Ogbe Rete

Ogbe Ate, whom they knew in heaven as Abaketekete, was a very famous awo. His greatest work was healing Ola Aje, who embodies prosperity. Ola Aje's many enemies turned into mice at night and bit him while he slept. All the awo of heaven knew the case and had tried, but the harder they worked, the worse the patient became. In his house there were three rooms with doors secured by bolts. In the first waited the messenger of Death, armed with a club to kill whoever entered. In the second lived Ogogohiahia, an agent of the deity of witchcraft, able to swallow anyone who dared to go in. The third held all the gifts of prosperity, enough to enrich whoever entered it.

Each awo who came to cure him was told to knock, as payment, on one of those three doors. Almost all chose the wrong ones and never came out again. When no awo were left, it was Ogbe Ate's turn. Ola Aje sent messengers to tell him that he was gravely ill and needed him.

On receiving the news, Ogbe Ate called Uroke Mi Lawo Ligorin and Uroke Mi Lawo Leturuye, his two favorite helpers, to consult Ifá for him. His own sign, Ogbe Ate, came out. They prescribed an ebbó for Eshu with a billy goat, and told him to gather what was needed for a special preparation for the journey. The ebbó was made and a special bath soap was prepared. They explained that Ola Aje's affliction came from his own house and that, if he bathed with that soap, he would see in dreams the identity of the guilty ones.

With the soap, Abaketekete traveled to answer the invitation. He found Ola Aje very ill, washed him with the soap and handed him a white cloth to cover himself with in order to sleep. That night Ola Aje dreamed that one of his wives turned into a mouse and slipped into his room. At once a cat appeared from the soap dish, chased the mouse and killed it. Then his favorite servant turned into an enormous rat and came in too, and the cat caught it. One after another, six members of the household took the form of rats to go and bite him, and the cat finished off each one. Ola Aje was able to sleep peacefully until the next day.

Then he thanked the awo for having cured him. The two were rejoicing when the sound of crying came from the women's quarters: five wives and the favorite servant would not wake up. Only Ola Aje and the awo knew the cause of the mysterious death of the conspirators. The bodies were taken far away and buried later. After seven days Ola Aje was fully recovered, and the awo was still at his side.

That same day the awo asked leave to return to his home. As a sign of gratitude, Ola Aje proposed that he open any of the three doors of his treasury and take whatever he found. As he approached one, Eshu took the form of a youth and offered him water. The young man warned him not to enter the first two rooms; to knock on the doors and, when three gongs sounded, to greet the occupants and say he was only passing through. He added that the good things were in the third, and left.

Abaketekete followed those instructions. But on reaching the third door he was overcome with indignation at the ingratitude he saw in Ola Aje, and thought that without Eshu's help he would be dead. Instead of opening it, he resolved to stir up heaven so that God would step in and judge whether Ola Aje acted in good or bad faith. He began to sing. Just then, from inside the third room, a child who was waiting to be born through Abaketekete spoke. He shouted the name Alakpejio and the child answered. Then he changed the melody and spoke to the child with another song. Next he knocked on the third door and a voice from inside told him to open. When he did, a child ran out to hug him with a crown in his hand, handed it to him and asked him to put it on.

Ola Aje watched it all and acknowledged Abaketekete's merit in having chosen the right door. Even so, as soon as the awo stepped into the room, he cast a spell and the door slammed shut, leaving him a prisoner. After three days his guardian angel spoke to him: he must be patient, for perseverance brings prosperity.

Ola Aje wanted to test him one last time. He promised to let him go with all the wealth of the room if he could present a pigeon, a duck and a ram. At that moment Eshu tied the bones of the three animals to a rope and blew the rope against the wall; the wall opened to let it through, and once inside the bones came back to life. Abaketekete told Ola Aje that if he opened the door he would see the animals. Ola Aje opened it and pulled the rope to bring them out. Then he freed the awo to go with all the wealth of the room. The child said he would catch up with him when he arrived home.

Abaketekete returned to his home amid great joy. His wife became pregnant the following month and had a boy, who was named Alakpeji Adeyemi.

When this odu appears in a consultation, the person is advised to be careful whom she or he is generous to, since the person could lose life through the ingratitude of the one who benefits.

Olokun, deity of the water, was about to be born into the world and went to consult Ogbe Ate. Ogbe Ate ordered him to offer snails in great quantity, cowries and eggshell powder, and to give a cat to Eshu. He announced a large offspring on earth, but said that without a sacrifice he would lose those children through the deceit and falseness of the world.

Olokun carried out the sacrifices, but forgot to attend to Eshu. When he arrived in the world he had countless children: the fish of the sea. Eshu then invited people to eat of them. Seeing his children dwindle, Olokun went to consult again. His fault was revealed to him: he had not made the sacrifice to Eshu before leaving heaven. He had to serve Eshu with a cat and a billy goat, and add another sacrifice.

After this, Eshu covered the bodies of those children with a thick liquid made of gold, which made them very hard to hold with the hands. That is why fish are slippery. The children were ordered to stay in the paternal house, so that their father's many enemies would not reach them. That is why fish do not leave the water: in their father's house, no animal can grab them.

If this path comes out in a consultation, the person must offer a similar sacrifice, so that the wickedness of people does not take his or her children away.

Ogbe Ate was offered the crown of the land of the fish and the rats, but he turned it down, since he used those animals to serve his Ifá. Nor did he accept ruling another country where people ate without washing their hands. In the end he came to a place called Ibere Aiye.

He stayed quiet for five days. In that time, thanks to his medicine, he learned that the sovereign's son was sick. On the sixth day he divined for the king and ordered him to sacrifice the three chiefs of the court's sorcerer doctors, descendants of those cruel witches who fled from heaven. The king came back from the last sacrifice and found his son cured; he embraced him.

Ogbe Ate wanted neither lands nor prizes. He demanded only to be left free to attend to people outside the court, and that the king bend his knees before every shrine of Orunmila. That is why, to this day, the Obá of Benin presses his forehead to the ground when he comes upon a shrine of Orunmila, and also why he hardly visits homes. In this way Ogbe Ate carried the worship of Orunmila to the whole kingdom.