If you haven't understand what Ori is, then you should read this

Ori is a person's anatomical head which contains the brain. However IFA teaches that inside this physical head and apart from brain there resided another entity, a psychic impalpable force, that detertmines the individual's fortune in life.




Ori is cognate with the European concept of destiny except that with ori there is a factor of personal responsibility influencing the net effect. Ipin ( a person's lot) Iponri (individual choice) Ayanmo (Allotment) Eleda( creative influence) are alternative names for Ori, describing various facets of this intriguing concept. For this reason it is not surprising that English equivalents offered by writers on the subject also vary in emphasis or nuance..


Lucas calls Ori "The owner of Lord of the Head", " The Spirit which brings Good Fortune", Fagbenro Bayioku calls it "The Real Ego", Idowu prefers " The Essence of Personality ", The Ego", " The inner Person ".


Borrowing from Christian terminology, Ibie refers to Ori as " Our Guardian Angel" but his other phrase "the principal architect of our fortune both in heaven and earth" more accurately reflects the concept as expounded in IFA. Ifa's version is that using clay and material, Ajala the heavenly potter moulds the anatomical head and fires it to produce different sizes and finish. Orisa-Nla provides each finished head with a particular blessing the quality of which is not commensurate with the sizes or finish of the head.


Each individual makes his own choice of Ori in heaven before coming to earth. Now, if greed inclines a creature to choose a big highly finished head he may, in fact, posses very little by a way of blessings compared with a humble man who chooses a small roughly finished.


Here is an Ifa stanza from otura meji in support of the above:

"Every being sent by the Omnipotent to earth must go before Orisa-Nla to choose the blessings he desires with this condition that hr cannot choose more than one blessing. Whatever a man's preference ----- be it wealth, wives, progeny or property ----- the choice is free and unlimited except by the protocol of one kind of blessing to one man, no more.
"That is why, on earth, one who is wealthy may not have children; he who has children may lack money ; he who lives long may not receive honors and so on and so forth".

What a man becomes on earth is said to be direct result of his choice of Ori in heaven:


Akunleyan ni adaye ba,
A dele aye oju npon ni
Translation:
Our destiny choice
Determines our earthly life,
A wrong choice above
Results in suffering below

According to Ifa's teaching the participation by Orunmila as God's vice-gerent or Eleri Ipin ( Witness of Man's Choice of Ori at the beginning of an individual's existence) endoes Orunmila with the knowledge of that individual's Ori. Now, man is held to have forgotten his true choice of Ori and may behave on earth contrary to that Ori. As a result his life becomes a failure. If on the other hand the acts in consonance with that choice endeavor on earth is crowned with success.


Sacrifice then,is believed to propitiate " a bad Ori" or alternatively to help the individual attune himself to his true Ori. This is the underlying idea behind the many recommendation by Ifa to querents to offer sacrifice to their Ori (Ki won bo Ori). So deeply rooted is the concept of Ori in Yoruba psyche that every aspect of life is seen as the theater of Ori's operation.
A man who has  had a lucky escape would say:
Ori mi lo yo mi ( My Ori saved me)


One preparing for a difficult undertaking would pray:
Ori mi gbe mi o! (May my ori assist me and see me through).


In effect, while offering an explanation of the inequalities of life in the Yoruba concept of ori at the same time provides a remedial option for unfortunate. In this way, it instills hope and optimism without minimizing the role of contingent necessity.


Source: Odun IFA (IFA festival) pg: 221-226 by: Dr. Abosede Emmanuel.