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!
Alafia Omo Orisa!
Many of the inquiries that I receive are from individuals who are seeking to discover or confirm the Orisa that Crown their Ori. Many other questions have to do with how one can know when they are On Path to fulfill their Destiny. Although Ifa can provide us with the answer to these questions through the use of Divination, the craft of the Babalawos, Iyalorishas, Priests, and Priestesses, many of us live in areas where such assistance is not available. How unfair it would be, not simply unfair but unjust, for Olodumare to put the longing for Ifa in your heart and then to not provide you with a means of satisfying that longing. No soul is abandoned in this world. We all have the opportunity and means to be guided if we seek guidance. That opportunity and means are provided to you by your Ori, your direct link to the Spiritual World (Orun), your assigned share of the Omni-Present, Omnipotent, All-Knowing Divine Consciousness.
Orimi Apere!
My Ori, Carrier of my Destiny!
According to Ifa, before you came into the world you chose your Ori, your Orisa(s), and a purpose for coming (your Destiny). Your Ori is the divine guardian of your commitment to fulfill your Destiny. It is your Ori that whispers to you while you are in the process of making your choices once you come into this world (L’oja – the marketplace). Your Ori is always trying to guide you toward your Destiny with the least amount of deviation from the Path that has been prescribed for you. It is your Ori, not your Orisa that is the Carrier of your Destiny. Your Orisa and their helpers and allies assist you by carrying out the will of your Ori or that which your Ori permits.
Orimi Apesin!
My Ori, the Most Precious!
For the abovementioned reason, your Ori is the Most Precious thing that you brought with you into the world. In a sense we could say that it is the real you! It is the first that you should call to in the morning and the last that you should speak to at night. A believer once asked me, where is Olodumare in our prayers and consciousness? My answer was, your Ori is your direct link to the Creator and the purpose behind your existence. Olodumare is the One who instructed Ajala to fashion our Ori so that this link or connection between the Creator and His creations could be inviolate. When you acknowledge your Spiritual Ori you are also paying Homage to the One Who is the Author of your existence. We do call Olodumare’s name and pay Homage to Olorun as the Creator. We demonstrate that our acknowledgement and praise is sincere by following the protocols that the Creator has put in place for our assistance and success in this world.
That means calling on your Ori, paying homage to Orisa and calling on them for assistance through your prayers (aduras) and sacrifices (ebos), and turning to your priests or Babalawos when their expertise and special knowledge is required to seek Orunmila’s guidance. Ultimately, in order for your prayers, ebos, or divinations to be of any positive consequence they must be in harmony with your Ori, the Carrier of your Destiny! The Most Precious!
Ohun Ori wa se, Koma ni s alai se eo!
What Ori comes to fulfill,
It cannot but fulfill it!
Ori comes to fulfill a chosen Destiny. The concept of Destiny is challenging for many people. First you have to get past the issue of predestination, the idea of the divine foreordaining of all that will happen, which of course flies in the face of the notion of free will and choice. The second obstacle that the concept of Destiny presents is expressed in the second question I mentioned above – how do I know if I am fulfilling my Destiny?Destiny is not the same thing as predestination. Where predestination implies an absolute framework for every cause and consequence, Destiny implies that there are certain events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing during their journey in this world. It refers to the hidden power that controls what has happened, is happening, and will happen in the future. Destiny is related to the concept of synchronicity, the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection. The indiscernible causal connection is the activity of your Spiritual Ori in guiding you towards your Destiny.
As believers in Ifa, we believe that we each come into the world to fulfill a certain destiny, Your Destiny, My Destiny. In other words, there are certain things that you WILL experience, do, and accomplish in life because they are the reason that you chose to come.
Destiny
Many of us think of our Destiny as some grand threshold that we will cross and all of a sudden life will be different, everything will become clear, and there will be loud music playing in the background in celebration of our grand accomplishment. Maybe, but not necessarily so! Your Destiny always lies before you and yet you are living it everyday. Think about that for a while! Your Destiny involves the things you say and do, the people you meet, the goals you achieve, the challenges you overcome, the hard lessons you learn, and everything else that is a part of your everyday life. The final chapter of your Destiny is not written when you reach some professional goal, receive some public acknowledgement, or retire from the last job you’ll ever work. The final chapter is not written until you complete your journey in the L’oja and return to our Orun N’ile (Home in Heaven). Your Destiny is about the life that you live everyday because just as other people are being used to help you remember the purpose of your journey, you are also here doing the same thing for other people. People that you meet and interact with everyday in dozens of difference circumstances.
Ori inu wa maba tode je!
May our Spiritual Ori not be in conflict with our physical Ori!
Fate
Often people use the terms destiny and fate interchangeably. We should make a clear distinction between the two terms. Your Destiny is the motivating force for your journey in the world. Your Spiritual Ori (inner head) is the Carrier of your Destiny and speaks to you with feelings, impulses, tendencies, desires, wishes, ideas, and inclinations to move and guide you towards Your Destiny. But! You have a Spiritual Ori and a Physical Ori! Your physical Ori is that which binds your consciousness to the world (L’oja) and it is subject to the influences of the marketplace. The challenge confronting all of us is to align the Choices of our physical Ori with the guidance of our Spiritual Ori. Our Destiny lies before us, our Fate (the consequences of our choices) emerges from our past choices, and destiny and fate overlap in the present. You are living your Destiny and shaping your Fate everyday with every decision and choice that you make, every action that you take, everything that you choose to do and to not do. In other words, you will live the consequences of your choices! That is one of the Divine Laws that govern creation. That too is part of your Destiny!
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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!
