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Know the History Why should the Iyawó visit the river and pick up an otá?

Iyawó religion

In Oyekun Ika's Oddún It is where the Iyawó ceremony is born in the river and why you must go to collect a stone (otá) among the sacred sweet waters of Oshún.

Close to being consecrated in the Rule of Osha-Ifá, the "visit to the river" is the first ceremony that the Iyawó attends.

It is the Iyawó the newly initiated priest in the Yoruba religion, that religious who decides to initiate and consecrate himself in the Osha-Ifá Rule, either for health, protection or gratitude.

"Become a saint" As it is usually known, it is a new way of life and spiritual growth, it is to purify the bad, to be born again under the protection of the Orishas, ​​the deities of the Yoruba pantheon and their God Olodumare.

What is the significance of this sacred ceremony at Osha?

The act of taking the Iyawó to the river in the Osha-Ifá religion represents breaking with the past of that initiate, that is, abandoning their old customs.

It indicates starting a renewed life, the beginning of cycles that open with new perspectives and knowledge.

The stone chosen in the river by the Iyawó symbolizes the spirit of the son of Oshun y orunmila, the same as the story tells, dies in those sacred waters.

In this Yoruba pataki it is related why the river ceremony was born and the Iyawó was taken at its initiation.

Pataki Do you know why the Iyawó must go to the river?

In this story, Igba Omi Odo was the favorite son of Oshún the goddess of love and beauty and his father was the soothsayer Orunmila.

Igba Omi Odo was always in the river, among its sacred waters.

Orunmila one day goes to the river to fetch water to win the war against the water spirit Alesesi and upon arrival she saw her son dead in the river.

The terrified fortune teller arrived home, became Osode (consultation) and got the Ifá de Oyekun Ika where Ebbó should be done.

Orunmila makes ebbó quickly and sends a godson who was from Iyawó to the river to fetch water for him and remove the head of his son Igba Omi Odo.

When the Iyawó reached the river to stick his head out, he put his hand in and what he took from the bottom was a stone (Otán).

Then he goes and gives it to Orunmila, he takes an Igba (gourd) and throws the stone inside.

As a souvenir of his son, he keeps that stone in the gourd and adorns it with Eleke ni Gbogbo Orisha (necklaces of all the Orishas) and a bracelet (koide).

From that day on, the Iyawó must go to the river with a jicarita to find the stone of secret, which is the spirit of Igba Omi Odo, the son of Oshún and Orunmila.

A beautiful story that reminds us the meaning of this sacred step in the consecration to Osha.

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