Meaning of Osa Fun in the Diloggún
- The monkey sold Obatalá before Olofin, an act of betrayal according to Ifá.
- Butterflies keep away from the city because the boys there kill them, which is why living in the countryside is advised.
- The dog and the jicotea (turtle) entered into a wager, a dispute between them.
- «Saraeko» is placed for Baba (possibly another ritual or sacrifice).
- «Otí» (possibly a sacred drink) is set out for Olofin.
- Orunmila and the doorway are sprinkled with «oti».
- Even when an ebo (ritual or sacrifice) is performed, one must be careful with the law.
- «Eko» with «otí» must be set out for Orunmila according to this Ifá.
- When the ebo is taken to its destination, the clothing is left there with it, so it must be carried to the bush, the shore or a riverbank where the person can change clothes.
- A white shirt with purple stripes is recommended.
- The ebo is made with fruit seeds or root vegetables.
- By intori Ifá, a little sand is placed on the ground and this Ifá is marked upon that sand. A gourd with «sarao de eko» is hung, four juju of aikordie are set on it, and a hole is made in the bottom so that it drips onto the sand. When it stops dripping, the sand is gathered up and an ebo is made with it.
- By this Ifá two ebo are performed; otherwise the araye (strife, an uninitiated person) will die.
- The «iyefa» (consecration) of the awo of this oddun carries «iye» (herb) of butterfly.
- Oggún began to dress in purple according to this Ifá.
- By this Ifá it is necessary to receive Ozain, a path of awo obayire and his five in hand.
- In the call at the door, if an awo with this oddun Ifá is present, the one who answers from inside must be an awo osa fun, whose function is to reply from within the room. This originates in Baba Ejiogbe.
What this sign indicates
- A complaint against you: you face a possible accusation over something wrong you have done, and you believe you can avoid the consequences by performing an ebo (a ritual or sacrifice).
- Infidelity: you suspect that your husband or wife is not faithful to you.
- Moving house and a mass: you are advised to move away from where you now live and to request a mass for a departed person.
- Caught up in gossip: you are entangled in gossip or rumour.
- Losses from talking too much: you are urged to keep silent and not discuss your plans with others, since you have already suffered losses for doing so.
- Persistence in reaching your goals: you are compared to a butterfly looking for somewhere to settle in order to obtain what it wants.
- The importance of not being stubborn: to avoid loss you must not be obstinate, like the monkey that sold Obatalá in a traditional story.
- Keeping promises: someone must fulfil a commitment they made and have not yet honoured.
- Trouble with drink: there is a person in your house who drinks, and it is advised to ask them to perform an eko desbaratado before Baba (possibly a religious reference).
- Infidelity and disorder: if a woman is unfaithful and goes off with another man, continual quarrels and disorder are foretold, and everything will be lost.
- Ritual for Obatalá: a «sarao de eko» (possibly another ritual or sacrifice) must be made for Obatalá, and it is indicated that if money is involved, it will all be gone.
Advice and warnings
- Avoid cursing and railing: you are advised not to curse and not to rail against your lot.
- Beware of someone who means you harm: you are warned about a person who is planning to hurt you.
- Do not sabotage your own plans: you will undertake something important, and there may be attempts to talk you into wrecking it yourself.
The traditional reading of this sign also warns of the following:
- Illness: you want to know whether the illness is of divine origin or caused by harm sent against you.
Proverbs of Osa Fun
- En la confianza está el peligro. It is in trusting that the danger lies.
- Él brinca el camino desde la muerte y se entierra en la vaina de la espada. He leaps across the road out of death, and buries himself in the scabbard of the sword.
- Llévate lo que traes. Take away with you whatever you brought.
Patakíes of Osa Fun
The disobedient boys
Olofin sent the boys to make the mat, because they wanted to rule alone and had no respect for their elders. When Olofin asked them who had taught them, the boys answered that it had been their elders. At this answer, Olofin judged the boys to be wicked and ordered their heads torn off as punishment for their disobedience.
Obatalá’s enemy
Obatalá had an enemy and sought Orunmila’s help to be rid of him. Orunmila prescribed an ebo that included akuko (rooster), two adie (hens) and two eyele (doves). Obatalá performed the ebo and, shortly afterwards, his enemy fell gravely ill.
Obatalá, however, felt compassion for his enemy and went back to Orunmila’s house to ask him to cure the man. Orunmila then performed another ebo for Obatalá and, as a result, the sick man was healed.
The butterfly’s disobedience
The butterfly used to live in the countryside, but one day she decided to visit Orunmila, and this Ifá came out for her. Ifá warned her: «You mean to go to a certain place, and if you do not make ebo first, you will be badly received.» But the butterfly, being incredulous, chose to pay no heed and did not perform the ebo she had been given.
Later on, when summer came, the butterfly decided to go to the city. There the boys, seeing her, took branches from the plants and began to kill the butterflies. Ever since then, the boys have gone on killing butterflies.
The person is incredulous and, as a rule, does nothing of what Ifá tells them.
The dog and the ayapa
The dog and the jicotea met, and the dog, trying to humiliate her, entered into a wager with her to see who would get from one place to another first. The jicotea, however, decided to consult Orunmila, and this Ifá came out for her. Following the instructions, she made an ebo that included a bone, abiti (possibly a medicinal plant) and a tangle of threads. Then the jicotea carried the ebo to the road along which the dog would have to pass during the contest.
During the contest the dog found the bone from the ebo and began to gnaw at it, thinking he could easily overtake the jicotea once she went past him. But while the dog was busy trying to eat the bone, he did not notice that the tangle of threads was winding itself around his hind legs. When the jicotea went by him, the dog tried to spring forward and could not, because of the snarl around his legs. In this way, with Orunmila’s help, the jicotea won the wager against her enemy, the dog.
The king who lived for the sake of living
There was a king, powerful and beloved by his subjects, who nonetheless suffered a great spiritual emptiness in his life, which kept him constantly complaining and sad. One day the king decided to visit Orunmila, who revealed this Ifá to him and prescribed an ebo that included akuko (rooster), his worn clothes, an axe, roast beef, oti (sacred drink) and other ingredients, so that he might find someone who could free him from his affliction.
The king performed the ebo and, as he carried it with him, he went along singing to an alawede (possibly a kind of singer or musician). At that moment the alawede appeared before him, danced, shared in the ebo, and fell in love with the king’s shirt. The two agreed to exchange their clothes, and the king put on the purple shirt. From that day on, the king began to want life more, and found a new outlook.
This story stresses how important it is to seek help and spiritual guidance when we face an emptiness within. It can also carry the message that a change of perspective, connection with others and love can sometimes help us overcome our sorrows and find a renewed appreciation for life.
The person has a great spiritual emptiness in their life and lives merely for the sake of living.
How Aremon defeated the eggun
Prayer: Omo Korio Unsuro Basade Emiui Oko Bini Yowo Owe Oguede Ishe Ozain A Ilu Obini Eru Oboru Opolopo Obini Yal Lodafun Ishe Ozain Kaferefun Orunmila
Ebbó: Dos akukos, dos eyele, una cepa de platano, una cadena, un pedazo de carne, un tamborcito, akara olele, ekru, aro, adalu, bolas de ñame, de plata no, de malanga, malaguidi, todo esto en número de 9, 9 ataré, otí, omi, epo, eya, awado, obi, epo, itana, ori, efun, eko, opolopo owo.
Aremon, son of a powerful king, asked his father when he would be given a wife, and his father answered that he should look for one himself. Aremon decided to go to Orunmila for guidance. Orunmila saw this Ifá and revealed to him that Aremon held great power over the spirits and that, if he followed the ebo to the letter, he would find not one woman but a multitude.
Aremon performed the ebo exactly as he had been told and went into the bush with his drum and his spear. After walking a long way he came to a strange land, protected by a palisade unknown to him. There the evil spirits known as the Eburus kept women who had been abducted from other places.
Aremon went in and found two young slave women who, eager for sexual relations, threw themselves upon him. At that moment the other imprisoned women arrived and, seeing the slave women having sexual contact with a man, went out of their minds.
The Eburus were invisible and wicked evil spirits who held the women as prisoners so that they would cook, wait on them and serve them sexually. Every woman who spent a night with Aremon shared her experience with the rest, which led to Aremon lying with all of the women: young, old, white, black, Chinese, of every age and every people.
One day a powerful evil spirit, witnessing all this, challenged Aremon to a duel. But Aremon, who was Osá Fun, had prepared a meal beneath a plantain plant, and the evil spirit had already devoured it greedily.
During the fight the evil spirit tried to attack Aremon, but Aremon, nimble as a cat, slipped between his legs, seized the spirit by the neck and plunged him head down into the river. In this way Aremon did the same with each of the evil spirits that came before him.
The obini women freed by Aremon, who had been abducted by the evil spirits, hailed him as their hero and returned with him to the kingdom. Aremon beat his drum, announcing to all the men whose women had been stolen that they must pay a she-goat (an offering) for each one of them, including one further she-goat for each woman who had been a wife of his father.
Thus Orunmila’s word was fulfilled, and Aremon became the most powerful man and the most respected leader in the Yoruba land.
Works and ebbó of Osa Fun
Works and labours of osa fun
- Ebbo
- Akuko, roast beef, otí. It is taken to the bush and Oggún is called. There the person takes off their clothes and leaves them together with the ebbo, and dresses in the clothing that will be white trousers or a white skirt and a white shirt or blouse with purple skirts (this is, in order to want more life). In this Ifá Ikú is fed in a deep hole: eight eyele and one jío jío. First the person concerned is cleansed with the jío jío, which is given to Ikú in the hole. Then they are cleansed with the two eyele, and these are given one by one to Ikú in the hole. And each time an eyele is sacrificed, two meyi Ifá are prayed and this is sung: «baba Olofin Leri Leyo Baba Ejiogbe», «baba Olofin leri leyo baba oyekun meyi». So on until the eighth eyele, singing oshe meyi and oragun.
- Ebbo for the woman
- Three doves for Elegbá, 2 white sheets, derecho (ritual fee).
- Ebbo to calm the quarrels
- Aikordie, elle meni, a güiro, enemi owo.
- Ebbo for money
- Eyele meyi, owo la mello tonti ello.
- Ebbo: a
- Kuko, 5 adie, a mat, 2 doves, eku, eya.
Prayers and suyeres of Osa Fun
Liturgical material transcribed from the manuscripts of the source; it is kept word for word.
Prayer
Osa Fun Adifafun Ala Guodun Guo Lopure Oma Obatalá Lordo; Aya Loru Owo Ida Kuda Awo Ise Kute Adifafun Obatalá Ashe Lebo Umbatinlo Yolu Aye Oma Nutieka Eyele, Oñí Iro Lompa Omeo.
Prayer
Osa Fun Mariwo Yuyete Awo Orun Adifafun Olugoñi Adifafun Oshanlá Eyele Lebo Guola Uloma Abatama Peonati Osalo Fun Osa Fun Adifafun Elegba Fun Umbatilo Puloma Lodo Ayalorun.
Prayer
Marigua Tullele Awo Orun Adifafun Ologoñi Adifafun Oshanlá Eyele Lebo Guolo Uloma Abatana Peonati Osalo Fun Osa Fun Adifafun Elegue Dum Umbatinlo Pulona Lodo Allorun.
Prayer
Obro Yiguimoro Eo Olofin Yeye Oduduwa Eru Olofin Tete Boru Omo Oloya Eyo Ile Omo Olofin Kukuru Oyi Ile Akuko Meta Owo La Meta.
Prayer
Osa Fun Adifafun Ala Guodun Guo Lo Pure Oma Obatala Lordo Alla Loru Awo Nida Cuda Awo Nite Kute Adifafun Obatala Acherebo Umbatinlo Yolu Alle Coma Mutieca Eyele Oñí Hiro Lompa Omeo.
Orishas in this sign
The orishas that the letter itself ties to this sign, according to what the source records:
Other aspects of the sign
Ewé of the sign
Atiponla, prodigiosa, ruda, cimarrona, añil.
Osa Fun Obro Yiguimoro Ero Olofin Yeye Orduo Eru Olofin Teteberu Omo Oloya Eyi Ele Omo Olofin Kukuru Oyi Ile Akuko Meta Elebo.