The Orishas Speak: The 2023 Letter of the Yoruba Association of Cuba (Letra del Año para el 2023 de la Asociación Yoruba de Cuba) and My Preliminary Interpretation

 

Pix Credit CiberCuba

Pix Credit Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba

Orunmila! Elérí Ípin, Ìbikeji Olódumarè, A-je-jù-Oògùn, Obìriti, A-p'ijó-ikú-da, Olúwa mi, A-to-i-ba-j'ayé, Òrò à-bi-kú-j'igbo, Olúwa mi, Ajiki, Ógégé a-gb'ayé-gún; Odúdú ti nídú orí emèrè; A-tún-orí-tí-kò sunwòn se, A-mo-i-kú. Olówa Aiyere, Agiri Ilé-Ilógbón; Olúwa mi; amoimotán, A kò mo O tàn kose, A ba mo tàn kose, A bà mo tán ìbà se ke. [Orunmila, the witness of our fate, Second to Olodumaré, you are more effective than medicine, You are the immense presence that avoids the day of death, Lord Almighty save us, mysterious spirit that battles death. Salutations are due you first in the morning, for you are the force than produces equilibrium among the forces on Earth, you are the one than can reconstruct  the creature  whose lot in life is bad, you are the repairer of bad luck, those who come to you encounter immortality. Lord and undeposable ruler, perfection in the house of wisdom, Lord infinite in knowledge, we who fail to know you  fully will fail, if we could but know you fully, all would be well with us.]   (Afolabi A Epiga and John Philip Niemark, The Sacred Ifa Oracle (Brooklyn, NY: Athelia Henrietta Press, 1995))

So begins the invocations of the Babalawós of IFA to Orunmila, that divine manifestation of wisdom and the conduit through which such wisdom is sometimes made available to humanity. Such wisdom is, as is traditional in many places and among many cultures, oracular. It is provided through manifested by other divine manifestations, in the case of IFA, through  Ellegua/Esu, the tricky and quite moody divine manifestation of divine spirit of connection, before the work of divination, of connection to the divine, may be commenced. 

For the last eleven years I have written of the annual letter of the Cuban Council of the High Priests of Ifá (Consejo Cubano De Sacerdotes Mayores De Ifá), the practitioners of traditional religion brought over from West Africa with the slave trade and now naturalized as a powerful indigenous religion throughout the Caribbean and now growing in the United States. (e.g., 2022; 2021; 2020;  2019; 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015; 2014; 2013; 2012).

*      *      *      *      *      *

Every religion connects the structures of divinity to the human communities around which their worship is structured and social, political, economic, and cultural communities are organized. To that end, the priestly caste platys a very specific role as mediator, interpreter, and as the incarnation of a social order grounded in divine principles and rules.

In most states, the priestly role has been transformed.  But it is useful, as one examines the priestly role in modern western states, to consider a more traditional relationship between the priest and the state.  One of the more interesting manifestations of the role of religion within political life is that of the priests of the practitioners of the old religions of Africa as re-established in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in Marxist-Leninist Cuba.  (here)

That priestly role is exercised in very specific ways among the great traditions of Western Religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  It shows a more variegated vigor among Non-Western religious traditions.  These are well known.  Yet most of these have sought to marginalize the great traditions of African religions as a barbaric variant of primitive idol worship that had been suppressed elsewhere.  And yet those religious traditions remain as vibrant, their theologies as complex, and their practices as rich as those other religious traditions that have sought over many centuries to supplant them.  And so it was in the early hours of the 1st of January that leaders of the various branches of the Afro Cuban religious communities met.

To that end, at the start of every year the leaders of the great indigenous religion of Cuba conduct, through a series of ceremonies, a general divination for the country.  The results of that divination, and its advice, is organized into a "Letter of the Year" (Letra del Año) (on the history of the Letras del año see HERE (Historia de la Ceremonia de la Letra del Año )).

La letra indica que es lo que comunican los Orichas a las família de santo y creyentes, como les irá en el transcurso del año en curso, y lo que deberán hacer para que, las posibles tragedias venideras no los agarre tan desprevenidos. Por esa letra, se regirán todos los familiares de ese ilé (casa) sin excepción, durante todo ese año, y en ella quedan determinados cuales limpiezas (Ebbós) deben hacerse todos los miembros. [The letter indicates what the Orishas communicate to the orisha communities and uninitiated believers (the laity), how they will fare in the course of the current year, and what they must do so that possible coming tragedies do not catch them so unprepared. The letter serves without exception as the rules and instructions that serve as the basis for the governance (and guidance) of those religious communities, each ilé (house), throughout that year, and in it are determined which cleanings (Ebbós) all the members should undertake.] (EcuRed, Letra del Año)).

The object of the annual letter is to provide guidance for the nation and its people, as well as more technical advice for the orisha communities of initiates and believers. More specifically it is meant to provide guidance for faith practitioners otherwise unable to receive more specific guidance within their own branch.

Traditionally each of the major houses provided their own annual divination.  In Cuba a process of consolidation resulted in agreement among the major houses for a major joint divination and the production of a single national augury.  The year 2021 marked the 6th year of an important change, in which many of the most important branches of the faith came together to produce a unified letter under the aegis of the Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba (ACYC). It also marked the last year of that union.   

The rupture was a long time coming.  In 2019 there was some confusion over the authenticity of the Letter of the Year with two appearing in the early hours of the new year.  That was cleared up but not to everyone's satisfaction. 2020 proved to be a more difficult year. It caused the IFA practitioners to change their divination ceremonies in light of the realities of the pandemic.  

La Asociación informa además, que Las Ceremonias de La Letra del Año 2021, se realizarán a «puertas cerradas», participando los Sacerdotes que sean Convocados, siempre que no excedan el total de 100 personas como medida sanitaria frente al Covid-19, enfatizan la necesidad de entender que quienes no sean convocados no podrá acceder a las instalaciones.(Consejo Cubano De Sacerdotes Mayores De Ifá , Letra del Año 2021).

But 2021 saw major fracture.  First ACYC responded harshly to efforts by women practitioners in Holguin to divine their own letter of the year for Cuba. That was condemned in the harshest terms ("Asociación Yoruba de Cuba acusa de profanación a mujeres que emitieron Letra del Año: Hasta el momento el grupo de mujeres que dictó la Letra del Año no se ha pronunciado al respecto," CiberCuba (11 January 2021) which includes the original denunciation posted to the ACYC Facebook page). The letter from the women of Holguin was never widely circulated.  Fatal to the union of the various branches of Afro-Cuban religion in producing the Letter of the year was the decision, bitterly denounced, to severely limit those who participated in the divination that produced the 2021 Letter. 

Pix Credit ADV Cuba

La tradicional "Letra del Año para Cuba", que cada primero de enero se da a conocer en la isla con los vaticinios de lo que sucederá de acuerdo a la divinidad regente, este año no contó con la participación de los babalawos independientes integrantes de la Comisión de la Letra del Año Miguel Febles Padrón. Desde La Habana, el sacerdote de Ifá, Víctor Betancourt, dijo que la oficialista Asociación Cultural Yoruba rompió con los acuerdos establecidos desde 2016 y este año hicieron la ceremonia "a puerta cerrada, sin convocar a nadie de la comisión". En 2016 ambos grupos de babalawos cubanos decidieron por el bien de la religión establecer una sola letra del año, pero acordaron ciertas reglas para el día de la ceremonia. Pero este año, la Asociación Cultural Yoruba incumplió con lo acordado aduciendo medidas por la pandemia, ("Asociación Yoruba dejó fuera a babalawos independientes en ceremonia de Letra del Año para Cuba," (4 January 2021)) 

The official explanation was pandemic related, but for an important segment of the community it appeared political.  Those excluded tended to be members of the so-called independent babalwo community. Accusations were then traded and rupture became inevitable between the "oficialistas" and the "independientes" (for reporting see, e.g., Conflicto por Letra del Año: ¿yorubas oficialistas dejaron fuera a babalawos independientes?," ADV Cuba 2021). This is a rupture that is likely to have staying power.  And it is unclear where women practitioners in the community may also influence events or begin to serve as an independent source of divination, something traditionalists will likely to continue to oppose.   This fracture has carried over to the diaspora community, especially in Miami and speaks to a wider dialogue (see, e.g., here; for my discussion of the difficulties in the last years of the union, see 2021; 2020;  2019; 2018).

The result changed the complexion of the Letter of the Year, and perhaps ts stature. And yet in the broader history of communal oracular practices over the last century substantial changes do not appear to produce  a weakening of the oracle; but then again for believers this is not human driven (except in the asking and the usual transactions between a divine and human force).  2022, on the other hand, appeared to bring a more transparent approach, focusing on preparations that though centered on the leadership in Havana, suggested something of a more inclusive approach ("La consulta inicial fue anunciada, porque hoy contamos con una página oficial de la Institución Religiosa Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba, para que los religiosos en general realicen sus obras y ebbo de cierre del año y prepararse para el inicio del próximo año 2023 con las Profecías obtenidas el 31 de Diciembre." ACYC Facebook Announcement Post 1 December 2022), though the independence of houses is preserved.

*      *      *      *      *      *

Pix Credit here (Preparatory event 1 December 2022)

The 2023 Letter of the Year is interesting after several years of oracular suggestions (2019-2022) of turmoil and explosion--ones which culminated, in a perhaps unexpected way in the pandemic and its production not merely of death and suffering, but in the rage that it set free, a rage beyond reason but triggered by reasoned reaction. It ended with the excesses of great derelictions of those charged with authority. N one in autority appeared coming to right willingness, and some ran as far as possible from it. Indeed, 2022 saw much of  that failure to attend to responsibilities, even as the apparatus of state appeared more decisively secure in the hands of its leaders. The guiding aspect of the Divine spirit for the year was Obatala; representing rule by the divine aspects of reason and of reason that is also disordered. In 2022 Obtala showed all aspects of its character--reason, and the irrationality of bad judgment, or judgment made in the absence of reason. And it was the time tat those who knew better appeared, like Oshaná to sit back and watch the destruction that appeared inevitable. "This is Oba Moro, the old man who requires quiet and does not like being disturbed, or Oshanlá, the old woman who prefers to sit all day on her porch knitting in the way of the Norse Norns the fates of everyone. But this is also Ayaguna, and Obanlá, fiery tempered warriors. This is the Obatala who created the Earth for Olodumaré, but also the drunken Obatala who in his inebriation created a malformed humanity which he was thereafter obligated to protect." (Larry Catá Backer Analysis Letter of the Year 2020). The second was Oshun, one of the most popular of the Orisha, and the embodiment of fertility, of wealth, and of the sweet waters of the Earth.  She is the embodiment of the Tarot "Lovers"--but with a temper.  She does not like to be crossed, and she can be fickle.  She is warmth and passion and ferylity and wealth, but also the forces that take all of this away.

For 2023, there is something new and something old. Working through the semiotic signification embodied in Ifa and the ruling spirits one can translate the fundamentals of the 2023 oracle this way:  Obtalá returns as the ruling sign--but with a vengeance.  We expect the oracles to be read in the context of reason, of reason gone to (absurd) extremes, and of the rise of the irrational.  The irrational, like reason itself, will reflect the will and character of the reasonable (or rational) individual, community, collective, institution, etc. Obatalá is the responsible one--who can thoughtlessly become the paradigm of irresponsibility, with disastrous consequences.  Even reason without limit suggests an alignment with the irrational. Obataá, though, is tempered this year by Oshun. To Obatalá's mind, Oshun brings the heart. Together they can produce the reasonable completeness and resolution of matters--the equilibrium point.  But Oshun, like Obatalá has another side.  The heart  can produce passion, and an intense irrational passion can burn one  in the fires of the heart. Where both the mind (Obataá) and the heart (Oshun) are inflamed they can either produce a movement towards disastrous synergy, or perhaps worse, disastrous opposition. Irrational wars brought to a head by inflamed passion as as likely as the advance of a rational but emotive trend toward solidarity.  Expect a little of all of this in 2023, interpreted through the ordering gateways of the ruling signs (oddus) of the year. 2022and its ferocities, its exposures, revelations, and excesses, is gone, but it leaves in its wake an aftermath in which the tragedies produced in 2022 will be dealt with--and that cam also produce both healing and explosively tragic moments. The energy is better--the heart mind binary can be positive; but there will be explosions as well as each clusters of significs--faith and reason, mind and heart, strategy and passion, irresponsibility and ferocity--manifest in the actions of individuals, institutions, collectives and the human realm.  Finding the center in all of this is the best counsel that emerges from the oddu and the reigning spirits. And that will not be easy this year.

The Letra del Año 2023 follows (in Spanish and with English translation in parts) along with my analysis and discussion (in English). The letter may be accessed in full on the ACYC Facebook Page (here) or from CiberCuba (here). The Letra del Año of the independistas (Fraternidad Miguel Febres Padron) may be accessed HERE.

 

 

INSTITUCIÓN RELIGIOSA

ASOCIACIÓN CULTURAL YORUBA DE CUBA”

LETRA DEL AÑO 2023

PREDICCIONES DE IFA PARA CUBA Y EL MUNDO

 

A los sacerdotes de Ifá, Obá Oriate, Babaloshas, Iyaloshas, Iworo, al Pueblo en general:

El 31 de Diciembre de 2022 en la sede social de la INSTITUCIÓN RELIGIOSA ASOCIACIÓN CULTURAL YORUBA DE CUBA, sita en Prado # 615 entre Monte y Dragones, Municipio La Habana Vieja, Cuba, se reúnen los Sacerdotes de Ifá para realizar la ceremonia de LA LETRA DEL AÑO 2023, Presidida por el Sacerdote Mayor de Ifá Antonio Sevilla Rodríguez Awo Babá Ofún Meyi” y el respaldo de La Junta Directiva, Consejo de Sacerdotes Mayores de la República de Cuba y sus Extensiones de Funcionamientos Provinciales e invitados de otras naciones. Sacó la Letra el Sacerdote Mayor antes mencionado, previa consulta de las 25 posiciones y sacrificios prescritos.

 

SIGNO REGENTE: OTURA NIKO

 

PRIMER TESTIGO: OSHE TURÁ

 

SEGUNDO TESTIGO: OGBE ATE

 

ORACIÓN PROFÉTICA: OSOGBO IKU INTORI ELEGDA ORUNMILA ONIRÉ

(MUERTE O CESE DE FUNCIONES POR DESOBEDIENCIA DEFIENDE ORULA)

 

ONISHESI ELEGDA: OGBORÍ ELEGDÁ (ROGACIÓN DE CABEZA)

 

DIVINIDAD REGENTE: OBATALÁ

 

ACOMPAÑANTE: OSHÚN

 

BANDERA: BLANCA CON RIBETES AMARILLOS

 

EBBO NI IFA: UN GALLO, MEDIDA DE LA CABEZA, TAMBOR, TRAMPA, FLECHA, BASTANTE AGUARDIENTE, MIEL, PAÑO BLANCO, PIEDRA DE UNA LOMA, AGUA DE RIO, TIERRA DE LA ESQUINA, TODO TIPO DE ALIMENTO, CURUJEY, BASTANTE MENUDO

EBBO DE SANTEROS: OSADIE, TIRAS DE COLORES, MEDIDAS DEL CUERPO, TIERRA DE UN HUECO.

 

EN ESTE SIGNO NACE

- La agitación del mar.

- El sistema nervioso en el organismo.

- Que la muerte se asusta y respeta a los vivos. Y el Oparaldó.

- Las razas humanas.

REFRANES DEL SIGNO:

- El hierro quiso porfiar con la candela.

- El que hace bien a montones, lo recibirá a montones.

- La jícara rota, nunca se llenará.

- El padre dice: Si no eres feliz en tu casa, es mejor que vengas conmigo.

- En la tierra de los muertos, yo soy capataz.

ENFERMEDADES QUE SE PRONÓSTICAN

- Presagia u incremento de enfermedades asociadas a la garganta y la columna vertebral,

- Elevación de deterioro del sistema nervioso producidos pòr el estres,

- Incremento de padecimientos relativos a la presión arterial.

- Enfermedades de Transmisión por vectores.

RECOMENDACIONES

- Realizarse Paraldos para alejar entidades perturbadoras y atención a los ancestros con sacrificios.

- Es un Ifa de prórrogas y se recomienda no dilatar las obras y consagraciones religiosas pendientes.

- Retomar como prioridad las medidas preventivas sanitarias en el país para limitar la proliferación de enfermedades contagiosas.

- Alertar a las autoridades competentes en cuanto al excesivo empleo de bioquímicos en las viandas, frutas, embutidos y alimentos en general por sus consecuencias nocivas a la salud

- Necesidad de un cambio de mentalidad que facilite el desarrollo para nuevas perspectivas socioeconómicas

- Potenciar legalmente las posibilidades económicas internas en la producción agroindustrial.

- Se pronostican desastres naturales por huracanes, agitaciones del mar y crecidas de ríos con pérdidas económicas y humanas.

- Preocupación por la tendencia de envejecimiento de la población quedando sin apoyo de la juventud por su éxodo y disminución del índice natalidad.

- Se alerta sobre la educación de la niñez y la juventud, avisando el éxodo de los maestros hacia otras ocupaciones.

- Se prevé un incremento de las actividades delictivas violentas y de robos por lo que se recomienda tomar precauciones con las propiedades individuales y estatales.

- Se pronostica un incremento del consumo de alcohol en la población que genera problemas sociales por lo que se debe divulgar más los daños asociados al mismo.

- Ifá recomienda aumentar el trabajo educativo contra la violencia doméstica y el respeto a las mujeres, niños y ancianos.

- Fomentar la unión de los religiosos independientemente del culto que profese

- Ifá enfatiza estrechar la relación entre Padrino y Ahijado, entre Padre e Hijo.

FELIZ Y PROSPERO AÑO 2023

(ESTA HOJA ES GRATUITA)

*      *      *      *      *      *

 

The Divinination for 2023 appears to speak to the edges of things. That aligns with the fndamental orientaiton of the divination, one that points to great inspiration, and even greater folly, to calculation and miscalculation; to reason and obduracy. Thus from the oddu's the Letter suggests a singularly well aligned set of "sayings (refranes): Sayings of the sign (taken from the principle oddu Otura Niko): 

"-metal desires to impose itself on the candle (- El hierro quiso porfiar con la candela); - he who does much good will find it returned in equal measure (- El que hace bien a montones, lo recibirá a montones); - the broken gourd will never be filled (- La jícara rota, nunca se llenará); - Father says its is better to come with him if you are unhapy at home (- El padre dice: Si no eres feliz en tu casa, es mejor que vengas conmigo); - in the land of the dead I am in charge (- En la tierra de los muertos, yo soy capataz)."

These suggest the absurdities of the rational and the passionate at their edges. Metal is an instrument that can extinguish a candle. If the candle is giving light in the dark that may make no sense except that it is the inherent nature of metal in that context to extingush. Yet where the candle is about to burn the house down, metal is well used. Likewise the quality of actions will produce a like response. Good will produce good in return; but filling a broken container will not. On the other hand, the act of filling a broken gourd suggests the rationality of symbolic acts, but ones with no substance. Returning home is a good thing, but leaves behind the mess that caused the unhappiness in the first place may not be.  And the last is the best--the absurdity of the rationalized human condition; to be in charge requires very little indeed in a room full of the dead. 

That uncertainty is what Obatala-Oshun as guiding manifestations of the divine suggest. The reigning Orishas suggest the fundamental character of the year 2023, at least with respect to the way that human activity will likely be framed--a tension between the rationality and passion, or the union of both. This is a year of tempests, but also of solidarity. It is a year of the amoral and calculating, as well as the ferocious and destructive. It is also the year where these ordering tendencies can come together. This is a year of where structures fall and rise again, a time of battles between the best and worst of the human character, but also of the union of fauth and reason--for good or ill. Good can produce evil results; and evil may make  it possible to produce good. This is the year of tempests, drama, swift change. . . . and giult.That guilt, emerging from the principal oddu Otura Niko, points to the tragedies of arrogance (the disbelief that protective measures are necessary) and the dangers of passivity.

These fundamental tendencies that will mark all events in 2023 are nicely expanded in the principal oddus for 2023.  The oddus (reflections based on the translations and oddus in The Sacred Ifá Oracle (Afolabi A. Epega and Philip Neimark, Brooklyn NY: Athelia Henrietta Press, 1995). Let us consider each in turn briefly:

 The principal oddu is Otura Niko (No. 40 in the cycle; also Òtùrà Oríkò). It is an oddu speaking to loss, risk aversion, and passivity in the face of risk and loss. It is a bad combinaiton of the rationality of Obatala (risk aversion) and Oshun (passivity and fear, that is passion inverted). It is the alignment of Egiogbe (No. 1 in the cycle) and Otura meiji (No. 13 in the cycle). The leading force of this oddu is Otura meiji--and with it Eleggua/Eshu.  It speaks to productive activity--and to risk.  It suggests the need to mitigate the risk of betryal, of spying, of of trust. But it is also the oddu  for the strategies of bargaining (strategic essence of Eleggua); of the establishment of market places (by sacrificing labor and materials). But here it is activiated by Egiogbe as support. Egiogbe is the essence of yang energy; it is the sun, an intensity that enlightens, but that can also burn one to a pulp. As I suggested in 2021 when Egiogbe was a critical element of the oracle:

On the surface Ejiogbe speaks to wish fulfillment and the positive.  But force without context is uncontrolled--the passion of the positive which can destroy everything in its wake; which can drown the rest of the world in its self-reflexive drive toward the fulfillment of the self; it speaks to the power of the positive and to its distortion. Egiogbe is about fecundity--the power of generation and the protection of progeny. It initiates the cycle of forward movement--but that movement is only possible within the nurturing space of Oyeku.  Alone it is the essence of will that goes nowhere--it cleaves, it destroys, it creates that space for the new, it is forward motion; but once it dissipates, once that pulse is spent, there is nothing, or things turn out badly. (Letter of the Year Interpretaiotn 2022).

And so Otura Niko. On the one hand it provides the warning about the failure to protect oneself (the story of the corn  (Ágbàdo) that refused to sacrifice) and on the other on the value of initiative in the face of the desire for passivity (the story of the woman watching life pass her by who then becomes rich by taking control of her affairs). Ifa was divined for Ágbàdo when she was first coming into the world. She was told to offer sacrifice  to prevent people from eating her wares. She refused  and from then on people ate corn and used corn products. (The Sacred Ifá Oracle, supra. p. 117). Both stories speak to preparedness for tasks ahead.  Here the story of Orunmila seeking out Olodumare to resolve a problem but did not know how to reach Olodumare.  Ifa was divined for Orunmila who was advised to sacrifice needles, thread and fabric, eggs, and a basket of muffins and buns among othe things and to walk with them. He came across Eleggua disguised in taters and offered him the needle, thread and fabric. Elegggua led him to the house of Orishanla to whom Orunmila gave needed eggs. Grateful, Orishanla showed him the path ot Olodumare's house. The house was loced up but through the bars in the window Orunmila saw some boys to whom he gave the buns. When he offered to share the rest of the contents of the basket the boys let him in and Orunmila then got an audience with Olodumare (source here). The signification is clear; risk aversion gets one nowhere.  But risk taking requires preparation and execution. The meeting of the mind and the heart.

Oshe Turá is the first supporting oddu (No. 248  in the cylcle and sometimes known as Òsétútá).  And it is helpful in elaboring the insights of Otura Niko.  Osetúrá emphasizes the role of Eleggua.Eleggua is the master of the crossroads, the communicator and the facilitator of transactions.  It is Elggua who traditionally must be invoked to open and close rituals, and whose mercurial nature signifies not just risk, but communicaiton and luck. The essence of this oddu is that nothing happens without Eleggua's help. Eleggua is the rationality of Obatala activated, but impulsively, mischieveously, and sometimes with great passion and ferocity in the face of slights to vanity, propriety or sensibilities (recalling Oshun). Indeed, some stories suggest the close connection between Oshun (prosperity, love, etc.) and eleggua as the essence of Osetúrá ("Oshun came with ESU AWUIRE transforming into Ose Tura" here).  He is also the entity that enforces promises and contracts. Osetúrá serves as an invocation to Eleggua to give good things, to protect, and to preserve from death, destruction and deprivation (The Sacred Ifá Oracle , supra, p. 528-530). And here is a hint at the role of Oshun s a supporting guideing entity for the year. This is the oddu of danger and of the need to take precautions in everyday life. That everyday life--for individuals, institutions, and collectives, is centered in the market. "Money is good for honor; money is good for high position. We use money to have coral beads on the neck, which dignifies a person. (The Sacred Ifá Oracle , supra, p. 530).  

But it is useful as well to recall the character of Oshun and Iróko (retold here). In the story Oshun, unable to bear a child for her husband, sat cryng and praying for a child beside an Iróko tree. All at once the tree spoke to her. The tree promised that Oshun should bear a child but at a price--she would have to promise the Iróko tree an ebo--the child himself at his 7th birthday.  Oshun agreed. Within a year Oshun had given birth to a beautiful son. The child brought her great happiness and wealth.  But every time she passed the Iróko tree the tree would remind her of her promise, a promise Oshun eventually determined she would not honor. And so she avoided the Iróko tree for years and soon both promise and tree  were forgotten, until the child's 7th birthday.

That day, Oshun, who had by now almost forgotten about her promise to Iroko, decided to take her son to the market. Distracted at the market, she lost sight of him. When she noticed, he was gone and Oshun was filled with panic. She looked all throughout the market and couldn’t find him. Finally, she caught sight of him, mere feet away from the Iroko tree! Oshun ran, calling out his name, but he walked straight up to the Iroko tree. The ground opened then and swallowed him up whole. Iroko got his ebó. (here).

 And here is the tension in the oddu between an Eleggua who aids those who sacrifice and keep their promises, and an Oshun who can be fickle about promises when it suits. And Obatala, even when he fails to make humans perfect, embraces  responsibility for his mistake.  That is an underlying set of tension in the application of the principal oddus and in the 2023 Letter.

Ogbe-ate  (No. 41in the cycle of Ifa or Ogbe Ìretè) is the last supporting oddu. In contrast to Oshe tura, Ogbe ate speaks to dangers from foreign adventures--trips, actions down production chains, and market places.  This is the oddu in Ikú (death) waits at the destination--should appropriate preparayions not be taken.  This is the oddu of people or circumstances lying in wait--of ambush, and of revenge and the exhaustion if pasison in violence. Ikú here is object, sig, and signification.  Ikú is an action, and the force that causes it to happen, as well as the representation of cause and effect.  And thus the story: 

Iyaletajaja divined Ifa for Ewon, Iro and Ìgèdè. They were told not to travel  to their farm to avoid meeting Ikú. They did not listen. When they got to the farm they, indeed, met Ikú who killed Ewon and Iro, but swallowed Ìgèdè. Àgbonnìrègún, Ìgèdè's father heard the news, consulted the babalawos who diving Ifa told him to make sacrifice of yams and pigeons. Àgbonnìrègún complied. Arriving at the farm he found the bodies of the dead when Ikú called on him. Ikú vomited up Ìgèdè onto his father's hand and told the father to swallow his son. He said, Àgbonnìrègún should always vomit Ìgèdè on terribly sad days. (The Sacred Ifá Oracle , supra, p. 119-120).

Here is also the story of Ogbe-ate healing the manifestation of prosperity, Ola Aje (story here)

Ola Aje had many enemies that transformed into mice at night to bite him while he slept. All the Awos in Heaven were well informed and had tried to cure him but could not, the more they tried to cure him, the sicker he got. He had three rooms whose doors were locked.  The first of them enclosed the messenger of Death, who had a truncheon in his hand to beat until killing anyone who dared to enter it. The second door contained Ogogohiahia, an agent of the divinity of sorcery who was capable of swallowing anyone who dared enter the room. The third room contained all the gifts of prosperity capable of enriching everyone who could enter it. (story here).

 Ths is also the story of Ogbe-ate solving the mystery of the doors, with the help of Eshu, but only after spending time imprisoned in the room of riches.--patience and perserverence is the doorway to prosperity. And there it is. This is an oddu speaking to challenge and to the price of failing to heed warnings, or to preparing. It is also an oddu that manifests Oshun. It speaks to failed unions (the three friends who met Ikú on the farm) and of seeking riches in foreign places (and thus Oshun). But it also speaks to the danger of both. Ikú walks in and out of all places and sometimes kills, and sometimes swallows, and in any case brings sadness. This is the underlying warning--death. But also the riches from the city, for those prepared for its risks. And that is what sits at the foundation of this oracle for the 2023 letter of the year.

 

The hidden oddu.  

Sometimes a divination will reveal its fundamental meaning  by considering its internal repetitions. In this case the hidden oddus are those that appear to exist between those that were cast for the 2023 oracle. In this case there are two, embedded within the principal oddu. The first, Otura meiji (No. 13 in the Ifa cycle), emerges from the union of Otura Niko and Oshe Turá. The second, Egiogbe (No. 1 in the Ifa cycle), emerges in the conjunction of Otura Niko and Ogbe-ate.  What makes these hidden oddu more powerful is that together they are the two halves of the principal oracular oddu, Otura Niko.

I have suggested their power for the interpretation of the 2023 Letter of the Year oddus above. It is useful to add thus:

Otura meiji: Otura meiji also speaks to long absences on business travel, and on the value of hard bargaining. The stories of Òtú are instructive.  In the first ifa is divined  that for a trip abroad to engage in business it is necessary to sacrifice walking sticks and herd animals (sheep). This Òtú does and stays on his travels for a long time.  In another, Òtú is advised to sacrifice 2 tortoises, by selling them. Eshu helps Òtú master the art of neotiation, making Òtú wealthy. In another round of stories Orunmila is taught the proper sacrifice for establishing a market town: a tree, proper attire, soldier ants and soap for cleansing. For governing a twon, on the other and, mats and feathers are necessaary to set the authoritative stage. 

Egiogbe: The story of the banana tree and the farmer in Egiogbe mirrors that stroy of the arrogant corn (Ágbàdo) in Otura Niko, the principal oddu. In Egiobe the story is about Éniunkokunjú, the farmer, best known for repaying with evil every act of kindness. All the good things that Ògedè (the banana) provided for the farmer were not appreciated. The farmer beheaded Ògèdè in the end (Gbogbo oore ti Ògèdè se f'Àgbè Ko kun lojú Bibe ni Àgbè be Ògèdè lorí nikehin). In contrast to the fatal arrogance of Ágbàdo in Otura Niko one encounters the failure to confront evil on Egiogbe. In both cases, the corn and the banana are consumed by others and becpome the exploited element of a long term relationship.  That is the key danger in both Egiogbe and Otura Niko, though a danger that results from very different causes. This is the year that many individuals and entities, including states, may find themselves in the posit6ion of Àgbàdo or Ògèdè. 

WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE THE STUDENT OF THIS LETRA OF 2022:

As I have mentioned before, the Letra del Año is not a prediction in the sense of TV movies, or of fairy tales. It is meant to work like the I Ching and perhaps in its own cruder way Tarot, to provide a basis for guidance in thinking through actions planned or against which response is necessary, or to prepare for the possibilities of things or events following a particular pattern. And indeed the archetypes built into the oddus provide advice and direction but not instruction in the sense of precise prediction of action and reaction.  But it does suggest the pattern that is likely to be manifested in the year and the points of emphasis at every level of social existence--each manifesting in different ways and with substantially different consequences.

The 2023 Letter reads the oddu in the context of its driving orishas and translate the signs into makes certain  more concrete recommendations.  Among these are respect for ancestors and religious duty, focus on preventive measures to reduce the threat of contagious diseases, avoid excessive use of pesticides, changes in perspectives on the development of socio-economic models including the agricultural sector, encouragement of a stable population and loss of working age people through migration including in key sectors such as teachers, greater focus on criminality, and the excessive use of alcohol, and strengthening the institutional and religious structures of the Ifa community in Cuba. Several of these are sensitive--especially ad against a state apparatus that has indicated quite clearly an intense reluctance to touch the soico-economic system, or to abandon use of migration as a means of avoiding social unrest. 

Nonethless, the principal oddu might also suggest broader oracular themes with more general application. 

First, the oddu point to the central importance of markets and productive activity as the primary point for important action in 2023. The economic situtuation will likely be the focal point of key activity in 2023.  This includes noty just the ordering of internal economic activity, but more inportantly, of foreign trade as well.

Second, there is great danger in these events, especially for those states and other entities that are Ágbàdo (corn) or Ògedè (the banana), rather than Eniunkokunjú (the farmer). But clearlythe farmer will be returning good with evil, and without protection, the corn will be consumed and the banana tree beheaded. 

Third, the strategic will likely overcome the moral as actors seek advantage.  Oshun and the Irokó tree reminds us of the power of desire and the frahility of agreement.  But this will produce conflict. Contracts--including teaties and other agreements--may not be worth the paper they are printed to. 

Fourth, Ikú (death) haunts the marketplaces where  the focus of the great events of 2023 are likely to occur.  For those prepared, however, there will be sorrow but not ending. For those who refuse to heed warning, an ending.  For the rest, nothing. The market will produce tragedy, and bloodshed. 

Fifth, it is clear that 2023 will be brutal to two sorts of actors, first the arrogant who refuse to see what is in frint of them or to heed advice they may not want to hear, and second, those whoremain passive and refuse to take precautions in the face of threat. For both, Ikú will harvest bodies. There are any number of situations the resolution of which might upend not just the conflict that produced the situation but also the internal order of the loser and winner as well.

Sixth, 2023 will again be a year of betrayal of trust but also one that rewards sharp bargaining. It is the year that rewards those who are prepared and consumes those who are not.  The story of Orunmila's efforts to reach Olodumare are ijnstructive here. The year will likely see industrialists, states, and individuals rise and fall depending on whether they cling to fantasy and passivitity or whether they are prepared and willing to negotiate agggresively (as Otú). 

Seventh, success will come with a price.  That price comes in two parts.  The first is time (a delay in realization of success). The second  touches on integrity. It may be that 2023 will expose the possibiloity that one can serve two kings under one sky. 

Eigth, the character and extent of success or failure will depend on the way that actors work around the Obatala-Oshun matrix, that is around the tendencies  to oppose mind and heart (reason and intuition/emotion), or to intensify the irraitonality of the rationalale at its limits, or to give in to passion (for revenge, desire and the like). The worst scenarios are driven by the union of irraitonal raitonality (the drunken Obatala) with the enraged Oshun.