The Orisha Today
No More Fear!
Oluwo Philip John Neimark
Copyright © 2012 philip neimark
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2012-07-09
Dedication
To my wife, Iya Vassa, the greatest priest, designer, mother, sculptor and partner a man could ask for. To my children Tanya Husain, Dashiel Neimark and Darq-Amber Neimark. To the late Afolabi Epega, Justine Cordwell and Susanne Wenger without whose guidance the Truth would have remained undiscovered.
Introduction
Thousands of years ago an important event took place in West Africa. The Orisha were introduced to our planet. How they arrived is open to interpretation. Traditionalists will say that this was yet another attempt by Oludumare (God) to populate the Earth. Their view was the Irunmole, part of a supernatural group of inhabitants of Heaven, who first visited Ikole Aye (Earth), had before them the formidable task of making the Earth habitable for human beings.
Led by Orunmila, who was the first to tread upon the Earth, he allowed other Irunmole (orisha) to descend. Because he was in charge, and had succeeded where others had failed, he selected only 256 to join him. These 256 represented facets of nature and, becasue they were not of Earth, they would not die here. They were the connective point that would exist between humans and Oludumare (God).
Those with more scientific views would take the position that, at some point thousands of years in the past, when men and women were just beginning their journey on this earth, that the intricate, highly developed philosophy of Ifa/Orisha, was deposited here by beings from another dimension (Quantum view) or another planetary system (scientific view). When these travelers departed, they left us the rudimentary instructions for manifesting the system into life. These instructions carried with them a perfect Binary mathematical system, but the rest was left to our development and understanding.
More than a quarter of a century ago, when I was still trying to understand how the ancient African philosophy of Ifa worked, I came across a very old book that had been published in the late 1880’s. It had been written by an Englishman who had taken several trips to Africa. And it contained the following observation:
The native is not unintelligent, he is simply uneducated. So, if after working as a porter for several weeks of a hunting exhibition; were we to leave one of our rifles he would be quite intelligent enough to use it. He would pick it up, point it at the animal or enemy, pull the trigger, and achieve the desired results. Yet, if you asked him “what killed the animal,” he would reply “the loud noise and the puff of smoke!”
Having no scientific background or education, the native would have no understanding of gun powder, propulsion, the ball (prior to bullets) that traveled so fast it could not be seen etc. He would, from his paradigm, hear the explosion, observe the smoke that rose from the rifle, and see the animal fall wounded or dead. Later, while butchering the animal, he might observe the small metal ball in the wound…but he would assume this was part of the magical process of the loud noise and the puff of smoke.
For too many people, the Philosophy of Ifa is understood in those terms. Buttressed by thousands of years of Western religious insistence that “religion could not be understood”, but simply must be believed, they would ascribe the logical understanding of energy, the precise methods of working with that energy and the subsequent results to a “loud noise and a puff of smoke!”
Ifa, as a living philosophy, adapts and morphs into the energy necessary to reflect the technology and culture we live in. For those who are still picking up a muzzle loading rifle, and hoping that it is loaded, they are missing the energy of Ifa which has become a laser like smart bomb in comparison!
That is what the Ifa Foundation (http://www.ifafoundation.org) teaches. That is what you must learn if you are to get out of the 15th century and cope successfully with the 21st Century and beyond.
Possible Explanations
You may ask: “What difference does it make?”
It is the difference between the development of fear, paternalism, control, discrimination and a host of other religious “virtues, and the certainty that comes from empowerment, love, solutions, community and sharing.
The Ifa Foundation International, Inc. (http:www.ifafoundation.org) has devoted its existence to the understanding and actualization of Orisha energy in today’s world. The results have been the re-introduction of Ori to the Diasporic communities, establishment of women’s rights, inclusion of all regardless of sex, nationality or skin color, and finally the option over blood sacrifice or not.
We invite you to join the journey…
The Orisha
Background
In my first book, The Way of the Orisa, HarperCollins Publishing, I spent a great deal of time delineating the characteristics of the most prominent Orisa. Today, almost a decade after the original writing was done, it seems clear to me that further explanation is necessary. To understand the following, it would be worthwhile to set the stage with an overview of all the Orisa. Ifa views the universe as a perfect construction created by God. Within this perfection, all possibilities and energies exist. These include those possibilities or energies that are productive as well as those that are Destructive.
These energies were identified thousands of years ago by Yoruba wise men. Each was given a name in order to identify its specific energy. The total corpus of these energies comprises the 401 Imole (Orisa/energies) that make up and affect our world. It is generally conceded that 200 are positive energies, while 200 are negative. The extra energy, which creates the 401, comes from the Ogun complex, which can be expressed, in either positive or negative terms.
Into this perfectly constructed universe, Oludumare (God) placed man. We were given the opportunity to work with the other energies of His creation to improve our lives and fulfill our chosen destinies. We were not put in charge, but rather placed at the top of the hierarchy He had created. It does not guarantee our supremacy. The Dinosaur was once at the top as well! Rather, by using the tools we were given, intellect, emotion, love and ritual, we could benefit from the positive aspects of energy and growth while protecting ourselves from the potentially harmful and destructive energies.
But, in order to accomplish this, we must understand the actual nature of the energies themselves. The responsibility is ours. Each week, I will address the energy of a specific Orisa in a way that will make that energy more understandable and useful to the devotee. First, let us understand exactly what Orisa are. Orisa are pure, potent, energy matrices, each expressing a specific focus or potential experience. Each contains both male and female aspects of that energy. What the Orisa are not, are human like entities endowed with human behavior or goals. The stories, or pataki, that have become the staple of Orisa understanding were never made to be interpreted literally. Yet, like almost everything else in Western culture, the “sizzle” replaced the steak.
The problem is not simply a semantic one, it is a critically significant issue that has to do with your ability to get your life on track and fulfill your chosen destiny. This can only be accomplished by absolute connections with the potent energy the Orisa represent. It cannot be accomplished by trying to relate to what amount to Disney characters! When one examines the tales that were constructed to explain this energy, you