In the Ifa Tradition we believe that our Ancestors (Egun) maintain a consciousness, an interest, and a connection to this world that we call the marketplace (L'oja). Although we are separated by the dimensions of marketplace (L'oja) versus Home (Nile) the barrier between these two dimensions is permeable. We can speak to our Egun and they can hear us as they dwell in the Realm of Ancestors. It is also true that our Ancestors can project their Ase (spiritual energy) through that membrane into our world to try to assist us in our personal journey. If you believe that we are spiritual beings who are bound to a physical form in this world by a sentient energy form that we call the soul, and that this soul survives the death of the body, than there is little reason not to believe that you are part of a chain or lineage of souls who have journeyed into the world before you. And further, that your Ancestors maintain a consciousness, an interest, and a connection to this world that we call the marketplace. Your Ancestors have a primary interest in the journey of you and your lineage. Our Ancestors [Egungun – the Spirit of Ancestors] have a primary interest in the journey of the group or humanity as a whole.
This Ifa worldview binds each of us to the past, the present, and to the future. It calls us to mindfulness of the highest values, traditions, and aspirations of those who came before us. At the same time, it compels us to be mindful of the choices we make during our personal journey because our choices affect the legacy of our Egun and the conditions under which our descendants will be born (or our Ancestors reborn).
The Ifa Ancestral worldview also fulfills several of the essential needs of our species like a sense of belonging and connection. If you understand that once someone returns from the l'oja to nile, all of what they have done in this world, wittingly and unwittingly, becomes clear to them. They are without confusion as to the consequences of the choices they made during their journey in the marketplace. Confusion cannot pass from this world into the next. Since your Egun can see things clearly, their only motivation is Love and their only intention is your Success. Even if the relationship between you and your relatives was a bad relationship when they were alive, you need not fear as to their feelings or intentions towards you once they leave this world.
Many, if not most, practitioners of Ifa will have a small ancestral altar somewhere in their home. A few pictures going back one or many generations, some family heirlooms, and a clear glass or wooden goblet to offer their Egun a drink of cool water every few days. Setting a small plate at the table at dinnertime and placing a small amount of each food in the plate for your Egun is also a wonderful way of creating mindfulness about this connection that exists between you and the spiritual world. When you create the conditions for mindfulness you open yourself up to the energies that your Egun are sending through. Some of the images that come through in your dreams may also contain impressions that your Ancestors are communicating to you.
Listen!
Believing as we do in Ifa, and many other indigenous traditions, that all of the layers of this world and all of the dimensions of creation are connected, we travel in the world not as an individual ego but as a sentient part of a greater fecundating whole. We also recognize that death does not end the relationship between souls. Many of us still carry baggage from our previous relationships with our deceased relatives. We treat death like a permanent barrier between the worlds and believe that we must carry the weigh of our unresolved issues for the rest of our lives. We believe Iku (death) has robbed us of the chance to settle matters in a way that brings us peace and balance. But Ifa says unfinished business can still be finished.
Take a moment each day to talk to your Egun like they were right their in your presence. Share your thoughts, hopes, feelings, and fears with them and you may find that death has power over life but not over love.
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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!
