An online course on Afrikan cosmology, spirituality, and

culture taught through the lens of the 4 cardinal directions.

Class Outlook
• Guiding Ancestors
• Situating Ourselves
• Yoruba Cosmology
• Odu
• Orígun Mẹ́rin
• Continental Connections
• Diaspora Connections
• Cosmic References in Ancient Ife
 Guiding Ancestors
Fermina Gomez, Ocha Bi
One of the founders of Lukumi tradition.
Credited with bringing the secrets of Olokun to
Cuba from Africa. Lived to be 107 years old!
Medahochi Kofi Omowale Zannu
Pioneer of African spirituality in the U.S.
Originator of New Afrikan Vodun. Priest of Sango
and Afa Bokonon. “The Old Swamp Priest”.
Situating Ourselves
Yoruba Cosmology
 Olodumare?

~ Odi Kanran ~
When we sleep in the farm hut, frogs jump on us in the night. Was the one who cast Ifa for Python when she was
weeping and moaning for a child. They say she should sacrifice one she-goat, the homespun cloth she was wearing
and eleven shillings so that she might be able to have a child. She heard and made the sacrifice and Python became
pregnant, and she gave birth to a child and people began to say: 'One who has Odu" was this child that Python bore
And when the child grew up, she lived to see him become a king. He is the one whom all people are calling 'One who
has Odu, child of Python' (Olodumare) until this very day.
(Bascom 1969:322-3, also cited in Bamgbose 1971/72:27)
ODU
 Iya Agba, Iyanla Odu, Oduduwa
Elder Mother.
Or̀is̀ạǹlá prepared three dyes.
→ Great Mother. He made one black. He made one red. He
made one white.
Cosmic Womb.

Possible Etymology:
↟ Make me black, Do not make me red. Make
me black, Do not make me white. Dye me
with my iẁà first
Odu (womb) At the dawn of creation.
Dudu (blackness)
Iwa (existence)
Igba Iwa / Igba Odu Summary of verse from Ose Oyeku
Odu the female principle imagined as a container, having grown “Too
Calabash of Existence Old”, expresses her desire to go underground.

She calls her four advisers: “Obatala – Babaluaye – Ogun –

Oduduwa”. Gets them to agree on her departure by promising
revelations to those of her children who come to solicit her properly in
her house in the forest.

Obatala gives a Calabash of Chalk (Efun)

Babaluaye offers his favorite substance Cam-wood (Osun)
Ogun Offers Charcoal (Eedu)
Oduduwa offers Mud (Eere).

These gifts imply four roads, four corners of the universe. They are
the original four major signs (odu).

Her house (Igba Odu) has become Sphere-Box containing a Calabash

(Her Body), which contains in turn the four Calabashes given to her
on that occasion by the four advisers.

Igbadu becomes an Orisha, the highest divinity venerated by Diviners.

Questions Thoughts

Process
Time
Discoveries Feelings
Orígun Mẹ́rin
 The Dew Bursts Out Quickly
May the dew burst out quickly
May the dew burst out rapidly
May the dew burst out
continuously
And be so vast throughout the
expanse
These were the declarations of
Ifa for Orígun
When going to coordinate the
creation the vast expanse of the
Universe
In the very dawn of time
~ Osa Gunda ~
May the dew burst out quickly
May the dew burst out rapidly
May the dew burst out
continuously
And be so vast throughout the
expanse
It was also declared for Olu-
Iwaye
When going to sooth and
pacify the hotness of the
universe
In the dawn of life
May the dew burst out quickly
May the dew burst out rapidly
May the dew burst out
continuously
And be so vast throughout the
expanse
And also declared for Baba
Asemuegun-Sunwon
When going to assign roles
and order
To the vast expanse of the
universe
In the dawn of creation
May the dew burst out quickly
May the dew burst out rapidly
May the dew burst out
continuously
And be so vast throughout the
expanse
And also declared for Olofin
Otete
Who would steer the boat of
existence to the earth
When he was going to collect the
mini gourd of destiny of from
Olodumare
When the wanted to steer the
boat of existence to the earth
 Super Quick
Intro to IFA
● Intricate system of divination
● Complex system of organizing and accessing
information
● 256 Odu. Started with two. Then 4. Then 16...
Then 256 Odu - Wombs.
● Each womb is a living container of information,
stories and experiences collected over time.
 Opon Ifa:
Two dimensional representation of the cosmos
Aarin opon niita orun" ("The middle of the tray connects with heaven"; Abimbola 2000:177)
Ìlà Oòrùn - Sunrise - Birth EJIOGBE + ᐧ

Primary impulse of expansion

Ejiogbe opens the path to
knowledge and existence.
Ejiogbe is the light which
illuminates the physical and
spiritual universe.
ᐧ + OYEKU MEJI Ìwọ̀ Oòrùn - Sunset - Death

Even if you move away from your position

I will not move
The foundation stones of the house must not
fail the house.
The crown of the head must not fail the
person at the market.
So I will not move away
And you will not move away
You are light
I am the light
Twilight is just appearing in the sky
But some people thought it already dawned
Cast Divination for Eji Oye
Who would Dawn on the earth like daylight
 ̇+ ̇+
IWORI MEJI
Àríwá Ascension

IWORI TAKE A CRITICAL LOOK AT WHAT AFFECTS YOU.

IF YOU UNDERGO IFA INITIATION ENDEAVOR TO USE YOUR WISDOM AND INTELLIGENCE
IWORI TAKE A CRITICAL LOOK AT WHAT AFFECTS YOU
AWO, WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN IFA INITIATION
INITIATE YOURSELF AGAIN BY USING YOUR WISDOM AND INTELLIGENCE
IWORI TAKE A CRITICAL LOOK AT WHAT AFFECTS YOU
 Gúsù Conception

Female
Reproductive ODI MEJI Completion
Organs
+
Questions Thoughts

Process
Time
Discoveries Feelings
Continental
Connections
The River
The Road
&
The Creation of the Earth
The Famished Road

“In the beginning

there was a river.
The river became a road
and the road branched out to
the whole world.
And because the road was
once a river, it was always
hungry.”

“Oyigiyigi ota omi ooo. Oyigiyigi ota omi. Awa d’Oyigiyigi oku mo. Oyigiyigi ota omi.”
It's a struggle to death boasted water
It's a fight to the finish replied the path
On the dreadful day of the duel,
The highway was split into four
Forming the cross-road
Thus declare Ifa oracle for Oyigiyigi, the
rock
That lay unperturbed in river bed
Oyigiyigi, before he became
everlasting, consulted Ifa oracle
Asking how he might avoid premature death
Oyigiyigi
~ Ejiogbe ~
Ifa prescribed sacrifice
The sacrifice was performed
and rock bathed with the liquid made from
specified leaves of ifa.
Thereafter rock lived till old age and
became everlasting
Everlasting rock now praises his diviner
saying:
The prognostication of the righteous
diviner is ever vindicated
It's a struggle to death boasted water
It’s a fight to the finish replied the path
on the day of the duel
The highway was split into four forming a
crossroads
Thus declared Ifa oracle to me
When I lay uncertain in river bed
but i sacrificed and thereafter became
everlasting
Opening his mouth, singing this Ifa
song…
“Oyigiyigi ota omi ooo. Oyigiyigi ota omi.
Awa d’Oyigiyigi oku mo. Oyigiyigi ota omi.”
Okwan Twa Asuo: Akan Drum Text
okwan atware asuo the path
crosses the river
asuo atware okwan the river
crosses the path
opanin ne hwan? who is the
elder?
okwan atware asuo the path
crosses the river
asuo atware okwan the river
crosses the path
opanin ne hwan? which is the
elder?
yeboo kwan yi kotoo asuo we made the path

encountering the river

asuo yi firi tete this river is
from ancient
rtf5
Diaspora
Connections
 Lukumi Olokun Paradigm

Patron Orisa of descendants of captured Afrikans.

Olokun plays a critical role in the transition between the worlds.
In this capacity Olokun is considered to work closely with Oya (Deity of the Winds) and Egungun
(Collective Ancestral Spirits), to usher those that pass on to the next phase of existence.
Captive Ship as Womb
“Changó El Gran Putas”
“The ship slept and the hold, a sealed egg,
incubated in the darkness. Ngafua unites
us with his chant, even though we are
dispersed and separated by different
tongues.

Eia Nago! Ngafua speaks to you, Elegba’s

disciple, Brilliant light in the depths of the
hold. Story of stories, Water from waters,
I sing to you the tale of Sosa Ilamba. Zulu
the Father. Baluba the Mother. Traded
for a musket and gunpowder. Eia Nago!
My words, without the kora, broken
gourd, need your imagination.
Sosa Ilamba- pregnant with the Muntu’s
seed (the diaspora)”
Egun Merinlaye
Lukumi Ifa ~ Obara Osa

Egun of the 4 Cardinal Points

Considered spirits of prosperity.

Simple Ritual:
1. Place coins from different countries in clay container
2. Put it or in a place where rain falls and dedicate the
basket to the Egun Merinlaye.
3. Wet your hand and place it on your forehead and
neck asking for their blessing.

An ebo to Egun Merinlaye is also done at the foot of

Ifa where the 4 cardinal points of your city are fed so
that there is growth and success in that land.
Questions Thoughts

Process
Time
Discoveries Feelings
 Cosmic
References in
Ancient Ife
 Ancient Ife
ᐧ
At its most basic, Ife is a central-plan urban center,
with its (originally four?) main avenues at one time
piercing the city walls near the cardinal points; joining
at the palace and market that delimit the center, a plan
similar to many other early Yoruba walled cities.

Each cluster of Ife gods thus is identified with a

different quadrant of the city, consistent with its
cardinal and broader cosmological associations: east
(with life and renewal: Ifa, Eshu), west (with dark
skies and storms: the thunder and agriculture gods:
Oramfe, Orisa Teko), north (with power, war, and
technology: Ogun), and south (with creation, fertility,
and the ocean: Obatala, Olokun).

The importance of the sun and moon within the city

landscape and the cardinal orientation of the four main
avenues and palace show that space in Ile-Ife carried
sustained cosmological significance
 The T-junction

The Primordial Crossroads

Orita Meta Liminal space where the world of the

living meets the world of the dead

Orita Meta tii damu alejo- The 3 way

crossroad that confuses the stranger
Esu & Orita Meta
Ogunda Ose

Rumbling thoughts inside the elders

Cast divination for the 400 divinities in the forest,
Where the elders were running about in confusion.
They were running helter skelter,
Orunmila told them to stop running around in confusion.
He said, “It was I who used an inverted pot
to create an altar inside the forest of the
‘Four hundred divinities.’
He advised the elders to eat three Olugbona fish.
He advised them to eat three alligator pepper…
Because it is Esu who delivers
sacrifices to the ancestral spirits.
Esu Elegbara, do not harm me, harm somebody else
Owner of the Crossroad. Asé.
Ejigbomekun- The Primordial Market
~ Irosun Osa ~

Ifa let the sacrifice be accepted

Ela let my ritual goes up to the heaven above
The palm nuts of the Orita Meta look disdainful unto the farmer
thus divined Ifa oracle for Orunmila
On the day he was going to choose his Ori in the ancient city of Ido,
and he would choose his iwa in Ejigbomekun (the mysterious market of life),
If one chooses Ori this year
It is the next year that one would go on to the market of Life
He told men of the world to be patient on the day you choose your Ori
Do not go to the market since it is the only once that one chooses his Ori in life
Everything necessary for a good life:
bi owo — riches
aye rere — good life
omo — children
alafia — peace
emi gigun — longevity
at bee bee loo — other things
sum up to form iwa and a good life.
Questions Thoughts

Reflection
Time
Discoveries Feelings