African Traditional Religion : Getting Started With Ifa

Olorun


IFA
BY CHIEF FELA SOWANDE

... Oral Traditions that have come the way of the writer state categorically that, the Yoruba name for the Supreme Deity is OLORUN .... It is OLORUN, not because OLORUN means "The Owner of Heaven" - one cannot intuit Spiritual Potencies by using the Yoruba Dictionary - but because He is the OLU-AWO-ORUN, or OLUWO-ORUN, the Master of the Masters of the Sacred Mysteries of Heaven, a title fore-shortened into OLU-ORUN, and into OLORUN; He is indeed the Owner of Heaven, because of his place in the Heavenly Hierarchy; he is not the Owner of Heaven merely because the Yoruba word OLORUN means etymologically "the owner of heaven." We might go further and say that OLORUN is the Master of the Masters of the Sacred Mysteries of the Inner Courts of Heaven, because He has a sort of Prime Minister, or number two, in the OLU-AWO-ODE-ORUN, Master of the Masters of the Sacred Mysteries of the Outer courts of Heaven, in the Person of the great OFUN, the only one of the 16 ODU of IFA that the Babalawo always acknowledges by saying HEPA, whenever his symbol appears on the divining board. We could, perhaps, fore-shorten OLU-AWO-ODE-ORUN into OLODE-ORUN justifiably, but this is of no moment.

"OLORUN" is not directly involved in human affairs, because the Spiritual Force emanating from Him is of such Potency that it would shatter our human bodies; just as, were the Sun to come down nearer the Earth a few million miles, the result would be, not more light and heat and life, but so much of it that it becomes destructive, and death ensues. Hence OLORUN keeps His distance, for our safety, but it is His life, His everything, that we use. It seems to the writer that we can properly borrow Hindu terminology and say, of OLORUN, "Thou canst not know the knower of knowledge, thou canst not see the seer of seeing, thou canst not hear the hearer of hearing, thou canst not comprehend the comprehender of comprehension." For this reason, OLORUN has no shrines, no worship, but it is utterly erroneous to conclude that he is 'remote' or not known to exist.

Next to OLORUN in the Heavenly Hierarchy is ELEDA, a word which means, 'Creator' - an approximate translation, which would be no guide even if it weren't approximate. For ELEDA does not "create life" as we would understand that term. He is, however, the Root from which comes that which makes it possible for Life to manifest. He is Pure Dynamic Spiritual Energy, unconditioned by even the concept of Matter; if we can think of Electrical Energy existing independent of the wires conducting it, vibrating at countless millions of vibrations per second, rushing hither and thither throughout Space, free, boundless, and untramelled by aught, then we may have a faint idea of what ELEDA stands for. As the writer sees it, ELEDA also has a number TWO in 'ORI,' a definite concept in the Yoruba System, hence the saying "ENI ORI DA, KO L'AFARAWE" - "He in whose creation ORI has had a hand is a law unto himself. You cannot pattern your life after his, (without paying the price)." While ELEDA - like OLORUN - is still too rarefied, too Potent, to be directly connected with humanity, ORI - much less rarefied, much less Potent, but all this only relatively to ELEDA -does indeed become involved in humanity.

... Stanzas dealing with Orl are not difficult to come by. The Stanzas from EJIOBGE cited by LUADU in his ORUNMILA runs thus: "BI A BA DUPE ORE ANA, A GBA OMIRAN: A DA A F'ORI, NLO SI AWUJO GBOGBO IRUNMOLE LO I-P'OBI ORE". This translates roughly as: "If we say thank you for yestuday's kindness, another kindness comes our way: this was foretold to ORI when it was going to join the other lRUNMOLES to try to split the kola-nut of creative speech." The story, as given by LIJADU, was that, one day, OLODUMARE summoned all the IRUNMOLES (Hierarchy of Heavenly Spirits) to come and split the kola-nut of creative speech. This was a kola-nut the splitting of which gave the person power to say "let such and such a thing happen" and it happens by unmutable law automatically. All the IRUNMOLES tried to split the kola-nut but failed. Then came ORI and split it without effort. A great shout went up in Heaven, and OLODUMARE made ORI the most senior of all IRUNMOLES.

Then they became jealous and envious of ORI; they fought with him, but he conquered them all; he threw them out of Heaven; OLOTA landed in ADO. ERINMI in OWO, PEPE in ASIN, ORISA in ITAPA, OGUN in ILE-IRE, OBALUFON in IYINDE, and ORUNMILA in ILE-IFE. Later on, ORI came to live on Earth, as told in the following Stanza, also from EJIOGBE, given this time by ARSADA:

'KE-KE-KENI NWON NKAN KOSO; GUDUGUDU NI NWON NLU ARON ORISA: BI BABALAWO MEJI BA RI ARA WON, NWON A SE IRUKERE WON YETURU YETURU. A DIFA FUN ORI, NIGBATI 0 NTI ISALU ORUN BO WA ILE AIYE. NWON NI KI ORI SETUTU, NlTORI Kl O LE BA DI ENI APESIN; O RUBO, O DI ENI APESIN. NJE, ORI RERE NI TI IRERE; IRERE KO NI ORI A GB'ERU LE, ORI RERE NI TI IRERE."

This is almost impossible for one to translate, but it tells of the time when ORI came down to Earth for which event he consulted IFA, offered the necessary sacrifices, and so became someone whom people gathered together to pay honiage to on Earth. Other Stanzas of IFA (ARSADA) further substantiate the Individual Existence of ORI and further confirm the writer's current view that ORI is ELEDA conditioned by Matter.

Next to ELEDA in the Heavenly Hierarchy is OLODUMARE, the accepted meaning of which is OL'ODU ... OMO ... ARE, the Vast and Mighty Being, without father, without mother, self-existent, self-born. It is, in fact, the other way round. He is Vast, Mighty, Self-born, Self-existing, and so He is OLODU-OMO-ARE. This is the justification for translating "ARE" in "OLODUMARE" as "Stranger with no known relatives." It is important to mention here that a Stanza from OBARA-IRETE relates the birth of a son to a man, ONILE ETI OSINMIMI and his wife, ELERE. The man had previously consulted IFA. When his son was born, he was named as a result - OLODU. Tlus boy grew up and became quite famous; then he was referred to as OLODU OMO ELERE, or OLODU, the son of ELERE. This was contracted into OLODU OMO ERE, then into OLODU'MERE, which was sometimes turned into OLODUMARE. Thus there are two OLODUMARES at least; we are concerned here with the Divine Spirit OLODUMARE, and within the framework of the Yoruba Traditional System. We are not concerned, here, with Yoruba Christians' concept of this term as a name for God within the framework of Christianity. That is altogether quite a different matter and is none of our business. But what the term signified, traditionally, is our proper concern.

We have therefore in the YORUBA System, OLORUN, ELEDA & OLODUMARE. Of the three, OLODUMARE is the least rarefied, being He is still neither Matter, nor conditionedby Matter. He is the Root of that which eventually becomes Matter, the Root of that which eventually becomes Form, we may perhaps regard Him as the Germ from which the Principles of Form and of Matter subsequently develop. He is pure Spirit, but so near to manifestation, that He enters into virtually every aspect of Manifested Life, not because He is the Supreme God, which He is not, be because He may be likened to the Permanent Secretary of a Minister of State, in whom the Minister places absolute confidence, and who deals with the general public on behalf of the Minister. One does not upset such a Permanent Secretary and expect the Minister to have much time for one! OLODUMARE is vitally important because of this sort of relationship with OLORUN -- the Supreme Deity; but also because these Three Names represent Three States of Manifestation of That which, in every System like that of the YORUBA, is forever Nameless, the "IT," from which even the Supreme Deity - OLORUN -- derives, of which it has been said, in another system: - "I am, without beginning, without end, older than night or day, younger than the babe new-born, brighter than light, darker than darkness, beyond all things and creatures, yet fixed in the heart of every one. From me the shining worlds flow forth, to me all at last return, yet to me neither men nor angels may draw nigh, for I am known only to myself. Ever the same is my inmost being; absolutely one, complete, whole, perfect; always itself, eternal, infinite, ultimate; formless, indivisible, changeless ... Of all existences I am the source, the continuation, and the end. I am the germ, I am the growth, I am the decay. All things and creatures I send forth; I support them while yet they stand without; and when the dream of separation ends, I cause their return unto myself ... Apart from me there is neither wisdom, nor knowledge, nor understanding. Into every state of knowledge do I enter, into false knowledge as well as into true, so that I am not less the ignorance of the deluded than the wisdom of the sage. For what thou callest ignorance and folly is my pure knowing imperfectly expressed through an uncompleted image of my divine perfection ... Mine is the healing influence flowing down from consecrated hands, mine the venom of the adder's fang. Nothing falleth but by me, and in whatsoever riseth, mine is the power that lifteth up ... Before all worlds, I WAS: In all worlds I AM: And when worlds are but a memory, I SHALL BE".

Of this same "IT," it is also said: "From my substance all things derive their substance, and all that hath form is built from my four-fold elemental manifestation. Four are the subtle principles which the wise conceal from the uninitiate by the names: FIRE, WATER, AIR, EARTH. In endless variety of mixture and proportion, directed by my Will, these mingle together for the production of forms. They are transmutations of a single essence and from their mingling are brought forth all things." It is the writer's currently held view that, in the YORUBA System, OLORUN correlates with FIRE, ELEDA correlates with AIR; OLODUMARE correlates with WATER; and OFUN (HEPA) correlates with EARTH. The 'single essence' from which They all derive is the un-named and unnameable "IT." These same oral traditions state categorically that the permuted names of OLORUN, viz: OLORUN-ELEMI, OLORUN -ALANU, etc., were imported by the YORUBA converts and had no place in the Traditional System, perse. Idowu's OLODUMARE, as "one who is supreme, superlatively great, incomparable, and unsurpassable in majesty, excellent in attributes, stable, unchanging, constant, reliable," may apply to the concept of OLODUMARE in YORUBA Christianity. It simply does not belong in YORUBA Traditional System, where we find this Stanza, cited by Lijadu:

"OJU MPON OLODUMARE, OJU MPON ORUNMILA: OLODUMARE NI KI ORUNMILA RUBO: ORUNMILA NI KI OLODUMARE NA RUBO KE. NWON JUMO YAN ASOBILIKI ERANLA KOKAN ATI OGBOBOKANLA LI EBO FUN ARA WON. AWON MEJEJI GBO EBO, NWON RUBO."

Briefly, "OLODUMARE was in dire straits; ORUNMILA was in dire straits; OLODUMARE told ORUNMILA to offer sacrifice; ORUNMILA said OLODUMARE too should offer sacrifice; each divined for the other; each sacrificed." Lijadu adds a footnote to say that this Stanza, from EJIOGBE, was one of which BABALAWO stood in great dread, it was with difficulty he was able to persuade his BABALAWO to recite the Stanza, and even then, Lijadu was led into a corner, and the Stanza recited by the BABALAWO mouth-to-ear. The story given by Lijadu, may be briefly summed up as follows: OLODUMARE and ORUNMILA were out walking one day; they suddenly fell into a deep pit,from which, try as they would, they could not get out. They were there for days, until the monkey (EDUN) happened to discover them there; he went, collected some fruits which he threw to them; they ate, regained strength to climb out, but were both still so shaken by their experience that they went and shut themselves up in Heaven, and no one could get them to come out, except EDUN who threatened to spill the beans about the discomfiture he had found them in, at which both hastily emerged from their hiding place. Here is no picture of OLODUMARE as conceived by Mr. Idowu. But we cannot re-write the ODU corpus to satisfy any author, and they must be our ultimate points of reference.

We should now consider, as briefly as possible: ELA. ORISA, and ILE-IFE. For the story of ELA, we turn exclusively to Chief Fagbemi Ajanaku, the ARABA of Eko, who, several years back -- as Mr. Ajanaku -- prepared and presented a Script on ELA for YORUBA LIFE, in YORUBA. Hereinunder is a detailed summary in English, of the YORUBA text.

When OLODUMARE ordered AJALAMO to mould man, He also ordered ELA to supervise AJALAMO's work. This infuriated ESU to whom ELA was junior, as ESU thought he had been by-passed in favour of a junior. ESU and his followers then levied war against ELA, on a day known as QJO ETI, i.e., the day of (attempting) the impossible; ESU lost, and he and his followers were chucked out of Heaven. QJO ETI corresponds to our Friday. With ESU removed, ELA became the senior of all the Heavenly Powers, and next only to OLODUMARE. Then OLODUMARE instructed ELA to go down to Earth to put things in order; at that time, the whole Earth was one vast mass of water and sky, with chaos everywhere. ESU got to know of this plan, and he and his followers took three alternative decisions: (a) either to prevent ELA from gaining a foothold on Earth, or failing that; (b) to prevent ELA from carrying out OLODUMARE's instructions, or failing that; (c) to ensure that ELA was unable to return to Heaven to report back to OLODUMARE; this is known as the day of the Three Tries; QJO ABAMETA, corresponding to our Saturday. ELA and his followers descended to Earth on OJO AIKU - the Day of not-dying, or of survival, corresponding to our Sunday (presumably implying that ESU was unable to prevent ELA 's descent; anything in parenthesis like this are the writer's comments, for which he alone is responsible).

On the day of ELA 's descent, the whole Earth was convulsed by terrible upheavals. Arriving on Earth, ELA first had to break ESU 's power; terrible battles followed, and the goddess AJE was sent down by OLODUMARE from heaven to assist ELA against ESU; hence the day is known as OJO AJE, or AJE's day; it corresponds to our Monday. ELA gained a decisive victory over ESU by establishing order; thus the day is known os OJOBO -- the Day of the return (of things to normal), or the Day of Restoration, corresponding to our Thursday. ELA then stayed on Earth for two more days, Friday -QJO ETI and Saturday -- QJO ABAMETA, and returned to Heaven on the same day he descended from Heaven, i.e. on OJO AIKU -- Sunday. Hence, the YORUBA believe that every person dies on the day of the week he was born; and that where this is not so, either the person died on somebody else's day (as an unconscious substitute) or that he had actually died on that day of his birth, but had enough energy left in him to last out a little longer before collapsing altogether.

For some time, things went on fine, mankind was fruitful and multiplied, and the Earth was populated; order was everywhere. When ESU saw this, he called his followers together, and was able to attract some of mankind to his band of followers. Trouble began again; women became barren, those with child had miscarriages or difficult births, the sick remained sick, and similar wicked things were done by ESU and his followers. Again OLODUMARE instructed ELA to go down to Earth to restore order, but this time to take on human flesh. (In the original Script, two Stanzas of IFA -- one from EJIOGBE, the other from IROSUN-ATERE -- were quoted in connection with this event. There seems no need to quote them here, due to space consideration). This was the first of six times that ELA came to the Earth as a human being, making seven times in all, if we include his very first visit as The Great Spirit ELA, as recounted above. OLODUMARE always sent him as ORUNMILA to the particular place where there was greatest need. He had different parents each time. On one of these incarnations, his father was OPERTI, his mother was OGIDI, and his place of birth was Oke Itase. ELA/ORUNMILA was not the only one with multiple incarnations. The same pattern holds for ORUN and several of the IRUNMOLES who took on human flesh and lived among men. Among them are the 16 IRUNMOLES, whom we know today as the 16 ODU of IFA: i.e., OFUN, OGBE, OYEKU, IWORI, ODI, IROSUN, OWONRIN, OBARA, OKANRAN, OGUNDA, OSA, IKA, OTURUPON, OTURA, IRETE and OSE. This order is not universally followed throughout Yorubaland; nevertheless, when these IRUNMOLES became human-beings on Earth, then Each carried twice its original name, thus OGBE became EJIOGBE - or twice OGBE; OYEKU became OYEKU MEJI -- or twice OYEKU; and so on; OFUN (HEPA!) became ORANGUN-MEJI, and occupied the 16th position, having yielded the first position to EJI-OGBE. The cause of this is related in another Stanza of IFA from EJI-OGBE, (source - ARSADA), ... and here we take our leave of the YORUBA Script by Chief Ajanaku, as we quote the EJI-OGBE Stanza relating the first time the 16 IRUNMOLES came to Earth as humans... roughly summed up as follows in English:

"The oracle was consulted on behalf of the 16 IRUNMOLES (or by the 16 IRUNMOLES) when they were due to come down to Earth. They inquired whether they would be able to stay on Earth. They were told to offer sacrifice. EJI-OGBE was the only one who did as instructed. OFUN-MEJI was the first IRUNMOLE (he was senior) to be sent down to Earth. He returned to Heaven to report that it was impossible to stay on Earth, for it was all Dark, and one vast mass of Water. Then OLODUMARE gave EJI-OGBE authority to set things right on Earth. When EJI-OGBE and his followers arrived on Earth, the very first thing EJI-OGBE did was to command that there be Light, and there was Light; he commanded the Water to divide into two, for one part to go upwards and the other half to go downwards, and the sky become visible; he also cornmanded the water on the ground to let dry land appear; when dry land appeared, grass began to grow, and all kinds of animals began to make their appearances according to the commands of EJI-OGBE. OFUN-MEJI had fully expected EJI-OGBE to return to Heaven with the mission unaccomplished; but as time went on, and he did not hear nor see anything of EJI-OGBE, he (OFUN-MEJI) thought he would go down and see what was happening. When he arrived on Earth, he found EJI-OGBE and his followers comfortably seated; he ordered EJI-OGBE to get up so that he (OFUNMEJI -- the senior) could sit down; but EJI-OGBEanswered him not a word. Thus, EJI-OGBE became the most senior of the 16 IRUNMOLE and ORANGUN-MEJI (the new name for OFUN-MEJI) became the last in order of seniority."

A point that might perhaps be mentioned here is that, when OLODUMARE sent ELA to Earth as Spirit, in the story of ELA above, there was no consulting of the oracle; authority and power was given directly to ELA by OLODUMARE. When however ELA first incarnated as ORUNMILA, in the EJI-OGBE stanza referred to in the story of ELA above, but not quoted, the oracle wasc onsulted. Tradition has it that it was ELA, on his first and only mission on Earth as Spirit, Who taught mankind how to divine, using 16 ivory counters. As we see from the above story of the first incarnation of the 16 IRUNMOLE, theoracle was again consulted. Thus we may rightly conclude that "divination, " as part of the system, is of great antiquity, initially taught by ELA. Oral tradition also has it -- as the writer understands it -- that these 16 IRUNMOLE were part of ELA 's followers when he came to battle with ESU and replace chaos with order; furthermore, that they also form part of ORUNMILA's followers at each incarnation. In the above story about EJI-OGBE and OFUN, we see them in action, independently of ELA /QRUNMILA. Oral traditions aver that there are two ELA's - ELA AWOYE, whom we have been considering, and ELA IWORI, Who is not of the same stature as ELA AWOYE, and that the two are not to be confused. Similarly there are two ESUs -- ESU EBITA, The Great Spirit whom we have been considering in the Story of ELA, and ESU LALU, the son of a Chief, the OLOJA, and that these two ESUs should not be confused one with the other. We are concerned here, however, with ELA.
 
These are most definitely jewels you are dropping. I appreciate all of your posts and am learning a great deal. I've been printing them out. Btw, I contacted Chief Fama and got a reading and I need to do ebo. She quoted me a price and I wanted to know if it was reasonable for what I had to do.

Chief Fama and baba Ifabowale are of impeccable character. I would be interseted to know what Odu came up for you. I hope it came up ire.

The article i posted above by Chief Fela is enlightening. The definitions and hierarchy of Olorun, Olodumare and Eleda are a subject of debate, or better said, different geoups have differing interpretations. For instance, in another thread i gave a different definition for Olodumare. O for "from" or "owner", L "of", Odu "womb", and mare "rainbow." This then has two possible inerpretations. One, the rainbow as the full spectrum of light, all of creation. The second as refering to the Python, the Mother of all. So Olodumare as owner of creation or light, coming from the Python, which has been an archetype of the Dark Mother for at least 70,000 years in Afrika.

ire
 
Greetings Family! I have been lurking around for sometime now and I am enjoying the info that is being given out about Ifa. Let me tell you my situation. For a while now I have been interested in Ifa and knew that I was on the priest path. Had a reading with an Akan priest and he confirmed to me that I am on the priest path. Also he told me that I have Oshun, which I knew already, and Shango, which was a surprise. He and his wife got me in touch with a house in Philly. I talked to the wife a couple of times but I haven't heard anything. Called her twice last week and still nothing. I am beginning to think that they ain't the ones. Decided not to go through Ifa but kemetic spirituality and that doesn't seem right. I feel I need to move on from this.

Well, all that being said, what should a novice do to get started with daily devotionals? How do I begin developing my relationship with Ori and the Orishas'? Thanks
Ajna Wisdom: I am late, but, just became a member of this site -- I hope you will see my answer at some point: 1. In order for you to really know your Orisha - you have to get a reading from Ifa .. Orunmila was the witness when you were in Heaven of your destiny. That way you can really know what is what.

Oyapidan
 
Ajna Wisdom: I am late, but, just became a member of this site -- I hope you will see my answer at some point: 1. In order for you to really know your Orisha - you have to get a reading from Ifa .. Orunmila was the witness when you were in Heaven of your destiny. That way you can really know what is what.

Oyapidan

Modupe Oyapidan for your input. Welcome to Destee!

@Awo Dino, Ogbe Osa came up for me.
 

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