Yoruba & Diaspora · Yoruba · Oral tradition, first transcribed 19th-20th c.
The Odu Ifá
Oral; transmitted by babalawo
The Ifá divination corpus, a vast oral literature naming and characterising the orisha. Its transmission is still living, which makes it unlike every other source listed here.
Read The Odu Ifá in full at the linked edition →What this text attests · 7
| Name here | Rank given | # | Powers described |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orisha of the crossroads | — | Opens and closes the way; carries sacrifice to Olodumare; must be propitiated before any other orisha is addressed. | |
| Orisha-nla | — | Given the shaping of human bodies and the moulding of the first people; the palm-wine episode and the resulting prohibition are recited among the odu. | |
| Orisha of iron | — | Clears the path with his blade; oaths are sworn on iron in his name. | |
| Owner of the endless heavens | — | The authority the odu appeal to and the source of the destiny each person receives; addressed through the orisha rather than directly. | |
| Eleri-ipin | — | The witness to the choosing of destiny, to whom the whole corpus of odu is attributed and through whom it is consulted. | |
| Owner of the wind | — | The storm that precedes Shango's thunder, and the orisha addressed at the boundary of the dead in the odu that concern burial and inheritance. | |
| Orisha of thunder | — | Hurls thunderstones; his lightning is understood as a judgment on the dishonest. |
