The Rabbit Hole
All records

26Indigenous

Yoruba Traditions

Olódùmarè as source, with òrìṣà carrying creation in many accounts. Not one written canon.

Architecture

Ayé and òrun, òrìṣà, orí

Open the circuit

Olódùmarè, distinct òrìṣà, ancestors, orí, ayé and òrun. Ifá knows by divination. Diaspora is adjacent, not the same entry.

  1. 01

    Source

    Olódùmarè or Olórun in many accounts. Not a single scripture.

  2. 02

    Ayé and òrun

    Visible and invisible. Not a Meru.

  3. 03

    Òrìṣà and ancestors

    Many persons. Do not merge them.

  4. 04

    Person with orí

    Destiny and relation, not a generic soul-chart.

  5. 05

    The dead as ancestors

    Return in the line is common and not one rule.

Time
Not a world-apocalypse and not a kalpa wheel in this record.
Agents
Òrìṣà, ancestors, the living.
Human slot
To stand in one’s orí and be capable of being remembered.
Break
Destructive agents appear in oral accounts. No single official dualism.

Recorded claims

An evidence label is shown only where the kind of source is already established. No label means unclassified. A label is not a judgment. Source Needed means no source is attached yet. It does not mean the claim is false, weak, or disproven.

  1. Origin / Reality

    Olódùmarè as source, with òrìṣà carrying creation in many accounts. Not one written canon.

    Source Needed

  2. Human Nature

    A person with orí, in relation to òrìṣà and ancestors.

    Source Needed

  3. Death / Afterlife

    Ancestors continue. Details of the land of the dead vary.

    Source Needed

  4. Rebirth

    Return in a lineage is present in many accounts. Not one meaning.

    Source Needed

  5. Other Beings

    Òrìṣà and ancestors. The òrìṣà are not interchangeable.

    Source Needed

  6. Other Realms

    Ayé, the visible world, and òrun, the invisible.

    Source Needed

  7. World Structure / Axis

    A paired cosmos. A single mountain-axis is not the governing image.

    Source Needed

  8. Destruction / Reset

    Not centered on one world-ending apocalypse.

    Source Needed

  9. How Truth Is Known

    Oral tradition, Ifá, ritual, and lineage. Diaspora practices are related and not identical.

    Source Needed
Sources & EvidenceShowNo source is attached yet. Source Needed is a research gap, not a judgment.

The tradition or source

What that source says. Not a scholar’s retelling, and not a SCARCE inference.

None attached.

A modern researcher

What a scholar or other modern writer says about the source. Not the source’s own words.

None attached.

SCARCE

What this project infers or sets beside the records. Not what the source said.

None attached.

Central sources

How we know

Where the evidence comes from, and how far it is from the people it describes. The labels are not a score. They do not rank traditions. A manuscript year, a tradition’s own claim, and a date from the ground are kept apart on the timeline.

There is no ancient Yoruba canon in manuscript. Ifá and other teachings are oral. Extended writing is largely 19th- and 20th-century: missionaries and colonial writers, and Yoruba authors, with diaspora traditions in Cuba and Brazil written down on their own timelines.

The tradition may be much older than the 19th century. The surviving systematic writing is not. An Ifá verse published by an anthropologist is a recorded oral text, not an old book. Lucumí and Candomblé are related transmissions, not the same file as a Nigerian town. No start-date is invented here.

Original evidence → transmission / copy → translation / documentation → modern interpretation

  1. 01

    Original evidence

    Recorded oral tradition

    The primary evidence is oral expertise: diviners, priests, and lineage teaching. It does not have an autograph date.

  2. 02

    Transmission / copy

    Outside account

    Missionary and colonial reports are outside accounts. Practitioner publications and later African scholarship are a different class. Diaspora notebooks are a further transmission after the Atlantic trade.

  3. 03

    Translation / documentation

    Recorded oral tradition

    English, Spanish, and Portuguese renderings of Yoruba ritual language are documentation. They are not the utterance.

  4. 04

    Modern interpretation

    Modern scholarly reconstruction

    A single “Yoruba religion” diagram is a modern simplification. This chart’s cells keep òrìṣà unmerged and flag the diaspora as not identical. That is a limit of the evidence, not a missing paragraph to be guessed.

The twenty-one questions

Asked of every system. Gaps are recorded as gaps. Nothing here is filled in to make a pattern prettier.

  1. 01

    Where are we?

    In ayé, the visible world, in relation to òrun. Lineages do not tell this in one wording.

    Read every system on this question

  2. 02

    What is reality made of?

    Not a substance doctrine. Ayé and òrun, àṣẹ, and the òrìṣà are the working terms, and they are not one metaphysics.

    Read every system on this question

  3. 03

    What is a human being?

    A person with orí — destiny or inner head — among òrìṣà and kin. The parts of the person are not listed the same way in every lineage.

    Read every system on this question

  4. 04

    What is consciousness?

    Not a separated faculty in this record. Orí and destiny are closer to the tradition’s own terms.

    Read every system on this question

  5. 05

    Where did humanity come from?

    Accounts of Obatala, Oduduwa, and others shaping people differ. They are not one authorized text.

    Read every system on this question

  6. 06

    What happens at death?

    The dead can become ancestors who still relate to the living. How that is described is lineage-specific. Diaspora traditions add their own rites.

    Read every system on this question

  7. 07

    Does consciousness return to embodiment?

    Many accounts include return, including into the family line. It is not a single published doctrine with one rule.

    Read every system on this question

  8. 08

    Where is consciousness between lives?

    Òrun is the unseen side, not defined here as a waiting room between lives. Lineages differ.

    Read every system on this question

  9. 09

    Are there nonhuman intelligent beings?

    Yes. Òrìṣà and ancestors. Each òrìṣà has their own stories, which are not interchangeable.

    Read every system on this question

  10. 10

    Can those beings become human or appear human?

    In many lineages an òrìṣà possesses a devotee in ritual. That is presence in a person, not a permanent change of species.

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  11. 11

    Are there multiple realms or worlds?

    Yes. Ayé and òrun.

    Read every system on this question

  12. 12

    Is there a central mountain, tree, pillar, axis, heart, or sacred center?

    Ayé and òrun are paired. A single sacred mountain as world-axis is not the governing image. Cities and groves are local centers.

    Read every system on this question

  13. 13

    Is the world itself alive?

    The world is full of persons, seen and unseen. It is not stated as one biological organism.

    Read every system on this question

  14. 14

    Has civilization or the world been destroyed or reset before?

    Not centered on a past or future destruction of the world.

    Read every system on this question

  15. 15

    Does history operate linearly or cyclically?

    Not recorded here as a simple line toward judgment or as a kalpa wheel.

    Read every system on this question

  16. 16

    Is there an opposing positive/negative force?

    Ifá and other oral accounts include destructive agents as well as òrìṣà. There is no single official dualism.

    Read every system on this question

  17. 17

    What is humanity supposed to become?

    To align with orí, to honor the òrìṣà one has, and to be remembered as an ancestor. Not one printed creed.

    Read every system on this question

  18. 18

    Is reincarnation a destination, punishment, school, growth process, or something else?

    Where return is taught, it often keeps kinship and destiny in view. It is not defined here as punishment, school, or a single mechanism.

    Read every system on this question

  19. 19

    What lies beyond the visible world?

    Òrun and the òrìṣà.

    Read every system on this question

  20. 20

    How does this tradition claim humans can know any of this?

    Ifá divination, oral teaching, and ritual. What a diaspora house practices should be named as that house.

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  21. 21

    Does the structure or motion of the heavens correspond to events, conditions, or consciousness within the human realm?

    Ifá is the central divinatory system in this record. It is not a zodiac.

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  22. 22

    Why did humanity forget?

    Not recorded in this chart.

    Read every system on this question

Structures where this record appears