Why Does Oya Guard the Cemetery Gate? The Only Orisha Who Commands the Dead

Why does Oya guard the cemetery gate? Because, in the tradition as Oluwo Jolaoso Osainbola presents it in Oya: The Storm Queen (Chapter 7, 'The Only One Who Commands the Dead'), Oya alone among all the Orisha holds authority over the Egungun, the spirits of the dead - an office the tradition says was given to her by Babalu Aye. She is not the goddess of death but the goddess over the traffic between life and death: the ancestors come forth and return under her escort, her shrines stand at cemetery edges, the wind at a funeral is her attendance, and grief in her jurisdiction is honored but not indulged past its season. This educational article (Oya, round 4) is anchored in fresh source material not taught in rounds 1-3: Chapter 7 in full (the office and its transfer; the guardian of the gate; why the wind carries voices; the fear and the comfort), cross-referenced to the Odu manuscript entry 2 (Oyeku Meji), which lists Oya among its associated forces as the one who stands at the cemetery gate. The tradition's accounts are summarized in outline as the book presents them. Devotional/educational only; study is not initiation.