The sixteen meji — the principal odù

The sixteen principal odù are called meji, 'two each', because each is a figure doubled: the same four marks on the right leg and on the left. They are the senior figures of the system and the ones an awo learns first, in a fixed order that is also a seniority: Ọ̀gbẹ̀, Ọ̀yẹ̀kú, Ìwòrì, Òdí, Ìrosùn, Ọ̀wọ́nrín, Ọ̀bàrà, Ọ̀kànràn, Ògúndá, Ọ̀sá, Ìká, Òtúrúpọ̀n, Òtúrá, Ìrẹ̀tẹ̀, Òṣé, Òfún. Everything the tradition says of a principal odù is also said of its 15 children — the àmúlù formed by pairing it with each of the sixteen — which is why the principal odù carry so much more published material than the combinations do.