Ogun

It was all about the garden today, especially garden tools and the role that metal plays in our lives. Today a wise man talked about metal and how we tend to forget how vital it is in our lives. It plows our fields, tends our gardens, and it carries us from place to place. It floats in our bodies. It also makes our weapons--knives, machetes, guns. Give thanks to metal--Iron, cobalt, selenium, zinc, potassium and the necessary 25 more that keep us functioning.

The festival was for Ogun--the Yoruba deity of iron and metal. Ogun clears paths for clearer thinking and makes for loyal relationships. Ogun uses his metal tools to shape our lives and inner potential. Ogun is a powerful force running through our veins in the form of 30 metallic elements that are necessary for a healthy body.

Ogun was once married to Osun, the beautiful deity of love and inner peace. My friend and I mused as we worked in the garden that upon glancing at the beautiful river goddess who lived in the grove at Oshogbo, Nigeria, he decided that she should be surrounded by flowers and more beauty so he honed the tools for cultivation. Oshun went to work and created the grove. We imagine her walking there each morning, fan in hand, stopping every now and then to smell the roses.