Death

Another tarot card completed. This is Death. Many people will tell you that Oyá is the Oríṣà of death and those people are wrong.

Oyá is the owner of the cemetery. Yewá (say YEG-wah) is the Orisha of death, dreams, chastity, and decomposition. Yewá (also called Ewa or Iyewá) is often seen as a chaste maiden, and originally from the deep sea (she was one of Olokún’s daughters).

Ṣàngó seduced her and forced himself on her. She took an abortive tonic and retreated to the graveyard with Oyá in shame.

While Oyá owns the actual cemetery and the process of dying, Yewá owns the bodies and watches them decompose. One of her titles is Queen of Cadavers. She is completely intolerant of nudity in her presence, vulgarity, talk of sex, or any disrespect. So strict is she, that in Nigeria, she is attended to by eunuchs.

Hand-drawn entirely in Adobe Illustrator without the use of AI. ©2026 Davezilla. All rights reserved.