| Pix Credit CubaNow |
Pix Credit CubaNet 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 twelve 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., 2023, 2022; 2021; 2020; 2019; 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015; 2014; 2013; 2012).
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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)).
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. And indeed, in retrospect, when the Letras del Año for 2021 and 2022 are read for the ACYC, one can (again in retrospect) understand the inevitability of that rupture. (For more read an extended discussion in my analysis of the Letra del Año 2023 HERE).
For 2024, however, the various local and regional associations have again sought movement toward a consolidated augury. Notice of this renewed union was conveyed 26 December 2023:
A raíz de diferentes encuentros sostenidos previamente, se efectuó este 26 de Diciembre de 2023, en nuestra sede nacional de Prado 615 entre Monte y Dragones, municipio Habana Vieja, La Habana; la renovación del Convenio de Hermanamiento entre las Instituciones Religiosas Bantú de Cuba y la Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba, representadas por sus Presidentes los hermanos Aldo Durades Román y Roberto Padrón Silva. Este nuevo convenio logra un respetuoso entendimiento y reafirma nuestros lazos históricos, protegiendo diferentes puntos de interés común para ambas instituciones religiosas, con cuyo hermanamiento, da continuidad a nuestros vínculos anteriormente suscritos y deja indisolublemente ligado a dos cultos con raíces y prácticas muy cercanas con origenes africanos. [As a result of different meetings held previously, it was held on December 26, 2023, at our national headquarters at Prado 615 between Monte and Dragones, Habana Vieja municipality, Havana; the renewal of the Partnership Agreement between the Bantu Religious Institutions of Cuba and the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba, represented by its Presidents, the brothers Aldo Durades Román and Roberto Padrón Silva. This new agreement achieves a respectful understanding and reaffirms our historical ties, protecting different points of common interest for both religious institutions, with whose twinning, it gives continuity to our previously subscribed ties and leaves us inextricably linked to two cults with very close roots and practices. Africans.]
What is also clear is that greater care appears to have been taken to avoid difficulties. "Sin embargo, hasta el momento la asociación con sede en Prado #615 entre Monte y Dragones en La Habana Vieja; no ha dado señales de su esperada predicción para 2024, a diferencias de otros años en los que sus medios de difusión han realizado adelantos o dado a conocer de la reunión oficial de sus miembros para su redacción." (Letra del Año 2024: anticipación y expectativas).
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Much of this will seep into 2024. But the seeping now serves as fuel for a fire/tempest that appears to be very much in the offing, if the temptation toward explosion is too great to resist. 2024 appears to be a year in which the wages of the sins of the past, now past due, will be collected with interest. It speaks to pathways that are perilous and on which accidents and misdirection is possible, but one ultimately coming to a place quite different from where one started (the framing spirit of Eleggua). And it speaks to the tempests, cleansing and destructive without moral judgement, that may both increase the peril of the journey and result in substantial destruction from out of which something else will be built (the spirit of Oya). If Eleggua is the guardian of the pathways, the communicator and the trickster with a long view of justice and karma, then Oya (lyá Mésàn, Iansã, Yánsán), the spirit incarnated in and of the tempest, of the release of pressure, of the fierce warrior is also (like the Valkyries) the guardian of the spirit of the dead, serves as the harbinger and instrument of change--sometimes violent. What predominates, then, is testing in the face of pressure--from the slightest breeze of introspection, to the pressure that overturns the most fundamental systems of human social relations.
Within this structure, the guiding oddu suggest the possibility of tempering the pressures and avoiding explosion, though not the solidification of the oppositions that eventually will either explode or be resolved some other way. The principal oddu, Ìretè Otura, provides the baseline: resolution is inevitable. But reason, prayer, and the incantations of social relations may, in the language of the oddu, to "give way" for a time. That suggests both the tightening of the coil that are current human contradictions (external and internal; subjective and inter-subjective) and the possibility of releasing tension enough for temporary relief. That relief may provide a means of re-directing (though ot avoiding) explosion in ways that are socially positive (however that will be measured). Ìká Ògúndá the first supporting oddu speaks to gathering courage in the face of threat either to meet or avoid it. Òtúra
Ògúndá suggests the approach to using strength to avoid or dissipate the explosive potential of increasing tensions of the irreconcilable and oppositional. It brings Ògún into the oracle--the signification of war, metal, weapons--but also the signification of using them as much to farm as to fight. Underlying these oddu, the hidden oddu, Òtúrá meiji and Ògúndá meiji also suggest the underlying or secondary forces shaping the year. These touch on the principal characteristics of the guiding spirit (Eleggua)--transport, commerce, interaction--all positive, but tempered by the caution that such positive may be met with the opposition of the warlike (conflict) and short tempered (irrational or rational passion) that may block. Bottom line: 2024 promises to be a rising tensions, which may produce (explosive) release and greater interaction that may enhance conflict as easily as it might temper it. The guiding insight is to perform in ways that delay and mitigate the atmosphere knowing that while the inevitable may not be avoided, it might be deflected, redirected, or postponed. In the process great prosperity and great conflict will exist side by side. There will be a lot of talking this year; the incantations of speech/text might put off the inevitable, which speech/text will also expose this year. If the year is lucky that may be enough to postpone or mitigate its most destructive effects.
PREDICCIONES DE IFÁ PARA CUBA Y EL MUNDO
A los sacerdotes de Ifá, Obá Oriate, Babaloshas, Iyaloshas, Iworo, al pueblo en general.
31 de diciembre de 2023 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, La Habana, Cuba, se reúnen los Sacerdotes de Ifá para realizar la ceremonia de LA LETRA DE AÑO 2024.
Presidida por el sacerdote Mayor de Ifá Silvio Méndez González “Awo Babá Osá Meyi” y el respaldo de la Junta Directiva y sus Extensiones de Funcionamientos Provinciales, el Consejo de Sacerdotes Mayores de Ifá de la República de Cuba, Filiares de nuestra institución Religiosa en el Exterior, invitados de otras naciones. Sacó la Letra del Año el Sacerdote Mayor antes mencionado, previa consulta de las 25 posiciones y sacrificios prescritos.
- SIGNO REGENTE: IRETE OTURA (IRETE SUKA)
- PRIMER TESTIGO: IKA OGUNDÁ
- SEGUNDO TESTIGO: OTURA OGUNDÁ
- ORACIÓN PROFÉTICA: IRÉ BUYOKO LOWO ASOJANO (UN BIEN DE ASIENTO A TRAVÉS DEL ORISHA ASOJANO)
- ONISHESI : AWAN ASOJANO AL QUE SE LE SACRIFICA UNA ETU (GUINEA)
- DIVINIDAD REGENTE: ELEBARA
- ACOMPAÑANTE: OΥΑ
- BANDERA: MORADA CON UN ESTROPAJO
Ebbo ni Ifá: akuno, medidas del cuerpo, una corona, paño morado, piedra de una loma, paño blanco, agua de mar, tierra de las cuatro esquinas, miniestra, pescado ahumado, jutia ahumada y maíz tostado. Derecho.
Ebbo de santeros: un pollo, una corona, piedra de las cuatro esquinas de la casa, tres muñecos, pescado ahumado, jutía ahumada y maíz tostado. Derecho.
EN ESTE SIGNO NACE
- Pasar de rey a esclavo.
- Que olofin no puede bendecir lo que no tiene cabeza.
- El servicio secreto y el servicio militar.
- Obbatalá bendijo a los awoses jóvenes por su ashé.
REFRANES DEL SIGNO
- La ignorancia hace de un hombre libre un hombre esclavo.
- No pida a otro lo que tú no sea capaz de cumplir.
- Madre no es solo quien pare, sino también quien cría.
- El revoltoso todo lo destruye.
- El ojo de los padres protege a los hijos.
ENFERMEDADES QUE SE PRONOSTICAN
- Enfermedades de bajo vientre.
- Enfermedades genéticas como síndrome de down.
- Incremento de enfermedades neurológicas y cerebro vascular, como autismo.
- Enfermedades de la piel.
RECOMENDACIONES
- Incrementar por parte de las autoridades correspondientes el trabajo preventivo sobre la ingestión de bebidas alcohólicas y el consumo de estupefacientes preferentemente sobre los jóvenes y sus consecuencias.
- Ifá llama la atención por el incremento del abuso hacia la mujer y el abandono de los niños.
- No dejarle los hijos al cuidado de nadie, pues le pueden perjudicar y tener cuidado con ellos hasta en la propia casa.
- Se alerta sobre el incremento de las actividades delictivas.
- Se recomienda tomar precauciones con las pertenencias durante viajes nacionales
- Ifá prevé una disminución del índice de la natalidad.
- Ifá hace un llamado a los jóvenes babalawo a continuar superándose en la práctica de nuestro culto.
- IIfá advierte la tendencia por parte de nuestros practicantes a revelar secretos, llamando a la discreción.
- Se recomienda recibir oduduwa y asojano.
- Se hace un llamado a ser respetuoso con las diferencias entre los seres humanos para evitar conflictos y desavenencias innecesarias.
- Se alerta sobre el consumo de alimentos empanados o cubiertos.
- La juventud deberá ser respetuosa con los mayores y a su vez las personas mayores deben predicar con el ejemplo.
- Se alerta sobre un incremento de rupturas matrimoniales.
- Ifá llama a dar más atención a la productividad agrícola y el aprovechamiento de la tierra.
- Se recomienda hacer sacrificios a eshu.
- Se recomienda rogarse la cabeza previa consulta al ángel de la guarda.
FELIZ Y PRÓSPERO AÑO 2024.
__________LETTER OF THE YEAR 2024
IFÁ PREDICTIONS FOR CUBA AND THE WORLD
To the priests of Ifá, Obá Oriate, Babaloshas, Iyaloshas, Iworo, to the people in general.
December 31, 2023 at the headquarters of the RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION YORUBA CULTURAL ASSOCIATION OF CUBA, located at Prado # 615 between Monte and Dragones, Municipality of Old Havana, Havana, Cuba, the Ifá Priests meet to perform the THE LETTER OF THE YEAR 2024.
Chaired by the Senior Priest of Ifá Silvio Méndez González “Awo Baba Osá Meyi” and the support of the Board of Directors and its Extensions of Provincial Functions, the Council of Senior Priests of Ifá of the Republic of Cuba, Affiliates of our Religious institution in the Outside, guests from other nations. The aforementioned Chief Priest brought out the Letter of the Year, after consulting the 25 positions and prescribed sacrifices.
REIGNING SIGN: IRETE OTURA (IRETE SUKA)
FIRST SUPPORTING SIGN: IKA OGUNDÁ
SECOND SUPPORTING SIGN: OTURA OGUNDÁ
PROPHETIC ORATION: I WILL GO BUYOKO LOWO ASOJANO (WELL SUITED THROUGH THE ORISHA ASOJANO)
ONISHESI: AWAN ASOJANO WHO IS SACRIFICED AN ETU (GUINEA)
REIGNING DIVINITY: ELEBARA [Elegba; Eleggua; Eshu]
COMPANION: OΥΑ
FLAG: PURPLE WITH A SCRUBBER
Ebbo ni Ifá: akuno, body measurements, a crown, purple cloth, stone from a hill, white cloth, sea water, earth from the four corners, miniestra, smoked fish, smoked jutia and roasted corn. Right.
Ebbo de santeros: a chicken, a crown, stone from the four corners of the house, three dolls, smoked fish, smoked jutía and toasted corn. Right.
IN THIS SIGN HE IS BORN
The transitioning from [Go from] king to slave.
That Olofín cannot bless what has no head [essence/soul--eledá or orí].
The secret service and military service.
Obbatalá blessed the young awoses [initiated priests (of Orunmila)] for their ashé.
ADAGES OF THE SIGN [SAYINGS]
Ignorance makes a free man a slave.
Do not ask another for what you are not capable of fulfilling.
Mother is not only the one who gives birth, but also the one who nurtures [raises].
The unruly [rebellious, rioter , naughty, disorderly] destroys everything.
The eyes of the parents protect the children.
PREDICTED DISEASES
Lower abdominal diseases.
Genetic diseases such as down syndrome.
Increase in neurological and cerebrovascular diseases, such as autism.
Skin diseases.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Increase preventive work by the corresponding authorities on the ingestion of alcoholic beverages and the consumption of narcotics, preferably among young people, and their consequences.
Ifá draws attention to the increase in abuse of women and the abandonment of children.
Do not leave your children in the care of anyone, as they can harm you and be careful with them even in your own home.
Alerts about the increase in criminal activities.
It is recommended to take precautions with belongings during domestic trips
Ifá foresees a decrease in the birth rate.
Ifá calls on young babalawo to continue improving themselves in the practice of our worship.
Ifa warns of the tendency on the part of our practitioners to reveal secrets, calling for discretion.
It is recommended to receive oduduwa and asojano.
There is a call to be respectful of the differences between human beings to avoid unnecessary conflicts and disagreements.
Warning about the consumption of breaded or covered foods.
The youth should be respectful of the elderly and in turn the elderly should lead by example.
There is a warning about an increase in marital breakdowns.
Ifá calls for more attention to agricultural productivity and land use.
It is recommended to make sacrifices to Eshu.
It is recommended to engage in deep introspection [plead to one's essence] after consulting your guardian angel.
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The Divination for 2024 appears to speak to authority and disruption, that is to revolving or revolution. The key elements are distilled from the ruling or reigning Orisha: Eleggua and Oya. The reigning Orisha provide the interpretive framework through which the specifics of the Oddu cast, and their supporting text can be interpreted. In semiotics, they serve as the grounding normative basis through which interpretation, perception and meaning that is meaningful, is possible. Ellegua and Oya are a powerful combination--powerful in the sense of the power of combustion. Things are set to explode, things, people, relationships, are coiled tight and ready to spring. There is no suppressing it, and there is no protection from or in its release. Explosions, then can be internal (the explosion that results from the pressure cooker no longer able to contain the forces it was designed to contain), destroying the structures designed to contain it (and then dissipating). Explosions, however, can also manifest externally, classically the hurricane, tornado, earthquake--the manifestation of the release of pressure through a structure designed to produce that pressure and its explosions. In one case the structures are destroyed by the force of the release of energy; in the other, the structures are themselves the engines of explosion. 2024 promises a substantial ecology of both. To understand the release--in revolution (internal and external), in exposure, in the stripping away of protective layers, and in the life that emerges out from the detritus of those events--their signification--it is necessary to acknowledge the boundaries of the space within which interpretation acquires its specific coherence.
That is the power of Eleggua and of Oya. And from the start, it appears that within their interpretive framing 2024 will be the year of release. But be warned, with release there will be destruction: of structures and systems once thought to be indestructible and essential for the management and containment of explosions (the car engine that explodes; the state or social system that breaks into pieces; the personal relationships that can no longer support their contractions and dysfunctions; the failures of self-reflection or the horrors of what one finds in that voyage of discovery). But also there will be destruction of structires and systems incapable any more of resisting the (almost literal) winds of change. Explosions, pressure release, the inexorable power of movement that cannot be contained or avoided will challenge the coherence of the entirety of human social relations--from its loftiest structures (physical and abstracted as ideology) to its most mundane practices. This is a power that brings down systems, but also produces what can be even more intense emotional, intellectual, and spiritual upheaval (personal and collective). Lots and lots of encountering the self (individual and collective) likely. These pressures, long building and exerting force (as signaled in the oracles from 2019 especially), emerge from inside and outside the structures of human relations. When both are applied at the same time, it is unlikely that any sort of human relations systems will emerge from the resulting explosions unchanged.
These are the ideas that are picked up in some of the adages put forward by the Cuban Ifa priests. These suggest the essence of the tensions through which pressure builds:
"Ignorance makes a free man a slave"/"La ignorancia hace de un hombre libre un hombre esclavo" (Eleggua/Oya might say: the slave that becomes aware of their ignorance will rebel against the chains that bind);
"Do not ask another for what you are not capable of fulfilling"/"No pida a otro lo que tú no sea capaz de cumplir" (Eleggua/Oya might say: exploitative impositions will produce resistance or make it impossble to undertake the task; the correction might find the leader taking a road and the others following a different path);
"Mother is not only the one who gives birth, but also the one who nurtures [raises]"/"Madre no es solo quien pare, sino también quien cría" (Eleggua/Oya might say: those who interfere with nurturing, especially by imposing structural conventions disjointed from reality, will face opposition and the conventions overthrown);
"The unruly [rebellious, rioter , naughty, disorderly] destroys everything"/"El revoltoso todo lo destruye" (Eleggua/Oya might say: one builds on the ruins of what no longer works and over the bodies of those who get in the way; in that there is tragedy because neither the perilous road nor the hurricane distinguishes between the wicked and thw worthy);"The eyes of the parents protect the children"/"El ojo de los padres protege a los hijos" (Eleggua/Oya might say: where surveillance and control is too heavy handed and without limit, protection will transform into confinement, and a jail break is inevitable).
And it is central to the signification of the oddus cast for the year, a signification that produces the interpretation of the "adages" but also that are the means of signifying the oracular in the spirit of Eleggua/Oya. It is in these senses that the oracular casting for the year "give birth" (signify) several key elements:
"The transitioning from [Go from] king to slave"/"" (Eleggua/Oya might say either the sun or the wind will strip the rainment from the ruler; and when stripped to their essence the distinctions between king and slave disappear, as does the structures through which those distinctions are gven effect);
"That Olofín cannot bless what has no head [essence/soul--eledá or orí]"/"" (Eleggua/Oya might say: a reconnection is necessary: bodies are not for blessing but serve as the system through which its spirt is housed; without both the body is an animated corpse, and the spirit a disembodied tingle in the wind);
"The secret service and military service"/"" (Eleggua/Oya might say: as the pressure mounts the walls go up and the birden of protection increases; but are they enough to contain the wind? Are they enough to stop the waves? What will happen to them when the mortar that holds them together is itself the force that seeks to dissolve the structures? And yet they might also suggest, the fundamental oversight is not on the structures destroyed but in the resemblance to those of the structures that are rebuilt! An old pattern capable again of repetition);
"Obbatalá blessed the young awoses [initiated priests (of Orunmila)] for their ashé"/"" (Eleggua/Oya might suggest: after the hurricane the coconut tree will resprout and the creatures will return; even as one buries the elders the young begin to age; will they age in the same way?).
In all of these the prominence of Eleggua in his role as messenger, as the ruler of the pathways, suggest that a focus on the terminus is, at least this year, a distraction. What is foregrounded for 2024 is the fow, the signal, the active process of movement. Oya, the warrior and embodiment of destructive/opening force, adds the layer of quality to the flow that is the essence of the framing spirit of Eleggua. But Eleggua is the trickster with a sense of justice; Oya is the guardian of the dead. There is no suggestion here of the quality of the pathways, or even if they lead to the right place. That will not impede the active principle that both embody. Change (Eleggua) is in the air (Oya); much of it may be communicative--but communication takes a variety of forms, and pathways lead from a place and to another, even if that other place is a cliff. These communications may well be stormy (Oya) and they will leave scars. The final destination, however, is not predetermined--this is a pathway that may lead to good or evil in the eyes of those who must endure it--and in aggregate, probably both.
With these framing principles in mind, one can approach the more specific oracular guidance of teh oddus. 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:
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Ikú tiibapa Awo loni ago, ago; Awo nlo, ago, ago; Awo nlo, ago, ago; Àrùn tiibapa Awo loni ago, ago; Awo nlo, ago, ago
The death that would have killed Awo today, give way, give way; Awo is going, give way, give way; Awo is going give way, give way; The disese that would have killed Awo today, give way, give way; Awo is going, give way, give way. (Ibid., p. 524; 525).
That is indeed, the condition that one finds oneself. In the face of disease, confronting death--the wind that strips the coconut friends from the tree--one is left with incantation (Ìgèdè). This may ease and slow, but will not avoid, what is to come.
More specifically, it is the source of the principal insights and adages some of which were highlighted in the 2024 Letter of the Year (for example the movement from king to slave; the rise of the secret service, e.g. here). It is well to remember the traditional warning: Ösùùsùù ni ò jé á fori òun sònà [The thorns Òsùùsuù detest the one who walks on it] (Ibid); and they will pierce the feet of those who walk on them. The emphasis on the absence of pre-determination is underscored (this is the oddu in which "Oshanlá blesses Elegbá and says to him: You will serve for good and for evil;" and in which "men are in danger of life in the world;" but also of the extinguishment of epidemic, and of a place where one can be gagged for saying the wrong thing; here). It is an oddu that suggests that words in themselves are not produced to solve anything (but perhaps to make them worse or control); and it is an oddu that suggests through the rythms of its incantation that now is the time for mistakes of the past to be repeated (ibid.).
Much of this is driven home by the pataki. One, "The Princess becomes a slave" (here), speaks to the fragility of power. The story turns on a pregnant princess who, when the father of her child (who had promised to marry her on his return from the wars) left and she gave birth, wrapped the child in a blanket with the royal emblem and placed the child on a mountain road--all undertaken by her maid. Peasants found the child. Upon his return the Prince sought the child, found out what had ocurred, exposed the princess, reclaimed the child and married the maid. The princess, now without status, had to seek service with the former maid. Another, "The Birth of the Secret Police" (here), speaks to power in a different way. In that story a king who desired more children married to an unwilling consort, sought an alternative in one of the Queen's maids. The other maids, loyal to the Queen, reported this to the Queen and then spied on the maid who caught the King's attention. When they reported that the maid had become pregnant, the Queen devised a plan by which the other maids distracted the maid and took the child. Again a stolen child wrapped in a blanket with royal insignia. The King offered a reward for the child's return, which was accomplished by a man who consulted Ifa seeking to become good. The King rewarded the man, forgave the Queen, and executed the maids (spies). Both suggest the intimacy of betrayals, and the fragility of power. Cuban Santería suggests in this context that this is the ifá "de cabeza de rey y cerebro de niño [of the head of a king and the brain of a child] (Tratado de Odduns de Ifa (compilation, Cuba, 2016; pp. 477-78).
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"Ògún-dámil'are; Ògún jowo gbe mi; Kos'eniti o ni ejó tabi ijà tikiiwipe, ki Ògún jowo gbe oun" [Ògún proves me innocent; Ògún please support me; There is nobody in trouble who will not ask Ògún for support; whoever does good will receive good] (The Sacred Ifá Oracle, supra. p. 435).And it is important to avoid underestimating the power of incantation--the etymology of which suggests both its origins in singing and in binding (enchanting--to bind by song--which itself was once understood as the mechanics of binding). Indeed, this supporting oddu emphasies that while the year is explosive, that that is explosion is inevitable, ite effects can be mitigated and perhaps delayed--but that, in turn, requires those about to be swept away to (1) recognize the problem and its threat and (2) summon the courage to sing the incantation (undertake mitigation efforts). That, certainly, for example, has been the pattern in the context of the pressure of human rights and sustainability on the viability of markets based enterprises, which mitigated the threat by embracing its norms to a manageable degree. That interplay marks a number of social relations the exposure of the tensions and conflicts around which have already been exposed in the past year, and this supporting oddu suggests the path from exposure to response and conseqeunce.
The reason for the analogy the the embedding of human rights and sustainability in economic activity is because Ìká Ògúndá is also associated with Eleggua in his aspects of trade, the formation of pathways (the "Silk Road", the information highways, maritime routes, etc.) and their disruptions (here). That is already quiet clear coming into 2024--the disruption in the Red Sea associated with the Israel-Hamas War; the avoidance of Russian airspace by liberal democratic states; the breaking up of the architecture of convergence globalization in favor of dual circulation strategies, and the like. More to come. The Patikis speak to the consequences of disruptions of the flows of pathways (something at the center of the essence fo the reigning Orishas). In the pataki, "The Monkey that Saved Ika Ogunda" (here) Ika Ogunda was a hunter whose catch was the only meat Olofin would eat. But that caused friction with the animals who together surrounded him with the intent to eat Ika Ogunda. Having little choice, Ika Ogunda climbed up a tree and into a hut in which the monkey Mona lived. When Mona returned Ika Ogunda explained his circumstances and asked for help. Mona agreed because while Ika Ogunda hunted many animals, he did not hunt or eat monkeys. The condition was that Ika Ogunda would allow the monkeys to interact with people in the village who, at the time and out of fear, would chase them away and tie them up. Ika Ogunda agreed and was saved. Mona, who was in some stories a woman enchanted by a witch to take the form of a monkey, followed him to the village at the urgings of the other monkeys. But Ika Ogunda was kidnapped by the other hunters. From that day Olofin refuse to accept offering from the other hunters. If Mona was fearless, then Olónkó-égì was a fool.
Divination launched for Olónkò-ègì
He was warned not to waste his money at the party with a shot,
They advised him to make the sacrifice
For life to please him
But he should never try to shoot a gun in the air
When he came to the place where he was highly honored
He drew his gun
When shooting into the air
All the people without warning scattered and disappeared
Who on earth would hear a shot and stay or be around?A day fún Olónkò ègì
Tí ón ní ó mó fìbon gbèyìn owó n níná
Wón ní kó rbo
Ayé or ye é
Sùgbón kó mó yin Ìbon or
Ngbà or dé ibi tí ayé gbé ye é tán
Ìbon ló lòó gbé
Bó ti yin Ìbon báyìí
Gbogbo èèyán bá túká
Taa ní ó gbòó ìró ìbon tí ó tùún duó mó? (here).
Cuban Santería suggests, very discretely, a alignment with Ozain--of palo, of sorcery, and healing, of the dark and light arts. Ozain most importantly points to the environment, suggesting some connection between the human condition and its reflection in humanity's environment. (Tratado de Odduns de Ifa (compilation, Cuba, 2016; p. 368).
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Won-semisemi-emi-ko-baje Apa-won-ko-katemi won ns'epe, won ng'egun, won bi si mi. Òtúrá-Egúntán I ki'mi ma bèrú, I ki'mimas-ojo, Ioun a bami tún temi se, I ayé temi a dára. [They did much evil to me. I am not tarnished; they cannot overcome me; they are cursing, swearing, and wishing me evil. Òtúrá-Egúntán said that I should not be afraid nor fear them] (Ibid.).
This is said to be the oddu in which human beings were grouped between good and bad, but also the Ifa of the fox. This is the oddu of Ògún, the warrior and the husband of Oya. It speaks to metals, to weapons, to those items that can make effective fearlessness with the protection of weapons. It is both the embodiment of the notion of the fearlessness of mutually assured destruction, and of a defenive position that can be quite costly to overcome. This is the solace for the underdog, those not expected to survive an overwhelming force, but who will because of their preparation. It is a pathway for the avoidance of struggle, even one that may be inevitable. but, as the incantation in Ìká Ògúndá suggested, one that will give way today at least. Nonetheless there are warnings here as well (here): "a fed dog canot play with a hungry dog"; "when no one is around two can fight to the death". Each of these suggest the dangers of cluelessness, and the power of a community to prevent massacre--at least when they choose to look. The patakis speak to the transience of conditions for action or defense. The story of "The Hunter" is an example (here). A hunter who supported his family did not hunt for a while and the family suffered. He went hunting again and killed an elephant which filled him with satisfaction, exclaiming "Not even the King is more than me!". This was overheard by the soldiers of the King passing by. They honored him with a large amount of money. Cuban Santeria emphasizes the connection, nit just with Ògún, but with Ògún's representation of justice and operationalization of systems. It is the Ifá in which Ògún held the world on his shoulders, but also where Ògún is represented as gender ambiguous or changeable. It reinforces the insight that salvation lies in incantation meant to put off actively the end that otherwise seems inevitable. ((Tratado de Odduns de Ifa (compilation, Cuba, 2016; p. 429).
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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 2024 oracle. In this case there are two, embedded within the principal oddu, one weak and the other strong. The first, Òtúrá meiji (No. 13 in the Ifa cycle), is strong, as it ocurrs on both sides of the casting and emerges from the union of the principle oddu (Ìretè Otura) and the second supporting oddu (Òtúra Ògúndá). The second, Ògúndá meiji (No. 9 in the Ifa cycle), is weaker as it emerges both on the left side of Òtúra Ògúndá and Ìká Ògúndá. What makes this last ne stringer is that together they are the two halves of the second supporting oddu, Òtúra Ògúndá.
Òtúrá meiji appeared as a strong hidden oddu in the 2023 casting as well. This carry over reinforces the lingering effects of the 2023 oracle and suggests that some of its power lingers into 2024. Òtúra meiji 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 negotiation, making Òtú wealthy. Considered in the shadow of the guiding oddu, the practices of negotiation represents a weaving of incantation. 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 town, on the other and, mats and feathers are necessary to set the authoritative stage. (The Sacred Ifá Oracle, supra. p. 52-53). This is an oddu of hope, of the certainty that if one plants an odán tree, the place would eventually become a marketplace. (Ibid., 42). It is the oddu of Eleggua in his aspects as a communicator for business, and suggests that underlying the explosve structures of 2024 and the oracle, there is a lot of money to be made. Institutions may crumble and transformations may occur, but business will continue along the pathways that are exposed; and with it the usual challenges the many enemies prosperity brings.
Ògúndá meiji reinforces the power of Ògún in the background of the 2024 oracle. And that creates a potential tilting towards the short tempered, the warlike, and the fixation on weaponry. Here one encounters the focus on technology also underlying the oracle. Ògún reminds us of the critical place of tech in the background of the pathways, communication and conflict management in the forefront of the oracle. And, indeed, it is hard for any manifestation of this oracle for 2024 to move at all without the heavy focus on the technologies that constitute the domain of Ògún. The relationship between Eleggua, Oya and Ogun have been close in the stories, and that suggests an alignment between them. It is also important to note that though Ògún is a fierce warrior, he also is notable in for efforts to compromise and avoid conflict. The story of Ògún and the two people fighting over one fish related in Ògúndá meiji is instructive (The Sacred Ifá Oracle, supra. pp. 36-37). Like Solomon, Ògún cut the fish in two to avoid conflict and doubled their wealth. But that was possible only because one of the individuals was asked and agreed to sacrifice his sword. That, effectively, is the underlying insight of the 2024 oracle--the suggestion, and the implications of what happens when that suggestion is ignored.
Both of the secret oddu, then, suggest that the tendencies of the regning orishas (Eleggua and Oya), even when augmented by Ògún, will not be entirely out of control. There will be explosions and conflict; but there will be business and compromise, and a path forard. But the pathways from here to there will not be without explosions. And those explosions of tensions, when not mitigated, will affect not just social relations, and individual self-control, but likely the world around us. These tensions are as likely to be exhibited in the body and on its containing systems, defining borders, and pathways (skin, lymphatic systems, and other pathways). And they can be manifested in the environment in which humans interact. But caution is still the central element of the principal oddu, Ìretè Otura. And it is in the shadow of caution that the possibilities for mitigation, deflection, and delay may be realzed within the broad scope of the hidden oddu. The incantations that realize this caution, that are uttered in the face of life threatening situations, will decide which path and how great a threat, the conditions of 2024 will produce.
Summary:
Much of this will seep into 2024. But the seeping now serves as fuel for a fire/tempest that appears to be very much in the offing, if the temptation toward explosion is too great to resist. 2024 appears to be a year in which the wages of the sins of the past, now past due, will be collected with interest. It speaks to pathways that are perilous and on which accidents and misdirection is possible, but one ultimately coming to a place quite different from where one started (the framing spirit of Eleggua). And it speaks to the tempests, cleansing and destructive without moral judgement, that may both increase the peril of the journey and result in substantial destruction from out of which something else will be built (the spirit of Oya). If Eleggua is the guardian of the pathways, the communicator and the trickster with a long view of justice and karma, then Oya (lyá Mésàn, Iansã, Yánsán), the spirit incarnated in and of the tempest, of the release of pressure, of the fierce warrior is is also (like the Valkyries) the guardian of the spirit of the dead, serves as the harbinger and instrument of change--sometimes violent. What predominates, then, is testing in the face of pressure--from the slightest breeze of introspection, to the pressure that overturns the most fundamental systems of human social relations.
Within this structure, the guiding oddu suggest the possibility of tempering the pressures and avoiding explosion, though not the solidification of the oppositions that eventually will either explode or be resolved some other way. The principal oddu, Ìretè Otura, provides the baseline: resolution is inevitable. But reason, prayer, and the incantations of social relations may, in the language of the oddu, to "give way" for a time. That suggests both the tightening of the coil that are current human contradictions (external and internal; subjective and inter-subjective) and the possibility of releasing tension enough for temporary relief. That relief may provide a means of re-directing (though ot avoiding) explosion in ways that are socially positive (however that will be measured). Ìká Ògúndá the first supporting oddu speaks to gathering courage in the face of threat either to meet or avoid it. Òtúra Ògúndá suggests the approach to using strength to avoid or dissipate the explosive potential of increasing tensions of the irreconcilable and oppositional. It brings Ògún into the oracle--the signification of war, metal, weapons--but also the signification of using them as much to farm as to fight. Underlying these oddu, the hidden oddu, Òtúrá meiji and Ògúndá meiji also suggest the underlying or secondary forces shaping the year. These touch on the principal characteristics of the guiding spirit (Eleggua)--transport, commerce, interaction--all positive, but tempered by the caution that such positive may be met with the opposition of the warlike (conflict) and short tempered (irrational or rational passion) that may block.
Bottom line: 2024 promises to be a rising
tensions, which may produce (explosive) release and greater interaction
that may enhance conflict as easily as it might temper it. The guiding
insight is to perform in ways that delay and mitigate the atmosphere
knowing that while the inevitable may not be avoided, it might be
deflected, redirected, or postponed. In the process great prosperity and
great conflict will exist side by side. There will be a lot of talking
this year; the incantations of speech/text might put off the inevitable,
which speech/text will also expose this year. If the year is lucky
that may be enough to postpone or mitigate its most destructive effects. This pattern and those trajectories will be replicated and produce simultaneous (and perhaps intertwined tensions) from the loftiest of social relations among collectives, to the intimate relationships between humans, and, internally between a person and themselves. That scope is hinted at in the "Recommendations" of the 2024 Letter. Nonetheless, that list ought to be understood as the template rather than the limits of what might be expected and how incantations may be fashioned to "give way" to another day.
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