Cryptography - From Odu Signs to Numbers (Binary and Decimal)...

Now that we know how to generate random Odus with Ọ̀pẹ̀lẹ̀, how do we translate these Odus to numbers?

Odus are marked with “|” and “||”. Where “|” is the binary number “0” and “||” is “1”.

For example Ogbè has the following signature:

|
|
|
|

And Ọ̀̀ṣá is represented as:

| |
|
|
|

Òtúrá is marked as:

|
| |
|
|

We can therefore summarise the representation of the first sixteen Odus as follows:

Decimal == Binary == Yoruba
00 == 0000 == Ogbè
01 == 0001 == Ògúndá
02 == 0010 == Ìrẹtẹ̀
03 == 0011 == Ìrosùn
04 == 0100 == Òtúra
05 == 0101 == Ọ̀̀sẹ́
06 == 0110 == Èdí
07 == 0111 == Ọ̀̀bàrà
08 == 1000 == Ọ̀̀ṣá
09 == 1001 == Ìwòrì
10 == 1010 == Ọ̀̀fún
11 == 1011 == Ìká
12 == 1100 == Ọ̀̀wọ́nrín
13 == 1101 == Òtúrúpọ̀n
14 == 1110 == Ọ̀̀kànràn
15 == 1111 == Òyèkú
́
Since Ifá speaks only in binary (Odu Èjì Ogbè says… Èjèèji ni mo gbè, n ò gbe ọ̀kan ṣoṣo mọ́ i.e “I will only support two, I will not support one”), each Odu must be paired.

For example, after pairing the main Odus, we get the following (see graphic for the main Odus signature)…

Èjì Ogbè (also called Ògbè Méjì): 00000000
Ògúndá Méjì : 00010001
Ìrẹtẹ̀ Méjì : 00100010
Ìrosùn Méjì : 00110011
Òtúrá Méjì : 01000100
Ọ̀̀sẹ́ Méjì : 01010101
Èdí Méjì : 01100110
Ọ̀̀bàrà Méjì : 01110111
Ọ̀̀ṣá Meji: 10001000
Ìwòrì Méjì : 10011001
Ọ̀̀fún Méjì : 10101010
Ìká Méjì :10111011
Ọ̀̀wọ́nrín Méjì :11001100
Òtúrúpọ̀n Méjì :11011101
Ọ̀̀kànràn Méjì :11101110
Ọ̀yẹ̀kú Méjì : 11111111

The other 240 minor Odus are derived from the main 16 Odus.
For example (note: the binary notation and the marks are read from right to left)

Ogbè-Ògúndá : 0001-0000
|   |
|   |
|   |
||  |

Ọ̀yẹ̀kú-Ìrẹtẹ̀ : 0010-1111
|   ||
|   ||
||  ||
|   ||

Computers also speak in binary and binary numbers can be converted to decimal, hexadecimal, octal etc.
Without getting into too much maths, below are the decimal values of the 16 main Odus…

00000000 = 00
00010001 = 17
00100010 = 34
00110011 = 51
01000100 = 68
01010101 = 85
01100110 = 102
01110111 = 119
10001000 = 136
10011001 = 153
10101010 = 170
10111011 = 187
11001100 = 204
11011101 = 221
11101110 = 238
11111111 = 255

Next time we will look into matrix and how to put these numbers into use.