An Exposition of The Sacred Texts of Ifa

pressing-ikinDisclosure: What follows is my own highly opinionated, intensely felt, not

necessarily correct, and perhaps at times alienating view of Odu, and what they mean.

In order to give you a relative foundation from which you can draw your own parallels I will
break down the Odus in a fashion which will allow me to assigned elemental dignities to each of
them in groups of four.

To begin with I shall consider each Odu in relation to the Opon-Ifa. Furthermore, I will
positioned each set of four Odus in a cardinal point within the Opon-Ifa. The cardinal points are
named Otun-Opon (East), Osi-Opon (West), Ori-Opon (North), and Ese-Opon (South).

To the East I shall group Ogbe, Irosu, Ogunda, and Otura.

To the West I shal group Oyeku, Owonrin, Osa, and Irete.

To the North I shall group Iwori, Obara, Ika, and Ose.

To the South I shall group Odi, Okanran, Oturupon, and Ofun

I shall also assign elemental dignities to each group of Odus as follows:

To the Easter group of Odus I assign the element of Fire.

To the Western group of Odus I assign the element of Water.

To the Northern group of Odus I assign the element of Air.

To the Souther group of Odus I assign the element of Earth.

The Odu is a visual map of consciousness and a symbolic system that offers insight into
professional contribution, personal motives, and spiritual development of each individual. As a
map of consciousness, the Odus represent a facet of the total life experience incorporating the
“practical-everyday world” with the spiritual growth and evolution of each person. Basically ,
the Odus reflect the opportunity that each individual has to visually see that life is a process of
“walking the mystic path with practical feet.”
The Odus reveal different psychological, and spiritual states of “being.”

The Eastern group of Odus represent qualities of vision. insight, perception, energy, vitality and
spontaneity.

The Western group of Odus represent the emotional psychological factors, which would include
our responses, reactions and our feelings. This group of Odus indicate different qualities of love,
and emotional states that range from happiness and satisfaction to disappointment, anger, fear,
and inertia.

The Northern group of Odus mirror what is happening as far as mental beliefs, ideas and quality
of thinking.

The Southern group of Odus represent the external reality or ability to manifest what we want
in the outer world in the areas of health, finance, work, creativity, and relationships.

The first group of Odus I will focus on will be those grouped in the cardinal point of the Opon-
Ifa named Ese-Opon