she had met a powerful leader that could help her to learn the "art of war". And she wasn't wrong. This was, in fact, some kind of war and this place was, as similar as she could figure, to a concentration camp. So, the war wasn't, at the beginning, against her. But, as she became more and more known and well succeeded in her abilities there, Iansan started to feel jealous and menaced.

From this very moment, she declared war against the princess, just because her presence aroused her inner fears of losing her power. Yes, she was a warrior. But the moment she felt menaced, the shadowed evil warrior came out, showing severity, despotism and rage.   

And then the princess tried to avoid the fight, going kindly and sweetly, as Oxum’s element – the river waters and her symbol – the Love - are used to go. But, once Iansan – which was just like fire – deflagrated the war, Oxum’s sweet waters were not able to contain this eruption. And so the princess cried. As the princess cried, she was not just purifying her soul from that giant violence; as the tears fell down, one after another, they started forming a little river that started gently going to the sea. This was not happening fast , the more she cried, the more she felt desperate, weak and hopeless. At the same time, more and more tears touched the salty waters of the sea, the kingdom of Iemanja, which started feeling disturbed about all this water coming. Then, she asked her flying fishes to travel to wherever this water was coming and what was happening.

When she knew about the war between them, her, the goddess of al gods, the mother of all Orixas, she knew that she had to do something. She asked Oxalá, the king of kings, to inflame the sun the more he could. As the hot sunrays touched the waters, they started to evaporate, forming rainy clouds for all over. Then she asked Xango, the god of Justice, but also the god of rays and thunders, to make it rain.

And, as soon as it started raining all over the kingdoms, the fire and the flames of Iansan were stopped. And so, Iemanja sent an advice to Iansan: that every time she started spiting fire for all over, Iemanja would make it rain to stop the fire. And she also advised the princess that she could continue crying, but each river created by her crying had live and she had to name and raise them.

The war wasn’t stopped so fast. But the more Iansan spitted fire, the more Iemanja sent rain to stop the flames. And each time a new war was started, so was the princess crying and crying, creating lots of new rivers. And, as she created so many rivers, she became so busy naming and raising them that she decided to leave the kingdom to live in the rivers. And that was how the princess was turned into a goddess, a goddess of all rivers, like her mother, Oxum.