Odus: Life and Destiny on Cowrie Shell Divination

Much is heard about the Odus. Even here in the blog, I constantly talk about the Birth Odus, Path Odus  and Negative Odus; regent Odus of the day, of the year and even of personalities and political events. But do you know what the Odus are?

Imagine that you decided to take a vacation trip and for that there are 16 major roads or highways to get to where you plan. On some of these roads the sun shines among green fields; in others, there are rains and scary thunderstorms. There are also those in which, even with the fine drizzle, the landscape is charming and worth getting a bit wet to enjoy it.

Now also imagine that these roads interconnect with each other, creating new paths and allowing one to pass the other until you reach your destination. When you start your trip you organize yourself to follow a certain route, but during the tour you can see a sign indicating some tourist attraction that interests you, or - who knows? - puncture a tire, or decide to take a detour to make a snack. Each turn of these roads, each change of course, brings you new options for travel, new landscapes and new challenges. And as time goes by, even if your final destination remains the same, you discover countless experiences and events you've never thought before, simply because you've decided to change the original itinerary of your trip.

In life and in the way we live our lives
  the Odus are these roads.

Stay with me until the end of this text to understand how these destiny pathways are configured in the consultations to the Cowrie Shells Divination, how they can guide you on the best choices for your life and still win an exclusive ebook about your Birth Odu as a gift!

Odus: Destiny Pathways

The Odus are, precisely, the spiritual roads that interconnect the Órùn (Heaven) and Aíyè (the Earth), serving as a way for you to develop your best abilities and experience the pains and delights of living. Moreover, it is also on these "roads" called Odus that the Orishas and all the spiritual energies communicate with us and influence our Destiny, and through which Eshu - the Orisha of Communication and Movement - receives and takes our offerings to the Gods and bring from there Their blessings to us.

It´s as if each Odu is a range of possibilities of lives, of positive and negative events, of mistakes and successes by which we can pass on our journey through life. Thus, our daily life is formed by a set of these ranges, by the crossing and the combination of these possibilities.

In an objective way: the Odus are the signs of Ifá, the Orisha of Wisdom, symbolized in the falls of the Cowrie Shell Divination of Candomblé. They are divided into two groups, totaling 256 combinations. The top 16 are called Oju Odu; and the secondary 240, called Omo Odu. The names of the 16 major Odus are:

1. Okaran;
2. Ejiokô;
3. Etá-Ogunda or Ogundá;
4. Iorossun;
5. Oxê;
6. Obará;
7. Odi;
8. Ejiogbê or Ejionilé;
9. Ossá;
10. Ofun;
11. Owarin;
12. Ejilaxeborá;
13. Ojiologbon or Ejiologbon;
14. Iká;
15. Obeogundá;
16. Aláfia.

The Odus bring in themselves advices and orientations of the Orishas
for the various situations of religious and daily life.

These symbols, councils and orientations are identified by the Babalawos - priests of the Cult of Ifá, through the opele ifá - or Babaloshas and Iyaloshas - as the priests and priestessess of Candomblé and Santeria are called, through the Cowrie Shell Divination. By interpreting these symbols they identify the situations that passes in the life of those who seek them and point out which energies are interfering in a positive or negative way.

In addition, the great advantage of consulting the Odus in relation to the other existing oracles, either through the Opele Ifá or the Cowrie Shell Divination, is that in addition to diagnosing the problems, they also indicate the solutions and the rituals to be performed for each of these situations. It may be through a change of attitudes, or the correction of some choices in relation to life and the people around them ... It can be, also, through the performance of magic rituals and offerings to the Orishas - commonly called by the generic name of ebós.