Alafia and welcome once again to the

online Aoife classroom my name is David

Graham and once again I go by Auto e5

for a at the foundation of North America

and if you're a return visitor thank you

for joining us once again if you're new

welcome very briefly the online ether

classroom was established as a way for

the beginner to get some very cursory

broad information about the ancient

African Yoruba philosophy of youth ah um

and an easy to digest manner short ten

to fifteen minute videos covering some

basic topics without having to pick up

library of books delve through pages of

online content and just easily access

information and download it into their

psyche and do with it what they will

there are of course hundreds of free

pages of content on the ephah Foundation

org

and several other good sources out there

on the subject having said all that is

very difficult to pick a topic this time

because there's so much to cover with

the philosophy we've already spoken

briefly about the rouble view of the

universe

we've talked a little bit about what is

Eva and how it came about so the

question was where to go from there what

I decided was that I would do a piece

today on the Yoruba concept of destiny

or what we call Ori there were several

ways we could have gone we could have

talked about ancestors we could have

talked about divination we could have

talked about arecia but I thought it was

appropriate to start with Ori and indeed

the aruba would say that or Ria's

humankind supporters before aresia or

before the deities before the ancestors

um so all that being said what is your

Ori well or really aruba word has

several meetings as many Yoruba words do

Ori means your head literally it means

chief

it also means consciousness and it also

means your destiny and that's the Ori

that we're talking about we're talking

about your head or your destiny

and for those of you that don't know or

it was typically located on what is the

soft spot of your head when you're a

child which closes up when you're an

adult

so what is our Ori well our worry is a

multi-faceted concept that the Yoruba

came up with and again it's it's your

destiny path so you're you're already

comprised three things it comprised your

life path odoo and for those of you that

don't know oh do is a sign it's what a

diviner pulls out when they do a reading

for you it's an energy matrix an energy

pattern so your life path oh do the

paths that you chose that stays with you

your whole life

talks about the energies that you're

going to walk with the ones that we

better for you the ones that would take

away from your destiny

and kind of gives you a blueprint for

your time here your Ori also consists of

your guardian or Isha those of you that

are not new to a reach a worship will

understand this so-and-so is a child of

Obatala so-and-so is the child of Oshun

I'm a child of oh yah it is true that

every ratio will be part of your matrix

on your journey here but in ephod there

will be one that you selected that you

will lean on more than any other that

will be your go-to Orisha energy and

again that's pulled out as part of your

life path rating it's part of your Ori

and also your guardian ancestor and

we'll talk more about ancestor worship

in the future but your guardian ancestor

was a concept that he thought that when

you came down from the realm of the

ancestors to the marketplace that there

would be one ancestor in particular that

would walk this journey with you maybe

you have similar traits similar

interests a link or a tie that binds

somewhere down the road but there would

be one ancestor in particular that would

help you along this journey so those

were some of the concepts that were

capsulated in the idea of Ori well why

is already so important it's so

important very simply because the prime

directive if you will in the ephah

philosophy or what the elders believe

was the most important thing for your

time here was to walk your destiny path

and that is the destiny path that was

programmed in theory at the time of

conception in the domain of the

ancestors before you came here and that

is the mission that you need to

accomplish the things that you need to

get done the people that you need to

interact with the work that you did the

the association's that you had the

parents you were born to this was all

part of your Ori and just so you guys

are aware you chose your Ori any file we

believe that in the domain of an Orisha

cottage Alim opine in the land of the

ancestors at the time that you were

conceived you or your consciousness your

Ori made a pact with a jolly moping and

said these are the things that I need to

get done in my time here these are the

parents that I want to be born to this

is the body that I want to have this is

the work that I want to do these are the

lessons that I need to learn etc etc and

we believe that when your work here is

done in you transcend back to the land

of the ancestors that assuming you've

completed your destiny or pieces of it

that you take that back with you to the

realm of the ancestors it becomes one

with your family's matrix and hopefully

you have descendants here that have

other work to carry on etc etc so that's

why worry is so important because if our

job here is to gain wisdom and knowledge

and to walk our destiny path and learn

the lessons that we're supposed to learn

then it is our Ori that we need to

triangulate with or work with or be

aligned with in order to realize our

destiny now a lot of you are sitting at

home and saying that's great I would

love to realize my destiny path I would

love to work with my

how do I do that well the answer is very

simple the answer from an IVA priests

point of view is deepa nation and we're

going to talk more about deva nation in

the future in more detail but that is

what you guys hear about getting a

reading from above allow or for many ne

fais or from an Orisha preached there

are several demon nations that will help

you align to your destiny path one is as

I said your life path reading and that

reading will serve you for your entire

life

it's typically done between three and

seven days of age in Africa and again

it's what energies are going to benefit

you what energies are going to be

difficult for you who is the arecia that

walks with you and you're your path what

guardian ancestor did you choose and

what energies do you need at certain

times in your life that can be done by a

competent e4 priest at any time and will

stand for your whole life knowing that

helps you walk in lockstep with your

destiny another is just a general

maintenance reading that's typically

when people come to us and they want the

job the boy the girl the health etc and

from if a priest perspective again the

question is always are the things that

I'm doing in line with my destiny or are

they not if they're not what do we need

to do to get you back in balance or back

in line with your destiny and if they

are how do we accentuate that or ramp

that up for the client now I know some

of you are sitting there and saying well

that all sounds great I don't have

access to a babalao I don't have access

to an anything I don't have the money

the time the inclination for readings

what can I do well the answer is plenty

the good people of the Aruba Lane didn't

make this philosophy for you to be

bottle necked financially with limited

resources etc you can still work with

your Orie on a regular basis well David

how do I do that it's really simple

first disconnect the phone turn off the

cell phone turn off the TV put the

laptop away get rid of all your

distractions find a quiet place my

advice to you would be to light one

white tea candle grab one glass of water

set it down

take some water put it on the soft spot

of your head until you can feel it soak

in those of us that have a lot of hair

need a little bit more

than others and let it cool your Ori Ori

- to cool head indeed part of working

with your Ori was maintaining the

balance between the head and the heart

the you believe very strongly that these

had to be aligned in order for us to

access our destiny one quick point

before we go further there were three

points three subsets if you will to

destiny or to your Ori one was the side

of yourself that you showed the outside

world your outward facing self one was

your inner self the self that was with

you when no one else was looking this is

the person that you are when no one else

is there to see you and the third one

was your higher self again in the realm

of the ancestors and that was your

perfect self or yourself when you were

in complete alignment with your destiny

and the Yoruba believe that we needed to

align all three of these aspects of war

re in order to be functioning at tip-top

shape yes by the way there are Yoruba

words for each piece of destiny yes I do

know them no it's not important for the

sake of this video so again it's all

about aligning our Ori

so how can we do that really easy turn

off all the distractions one white tea

candle one glass of water some cool

water on your Orie and then this parts

up to you first prayers to your Ori Ori

make me prosperous or Ari grant me

wisdom and knowledge or re helped me to

understand my destiny at a higher level

or read align me to my destiny path or

re grant me wisdom knowledge

understanding help me to get the most

out of my time here prayers like this to

your or reach you understand what your

destiny path is and how to make the most

of it always with good intention always

from a pure place never self-serving

seeking only to learn and do more for

those of you who want to take a step

further you can make em bows or

offerings to your Ori things like fruits

pears bananas oranges for sustenance for

sweetness for strengthening you can

either put them on the soft spot of your

head

while you pray and then take them off

and leave them or you can put them on a

small dish and offer them to your or eat

meditation so saying prayers to your

Orie and then shutting everything off

and listening to what comes in it could

be a voice it could be an intuition it

could be a feeling typically if you're

praying from a place of good intent that

the answers that come in will be clear

and if you get an answer to do something

to say more prayers to do a cleansing on

yourself to make an impo to journal to

read a book on this philosophy then do

it it's your worry trying to guide you

back to your destiny path you can do

cleansing Zahn your Orie for those of

you that are moderately familiar with

spirituality you can use sage and you

can use the smoke to cleanse your rate

you can use a horse tail one to cleanse

your or you wipe it over you you can use

eggs wipe them on your Orie let all the

negative energy and anything blocking

you go into them and then throw them

over your shoulder and don't look back

and ask your Orie to cleanse itself and

to get rid of any blockages any

impediments these are all just ideas

there are limitless ideas I like to use

fresh mint and coconut water on my Horry

coconut water for cooling sweetening

cleansing mint is an antiseptic it's

good for cleansing and overall health

and there are a myriad of things that

you can do if you need more ideas please

seek out a professional a babalao a Tina

Fey somebody who does spiritual work on

a daily basis for themselves and for

clients and they'll be happy to guide

you in the right direction but one final

point that I wanted to make is that the

Yoruba also understood that there were

still going to be folks out there that

didn't feel comfortable praying didn't

feel comfortable making a bow didn't

know how to do cleansing that would say

to themselves I don't know how to do any

of that how do I get in touch with my

War II and the Aruba's answer was if you

walked with good character all the time

meaning if you did the right thing for

the right reason all the time then you

were

in alignment with your Ori in other

words good character superseded the need

to remember the specific details of your

destiny it's great if we can if we can

all align ourselves to our purpose here

what we're supposed to do who we're

supposed to do it with how we're

supposed to do it but most importantly

if we can walk our daily path with good

character live in the moment and do the

right thing for the right reasons then

we will be in alignment with our destiny

path that's simple I could go on and on

but the videos are limited I try to keep

them short and sweet so people can

digest them that's a basic introduction

to the Aruba concept of destiny or your

Ori or your head already comes before

ancestors Ari comes before or Isha or

Ria's humankind supporter before deities

meaning that your head is always with

you you have to operate from here before

you can operate up there if your heads

not working right your heads not aligned

to your heart then all the prayer in the

world and all the ritual in the world's

not going to do you any good so get in

touch with your Ori get in touch with

your destiny get a line to what you're

supposed to be doing how you're supposed

to be doing it you're supposed to be

doing it with if you have any questions

as always you can email me Etha for a

IFA fo re Eddie for foundation org you

can email me directly through youtube or

again contact a competent uni a

competent babalao

competent you've a priest or arisia

priest and say hey I want to get

involved I want to work with my or II I

want my life path done

I want a basic reading there are any

myriad of steps you can begin to take

and I assure you if you take one step to

e-file you follow the philosophy the

Orisha the wisdom of our ancestors we'll

take five steps towards you thank you

for stopping by until next time take

care of yourself take care of each other

you