"Whenever she will arrive on Earth, the Babalawo said Odu this is your beginning. Olodumare gave her a bird. She took the bird on her journey to Earth."
Commentary:
Dudu in Yoruba is the word black. In liturgical Yoruba black refers to both a range of dark colors and it refers to those mysteries that remain hidden, unseen and unknowable through common mundane experience. All awo (mystery or secret) can also be described as dudu. The word Odu takes the root of dudu, which is du and adds the prefix O. In liturgical Yoruba the letter O is often used as a reference to the spirit of a thing. The word Odu could be translated to mean the spirit of the primal mystery. In more poetic language the word Odu could be translated to mean the Womb of Creation.
In common usage the word Odu sometimes means calabash or pot. The word Odu when used as an Ifa icon is frequently described as Igba Odu. The word Igba commonly means pot, so it makes no sense to interpret Igba Odu as pot. As spiritual metaphor the word Odu is a clear reference to the idea of womb. But as in all liturgical words the concept of womb refers to the womb of women, the womb of planet earth, the womb of the galaxy and the womb of Creation.
Using the word Odu to refer to a pot in various realms of Creation suggests that certain vortexes are a place where pro-creation and regeneration takes place. Odu beyond the physical womb of a woman is a place where the force of contraction unites with the force of expansion to create stars, which create the elements, which create the planets, which starts the chain of evolution leading to human life.
Ifa teaches that everything in the universe has Ori or consciousness which is why the metaphor of womb is appropriate. From the perspective of awo or hermetic physics all manifestations of Odu as womb are interdimensional portals connecting various realms of creation. The most common connection in human life between Odu and interdimensional realms is the connection between Orun and Aye (Heaven and Earth) that exists in the female womb. Every time an egg is fertilized and becomes a fetus the spirit of an ancestor journeys from Orun to Aye to infuse the fetus with Emi (the human soul). Emi is our eternal self which is having a human experience in a particular incarnation.
Igbodu from the elision Igbo Odu means womb of the Forest. It is the place in Nature where the Immortals make the journey from Orun to Aye and infuse a sacred space with ase (Spiritual Power). That sacred space then becomes known as Odu or the womb as portal between Orun and Aye.
The reference in this verse of Ifa scripture to a bird is also multi-layered. The spirit of a birth allows the Ori of both men and women to make the journey from Aye back to Orun. In English this journey is frequently described as astral travel. According to Ifa scripture the ability to astral travel is called oso. This ability is given to men by virtue of Ifa initiation and is given to women by their grandmothers. The ability to astral travel that comes through initiation is called oso and the ability to astral travel passed from grandmother to granddaughter is called Aje.
The word Aje is often erroneously translated to mean witch. In original European usage witch means wise woman but has the connotation of evil woman as a result of the dominant influence of Catholic theology on European consciousness. The Catholic Church teaches that all things occult are evil. The word occult simply means invisible, so the development of occult power or the ability to astral travel that is learned through some form of initiation is considered inherently evil by Catholic doctrine. Because this power can be passed from grandmother to granddaughter the Catholic Church teaches that women are inherently evil.
This begs the question; how do grandmothers pass the power of Aje to their granddaughters? The answer is deceptively simple; grandmothers pass the power of Aje to their granddaughters by Blessing them. If a young girl is told that she can do anything, that belief will enable her to do anything. If a grandmother denigrates a granddaughter and teachers her she is worthless and incompetent that is what she will become.
It can’t be that simple.
It is that simple.
We live in a consensus reality and the way we are programed by our elders becomes who we are.
Being Aje includes the belief in the ability to astral travel which is taught as a survival skill when the women of the village meet as Iyaami Osoranga from the elision Iya mi oso ran ga meaing my mothers astral travel to retrieve ga with the word ga meaning female power. The word ga in this context refers to the ability of women to use their physical Odu (womb) to open the portal to Orun without being pregnant.
Men do not have this option.
That is why men are initiated into Odu. The initiation of men in to Odu gives them the ability to make the journey from Aye to Orun.
This initiation does not make them better than women it makes them equal to women.
Women do not receive Odu because they were born with it.
The methodology for making the journey from Aye to Orun involves the ability to use the spirit of a bird to guide the Emi or soul of both men and women from their physical body into the invisible realm. This journey is symbolized by the Osun staff and the presentation of the Ifa male Iyawo to the Osun staff is the first step in the Ifa initiation because the ability to astral travel as guided by the Osun staff is the first step in the process of connection with the Spirit of Ela which is the point of Ifa initiation.
When Odu refers to birds it is sometimes referring to specific physical birds which are used as both icons and as medicine to facilitate astral travel. The physical birds of Ifa are actually metaphors for a physical phenomenon that occurs in Nature. If you go to an Oroko tree and meditate from sun down to sun up you will begin to see flashes of light dance in and around the tree. These flashes of light are interdimensional transferences of Ala meaning the light of primal consciousness. These flashes of light are the actual birds of Iyaami and these flashes of light are the fundamental building blocks of Creation. When you are in the presence of light as Ala you can invoke the transformation of that light into anything. This is the fundamental mystery of Alchemy.
The light of Ala is different from what we could call ordinary light or common light. Ordinary light is generated by electromagnetic waves and include all the colors of the rainbow. This kind of light generates heat that can lead to various types of explosions. The light of Ala is generated by gravity. It does not generate heat, and when it explodes it does not cause damage. It was the ability of gravity to generate energy which is at the core of Nicolas Tesla’s ability to access free energy. Light generated by electromagnetic pulses is called a sign wave; light generated by gravity is called a longitudinal wave.
The electricity in our homes is based on sign waves. Tesla was working with longitudinal waves.
There is a difference.
Longitudinal waves are extremely powerful and can be engineered to create either free energy or to create weapons of mass destruction.
Ifa uses a metaphor to describe the destructive power of longitudinal waves. It is referred to as the anger of the mothers.
Science has recently discovered that gravity carries the blue print for DNA. This means the entire universe is a cauldron or Odu for the generation of human life.
This means the philosopher’s stone of Alchemy is the Universe.
Ifa teaches that learning, growth and spiritual development comes as a result of an increase in the understanding of awo, or more correctly through the revelation of Odu. That is why the places of initiation are called igbodu from the elision igbo odu meaning the womb of the sacred forest.
Nature has Ori which is why we can speak to Nature when we are in altered states of consciousness.
An awo who cannot speak to Nature is useless.
That is why awo go into possession because Nature knows everything, humans do not.
The miracle of Esu is that Nature speaks to Ori in the language Ori understands. That is the way Creation works.
When the verse speaks of Odu coming to Earth it is speaking of the manifestation of primal principles in the Earth itself. For example when the Earth was still in a gas state there was no manifestation of the Odu that creates land. Odu came to earth to form earth, air, fire and water. Each of these manifestations of Odu can be described as the journey of Odu from Heaven to Earth.
The verse goes on to say that when Odu made the journey from Orun to Aye, Olodumare (The Creator) gave her a bird. This does not mean a woman holding a bird initiated the genesis of earth, air, fire and water. Ifa teaches that everything in Creation has Ori or consciousness. Odu coming from Heaven to Earth describes various forces in nature emerging throughout the process of evolution. In Nature there are two forms of ase or spiritual, expansive ase and contractive ase. Ase that is expansive is described as masculine and ase that is contractive is described as feminine. It is the polarity between dynamics and form and not the polarity between men and women in the anthropomorphic sense of the words.
In this Odu the bird symbolizes communication between Ori and other higher, more evolved or we could say primal forms of consciousness. In particular the bird symbolizes the ability of Odu to communicate directly with Olodumare. To say Odu carries a bird is to affirm the notion that natural phenomena has consciousness' and that these various forms of consciousness are able to communicate to one another.
This is the basis for what is known in the Western World as the Gaia theory of Nature. The Gaia theory is based on the idea that the Earth is a conscious living being and that various natural phenomena throughout the world are linked to Gaia as the nurturing mother of this particular planet. The bird is the symbol for the ability of inanimate objects to communicate to one another. It is also used as the symbol for the ability of human to communicate with spirit using the medium of astral travel or out of body experience. In Ifa spiritual practice birds represent the ability to communicate with spirit and for this reason birds are found on the crown of the Oba, on the staff of many Orisa and on the Osun used to protect the ori. The ori is protected as a consequence of its ability to communicate with spirit, which includes the expectation of being warned of potential danger in any give situation.
To say Olodumare gave Odu a bird prior to her journey to Earth is a comment on the fundamental structure of reality.
It is a topographical metaphor.
To summarize; Odu as womb gave birth to the Universe, Odu as pulsar gives birth to planets, planets have spiritual power centers called Odu that are places of communication with spirit, women are born with Odu. As Ifa metaphor Odu is the womb of Ori in which right brain, left brain components are fused together to elevate consciousness or in the language of Ifa to give birth to a higher self. That is the meaning of the Yoruba proverb that says the Ori that leaves the house in the morning is not the Ori that arrives home at night.
Also Read:
Irete-Ogbe - How Odu Became Orunmila's Wife Part 1
Irete-Ogbe - How Odu Became Orunmila's Wife Part 2
Awo Falokun
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