Iwori Meyi — Baba Iwori in the Cuban spelling; Ìwòrì Méjì in the Nigerian — is the third of the sixteen major Odus. The sign draws two marks inside and two outside (OO / II / II / OO), and the Tratado opens the entry with a line that contradicts his place in the queue: in heaven, Iwori was Orunmila's most senior Olodu — the most efficient in the art of Ifá, master of many priests. And yet he lost his seniority to Ejiogbe and Oyekun, who were younger than he was.
The oldest primary source we have — Abímbọlá, Sixteen Great Poems of Ifá — tells the same destiny from another angle: to whoever Iwori Méji appears for in divination, says Ifá, eight children will come, and the youngest will be the most prosperous of all; the person will raise those children in hardship, and will be mocked — but the one who made them is laughing at those who despise them (pp. 458–459).
This study reads three patakís that speak about a single thing: a rank is not taken by vanity; it is won back by humility, sacrifice and patience — and the one who arrives in third place may end up stronger than the two kings who arrived before.
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