Ori
Yoruba · deity · primordial · deity
The registry had no Ori, which for a Yoruba corpus is the largest single omission available. Ori is your own head, and it is a god — the one you feed, the one you consult, the one whose agreement you are living out. The doctrine is precise: before birth the soul kneels in front of Olodumare and chooses its destiny, and then crosses into the world and forgets. Everything else in the tradition, divination especially, is machinery for finding out what you picked. There is a standing Yoruba observation that a person's Ori matters more than any other orisha, because the others can be petitioned and this one is already inside the argument.
Domains
- destiny
- personhood
Powers
- to be chosen, kneeling, before birth — and then not remembered
Relations
- subordinate to: Olodumare
Sources
- Reference treatments of Orí, of ori inu and of Yoruba destiny doctrine.