This Pataki of Shangó speaks of the well-known warrior Orisha, a man of many and tireless battles to prove that he is the best at what he does; considered the king of the Yoruba religion.

Besides this, he is considered the most popular Orisha in Santeria or Regla de Osha.

To this powerful deity is attributed justice, dance, virile strength, thunder, lightning and also fire.

Owner of the batá drums, he dances just as if he were fighting, hand in hand with his mighty sword, warding off all kinds of curses, and in this pataki of Shangó we will tell you more about this deity.

Like his representative colour, red, Shangó is representative of the intensity of life itself, masculine beauty, passion and intelligence itself.

But we must remember that when speaking of any pataki of Shangó, we can note that it is represented as justice in every sense.

An ancient pataki of Shangó Yoruba tells that this deity came down to earth, when mankind forgot all the teachings of god and his mission was to cleanse society completely.

And in this way, get the people to follow again each and every one of the teachings of the one supreme god (Olodumare).

In the following, we will tell you about a known pataki that occurred between two well-known deities that are part of the Yoruba Religion.

Pataki of Shangó the avenger and Oggún the warrior Learn all about this story!

A pataki of Shangó tells that he defeated in battle Oggún, who is the god of iron and the mountain, also a warrior and tireless fighter.

After this mighty battle Shangó went on with his life totally unconcerned with parties and women, on the other hand, Oggún went back to work in his forge and as such to continue his work itself.

The two avoided each other at all times and would no longer speak to each other, should these deities ever meet.

It is known that in the pataki of Shangó that when even crossing each other, lightning can be seen and thunder can be heard; the natural energies of these orishas became majestic and impetuous.

Trying to discover the reasons for the quarrel between Shangó and Oggún, Obatalá, the father of all, called Shangó to hear his explanations.

He told the god of time that he was very sad about his fight with Oggún, and claimed that his impulsive temper and strong character were to blame.

To which Shangó replied without complaint:

«It’s all his fault, Baba, he dared to offend my mother, after that he went after Oyá and tried to come between me and Oshun».

Obatalá fully agreed that Oggún should not have offended Shangó’s mother, but he did state that Shangó was not entirely innocent.

Since Oyá was Oggún’s wife and Oshun had tempted him, it was for this reason that Oggún was condemned to perform forced labour for the rest of his life.

You take his wife and his mistress, as well as stealing his colour and sword! Obatalá insisted in full defence of Oggún.

Because of this information Shangó was silent for a while, but quickly replied that Oggún had killed his dog, in order to become the owner of the dogs.

But after all, this pataki of Shangó shows how Obatalá manages to make the best of decisions.

Shangó receives justice and wisdom from his father Obatalá

Baba knew and was able to calculate the anger that Shango would feel, so he told him:

«I understand your resentment, but you should know that uncontrolled energy can be destructive».

In addition to all this, in this pataki of Shangó, the secret of how Shangó should control the energy and his warrior impulse was also revealed, thus offering him a gift.

Obatalá proceeded to take a white bead from his necklace that he always carried with him, and gave it to Shangó, then said: 

«Make use of this white bead, as a symbol of peace and wisdom, in conjunction with the red beads on your necklace».

Obatalá told Shangó that from that moment on, his virtue would be justice and not revenge.