Ifa: The Spiritual Tradition of Orisa and Ancestor Worship
Ancestor and Orisa Worship, Part IV
March 2018
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!
I want to conclude the part of our discussion dealing specifically with Ancestor Worship and transition into a discussion of Orisa Worship. There is an important thread that ties these two topics together and that is the importance of the Feminine Principle in both Ancestor and Orisa Worship. In my publication,Adura: An Ifa Prayer Book for Beginners, Vol I 2nd Edition, I stated, “The Ase gave expression to the Feminine Principle. The Creator [Olofi-dumare] gave expression to the Masculine Principle. And, Olodumare gave expression to the androgynous, harmonic balance of left-brain intuition and right-brain awareness that rules the ebb and flow of the Ase and the currents of life.” Let me expound on that statement a bit.
In explaining the Ifa History of the Beginning I have said, “In the beginning there was nothing but the Ase, the black material of the darkness from which all things come, the Realm of Infinite Possibility, Pure Potential. And the first thing to emerge from this material, this primordial field of pure potential energy, the Ase, was consciousness. The Ase became self-aware. We call this sentient manifestation of the Ase, Olodumare." We can think of the Divine Source of Creation (Olorun – God) as having three aspects, the Primordial Essence (the Ase), the Sentience or awareness of Itself, Consciousness (Olodumare), and the creative impulse that proliferates creation, (Olofi-dumare), the Creative aspect. Now what is important to realize about this sequence of expression is:
(1) in the beginning there was nothing but the Ase, and then something emerges from or in the Ase, Consciousness, Ori, Awareness. Hence, the Ase takes on the character of the Womb that gives birth to everything else. Therefore,
(2) the first principle in the Divine Order of Creation is the Feminine Principle. In the beginning was the womb.
Once we fully understand this sequence of events it becomes clear that the Feminine Principle holds, and must hold, a very high and important place in our spiritual traditions of both Ancestor Worship and Orisa Worship.
Under the misguided representations of many Western Cultures and Religious Systems, the role and status of the Female and the Feminine Principle has been diminished. This has led to a significant imbalance in modern societies with an over emphasis on the Male and the Masculine Principle, and has progressively spread its negative influence even to indigenous cultures around the world. However, in the Ifa History of the Beginning we say that Olofi-dumare (The Creative Aspect of Olorun) is the One Who Calls to the Material of the Darkness (The Ase) and says to It, “Come forth, willingly and unwillingly.” So, creation is wholly and completely dependent on two aspects, the material of the womb and the creative impulse. These two are interdependent, inseparable, and incapable of manifesting without mutual cooperation. Hence, the Feminine Principle and the Masculine Principle each have equally important roles to play in the creative process.
The Hermetic Philosophy expressed in the Kybalion puts it this way, “Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principle; Gender manifests on all planes.” The word ‘gender’ is derived from the Latin root meaning, “to beget; to procreate; to generate; to create; to produce.” So, the very idea of creation embodies the coexistence and cooperation of these two principles or forces, the Yin and the Yang of the Chinese Taoist Philosophy. The Kybalion goes on to state in relation to Mental Gender, “The Masculine Principle of Mind corresponds to the so-called Objective Mind; Conscious Mind; Voluntary Mind; Active Mind, etc. And the Feminine Principle of Mind corresponds to the so-called Subjective Mind; Subconscious Mind; Involuntary Mind; Passive Mind, etc." In Ifa, when we speak of Ori, we are speaking of both of these Principles, the Masculine and the Feminine. Or, on another level we might say that our Physical Ori is a characterization of the Masculine Principle of Mind, and our Spiritual Ori is a characterization of our Feminine Principle of Mind, the former focused on the objective reality, the L’oja (the marketplace), and the later focused on the subjective reality, the Orun, the Realm of Spirit.
All of these comments are intended to point us in the direction of understanding the importance of pay homage to the Feminine Principle in our Ancestor Worship. It is difficult for me to state how many times, when a devotee tells me that they have had a visitation from an Ancestor, it is from an aunt, or grandmother, or mother much more often than it is from an uncle, grandfather, or father. And it doesn’t seem to matter whether the devotee is male or female. I’m stating this simply as an observation since I have no solid explanation for this occurrence. But perhaps there is an explanation. And perhaps it lies in something that the Isoro Council shared with me in a recent correspondence. I’ll speak on it in a moment.
In his presentation of the Sacred Ifa Oracle, author Philip John Neimark states regarding Ejiogbe, the first of the Sacred Odus, “Ejiogbe is the most important odu. It symbolizes the masculine principle and is therefore regarded as the father of the odus. In the fixed order of Orunmila, Ejiogbe occupies the first position.” Regarding Oyekumeji he states, “Oyekumeji is the second principle odu (olodu). It symbolizes the feminine principle. Ejiogbe and Oyekumeji gave birth to the remaining fourteen principle odus.” It is this first creation of the Sixteen Principle Odus that in turn gave birth to the remaining 240 Odus to complete the Sacred Ifa Oracles of 256 Odus. So again, we see the importance of the balanced interaction and interplay of the Masculine Principle and the Feminine Principle in establishing and maintaining the nature and order of the Divine Creation. In establishing your Ancestral altar and in reaching out to your Egun for assistance or in gratitude, you want to make sure that you pay due respect to your female Ancestors, not in disregard of the male Ancestors but in recognition of the importance of the womb in the creative process.
Last month I shared with you that I had raised some questions in my correspondence with the Isoro Council regarding the email that I had received from a devotee (see last month’s Post). Let me share some additional wisdom that I received from the Council. I am going to quote as much as possible from their response.
“To address your first question, if Sango and Oya are the primary Orisa of a devotee, Oya takes precedence because of her femininity. It is the law of Tako Tabo (the male and female essence) inherent in all Orisa. Because Orisa Oya is primarily dominated by the Tabo (female) energy/essence/representation, she naturally takes the lead and creates the umbilical cord from the devotee to other Orisa.”
“If in another embodiment the two ruling Orisas are of the Tako (male) essence/energy/representation like Sango and Ogun, the first Orisa during the reading takes precedence and that Orisa’s Tabo (female) essence naturally surfaces to create the umbilical cord for the devotee. This is the power of Tako Tabo (the male/female, positive/negative) essence/energy inherent in all Orisa."
So, in Ifa, the Tabo, Feminine Principle, female energy/essence takes precedence because it is the Tabo that exercises the umbilical power to connect us to the Ase of all of the other Orisa and spiritual entities. Consider the current arrangement of your altars, your current practices regarding reaching out to your Orisa and your Egun, and let the wisdom of TakoTabo guide you to make any changes that seem appropriate.
Ref: The Kybalion: Hermetic Philosophy, by Three Initiates, Printed by the Yogi Publication Society, Copyright 1922.
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!
