APPEASEMENT OF OUR HEADS IN YORUBA LAND BY OLALEKAN ODUNTAN

PRIEST LUKUMON ADESANYA

In Yoruba tradition, there is a deity that is always appeased almost on daily basis and that deity is called Ori (the Head). It is believed that the head is the bringer of both good luck and bad luck. And whatever someone will become in life, it is the head that would sanction it to be accomplished. Once upon a time, some people visited Orunmila at his shrine. Their mission was to know whether God existed or not. And they wanted Orunmila to show them where God was.

THE APPEASED HEAD

 Orunmila divined and told them that the birds cannot fly without their heads, that the fishes sleep and wake up in the seas with their heads, that the animals sleep and wake up in the jungle with their heads, that the man that sleeps at night and hears the cock crow in the morning before waking up is said to be woken up by God. Orunmila said that the head of man is his God. Man cannot exist without his head likewise some other species of God. Our heads must be appeased at all times to pave ways for us in all our undertakings. The corpus of Ifa responsible for appeasing the head is ODI MEJI. Before appeasing the head, an Ifa priest is consulted to know the appropriate step and things to use. Most of the time catfish or guinea fowl is killed for the appeasement with other things like water, kolanut and schnapps.

ODI MEJI

And everything is always conducted by the Ifa priest. The night that the head is appeased is always special for whom it is done as all the problems will be a thing of the past.