I believe we all seek to be happy, to be fulfilled and to live life as the hero in our own journey. This journey is a series of choices, a dance between fortune and misfortune where we embrace the curse and the blessing with equal acceptance. When the flow is good we revel and when the hooks and crooks of the path and the sandbanks in the river entangle us, asking us to stop, rest or make choices a state Ifá calls Òwónrín arises. Òwónrín is a form of internal turbulence, a transformative power, which forces us to make a choice. The more agitated we are in the choice the more we tend to make choices of desire and by consequence some form of misfortune or setback is instigated. It is natural for the human being to immediately looking for scapegoats when we make the wrong choice. Ifá tells us that it is from Òwónrín that the Orìsá Èsú is taking his ase – or power. This means that Èsú is a force we will meet constantly in our journey on earth.
Ifá consider our soul, our consciousness to be a young, beautiful, curious and restless woman and our choices can bring growth and wisdom to our consciousness – or the opposite. The goal is however to mature this young and beautiful woman so the experience of life can be as wonderful as fate intended. Because if the right choices are made we can be sure that our journey will be a happy one, veiled in understanding, experience and growth of knowledge.
The trick is, that for both the good parts of our journey as well as the bad – we are always the author of the steps and waymarks done – we write our own history and in doing this we can master Fate. Ifá tells us about this the following:
Òwónrín’bara
O rí mi. N kò ríi
A dífá fún Owa
Wón ní: ohun ti ´nwá ´nbe nìtòsí eni
Àfi àìmò eni
Òrúnmìlà Elérí Ìpín, ó ní
Ohun ti a ´nwá ´nbe nítòsí eni
Àfi àìmò enì kìí jê ká ríí
Translation:
She sees me, I don’t see her.
(meaning: My consciousness observes me – I do not see Her)
This was the teaching of Ifa for Owa
They said that which we are looking for
Is near us
But we do not recognize it
Orunmila, Witness to Destiny, said:
The very thing we are looking for is near us,
But our lack of knowledge prevents us from
Seeing it.
This odu speaks of using the power of transformation and choice to overcome our self. It is an Odinic task in the proposition – the overcoming of ego that enables us to turn our gaze inward and realize the blessed state of our being and its promise of abundance.
This odu carry several interesting observations, one being that the name of the one having the reading done is called Owa. This name might be a contraction of Owo Iwa – ‘character of abundance’. The verse is stressing that abundance is a trait of our character, that we were born with the prospect of abundance and that we should journey within to retrieve it.
The verse also states that there is little wisdom found in ascribing abundance to ‘ohun’, ‘that place over there’ – meaning, that our abundance is always found elsewhere – we are our own source of abundance and our journey can yet again make us abundant beings – if we at the crossroad of choice, make the right choice.