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Oya is a deity of intense change. She embodies transformation that is blowing in the wind. Unseen but definitely felt, Oya is emblematic of the effects of emotion. Men are typically caught off guard by emotions, even our own! So, when they arise, we can be overwhelmed by a compelling urge to escape. But, as the elders say, a tiny spark left unattended to becomes a raging fire.
And so it is with our emotional world gentlemen. If you're like so many men today, you have been conditioned to minimize the significance of your emotional world. You downplay all those little things that hurt you and mask your fears so well that you may have convinced everyone that you are completely unaffected by the world around you... Until you are reduced to tears consumed in a fit of rage or even both! So what's the solution? Stop ignoring your feelings. More importantly, stop being neutral about the power of your emotions! Your ambiguity is the problem. Let those emotions teach you something about the realities of the feeling world. use your heart as a instrument through which you FOCUS your unwavering intention to grow, expand and conquer! Remember, Oya is the charming and lovely bride who goes into battle BEFORE her husband. So, do like Oya and LEAD WITH LOVE. Learn more in the 16 Essential Traits of Personal Priesthood.
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There is a difference between instinctive masculinity and cultural masculinity. The same is true of femininity. That is, you are knowledgeable by nature but education can distort your perception. So, instinctively, you know what resonates with your spirit. You sense and feel what is real, but very quickly you switch to judgement about what is "right" and what is "wrong." The former is instinctive, the latter is cultural. Between the two, your personality finds expression. But what is your true identity?
Contemporary man and woman are deeply traumatized when it comes to our identities. We have almost forgotten who we are and how to complement one another. Everything is reduced to competition instead. Evaluate your lifestyle today. Identify all the ways in which you are competing with the opposite gender. If you're like most urbanites, there are some key areas of activity where you've been conditioned to compete when instinctively you know you should actually complement.
It is your disconnection from what you know instinctively that generates perpetual conflict between you and the people who matter most to you. Personal Priesthood makes instinctive lifestyle a daily practice. Find out more in the 16 Essential Traits of Personal Priesthood.
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There is no end to the success of the faithful devotee. There is no limit to the contentment that the faithful can enjoy. There is no maximum amount of happiness the practitioner can experience. Therefore, let there be no limit to your hopefulness. May you have no doubt in Ifa, especially in the face of tribulation. Indeed, your hope is what will make you a leader among your peers. Your example will serve as a beacon for others to follow for generations to come. In the same way that the stars do not depart from the moon, your destiny will never depart from you. The blessings ori selected in heaven will surely meet you here on earth. Be faithful. Live the medicine. Ase!
"Ẹni bá lé eku méjì á p'òfo. " Whoever pursues two rats simultaneously, will lose out on both. Single-minded focus is crucial to your success. For some, the focus must be purpose. For others, the focus must be love. Of course, one without the other is incomplete. So, those who are purpose driven have to balance that with love and vice versa. But never allow yourself to become confused about your focus and the need to master it.
The hero represents the quest to discover and master your focus, which is synonymous with destiny. Each segment of the journey is an invitation to show up fully and demonstrate your ability to focus relentlessly, effortlessly. Can you be unwavering in your purpose? Can you be fearless in your love? Under any and all circumstances, can you stay totally committed to your focus? The ways in which you answer these questions will become the laws of your personal priesthood. Your life story is your sacred text in this regard. Every day, you contribute to another chapter. In my course, 16 Essential Traits of Personal Priesthood you'll gain over 100 codes of conduct that will help you discover and master your focus. Find out more.
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I have often said that "Where you look determines what you will find." It's obvious and inevitable. But that doesn't stop me from looking at things that have little or no redemptive value. Sometimes, I am distracted by my fears. At other times, I am distracted by shiny, bright-colored objects. Then there are the times that I get distracted with arguing with somebody. Have you ever had an argument with somebody but you don't even know what you're arguing about? Ultimately, if allow myself to be distracted by fears, pretty things or petty arguments, when I finally find what I was looking at, it might entertain me for a short while, but in the end, I am always disappointed. That's the nature of distractions; they usually lead nowhere.
So, what's the solution? Use your distractions as gateways to connection with your deeper impulses. Basically, in those moments of attraction, try to recognize what's drawing your attention, but I don't stop there. Don't just focus on the fear, the pretty thing or the argument. Instead, look THROUGH them into the heart of your visionary goals. Now, if you haven't defined your visionary goals, this is going to be hard to do and I strongly recommend that you make that your top priority. But in the meantime, you can still look through your attractions into your more immediate goals. Here, let me say that this practice is not the same as comparing your attractions to your goals as a decision-making tool. What I'm talking about right now is letting the momentum of attraction lead you into the penetrating light of consciousness. In this way, you gradually train yourself to continuously look at your higher purpose. When you do so, your distractions actually become emotional filters that help to expand the way you live the medicine that will heal your life and heal the lives of the people you're destined to serve. Want to know more? Check out the 16 Essential Traits of Personal Priesthood.
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"Ọgbọ́n tí a fi ńkọ́lé ò tó èyí tí a fi ńgbée." The wisdom required to acquire a house, is nothing compared to that required to live in it. Marriage is the greatest initiation of all precisely because the wisdom that it takes to build a family demands extraordinary mental and emotional flexibility. It requires every family member to a balance their personal needs against those of the family as a whole. The most painful aspect of practicing family love and devotion is feeling of rejection and even betrayal you experience when your love goes on reciprocated. Men and women express devotion very differently. Sometimes, our attempts to communicate love is misunderstood by our partners. Particularly for us as men, things become very challenging when it seems that all of the skills that make us successful at work, in the shrine or in the community only produce a string of failures when applied to our wives and families. If this trend continues gentlemen, the relationships that once brought us the greatest joy end up generating the most intense pain. But no matter how hurt and isolated you may feel in your relationship, I want you to know that it's not too late to revive the spirit of love and harmony. If you're willing to change, it's even possible that your relationship can be saved and improved. Check out these three tips for tapping into the wisdom of devotional love.
1. Remember the love. Recall the way you felt physically and emotionally. The rush of hormones! The fantasies! The butterflies! Go back and recover those experiences that made you feel alive when you were together. 2. Learn to forgive. Release yourself from the need to punish yourself and the people you love. Nobody is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. And if you're honest, you will see how your mistakes are directly related to those of your partner. Stop blaming yourself and one another and forgive. 3. Ask for help. Talk to elders and professionals (not your peers) about what's happening for you. Be transparent as you seek out responsible, mature elders and professionals who have considerable wisdom and experience in relationship matters. Once advice is given, take it and follow through. I repeat, do not consult your peers!!! Initiation is never easy. Transformation is never instant. Be patient and hopeful as you satisfy your destiny. Learn more in the 16 Essential Traits of Personal Priesthood. Email me at [email protected]. Enter 16 Essential Traits of Personal Priesthood in the subject line.
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Hurried quest does not translate to wealth and working like a slave often achieves nothing. "Kìrà kìtà ò dọlà, ká ṣiṣẹ́ bí ẹrú ò da nǹkan " Why do you work so hard? In love, at work, in your spiritual devotion, why are you struggling so much? Why are you in such a hurry? Your destiny is not in some far away land. The love you seek is not encased in an iron box. Even the wealth that you aspire to is not buried ten thousand miles below ground. So let go of the resistance and tension. Relax and focus just on what needs to be done. Feel the surges of energy swirling around you and within you. Ultimately, be patient and learn to observe. So much of what you see is illusion, in the sense that your perception is distorted by conditioning. Learning to focus on the essential, while letting go of the distraction will help you to discern much more clearly. Your fears will get smaller. your pain will be much lesser. Your anger will be cooled. Learn more in the 16 Essential Traits of Personal Priesthood. Live the medicine.
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Make time to connect to purpose every day. An hour of meaningful activity will revitalize you and make you more receptive to giving and receiving love. You will have much less to complain or worry about because more of your essence is being affirmed. So much of our fear, irritability and depression is rooted in the fact that we're disconnected from our sense of truth. The 16 Essential Traits of Personal Priesthood help you to create the kinds of experiences that reinforce your deepest values. Find out more! Live the medicine.
Obafemi Origunwa, MA | www.ObafemiO.com
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This is bound to ruffle some feathers, so to speak, and understandably so: When we speak of witches, it's usually in a derogatory fashion. But just for the purposes of this blog entry, let me serve up a working definition of witchcraft, as follows: Witchcraft refers to that aspect of feminine power that is beyond control and tends to defy social norms. Witchcraft scares people, especially men. In fact, the more powerful a man is, the more threatening witchcraft becomes. Powerful or not, however, the last thing any self-respecting man wants is an unbridled force to come along and upset the balance... or so it would seem.
As men, we live with a peculiar contradiction. On one hand, we love a certain degree of predictability. This is particularly true of our wives. Their love and attention give us a quiet sense of confidence and security. At the same time, however, I'm reminded of the proverb that says, "To face war and not flee is the hallmark of men." That is, the hunter/warrior instinct in men keeps us in a state of readiness - even eagerness - to face death if necessary. Consequently, we're always looking for the edge. And, because we're always in search of a little adventure, even responsible men are invigorated by risk. Herein lies the contradiction. The test of enjoying mature, progressive masculinity is to create ironclad order, balanced by free flowing spontaneity. So, what does this have to do with witchcraft? Feminine energy - especially women - provide exactly the kinds of challenges that draw men into spontaneous thoughts and actions. Here's the catch, guys; the "Divine She" - the archetypal woman - will continue to return to the energy that you cannot match. If you cannot deal with your wife's sadness, guess what? The Divine She will give you a few days of blissful relaxation and then, like a merry-go-round, return to the energy of despair. Until you can transcend the urge to shut down or cave in emotionally, the Divine She will keep you in the loop of temporary happiness, conflict and despair. You'll SWEAR you've been bewitched! Here's something I have just discovered that I want to share with all my Good Brothers out there, trying to make it right with their wives, girlfriends, sisters and mothers. When a woman loves you, EVERYTHING she does is to help you to become the great man she knows you are DESTINED to become... EVERYTHING. As such, she becomes the lens through which you can see your relationship to the entire universe. What she loves about you is what the whole world will love. What makes her sad about you is what will upset the whole world. What she complains about is what everybody will fault you for. In the same ways that she attacks you, so will the world attack you. After all, nobody knows your weakness better than the woman you love. What she offers you is exactly what the world will offer you. Here, it's tempting to think that your job is to resort to appeasing your wife or living to please her. That would be a fatal mistake, however. The truly evolved response to what seems to be relentless waves of witchcraft is actually to look THROUGH it as if it were a telescope or a magnifying glass. Learn to see the world and yourself through the eyes of the woman who loves you. Accept her perspective and get more and more grounded in the spirit of love, from whence you have come. Your objective is to demonstrate patient, undisturbed devotion to the Good Condition as you face the feminine challenge. You will be blessed with an even greater sense of fearlessness than you had ever imagined. This is what it means to live the medicine that will heal your life and heal the lives of those you are destined to serve.
"A kì í kọ́'ni ká mọ ti'nú ẹni" You can teach a person but you can't know his thoughts. This is what prompts the elders to declare that What is being done is known only by the doer. We see one another, and observe each other's behavior, but often fail to share true intimacy. It seems logical to teach one another through long conversations or seek relationship solutions through divination. And while these are clearly effective ways to facilitate harmony, they only address half of the problem, the external half. More exactly, let's say that there are two paths of OrisaLifestyle, the right hand path and left hand path.
The right-hand path is driven by the tangible aspects of devotion; verses, rituals and icons. The left-hand path is more concerned with the intangible aspects of devotion; intuition, dreams and essence. Both paths are worthy. Both paths are necessary. But transformation really depends on your ability to master the left-hand path, which is focused on your inner world. Do you ever wonder why you don't change? This is not the same as blaming yourself, repressing your truth or turning your life upside down. I am talking about getting down to the core of your experience; how you think, sense and feel the world. What is your internal relationship to the deities, the witches and the ancestor? How do you respond to their energies when they make their presence known? The left hand path is the way of Personal Priesthood. In my course, 16 Essential Traits of Personal Priesthood, you'll gain access to hundreds of practices that promote internal development. The benefit of the course is that it will help you to clarify your consciousness in ways that will enable you to: 1. Define your purpose more clearly. 2. Reduce your fear of uncertainty. 3. Increase your capacity to experience true intimacy with yourself and the people you serve. To get enrollment info, email me at [email protected]. Enter 16 Essential Traits of Personal Priesthood in the subject line.
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Live the MedicineObafemi Origunwa, MAThought leader, Ifa priest and author of four definitive books, Obafemi Origunwa inspires metamorphosis through living the medicine that will heal your life and heal the lives of the people you're destined to serve. ![]() Raise Awareness
![]() Internalize Principles
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