Figures

who it looks to — gods, spirits, ancestors; some rooms are empty on principle Part of Belief →

The ultimate — what this line takes as final

O Olodumare — the source. The owner of heaven, too vast for shrines or images: ashe flows from Olodumare, and the orisha carry it into the world. Domain The source of ashe — owner of the heavensStanding Acknowledged above all; worshipped through intermediaries Meet them — context →

Gods & powers — the presences it names and addresses

O Ori — your own head. The destiny you knelt and chose in heaven and then forgot on the way. It is kept in a beaded container in the house and fed with cool water, gin, kola and honey, and it is the only divinity that is exclusively yours. The tradition is blunt that a person's Ori outranks every orisha in that person's life. Domain Your own destiny, chosen by you before birth and then forgottenStanding The tradition says plainly that no orisha blesses a person without the consent of their Ori, and that Ori is the only one who goes with you Meet them — context →

E Eshu — opener of ways. Messenger, trickster, keeper of the crossroads: every prayer passes through him, and he tests every traveler. Domain Crossroads, thresholds, messages, chanceStanding Honored first in every rite: no message moves without him Meet them — context →

O Obatala. He shapes the bodies of human beings out of clay, and his people wear white, keep themselves cool, avoid argument and do not drink palm wine. He is the senior orisha and the most restrained one, and the story his own priests tell about him is not flattering. Domain Creation of the human body, whiteness, coolness, patience, and the disabledStanding He shaped bodies out of clay and, in the story the tradition itself tells, was drunk while doing some of them — so people born with disabilities are called eni orisa, the orisha's own people, and are his Meet them — context →

S Shango — thunder and kingship. The deified fourth king of Oyo: justice with a double axe, fire from the sky, the drum's own patron. Domain Thunder, justice, kingship, the drumStanding Among the most widely worshipped orisha on earth Meet them — context →

O Osun. Fresh water, brass, honey, beauty, money and children — and the power to withhold every one of them. The Osun river at Osogbo is hers and her festival is the largest traditional gathering in Yorubaland. She is not a decorative goddess of love: the odu about her is a story about what happens when men leave a woman out of the meeting. Domain Fresh water, wealth, beauty, fertility, and the power to withhold all of itStanding The odu says the other orisha left her out of the work of creating the world, nothing they did succeeded, and they had to come back and ask Meet them — context →

Y Yemoja — mother of waters. The sea itself as mother: protector of women, children, and everyone the ocean carried away from home. Domain The sea, motherhood, the deepStanding The great mother of the orisha and the diaspora's most beloved Meet them — context →

O Oya. The wind that arrives before the storm, and the one who stands at the cemetery gate. She owns the marketplace, which in this cosmology is a spiritually dangerous location rather than a commercial one, and she alone can move the egungun. Nine is her number and nine colours are her cloth. Domain Wind, storm, the marketplace, and the gate of the cemeteryStanding She stands at the boundary between the living and the dead and moves the egungun. Where Shango is the lightning, she is the wind that arrives before it Meet them — context →

O Ogun — iron itself. God of every blade, rail, and engine: the clearer of paths, sworn upon in courts, honored by drivers and surgeons alike. Domain Iron, war, work — every blade and every engineStanding Sworn upon in Nigerian courts to this day Meet them — context →

O Osanyin. He owns the leaves, and every other orisha's medicine requires them, so nothing works without him. He is depicted as one-legged, one-armed and one-eyed with a voice like a whistle, and his emblem is an iron staff crowned with birds. Yoruba religion and Yoruba pharmacology are not two subjects. Domain Leaves. Every leaf, and what each one doesStanding The tradition says no orisha can act without leaves, and Osanyin owns the leaves. He is the reason Yoruba religion and Yoruba pharmacology are one subject Meet them — context →

Founders & teachers — the ones who opened the way

O Orunmila. He was present at creation and watched every destiny being chosen, which is why he can be asked what yours was. He does not command, punish or reward — he is the witness, and Ifa is his record. The figure the tradition uses for knowledge is a bystander who paid attention. Domain Wisdom, divination, and the record of what happensStanding He does not decide anything. He is the one who was there and can tell you what the pattern is — the tradition's figure for knowledge rather than power Meet them — context →

Saints & exemplars — lives held up as the pattern

O Oduduwa. Founder of Ile-Ife and ancestor of the Yoruba kings, and contested at the root: in one account he is an orisha who descended on a chain and made the earth, in another a conquering man who arrived from the east and took a city that already existed. The two versions underwrite different political claims and are argued about now. held by most Domain The founding of Ile-Ife and the kingship that descends from itStanding Contested at the root — some accounts make him an orisha who let down the chain, others a conquering man from the east, and the two readings support different political claims to this day Meet them — context →

Ancestors & spirits — the dead, the local, the household

E Egungun. The ancestral dead, appearing in layered cloth with no inch of skin exposed. The masquerade judges disputes, blesses, and speaks in a voice that is not the wearer's. Handlers keep the crowd back with switches; contact with the cloth is a serious matter, and the person inside is not named even by those who know. Domain Judgment, continuity, and the settling of quarrelsStanding When the egungun speaks it is not a man in cloth speaking. Touching one is a serious offence and, traditionally, women may not Meet them — context →

T The mothers. Iyami Aje — my mothers — the collective power of women, capable of making or destroying anything, never named individually and never addressed lightly. Translating the term as witchcraft loses the tone: this is not a crime, it is a power, and the entire Gelede masquerade tradition exists to keep its owners in a good mood. ⚖ contested within Domain Power held by women, which can make or unmake anythingStanding Usually translated witches, which is wrong in tone. They are the reason Yoruba society treats older women as dangerous to offend, and Gelede exists to keep them content Meet them — context →