Okana She

Note

• This speaks of the man’s profound love for the woman.
• It represents the virtue of the binding of the male member.
• Vaginal spasm is born here.
• It is the supreme sacrifice of love.
• This patakí explains why the salmon, which lives in the sea, goes to spawn in the river.
• It also tells how the drone fertilizes the queen of the hive and dies in the sexual act, since its reproductive organ tears away along with its intestines.

Story

Eya Areni (the salmon) and Agbon Oko (the drone of the hive) were close friends, and both were expert seducers. The first was in love with Oroyori Oshún, who lived shut inside a mother-of-pearl shell at the mouth of the river, while the second was in love with Agbon Ayaba, the queen of the hive. Oroyori Oshún required sandbanks in order to give her love in her realm, Odo, while Agbon Ayaba asked for a crown of wax.

The two desperate lovers went to see Orunmila. On seeing them, Orunmila read them Ifá Okana She (the man enslaves himself for love) and told them they had to perform an ebbó, for otherwise they would be enslaved by love and sacrificed for the sake of survival. Both agreed to do the ebbó so they could win the love of their respective women. Eya Areni performed the ebbó in full, but Agbon Oko, being so disobedient and lazy, did not complete it.

Each lover presented himself before his beloved, bearing his gifts. Oroyori Oshún, seeing that Eya Areni had brought her what she so desired, fell in love with him and let herself be carried to the mouth of the river, where they gave themselves to the pleasures of love and where she decided to stay and live. From then on, Eya Areni had to go every year to make love to her in the depths of the river where its waters were born. But the sacrifice of love came at a price: Eya Areni, though he had achieved his goal, was left enslaved by Oroyori Oshún and Agbon Oko, and in the end he died, sacrificed for love.

Note

For the awó to obtain the power of dissuasion over women, an Ozain is prepared and placed beside Oshún. To prepare it, one takes: a piece of virgin wax, which is set to eat with Orunmila in the adie meyi dun dun; it is then boiled while the suyere of this Ifá is sung.

When bees appear — as they always do when this work is performed — three of those bees are taken. Into the mother-of-pearl shell go: eku, eya, epo, ori, efun, kola, Oshún ologbo, obi motiwao, leri de eya, arari okun, areni (salmon), oti, and the two leri of Orunmila’s adie. It is covered with the piece of honeycomb that was boiled. This eats together with Oshún and lives at her side. In this Ifá the secret of Oshún miwa ile koseha ile bombo is prepared, which is the wooden image of la caridad del cobre that eats with Oshún and Orunmila. The sand of the river was born here.

The Birth of the Basket

Story

Along a road there lived a man who made baskets for a living, but they did not sell because people did not know what they were for. People saw them but did not buy them, and so the basket-maker was in a bad financial situation. Seeing that things grew worse by the day, he decided to go to Orunmila’s house. Orunmila consulted him and saw that his business was in trouble, so he advised him to perform an ebbó so that the world would come to know his product and his luck would change.

The man, desperate, did the ebbó, and when Orunmila finished, he asked Elegbá to help him get his business going. They arrived at the house and Elegbá set out many baskets on the ground. When people passed by with their errands, Elegbá would tell them: «Put your goods in here and you will see how well you can carry them.» In this way the baskets became known, and more and more people bought them, until the day came when the man grew rich thanks to Orunmila and Elegbá.

: Elegbá must be received.

The Bee and the Wasp (Bad Advice)

In a certain region there was a hive of bees who worked diligently and enjoyed a state of peace and tranquility thanks to their industriousness and perseverance. A wasp also lived in the area — one who did no work and was forever minding other people’s lives. One day, while the bee was busy with her tasks, she came across the wasp, who was waiting for a chance to disturb the peace of the community. The wasp said to the bee: «You look like a slave; you spend your whole life working.»

«When you are not gathering nectar from the flowers to build your house, you are feeding your children. I, on the other hand, do not work and do not trouble myself with building a house. I advise you to leave that life of slavery and labor, and come with me to enjoy the good things in life.» The bee fell into thought, for it was true that she spent her life working to provide for her home and care for her children.

The wasp had planted doubt in her, and she considered living like the wasp, without worries or work. But before making a decision, she asked the wasp: «Dear friend, I would like to ask you something. Before I decide to live as you do — what do you eat? How do you build your home? How do you protect your children in winter?»

The wasp replied: «I eat whatever I find along the way. I make my house of mud and clay, hang it from any stick, and do not worry about winter. My house always falls in the strong wind, and most of the time my children perish because I store no food for the winter. But I feel happy living this way, and I wish you would live as I do, for it pains me to see you work every day without rest.»

The bee thought over the wasp’s proposal and realized that if she followed her advice, she would lose her home and her children. Then she said to the wasp: «Dear friend, I feel sorry for you, because I see you have no safe home for your children. It is true that I work all day, but I have food all year round, my children do not die, and the strong wind does not knock down my house. That is why I am happy, and I thank you for clearing away my doubts about my life and teaching me to tell good advice from bad.»

Note

• The person who carries this sign always lives in fear of losing their home, their children, or their stability.
• Give two adie to Oshún together with Orunmila.