Ifa Self Initiation Ritual

An Ifa Self-Initiation Ritual

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Compcros Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems “Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge”

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Abstract A ritual laying foundations for depth of relationship with the fundamental defining factors of the Yoruba origin Ifa system of knowledge, spiritual development and divination. Primary among these is ori, the immortal essence of self embodying the individual's ultimate potential. The dialogue with ori is facilitated by engagement with odu, the identities of all possibilities of existence in their myriad interactions. This dialogical process is grounded in the possibility of existence enabled by Olodumare, ultimate reality and ultimate creator operating through the orisa. Overlooking and assisting in this dynamic between aspects of the self are those who have trodden this path, ancestors who are called to aid the aspirant. Cover picture Opon ifa, Ifa cosmological symbol and divination template, with ikin, divination nuts, resting on quaternary cosmological symbolism inscribed on iyerosun, the dust of earth as the convergence of all possibilities in the material existence enabling awareness. Opele divination chain at the right side and spiral symbol of transformation and eternity inscribed on top left, reinforced by the circularity of the opon ifa, evoking lae lae, foreverness. The seeds of possibility at the nexus of being and becoming, represented by the intersecting vertical and horizontal lines of the convergence of past and future in the present, within the quaternary coordinates of space, transformations at play within the matrix of eternity. Image from Iya Janinia’s blog. Acknowledgements I salute all those who have contributed to my reaching this point, particularly my mother, Jhalobia Ojemu, and my sisters, Ifuemi and Ameto, the principal sponsors of my research, support even more striking because their religious orientation differs from mine, being members of an exclusivist Christian denomination, and all of us, including me, are often confused as to which direction I am going, but having journeyed with me since the tumultuous teenage years of seeking direction, remain convinced that the direction is unfolding through the screen of mist.

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Purify and Consecrate yourself1. Drinking a cup of water, declare, inwardly or outwardly, “may the divine essence flowing from Orun, the

This is an adaptation of the Celestial Sanctum ritual and contemplative method of the Western esoteric order the Ancient Mystical Order of the Rosy Cross (AMORC) slightly reshaped in terms of my interpretation of the concept of orun from the Yoruba, Nigeria, origin Orisa cosmology to which Ifa belongs. The Celestial Sanctum may be seen as the point of convergence between the source of existence and human aspiration. It is visualised in the ritual in terms of whatever image the individual finds inspiring. 1

Classic descriptions of this contemplative method are the version of the explanatory booklet on the technique with an introductory essay by Charles Dana Dean, Liber 777: The Celestial Sanctum: Its Origin, Purposes, and Program of Services in which he discusses the metaphysics of the concept and Raymond Bernard’s Messages from the Celestial Sanctum. The 1940 edition of the Celestial Sanctum booklet by Dean describes the imaginative template that Bernard’s book builds on. The best descriptions I know of inspired mental states at the intersection of individual mind and cosmic dynamism in relation to Orisa cosmology include Susanne Wenger’s account of “travellinghidden, beyond time and suffering” [enabled by her fondness for ] trees and running water [presences demonstrating that ] all the gods of the world are trees and animals long, long before they entrust their sacrosanct magnificence to a human figure” in Rolf Brockmann and Gerd Hötter ’s Adunni: A Portrait of Susanne Wenger. Also relevant in this context is Susanne Wenger’s perception of Olodumare, described by one view, of which Bolaji Idowu’s Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief, is paradigmatic, as the supreme being in Orisa cosmology. Wenger conceives Olodumare as “axiom paradoxon...origin and consequence” in her review of Harold Courlander’s Tales of Yoruba Gods and Heroes in Research in African Literatures, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring, 1976), pp. 74-76, This understanding of Olodumare is instructive for conceptions about orun, where Olodumare “dwells” as it is often translated or where the ultimate reality is focused, to put it in a different way the understanding of a reality so abstract, Olodumare has no shrines, although people address that reality in personificatory terms and pray to Olodumare, as Idowu demonstrates.

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Zone of Ultimate Origins, infuse my being and cleanse me of all impurities of mind and body, so I may enter the intersection of mind and cosmos, and commune in purity and worthiness. Ase2”. The personifications Idowu presents are masculine, however, while Babatunde Lawal argues in “Ejiwapo: The Dalectics of Twoness in Yoruba Art and Culture", African Arts, Spring, 2008, that Olodumare may have once been understood in terms of the confluence of masculine and feminine genders. The other accounts of elevated consciousness I am aware in Orisa cosmology include Aina Olomo’s description in a post of 2nd August 2010 on the Yoruba Affairs Google group, under the thread “Esoteric Knowledge and Power in the Orisa Tradition”, of the Yoruba concept “awo”. She characterizes it as “the dimension of consciousness where the sum total of humanity's inspirations and experiences are alive, existing forever in the minutes of today, never solely attentive or restricted to yesterday or tomorrow” [yet] “it is a realm of phenomena that is unavailable for total absorption by the human mind”. Also inspiring in this context is Awo Falokun Fatunmbi in "Obatala:Ifa and the Chief of the Spirit of the White Cloth" on awo. He depicts this idea as signifying “ the esoteric understanding of the invisible forces that sustain dynamics and form within Nature. The essence of these forces are not considered secret because they are devious, they are secret because they remain elusive, awesome in their power to transform and not readily apparent. As such they can only be grasped through direct interaction and participation. Anything which can be known by the intellect alone ceases to be awo.” “Ase”, expressed here as an affirmation, is an invocation of the Yoruba conception of ase, the creative force that animates the cosmos and is responsible for being and becoming, this being an interpretation of the description by Rowland Abiodun et al in Yoruba:Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, a presentation expanded by John Mbiti’s African Religions and Philosophy in identifying a similar idea as unifying classical African cosmologies. It can be cultivated and directed through a variety of means, including ritual. The word is to be intoned slowly and mindfully, enabling one take advantage of the correlation of vowel and consonantal sounds that constitutes its phonological structure, a combination that recurs in a number of sacred words, including the Hindu “OM”, described as the expression of the creative force that sustains the universe, “Amen”, the Judaeo-Christian word of sacred affirmation and “Amon”, the ancient Egyptian name for the creator of 2

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Having set the stage by purifying yourself, invoke that aspect of yourself known as Ori, Ehi and Chi3, establishing a correlation between your conscious mind and the embodiment of your ultimate potential, your own self that dwells in the source of existence: Ehi, my self in orun, the zone of ultimate origins, my overself, Ori, captain of the path of my life, Chi, the guidance of the supreme, my inner self who existed before I came into this world, who dwells with the Undying One, what is your will? What do you see of the landscape of existence from your place in the ramparts overlooking all? the universe. The Rosicrucian AMORC thinker Harvey Spencer Lewis in his essay “Amen,OM, Amon” in an issue of the Rosicrucian Digest describes this vowel/consonantal combination as facilitating entry into contemplative states. AMORC instructions suggests they be intoned along with rhythmic deep breathing. I have experienced the combination of breathing and slow intonation of one of such words as I have listed above to be helpful in facilitating entry into a contemplative state. Options for this section which I have left out in the name of brevity conducive to the emphasis on contemplation but which expand the central idea are : “Let us dialogue in the depths of my soul. What intersections do you perceive between my paths and the paths constituting the totality? May I forge a link, may I build a bridge between your transcendent vision and my conscious understanding. The more you listen to yourself, comparing the different soundless voices within you, the better you will be able to assess the relative value of the various directions in which you are being pointed”. 3

Ehi, Ori and Chi, aspects of the self as understood in Benin, Yoruba and Igbo cosmology, respectively, are understood to exist in the dimension of being that relates most closely to the creator of the universe. They are also described as embodying aspects of the potential of the individual which are not ordinarily accessible to consciousness but which can be reached through divination and supplication. For Ori, among many sources, one could see Bolaji Idowu, Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief, Wande Abimbola, An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus and Ifa Divination Poetry. For Chi, Chinua Achebe’s, “Chi in Igbo Cosmology” is superb. For Ehi, R.E., Bradbury’s “Ehi: Three Stories from Benin", in Benin Studies, (ed.) P. Morton-Williams, is impressive. My “Correlating Benin, Yoruba and Igbo Cosmologies” gives an overview of conjunctions between these systems.

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Maintain silence. Ori speaks in silence. A tender, eloquent silence. An often gentle persuasion. At times a compelling urge. Dialogue through Ifa is centred on hearing the voice of Ori, the friend who follows one on the most distant journeys without turning back4. The blank space below, as in related strategies in the continuity between opon ifa, classical Chinese painting, Japanese gardening and classical Japanese architecture in exploring relationships between empty and non-empty space, suggests the silence within which ori is best engaged with. The interior of a room is empty, but on that emptiness, the usefulness of the room depends. The centre of a bicycle wheel is empty, but on that emptiness, the functionality of the wheel depends, states the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu on the room and the bicycle wheel in the Tao te Ching. The centre of the opon ifa is empty, but in that emptiness is centred its value as a space for configuring patterns in seeking divine vision. The mind may be occupied by varied impulses and ideas, but within the vortex may be created or discovered, a centre through which these voices may be distilled and the most insightful and profound identified.

An adaptation of a majestic ese ifa, Ifa literature, "The Importance of Ori", from Wande Abimbola’s Sixteen Great Poems of Ifa, reprinted in Jack Mapanje and Landeg White’s edited Oral Poetry from Africa. Currently accessible at Martin Kondwani White's website African Poems: Oral Poetry from Africa. 4

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Visualize a divining tray of Ifá-blanki5

The divining tray of the Ifa divination system, the central system of knowledge of classical Yoruba culture, is the central iconographic form, the central visual expression of the system, after the marks that represent the two hundred and fifty-six Odu, the latter being the primary organising categories of Ifa. The totality of the Odu are derived from a set of primary sixteen units. The opon Ifa image is from Rowland Abiodun et al’s , edited, The Yoruba Artist: New Theoretical Perspectives on African Arts. I discuss fundamentals of opon ifa iconography, its visual symbolism, in “Opon Ifa, Being and Becoming at the Nexus of Time and Space”. Hans Witte,’s Ifa and Esu: Iconography of Order and Disorder and Abiodun et al’s Yoruba:Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, among others, are also pioneering works in the burgeoning field of Opon Ifa Studies. 5

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Meditate on this symbol of the coming of everything from Nothing. The divining tray is empty but from it will emerge the 16 Odu Ifa. In a similar sense, out of the emptiness of the essence of being, emerges all that exists. The divination tray is empty but on it will be written the 16 Odu which represent the totality of existence. From Nothing did the universe come. To Nothing will it return. EJI 0GBE

OYEKU MEJI

IWORI MEJI

ODI MEJ I

IROSUN MEJI

OGUNDA MEJI

OWORIN MEJI

OSA MEJI

OBARA MEJI

IKA MEJI

OTUURUPON MEJI

OKANRAN MEJI

OTUA MEJI

IRETE MEJI

OSE MEJI

OFUN MEJI

This conception of the odu ifa is a personal, speculative interpretation of Ifa cosmology, deriving from a number of sources, including Hindu cosmology and the cosmology of the Hermetic writer Dion Fortune as described in Fortune’s The Cosmic Doctrine. The concept of Nothing is also very rich in scientific cosmology, a demonstrated by Tian Yu Cao’s magnificent analysis about its relationship to a contemporary scientific picture of the origin of the cosmos in "Ontology and Scientific Explanation," in Explanations (ed. John Conwell, Oxford University Press, 2004), 173-196 and Nothing: A Very Short Introduction by Frank Close. 8

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Imagine yourself at the centre of the Opon ifa, empty but full of possibilities, within the primal waters of the womb of being, as the universe comes into existence from you, manifested as the primary sixteen Odu of Ifa. Slowly Visualize the sixteen Odu emerge on either your body or in the space in front of your body as you call out their names and visualize their symbolic markings. A mapping of the Odu onto your body is provided on the previous page6. Invoke the universal significance of the Odu by speaking inwardly or outwardly the description of the Odu by Benin babalawo Joseph Ohomina, an affirmation of cosmic unity: The Odu are the names of spirits whose origin we do not know. We understand only a small fraction of their significance. The Odu are the brains behind the efficacy of whatever we prepare. They are the spiritual names of all elements in existence, whether abstract or concrete: plants, animals, human beings, the elements and all kinds of situations. Abstractions such as love, hate, truth and falsehood; concrete forms such as rain, water, land, air and the stars; situations such as celebrations, fighting and ceremonies are represented in spiritual terms by the various Odu7. Having invoked Odu Ifa, project these fundamental essences into the world through a collage of selections from the great ese ifa, Ifa literary form, “Ayajo Asuwada” : Dews pour lightly, pour lightly. Dews pour heavily, pour heavily. This is an adaptation of the Middle Pillar Ritual from the Western esoteric school of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn as described in Israel Regardie’s edition of the Order’s rituals in The Rituals, Rites and Ceremonies of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It involves concentrating on a part of the body, principally those parts that correspond to the Jewish/Hermetic cosmology of the Kabbala, and intoning the sacred names of the body of God as expressed in terms of the structure of the cosmos, thereby correlating self and cosmos and vivifying those cosmic centres in the individual self. These centres are correlated with the head, the throat, the chest, the navel, the feet, the shoulders and the hips. 7 I discuss this magnificent summation in “Cosmological Permutations: Joseph Ohomina’s Ifa Philosophy and the Quest for the Unity of Being”. 6

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Dews pour heavily So that you may pour lightly As I pour myriads of existence upon the earth . Myriads of goodness take the shape of togetherness. The creator of togetherness, I invoke you! Let myriads of goodness come to me!8 Then affirm your unity with the convergence of the cosmic dynamism of ase and the metaphysical essence that is Odu: I have become fire that makes transformations from one state to another possible, from matter to energy, from the first nothingness to everything, the primal explosion through which the universe was created, the radiations of sound racing outward from the core of the terrible cataclysm, the forms that were crushed out of the chaos emerging as star clusters, as planetary systems, as the variety of the cosmos… Complete this stage with the following declaration of identification with cosmic dynamism in pursuing your ultimate purpose: As the spiral returns into itself, as the snake curls itself into a circle, as Osumare, the ever moving rainbow serpent, symbol of continuity and permanence, the principle of movement, the integrating force that binds the universe together9, Iyandezulu, the bundle of heaven whose Translated by Babatunde Lawal in The Gelede Spectacle: Art, Gender and Social Harmony in an African Culture, from Akinsola A. Akiwowo “Contributions to the Sociology of Knowledge from an African Oral Poetry” International Sociology, 1986; 1; 343-48. I discuss this poem in some detail in “Manifestations at Cosmogenesis : The Three Awo Before Time, the Descent of Ọrọ and Asuwa and the Splitting of Oyigiyigi: Universal Implications of Three Yoruba Cosmogonic Narratives”. 8

From Hans Witte, on serpent symbolism in classical Yoruba art in Ifa and Esu: Iconography of Order and Disorder. John Pemberton III’s review of this work in African Arts, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Feb., 1985), pp. 88-91;88 describes Witte’s association of Osumare and opon ifa patterns as lacking corroboration from Ifa sources. Even if that is so, and Witte has let his imagination run away with him as Pemberton argues, the development of ideas often operates through imaginative extrapolation, so Witte’s interpretation is adapted here. Maria Swampwitch is most inspiring on Osumare at the Brazilian Candomble tribe at the Tribe 9

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social networking site on [Link is non-functional as of this writing, years since my accessing it]: “Osumare is the orisa of all movements, of all cycles, wealth, long life. Osumare is the snake that surrounds the earth eating its own tail (ouroboros). If one day he loses his strength and lets go of his tail, the earth will fall apart, which will happen if mankind continue to destroy Aiye [Yoruba for the world]. Due to this he is considered by many the orisa of ecology. The universe is dynamic and the Earth is in constant movement, this movement that creates the seasons. Imagine the earth without rotation, with just one season, a permanent day or night. It is necessary that the Earth moves, so day comes after night, seasons occur, the vapor of water goes up and comes back as rain. Osumare cannot be forgotten, because the end of cycles is the end of this Earth. He is the great serpent that surrounds the Earth and secures the unity and renovation of our universe. He lives in Orun [ the ultimate zone of origin] and comes to Earth as the rainbow. Son of Nana and brother of Obaluaiye, he is the Yoruba counterpart of the Vodoun Dan of the Ewe/Fon of Dahomey. Osumare is a male Orisa, but due to his duality and cycles (six months a snake, six months as the rainbow), some incorrectly say he is both male and female. He is an ambiguous, double orisa. He expresses the junction of opposites in order to maintain the universe and life. Osumare synthesizes [symbolizes?] the movement of transformation. He owns everything that is elongated, such as the umbilical cord. He also represents wealth and fortune as other Orisas do. The segi (segui), a rare blue mineral found in Yorubaland is said to be his excrement and it is more valuable than gold. It is with all the colors of the rainbow that Osumare gave color to nature. Although his beads in Brazil are yellow with black stripes, all colors belong to him. His eleguns wear brajas (cowry elekes in snake format) and carry a bronze snake in their hands. Some say that like Osumare, his children go through cyclic changes in life, like the snake shedding its skin. His dances while in possession are some of the most complex in Candomble. He is saluted with the call: “À róbò bo yi!!” He is linked to both Sango and Obatala. In some of his itans... he is seen when in Aiye as a babalawo, 12

movements are in thousands10, encircling the universe to make it one, the serpent who rests in the flesh of my body and in the flesh of earth11; Dwenningmen12, the twisted horns holding the knotted movements that explode into life as the cosmos bursts into existence, embodied in the dynamic motion of the shapes of plants, roots, bones and stones13; as the universe is stable and yet dynamic14, ensuring a fulfilment for each species in accordance with its overall cosmic purpose15, expressing the ultimate goal that comes to itself when it is with the incomprehensible One16, so will I fulfil my ultimate purpose; as long as space abides, as a diviner, who had great power of healing”. From Mazisi Kunene on snake symbolism in classical Zulu cosmology in his introduction to his Anthem of the Decades. 10

Adapting the Indian concept of Kundalini, a creative force in the self visualized as a serpent coiled at the base of the spine and related to the development of consciousness, as described, among many other texts, in Lilian Silburn’s Kundalini : The Energy of the Depths : A Comprehensive Study Based on the Scriptures of Nondualistic Kasmir Saivism and also correlated, in newer thinking, with the concept of earth energies, as demonstrated in Mary Scott’s Kundalini in the Physical World. 11

Ghanaian Akan and Gyaman Adinkra symbol described in terms of its dynamic symmetry. 12

Adaptation of Mazisi Kunene on the centrality of the concept of movement in classical Zulu thought in his introduction to Anthem of the Decades. 13

Adaptation of the concept of the concept of ase, understood here in terms of being and becoming. 14

Adaptation of Mazisi Kunene on the centrality of the concepts of plurality and of balance of value between species in his introduction to Anthem. 15

Adaptation of Kunene in his introduction to Anthem on the source, validation and ultimate understanding of cosmic meaning in the creator of the universe as expounded in classical Zulu thought -“Only Mweliqanqi understands the true direction of creation” and from the 16

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long as the world abides, so long will I abide, destroying the sufferings of the world17. Maintain silence and stillness for a few minutes for those affirmations to settle into the mind. Pray As the Iroko and Akpobrisi18 manifest the Supreme Presence in the forest, so do the Odu express the One beyond being in the world of being. May I see with the eye of Eji Ogbe, Owonrin Meji, Ofun Meji, each Odu and her Orisa, thus may I grow into perceiving with the understanding of the One beyond all19. As the eye of the eagle soaring above the Iroko, the rabbit and the deer, sees how these various forms make one whole, my heart beats in harmony with the heart of the forest of existence. I sense that the immortal spirit that animates that forest, the immortal spirit that flows through the Odu, the immortal spirit that energizes the cosmos, the immortal spirit that lives in me, are one and the same20. characterization of the relationship between ultimate meaning and the ground of being by the Catholic theologian Karl Rahner, quoted in “Living into Mystery: Karl Rahner’s Reflections on his 75th Birthday“-the blessed goal of knowledge which comes to itself when it is with the incomprehensible One”. The vow of the Boddhisatva, the Buddhist in training to emancipate all sentient beings from ignorance, as stated in the Bodhicaryāvatāra of Santideva. 17

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Sacred trees in classical Benin cosmology.

The names of three of the Odu are here correlated with the description, by Wande Abimbola, in Ifa Divintion Poetry or An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus, that each Odu is particularly associated with an Orisa, thereby integrating the cosmos as understood by Ifa. 19

An adaptation of a section of the Upanishads, a central text in Indian thought in terms of the idea of forest as cosmos, the forest as a microcosm of existence and human navigation of the ecosystemic complexity of the forest analogous with the exploration of the 20

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Complete the initiation by aligning yourself with the orisa, expressions of the Ultimacy Who Cannot be Pictured, Who has No Altar, No Shrine, No Place of Worship Beyond the Human Mind, yet whose agents humanity may more readily comprehend21: Orisanla You who molds each child in the womb from whom each Orisa emerged through the shattering of your form re-gathered by the Wise One into the holy being

multifarious unity of the cosmos, as developed particularly powerfully by Abiola Irele on Ijala, Yoruba hunter’s poetry in “Tradition and the Yoruba Writer : D.O. Fagunwa, Amos Tutuola and Wole Soyinka” in The African Experience in Literature and Ideology and similar to other African ideations, with Ayi Kwei Armah’s adaption of classical Akan forest thought in the conversation between Densu and Damfo in his novel The Healers being particularly impressive, while Michael J. Sheridan and Celia Nyamweru’s edited African Sacred Groves : Ecological Dynamics and Social Change provides the rich example of Alma Gottlieb’s "Loggers vs Spirits in the Beng Forest,Coite d'Ivoire:Competing Models", contexts I discuss in “Forest as Cosmos: Abiola Irele on Classical Yoruba Philosophy of Nature” and “Hermeneutics of Space: Soyinka, Irele, Armah”. Other particularly rich developments along such lines include the Nigerian Cross River Ekpe esoteric order transposition of observation of the unified density of nature in its Nsibidi symbolism and related rituals, which I discuss in the Nsibidi/Ekpuk Philosophy and Mysticism Research and Publication Project. My explorations of Benin sacred landscapes, particularly its tree and forest spirituality, have brought these ideas home for me in an intimate manner, hence my invoking of names of sacred trees from Benin culture, although the Iroko is revered across Southern Nigeria. An adaptation of Bolaji Idowu’s summations on Olodumare and the orisa in Olodumare and Susanne Wenger’s depiction of Olodumare in her Research in African Literatures of Harold Courlander’s Tales of Yoruba Gods and Heroes where she states “Orisha functions as an intermediary between Olodumare's unaddressable and imperceptible sanctity and his work-that is, ourselves”, 21

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whose purity is that of the stream at dawn22. May my being be united in the calabash of radiant purity at the center of my self. Light the path of my journey to the center of the world may the vigour of the passage strengthen the self and elevate the spirit. As I was kneaded into existence by hands of divine love the spark of life in me lit by the ultimate fire may everything I bring into being be inspired by the One who is beyond time and space but who has shaped the cosmos in the image of That Thought. Orunmila The Wisdom which has existed since before creation You who understand the essence and relationships of all that is enkindle the flame of our minds so that by its radiance strengthened by your light we may see into the Pot of Being where all existence is woven into one23. Orisanla is described by Bolaji Idowu in Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief as the Orisa who moulds the child in the womb before Olodumare, the Supreme Being, infuses the child with life. Orisanla or Obatala, as he is also called, is noted, according to Idowu, for purity of being as represented by his white garments and the purity of the stream at dawn, from which water is fetched in a calabash every morning to grace his altar. He represents the proliferation of the Many from the One through the shattering of his self into shards which are the other Orisa. The rest was gathered into the sacred calabash of existence by Orunmila, the Embodiment of Wisdom, Who was consulted by the creator, Olodumare at the time of creation, this narrative being a summation of a mythic sequence described by Idowu and a beautiful metaphorical interpretation of the same sequence in Ulli Beier, The Return of the Gods: The Sacred Art of Susanne Wenger, along with the summation of Orunmila in Wole Soyinka's seven stanza poetic overview of Orisa cosmology in his The Credo of Being and Nothingness. 23 A central metaphor of Ifa is the closed calabash understood as a metaphor of the cosmos, and, possibly, the dwelling place and being of 22

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Esu My brother who is paradox itself may I grasp the various aspects of truth which even through seemingly in opposition form one whole24. As Obatala On his journey of purification and atonement may I learn that you, Esu, are everywhere in those tests that strain us to respond with the emotion and thought of the moment or with the understanding of our divine mission25. Odu, the wife of Orunmila and generative source of the wisdom of Ifa as described by Babatunde Lawal in "Ejiwapo: The Dalectics of Twoness in Yoruba Art and Culture” by Rowland Abiodun, and Henry John Drewal et al, in Art and Oracle: African Art and Rituals of Divination and by Judith Gleason in A Recitation of Ifa, Oracle of the Yoruba. “Esu turns right into wrong, wrong into right” (Wande Abimbola, Sixteeen Great Poems of Ifa)His cap is red on one side and black on the other; he is at time shown as androgynous . A superb analysis of Esus’s correlation of contraries is provided in the first chapter of Henry Louis Gates Jrs’ The Signifying Monkey. Esu overlooks the Ifa divinatory process and represents the axis constituted by the relationship between chance, opportunity and free will, as well as the mediation between the various aspects of being, particularly between the Orisa and human beings. Esu is one of the three central Orisa of Ifa. The other two are Orunmila, the founder of the Ifa system and Odu, Orunmila’s wife, who, according to one view, revealed Ifa to him. The offspring of Orunmila and Odu may be seen as the two hundred and fifty six Odu Ifa, the organizational categories and active agents of Ifa. I discuss Esu in relation to opon ifa iconography, its visual symbolism, in “Opon Ifa, Being and Becoming at the Nexus of Time and Space. 24

Orisanla, also known as Obatala, was once advised by Ifa/Orunmila before he went on a journey to visit his friend the Orisa Sango, Alaafin of Oyo and that he should bear without retaliating every provocation he encountered on the journey. He did so even though he suffered serious ignominies. He was eventually vindicated by the forces of nature which responded in protest to his circumstances. The 25

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O You, Esu, who give reward for action that is in harmony with divine will may I always act and respond with an understanding of the universal law of cause and effect. Visualize The divining tray glowing with the 16 Odu patterns Pray Brethren guide me to create the wisest pattern as I weave the tapestry of my life according to your divine wisdom. Visualize Your brethren in light as an assembly of radiant beings who lay shining hands of power on you and merge their luminous beings with yours, lifting you into cosmic consciousness, in union with the Absolute. As you visualize the brethren, declare: My ancestors in the wisdom of the Odu extend yourself to one who wants to discover and propagate the profound significance of this understanding which we all love. May my being and my actions be united in this divine task. Ase. Remain in silence to incubate the communion you have initiated, Repeating the ritual at intervals is helpful to further galvanizing the powers within and beyond you being called upon. provocateur on that journey is at times identified with Esu, agent of opportunity for good or bad (Ulli Beier, A Year of Sacred Festivals and The Return of the Gods : The Sacred Art of Susanne Wenger ). 18

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