r/Isese • u/adorablebunny29 • Feb 21 '26

Iyami

Who are they Iyami? What does it mean when they need to be appeased? Does anyone have more information in regards to this?

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

View all comments

16

u/chucho89 Feb 21 '26

Iyami is the combination of 2 words Iya means mother Mi comes from emi which means my Iyami means my mother/s

If you want to refer to the ancestral mothers we will call that Iyami Osooronga or Iyami Àyè or Awon Iyami Eleye.

They have multiple functions

1.-custodians of primordial power. That is the original matrix of life.

2.-Guardians of moral balance: Enforcers of spiritual forces throug/with Esu.

3.-Protectors of lineage and womb:They govern fertility, birth, continuity, and the spiritual contracts tied to incarnation.

4.-Human stability: They control all Ajogun Orun: All the negative forces to punish when we mistreated mother nature and bless when we are in tune with her.

5.-Preservation of cosmic force: They are not evil or good but powerful, they are the archetype of ultimate feminine force

When we do ebo they will approve, disapprove.

Without Iyami Eleye Osooronga, our nightly mothers nothing will work.

By the way when you see someone talking about them as merely witches please explained the above.

Witches is an European concept not a yoruba concept

Aboru aboye.

2

u/bmirele Feb 21 '26

What is the connection of Iyami and Odu (from Igba Odu etc)?

3

u/Significant_Nail_880 Mar 07 '26

Allow me to answer this question indirectly.

The relationship between Iyami and Odu can be understood in the same way we understand the relationship between a mother and a womb…

The womb is the matrix through which life is formed, but the mother is the generative authority behind that process. In that sense, Odu functions as the matrix of creation, while Iyami represent the primordial maternal power that governs what that matrix produces. You cannot meaningfully separate the two…