- Jan 24, 2008
- 4
- 1
The Odu Ifa are part of the sacred texts of the Yoruba people. Originally (and still presently) memorized in their entirety by priests, in the last century or so they’ve been written down and translated into English. These texts are in the form of short stories/parables that are named and numbered much like Biblical Bible verses. However the Odu texts are uniquely written in a beautifully rhythmic and expressive form that makes them seem like they could or should be sang as music or cited as poetry.
The texts are used in the Yoruba divination system as oracles that are used to give insight to the past, present, or future. The science of the system is based on the simple and undeniable principle that in this universe THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS, everything happens for a reason, and there are absolutely no exceptions to this rule. Every single event, incident, or occurrence in our daily lives is able to provide us with vast amounts of useful information if we are only wise and skilled enough to understand.
Divination is a practice used all over the world and practitioners of this art use divination implements which could be cards, shells, coins, or anything else. The objects themselves don’t really matter, so long as they produce consistent results, and in the case of the Yoruba they use cowrie shells, kola nuts, or a metallic chain (so far that I have seen.) Within the hundreds of Odu scriptures can be found insight into every conceivable human endeavor. Casting the divination objects produces a number which corresponds to a specific Odu. And it is universally understood that while being mentally and spiritually focused on a particular issue, the apparently “random” selection of a particular Odu by the divination implements is in actuality not random at all. Instead, the selected Odu directly pertains to the question/issue/matter at hand, and it is left to the wisdom and experience of the diviner to obtain any and all relevant information being offered by the universe. Not magic. Not sorcery. Yoruba divination is a thoroughly developed metaphysical science based on the firmly established principle of universal order.
The Odu Ifa, the sacred text of the spiritual and ethical tradition of Ifa, is one of the great sacred texts in the world and a classic of African and world literature. Its sacred narratives and divination focus have been well-discussed, but less attention has been given to the rich resource it offers in ethical teachings. This book seeks to address this inadequacy of attention. Its governing interest is to present the ethical teachings of the Odu in the language of modern moral discourse while at the same time preserving and building on its distinctiveness as an ancient body of moral literature capable of framing and inspiring modern ethical philosophical discussion.
Maulana Karenga
In his book Odu Ifa: the ethical teachings, Maulana Karenga has reproduced the Odu and has also provided a cultural translation and ethical discussion about selected texts. I think Karenga has done a fantastic job of documenting and highlighting the ethical brilliance of the sacred Odu, in light of the fact that modern practitioners as a whole have chosen to focus much more on the immensely powerful divination aspects of the Yoruba texts, often at the expense of the ethical teachings that they offer (a sign of the times I would say.)
The Odu are of course awesome as divination oracles, but I personally use them predominately as an absolutely indelible source of proverbial wisdom. Whenever I feel that something is missing in my life, or whenever I feel the need for guidance I read the Odu. I have written in my journal a dozen or so of the Odu verses that have had the most profound effect on my life. I usually read through those first, but if I feel that I still need more then I start reading through the other Odu, letting my fingers pick and choose the verses as they like. But within the first dozen there almost never fails to be an answer there that jumps out for me. And after a little reflection and prayer I walk away spiritually satisfied and mentally prepared for whatever.
One thing about the Odu that I find absolutely amazing is the manner in which they’re written. As I said before, they’re songlike and even poetic in that they are written in a way that often times is not readily understandable. While some of the verses are more simple and straight forward, other verses are written in an almost riddle like form. When spoken or read, the incredibly creative and artistically expressive verses of the Odu create pictures, scenes, feelings, and colors in the mind that often require a great deal of reflection and meditation in order to coalesce into perceivable thought. I often don’t understand (at least not fully) the teaching of the Odu the first time I read it, or even the second or third time. It’s only after I think deeply about what is being said and begin to use all of my available resources (intellect, visualization, knowledge of Yoruba culture/history, life experience, meditation, etc.) that I’m able to able to really ingest what the verses are saying to me.
Thoroughly understanding the Odu and benefiting from its wisdom requires effort, and I believe that this is very much by design. Perhaps the two most common themes in the Odu are the concepts of “character” and “sacrifice.” The Yoruba use the word sacrifice both figuratively and literally, meaning that anything good that can be obtained in this life requires effort and perseverance. The Yoruba understanding as to the purpose of this earthly existence is that we choose to temporarily leave heaven (our true and permanent home as divine beings) and come to earth to make our sacrifices of time, energy, effort, sweat, blood, and tears to obtain earthly riches and divine wisdom (the greatest of treasures) to take back home when we leave the earthly plane.
So the Yoruba teach and understand that the answer to our prayers and problems requires sacrifice. As we know, prayer alone yields very little. We can pray all we want, but if we don’t work smart and work hard on the job then it is very unlikely that we attain a higher position. If we do not know how to love, cherish, and respect our mates then it is unlikely that we will be able to keep our husbands and wives close to us. Work is always hard. Love is always an action word. Prayer requires sacrifice.
Central to the theme of sacrifice lies the Yoruba concept of character. There are three stages of reaching the level of “Eniyan Gidi“ (the truly authentic human being.)
1. Iwa-pele = right character, right action
2. Iwa-l’ewa = oneness of character with the inherent beauty of nature
3. Iwa-l’aiya = a moral and righteous way of life which maintains itself without regression
Somewhat in opposition to the Eniyan Gidi are the humans who act as if they are lost in the forest (omo igi) and/or as the wild beast (omo eranko). The Odu teaches over and over again that persons of excellent character will be victorious in this world, and that true human beings must always be alert to the ways of the insensitive and beastlike if we are to triumph over them.
So the answers to our prayers requires sacrifice, and proper sacrifice which leads to victory in this world requires the development of character. Understanding the Odu requires a sacrifice of time, effort, study, understanding, meditation, and visualization. And the reward for making the proper sacrifice to overstand the Odu leads directly to the development of character.
Next to the ethical wisdom of the Odu themselves, it is the journey that one takes to overstand the Odu that I find most amazing. For one, seeing, tasting, smelling, hearing, and feeling your way through the sacred text provides more of a Black history lesson than I can adequately explain. Within the text, you are transported back in time to dozens of cities, shops, markets, houses, rooms, roads, courts, battlefields, forests, farms, and gardens of the motherland itself: the scenes, sights, and sounds of the people themselves. You are there! For me, that’s a Black history lesson unlike any other. And even more importantly, I have to say that there is something powerfully rewarding about the mental and spiritual journey that the mind makes to decipher the Odu. Thinking of the words, thoughts, and mental images over and over again to arrive at the answer makes the journey a most rewarding one. When we reach the destination, when we decipher the riddle and find the answer, then we have made the effort, we’ve made the sacrifice, and the wisdom that was once another’s then truly becomes our own.
I’ve found that many people (especially including myself) simply don’t like being “told” what to do. No matter how good the advice may be, we simply don‘t like someone else telling us to do it. I believe that our ancestral method of challenging the mind to find the answer is a truly outstanding method of imparting wisdom to others, much better in my opinion than simply telling people (even in book form) what they should and shouldn’t do.
I’ve included an English translation of a few of the Odu. I’ve come to my own understanding of each of the Odu, and Karenga also offers his understanding of some of them in his book, but I think that everyone should extract from them a meaning for themselves. And I’d also be very interested in any interpretive input that anyone else may have. Ase.
The texts are used in the Yoruba divination system as oracles that are used to give insight to the past, present, or future. The science of the system is based on the simple and undeniable principle that in this universe THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS, everything happens for a reason, and there are absolutely no exceptions to this rule. Every single event, incident, or occurrence in our daily lives is able to provide us with vast amounts of useful information if we are only wise and skilled enough to understand.
Divination is a practice used all over the world and practitioners of this art use divination implements which could be cards, shells, coins, or anything else. The objects themselves don’t really matter, so long as they produce consistent results, and in the case of the Yoruba they use cowrie shells, kola nuts, or a metallic chain (so far that I have seen.) Within the hundreds of Odu scriptures can be found insight into every conceivable human endeavor. Casting the divination objects produces a number which corresponds to a specific Odu. And it is universally understood that while being mentally and spiritually focused on a particular issue, the apparently “random” selection of a particular Odu by the divination implements is in actuality not random at all. Instead, the selected Odu directly pertains to the question/issue/matter at hand, and it is left to the wisdom and experience of the diviner to obtain any and all relevant information being offered by the universe. Not magic. Not sorcery. Yoruba divination is a thoroughly developed metaphysical science based on the firmly established principle of universal order.
The Odu Ifa, the sacred text of the spiritual and ethical tradition of Ifa, is one of the great sacred texts in the world and a classic of African and world literature. Its sacred narratives and divination focus have been well-discussed, but less attention has been given to the rich resource it offers in ethical teachings. This book seeks to address this inadequacy of attention. Its governing interest is to present the ethical teachings of the Odu in the language of modern moral discourse while at the same time preserving and building on its distinctiveness as an ancient body of moral literature capable of framing and inspiring modern ethical philosophical discussion.
Maulana Karenga
In his book Odu Ifa: the ethical teachings, Maulana Karenga has reproduced the Odu and has also provided a cultural translation and ethical discussion about selected texts. I think Karenga has done a fantastic job of documenting and highlighting the ethical brilliance of the sacred Odu, in light of the fact that modern practitioners as a whole have chosen to focus much more on the immensely powerful divination aspects of the Yoruba texts, often at the expense of the ethical teachings that they offer (a sign of the times I would say.)
The Odu are of course awesome as divination oracles, but I personally use them predominately as an absolutely indelible source of proverbial wisdom. Whenever I feel that something is missing in my life, or whenever I feel the need for guidance I read the Odu. I have written in my journal a dozen or so of the Odu verses that have had the most profound effect on my life. I usually read through those first, but if I feel that I still need more then I start reading through the other Odu, letting my fingers pick and choose the verses as they like. But within the first dozen there almost never fails to be an answer there that jumps out for me. And after a little reflection and prayer I walk away spiritually satisfied and mentally prepared for whatever.
One thing about the Odu that I find absolutely amazing is the manner in which they’re written. As I said before, they’re songlike and even poetic in that they are written in a way that often times is not readily understandable. While some of the verses are more simple and straight forward, other verses are written in an almost riddle like form. When spoken or read, the incredibly creative and artistically expressive verses of the Odu create pictures, scenes, feelings, and colors in the mind that often require a great deal of reflection and meditation in order to coalesce into perceivable thought. I often don’t understand (at least not fully) the teaching of the Odu the first time I read it, or even the second or third time. It’s only after I think deeply about what is being said and begin to use all of my available resources (intellect, visualization, knowledge of Yoruba culture/history, life experience, meditation, etc.) that I’m able to able to really ingest what the verses are saying to me.
Thoroughly understanding the Odu and benefiting from its wisdom requires effort, and I believe that this is very much by design. Perhaps the two most common themes in the Odu are the concepts of “character” and “sacrifice.” The Yoruba use the word sacrifice both figuratively and literally, meaning that anything good that can be obtained in this life requires effort and perseverance. The Yoruba understanding as to the purpose of this earthly existence is that we choose to temporarily leave heaven (our true and permanent home as divine beings) and come to earth to make our sacrifices of time, energy, effort, sweat, blood, and tears to obtain earthly riches and divine wisdom (the greatest of treasures) to take back home when we leave the earthly plane.
So the Yoruba teach and understand that the answer to our prayers and problems requires sacrifice. As we know, prayer alone yields very little. We can pray all we want, but if we don’t work smart and work hard on the job then it is very unlikely that we attain a higher position. If we do not know how to love, cherish, and respect our mates then it is unlikely that we will be able to keep our husbands and wives close to us. Work is always hard. Love is always an action word. Prayer requires sacrifice.
Central to the theme of sacrifice lies the Yoruba concept of character. There are three stages of reaching the level of “Eniyan Gidi“ (the truly authentic human being.)
1. Iwa-pele = right character, right action
2. Iwa-l’ewa = oneness of character with the inherent beauty of nature
3. Iwa-l’aiya = a moral and righteous way of life which maintains itself without regression
Somewhat in opposition to the Eniyan Gidi are the humans who act as if they are lost in the forest (omo igi) and/or as the wild beast (omo eranko). The Odu teaches over and over again that persons of excellent character will be victorious in this world, and that true human beings must always be alert to the ways of the insensitive and beastlike if we are to triumph over them.
So the answers to our prayers requires sacrifice, and proper sacrifice which leads to victory in this world requires the development of character. Understanding the Odu requires a sacrifice of time, effort, study, understanding, meditation, and visualization. And the reward for making the proper sacrifice to overstand the Odu leads directly to the development of character.
Next to the ethical wisdom of the Odu themselves, it is the journey that one takes to overstand the Odu that I find most amazing. For one, seeing, tasting, smelling, hearing, and feeling your way through the sacred text provides more of a Black history lesson than I can adequately explain. Within the text, you are transported back in time to dozens of cities, shops, markets, houses, rooms, roads, courts, battlefields, forests, farms, and gardens of the motherland itself: the scenes, sights, and sounds of the people themselves. You are there! For me, that’s a Black history lesson unlike any other. And even more importantly, I have to say that there is something powerfully rewarding about the mental and spiritual journey that the mind makes to decipher the Odu. Thinking of the words, thoughts, and mental images over and over again to arrive at the answer makes the journey a most rewarding one. When we reach the destination, when we decipher the riddle and find the answer, then we have made the effort, we’ve made the sacrifice, and the wisdom that was once another’s then truly becomes our own.
I’ve found that many people (especially including myself) simply don’t like being “told” what to do. No matter how good the advice may be, we simply don‘t like someone else telling us to do it. I believe that our ancestral method of challenging the mind to find the answer is a truly outstanding method of imparting wisdom to others, much better in my opinion than simply telling people (even in book form) what they should and shouldn’t do.
I’ve included an English translation of a few of the Odu. I’ve come to my own understanding of each of the Odu, and Karenga also offers his understanding of some of them in his book, but I think that everyone should extract from them a meaning for themselves. And I’d also be very interested in any interpretive input that anyone else may have. Ase.