I AM Akinwole

May the Wisdom of Obatala guide your thoughts, acts and SPEAKING.
Ashe!!!
I AM Akinwole, @ kingofwhitecloth@man.com

You are absolutely right! Christian Dior must have been his ancestor in order for this future babalawo to confess his love of designer frames. And Verizon Wireless must have been another ancestor. I can imagine his ancestors at night saying, can you hear me now? Of course the answer would be a resounding no.

Peace

I always love to hear that some fellow Ifa practitioner is slinging the mud. Because how else would you get those negative spirits in your life if you didn’t have the insulting “so called” babalawo’s to haunt you as if they have nothing better to do.

Maybe instead of slinging mud Mr. Christian Dior loving babalawo wannabe should be doing a little research into what our ancestors were worshiping instead of Christian Dior. I know that these days a lot and I mean a lot of our fellow Ifa people are too busy worshiping cars, clothes and of course Christian Dior to worship actual Orisha and ancestors.

Maybe you should cut our babalawo in the making some slack since Christian Dior could be one of his ancestors. And then we could all understand this ancestor worship. But if not then maybe he can explain why he pays more respect to Christian than to the Orisha he aims to serve through becoming a babalawo.

Good luck babalawo Dior I hope that you realize those designer frames and cell phones were never included in any pataki’s nor have I ever heard Olodumare or Orunmila reference either of those.

Thanks.

You claim I tried to make this personal and followed through with some personal attacks on my character in your last comment which I have rejected. Really, I couldn’t expect anything less from a future babalawo who thinks it’s acceptable to love Christian Dior sunglasses. You are the epitome of the traditional Yoruba teachings that does little to uplift people in the African Diaspora and a lot to promote materialistic consumption.

As far as you calling me a fat ass goes…please! Really, if that’s the best you can do then you really need to quit being so sensitive. It must be all of those “negative energies” of yours driving you to love Christian Dior which makes you act like such a little bitch. There are a lot of people who visit this blog that can teach you a thing or two about slinging unfounded insults. If you think me calling myself stout gives you a reason to call me a fat ass then I guess you admitting that you love designer frames gives me a reason to call you a cross dressing transvestite who loves to wear your mother’s clothes and stiletto heels at night.

You and your comments are no longer welcome here. Good luck with becoming the babalawo of designer frames.

Peace

Ifa in its purest form, before our African ancestors were introduced to concepts of money and economy, and especially before there were cellphones and Christian Dior, has absolutely nothing to do with materialism. For thousands of years Ifa existed for the sole purpose of guiding Africans in their spiritual development.

But now, Ifa as practiced by many who call themselves experts on the topic, is little more than the memorization of concepts that have no foundation or practical application in spiritual development. No one thinks about the fact there are babalawos who place so much emphasis on the procurement of some white man’s designer frames. How does the accumulation of wealth contributes to spirituality?

Peace

Okay I guess it is the destiny of the majority of humans to become a babalawo or some kind of Ifa priest. Obviously that must be the purpose of humanity. If this is the traditional way of thinking about this beautiful tradition, I am more than happy to leave it behind. Just about everybody I knew who got a reading back at my ile was told that they were destined to become a babalawo. Hell! I can tell everybody I meet on the street that they’re destined to become a babalawo.

But you, like a lot of people, think that your future profession, being a babalawo, will be more important than raising children. Like I said before, Esu doesn’t have to distract us off of our path. All we have to do is follow our love of baubles and trinkets like cellphones and Christian Dior designer frames and Comcast cable television and we’ll be off our path quicker than a kid whose father thinks his purpose in life is to become a babalawo and continue the spread the propaganda that natural spirits taught humanity how to farm.

I think it is cool that you want to become a babalawo. But you shouldn’t become a babalawo if the only reason you do it is that someone told you that was your destiny in a reading. Orunmila does not interfere with people’s right to choose who or what they want to be. No one ever comes out of a reading saying Orunmila said I’m going to be a lawyer or a doctor or a firefighter or an engineer. It’s always something to do with gaining a title in the tradition.

If you are “destined” to learn the ways of Ifa, whether it is based on a real understanding or one based on orthodox traditions, I strongly suggest that you learn to establish your own connection with spiritual entities. You will gain an appreciation for elders and Orisa and ancestors and Olodumare that are far superior than the rote concepts which most students of Ifa learn from their supposed spiritual elders. While the experience of those who have gone before us must be respected, the best spirituality is not based on the experience of others. The best wisdom comes from having a true, personal relationship with Orisa and ancestors.

I almost forgot! You said that Orisa taught humans how to farm. I’m assuming this is because if we did not farm we would not be able to survive. But how come every other animal on the planet can exist as a species without farming and survive? What gifts of knowledge has “natural spirits” given other species to enable them their survival mechanisms without farming?

Good luck in your future endeavors!

Peace

Human parents are more closely associated with other primates than with Orisa. The whole point of members of the animal kingdom is to be fruitful and multiply. In essence, it actually is your parents’ purpose to have children. The fact that our parents take their sweet time getting around to being parents does not mean their purpose is to take their sweet time getting around to being parents.

As humans we have complicated life so much that we actually think our purpose in life is to be doctors and lawyers and other professions. We have a tendency to judge each other based on what we do instead of who we are. We have developed complex economic systems to accumulate wealth and maximum profit and more materialism than the average person has any right to in order to develop a comfortable life. I think of how our African ancestors and our Native American ancestors lived simply off the land without the accumulation of such excesses and I wish we could go back to a style of living where it is all for one and one for all.

We now live in a culture where it’s every man for him self. And everybody has to work their hardest in this rat race. Other primates don’t enslave themselves to economics like we do. No other animal chooses to live its life so removed from nature. Generally speaking it is only the human species that have evolved so distant from its true roots. Because we have voluntarily brought so much osogbo into our lives, so much negativity, many of us look to our beliefs for relief. We think the solution to our problems lies in the supernatural realm instead of in our own hands.

But it is not the Orisas’ purpose to guide us through self inflicted trouble. When it comes to the relationship between the Orisas and humans, all we can expect is the guidance to develop our spirituality. As our spirituality matures we realize the materialism and the wealth and the other distractions that we think are important really don’t rate that high at all. When we develop our spirituality, we learn to keep perspective on the problems we normally think are so overwhelming.

All Orisas are here to help us in this endeavor of spirituality, especially Baba Esu. Esu opens the door that leads to the path of spiritual development. With so many people needing so much help getting their spirituality in order Esu has his work cut out for him trying to get all of us to go through that door. But instead of us acknowledging his contribution to our development, we blame Baba for our own bad choices. What incentive would Esu have to help us when we malign him so?

If Esu had the human taints many of us put on him we’d all be in trouble. Thankfully, Baba Esu, like all Orisas, is above the human weaknesses we constantly like to saddle them with. We say Orisas are great. We say that we appreciate their guidance. But then we say that the Orisa Esu cannot be trusted and that he spends his time luring us off of our path.

It doesn’t take an Orisa to distract humans. For the vast majority of us, all it takes is a shiny bauble or trinket to get us to lose sight of our true goals. All too often human spirituality is fragile and we our always looking for some type of prestige or status that we can hold over others to win their admiration. If this was Esu’s purpose he wouldn’t have to work very hard at all.

More people need to spend more time developing their own personal relationship with Orisa instead of relying on the tales and stories that traditional Ifa has passed down from generation to generation. We rely on conjecture and hearsay from our elders and other humans that we trust to know what they’re telling us. But when we take a moment to examine what they’re really saying it doesn’t take much to see that we are being sold tainted goods.

The only negative energies that impact our lives are the negative energies we as a community allow to impact our lives. As a collective, we can do so much better than this. We make the choice to take our spirituality for granted and allow our understanding of Orisa to be based on what others choose to believe about our spiritual guides. Until we learn to take better control of our spiritual development we will continue to be manipulated and we will continue to suffer negative energies as a result.

Peace

I am taking an opportunity to do some learning here. As a student of Ifa I have always said that we should always take advantage of opportunities to learn. You said that the Orisas are here to wage war against negative energies on our behalf. In essence, you are trying to tell me that the Orisas who have been here for millennia have been waiting patiently for humans to arrive to defend us. Where are they guiding us to? Please, explain what are the negative energies that the Orisas are warring against on our behalf.

Peace

But this is more evidence of humans trying to apply our experiences to Orisas. We learn that various Orisas are warriors. But when we truly stop and think about what we are actually learning or saying it is rather difficult to apply our concepts practically. You honestly believe that Orisas are here to wage war against negative energies? What do you mean by negative energies? Are negative energies the consequences of choices that we make for ourselves on our own volition? Are Orisas here to save us from the negativity that we bring to ourselves because of our poor choices? Who or what are the Orisas protecting mankind from? When Osun swells the river over its banks and drenches the home that the homeowner decided to build in land known to be a flood plain is that a negative influence?

Peace

But I must ask because this is the second time you have referenced the warrior aspect of an Orisa. Who do the Orisas go to war against?

Peace