Highlights From an Obatala Initiation and the Descent of the Deity

Good day to every one, this is a short post (I will be very busy today) with the highlights of one of the initiations done the other day. This one that I am showing today is that of initiation to Orisa Obatala. I love this Orisa so much. The man of peace, the wise man, the Orisa who was given the task to create man. To the person who left a comment this morning about Jesus is the only way, please to low mi site and gwey. Go warn pon bus or preach in church, but do not come on my blog like yuh ah fling wud. I respect everyone’s religion, but your comment was not coming from a good place, so nuh mek mi fling mi cyber frock ova mi head and tell yuh some claat.

I will be writing on initiations and the tradition of Ifa/Orisa this week as many people still do not understand it, and the reasons why it is important, once you are led to it or if the oracle has appointed you for it. We (people of African descent) have been robbed of not only of our selves, but of our consciousness, our path, our development as conscious beings, born into the  wealth of a great and  extensive African Spiritual system, a legacy left for us by the ancients, one that should never have been cast away or denied. We have been taught and have even accepted that our people are barbarians, and that our traditions are archaic, likened to evil and also that we are “Devil” worshipers. A ploy set to lure the minds away from the wealth of knowledge God almighty has blessed us with. Religion, man made religion, has now taken deep root into the minds of the African unconscious and has rendered him foolish to say the least. I cannot wake everyone up, and it is not my intention to do so. I will however, shake the ones asleep or in deep slumber, until they begin to stir, slowly waking up themselves. I was jarred awake, and I had to struggle to stay awake, and so I woke my children up, and I pray they do they same to theirs when the time comes.

Above is a video of the first and second day of the initiation, snippets of both for the sake of space and time. Here the drummings, dancing, and all ecstatic behaviors are for the invocation and invitation of the deity to come. During initiation, the initiate is being joined through her consciousness with the deity who accompanied her to this earth realm. The deity in this case being Obatala, has his signature written into her destiny book called Odu. The manifestation of the deity during this important initiation will come through all those who are initiated to him or those who have the Ase (power of the deity through initiation) of this magnificent Orisa. In words described for your better understanding, we can the call the initiate two things: A bride who is being introduced to her husband at the marriage ceremony, or, I prefer this analogy, a child being born to it’s parent.

All the Olorisa people that you will see dancing in the video above are powerful Iyalorisas who have performed many initiations and as such have the sacred knowledge on how to appease, venerate, and invoke Obatala and his generals and all other Orisa’s who will also be non-physical partakers of this extremely important event. There are questions that you will ask that I may not be able to answer because of sacred knowledge that must be kept as such. But do not allow that to dissuade you from asking, I will answer what I can.

@1:03 one of the Iyalorisa’s became possessed at the arrival of the deity. Notice the other Iyalorisa’s attending to her and trying to get her back to herself. When one is possessed by an Orisa, we have to wait while holding the possessed person from not falling, until the Orisa has released the person unlike spirit where we can drive it out, Orisa can never be driven out, they have to leave by themselves.

The point of this particular video of the rituatlistic dancing and singing that you’re seeing is to get the Orisa to mount the initiate, therefore placing his Ase (power particular that Orisa) within her consciousness. When this occurs the initiate has now become Obatala incarnated, or a representative of Obatala here on earth. It is very important for all of you to know that if you are to be initiated to a particular Orisa, it must be done by the person who has the Ase of the Orisa, in other words, a Babalawo who has never initiated Obatala can not initiate someone into the mysteries of this Orisa. Why? Because he has not the Ase of this deity. Therefore he has nothing to pass.

@1:03 when the Iyalorisa is possessed, notice the new initiate who has not been possessed as yet is brought over to the Iyalorisa who is possessed. This is because the Orisa Obatala has arrived and so she is brought in way of introduction to him, in hope that he would soon also mount the new initiate, for which all of this is being done for. The Ase must be passed on to her, and this is the only way it can.

@1:55 the new initiate becomes mounted by the spectacular Obatala. He has arrived! She is now an initiate since he has come and has consecrated her with his presence. There are many things happening here that the human eyes or rather the eyes of the non-initiated can not see or understand. She is being born again. From this day she will know who she is, where she’s from, her name from whence she came, the Obatala or the light in which she came, the name of that, and all other things that she will keep forever. She has now become fully into her own life as a new initiate, one that has experienced the possession of this great deity.

Watching the video, please realise that it took her some time before possession could happen. This also happened with me. And it shows me that she is spiritually strong. People who are spiritually strong, unless they are born mediums, do not become possessed easily or quickly. Possession occurs when the person in the physical self has relaxed to a point where the portals, of which there are seven within the body, are opened enough for the spirit or for the Orisa to come through. Almost like a mother giving birth, she must dilate 10 centimeters before the child can come through the womb. However, in this case, it is the Orisa that will enter most likely through the crown of the head or where ever they see fit.

Possession when it occurs makes the person possessed know and is aware of who they are, but they are unable to control their movements or actions. They most often feel detached from themselves. Almost like an out of body experience. At least, this was my experience. When I asked the young lady what she felt, she told me “she felt and saw only darkness.” She said she “was aware of nothing.” But the feeling was not unpleasant.

Notice within the video that all the women, including the initiate, were girted by the waist with a particular cloth. This is for balance and also for them to be handled easier if and when possession should come, the others would have something to hold onto so that they would not fall.

Those orbs you see in the photo above are not stars, people. Those are spirits! Yes the camera captured them.

I will add more pictures later.

Obara Meji

“What can be seen can be changed”…..Obara Meji

“Everything happens for a reason and Everything comes when it must”….Obara Meji

Mímì lẹpọ̀n àgbò ńmì, kò lè já. /

The ram’s testicles are merely dangling, they cannot fall off….Yoruba Proverb!