Awon Ari igba nla mu oti Awo ile Alara.
The people that use the big calabash to take alcohol [to drink wine] are the priests of Alara.
I do not want to talk about the taking of alcohol, nor do I want to talk about the longevity of life aspect in this Odu. What I want us to examine and consider together is the aspect of being patient.
Jee Jee Aruku, ma binu da ifa re nu mo oo
Jee Jee Aruku, owo ti Awo ma ni o nbo lo na
Jee Jee Aruku.
Jeejee Aruku, be patient. Do not not throw your Ifá away [because of your impatience and your thinking that the expected promise prosperity is never going to arrive]. Your money [great fortune] is on the way!
In this Odu-Ifá, Jeejee Aruku was going through difficulties and hardship. He went around to consult various babalawos. He was asked, encouraged and advised to go and initiate into Ifá.
He looked for all possible means to get initiated into Ifá. He put all is hope in Ifá believing he will become rich after his initiation into Ifá.
Days passed and no changes.
Months passed and no changes.
Years passed and no changes.
He was fed up, he lost hope and no longer had any interest in Ifá. He was even angry that his babalawo told him to always pour dry gin on his Ifá. He was told that his Ikin Ifá must never be dry.
He said that what pained him most wasn’t what he felt was the wasted time he used in feeding his Ifá but the money he used, invested, wasted and lost by initiating into Ifá, as well as the money he used to always observe Ose-Ifá. Even when he had little money or no money to feed himself he made sure that he offered Ifá at the very least some kolanut and dry gin.
He got sad, angry, disappointed and discouraged and said that if this Ifá was still in his house that would mean that he would still be obligated and expected to feed it. He had lost his confidence and felt that he wasn’t going to use anymore of his little resources to attend and feed his Ifá, especially since it seemed that he wasn’t receiving any benefits from Ifá and from the service he was rendering, so he decided to go and throw the Ifá away.
On his way to the river where he wanted to throw his Ifá away, he heard a bird calling his name repeatedly and warned him not to throw his Ikin Ifá away. Carefully he listened and he discovered the voice of the bird resembled his mom's voice.
He changed his decision and went home. He decided to be patient with his Ifá. After a fews days after he became exceedingly rich!
What this Odu-Ifá is saying is that we should be patient. Initiation into Ifá is not a money ritual. We should know that we all have different destiny.
Someone may initiate into Ifá today and become rich tomorrow while another person may initiate into Ifá today and may not see any changes until the passing of months or years.
I think we babalawos should educate people about initiation into Ifá. We should let them know Ifá initiation is not a money ritual.
Some babalawo will tell their clients that Ifá initiation works like a money ritual. Some babalawo out of greed and avarice will even claim and tell the client that Ifá initiation is more efficacious for the obtaining of money and riches than a money ritual because these greedy, dishonest and avaricious babalawo are only thinking about the initiation money they want to collect from their clients.
This is one of many reasons why people loose interest in Ifá because they will have put all their hope in Ifá due to what their babalawo told them, and they will be expecting the result immediately like having the initiation into Ifá today and getting rich tomorrow. This is the reason why you see clients turning their backs to babalawos and abandoning their Ifá. Some will even return their Ifá back to the babalawo who initiated them and call him a fraudster.
All I know is that,
“A ba ni wa owo ni oruko ti a npe Ifá.”
“Ifá is the one that provide money for us [in an amazing and miraculous way if we are patient].
Ifá helps us to become prosperous and rich in a way that is not seen and cannot be seen through a money ritual.
Ifá initiation is more productive, much more better and supremely more beneficial than a money ritual.
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