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 an amulu the two halves are different figures. In the 0/1 notation used in the scholarly literature, 1 here = 0 there and 2 here = 1 there.
Themes
End of cycleSpiritual disciplineHonestyIndependenceDebtDreams
Verse opening — Ọ̀yẹ̀kú pàbàlà, Ọ̀yẹ̀kú pàlàbà: the verse's invocation of the odù by praise-name before the story is told.
Offerings
The commentary prescribes ẹbọ to avoid the consequences of bad decisions, and ẹbọ to Èṣù so that the person is not the victim of a crime; where the person is in sustained difficulty it says they should receive Ifá. It also advises attention to dreams, on the reasoning that the odù's messages arrive there — a prescription about attention rather than about materials.
Meaning
Ọ̀yẹ̀kú-Ọ̀bàrà is the end of a cycle arriving at transformation — or at egotism, which is the odù's failure mode. It is the combination that asks for spiritual discipline, and its teaching is that a person should not try to be something they are not, should handle their own business rather than delegating it, and should not let themselves be used to do another's bidding. It speaks of honesty, of a debt that the odù offers the chance to avoid repaying, and of the company the person keeps; the commentary's characteristic move is to locate the problem in the person's refusal to be who they are.