ọşun & the gẹlẹdẹ (28)

ọşun & the gẹlẹdẹ

the mysterious power of the
feminine repelled the assembled
powers of heaven…

(woman is the gateway
tween ọrun & àiyé)

the same that is taboo to the
uninitiated; those magical potencies
of patience, those efficacies of
control & reverence –

(the mothers art mightier
than the òrìşà)

the mothers who overshadow
all women; who are bound
to them by menstrual
flood

(blessed are the mysteries;
the vaginal rites)

who dwell in a village of women,
the àjé, the gẹlẹdẹ , the mothers who
place the crown;

(even heaven cannot prevail
against the mothers)

beat back no less than şango & his
thunderstones, ògún & his knives &
swords, omolu & his plethora of
pandemics,

(great is the collective power
of the feminine)

beat back the almighty host of warrior
ancestors, the ibora egun, for in truth
they were only men.

(the mothers know the secret of life
& cannot be defeated)

when yemọja & her mountainous tides
& ọya of the electric storm joined the fray,
they, too, tasted bitter defeat. Even the awon
iyami were rebuked & could not prevail.

(the mothers art mightier
than the òrìşà & the ancestors)

òrìşà & egungun to heaven returned defeated
& filled with despair. never again would
they engage the mothers

(ọşun sits at the vertex of creation
& procreation)

ọşun, the primal erotic feminine, secret ally
of the mothers, placed on her head a calabash,
danced & sang from ọrun to àiyé, from
heaven to earth,

(ìbà ọşun kayodẹ, i respect the
spirit of the river; owner of the dance!)

beating the calabash as a drum she danced to
the center of the village of women, into the
reservoir of feminine energy,

(yẹye komaya, mother, bring the power
of the mothers)

compelled the mothers to join in her dance,
rousing the cellular force felt in every vulvate
contraction, secretion & climax; in the
stretching & tearing of childbirth…

the very same dance they do today.

© Joseph McNair; 2009