The third stage of the initiation of the Ifa priest is known as fifoju kan Odu (initiation into [or “opening-of-the-eyes-to” or “placing eyes on” or “perception of” ] the secrets of Odu ).During the ceremony, the would be initiate feasts many priests from far and near, after which the sacred pot believed to be the abode of Odu, the mythical wife of Ifa, is ceremoniously opened for him to see. In turns the Ifa priests present look inside the sacred pot. The actual contents of the pot are not revealed to the un-initiated, information about them is treated as a major secret of the Ifa cult.

From An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus by Wande Abimbola

Ofun Meji
II II
I I
II II
I I

The sixteenth major Odu,
container of all mysteries,
the complete calabash of Oduduwa as formulated in the language of Ifa,
is all but inaccessible-

placed out of the way
and out of ordinary thought processes.

Odu, the female principle imagined as a container

.....her house in the forest...

has become the ceremonial apere-box containing a calabash

(her body),

which contains in turn

(or is surrounded by)

the four calabashes
given to her

by [her four advisers among the Orisha ]

Obatala gives a calabash of chalk,
Babaluaye offers his favourite substance, osun (red powder),
Ogun-charcoal powder,

and Oduduwa-mud.

These gifts imply four roads,

four corners of the universe.

They are the original four major signs.

Igbadu (igba, “calabash”, and Odu )

becomes an orisha,
the divinity worshipped by diviners who have attained the highest degree of self- knowledge-

that is,

the profoundest understanding of Ifa.

Only such diviners may install the terribly powerful calabash of existence,
once closed never to be reopened except under horrific circumstances,
“symbol of the sky and earth in their fecund union,
container of the supreme wisdom of Ifa,
[the installation of which validates] an esoteric principle of universal symbiosis.”

To “see” Odu

is to look in all directions at once,

to look back at the moment of one’s own conception,

to grasp-

from this new perspective-

the horizontal plane of existence,

the brotherhood of all who tread the earth;

below to the realm of the earth,

and to that of the dead…

upward to the stars and the cosmic order exemplified above.

From A Recitation of Ifa,Oracle of the Yoruba by Judith Gleason

The spiral or concentric circles motif appears prominently on many edan. Informants offered two different but related interpretations for it.

According to some, it represents the spin (ranyinranyin) of the cone-shaped bottom of the small snail shell (okoto), a children's toy associated with increase, dynamic motion,and, by extension, with the transformatory power of Esu, the divine messenger who mediates between the orisa and Ile.

Others identify the motif with the motion of a whirlpool, signifying the expansive power of Olokun, the goddess of the sea and abundance. Since Oduduwa reportedly created habitable land out of the primordial sea at Ile-Ife (Idowu 1962:22; Ojo 1966:194), it is apparent that Earth and Water are, in essence, two aspects of the same phenomenon venerated by the Gelede society as Iya Nla (Mother Nature), alias Olokun ajaro okoto ("The sea goddess, who whirls like okoto").

Indeed, the snail shell motif occurs on Ogboni doors (Dobbelmann 1976: pls. 156).[31] Moreover, black mud from a river or lake is a vital part of the ingredients used in consecrating an altar to Ile, and a fish-legged figure often dominates the relief decoration on Ogboni doors (Dobbelmann 1976:156-57) and drums (Ojo 1973:50, pl. 1), thus linking the terrestrial realm with the aquatic. In any case, as a metaphor for the rhythm of life, and increase (iresi), the spiral or concentric circles motif reinforces the ritual power of edan Ogboni.

Babatunde Lawal on the edan ogboni sculpure of the Yoruba of Nigeria in "Aya Gbo, Aya to:New Perspectives on Edan Ogboni",African Arts,vol.28 ,no.1.Winter 1995,364-49;98-100.

The oracular process in Ifa is a hermeneutic procedure that proceeds through the interpretation of the patterns assumed by the divinatory instruments cast by the diviner.These patterns are known collectively as the Odu of Ifa. The significance of these patterns is interpreted in relation to the texts the patterns symbolize.

The Odu are understood at diffrent levels of being. At one level they are perceived as geomantic patterns that emerge when the divinatory instruments are cast. At another level,they are organising categories of the textual corpus of the system. At yet another level,they are understood as living beings,as conscious entities.

At a level that sums up all the others,they are perceived as a means of developing and organising a systemic construction of the scope of existence.This is done in terms of what exists and what could exist,the actual and the potential. From the most abstract to the most concrete.

How does this relate to ideas of female biology? The correlation between this understanding of the Odu and ideas about female biology emerges in the feminine characterisation of the Odu and the resonance of this characterisation in the sculptural realisation of the space on which the Odu are configured in divination.

The Odu are collectively understood as female and, in this collective identity, as being the wife of Ifa. The divinatory process, therefore, could be understood as being characterized as a relationships between a female and a male personality. This implies a generative process that emerges on the space where the Odu patterns are formed.This space is graphically represented by the empty centre of the divination tray. Within this empty space, therefore, the macrocosmic values represented by the Odu in their fundamental characterisation as cosmic forms converge with the microcosmic patterns represented by the client's query.

The empty space, therefore, becomes a generative space, a womb of transformation, akin to the vaginal space where new life emerges after its transformation within uterine space. The correlation of macrocosmic and microcosmic frameworks in the divinatory process could be understood to be expressive of a convergence of forces similar to the integration of the power of life which is universal but manifests anew in each life form with the distinctive genetic encoding that emerges from the gene banks of both parents in the conception and growth of new human life.

Homage,my mother,the Osoronga
Mother with the beautiful eyes,
Who has a bunch of hair in her private part,
The mother who owns a brass tray
And a brass fan.
The famous bird of night who flies gracefully.

To the coastal Yoruba,the movement of the sea is a reverberation of the drumming,dancing,and feasting going on in the rambling palace of Iya Nla at the bottom.Hence,the popular saying:

Gbogbo ilu ni mbe i'olokun,Olokun Seniade Ajifgilupe,Oba Omi (All kinds of drumming occur beneeath thec sea,Olokun Seniade The -one -who-wakes-up-to-the-rhythm-of-drums,lord of the waters).

As the Mother of All,she receives and entertains visitors all day,all night-the orisa,spirits of the newly dead,spirits of plants and animals,souls of thousands of children waiting to be born onto the earth,and souls of "returning"Abiku,all flock around her as she dances through her huge reception hall dressed in immaculate white cloth and decked in white coral beads,welcoming one group after another.

As one informant put it, "Iya Nla likes music and dance so much that that she can celebrate for weeks without caring for food".

Her earthly disciplies,the "powerful mothers",have a similar love of the performing arts.Indeed,in one Ifa divination verse, (Odu Ogbe iyonu),the "powerful mothers" disclose to Orunmila that they would favour all those who honor them wioth music and dance (Verger 1965:186).Little wonder that the Gelede performance is considered one of the most effective means of seeking their favours.

Babatunde Lawal on Iyan Nla Yoruba Great Mother, in The Gelede Spectacle

As a big body of water,she is:

Olokun Ajetiaye,Alagbalugbu omi
Ajawo okoto
Afailorogun pariwo
See see ni gbede

The inexhausitble sea,immense water,
Roaring eddy of seashells,
Querulous,though she has no rival
Vibrations from the deep

The phrase "inexhaustible sea" has the same import as the milk flowing endlessly from the generous "pot-breasted mother"[in the last post].
The mystery associated with the female genitalia echoes in "vibrations from the deep",although this phrase also evokes the sound of Gelede dance anklets,originally made of seashells.



Babatunde Lawal on Iyan Nla Yoruba Great Mother, in The Gelede Spectacle

In her popular aspect as Yemoja [Iya Nla]is the generous and the dangerous mother:


Iya oloyon oruba

Oni run osiki A b'obo fun ni l'orun bi egbe isu

The pot-breasted mother

With much hair on her private parts;

The owner of a vagina that suffocates like dry yam in the throat.


Babatunde Lawal on Iyan Nla Yoruba Great Mother, in The Gelede Spectacle