The odu concerning Osun is among the most frequently cited in contemporary Yoruba argument. Olodumare sends sixteen orisha to organise and prepare the world, together with Osun, the only woman among them. The sixteen convene without her and proceed. Nothing works: the rain fails, planting fails, whatever they build does not hold, and the world will not come into order. Returning to Olodumare, they are asked whether Osun was included, and are sent back to make amends. The tellings differ on what follows — in many she does not simply accede, and the terms of her reconciliation are hers. The verse is quoted in Nigerian and diaspora debates about the initiation of women into Ifa, about exclusion from egungun, and about women in Yoruba public life generally, and it is quoted by practitioners rather than only by academics, which is what gives it force: the argument for inclusion is made from inside the corpus.