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