Musings of a Babalawo

The Latest Masquerade

Shakespeare said:
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Allow me to paraphrase:
"Lucumi/Santeria calling itself Yoruba/Ifa smells just as superstitious and illogical."

Lately, it has become fashionable, and marketable, to ally yourself with the ancient African tradition of Ifa. Long time Santeria practioners have increasingly begun to claim they are a "Yoruba" or "Ifa" House, in order to add a degree of respectability to their practice. Recently, a group in Puerto Rico showed how, if you take a careful look, the logic and purity of their proclaimed "Ifa" outlook peels off to reveal the prejudice, hatred and bigotry of Lucumi/Santeria.

This particular group had recently been exposed to an Iyalawo whose initiation, through another Babalawo initiated at the Ifa Foundation, had been accepted by the Puerto Rican Group professing to be a "Yoruba" house. In actuality, this was a good step forward. Their ability to accept a woman initiated into Ifa was a modification of their previous beliefs. They were eager to learn the correct order for the opele in divination.yet, when the issue of initiating Gays as Babalawo was raised, they found the concept "evil" and "unacceptable."

The lesson and warning here is two fold:

First:
Anything other than total acceptance of all diversity.including color, sexual orientation, gender and nationality is simply NOT Ifa!

Second:
Even if these individuals learn the "proper" way of divining, their conclusions will always be tainted, colored and minimized by their own world view. So, learning the mechanics does not make a qualified diviner. Learning good character, logic and mechanics, does.

A simple example relates to an Iyalawo we initiated here at the Foundation last year. The woman had been to Cuba where she received a major reading where the Odu specifically refers to Ifa initiation. Because initiating women was not even to be considered possible in the Cuban Babalawo's world view, the woman was told she should be a priestess of Yemonja. It didn't matter if he understood the correct order of the Odu or not.it only mattered that the irrational prejudice and discrimination that he had inherited from Catholicism, combined with his own Macho view, could totally have detoured this woman from her destiny.

By the way, they don't have to be "bad" people.they may have good hearts and motivations. But, if their behavior is dictated by a supremacist world view, the results to the client will be disastrous regardless of their good intentions.

If it's not logical it's not true..and if you attempt to compromise with that, from fear, a sense of powerlessness or confusion, your life will be less than it should be.

Blessings,

Oluwo Philip Neimark

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