OYA'S MARKETPLACE - Oya N'Soro

More documents

Recommendations

Info

OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 4 TIKARA - ENI THE ELEMENTS OF SELF By AWO FA'LOKUN FATUNMBI The foundation of any system of metaphysics is the concept of self. Many forms of Christianity regard the self as either “evil” or unworthy. It is only through the process of accepting a specific set of beliefs, that the individual can find “salvation.” This world view, inconsistent with African forms of IFA, has had a subtle influence on ORISA worship in the West. The elders of LUKUMI and SANTERIA lean toward viewing the individual as someone who is always in danger of “angering” the ORISA. As a result, the process for avoiding anger is to make periodic offerings to the ORISA in an effort to make them “happy.” The ORISA represent powerful Forces in Nature, making it difficult to imagine either the Ocean, the Fire, the Air or the Earth becoming angry over the specific actions of any given individual. Catholic notions of death, purgatory and original sin heavily influence the idea that the ORISA are set on punishing those who disobey them. IFA teaches, in contrast, that the world is a balanced system that functions with its own internal guidance system that maintains harmony and growth. It is the individual job of each to grasp this internal order, then to live according to its inherent principles. In dissimilarity to Christianity, IFA does not believe that the “curse of Eve” burdens humans. IFA teaches that everyone has right from birth to receive the blessing of abundance, good health and family. They manifest these birthrights by integrating all the elements of the self. “TIKARA-ENI” is the YORUBA word for “self.” The word “TIKARA” is an elision of “TI” meaning “of,” “IKA” meaning “envelop” or “world,” and “ARA” meaning “physical body.” The word “ENI” is YORUBA for “self.” “TIKARA-ENI” therefore refers to all those elements that make up the total person. The West frequently limits self to the physical and emotional state. In IFA the concept includes the physical self, the emotional self, the spiritual self and the influence of those Spiritual Forces that have a direct influence on individual destiny. IFA considers the body the house of both the intellect and the emotions. It teaches that both mind and emotion must be in alignment if life is to prosper. Once this alignment occurs the self has access to spiritual power called “ASE.” Upon access, the self can use ASE in a ritual context to create alignment with ORISA. In simple terms, living in alignment with ORISA means living life in harmony with those Laws of Nature that sustain Evolution. IFA teaches that when the self experiences alignment with ORISA, the balanced connection between the physical, emotional and spiritual self occurs. This experience is described as a joyous event that motivates the entire body to celebrate through movement. This is in stark contrast to the common Western perception of Spirit interaction, which has a base of fear, suspicion and the desire to maintain “self-control.” During most ORISA ceremonies joyous movement becomes collective dancing that frequently occurs in front of a mat. IFA considers the mat sacred space. It is the place where the Spirit realm and the Earth realm interact. When an ORISA worshipper dances in front of the mat, they are surrendering to the possibility of Spirit possession. The experience of Spirit possession is not the intrusion of some alien entity. From the perspective of IFA, Spirit possession is a key element in the integration of the total self. This point of view suggests that the mat is a doorway that allows for humans access to the invisible dimension of Spiritual influence. From a symbolic point of view, the mat represents the inter-relationship between all that exists in the universe. Dancing in front of the mat is ceremonial acknowledgement of the belief that within the matrix of Creation, everyone and everything is linked. The interwoven fibers that make up the entire fabric of the mat represent the threads of all forms of life. IFA expression does not limit life to animals. IFA believes all that exists in the world to have “ORI,” which means “consciousness.” This excerpt is from the upcoming book IBA SE ORISA by AWO FA'LOKUN FATUNMBI.
OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 5 Sitting crosslegged before a candle and incense, I cast the coins. And from the doorway comes my mother’s terrified cry: “Girl! I ain’t havin’ no conjurin’ in this house!” That is how the journey began. And this: A dinner table talk with relations in Alabama. . .As certain names are spoken, ideas expressed, my paternal aunts and normally oh, so rational father, toss salt over their shoulders without missing a word or mouthful. And this: The beautiful, brick red aunt who hid her long, wavy black hair beneath African wraps, places a chocolate brown doll dressed in Native American clothes next to my blonde Christmas Barbie and murmurs in my ear: “This is who you are. Black and red. . .Black and red. Remember that.” And: Of the grandmother, Priscilla Patton, I never knew, never saw, this: “They say somebody hex her,” a wizened Delta crone offers cautiously. “Or maybe she hex them first. Woman was wild. Run off to get married by jumpin’ out a window. Blouse got caught and she jus’ shuck it off and lef’ it there. Took the mule and gone, no blouse on!” And also: The night after the death of Priscilla’s eldest daughter, her youngest daughter, my mother, hears my electronic metronome begin to tick, tick, tick, slow and steady. “Joberta, you go on back now,” my mother says tenderly, touching the GETTING GETTING TO TO OYA YA By By Cynthia Cynthia M. M. Dagnal-Myron Dagnal-Myron metronome as if it were her sister, before turning it off with a firm click, and no fear. Yes. This is how the journey began. But it ended half the continent away, on the wind swept mesas of HOPI, where I would wind up married to a KACHINA carver and adopted by his tribe. When the KACHINA/EGUNGUN danced, I “understood” the drums, the guttural chants. When I danced for the first time myself, in the ancient plaza, with the other women, the rain came -- a blessing from the ancestors, who knew what my aunt had told me: “Black and red. . .black and red. This is who you are.” And so I ran with whirlwinds, in windstorms; stood in thunderstorms smiling as the drops hit my face. Wild, like someone else I knew. And someone else I did not know. But I knew other things: having suffered a miscarriage I went up to a windy mesa top ruin, as I often had before, and held sherds of ancient pottery in my hands, knowing the old ones would heal me, and send me a healthy child, if I prayed and fed them. And so my daughter was born, the next spring, eyes wide open, her frown too old for her face. Sassy eyes, like someone else I knew. And someone else I did not know. Months later, a teacher would arrive, a schoolteacher who would become another kind of teacher. She had lived in Brazil and studied CAMDOMBLE and UMBANDA, and she would say, “You act like OYA. . .” And the journey would become a conscious one then. And as if to encourage it, signs: A sultry woman’s voice, waking me up at dawn one morning, speaking my name so tenderly I almost wept to hear it. . .Lights going on at night, by themselves. . .An urge to collect and place sherds in my husband’s cornfield and garden; to make a circle of sherds and plant flowers, place found objects in it. . .My daughter’s toy spaceship, turning itself on, roaring loudly from a closet shelf too high for her to reach, and my daughter grinning up at it, once we opened the door, as if she knew what I knew (“Grandma wants to play,” I told her, before I knew what I was saying myself.). . . Listening to a Brazilian singer, Djavan, I asked my new teacher, “What is that chant there?” “That is to OCHOSI,” she said, smiling. “That is an ORISA song.” And she gave me a gift: an article by Luisah Teish to read. At the end of which was a phone number. I put it away until I began to build little altars without knowing what I was doing it for. I remembered something about altars from the article. And one Super Bowl Sunday after I had sat up all night rearranging one of them, I crept away from the KACHINA carver and his HOPI football fan friends, to see if Luisah would think I had lost my mind -- or found it, at last, as I did. AWO Fa’Lokun Fatunmbi heard me begin leaving a message, and interrupted it, telling me to tell him exactly what I had experienced. And his warm chuckles, as I did so, told me, “Yes. . .I’ve come home at last.” cont. on page 20
Page 1 and 2: OYA'S MARKETPLACE VOLUME 1 AUGUST 2
Page 3: OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 3 OLOKUN: MY
Page 7 and 8: OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 7 started in
Page 9 and 10: OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 9 I am BABAL
Page 11 and 12: OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 11 knew that
Page 13 and 14: OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 13 Tradition
Page 15 and 16: OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 15 compared
Page 17 and 18: OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 17 own sense
Page 19 and 20: OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 19 bondage.
Page 21 and 22: OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 21 TORTOISE
Page 23 and 24: OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 23 JOURNEY c
Page 25 and 26: OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 25 at her ho
Page 27 and 28: OYA'S MARKETPLACE PAGE 27 edition w

OYA'S MARKETPLACE - Oya N'Soro

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?