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The Yoruba Religion and Initiations
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Yamaya Cruz
Within the last two centuries, African based religions such as Candomblé, Vodun, and Yoruba have gotten a bad reputation, partly because of the practice of witchcraft. There are all kinds of wives tells about voodoo and brujeria. As a result, many people become "part-time" believers, flocking to African based religions only when other religions have failed them. This has resulted in people looking for a quick fix, or ways to assuage their immediate needs and desires. This way of thinking is not what Yoruba is about. Yoruba as a religion guides people back to their true nature through practice and initiations. Getting back to your true nature means aligning your earthly consciousness with your heavenly consciousness. But so many of us live just to fulfill our immediate needs. We become hustlers, swindlers, liars, and cheaters, without understanding that we have to experience the consequences of both our intentions and actions. If we constantly put out negative energy, we will constantly receive negative energy. This results in the hamster wheel effect, where we re-create the same experiences and situations over and over again until we learn from our mistakes. The initiation process in Yoruba helps us to break the cycles of reincarnation by elevating us to a heavenly consciousness, where we can have direct communication with higher powers. Of course, these higher powers would be the Orishas. I like to think of the initiation process as being a journey to enlightenment, or in other words, a way to increase our bandwidth. We all want the ability to be able to "talk" to the Orishas. However, we have to develop physically, mentally, and spiritually in order to do that. Ilekes is the first process for the novice. Ilekes are religious beads that mark the first level of commitment made by the novice. Five Ilekes are presented ceremoniously to the initiate, with each one representing a particular Orisha. Initiates are giving a white Illekes for Obatala, black and red for Eshu-Elegba, yellow for Oshun, blue for Yemaya, and red and white for Shango. Receiving the Ilekes gives people limited access to the Orishas. It's almost like having a cheap cell phone plan. You don't have a lot of bandwidth or reception, you only get so many minutes, and the signal is weak and unclear.The second initiation process is receiving the Ajagun or the warriors. The ajagun are comprised of Elegba, Ogun, Oshoosi, and Oshun. Their function is to protect the initiate from destruction from opposing spiritual forces (ajogan). This initiation process allows you to have better reception. It is like having free nights, weekends, and carry-over minutes. The third and the fourth stage of initiation deal more with the initiate and their relationship with Orunmila. The initiate is instructed on how to use the Odu, on how to pray using the Ikin, and on how to call on the Orishas for worldly assistance and spiritual elevation. The Elehan is the last stage in the initiation process where you are deemed ready to serve as a priest/priestess of the religion. This is the state of realignment between your earthly and heavenly consciousness. In these last stages of development, you have unlimited band-with. You have good communication with the Orishas because the signal is crisp and clear. It's like having a plan with unlimited calling, text, and face-to-face communication. The whole concept of initiations in Yoruba is development. The stages of initiations allow you to elevate to points where you are stronger, mentally, physically, and spiritually. The initiations allow you to increase your bandwidth, so you can receive stronger signals, and thus have better communication with the Orishas.
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Author Resource:-
amaya Cruz is the author of When The Shadows Began To Dance. She writes about African spirituality, chakra healing, shamanism and much more. For more information go to http://www.newafricanspirituality.com Watch Mad Ship (2012) Online Free HD Quality Watch Gangsters, Guns & Zombies (2012) Online Free HD Quality Watch Cool Kids Don't Cry (2012) Online Free HD Quality Watch Heathens and Thieves (2012) Online Free HD Quality Watch Jason and the Argonauts: The Kingdom of Hades (2012) Online Free HD Quality
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