This conception of the Odu as self-conscious entities that embody a sense of ultimate direction relates it to our study of the imaginative processes through which reality is constructed through the creation of maps that correlate inner and outer realities.

The system constituted by the Odu represent a means of mapping possibilities of existence, in terms of specific situations and interpretations of responses to these situations.

This process is developed through the creation of correlations between specific situations and the cosmology embodied by the system since each Odu is associated with a particular Orisa or divinity in the traditional Yoruba cosmos as well as by the fact that each divinatory session represents a means of relating terrestrial issues to sources of insight that emanate from the world of spirit, as constituted by the Ori of the client in its collaborative relationship with the Odu.

This collaborative relationship is manifest in the fact that, within the relationship between metaphysics, ontology and hermeneutics represented by the system, the Ori of the client influences the configuration realised by the divinatory instrument.

Since these configurations are the Odu or organizational categories of the system, the emergence of the patterns constituted by the Odu is manifest through the influence of the Ori. This occurs on account of the autonomy the system attributes to the individual’s Ori in relation to all affairs relating to the individual. The progression of the divinatory process, emerges, therefore, through a collaborative, dialectical process between the Ori and the Odu, in which, however, the Ori’s role is paramount. The Odu, therefore, expresses the will of the Ori.