ODUDUWA – THE OWNER OF THE BLACK WOMB
Oduduwa means the Black One. In the name Oduduwa, we have:
“O”- Ownership
“Dudu”- Black
In Ifa, there are 16 Major Odu. From those 16 Major Odu we can derive 256 combinations. That’s what will usually come up when you get a reading. But Odus can also be used for ritual work. An Odu is actually a chakra point for the universe. It is a portal of reality. The word Odu means womb. So, Oduduwa is the owner of the black womb.
Why would the owner of the black womb be all powerful? In answering this question, it should clear up the debate of whether Oduduwa is male or female. Keep in mind that none of these energies walked the planet. So, they’re not male or female in the sense that we imply male or female. They are male or female in terms of how their energy interoperates with one another. So, Oduduwa being female is a magnetic energy because a womb draws into it everything that it needs and it transforms it.
In some systems, Oduduwa is the Black Woman. She is also called Iya Ogbe. What is Iya Ogbe? It is the Mother who receives. It is a womb and earth energy, and clearly a female energy. The female energy is receptive, while male energy is expansive.
This energy is oftentimes mated with Obatala, King of the White Cloth. So you have the King of the White Cloth mated with the Black One. Metaphorically this is explaining, expansive energy and receptive energy, or electric energy and magnetic energy, or yang energy and yin energy. Through this mating we have evolution that occurs.
Oduduwa being the Black One, Iya Ogbe, most times in Yoruba tradition it’s syncretized with the earth. We also have Obatal syncretized with the air. The marriage, or the connection, between the them is the marriage between the sky and the earth. This is illustrated in many other traditions, particularly in the Kemetic tradition. The marriage between the sky and the earth was originally depicted through the calabash. It is said in Yoruba mythology that she and Obatala lived inside the same calabash. Obatala lived on the top and Oduduwa lived on the bottom. So, immediately when we see that something is talked about as living on the top, we’re talking about what’s apparent. Something that’s on the bottom is divine. The apparent would be consciousness or the conscious mind, and the divine would be the subconscious mind.
The mythology goes on to say that Obatala and Oduduwa were in the calabash together, they had an argument, and Obatala got tired of hearing Oduduwa complain that he ripped out her eyes. So to this day, she is blind. She was so mad that she cursed Obatala and said that from now on you’re only going to eat snails. This is why we bring snails to Obatala for adimu. Again, remember that these things didn’t actually happen. We had to develop these systems of anthropomorphisizing and adding stories to every function in life so that we could understand them with our flesh brain and to wake back up to our genius selves.
So, Oduduwa is blind, living in the dark and Obatala eats snails. What’s the significance of a snail? If you look at the shell, it is spiraled. The word spiral is synonymous with spirit. A spiral also represents how energy moves. A spiral is also DNA. So these energies are dealing with these things.
The relationship between Oduduwa and Obatala is one of transformation and enlightenment. She is the transforming energy that lives in the dark, the blind one.
Obatala is the enlightening energy that evolves your DNA through the movement of energy. That’s why Obatala is on top expanding, and Oduduwa is on the bottom receiving the light and seed information from Obatala in order to evolve things further.
The full broadcast can be heard at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/enlightenmentandtransformation/2012/08/20/oduduwa-part-2
