By :
Yamaya Cruz
Yoruba, as a practice, a religion, a culture, and way of life, can be incredibly difficult to understand. Orunmila, a great prophet who lived approximately 5000 years ago in West Africa, taught the Yoruba people an advanced form of spiritual knowledge and ethics, known as the Odu. The Odu is a collection of 256 verses, each with its own collection of knowledge and wisdom. Many priest use the Odu for divination purposes, for they believe that the practice bridges the gap between the spiritual and physical world. Divination is a process of seeing how the past affects the future. This concept is known in both the Eastern and Western world as karma. Many people use the word karma pretty loosely. Suffice it to say that karma is a process where we re-create our experiences until we learn from our mistakes and walk down the path that God has created for us. Many people fail to realize that we carry karma from previous lives. We also carry karma from our lineage and family ties. Priests who interpret the Odu or use the Odu for divinations are looking for particular patterns and or mistakes in past and present lives. Then, they are able to guide initiates and Practioners down the right path to rectify a problem or reoccurring situation. The Odu acts as a tool or a religious script that morally guides people through life. Many of the participants in Yoruba and other African religions don't believe in the concept of good or bad. In fact, the concept of dualities is a rare form of thought that is used mainly in the Western world. African religions operate from a different paradigm. They believe that everything is good and bad. War is good for the people who win because they get the additional resources needed for survival, but bad for the losers, who end up with nothing. Good and bad are on different sides of the same coin, and one cannot exist without the other. Frederic Wiedermann sums up this concept by saying that Karma is the sum total of the consequences of all actions. This means that we cannot escape our karma. We must experience the positive and negative consequences of our actions. The Odu is a religious scripture that allows us to get feedback and guidance from a Godly force. The process of divination allows us to become conscious of our mistakes, patterns, and misdeeds, so we can learn from them and stop the cycles of reincarnation.
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