1 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ORUNMILA — THE DIVINITY OF WISDOM INTRODUCTION mankind. Unfortunately, the revelations of Orunmila have since the beginning of time, been shrouded in utter secrecy and those who could afford the time and leisure to acquire it, had no means of leaving any records behind them. Whatever we know of Ifa today has been handed down from generation to generation. A lot of what people know about Ifa is also revealed, even to this day, by Orunmila himself because he constantly appears to his adherents in dreams, to teach them what they ought to know about him and his works. Knowledge of Ifa has mainly survived by oral tradition from one Ifa priest to another. No conscious effort has ever been made to record the complete works of Orunmila for public consumption. Even the ifa priests themselves are often reluctant to part with their knowledge for fear that if the knowledge becomes public Property, the mythical facade behind which they operate will be destroyed. This is not entirely their fault because it takes at least 21 years of indentured servitude to produce a proficient Ifa priest. But for the fact that this work was directly inspired by Orunmila himself, it would not have been easy for anyone to afford the cost in time, effort and money, to embark on such an endless adventure. That is to say that the body of knowledge called Ifa is endless, ageless and eternal. It will be seen from his revelations that Orunmila, although the youngest of all the divinities created by God, was actually God's own witness when he began to create other organic and inorganic substances. That is why he is referred to as Eleri Upin. He alone knows the true nature and origin of all animate and inanimate objects created by God. This knowledge has given him such unparalleled powers that make him the most effective of all the divinities, wno were the first creatures of God. His followers who are able to acquire some of the knowledge therefore wield tremendous powers which have often baffled many into calling it magic or juju. On the other hand, the expression “Ifa encompasses the revelations, way Of life, and religion taught by Orunmila. That is why it is often said that Orunmila is the divinity but Ifa is his word. The Ifa priest is the mouth-piece of Orunmila and until relatively recently, he was the axis around which daily life revolved in the community. In those days, it was respectable to go to him openly to seek solutions to the problems of living. in recent times, it has become fashionable to consult the Ifa priest in absolute secrecy and stealth. Three factors have been responsible for this spectacular change in attitude. The first is the advent of modern civilization and the education it brought in its wake. The second is the over-bearing influence of later-day religions which were used by mankind as weapons of conquest not only of mortal minds but also for manifestly territorial ambitions. The third is the aggregate impact of the first two forces. The children of Ifa priests no longer wish to be associated with the religion and way of life of their Parents, which they dismiss as superstitious paganism. Many Ifa priests endowed with brilliant knowledge of the theory and practice of Ifa or Ifism have since died leaving no records of their wealth [i philosophy is one of the oldest forms of knowledge revealed to@ of knowledge and experience. The volumes of books which | am about to embark upon, are therefore an attempt to leave a historical account of the great works of Orunmila. They are meant to provoke debate for the enrichment of knowledge so that upcoming generations will know about Orunmila and his approach to religion, and in time, be proud to be associated with it. This work is also designed to assist students of Ifa philosophy in acquiring more in-depth knowledge of Ifism, as well as to generate greater interest in it. It will also provide assistance to those who have been initiated into the Ifa religion, but who continue to doubt the veracity of the entire concept of Orunmila. All too often when people go to an Ifa priest, he chants away to his clients, the incantations of the particular ODU that has appeared to him. Thereafter, he prescribes the sacrifices to be made without bothering to tell the enquirer the history underlying the sacrifice he is required to make. ifa priests do so because they believe that the uninitiated mind will not understand it. The client begins to wonder whether or not the sacrifice is relevant. Whether or not he does the sacrifice becomes contigent on the reputation of the Ifa Priest and not on his conviction of the necessity for it. More importantly, it isan attempt to make the religion of Ifa (or Ifism) rank paripassu with much younger religions like Judaism, Christianity, Buddism and Islam. These other religions had the advantage of earlier documentation. Otherwise we shall see that fa is a much richer and an older body of knowledge. itis important to note however that this work lays no claim whatso- ever to a complete account of the /fa religion. It is said that no one can know in full the complete works of Orunmila. This work is therefore a beginning and the research will continue through out the life of the writer. It is hoped that it will be updated from time to time in the light of the out-come of further researches and revelations. On the other hand, the writer hopes with these volumes of seventeen books in all, to de-mystify the philosopy of Ifa religion. Contrary to all outward appearances there is nothing magical about Ifa. The art is analogous to the work of Astrology. An astrologer tells a man’s future by reading the behaviour of the stars that were in the sky at the time the person was born. In the same way, when a child is born and ifa's principal divination instruments are used to touch its head and sounded, the instrument will declare the name of the ODU that is his guiding star. The ifa priest will then reveal the life history of the ODU that has appeared to him and can proclaim with 100% certainty that the life of the child will take the same path like that of the appearing ODU. It is the same thing that happens when a particular ODU appears at divination when a person is being initiated into the Ifa religion at the secret conclave (Ugbodu). For example, if ata naming ceremony or during Ifa initiation, Ejiogbe is the ODU that appears, the person can conveniently be told that his life story will follow the path of Ejiogbes life. If for instance, the initiate is dark complexioned and of average height, he can be told that if he is able to follow the ethos and taboos of Ejiogbe, he will surely prosper in life and will spend most of his life in the service of humanity. If on the other hand the person is fair in complexion or short, he can be told that he is not likely to be exceedingly prosperous unless he assists his ifa through special sacrifices to remove the obstacles that Ejiogbe had in similar circumstances, In his case, Ejiogbe had to return to heaven to regenerate himself before fortune smiled on him on earth in the same way, if any particular ODU appears at divination the ifa Priest is going to advise the enquirer to perform the same sacrifice 2S performed by that ODU or which he advised his clients to do in the same circumstances when he was practising in the world. If divination reveals that death is imminent for a person, the Ifa priest will merely tell the person to do the same sacrifice that Orunmila did or was told to do and which he advised others to do, to avoid the danger of untimely death, in similar circumstances. It is reasonable to imagine from the foregoing analysis that far from being a magician, the Ifa priest is only a skilful interpreter. As long as he can develop a retentive memory, since most of them cannot read and write, he has only to relate the problems of a client to a corresponding situation that occurred thousands or millions of years ago to reveal the problems besetting an enquirer of today and put them in the proper frame. These accounts of the work of Orunmila are an attempt therefore to assist non-initiates as well as neophytes to be able to translate Ifa revelations for themselves in order to appreciate what the priest tries to do in the course of his Ifa art and practice. It is important to appreciate from the outset that Orunmila does not go about looking for converts. This is religion for the individual, which does not rely on the weight of numbers for survival. Infact, Orunmila teaches that the best way of knowing and appreciating his teachings is through the efficacy of his work and not by the melody of his music.Y CHAPTER 1 AUTHOR'S EARLY ASSOCIATION WITH ORUNMILA of Clement, and confirmed with the name of Joseph in the Catholic Faith, and who at an earlier stage in life even contemplated a sojourn into the priesthood, it is difficult to imagine how the writer came about a “primitive” religion like IFA, or Ifism. That perhaps goes to indicate the strength of the traditional pull that the Ifa religion has on the minds of its followers. My father retired as a civil servant at the age of 48 in 1951 after which he took to farming and politics. But the Ifa pull became so strong that he eventually gave up farming for an indepth study of the Ifa religious corpus. At eighty three today, he is a practising Ifa priest. | had always argued with him that it bordered on laziness for him to take to such “fetish idolatry". He would always respond by ridiculing me with the remark that in time | would change my mind. Nonetheless, each time | saw people coming to thank him for saving their lives, those of their children or other members of their families or for helping them to avert what to them was a near catastrophe, | began to wonder whether there was actually something miraculous about this seemingly mundane religion. | have seen ardent Christians and Muslims coming to him and his colleagues for succour. | have seen people coming to see him from places far and near because they were told that unless they did so and so in an Ifa shrine, they would not be free from their afflictions. | have also seen such people return days, weeks, or months later to express profound gratitude. Although | was still too much of a practising Christain to give any Positive thought to these contemporary developments, there is no gainsaying the fact that | was beginning to ask myself certain questions. When | therefore retired from the civil service in 1980, | decided to find out more about this religion in an irresistible quest for answers to the many questions that man has tried to answer over the ages. What is the actual relationship between man and God? What is the relationship between heaven and earth and what is the relationship between man and the divinities. | wish however to narrate a spectacular development soon after my retirement from the public service in 1980. There was this Yoruba man in his nineties who had been associating with my father since my childhood but who | had not seen for over eleven years. His name is Chief Obalola, himseif a practising Ifa priest all his life. ‘One day, | was buying materials for renovation work in my house at Benin when this old man walked up to me and | knelt down to greet him. He asked after my father and | told him he was very well. He then asked me whether | was still In Lagos and | told him that although | had retired from the public service, | was nonetheless still very much in Lagos. Curiously, he asked whether | already understood the Yoruba Language and | confirmed that although | had lived in Ibadan and Lagos since 1959 | still could not speak a sentence in Yoruba. He shook his head and remarked that he sympathised with me. | told him that | did not think | needed sympathy since | was not missing much from my non-understanding of the Yoruba Language and that in any case ! had a Yoruba wife who could always fill in the gaps. After a deep reflection, he told me that ever since | was a child, he had told my father that Orunmila had a special assignment for me and that he was only lamenting on that day because Orunmila had told him that if | had understood his language 4 Fe aman who was born into a Christian Family, baptised with the name5 (Yoruba) he would have done great things through me. | asked what in this world would Orunmila hope to do through me when | did not even believe in him. As he was leaving, he told me to look out carefully so that | would not have to be between the devil and deep blue sea, before appreciating the place of Orunmila in my life. When | got home, | told my father what Chief Obalola told me and he confirmed that they had discussed the matter ever since | was eight days old when they did my naming ceremony through Ifa religion. When | retired voluntarily in March 1980 at the age of 45, | discovered soon afterwards that | did not have much to do to keep me busy, so | decided to write a book on the Economic History of Nigeria between 1960 and 1980. | had scarcely gone one fifth of the way in writing the book when the Ifa pull became too strong for me to ignore. | do not believe in mysteries and miracles, but | must confess that by 1981 | did not think of any other thing except how to make other people know about the secrets of the Ifa religion. | have however since discovered that there are no mysteries in the Ifa religion. It is just that its knowlege has down the ages been left in the brains of illiterate old men, who having spent scores of years learning about Ifa are not too keen to part with the knowledge except to those who are prepared to subject themselves to the apprenticeship process that they too went through. | have since discovered that to become an Ifa priest, the student has virtually tobecome an indentured servant toan Ifa priest, for anything between twenty and thirty years. In the first place, there was a Mr. Bayo Ifaniyi, an Ikale man from Ode Irele in Ondo State whom | met in 1967 when a relation brought him to my house to help him secure a menial factory job to do. | subsequently introduced him to Enpee Industries Ltd at llupeju, Lagos, where he was employed as a machine operator. He did that Job for about 2 years after which he gave it up but | did not know at the time why he gave up the Job. About seven years later, he visited me in the company of the relation who brought him to me in the first instance. | gave them kolanut which he split and began to say sooth through the kolanut. In a mood of impatience with his unsolicited fortune telling | told him to eat his Kolanut and drink the beer | gave him and go away. He however said one or two things — | did not quite listen to him — but which manifested within a matter of days. A week later, | told my cousin to invite him. it was at that stage | was told that he had given up his factory work because Orunmila wanted him to take to the practice of Ifa on a full time basis. He was therefore the first person | invited to tell me more about Orunmila when the call came to me in 1981. 1 also recall another young man who | met in 1969. He is Mr. I\dahosa Imasuen of Benin. | got to know later that my father prepared my own Ifa for me in 1944 when | was in Primary Il in the elementary school. All can remember of that incident is that | suddenly became crippled and could no longer stand on my two feet. For about six weeks | was a cripple, crawling all over the place on my knees. My father got a paper from his office and took me to see a white Medical Officer at the General Hospital in Benin City. | think his name was Dr. Stevenson, who examined me and suggested | should be taken to Lagos for proper medical examination. My mother would not buy the idea of my going to Lagos for treatment for fear oF having my legs amputated. Ihad become very irritable because | loved my classroom life and my role as a mass server in the Catholic Church. | was also too fond of my Catechism lessons under the late Brothers James and Pius. | was missinge all those exhilirating chores, for, since | could neither walk to school nor to church, | was not in a position to participate in any educational or Christian activities. | have vague recollections of what happened after | had been ill for exactly six weeks. My father had invited some old men who came to his house to prepare some black kernels which they placed in a calabash full of oil and | was called into that room. | cannot quite remember what happened thereafter nor do | know whatever it had to do with me. But 1 do remember that later that night, | was able to stand on my feet again to walk outside the house to urinate. | was however not quite awake and 0 | did not raise any alarm about the change in my physical condition. The following morning | woke up normally and walked to my father's room to offer him the traditional morning greetings. He was surprised to see me back on my feet. He muttered something which | could not quite comprehend, but | was able to go back to schoo! that morning and there has been no relapse ever since. However, in 1955, | had left secondary school and was working at Warri, still a practising Catholic. In August of that year, | had an attack of malaria. | was treated with Mepacrine Tablets, the popular anti-malarial tablets available at that time. It was a Doctor Ezekwe who treated me. The Malaria persisted for quite sometime and when it became serious, | was put on three days sick leave Iwas at the time living alone as a young bachelor at No.4, Ginuwa Road in Warri, One afternoon, my guardian in Warri, a Mr. Wilfred 0. Osunde, himself a Nursing superintendent cum Radiographer at the Warri General Hospital, visited me and found me in a pretty bad shape. He asked whether | had been taking the medications given to me at the hospital and | answered affirmatively. He administered four tablets to me on the spot and left. Soon after he took leave of me, | began to perspire profusely and soon felt well. My temperature went down and the fever had ostensibly gone. It was a Saturday, and | was able to light my stove to prepare a meal. My late friend and next door neighbour at No.4, Ginuwa Road, Warri, Mr. Joseph Okuofu had planned to go to Benin when he returned from his UAC job that afternoon. At about 1p.m, he came into my room to find out how | was faring. Seeing that | was Virtually well, he suggested that | should accompany him to Benin for the week-end since I had not been home for weeks. Since | felt strong enough for the journey, | readily agreed to go with him. At that time, the Ologbo river between Sapele and Benin was flooded and the stretch of the road between Koko junction and Ologbo town had become unmotorable. People travelling from Warri and Sapele to Benin at the time had to disembark at the Koko junction to ferry across the river by canoes, to take motor transport from Ologbo to Benin. I still remember that we travelled with Joseph's girl-friend, Elizabeth, an Urhobo girl. When the Arme''s lorry took us from Warri to Koko junction, we all dismounted and the three of us walked down the slope to board a canoe to Ologbo town. | was beginning to feel dizzy by the time we boarded another motor vehicle at Ologbo. | must admit that to this day, |have no memory of what happened between Ologbo and Benin. | was later told that | was rather passive in my reactions during the rest of the journey to Benin, not talking to anyone and not replying when spoken to. On getting to Benin, Joseph and his girl friend bade me good night and went away. | must have hovered around a bit and took the direction of the first road | saw. I did not regain consciousness until about 6T 40p.m that night when | suddenly found myself in the middle of no where. when I saw a young man on push bicycle coming along the road, | stopped him and asked him to show me the way to No.4 Edo College Road, my father's residence in Benin City. The young man alighted from his bicycle and asked what was wrong with me. | told him | was coming from Warri but was not altogether feeling fine, when | left Warri for Benin. In an exclamation of sympathy he told me that | was five miles away from Benin at a village called OKA. He then offered to take me to Benin with his bicycle. Since he did not know Edo College Road, he stopped as soon as he got to the town to ask for directions and he eventually landed me in my father's house at about 11.15p.m. When he narrated how he found me at Oka village to my parents, my mother burst into tears. They compensated the young man after he told them to take good care of me. Islept soundly that night, although | had renewed bouts of hallucina- tions the following day. It was now clear that | was suffering from spasmodic paranoid psychosis. Since | was on three days sick leave which had expired the previous Friday, | had to return to Warri on Sunday and to the Doctor. My mother accompanied me to Warri on Sunday. The following morning, my mother accompanied me to the hospital where she made a passionate plea to place me on a weeks sick leave to enable her take me back to Benin for adequate care. The Doctor felt insulted and instructed that | should immediately be hospitalised for observation and treatment. | was given a bed at the General Hospital and my blood samples were taken by the late Pathologist Ikomi. He diagnosed what was later called “Mepacrine Psychosis”. For the next three weeks, | was receiving treatment at the hospital with very little or no change in my condition. My cousin and guardian Mr. W. 0. Osunde then made a special appeal to the Doctor to discharge me for traditional treatment at home. Reluctantly, Dr. Ezekwe agreed to put me on two weeks sick leave and told me to report back at the end of that period. My mother and | travelled back to Benin immediately. On getting home, my father told me that we had to complete my Ifa ceremony immediately because Orunmila was said to be complaining that he had remained for too long inside the oil — eleven years (1944 to 1955). | must confess that | had no idea of what he was talking about. During my hospitalization he had once again invited the old men who prepared the initial stages of the Ifa ceremony. He disclosed to me that the old men had told him that Orunmila followed me to the world because of the hydra- headed problems | was destined to come across on earth and that | did not recognise his importance in my life. My father told me that all was set and that the ceremony was to commence at once. All that was Greek to me because | remember telling him that if he wanted to eat meat, | would buy a goat for him to kill but should not tell me anything about some black kernel juju which had remained for too long inside a calabash of oil. In any case, | soon lost my memory again and by the time | regained consciouness, my hair had been clean shaven as part Of the ceremony. The Old men who | recognised later to be Ifa priests, were gathered in my father's sitting room and they began to tell me about my Past, present and future. They mentioned the name of my Orunmila and told me that my life would go according to the life of that Orunmila. It Was from that moment that | began to follow the rest of the ceremony, and exactly seven days after | came from Warri, | was well enough to go back to work. When | returned alone this time to Dr. Ezekwe, | was able to discuss a6 intelligently and flawlessly with him once more. He laughed and later told my cousin that traditional medicine had worked wonders. | was back to work soon afterwards and have had no more hallucinations ever since. | got married in 1959 and had a daughter by that marriage. | married my wife with the blessings of the Catholic Faith because | still could not have anything to do with this Orunmila, which my father kept with him. Throughout my course of studies in the UK, | remained a practising Catholic with my wife, who is also from a Catholic family. While in Glasgow, | was such a devout Catholic that the Chaplain of Glasgow Universtiy, Reverend Father Matthew Dooley and even Bishop Ward of Glasgow virtually became my parents-in-Christ. | spent all my leisures at the chaplaincy, and was always amass-server in the Chaplaincy. At one stage, | even gave serious thought to the idea of priesthood. The only factor that checkmated my admiration for the priesthood was that | wanted my wife to have a boy in addition to my daughter. But providence did not chance us to have any other child. I returned home in 1963 and remained a practising Catholic, attending St.Anthony's Church at Surulere and later St.Dominic's Church at Yaba. My wife still did not have another child and my parents were really beginning to mount pressure on me to take a second wife, which was for me, out of the question, true to the tenets of the Catholic faith. The crunch came in 1969 when out of frustration at not having any more children coupled with temporary impotence, | almost took my life ona Saturday night in August, 1969. The Ifa priests had warned me during the final Ifa initiation ceremony in 1955 that If | did not take to the Ifa religion, Ifa would not be in a position to help in abating the danger to my life by an incident of temporary sexual impotence, which was bound to occur at one stage in my life. My father kept reminding me that he was told when | was eight days old that | was destined to have many children, but that Orunmila would not be able to usher them in if | did not take to the ways of Ifa. On the other hand, | preferred to die rather than abandon my Christian ways. 1! was only miraculously saved from taking my life on that fateful Saturday night in August, 1969 at about 3.00a.m at the back of my 2 Elmes Road residence at the Medical compound in Yaba. As soon as my attempted suicide was foiled by divine intervention, | wept for the rest of the night without having any sleep. The following morning, which was a Sunday, | went as usual to St. Dominics Catholic church at Yaba. On my return from the Church, | met aman at the entrance to my residence dressed in the regalia of a Bini chief. tasked him what his mission was and he replied that he was asking for the address of the late Dr. Idehen, when he was directed from the Yaba round- about to the house of a Bini man inside the medical compound, who might direct him to Dr. Idehen’s residence. He introduced himself as Chief Igbinovia of No.8 Nekpenekpen Street in Benin City. 1 took him to my sitting room and entertained him to the traditional kolanuts and drinks. When he split the kolanut in the traditional way, he threw it on the plate on which it was presented and he muttered something to himself. Meanwhile, | telephoned Dr. Idehen who regretted that he could not see that man immediately because he had a job to do at the State House. He asked me to tell the man to see him later that day, between 5 and 6p.m. Coming back to Chief Igbinovia, he asked me whether | had Orunmila, and | told him that although my father was supposed to have prepared ‘one for me several years before, | was nonetheless a Christian, as he could see that | was just returning from the church with prayer books and a 82 Rosary in hand. To my utter amazement, he brought out his Ifa chain (OKPELE) and inquired whether it was my house Orunmila sent him to visit in Lagos. With all | had heard about the ways of these "quack native doctors”, | began to wonder whether he was looking for an opportunity of making a few pounds on me. After he threw down his Okpele three times, he turned to me and said that whether or not | believed what he was going to tell me, he was in duty bound to give me the divine message all the same. He then disclosed that he was sleeping in his house the previous night, when at about 3a.m Orunmila woke him up and told him that one of his children was between life and death in Lagos and that he should go at once to tell him to return home to where his Ifa was prepared for him, and feast it with a goat, so that he, (Orunmila) could disclose the cause and cure of the man’s problems In view of the fact that the time of 3a.m at which he supposedly had his dream in Benin coincided with the time | had attempted to take my life the previous night in Lagos, | became more interested in his exposé and began to listen to him with rapt attention. without disclosing to him what happened to me the previous night, he told me that whatever problems | had were not bereft of solutions, provided | went home to make the sacrifice prescribed by Orunmila. The only question | asked him was whether Orunmila was the cause of my problems because | had refused to tread his path. He replied that Orunmila was not given to punishing or blackmailing those who refused to follow him. He added that the reason why Orunmila insists on being recognised by those who he accompanies to this earth, is to be put him in a position to help them thwart the evil machinations of their enemies. He also disclosed that my temporary sexual problems, preceded by ten years of childlessness was caused by enemies who contrived them as a way of bringing an abrupt end to an otherwise long and eventful life. | promised him that | was going to do the sacrifice and he left, He refused to accept any money from me except his transport fare of £2. | never saw him again until ten years later in 1979, at a relation’s house, nor have | seen him again since then. The following Monday, | successfully applied for my annual vacation leave and immediately travelled to Benin. For about three weeks before my attempted suicide, | had been totally impotent and absolutely incapable of having sex, both extra-murally and intramurally. On getting home | told my father what happened and once again he invited some Of the Ifa priests who were still alive to help in offering the sacrifice to my Orunmila. After serving it, the priests were assembled five days later to sound Ifa as they call it — that is, to ask him what revellation he had to make. What | can disclose of what they told me on that day is that | should keep my Orunmila shrine with me wherever | chose to live and since ! was living in Lagos, | should go to Lagos with it. Incidentally, Chief Obalola who was once again available, asked me pointedly whether | was still a complete man as | was standing before him. 'could not help but answer negatively, although | had not discussed that aspect of my problems previously with anyone at home. He also asked me whether | had tried to take my life and | answered in the affirmative. He re-assured me that having survived those two pre-destined ordeals, that Was going to be the turning point in my life, provided | stopped neglecting My Orunmila. He predicted that any woman | would have an affair with from then on would become pregnant, but | should not decline respon- sibility or get scared. | was not to take any medicine for my condition and the surprising aspect was that he asked whether my wife was around and ' told him she was not around. He told me that if | had any girl friend in 910 Benin, | should invite her that night to sleep with me. He reassured me that Orunmila told him | would regain my potency from that night. Suffice it to say that everything he said came true as he predicted. | have come to have several children between 1970 and the present time, and my life has been a success story since then. One of the Ifa priests present on that day was Mr. Idahosa Imasuen, who is a major contributor to the subject of this book, {met the third of my Ifa teachers soon after my retirement in 1980. He is Chief Omoruyi Edokpayi, who lives in Ondo. He visited me on the 21st of May, 1980 at my new residence in Ajao Estate at Oshodi on the precincts of Lagos. He came in the company of a relation of mine. Once again, in accordance with the Bini tradition, | gave him kolanut and when he split it and threw it on the plate he looked at me with astonishment. | became baffled again, because | had seen many of such ominous looks in the past. He told me that Orunmila had asked him to tell me that people were going to be sent to come and kill me unless | made sacrifice to Ifa immediately. He told me that if | made the sacrifice | would escape death but would be the victim of some theft, to atone for my life. He called one of my wives and told her to make sacrifice to Orunmila with a sword to avoid being killed or injured with a sword. She, being the daughter of a Bishop, never used to give much attention to such things, so she did not do the sacrifice although | added a sword to the materials with which | made the sacrifice. Exactly seven days after | made the sacrifice, which was on the 1st of June 1980, forty armed Robbers attacked my Lagos house at 2a.m. They broke every door in my house and removed everything of value in the house. But by the Grace of God, no life was lost even though the head of the robbers did at one stage of the nearly two hours operation, order the three men pointing guns at me, to shoot. | do not know how | was saved from them. They were probably dazzled by the items of value which they took away. ‘One of them tried to rape my wife who was told to make sacrifiee with a sword. As the rapist tried again to tear up the girdle she was wearing, the sword also injured her thigh. She was saved by the timely orders of their commander to move when time was running out on them. It was during the cause of reflecting on these spectacular events in my life that | began to wonder whether a prima facie case was not already established for researching in-depth into the mysteries of Ifa. When Chief Edokpayi interpreted the life history of my own Orunmila, he told me that everything that happened to me since | was born, coincided with the life history of my own Orunmila : This book is therefore an attempt to find out the correlation co- efficient between the life of Orunmila and the lives of Ordinary mortals, who suddenly find themselves more by accident than design, becoming the followers of Orunmila. The Divine invitation: ! did not know that the voice which stopped me from taking my life on the 23rd of August, 1969 was that of Orunmila. | only recognised it on the 3rd June, 1979 when the voice spoke to me again in Hamburg, Western Germany. | had been to Germany for medical check-up, at which | was given an untidy bill of health. The Doctors had told me to go easy in whatever job | was doing and | had been contemplating a strategy for giving myself a more liveable schedule of work. went to bed very early that evening and at about 1a.m, a man dressed 10in a white robe with a horse tail in hand, woke me up. He also wore blue beads on his right wrist. He introduced himself as the Eleri Ukpin and the servant of God. He asked me whether | had forgotten that he accompanied me to the world. He told me that | had promised in heaven when | was leaving for the earth that | would only serve humanity up to the age of 45 after which | was to begin to serve the divinities. He told me that | should not allow the first anniversary of his appearance to me, to meet me in the service of the public. He also told me that if | allowed the attractions of office to becloud my vision, | would pay for it with my personal freedom. Before departing, he reiterated that | should not allow the middle of the following year to meet me still doing the work that | had been doing for the past 25 years. Iwas quite confused. | did not know whether it was an apparition or a dream, but | was wide awake and did not sleep much for the rest of that night. | flew back to Lagos soon afterwards and went straight to Benin to seek my father’s advice on the significance of that strange experience. when | disclosed to my father how the man appeared to me and what he called himself, he told me that it was Orunmila that appeared to me. He advised that notwithstanding the fact that | was not ready for retirement, he thought it best to put in my notice of retirement right away. When | returned to Lagos the following day, | quickly called my secretary and dictated my notice of retirement. Once again in January, 1980, the same voice ordered me to wake up and see the board he had positioned in front of me. In that single night, he taught me the names of the sixteen apostles (OLODUS) of Orunmila and how to mark them on the ifa tray. He promised to let me know subsequently how to construct the names of his 240 disciples (ODUS). with that he again disappeared from view and | got up quickly to jot down the sixteen names and their markings. He appeared subsequently to me to teach me the names of the 240 ODUS and | wrote all of them down on a big chart which | have to this day. Three days before my notice of retirement was to expire, he appeared once more to tell me that he wanted me to let the world know about his role in the planetary system. He also taught me how to recognise and read the divination instrument called Okpele. Before leaving, he told me that since | did not understand his language (Yoruba), | should look for a man called Bayo Ifaniyi to tell me what to do. | had not seen Bayo for almost seven years. | then quickly sent for him and told him that Orunmila asked me to consult him. That was the beginning of my long sojourn into the endless work of Orunmila and the Ifa philosophy which form the basis of this book. | wish to end this chapter by paying tribute to Orunmila for giving me a timely warning to leave the public service in 1980. | did hesitate for along time, because | wondered whether it was reasonable to live at the beck and call of a voice from the unknown. It was not easy to give up the lofty Post of Permanent Secretary in the Federal Public Service; a position which 'had occupied for five years. When I however realised that it was the same voice that stopped me from Harakiri in 1969, | reassured myself that | would not lose anything by heeding the advice of the voice. e itis significant to mention that if | had disobeyed the instruction, there is no way | would have totally escaped the unpleasant events that occurred in Nigeria between 1983 and 1985. In a negative way, | also thank the last Minister | worked with, whose intractability and intransigence helped to firm up my decision to retire from the public service. unCHAPTER II ORUNMILA AND OTHER DIVINITIES with God. Orunmila has clearly revealed that all the lower divinities were created by God to assist him in the management of the Planetary system and that without exception, they all owe total allegiance to Him. The divinities regard themselves as servants of God sent by God to the world to help Him make the world a more liveable place for lay mortals, so that through them, man may be able to appreciate how God loves his creatures. When for instance a priestess of the water Divinity (OLOKUN) gets possessed, she starts off by singing in praise of God and appreciating the supremacy of God over all that exists. When Ogun (the Engineering Divinity) priest is possessed, he too, starts by paying tributes to God Almighty and thanking Him for making it possible for him (Ogun) to tell mortals what they would not otherwise know about themselves. The same is true of the Electricity Divinity, Sango, and indeed of each of the 200 divinities created by the God Almighty. They are said to be the members of the Divine Council of God. In the same way, the Ifa priest begins his operation by acknowledging God as the repository of all knowledge and wisdom. Let no man therefore think that service through any of the divinities is a substitute for service to God. Orunmila has revealed to his followers that the first creations of God were the lower divinities. They were the first inhabitants of heaven, and they all lived normal lives in heaven each in the image which took after God's own. Death is one of the favourite creatives of God, and he it was who fetched the clay with which man’s image was moulded after those of the divinities. After casting the human image in clay, it was time to give it the breath of life, so, God told all the divinities who were present to close their eyes. All of them closed their eyes except Orunmila who merely covered his face with his fingers without closing his eyes. As God was breathing the breath of life into man He discovered that Orunmila was watching Him. As Orunmila tried to close his eyes after being caught spying, God beckoned to him to keep his eyes opened since nothing spectacular was ever done without a living witness. That is why Orunmila is called Eleri Ukpin or Eleri Orisa (God’s own witness). Following the creation of man, it was time for God to carve out the €arth to be inhabited. But man was still too young and inexperienced in the ways of heaven to be exposed to the task of founding a new abode on his own discretion. God therefore chose to send the Divinities to earth to found it with their own knowledge, experience and discretion. THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD N © one should confuse the world by trying to equate the divinities When God sends any one a message, He does not give him detailed terms of reference. He expects the messenger to use his own common sense or discretion to carry out the assignment. God only expects positive results and it is left with the messenger to make four of two and two. The first inhabitants of this earth were the 200 divinities. The earth Was then called DIVINOSPHERE, at a time when the Divinities, as it is today, were the only ones with the Spiritual Capabilities to communicate between heaven and earth. They are able to know at once what is happening on earth and in heaven with their extra-visionary powers. The heavens were becoming over-populated, and God Himself, who. 1213 could at the time, like the Omnipotent Father that He is, attend physically to the complaints of all His children in Heaven, found the task becoming over-bearing for Him. He therefore decided to found a new Firmament for Divinities and Humans alike to dwelll in, as a means of depopulating the heavens. Infact, what He did not disclose to his creatures was that he was going to transfigure into thin air, so that thereafter he could only be communicated with in Spirit. THE CREATION OF THE DIVINOSPHERE: This work is not going to challenge all the other accounts of “the Creation” which have previously been given by earlier seers and prophets. It is merely going to narrate Orunmila’s account of how the geographical phenomenon now referred to as the earth, came to be a part of the planetary system. At one of the weekly meetings of the Divine Council, God asked the divinities which of them was prepared to go to the earth to found anew habitation. God told them that whoever voluntered to go was going to ‘operate within a Divine Council injunction to establish on earth, the natural laws which made heaven such a beautiful place to live in. He told them that the same rules should operate on earth. There were only two broad body of rules he gave them. 4. No one should take undue advantage of His (God's) physical absence to arrogate to himself His role as Father of all the Universe. They should all give his due respect to Him as the creator of all, that is, they should always begin their works on earth by paying due respects to Him as their everlasting Father; and 2. No one should do to the other what he would not like others to do to Him — which is popularly known as the golden rule. This meant that they were not to kill without due judgement by all the Divinities. They were not to steal one another's property since in heaven, the punishment for stealing was death. They were not to lie against one another, seduce one another's wife, or do any other thing to one another that could result in pain. They were to resist the urge to take vengeance against one another since all mutual disagreements were to be resolved through the communal judgement at the Council of Divinities. Above all they were to respect his divine rule that whatever anyone did to wrong his fellow divinity, the retribution would come to the offender ten-fold. Finally, He told them the secret of success was to listen always to the silent voice of the divinity called Perseverance.Iq CHAPTER Ill THE FIRST ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH A LIVING ON EARTH evolved a plan for dispatching all the divinities to earth simultane- ously but without any advance warning. One fine morning therefore, God called on his maid ARUGBA to invite each of the Divinities from their respective homes to appear at the Heavenly Palace the following morning for a special assignment. ARUGBA set out very early that morning. However before then, God had prepared a special Chamber completely equipped with various implements with which He expected the divinities to carry out their assignments on earth. Arugba’s message to each of the Divinities was clear. "My Father has sent me to invite you to prepare for a special assignment tomorrow morning. You are to get your self prepared to set out for the assignment as soon as the Divine message is given to you. You are not to return to your house before embarking on the mission’: Most of all the Divinities took the message literally and did not bother to enquire from their own counsellors or guardians on how to set about the assignment that God had in store for them. Arugba visited the houses of the divinities in order of seniority, which meant that Orunmila, the most junior of the divinities, was the last to be visited Meanwhile, Orunmila who was in the habit of making a situation divination every morning, was advised by Ifa to make a feast on that particular day in anticipation of all callers to his residence. At the time that Arugba got to Orunmila’s house, it was already very late in the evening. Not having taken any meal since morning, Arugba was already very hungry when she got to Orunmila’s house. Before allowing her to deliver the divine message, Orunmila persuaded her to have a meal. She ate to her satisfaction and then told Orunmila that God wanted him to report to His Palace the next day, together with the other Divinities for a special errand. In appreciation of Orunmilas hospitality, she confided further in him by disclosing the details of the errand that God had in store for them. She advised him to ask for three special favours from God in addition to whatever instruments he would collect from God's inner-chamber for his mission. He was to ask for the CAMELION, (Alagemo in Yoruba and Omaener- okhi in Bini) the multi-coloured hen in God's household, and God's own special bag (Akpominijekun in Yoruba and Agbavboko in Bini). We shall see the significance of these special requests later. In a final aside, Arugba told Orunmila that if he so desired he could also persuade God to let her accompany him on his mission. With these words of advice Arugba left for home, having completed her assignment. The following morning, one after the other, all the divinities reported at the Divine Palace of God. As soon as they got there, God ordered each of them to proceed on the journey to earth without returning to their respective homes. One after the other they came and got the marching orders to leave for earth. The first divinities to get to the earth soon discovered that there was no ground there to tread upon. The whole place was still water-logged. There was only one palm-tree which stood in the middle of the water with its roots in heaven, which was the gateway from heaven. As they were coming in, they had no where else to stay except on the branches of the Palm-tree. It was a very hard time indeed. Before leaving heaven, each of the divinities collected from God's inner Chamber all the materials and instruments of their choice. It is the same instruments that initiates to the cults of each divinity use for initiation 14, Aes the background of this set of rules and regulations, God15 to this day. By the time Orunmila came to the Palace of God, all the others had gone. When he reported to the Almighty Father, he too got the marching orders to proceed at once to earth. He was told like the others, to collect whatever instruments he found in the inner Chamber. However, all the available instruments had at that time been collected by the others and since there was only one empty Snail’s shell left, he had no choice but to hold on to it. He then appealed to God that since he had nothing to collect from the inner Chamber, he should be given: (a) The Camelion — the oldest creature in the house of God to advise him on how to tackle the teething problems of terrestrial habitation; (b) The benefit of going to earth with the multi-coloured hen in the divine household of God; (c) The Almighty Father's own Divine Bag, to collect the things he was going with; and (d) The privilege of going to earth with Arugba, to remind them of the rules of heaven. His four wishes were granted. As he was leaving, he collected four different plants, which Ifa priests use for all their preparations to this day. He also collected a sample of the plants and animals that he could lay hands upon. He kept all his collections inside the bag which God gave to him. The Divine bag had the mysterious capacity of accommodating anything no matter the size and also of producing whatever was required from it. When Orunmila reached the gate-way to the earth, he found all the other divinities hanging on to the palm-tree branches. He too had no option but to join them After Orunmila had been sitting or standing on the palm-tree branch for some time, Arugba advised him from within the Divine Bag where she was kept, to turn the mouth of the snail's shell downwards into the water below because it contained the foundation soil of the earth which would make the ground hard for treading on. Orunmila who had collected the empty snail's shell from the inner chamber of God did not know its contents. It is also obvious that he only met the snail's shell inside God's inner Chamber because all the others had ignored it. None of them except ARUGBA knew that it contained the Secret of the Earth. As Orunmila turned the snail's shell face downward, the scanty sand content dropped into the water below and the water began to bubble. Within a very short time, heaps of sand had started piling up around the foot of the palm-tree. After so many heaps had formed, ARUGBA once again spoke to Orunmila from within the bag, this time, advising him to drop the hen down to the heaps of sand. As it scattered the heaps, the area of the ground began to spread. It is the same operation that the hen is still performing to this day. Wherever the hen is found, it is seen to be using its feet to scatter the sand on the ground. After the grounds had been extended over a large area, the other divinities who were now amazed at the mysterious performance of Orunmila ordered him to go down and tread on the ground to verify whether it could support them. Once again, ARUGBA advised Orunmila from within the bag, to drop the Camelion to tread first on the ground. The Camelion walked about stealthily on the ground, for fear it would collapse under its feet. But the ground held together, and it is that same cautious walking process to which the Camelion became accustomed, to this day. That is why the Camelion treads softly on the ground. 1s