Copyright © 2024 Centre for the Traditional Yoruba Culture
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by Orígbèmí Web
Orí – the inner altar, a place where our destiny is shaped – is a principle that determines the course of human lives.
Orí is the foundation of our personality that determines our good and bad luck, and that is precisely why our Orí (the place in our head) is our most prized possession and the thing we should worship.
Orí is symbolically represented by our head. Our head is also the reference for our physical personality. In the physical world, Orí is responsible for all personality traits that we exhibit outwardly, including our good or bad character, our impatience, self-confidence, responsibility and lack thereof. Our Orí is the main reference for our spiritual and social identity; therefore, it is of great importance to take good care of it.
Destiny (or predestination) exists on two levels. On the one hand there are the things that are meant for us, and on the other there are the things that actually come to pass. Our efforts, our actions, everything we do in our life is what turns our destiny into reality and implements it. If we want our destiny to be realized, if we want the things that have been prophesied to take place, we have to be active. Unfortunately, we often see people in their forties of fifties who lack any direction in life. We also know people who had a lot of opportunities but failed to seize a single one. Some people would love nothing more than to be happy and enjoy their life, but somehow they cannot achieve that. Our Orí is being worshiped and taken care of in order for us to have spiritual balance, to recognize the right directions, and choose the right paths in life.
Orí is regarded as a divinity. Orí is, in fact, our individual god. Each of us has his or her own Orí, whether strong or not. Orí can join us in two ways: we either choose our destiny ourselves or something is meant for us to happen. Orí and human destiny are closely connected to time. Destiny is the reality. Our destiny determines what we are supposed to or what we are actually going to experience in life. There is no need for despair or anxiety. It is very important to take care of one’s Orí, to worship it and to talk to it. In this way we always find ourselves in the right place at the right time, ensuring our destiny unfolds in the most positive way. This enables us to have control over our life so that we are never too impulsive and are able to control our impatience. If we have more control over our own manifestation, we also gain more influence over the things that occur in our life. People who respect, value, and attend to their Orí never suffer from the lack of balance as they are very harmonious. The process of taking care of one’s Orí includes constant care of one’s spiritual energy and results in greater harmony. These are just a few facts about our Orí that apply to every individual depend entirely on us. If we wish to actively participate in the configuration of our own destiny, we have to change certain things, such as our way of thinking, our way of experiencing life.
Having a good destiny primarily depends on us, and the reduction of our suffering in life depends mainly on us as well. Human beings are not resistant to hardship. We have common sense, which helps us react to the suffering we experience – the suffering that we trigger ourselves and try to regulate using common sense. We are all born capable of making changes to reduce our own suffering, and this is the exact reason why we have to be in touch with our inner mind and ensure that everything functions perfectly. There are many people for whom every single thing seems to go wrong. They do not have a plan or any special intention. Things just happen to them. These peoples’ lives are on autopilot. Nothing is conditioned by their own activity. They do not think and are not in touch with their own life. Such people are guided only by the consequences in their lives. On the other hand, there are those who wish to overcome the difficulties and carve their own paths in life. Their ultimate goal is to get to know their Orí and work with it every single day. Orí is the one who helps us become the master of our destiny and the one who provides us with the necessary wisdom and intelligence to resolve things and to react to events in our lives in the right way.
My Orí is like my lover. He is a divinity. I embrace him in the morning, caress him, and ask for good things in my life – aloud, with a loving determination. Continue doing this regularly, and you will find out how very responsible you can be in your life. This is the first and the simplest way of worshiping our Orí. The other one is more demanding; we ask ourselves how to be more tolerant, more patient, how to find inner peace and obtain personal fulfillment. In the spiritual world we are always trying to teach people how to focus on their own existence and implement more values into their life. The second way of worshipping Orí – the more difficult one – is to know one’s own direction in life, follow one’s own orientation, honour one’s own wishes, and control one’s impulsiveness because we ourselves are the most important goal, the central focus of our existence. If we concentrate on ourselves, we have a more peaceful life and, therefore, our neighbors do as well. This is the most interesting way of worshiping our personal god. It is a challenge for every individual to decide how much he or she is willing to change for his or her own benefit. We are responsible for our good luck and for our frustrations as well.
Another way of worshiping Orí is through a ritual called bọrí. This way is more complex as it involves certain procedures performed by people who are qualified for this task. The ritual provides a way to feed our personal god and honor him so that it treats us more nicely. Moreover, we dedicate this ritual to our Orí, our personal god, to ensure he is present and attentive in our life so that he can be at our service at all times. Orí is of a significant importance and something we all possess; therefore, in the Òrìṣà philosophy Orí is the first divinity and the very first energy that needs to be worshiped. Our individual Orí is the one who creates the conditions for all other divinities, regardless of the religion we belong to, to come into our life. I have my Orí, and this Orí is my personal divinity. All other gods from whichever religion depend on how my Orí receives their messages. Each individual is the basis for gods.
Sometimes we may have a feeling that our life has come to a halt and that we do not know where to go next. We feel depressed or are so stressed out that we can no longer see the way forward. If we know how to worship our Orí in such troubled times, if we know what procedure to follow, then we can save ourselves with the help from our own Orí.
A little criticism for the ladies: we go to the hairdresser’s, for example, and then try so hard to preserve the hairdo that we do not wash our hair for a whole week. To our Orí this is the same as if our body would not got any water for a week. We have to take care of our outer Orí (i.e. our scalp) so that we can gain access to the one inside. For those who are not familiar with the Yoruba philosophy of the Òrìṣà, it is most important to know that the bọrí ritual aimed at refreshing our Orí does not represent a religious vow but merely a spiritual experience. We worship Orí in order to achieve spiritual balance of our own choice.
Orí is our spiritual blessing that helps us discover our goals in life.
A good Orí is the one who assists us when making choices in life to choose the right thing for us. A good Orí makes our life more interesting and protects us from failure.
We all have an Orí, and we do not believe in an unfavorable, miserable, unlucky destiny. However, we do believe in the lack of the ability to improve one’s life, and our view is that this is a matter of training. We must literally train our perception, our thinking, our comprehension, and shape our vision of life. We have to learn how to comprehend the good things and how to direct our actions towards achieving positive outcomes. We have to actively work to make ourselves happy.