The provenance file on Olódùmarè
Provenance record 176 · Olódùmarè · one temple, fully accounted for.
Provenance
1. The attestation. —, from the tradition's own record. On record: Idowu, Olódùmarè: God in Yoruba Belief, Bascom, Ifa Divination, Abraham, Dictionary of Modern Yoruba, Mason, Four New World Yoruba Rituals.
2. The preserved evidence. o → ó (Acute on o); u → ù (Grave on u); e → è (Grave on e) — absent from the ASCII form olodumare, present in the restoration, verifiable against the sources above.
3. The narrative record. The Creation of the World — Olódùmarè created the universe and then sent the orishas down to finish it. Ọbatalá shaped human bodies from clay, and Olódùmarè himself breathed life into them. The Distribution of Àyẹ̀wò — Before birth, each soul travels to the house of Àjàláyé, the potter of heads, to choose a destiny. Olódùmarè authorises the choices and gives each person the breath that makes the destiny live.
4. The physical record. As a transcendent deity without anthropomorphic cult images, Olódùmarè leaves few direct archaeological traces. His presence is inferred from sky-oriented shrines, prayers recorded in Ifá corpora, and the cosmological vocabulary of Yoruba ritual sites. Diaspora altars often place him symbolically above the orishas, represented by the sky, a white cloth, or an empty throne.
5. The current holding. The temple at /sites/olodumare/, classified Tier 1. The restoration preserves more than the ASCII form can express — stress, length, or a letter the Latin keyboard lost — which places it, mechanically, in Tier-1.
6. The documented resonances. Faith & Spiritual Organizations, Leadership, Governance & Public Administration, Philosophy, Ethics & Standards — seats argued and weighted in the pattern atlas, read through the myths in this temple's Resonance File.
7. The primary sources. Nigerian Studies — The Orisha Myths — the library this file answers to, open at the Sacred Texts collection.
8. The continuing record. Olódùmarè remains the theological centre of Yoruba religion and its diaspora. The phrase 'Olódùmarè willing' structures daily speech; the idea that destiny is chosen but not arbitrary shapes Yoruba ethics.
At a Glance
- Restored name: Olódùmarè
- ASCII form: olodumare
- Meaning: "Owner of the universe"
- Domain of influence: Supreme Creator
- Pantheon: Yoruba
- Classification: Tier 1
- Original script: —
- Series: The Restoration Files, No. 176 of 271
The File Continues
Read the founding dispatch for the name's full story, the Resonance File for the archetype at work — or the whole archive in one sitting.
Continue the series — previous file: Ōkeanós (read it here) · next file: Ólympos (read it here).
The Restoration Files are written from the same canonical record as the temples themselves: the lexicon, the lore catalog, the pattern atlas, and the cited scholarly sources. If a file ever disagrees with its temple, the temple is right — tell us, and the file will be corrected.