Ifa is a traditional formula for how to live in the world. It is a guide to bridging the barrier between the material and spiritual worlds. It is a vehicle for a purposeful and successful life journey. In telling the story of the Ifa History of the Beginning I always start with the moment when the Ase became self-aware, manifested consciousness, sentience, and became the entity that we call Olodumare. In that moment of awareness, when Olodumare became aware of itself as the Ase, the Realm of Infinite Possibility and Potential, the first emotion every experienced by a Sentient Being was Love, Self-Love, Love of Self. This is a moment of tremendous power that precedes the Big Bang of the physical world. Love is an intense feeling of deep affection. The word love comes from the Latin root, libet meaning ‘it is pleasing’. When the Ase became self- aware the first feeling (emotion) that emerged from the Ase was libet, ‘it is pleasing’, (Yoruba – Ife: Love).
Olodumare’s attachment to this powerful emotion is so profound that the Creator ordained that Love shall be one of the only things that cannot be commanded. Even Olodumare cannot command our love for love by its very nature must be given freely from the heart. Only love that is given freely from the heart carries the Ase Ami (Energy Signature) of the Divine and Spiritual Love that was experienced in the beginning and given to us as a gift so that we also might experience its power and beauty. It is this primordial love that gives birth to Olodumare’s determined idea to experience the fullness of the Realm of Infinite Possibility. It is the determined idea that in turn gives rise to the manifestation of Olofi-dumare, the Creator aspect of the Ase and to the process of creation itself. In this very real sense, Love lies at the very root of creation and of your and my existence. Can you imagine the creation of a loveless creator, an all-powerful sentient being who was passionless, unloving, unfeeling, heartless, and cold? Could such a being create this beautiful system of interlocking realities that you and I witness each and every day?
The First Love was and is self-love! The Ase in its sentient form felt love of self. As it was in the beginning so it is with the architecture of our nature. Just as Love originated from within the Ase, was first directed back towards the Ase, and then manifested outward, so too our capacity to love others must begin with the love of self. We are not talking about some kind of narcissistic pathology where you have a grandiose view of yourself, your talents, your appearance, or your resources; where you go about your life craving and expecting the admiration of others. Nor are we talking about the kind of sensual or sexual love that emerges from your biological nature for that is not the origin of love nor is it the most powerful kind of love. We are talking about the kind of self-love that emerges from an inner sense of your spiritual nature and of your continuous connection to The Source of your existence.
This sense of connection to The Source is present in every child and awaits the tone of love to resonate from the voices that surround it for it to be quickened. Once quickened it will seek to grow to its fullest potential, ‘a heart big enough to care for a world’. Most parents worldwide instinctively shower their babies with love. Too many don’t! And even for those who do, times and circumstances change, don’t they? When children do not receive this early nurturance into the love of self their Ase Ami is more susceptible to cracks and their spiritual powers remain weak and underdeveloped. When you are filled with this most powerful form of love you are able to call up love, creativity, sacrifice, commitment, empathy, compassion, and achievement in your self and others.
The capacity to feel the aspect of the Ase that we call love is a gift for which you should be grateful. And your love is a treasure that you should both guard and share. Many believers come to the Priests, Babalawos, and Priestesses to consult regarding relationship problems and matters of the heart. Underlying many relationship problems and matters of the heart is the attempt to extend love outward before it has been firmly rooted inward. Understanding the origin and source of your capacity to experience love is a first step towards solving social or intimate relationship problems. An important next step is to exercise your power over the second great gift that you have been given, one of your capacities that cannot be commanded, the capacity to forgive.
To be continued: The Powers of Love and Forgiveness, Part II - Forgiveness
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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!
