Overview Index Finder Use it Elements Celestial Divination Forces Esoteric Chakras Tree Foundations Oracles Materials Workings Correspondences Tarot Hour & Day Atmosphere Invocation Grimoire / Deities / Ogun Tradition · Yoruba Afro Caribbean
A note on this entry The orishas are not a Western pantheon: Yoruba and Ifa tradition assigns them no planets, no zodiac signs and no Wiccan sabbats, and reckons time by the four-day market/lunar week (Kojoda), not by the Gregorian week. Every planetary, elemental, zodiacal, tarot and sabbat value in this entry is a modern Western/Neopagan overlay, and the weekday values are diaspora (Lucumi/Candomble) practice mediated by Catholic feast days, not Yoruba tradition. The tradition's own relations are the other orishas and the ancestors; the Greco-Roman and Norse names in the relations list are comparative or eclectic glosses, not syncretism (the attested syncretism is Afro-Catholic: e.g. Shango = Santa Barbara, Oshun = Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, Yemaya = Virgen de Regla, Elegua = San Antonio / Santo Nino de Atocha, Oya = Virgen de la Candelaria, Ogun = San Pedro / San Jorge). Ogun is the orisha of iron, the road, labour and the tools of every trade who cut the path with his machete; iron, palm oil and rum are his offerings. His colours are green and black (with purple in Cuba), not red and black - that pair is Elegua's.
Alternate Names Ogun Lakaye Osin Imole
Gender Expression Masculine
Titles Lord of Iron The Road-Opener Patron of Labour
Domain Iron Smithing The road Labour War Technology Justice The tools Planetary Correspondence Mars
Offerings Palm oil Dog Roasted yam Iron Palm wine Kola nut Invocation Approach Address Ogun Lord of Iron Patron of Labour
Relationship The iron that clears the road and can cut you
Warning He opens the way with a blade
Resonance Smiths drivers surgeons those who work with tools
Symbols Iron Dog Palm frond Machete Mythology Summary Ogun is the Yoruba orisha of iron, the road, labour and the tools of every trade, who cleared the way between the orishas and the human world with a machete. He is the iron that makes civilisation possible and takes fingers for it.
Modern Practice Ogun is honoured with iron, palm oil and rum, and by any worker who uses a blade. His practice is the work done with the tool kept sharp and the road kept clear.
Referenced by
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Every entry that names Ogun , grouped by the system it comes from.