What Some Ifa Verses Say About ORI

E lee mo bi olori gbe yanri O
E ba lee yan teyin
ibi kannaa la gbe yanri O
Kadara a papo ne…

You said had it been
you knew where Afuape
got his Ori
You could have gone there for yours.
We all got our Ori at Ajala’s domain.
Only our destinies differ.

Destiny itself can actually be divided into three parts: Akunleyan, Akunlegba, and Ayanmo. Akunleyan is the request you make at Ajala’s domain – what you would like in specific during your lifetime on Earth: the number of years you wish to spend on Earth, the kinds of success you hope to achieve, the kinds of relationships you desire. Akunlegba are those things given to an individual to help achieve these desires. For example, a child who wishes to die in infancy may be born during an epidemic to assure his or her departure. Both Akunleyan and Akunlegba can be altered or modified either for good or for bad, depending on circumstance. Sacrifice and ritual can help to improve unfavorable conditions that may have resulted from unforeseen evil machinations such as witchcraft, sorcery, or magic. Ayanmo is that part of our destiny that cannot be changed: our gender or the family we are born into, for example.

In many respects, Ori may be the most important deity in the influence of one’s life. Although it would seem that everyone would choose wealth and success for their destiny, such is not the case. The reason can be found in the fact that in Ifa, material success and accomplishment, though pleasant and encouraged, are not the yardsticks of existence. That yardstick is Ori-inu, or character, and the ways of showing strong character are often not by traveling the easy path. Also, if an individual’s character is bad, his or her choice of destiny may not be fulfilled. In the sacred Odu Ogbeogunda, Ifa says,
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