Irete-Ogbe - How Odu Became Orunmila's Wife Part 9

"Orunmila made the offering.  On the day Odu arrived at Orunmila's home she found the offering outside the door.  Odu asked who has made this offering to the Earth?  Esu said it was Orunmila who made the offering because he wants to marry you.  Odu took the offering and fed the bird Aragamaga."

Commentary:

Here we have the relationship between Odu, representing raw spiritual power, and Orunmila, representing social order and the development of good character, being facilitated by Esu.

The word good character in Yoruba is iwa pele from the elision I wa ope ile meaning I come to greet the Earth.  We greet the Earth because the Earth is our teacher the Earth teaches us how to live in harmony with self and world.  By seeing the offering Odu is expressing her understanding the Orunmila is a good man, who was attempting to do good things in the world.

In this section of the verse Odu takes the offering and feds Aragamaga.  This is the first reference in the verse between Odu and Iyaami Osoranga.  The bird Aragamaga I would translate to mean the body of female power.  This is a symbolic reference to the collective power of all women.  This power is accessed through Odu or the womb and links all women through Ori or consciousness.  The power of Iyaami is the ability of women to pray in the astral realm as a group.

Iyaami as an Egbe or religious society was set up to do three things.  There first responsibility is to protect the women of a given community.  In the olden days all women were automatically members of the Iyaami Egbe.  The elder women of the community were initiated into the secrets of the Egbe but all women were members.  If any woman was the victim of male violence the elder mother of the Iyaami Egbe would go to the Chief Ifa priest of the village and ask him to mediate.  If the mediation was unsuccessful the women would invoke the collective power of Aragamaga which is the power to prevent a man from going to sleep by inducing nightmares.  After two or three nights of no sleep the abusive man was often willing to consider changing their abusive character.

I believe that the men who misread this verse are often in denial about their own abusive issues.

The bird used to administer justice is described as a black bird.  In Iyaami Osoranga there is also a white bird whose job it is to make sure the power of the black bird is used fairly.  Just because a woman accuses a man of violence does not automatically make the allegations true.

The third bird in Iyaami Osoranga is a red bird who job it is to locate abundance.

When Odu or the portal of female power accepts the offering of Orunmila and feeds it to the black bird the gesture of accepting the offering is recognition of the fact that Orunmila was not a threat to the safety and well-being of women.

This primal relationship is symbolized in Ifa initiations when offerings are made to Iyaami and it is symbolized when portions of ebo (personal offerings) are giving to Iyaami.  This represents a primal covenant between divergent forces in nature and this covenant is reaffirmed during initiation and when making offerings prescribed by Ifa divination.

Ire,
Awo Falokun