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Obafemi Origunwa, founder of the Orisa Lifestyle Academy and creator of the Orisa Lifestyle Agreements, articulates an in-depth, yet simple blueprint of the world's fastest growing spiritual movement. In his insightful study, Origunwa surveys a full range of traditional and modern African thought expressed through religion, sacred poetry, philosophy, mythology, psychology and business. He demonstrates that Yoruba sacred culture is far from being doomed to destruction or irrelevance at the hands of Islamic and Christian incursion. Instead, Orisa Lifestyle is evolving into a world wide cultural empire that is capable of actually using foreign tools to propogate its basic values. The Fundamentals of Orisa Lifestyle presents an invaluable insight into the foundations of the unique and vital tapestry of Yoruba indigenous knowledge systems practiced by over seventy million Africans all over the world.
What is the secret of African joy? From Bahia to New Orleans to London, Black people are the very embodiment of happiness! Our songs, our dances and our vibrant cultures light up the African diaspora with joy. The Yoruba say, mbari-mbayo! It means, "You see me and rejoice!" According to Yoruba tradition, Obatala is the Orisa closely associated with happiness. He is praised as "the father of laughter." Through his example, we discover happiness as a path of inner peace. In Obatala: Four Paths to Equanimity, you will learn four ways that Obatala shows the way to inner peace. The book includes a series of sacred text, self-exploration exercises, and activities designed to increase your personal connection to the magnificent energy of Obatala, the Great Orisa.
Oriki Awon Òrìsà is a book and companion audio series by Fayemi Abidemi and Obafemi Origunwa. Visit www.ObafemiO.com to download the audio files. It is part of a larger multimedia curriculum that teaches the art and the practice of òrìsà lifestyle. Oríkì Awon Òrìsà is A LEARNING TOOL FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN PROPER WORSHIP. With materials in print, audio, video and online, Oríkì Awon Òrìsà is perfect for your personal shrine or as a temple worship and study guide. Visit www.ObafemiO.com for more resources.
ACTIVATE YOUR SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY FOR CHANGE: The Orisa Lifestyle Catalysts' Handbook is PERFECT for organizing. It has step-by-step instructions for building membership, assigning tasks, setting up meetings and launching a local campaign to transform your spiritual community into a hub for local families and devotees. By completing the activities in the Orisa Lifestyle Handbook, you will gather precisely those experiences that will cultivate your spiritual values and enable you to deliver upon the Ancestral Promise.
The rituals and ceremonies detailed in Ato: The Methodology represent the Yoruba peoples' response to the journey of life. Here, you will be exposed to rites of passage that span from birth to death. In addition, in the pages of Ato: The Methodology, you'll also have the opportunity to learn prayers, invocations and extensive lists of ingredients associated with the traditional worship calendar.
Live the Medicine is a collection of political, psychological, spiritual and cultural teachings, based primarily upon the sacred texts of Ifa, Yoruba proverbs and oríkì (praise poetry) drawn from the classical period of Yoruba civilization. Classical Yoruba civilization is characterized by a dazzling array of indigenous knowledge. At times, infinitely complex and other times, patently simple, the teachings to be gleaned from Yoruba traditional wisdom provide timeless instruction, especially for contemporary, urban Africans living in diaspora.
This book introduces readers to the rich and fascinating history of West Africa, stretching all the way back to the stone age, and right up to the modern day. Over the course of twenty seven short and engaging chapters, the book delves into the social, cultural, economic and political history of West Africa, through prehistory, revolutions, ancient empires, thriving trade networks, religious traditions, and then the devastating impact of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and subsequent colonial rule. The book reflects on the struggle for independence and investigates how politics and economics developed in the post-colonial period. By the end of the book, readers will have a detailed understanding of the fascinating and diverse range of cultures to be found in West Africa, and of how the region relates to the rest of the world. Drawing on decades of teaching and research experience, this book will serve as an excellent textbook for entry-level History and African Studies courses, as well as providing a perfect general introduction to anyone interested in finding out about West Africa.
As the twenty-first century begins, tens of millions of people participate in devotions to the spirits called Òrìsà. This book explores the emergence of Òrìsà devotion as a world religion, one of the most remarkable and compelling developments in the history of the human religious quest. Originating among the Yorùbá people of West Africa, the varied traditions that comprise Òrìsà devotion are today found in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Australia. The African spirit proved remarkably resilient in the face of the transatlantic slave trade, inspiring the perseverance of African religion wherever its adherents settled in the New World. Among the most significant manifestati...
In Myth, Ritual, and Visible Expressions of Ọbàtálá and Olókun in Ilé-Ifẹ̀, Oluwafunminiyi Wasiu Raheem and Ayowole S. Elugbaju explore Ọbàtálá's (the Yorùbá deity of creation) and Olókun’s (the preeminent owner of the ocean) existence in myth, history, and religion through various facets of pan-human worship, belief, and everyday ritual practices. Raheem and Elugbaju explore Yorùbá history, culture, and religion to provide an extensive analysis of core themes in Ọbàtálá’s and Olókun’s stories. They argue for a more complex reading of Ọbàtálá beyond the often sustained and single narrative of struggle and defeat as well as a more nuanced reading of Olókun as a holy well beyond its popular exemplification of a female deity of wealth, childbirth, and preeminent owner of the world’s ocean. Drawing from oral accounts, chants, folk songs, praise poems, and verses from the Ifá corpus, the authors provide new insights into the worlds of both deities hitherto missing in the literature.
This edited book examines architectural representations that tie water, as a physical and symbolic property, with the sacred. The discussion centers on two levels of this relationship: how water influenced the sacredness of buildings across history and different religions; and how sacred architecture expressed the spiritual meaning of water. The volume deliberately offers original material on various unique contextual and design aspects of water and sacred architecture, rather than an attempt to produce a historic chronological analysis on the topic or focusing on a specific geographical region. As such, this unique volume adds a new dimension to the study of sacred architecture. The book’...