The colors of Orula: Green and Yellow, the power of life and death

Many are the times that we contemplate on the hands and on the neck of the practitioners of the Rule of Osha-Ifá or Santeria as it is popularly known, necklaces and bracelets of green and yellow beads.

They symbolize the Orisha of the Yoruba Pantheon Orula, the God of divination, who was present at the creation of the earth and knows the destiny of all the inhabitants of the earth.

What do the green and yellow colors of the bracelets mean in Santeria?

This attribute is known as Ildé de Orula, a bracelet that in the form of an amulet has the colors yellow and green interspersed, which must be consecrated only by an Ifá priest «babalawo».

The necklace or eleke also has the same colors, and together with the ildé they are sacred elements in the Rule of Osha-Ifá.

These elements are placed on the day La Mano de Orula is received, in the left hand, with which the person is consecrated within the Yoruba Religion.

Some meanings of these powerful Yoruba elements are:

Wisdom and intelligence because there is no intelligence without wisdom.
Life and death in nature, since when a leaf is green it represents life and when it turns yellowish it symbolizes death itself, the end of a cycle.
The union of both colors represents balance in life.

Yoruba history Why yellow and green for Orula?

The balance between these two colors represents the relationship of body, soul and spirit and protection against the forces of illness and death, since Ildé is the strength that Orula gives her children against any evil.

The bracelet has an important meaning that is included among the most famous Yoruba patakies.

It is said that the Ildé is part of the deal or pact between Orula and death (Ikú), from which it is established that he cannot touch his children until Orula decides that his time has come.

And it is that, at the beginning of the world, humans were collected by Ikú before fulfilling their predestined time on earth without the Orishas being able to do anything to prevent it.

But one day Orunmila was able to get the hammer of death (Iku's tool).

This angry man went to look for him, but with surprise he saw that he could not enter the fortune teller's house and without his tool, he could not do his job.

Thus, in exchange for returning his hammer, the Orisha forced Iku to promise that he would never take his children before his time and to identify them, they would wear a bracelet of yellow and green beads in his hand.

And in this way the deal between Orunmila and Ikú was closed.

What do Orula's colors mean? Yellow and green in balance

This mixture of colors is very significant when it is associated with the forces of the fortune teller Orula.

Meaning of the color green in relation to the Orisha Orula:

Green tends to have a series of positive connotations in the human psyche because it is linked to birth, life, strength and energy. And the fortune teller Orisha is a giver of life and good vibes.
It is a color deeply associated with growth, intelligence and hope. And it is what Orula gives her children, hope and faith in life.

The meaning of yellow:

Yellow is the color of contact, of dedication to intellectual communication that at the same time transmits joy and sympathy.
It is a tone that reflects wisdom, intelligence, mental agility and intellectual faculty, qualities that are balanced in the powerful forces that Orula transmits.
Yellow is also lucidity and love of freedom.
It is even said that when we dress in that color we feel a greater capacity for investigation and we are better at solving problems.