Orí: Our Essence

Orí is the spark or essence of Elédùmarè incarnate through us; it is a manifestation of our inherent relationship with the Creative Spirit. Ifá says we have God within in us and moving with us at all times. Our Orí is our guiding guardian Spirit at all times. Orí is our Spirit and it is an Òrìṣà as well. In Ifá it is said that, “Kò sí òrìṣà tin da nin gbe lehin orí eni”, which means that there is no Òrìṣà that can support one in the absence of their Orí. If ones Orí is not with you, there is no Òrìṣà that can support you. In other words if your indwelling Divine Essence does not support you, other energies and Divine Forces will not be able to converge in assisting you. This speaks to the fact that you have to honour yourself and your Spirit before any other Òrìṣà. Your Orí is the first Òrìṣà that came here with you and knows everything about you. Your Orí knows everything about your Ìpín which is your destiny. Ifá says, Orí iwọ ni mo silẹ̀ ayé, it is Orí that accompanies one to this material world. Orí is an embodiment and manifestation of pure divinity; it is your own personal divinity.

According to what Ifá says when all the Ìmàle including Orí were coming from the spiritual realm to the material realm. Orí was the one that gave Ìkín Ifá to Ọ̀rúnmìlà to use as a form of spiritual technology to access the ordering patterns of the Universe. Ọ̀rúnmìlà said, “what am I going to do with this?” Orí said, “you see all these Ìmàle they can’t find their way, they don't know where they are going. They have to come back to you to seek for guidance. This is what you will need to do and to use to guide them accordingly.” Hence the reason why they also call Ìkín Ifá, Oke Ìpọnrí which is also another name for ones forehead. Thus, we understand that it is Orí that gave Ìkín Ifá to Ọ̀rúnmìlà to guide other Ìmàle to align with their own personal Orí. Hence the reason when you are going to pray to Ifá you often use Ìkín to touch your head to symbolically and spiritually align with your Oke Ìpọnrí.

In truth everything starts with Orí because this particular Òrìṣà came to this realm with you. Orí will never leave you and will travel everywhere with you. If you are successful in life, it is because of your Orí. Orí is very very important, you can call it an Spirit, you can call it God, you can call it I AM, you can call it anything, but Orí that it is the essence of Elédùmarè within you. Your Orí is your first Òrìṣà and Ifá makes it known to us that Orí is faster than any other Òrìṣà in responding to ones demands. With Òrìṣà you have to wake them up to attend to you; you have to make that Ìmàle descend before you talk to them, but your Orí is always there with you. It is always waking, walking and working with you. There is no Òrìṣà that can bless one without the consent of their Orí. It is our Orí and our relationship to it that determines the quality of our connection to other Divine Forces and Energies.

Orí is unique in that it is both an individual divinity that a person has a unique relationship with and is also present within every aspects of creation - all Ìmàle have Orí. As a personalized divinity it is unique and defined from being to being. Our connection to Orí and our response to it will largely determine the success we attain in our life. When we meditate deeply at any point in time we are connecting with our Orí. After we have completed our physical existence and when we return back to the spirit realm, we will still have our Orí.

Our whole body and our head in particular is physical representation of our Orí. Our Orí can be understood in Western terms as our Oversoul, our High Self, our Innate Divinity, our Holy Guardian Angel, or our Spirt. Our Orí Inú is what we can call our inner self which is traditionally accessed through our belly button. Our Orí Inú encompasses the mind, but fundamentally it is our inner divine self which we would call our Soul. Orí Inú is our whole essence combined with our Soul, our mind, our thoughts and inner dialogue. It is the alignment between these interconnected forces which functions as a catalyst for our spiritual growth and success. 

When human beings left the spiritual realm to come to the physical realm in the pursuit of their life journey - we forgot most of what we are meant to accomplish here on Earth. Many of us end up spending most of our life trying to decipher our purpose. Our Ancestors understood this very well and developed spiritual technology as a means to empower human beings to reclaim intuitive knowledge and live a life of harmony and balance. Ancient rituals which are still preserved and practiced are used to align our energy with our Orí. This is also accomplished psychologically through the sharing of information revealed through Oracles. It is done ritually through various rites of passages at different ages. And it is done spiritually through the chanting of scared words and gathering of natural materials aimed at bringing one into alignment with their indwelling Divinity. The importance of nourishing the connection to our Orí on a regular basis is one of the corner stones of spiritual development in the Ifá tradition. Our life is governed by different spirits and our relationship and attentiveness to those spiritual influences determines the quality of our experiences. Consistent Orí veneration is the key to maintaining alignment with our indwelling creative spirit. 

In the Ifá tradition, Orí is ritually feed with key items to accomplish specific outcomes. But the “feeding” and nourishment of our Orí is not limited to food and drink alone. When we sit in meditation and connect to our innate nature, we nourish our Orí, when we ritually wash our head and body, we nourish our Orí, when we chant prayers to divine self, we nourish our Orí, when we seek out spiritual guidance from time to time, we nourish our Orí, when we hold our head in earnest prayer, we nourish our Orí, when we make the time to invest in our self development, we nourish our Orí, when we heal those parts of our self that are fragmented, we nourish our Orí, and when we observe our spiritual taboos and avoid unhealthy behaviours, we nourish our Orí. Essentially how we treat and speak to ourselves internally will affect the level of nourishment we provide to our Orí. 

Truly, how connected we our to our Orí and what level of relationship we have to our indwelling God determines our collective response to life. When we act out in ways that are contrary or incompatible to our Orí we open ourselves to greater obstacles and set ourselves up for more frequent disappointments. Essentially we want our Orí to work and fight for us rather than against us; this is how we are ensured we are following the right path and making the right decisions that are in alignment with our Destiny.

Based on the teachings of Ifá, there exists a strong connection between Ọ̀rúnmìlà, Orí, and Ifá. When someone consults with Ọ̀rúnmìlà, Ọ̀rúnmìlà makes sure that the prescribed offering is appropriate and applicable in the life of the client. Ifá may reveal a need for the person to appease their Orí. Hence, the reason that when Ìrúbo is being done, one must also appease Orí because the success of any ritual or petition to the divine starts from how well ones Orí is aligned with the process. If ones Orí is not balanced, the Babaláwo will first seek to balance a persons inner and outer self by way of cleansing and appeasing ones Orí during the Ẹbọ before the offering is finally accepted by the Universe. There is no way ones offering will be accepted and manifest favourably in the life of the person without the consent of their Orí. Once this is successful, only then can additional Ìmàle be petitioned to intervene successfully in the life of the person.

Aboru Aboye.

~ Ifawuyi Opeifa