Ori: Your Personal Orisa

Ile Ori - House of Ori. This is an ori shrine.

Have you seen that beautiful big full moon was hanging around earlier this week?  As I walked to the train a few mornings ago on my way to way to work I was amazed at the sight of the silver full moon in the sweet light of dawn.  I love when nature takes me by surprise!

This morning, before I left the house, I was reflecting on some recent life lessons.  I have realized how much I don’t rely on my ori.  The ori, in Yoruba cosmology, is one’s own personal orisa.  Some people have likened the ori to the conscience, that small voice in your head that tells you right from wrong.  And while that is true, the ori is much more than that.  The ori is your guiding consciousness.  In Yoruba cosmology, before we incarnate, we make an agreement before Olodumare (God) about our destiny, about what we will accomplish on this earth.  Though we do not hold the information regarding this agreement in our conscious mind it is the ori that houses this information and it is through ritual that this information is unlocked and accessed.

All my life, I have worried about being too judgmental.  No one ever told me I was judgmental (from what I can remember) but I always worried that I may unjustly write someone off.  So even though I would clearly see that someone was bad news, was a liar, was sneaky, etc. I would still think to myself, “Maybe I am being too quick to judge,” or “Maybe I am not seeing things clearly.”  And, inevitably, I would get done in by the very person that I saw major red flags around.

Why do I do this to myself?

This past summer I was at a drumming and Osun came down and told me that she did not give me a crown so that I can run around confused.  I definitely resonated with that because, that very weekend, I found myself overwhelmed by someone around me whose negative intentions towards me were becoming more and more clear.  And yet, more recently, I found myself in a similar situation where the actions of someone around me made me very uncomfortable and I was unsure of whether or not I was being judgmental.

I realize that I have to begin to take the advice I often give to others:  If something doesn’t seem right, it ain’t right!  I am coming to understand how absolutely necessary it is for me to listen to my ori, as my ori carries the information needed for me to fulfill my destiny.   Ultimately, it is fear of disapproval of others that drives me to go against what I am thinking and feeling, and what I ultimately know, about a given person or situation.  My ori has never steered me wrong and I need to trust in it!

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