Osumare

Osumare is the Orisha of the rainbow, of the serpent, of cycles and renewal. He represents constant transformation, the change that preserves essence, the cyclical movement of life. In the Yoruba tradition, Osumare is seen as the guardian of the natural cycles — of the seasons, the tides, the phases of a life. As an androgynous Orisha, Osumare carries within himself the union of opposites — masculine and feminine, sky and earth, spiritual and material. He teaches that these dualities are not conflicts to be resolved but polarities to be integrated. His serpent, coiling and biting its own tail, winds around the earth so that it does not fall apart — continuity and permanence, not an abstract eternity (Verger, Orishas, p. 73). Osumare is also associated with wealth, prosperity and abundance. It is said he governs the "money that circulates" — the prosperity that comes and goes but always returns multiplied.

Osumare is associated with the colors of the rainbow, especially green and yellow, and at times red and blue. His number is fourteen or multiples of seven, and he governs cycles, renewal, transformation and wealth. His bond with Oshun is strong in the tradition — the fresh waters and the rainbow serpent walk together in many itans. His elements include the serpent, the rainbow, rainwater, and all that represents fluid change. In nature, Osumare dwells in the rainbows that dot the sky after rain, in the serpents that shed their skin, in the tides that rise and fall in steady rhythm. He is present in every completed cycle, in every transformation that preserves the essential core. Osumare’s most important symbols are the serpent biting its own tail, wound around the earth so that it does not fall apart, and the bronze knife with which he points at the sky and stops the rain. The rainbow is his visual manifesto — the promise of renewal after the storm, the beauty that emerges from the meeting of light and water.

The rainbow myth tells the opposite of what is usually repeated: Osumare did not bring the rain, he stopped it. He had no liking for Rain, and every time she gathered her clouds and soaked the earth for too long, he pointed at the sky with his bronze knife and made her vanish, leaving the rainbow in her place. Verger records the same on the African side: when the rainbow appears, people exclaim "Ora, ora, there is Oxumaré!" — and it is his presence that keeps the rain from falling. (Prandi, "Oxumarê desenha o arco-íris no céu para estancar a chuva"; Verger, Orishas, p. 73.) His wealth has a story too, and in it he obeys. He was a babalawo serving the king of Ifé with neither fame nor property, poorly paid and humiliated as his father had been before him. He went to a diviner, who prescribed the offering — a bronze knife, four pigeons and cowries in quantity — and he made it. He cured Olokun’s son of a strange affliction, returned to Ifé covered in gifts and wearing the blue cloth; Olofin, ashamed of his own stinginess, gave him the red one. Later he cured Olodumare’s blindness, and Olodumare would not have him far away again: he was to live in the sky and come down only on visits. (Prandi, "Oxumarê fica rico e respeitado"; Verger, Orishas, pp. 73–74.) The double nature comes from the source, but not in the form usually told. Verger says Osumare is male and female at once, and that this double nature shows in the red and the blue that border the rainbow — not that he spends half the year in each sex. That six-month alternation belongs to another Orisha, Logun Ede, and the two are often confused. What Verger adds is the function: Osumare is the lord of everything elongated, and the umbilical cord is under his control — it is buried with the placenta at the foot of a palm tree, which becomes the newborn’s and on whose keeping the child’s health depends. (Verger, Orishas, p. 73.)

Osumare’s devotee develops a relationship built on flexibility and adaptability. Osumare answers those willing to change, to transform, to abandon old forms that no longer serve. He is a special protector of people in transition — of career, of identity, of phase of life. Osumare’s children usually have fluid, adaptable, often multifaceted personalities. They may struggle with rigid boxes of identity and frequently feel at home in multiple worlds. They have talent for business, commerce, and the activities of flow and circulation. What each case requires belongs to the babalawo’s table — not to a website.

The serpent that coils and bites its own tail is Osumare’s deepest symbol. Verger describes it wound around the earth to keep it from falling apart: were it to lose its strength, that would be the end of the world. It is not the Greek ouroboros — it is continuity and permanence said in Yoruba terms (Verger, Orishas, p. 73). The serpent that sheds its skin symbolizes the transformation that preserves essence, and the rainbow is his most beautiful manifestation. The colors of the rainbow represent integrated diversity. Each color keeps its individuality, yet together they form something more beautiful than any alone — a symbol of diversity, inclusion, the integration of many perspectives. For Osumare, unity does not demand uniformity. The fourteen that devotion gives Osumare is not explained in the sources we use, and we would rather say so than justify it from outside the tradition. What the sources do give is the two: the double nature, male and female at once, read in the two colours that border the rainbow (Verger, Orishas, p. 73).

Osumare teaches that life is an eternal cycle of transformations, and that every ending is also a beginning. He reminds us not to fear change, for change is the very nature of existence. In the Ifá system, Osumare brings hope in moments of loss, showing that nothing disappears forever — it only transforms. To honor Osumare is to embrace the cycles of life with trust, to let the old die so the new may be born, to trust the prosperity that comes of circulation and flow. The 256 Odus often remind us, through Osumare’s stories, that rigidity is contrary to life, while flexibility lets the energy flow. May Osumare’s rainbow light your rainy days, may his serpent teach you the art of renewal, and may prosperity flow through your life like abundant water. May you learn to dance with the cycles instead of resisting them. Arroboboi Osumare!