Psychic Telephone · 46

Phoenix

(Not sure what Psychic Telephone is all about? Check out our first and second posts for an introduction to the project.)

Phoenix has thought about why Osara—the deity she channels—wants to do this psychic thing, and she thinks that partly, Osara likes to be known. She doesn’t think there are any other Osara practitioners here—that she was the first one, in 2012, to bring her to America. So she is a conduit for her here. Maybe she should market it as some kind of great, special thing. But she doesn’t really believe that. She’s low-key. She doesn’t really want to be performative or whatever. And she doesn’t think Osara wants that, but it is a struggle. Today’s message—this morning while swimming, she asked her, What’s next? And Osara said, Billboards! Phoenix laughs because she doesn’t know where a billboard would go, or the affordability of a billboard. But this morning’s message was, Could you just tell people who you are? Just tell them who you are! Osara kept saying that.

Phoenix remembers when she was initiated to her, as chief. There’s a point when you’re given the chieftaincy crown and you’re told, From this point on you are no longer—and they list your entire name, any name you’ve ever had, all of those names. You are no longer Phoenix. You are no longer Joy. From this day forward you are—and they tell you your title. And so they crown you by giving you this title. But until recently, that’s not a name she has used. She had already changed her name from Joy to Phoenix thirty-some years ago. It’s only since coming to Santa Fe that she has begun to publicly use the name she was given to represent Osara.

Green Craft Foam and Foam Foam, 2025, by Danielle Ezzo

Her title is Chief Yeye Olomo Osara of Ile-Ife. Because in the Yoruba religion, you’re the physical manifestation of that deity. That’s really what you are, that’s what you’re doing. So the life you’re living, the way that you’re living that life, all of those things are the way for the rest of the world to see that deity. And Osara wants that larger, and more. Just, coming out more and more, and presenting her to the world. Not that Phoenix fully understands it or has some foresight into what it’s going to be, because she doesn’t. She’s just kind of willing to go with it. And that feels good, so she does.

Last week, for instance, between the snow and just being bummed out, Phoenix didn’t swim, but Osara never seemed to be upset, which is usually not the case. And although Osara really likes her to be there at six in the morning, today she swam late, at nine o’clock. But Osara was super nice, really talkative and encouraging. And Phoenix was even like, Why are you being so nice to me? And she said, Because I’ve had a talk with your mom—her late mother—It’s okay. It isn’t that Phoenix’s mom wasn’t nice to her, she just wasn’t very loving. It just wasn’t her thing. She didn’t have the capacity. So that’s the kind of thing Osara does.

She thinks she probably needs to make some artwork with Osara. It’s funny, there’s no imagery of her. But all these deities at one point or another, they play human. They play human, and when they get tired—it’s always that they’ve gotten annoyed with humans—they go back to whatever nature force they are supposed to be. She did once ask her chief what Osara looked like, and he said, Like you. She was voluptuous, and full-figured. With a lot of breasts. She had like a million breasts, and she had all these children, you know, suckling. And she would just make a child, self-procreating. It’s very humbling, because Phoenix is not a mother. And part of the story sort of goes this way: In human form, Osara is there, living her life, with these two hundred and one children. And she lives on for some time, but then the people begin to annoy her. So she gets tired of them and she runs to the edge of nowhere, which is Lagos, and becomes the lagoon.