"Iwa-Pele" ~ Orisha
Eshu is a trickster-god, and
plays frequently malicious
tricks for the purpose of
causing maturation. He is a
difficult teacher, but a good
one. As an example, Eshu was
walking down the road one
day, wearing a hat that was
red on one side and blue on
the other. Sometime after he
departed, the villagers who
had seen him began arguing
about whether the stranger's
hat was blue or red. The
villagers on one side of the
road had only been capable of
seeing the blue side, and the
villagers on the other side had
only been capable of seeing
the red half. They nearly
fought over the argument,
until Eshu came back and
cleared the mystery, teaching
the villagers about how one's
perspective can alter one's
perception of reality, and can
be easily fooled.

(In many versions of this tale,
the two tribes were not
stopped short of violence;
they actually annihilated each
other, and Eshu laughed at the
result, saying "Bringing strife is
my greatest joy". Eshu is thus a
prototype of the maltheistic
view of God's nature.)
What Orunmila teaches,
however, is that when you
go to IFA, you ask for good
character. IFA is about good
character, Iwa-pele; this is
the sum total of what you
ask for. Because, when you
develop good character all
things come to you. All
things love good character:
aje (money), ile (house),
everything, car; all of them
stay with good character.
When you have bad
character, you see money
leave, house leave, car
leave; you loose everything.

So when we have good
character, everything lives
with good character.

The Earth loves people who
have good character.
Olodumare loves people who
have good character. Good
character is what we seek.
That is the traditional way of
looking at this religion.