Okana She

Eya Areni (the salmon) and Agbon Oko (the drone of the hive) were close friends, and both of them great chasers of women: the first was longing with love for Oroyori Oshún, who lived shut inside a mother-of-pearl shell at the mouth of the river, and the second for Agbon Ayaba, who was the queen of the hive. Oroyori Oshún needed and asked, in return for her love, that sandbanks be brought to her kingdom — the river — where she could take her ease; and the second, Agbon Ayaba, asked for her crown of wax. Both suitors, desperate, went to see Orunmila, who on seeing this Ifá for them said: «Okana She — a man makes himself a slave for love. You have to make ebbó, because otherwise you will find yourselves slaves to love, and it will sacrifice you for the sake of survival». They agreed to make the ebbó so as to win the affection of their women: Eya Areni made the ebbó, but Agbon Oko, being so unruly and lazy, did not make it in full.

Each of them came before his beloved with his gifts: Oroyori, seeing that Eya Areni had brought her what she wanted, fell in love with him and let herself be led up the river, where on the sandbanks Eya Areni had brought she gave herself to the pleasures of love, and stayed there to live — leaving Eya Areni to go every year and make love to her in the depths of the river, where his own are born. The sacrifice of love: because Eya Areni, though he won what he wanted, was left enslaved to Oroyori Oshún; and Agbon Oko died sacrificed for love — he fertilized the queen and died, since during sex his reproductive organ comes away with his intestines. Here the sand of the river was born, and vaginal spasm — the supreme sacrifice of love — and why the salmon lives in the sea and goes to the river to spawn. Note: here the Osanyin of the mother-of-pearl is prepared, which gives the Awó the power to persuade a woman, and the secret of Oshún Miwa Ilé Bombó.

On this road there was a man who made baskets, and they would not sell, because nobody knew what use they could be put to. Because of that, people saw them but did not buy them, and so the maker was in a very bad way; and seeing it got worse every day, he went to Orunmila's house. Orunmila read for him and saw this Ifá, and told him his business was going badly, and that because of that he had to make ebbó so the world would know it and his luck would change.

So the man, desperate as he was, made the ebbó, and when Orunmila was done, he told Elegba to go with him to help him get his business going. When they reached the house, Elegba put a great many baskets on the ground, and when people came by with their errands, he said to them: «Put your errands in here and see how well you carry them». And that was how he got the baskets into use, until everyone began to know them — and the day came when the man found himself rich, thanks to Orunmila and Elegba. Note: Elegba has to be received.

In one region there lived a bee with her hive, in a state of peace and quiet thanks to her hard work and her steadiness in her work and her ways. In that area there also lived the wasp, who did not work and lived watching everyone else's life. On one occasion when the bee was going about her business, she met the wasp, who was waiting for a chance to try to destroy the peace and quiet the bee lived in with her community. She said to the bee: «You look like a slave: you spend your life working, and when you are not gathering from flowers to build your house, you are feeding your children. I, on the other hand, do not work and do not worry about building my house. My advice to you is to leave that life of slavery and work, and come with me and enjoy the good things in life». The bee was left thinking, since it was true that she spent her life working, keeping up her house and looking after her children: the wasp had planted a doubt in her, to the point that she thought of living like the wasp, without worry or work.

But before taking the step, she asked the wasp: «Dear friend, I would like to ask you something before I decide to live as you do: what do you eat? How do you build your house? And winter — how do you get through it and protect your children?». The wasp answered her: «I eat what I find along the way; I make my house out of mud and clay and hang it from any stick; and winter does not worry me: my house always falls down, the strong wind always blows it over, and in most cases my children die, since I do not store food for the winter. But I feel happy living as I do, and I wish you would live like me, since it pains me to see you working every day without rest». The bee thought it over: «If I take the wasp's advice, I lose my house and my children», and she said: «Dear friend, I feel for you, because I see you have no house and no security for your children. It is true I work all day, but I have food all year, my children do not die and the strong wind does not blow my house down: for that I feel happy, and I thank you for taking away my doubts about my life, and for teaching me how to tell good advice from bad». Note: whoever has this sign always lives in fear of losing their home, their children or their stability. Give two adié to Oshún along with Orunmila.