Òdí Meji (Odi)

1 = single line (I); 2 = double line (II). Eight marks: the first four are the right-hand leg, the last four the left-hand leg, each read top to bottom. In the 0/1 notation used in the scholarly literature, 1 here = 0 there and 2 here = 1 there.

The commentary prescribes ẹbọ to Èṣù for protection from illness for the whole family, ẹbọ for a stable relationship, and ẹbọ to recover an independence the person has lost; it also says the person should receive Ògún for protection, on the reasoning that Yemọja is the mother of Ògún and the source of his strength. The odù is one of the ones that brings children, so the prescriptions cluster around pregnancy, household health and the repair of a marriage.

Òdí is the fourth odù and the completion of the first four, which the tradition reads as the four corner-points of the universe: Ọ̀gbẹ̀ birth, Ọ̀yẹ̀kú death, Ìwòrì transformation, Òdí rebirth. It is the womb, and it is fertility, motherhood and childbirth, with the doubled sense that a womb is also a bounded space — so the odù speaks of restriction and limit as well as of increase. It brings a child, often a daughter, long life and Ifá's protection, and it warns of unresolved matter carried over from the past. Its characteristic instruction is to keep the feet on the ground and to use the voice — the odù's people are persuasive, and their success in a dispute comes from speaking well and truthfully.