Homage To The One Who Sends and to those who are sent! Homage to Orisa and Egun!
Ifokanbale Omo Orisa! Peace of Mind from Olodumare Children of Orisa!
Ire ati Ayo!
Good Tidings and Joyfulness!
I honor your gods, I drink from your wells, I bring an undefended heart to our meeting place. I have no cherished outcomes, I will not negotiate by withholding, and I am not subject to disappointment. I am here! And They are all here with me! Ase! Ase! Ase!
Lord of my Ancestors, I have no knowledge except that which is given to me through inspiration, that which is sent to me by way of an angel, and that which I am blessed to acquire by way of some discipline. I thank you for guiding my words, my thoughts, and my actions so that all that I say and do may serve to point the seekers in the right direction. Ase! Ase! Ase!
Truth (1) There is a single God!
In my May 2017 Post on The Sixteen Truths of Ifa, it was stated, “There are many who draw a sharp dichotomy between the so-called Monotheistic (believing in One God) and Polytheistic (believing in many Gods) religions. In Ifa, as in other indigenous belief systems, there is a Single Supreme God. This Supreme God then orchestrates creation through forces, agency, and agents. There is no real distinction to be made here. Both Monotheistic and Polytheistic religions believe in an Omnipotent Sentient Being who works through forces, agency, and agents. The indigenous belief systems tend to acknowledge and interact more with these forces, agencies, and agents through formal and informal rituals and ceremonies.”
Let’s move beyond the distinctions between religions and deal with the subject of ‘God’ itself. Let’s face it! This word ‘God’ has become problematic in terms of its usefulness in creating a bridge and bond between humans and between humanity and the natural environment. The word ‘God’ is full of meaning and clearly refers to something, but the something that it refers to, is unclear, and in fact, unknown and probably unknowable from our vantage point.
God can refer to:
The creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority;
the Supreme Being.
A superhuman being or spirit worshipped as having power over nature or human fortunes; a deity.
An image, idol, animal, or other object worshiped as divine or symbolizing a god.
Notice that these definitions of the word ‘God’ in one-way or another describe or prescribe the notion that this ‘God’ is a ‘thing’, separate and apart from other ‘things’. Hence, there comes the emergence of divisions between humans, and between humanity and nature. Actually, the word ‘God’, in whatever language it is expressed, is only a placeholder for that which cannot be labeled. The word ‘God’ is a placeholder for a personal experience that each of us is having but that we refer to as a personified other.
Humans around the world and for thousands of generations have called upon this ‘God’ by many names and then argued, fought, and died over disagreements about whose ‘God’ was or is the true ‘God’. Let’s consider the names of some of the ‘Gods’ in African Civilizations. In fact, let’s just do a short list of some of the Creator Gods.
And this is a very incomplete list of just the ‘Creator Gods’ of the African Continent and Civilizations. There are dozens of other categories of Gods, and innumerable other civilizations, too many to explore in this Post. The Encyclopedia of Gods lists over 2,500 Deities of the World, and even that is a short list. But I hope this is enough for you to get the main idea, and that is that we humans are swimming against a natural current. The natural current is flowing towards wholeness, oneness, while we are busy fighting over divisions. We have framed our sense of reality based on the perceived differences between things, rather then focusing on the similarities and interconnection of the things we perceive as different. Are all of these names speaking of different gods or are they all speaking of and appealing to different perceptions and aspects of the same thing? There has to be a way to strip away our cultural and linguistic differences and focus our attention on the essence of what lies behind all of the names and images.
Let me share a personal experience. My oldest daughter calls me ‘Dad’, my oldest son calls me ‘Pops’, my second oldest daughter calls me ‘Abi’ (meaning Father), my youngest son calls me ‘Dad’, and my youngest daughter doesn’t call me at all. It should be obvious, in spite of the different labels, that they are all referring to the same ‘thing’, ME. Aren’t all cultures basically striving to do the same thing, to sustain their existence? The various ways and ideas about what will sustain a particular culture’s existence may be problematic, even horrific, but in essence they are all doing the same thing. As I have stressed in previous Posts, ‘Religion is not an end, in and of itself! It is instead, a means of turning us, and pointing us, in the direction of something much greater than what is contained within the religion itself.
When Ifa declares that, ‘There is a single God’, it is not challenging the primacy of one ‘God’ (label) over another. It is not saying that ‘our God’ is better than ‘your God’. Instead Ifa is saying that all of the labels have to be pointing to the same thing. Each label represents a cultural and linguistic recognition, and expression, of the awareness that there must be an Ultimate Source, Cause, and Sustainer of Everything. ‘A rose by any other name is still a …’ In Ifa, we call this Ultimate Source the ASE, we call this Ultimate Cause Olodumare, and we call this Ultimate Sustainer of Everything Olofi-dumare. We also understand that even we are referring to aspects of the same thing. There is a single God!
Ultimately, what we are all trying to grasp is the nature of existence itself. Comprehending this experience we call existence, life, is what has lead generations of our ancestors, across multiple civilizations and cultures, to contemplate the existence of a ‘God’. In the Ifa Spiritual Tradition we refer to this experience we are having, this existence that we call life, as the L’oja, the Marketplace.
Note: I started out thinking that The Sixteen Truths of Ifa was going to be a series of sixteen Posts spread out over the next sixteen months. But in this moment, I (with a smile on my face) can hear/feel my Ori saying, ‘Nope! Not going to be that way! You have to speak what is flowing into your mind, your heart!’ I hadn’t given any thought to mentioning the L’oja in this Post, but in order to understand what we mean when we say, ‘There is a single God’, we have to understand something of the circumstances of the ‘we’ that are seeking understanding. What is the nature of the L’oja, the ‘marketplace’, the realm of our experiences? That question is important because this single God must by definition, and human traditions, be the Source of the L’oja, and because it is within the context the L’oja that we have framed our notions of ‘God’.
To be continued!
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Modupe!
I hope you will reflect on this message and share your comments and questions with me for our future Posts on this and other topics.
Aajiirebi! May the Unblemished Cloth of Orunmila Continue to cloth us with the Wisdom Of the Here and the Hereafter!
Ase! Ase! Ase!
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Ki Olodumare, Orisa, ati Egun fifun e ni Itona, Imoye, ati Opo Ire!
My Olodumare, Orisa, and Ancestors bestow on you Guidance, Wisdom, and Abundant Blessings!
