Magical Calabash - Gourd Anthology of Sacred Wisdom from The Ancestral Mothers And Magic Inside It We Add Ingredients To Direct Our Intentions To That Which We Want To Birth To Life...
The ban against looking at Odu’s face is an allusion to the prohibition against looking into the Igbadu of the Babalawo. The Igbadu is the “Odu pot,” the Calabash that every Ile or lineage must have and some Babalawo have. In Odu Ose Oyeku we find the story of how Odu, Iya Agba (the respectable and elderly woman), gets the Igbadu. Having aged, Odu’s mind was getting confused, so she placed her power in Igbadu (Igba Odu), a calabash containing four smaller calabashes given to her by her four “council members” Obatala, Obaluaiye, Ogun and Odua. Each smaller calabash contains the force of these Orisa. Efun (white chalk) for Obatala = Osun (red camwood dust) for Obaluaiye = Eedu (charcoal) for Ogun = Eere (mud) for Odua. These four represent the four corners of the earth contained in the Calabash. Igbadu is the house of Odu. One may not enter this house without rubbing one’s eyes with Omi ero composed of Odundun, tete, and Rinrin leaves, shea butter (OrΓ) and the water from the shell of a snail. An initiation into the Orunmila cult, before entering the sacred forest, the initiate must first adore Odu, Orunmila’s wife in Igbadu. Otherwise, Orunmila will not listen to him, and will not even know that this Awo is his child.
This house has become Sphere-Box containing a Calabash (Her Body) which contains in turn the four Calabashes given to Her on that occasion by the four advisers. Obatala gives a Calabash of Chalk (Efun) - Obaluaye offers his favorite substance Camwood (Osun) - Ogun offers Charcoal (Eedu) - Oduduwa offers Mud (Eere). These gifts imply four roads, four corners of the Universe. They are the original four major signs. From one of them will be "born" another first principle, as once Odu from the Python's Egg.
Egg Symbol of The Soul & Life (Ofun Meji)
Spiritual Egg, Divine Spirit stands before primordial matter and from their union springs the great Soul of the World. Often connected with the Spiritual Egg is the idea of a sacred Bird that drops the Egg into the waters of space or chaos.
Universal Symbol: The Egg was incorporated as a sacred sign in the cosmogony of every people on the Earth and was revered both on account of its form and its inner mystery. From the earliest mental conceptions of Man, it was known as that which represented most successfully the origin and secret of being. The human Egg is the Female reproductive element. The Egg contains within itself all the essentials for development, leaving the sperm the role of activating an already prepared system.
!!! The struggle for dominance between Male and Female that is a central component of life on earth is repeated over and over in the world. Central to this struggle is Man’s acknowledgement of Women’s superior spiritual power that cannot be taken from them, that is based in Women’s ability to create life. The Vagina is the 3rd dimensional portal to Mother Earth. For all souls to have a physical experience here on this planet, they must come through her divine portal. It is no wonder that she is considered the “Gate of Heaven.” The Calabash (Igba) as symbol for the Womb… Because of her shape, Calabash (Igba) also symbolizes the "Womb". In both the sense of the Female reproductive organ as well as in a broader creative sense.
The Calabash (Igba) shape is taken to represent Heaven and Earth with an extended meaning representing the entire Universe. Within the Calabash (Igba) there is a mystical zone in the form of an alternate universe or the entrance to another world, and Orisha - Vodun - Spirit immortals and practitioners can travel between these two worlds. The "marriage" of these two substances was a sexual metaphor for the union of semen and menstrual blood to create life.
The top half signifies Maleness as well as the sky/heaven--the realm of invisible spirits. The bottom half represents Femaleness and the primeval waters out of which the physical world was later created. A mysterious power called Ase is thought to hold the Calabash in space, enabling the sun and moon to shine, wind to blow, fire to burn, rain to fall, rivers to flow, and both living and nonliving things to exist. The more widely known aspect of Mother is as the elderly Women who keep the Calabash that has the bird. It is the Calabash of existence itself. It is believed these Women organize at night and transform into birds and go out and engage in maleficent acts. Odu Ologboje is the one who received the power over the world in the Calabash, the power itself symbolized by the bird.
(((The most important function of the world are handed over to the Women. The world is not balanced because Men are controlling. Once Women take charge, many things will be in order. Creation of human is in the hands of Women. Breastfeeding, nurturing and all-important aspect of what makes us human are handed over to Women.)))
!!! The Calabash (Igba) of Secrets: Tells one of the legends of Yansan, Sango’s first wife, would have gone to a neighboring kingdom to collect 3 Calabashes that was with Obaluaye. She was told not to open these Calabashes which she should bring back to Sango. Yansan went and there Obaluaye recommended once again not to let the Calabashes fall and break and if this happened, that she wouldn't look and leave. Yansan was very rushed and couldn't stand to hold the secret anymore. A little further ahead broke the first Calabash, disrespecting the will of Obaluaye. The winds that took her to heaven came out from inside the Calabash. When the winds ended, Yansan came back and broke the second Calabash. From the second Calabash came out the Egun. Instead of the third Sango Calabash came and caught for himself, which was the Calabash of fire, of the rays.
The circle is also important in that it is a representation of the Calabash (Igba), and the Calabash is considered a container for items, both sacred and profane, but importantly is a symbol used when explaining the Universe, which is considered to be a Calabash. In that role, the Universe is cut in half with the upper half representing Orun (Heaven) and the lower half representing Earth or the “known” Universe (Aiye). This plays directly into our diagram of circle with two intersecting lines, the horizontal representing the differentiation between Heaven and Earth and subsequently life and death. While as a whole, our personal trajectories are on the outer circle, the intersecting vertical line, in Ifa, is a representation of our breaking of the boundary between Heaven and Earth in order to commune/communicate with Heaven and seek counsel of the Divine. The center point of two intersecting lines representing the present moment in which the divination occurs where the two worlds are for an instant brought together.
Oriki – Prayer!!! Odu the one with lead spear marks beautify the Leopard's face - The Leopard (Ekun) whose body is full of smallpox like marks spirit - Wife of my lord the deity that blesses her child - One who allows secret never to leak out it is through the back head that you drink blood it through the face that you eat snail - One who rejects palm oil and does not take it - One who abhors pepper and eat it not - One who rejects palm kernel oil and never taste it - One who use shea butter to prepare soup. Mother, with whom one enter into covenant so that one will not die.
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