The Energy Paradigm of Ifa

The inspiration for this post came today after browsing through some videos of my favorite modern spiritual philosphers. I stumbled upon a video clip of Dr. David R. Hawkins, Ph.D, author of the fascinating book, Power vs. Force - a favorite of mine in which Dr. Hawkins examines kinesiology and consciousness.

In the short video, he comments on the unfortunate trend we have seen in practitioners in all spiritual disciplines… the “intellectual” learning of truths as opposed to the empirical learning of truth… being passed down as empirical knowledge. Dr. Hawkins explains:

“The difficulty with reading and becoming intellectually familiar with spiritual realities long before you’re ready for them, is that they become a ‘program’… so it’s an indoctrination of a program… ‘Oh I have to pursue my higher self’ - What do you mean by your higher self? You don’t even know what you’re talking about, your ‘higher self’. They throw these terms around.

If we were to establish a real institution for spiritual learning, I would not present any of the data prematurely; in other words, let the person come to the awareness that is the next step to them, help them remove the step, because if you read it in advance, it now becomes a program - so they become indoctrinated. And the paradox is, that what they’re indoctrinated with IS the truth, but they’re holding it as a belief system, rather than an experiential, subjective reality.”

This is what so many practitioners - of all kinds of belief systems - are selling to the public, programmatic indoctrination. Why? Because reading a book and memorizing doctrine is the fastest and easiest way to making a dollar off of that information, as opposed to taking in the appropriate learnings first and then doing the individual work and growth necessary to realize our own experience, and make our own connections. Absorbing truths that others have gleaned through their own spiritual efforts, their individual blood, sweat, and tears of living a self-aware life - the learner of these truths is not actually *arriving* at the truths himself, and is missing out on the most crucial aspect of growth - which is making the necessary energetic, emotional, and spiritual connections within their being that are the end result of finding these truths empirically. This is not to say that there aren’t important learnings that must be received and digested - and that intellectual work isn’t needed in spiritual growth - for sure, they are. And in Ifa, there are many direct teachings that we must learn, and memorize, in order to be proficient priests and diviners. It is unfortunately, though, the hallmark of the modern babalawo, or orisa initiate who has paid for an initiation, read a book on Ifa and memorized the odu, and started divining - to immediately claim to be a skilled diviner and asking others to entrust him with their growth, their lives, their happiness. Without one’s empirical knowledge of the odu and associated energies (after doing the necessary intellectual study and work to learn the mechanics), one is operating from others’ truths, gleaned from others’ direct energetic connections - while his own divination is dependent upon his own energetic connections, which have not yet been established. Many people do not understand this aspect of advanced divination, and fall prey to the money-motivated diviner who impresses with his odu verse recitations. Dr. Hawkins’ explanation of experiential truth has many implications.

In terms of experiential truths, I have had my own ah-ha moments - realizations of truth because I have arrived at it, as opposed to having read it somewhere and intellectually grasped the concept (though again, for any spiritual path, there is always foundational work to be done in the intellectual and study realm). Sometimes, which is actually really amusing and rewarding, I realize that I have actually read someone’s description of such a truth before, but that it hadn’t held cellular meaning for me at the time. That happened for me this once year (please note that I mention once this year… deep truths do not come along every week, unlike what modern spiritual pop culture would like us to believe). I was talking with a friend of mine, catching up after not having seen each other in many months - during which I had a handful of major life transitions beginning (and naturally, I had many unanswered questions). I said to her “You know, I’ve finally realized that life is really just about learning to live while not having the answers. We actually just *live* the answers.”

I didn’t realize I had figured that one out until the words came out of my mouth.

I meant that while we try and try to find the answers to questions that are rightfully so important (such as who we want to be in relationship with, where we want to live, what we want to do for work, whether to change jobs, etc.) - we continue living. We get up, do our work, relate to our family and partners, pay the bills… while the big questions remain unanswered. Life is figuring out how to live amidst this… which then always, eventually, leads to the questions being answered.

And this is what I mean by “we live the answers”. Since I’ve realized this on an experiential, cellular level, I no longer feel anxiety around not having all of the answers to the questions *I* think need to be answered, because the universe, and our destiny, often have a plan that unfolds on a different schedule than what we would prefer… or feel most comfortable with. Living with this discomfort, finding our own inner strength amidst it, finding meaning in other aspects of living… are all such amazing journeys - and when this is actually *lived*, not read in a book, it is so much more juicy, alive, and potent. I have learned - through my subjective experience - that life isn’t about finding the answers, but about living into them… it has been one of the most amazing realizations of my life.

Back to my conversation with my friend. After I told her all of this, she said “Yeah, that’s like the Rilke quote - you know, the one about loving the questions?”

The quote:

“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke

I thought for a bit, and realized that she was referring to a quote I knew that I had read sometime in my life - but hadn’t directly connected to in an experiential way. In fact, I had only read it, thinking “wow, that’s really enlightened, what a great way to live.” But that’s not what gave me my Truth - with a capital T.

It was living it myself, finding the Truth myself, on my own, making my own connections, and then re-telling it in my own words. Clearly, they weren’t as poetic as Rilke’s. But realizing that I could now truly understand, for the first time, what Rilke was talking about - and, what he must have lived through to have earned that empirical wisdom - because I had reached the same conclusion on my own. This has been poetry in and of itself.

Knowing these “Truths” come so rarely and take so much life work and challenge (not to mention that you really ever know when they’re coming) .. I am aware of just how much of a student I am - and always will be.

Feel free to view the video of Dr. Hawkins on YouTube.

I began my journey into Ifa in the way many, and perhaps most Westerners become exposed, through the Lukumi path. A friend of a friend suggested I go for a “shell reading” (the diloggun) about some life changes I was having at the time, and from that point on I became fascinated, drawn, and intensely compelled to study any and all things related to the Yoruba culture after having learned that Santeria was a syncretic religion that had its roots in Ifa (which were then dipped in Catholicism). Over the next five years, I became an ardent student of Lukumi, received my guardian Orisa and at least fifteen other Orisa, received the knife (Pinaldo), received hundreds of shell readings and head cleansings, studied the 256 sacred Odu ardently, and began to divine using both Obi (coconut) and the cowries.

Readings done by my Padrino (my “grandfather,” or the person who initiated me into his cabilda, or house), were often for the purpose of finding out whether or not I would be with a certain person as my partner, often with the focus on how to nurse the process along by making offerings, or to find out if this recent disagreement would result in our relationship ending, and if so, what offerings or ceremonies could be done to prevent it. Or, they were for the purpose of “getting” new clients for my small business (by way of offerings), or prevent some kind of demise (by way of offerings). They were always tinged with a sense of “something” out there looming to get me if I didn’t act or behave properly, for example any given struggle was likely the result of having “angered” an Orisa, and this was my punishment - and if I didn’t remedy it with an offering or ceremony of some kind, it would get worse. Readings weren’t focused on whether (and why) things I thought I wanted or needed would in fact be *good* for me, or lead me toward fulfilling my life path.

I continued with Lukumi for a couple of reasons. Number one, my certainty around being deeply connected to the Orisa was unwavering. This pure sense of knowing kept me connected to the roots, the fundamentals (Ifa) of the belief system (I was, however, not even scratching the surface of the Ifa path - I will elaborate more on this in another post). In addition, the readings were always very accurate - my Padrino was a very skilled diviner, using his paradigm - which I bought into - and the accuracy of his readings and predictions, and the results of the offerings and ceremonies, only fed to strengthen my belief in (and ultimately, my dependency upon), the religion. The biggest reason, however, that I continued to participate, was something much deeper than I could consciously examine at the time - something extremely problematic, which in the long run, proved to be so fundamentally destructive to my sense of self as an empowered individual, that once I realized it, I went through a monumental shift of perspective that catapulted me into a painful and confused state of deep spiritual crisis.

What kept me there was, I humbly admit, fear.

Fear of the “wrath” of Osun if I didn’t do something properly, whether it was an offering done at the wrong time of day or with the wrong amount of honey, or if I didn’t remember to honor her in some way; it was fear of the wrath of the Egun (ancestors) if I didn’t do an offering on a Monday; fear that if all of a sudden things seemed to get challenging in my life, that I had done something wrong and had to spend hundreds, or thousands of dollars to prevent the Orisa from continuing to punish me. Simultaneously, I feared never gaining wisdom beyond “fixing” things or dealing with difficulty after the fact. I didn’t have a steady development of learnings from my readings, just “fixes”… for despite my steady inquiry into divination practices, there was always the answer of “one day soon” or “I don’t have time today”..

I had become incredibly dependent upon the readings to make decisions in my life (without even understanding “why” I was being guided in the directions I was, how the answers were meaningful and how I could then use them to increase my own wisdom), which then led to my fearing what would happen if my Padrino disappeared - if I lost him in some way - I worried that I wouldn’t know how to navigate all of the challenges of life. For a time, I was entirely blind to this feeling; and then once I became aware of it, I then didn’t know what to do with it, as I felt completely powerless, so I denied it. But denial only worked to increase the strength of the fear, and so I tried harder to learn from him the deeper intricacies of divination (of which, at that stage of my understanding and knowledge, I thought there were many with the diloggun/cowrie shells). However, as fate, and the universe, would have it, the harder I tried to learn to become self-sufficient, the less and less available my Padrino became, which only increased my unease and sense of helplessness, which then reached a crescendo. I knew it was time for a very big change in my life. Although my Padrino was a wonderful person, with a beautiful heart (an experience that unfortunately many Lukumi followers do not even have the fortune to find)… I came to realize that his paradigm was one that I was outgrowing. And so, I dug deeper into the soil that bore the offshoot Lukumi system - and discovered Ifa. And what a ride it was going to be….

This is a great video of the many wonders of mother nature….

For those of you residing in the Washington, DC area, you might want to stop by the National Museum of African Art and take in this wonderful presentation, a widely-acclaimed West African Art Exhibit consisting of one of the most widely appreciated and respected private collections of African Art, the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection.

Consisting of 525 pieces of mainly West African art, this collection was donated to the Smithsonian in 2005 by The Walt Disney company (sold to them by the Tishmans in 1984), and later the collection moved to the National Museum of African Art. The collection includes many pieces of Yoruba art, including masks, armlets, staffs and Ifa divination tools, as well as representations from the Edo and Dogon peoples. It was this collection that was used as inspiration for the film and theater productions of The Lion King.

Also, some recent books by Dr. Goswami:

I’ve recently come in contact with many people interested in exploring Ifa and Orisa worship, but not sure where and how to begin - and so I write this to hopefully give some of you who are in the same boat some guidance on how to begin your journey. It is important to understand that Ifa is an all-encompassing paradigm, one that addresses all aspects of existence - it truly is a complete cosmology. And so there are many pieces of the Ifa “jigsaw puzzle” - all of which fit together to form a larger picture, in your life. I will explain for a bit here what many of these pieces consist of, and how to begin understanding them. Let’s assume that you don’t want to invest any money in divination or having your life path/Guardian Orisa read for you just yet, but you simply want to learn more. One of the best places to begin is within.. by asking yourself what energies you resonate with. More specifically, many of us feel drawn to one particular energetic aspect of nature - perhaps the ocean, the rivers, the high mountains, the quiet, serene woods - and each Orisa energy resonates to its own particular aspect of nature as well. One great way to get in touch with Orisa energy, to actually feel it, is to connect with it in a direct, literal sense in its particular physical manifestation.

For Osun, you may go to a river or stream and feel the movement… the snap and crackling sound of lapping water… and the joy that this refreshing element brings. For Orisa Oko, you may visit open farmland, fields that are being worked by hand and machinery, to connect to the energy of bringing order to chaos - the harnessing of nature’s powers to produce fruit and vegetables. Where can you learn about the Orisa energies? Ideally, from a well-trained Ifa priest… keep in mind that you don’t always have to offer “cash” in exchange for teachings or divination, there are many other forms of currency, such as gifts or service. In fact, when we do volunteer work, contribute to our communities, we are in fact making sacrifice, or ebbo - to Oludumare. Keep this in mind.

There are a handful of quality books available that can provide the basic energies associated with the Orisa. I recommend The Way of the Orisa, which you can visit at Amazon.com below.. There is also an updated version of this book, which is not available through Amazon, but directly from Philip Neimark’s web site: The Way of the Orisa Part 2.

If you are interested in knowing your Guardian Orisa, this can be determined by a skilled Ifa Priest, in a divination session using the ikin (not the caracoles or cowrie shells - the inaccuracies of which have resulted in many mis-read and mis-crowned Guardian Orisa). In this reading you will also discover your life path odu - which will tell you the energies needed for success in both your temporal and emotional areas of life. Your Guardian Orisa is the energy you chose at birth to best help you achieve your destiny. From your reading, you should also learn how to set up an Orisa shrine, honor and connect to your Guardian Orisa, and the related offerings and cleansings that will be useful to you as a “child” of that Orisa.

Another aspect of Ifa worship is ancestor (eggun) worship. It is just as important as your Orisa devotion - your ancestral connections are your direct connection to the source of your physical manifestation in the here and now, and so provide you with the connection to the energy matrix of your destiny. In addition to all of our blood relatives, we have one particular ancestor, called our Guardian Ancestor, who travels with us on our path throughout our lifetimes. Determining the identity of this ancestor is also the job of the Ifa Priest. It is likely that you already feel a very strong connection with a blood relative from the past, one who you never knew - this could be your Guardian Ancestor, or could be a close relative to the one who is.

Divination is another component to familiarize yourself with, as Ifa divination is used as the guidemap by which we navigate our lives toward our destiny, aided by the strength we gain by connecting to our ancestors, and by connecting to and using the energy of our Guardian Orisa. Divination helps guide and re-balance us when we are off path, and helps to keep us grounded and moving in the right direction when we are on path. Divination is used for much deeper, transformational work than “will I win the lottery next week” - something that is simply asking for a way out of working, being accountable, and developing good character. Divination by a skilled Ifa Priest, that is. A diviner is only as good as the questions he/she asks.

And so you can start your journey into Ifa by inquiring into the Orisa and connecting to their respective energies in nature (perhaps setting up a shrine or two in your own home); you can begin by setting up an altar to your ancestors, a place where you can focus your energy and connection to your deceased relatives; or you can begin by having your life path/Guardian Orisa/Guardian Ancestor divined for you by a trained diviner. In any event, your ability to grow, strengthen your character, and live a well balanced, meaningful life will depend on each and every aspect outlined here, and more. It will require a commitment on your part to self-reflection, self-knowledge, humility, and doing the work. And each one of the pieces of the Ifa jigsaw puzzle fits together, in a lifetime’s worth of deliberation, to slowly… yet beautifully… create the colorful, rich texture of your life on this side.

A favorite quote of mine from Phil Neimark is:

And so one factor to remember in Ifa divination (or any form of divination, for that matter) is that it is very, very important to ask questions which will ultimately provide answers - information - that will help lead an individual to greater personal empowerment, accountability, and transformation. A simple example of this is to consider the question of a client who wants to know whether or not a potential mate, perhaps someone who they have already met, will become their “partner”. This question, certainly, can be asked. The same goes for “will I get the job?” or “will I get the house I’ve put in an offer for?”. And while asking about the outcome of events can be a very important and powerful component of divination, if it is not precluded by - or does not include - a thorough analysis of what is in the best interest of the questioner (client), the divination session fails to achieve the objectives of Ifa - personal growth, development of good character and achieving one’s destiny.

Instead of asking “will I”, the better question would be “should I” or, perhaps, “would it be best for me to…”. The universe knows what is going on, and what is best. And often - in fact, more often than not - what we want is not what we need for our spiritual development, when in Western society instant gratification and getting what we want when we want it have become paramount - favored over patience, learning, and development of good character.

Often times we don’t want to do the work - the business of feeling what we’re feeling and figuring out how to handle those feelings, how to grow beyond our patterning - is just too difficult (and it is difficult) - and so instead, we continue to want external distractions, whether they come from a relationship, a job, a hectic lifestyle.. when perhaps what we need is to pause and reflect… and approach questioning in divination that leads us most directly to the most important answers (not necessarily the answers we want to hear!). From there, more wisdom, strength of character, and valuable guidance will flow.

For more on the topic of asking questions in Ifa Divination, visit the Ifa Foundation’s article on babalawos and divination

At the moment I am reading a very fascinating book,
The Quantum Doctor, by Amit Goswami, Ph.D. Reading Dr. Goswami’s reasoning behind his argument for “integral medicine” - that is, the integration of what we consider to be “traditional” or conventional medicine with what have come to be known as “alternative” medicine (Mind-body, Homeopathy, Chinese, Ayurveda, and Spiritual healing) has illuminated for me some very interesting considerations around the process and effects of Orisa and Ifa initiation, as they relate to (or how they can potentially be substantiated, or at least informed by) quantum physics, consciousness and the vital body. And while I am certainly no physicist (I’m still attempting to fully digest many concepts that the average quantum phsyicist likely considers to be at the level of multiplication tables), I feel enough implication in what I am reading to share my thoughts on what seem to be very resonant concepts.

After both my guardian Orisa initiation and my initiation into Ifa, profound internal changes took place that were both immediate (and observable within myself and externally experienced by others) and latent (continuing to occur over time, the effects of which are clearly also nurtured and expanded upon by my continued divination and ongoing worship - or participation - in the ongoing energy exchange). And specifically, after my Ifa initiation, my ability to connect empirically - on a direct, perceivable, cellular level with the energies increased dramatically (as measured by my own experience, a combination of the physical, the mind, and the vital), and continues to do so.

I will exclude examining the impact of ongoing Ifa worship (intentional connection to specific Ifa energy patterns, as represented by Orisa and Odu, for example, through divination, ritual, and intention), which I believe is made more profound, the connection more direct, through and after initiation. Instead I will focus on considering the possibilities for why, and how, such profound changes take place after initiations in the first place. Because for most, if not all initiates, profound changes do in fact occur - on many levels - so here I am wearing the quantum physicist/integral science/Ifa priest hat in an effort to deepen my understanding and enrich my world view (some of my favorite things to do…). And perhaps, I can help you take a first step in doing the same.

In introducing his book, Dr. Goswami goes to great lengths to describe the difference one’s worldview makes in the practice of medicine (I argue that one’s worldview makes a difference in every single action - and non-action - one performs in his/her lifetime, and it is one’s worldview that is the ultimate creator of one’s reality). He then continues to explain:

“Easterners, in their healing practices, use such concepts as the flow of chi in Chinese medicine or prana in Ayurveda. When you read ancient treatises it is clear what chi or prana is - some sort of energy, but nonphysical. But when you read more modern expositions of these subjects, especially in the West, my experience is that nobody is very clear on what chi or prana means. It is left vague whether chi or prana is a physical or nonphysical entity.”

“…Some look at subtle energy as an emergent phenomenon of the living cells and organisms of the body. Others think of subtle energy as energy of a higher frequency than gross energy. Other more maverick researchers explore the idea of ‘electromagnetic body’ overlaying the usual ‘biochemical’ body to explain the intricacies of subtle energy. But one has to go no further than to consider homeopathy to convince oneself that there have to be nonphysical agents at play in healing, at least in some cases of healing. In homeopathy, a medicinal substance is applied (orally) in such dilute proportion that scientific calculations show without a doubt that at most potencies not one molecule of the original substance may find its way to the seat of the disease. And yet the success of homeopathy seems to hold up, even in double-blind clinical trials. And oh yes: These trials prove that homeopathy is not a placebo (sugar pills). So if the efficacy of homeopathy is true, then there must be agents of healing that are nonphysical! We have to come to terms with this idea of nonphysical agents of healing.”

I choose these excerpts to set the stage for understanding “nonphysical agents” at play in the functioning, formation, and transformation of the body - something that has become widely accepted by those practicing, and those receiving treatments from, alternative medicine areas of medicine. I believe it is these nonphysical agents, comprised of, or comprising, the vital energy of the body (the vital body), that are profoundly affected during initiation by way of coming into contact with the powerful, concentrated energy of a highly trained Ifa priest. And the mechanism for contact is the priest’s projection of vital energy through a combination of focused intention, energetic triangulation, and direct physical contact on the crown of the head, or what Eastern medicine refers to as the crown chakra.

“It is well known that there are places in the physical body where we tend to feel vital energy most easily. These are called the chakra points. Now we see why. These are the points where representations are made of the vital onto the physical.”

As many Orisa worhippers know (”crowned” or not - and notice the irony) - the crown of the head is a very sensitive energy receptor, arguably the most receptive - and that is why it is the main contact point for cleansings, and for initiations.

The question that has always fascinated me is how, once initiated into Ifa, one achieves a more direct connection to energies one must connect with for divination, offering (ebbo), and ritual. Note, that I reserve differentiation here between “connecting” to these energies… and subsequently having the skill, experience, and wisdom to work with them as an effective diviner and priest of Ifa (also known as a Babalawo or Iyanifa). The first step simply is to receive that strengthening, that purifying, that concentrating of the connection - that is passed from Ifa priest to Ifa priest, generation after generation. In our Western mindset of “If I read a book on massage, I am suddenly a masseuse” - it is often challenging for us to imagine that there are certain things that are inaccessible to us by any means other than something like initiation, direct contact with the concentrated energy of a highly trained Ifa priest. And subsequently, that “knowledge” is as sufficient as “wisdom” - as while the former precludes the latter, wisdom is something that only experience can provide. And in Ifa, it seems this experience must also be guided by a highly trained Ifa teacher.

I am only part way through this book and I am sure there will be more insights to follow. But to close, I’d like to point out one more fascinating example Dr. Goswami explains about how nonphysical agents are directly involved in affecting the physical body:

“…Molecular biology could not explain the phenomenon of morphogenesis - how a single-celled embryo grows up to be a differentiated biological body of organs. An embryo expands by cell division, making an exact replica of itself with all the same DNA, the same genes. But in the adult body, the cells are differentiated as to their functions. For example, the liver cell functions differently from the brain cell. The proteins a cell makes determine cellular function; the genes have the code to make the proteins. In liver cells, the genes are being activated so as to make an entirely different set of proteins from brain cells, so there must be programs running the cells. But the source of the programs is not part of the DNA.”

“Sheldrake (1981) proposed an explanation of the hitherto unexplained phenomenon of morphogenesis in terms of nonphysical and nonlocal morphogenetic fields residing outside space and time. This clarifies the role of the vital body that now can be seen to be the abode of the morphogenetic fields as distinct from the physical… The philosopher Rudolph Steiner, as early as 1910, saw morphogenesis as the function of the vital body (which he referred to as the ‘etheric’ body).”

Fascinating, indeed.

Also, her recent book:

The ancient Yoruba ancestors considered Esu essential for the opening of any ceremony or offering (ebbo), as Esu is the absolute energy of opportunity, the energy of opening of doors and paths. Esu is also referred to as the energy of the crossroads, a place where many opportunities, or new paths and destinations, are available. There are thousands of tales in Yoruba mythology referring to how Esu became the messenger between Orisa and Oludumare (God, or the Creator), and the message being imparted underlines the reality that without creating the opportunity, of which Esu is the essence, nothing can move forward.

Due to the merging of core Ifa beliefs with Catholicism in the Santeria/Lucumi faiths, the mistake is often made in referring to Esu as the “devil”, as when one does not use their Esu energy with good character (negative energy), the resulting energetic imbalances can often be immediate and far-reaching in impact, potentially closing doors to opportunities in any or all other areas of life. It is for this reason that Esu has often been misconstrued as malevolent - whereas the nature of the energy itself is, always, benevolent - it is how it is used, or misused, that creates the equally positive, or negative, result.

The feet are the area of the body ruled by Esu, as it is our feet that lead us through doors and down the paths we choose. The number associated with Esu is 3, the colors are red and black, the corresponding day of the week is Saturday, the Yoruba direction for this energy is West, and the Odu path for Esu is Ose Tura.