Iya Moopo: Deity of Women’s Professions Inspires Visitors

This photo is of a young woman standing beside Iya Moopo, the Orisa of Women’s Professions. This impressive work of art inspires all visitors to the Groves and especially women!
Iya Moopo, the “Great Mother”, protects women in all that they must do from bearing children to their professions or trades. This majestic sculpture and Shrine is more than 19 meters high and 40 meters long.
Iya Moopo’s face looks upward towards the divine. She extends three pairs of slender outstretched arms: one to receive, one to throw out sacred fertility and the third is the fist-over-fist gesture of the Ogboni or earth society. Some say that her six arms represent her ability, like all women, to do many things at once.
Twin birds sit on Iya Moopo, one on her breast, which you see in this photo, and the other hangs upside down on her back between her massive outstretched wings. The birds symbolize children “in balance” and her wings allow her to reach the divine.
The folds of her traditional cloth or “wrapper” are represented by delicate swirls of sculpted cement evoking the movement of the Osun River. Her outstretched legs, almost 30 meters in length. Iya Moopo reclines on a beautiful mosaic made from stones from the Osun riverbed. Her dye pots rest at the base of the Shrine.
Inside the Shrine is a spiral staircase in the shape of the sacred snail.
The first sign of damage to this exceptional sculpture was the collapse of the sculpture’s 20-meter-long legs in 2010. As the restoration proceeded in 2012, it became clear that water damage had weakened the entire structure and almost every element required rebuilding. Thanks to the artistry of Adebisi Akanji and the New Sacred Art team this exceptional work of art was saved.