My Blog

In Celebration of My 42nd Birthday by my Dawta Kamilah

10/28/2011 12:06:00 PM

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Mommy's Birthday Video

Music:The Beauty Within by Dead Prez

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Ajeji Godogbo ~Stout Foreigner, The Merindilogun Odu Irosun and the Birth of Ancestral Worship~October 31st, Weudo Celebration

10/7/2011 1:31:00 AM

"Do you know Ajeji Godogbo?

He is the one we are calling Egungun"

Holy Odu Irosun, Merindilogun Oracle of the Anago(Yoruba) people

The picture above is of the traditional adornment of the Ancestral spirits of the Yoruba people. These cloths, called Agan are draped over those who are possessed with the spirits of Egungun -Ancestors, during festivals and rites sacred to them

The Holy Odu Irosun tells us how this tradition of draping them in multi faceted cloths and worshipping them came about. The town of Peri was troubled, the women were barren, the crops were not growing, the children were ill and so the people were depressed. The leader of the town, being caring, compassionate and concerned went to seek consultation with the diviners to ask for a prescription for this dilemma. He was told that a stranger would come to the town and bless them richly...and so he resolved to be kind to all visitors to Peri

Meanwhile, in a neighboring village or plane of existence, Ajeji Godogbo was experiencing a lack of prosperity. Being wise, he too sought the assistance of diviners to ask what must he do to fulfill his destiny and be prosperous? He was told, he must leave home for his destiny lay away from home. He set out travelling. Ajeji Godogbo travelled far and by the time he reached Peri, he had walked for so long that his clothing was in tatters. Being Afrikan and used to being richly adorned he would not enter Peri in such a state but set up camp right outside its gates. In the morning, women begin to leave to go and fetch water...Ajeji noted that they carried no babies on their backs, he greeted them and added, 'may you have many children'...the women thanked the Stout Foreigner and went on. Other mothers left the town later carrying ill children and he greeted them saying, 'may your children become well'. He saw men return from farming with no food and said 'may your crops yield much'...he saw poverty and said 'may you become rich' and on and on Stout Foreigner was blessing the people of Peri

Then Ha! Like magick, Stout Foreigners blessings became reality.

Barren women bore twins, sick children ran and played with vigor, crops yielded greatly and poverty was transformed to wealth. The town leader who had been waiting diligently for a Foreigner to enter the gates was baffled. He asked them 'how have you been so richly blessed'. And each person said, 'there is Stout Foreigner sitting right outside the gates, who has been bestowing blessing upon us, what he wishes and prays for you comes to pass like magick!'

The Balogun (town leader) then asked, 'He is an answer to our prayers, how can we reciprocate his blessings'. The townspeople shared the fact that Ajeji Godogbo was wearing rags. The Balogun then went from household to household gathering a strip of their finest cloth. He took these strips the the most talented seamstress in Peri and asked her to fashion a massive outift for the Foreigner was Stout or very big. The Egungun adornment is still to this day fashioned by a priestess of Oya known as the Iya Agan~Mother of the Agan.

That first Iya Agan, fashioned a tremedous resplendent agbada (large caftan like top) for the Stout Foreigner. The Balogun, gathered his praise drummers and they made their talking drums sing the praises of Ajeji Godogbo as they approached the gate. The praisesongs elevated both the Balogun and Ajeji Godogbo into a trance state and when the Balogun presented him with the Agabada, Ajeji began to spin and spin and stir up the dust of EarthMotherOnile with the botton of the Agan...from the graves deep within EarthMotherOnile's womb, the Ancestral Spirits rose to dance in the Agan and inhabit the body of Ajeji Godogbo and at time the town of Peri knew they had been hosting a visitor of the Spirit Realm Orun, outside their gateway.

They fell to the ground as he blessed them with his horsetail whip

And their lives were good...

Do you see Ajeji Gogodbo?

He is the one we are calling Egungun

Ase O , Irosun!

Egungun is the Yoruba word meaning bones, that which remains when our Egun or Ancestors have returned their physical bodies to EarthMotherOnile. Your Egungun wait outside the gateway of your life, like Ajeji Godogbo, they are big mighty visitors from another realm and they are waiting to bless you if you but invite them to participate in your life. Irosun is an odu which reminds us to remember our Ancestors. Feed them a little bite whenever you eat, recite the names of those you remember who were righteous every day and remember the deeds of your Ancestors both good and bad so that you will know how to navigate the terrain of life. And, at least once a year, invite them to come and dance with you on the physical plane once again...commune with those Old Souls, they have much to teach, much to share and you have EVERYTHING to gain. What did you ever ask your Grandma for that she didnt give? Let Her continue to bless you as richly as She did while living...

In the West, our generally accepted Ancestral Festival Day as set by the elders in Oyotunji Village is October 31st. This time has been known to be spiritually significant by all civilized peoples, it is a time when the veil between the spirit realm Orun and the physical realm Aiye is thin and spirits can pass between it...during this time it is auspicious to prepare your Ancestors their favorite foods and drinks and sit a plate out for them...I put a plate for my righteous Ancestors on my table and one for my unelevated Ancestors on my front porch

it is the only time I recognize my unrighteous Ancestors

Sing Ancestral songs of praise for those who have walked the path of life before you

(these are shared in the October Orisha class available on Oshetureinstitute.com)

If you do not already have one, this is an auspicious time to erect an Ancestral Altar and begin the nine day process of opening it as outlined in my book Ona Agbani The Ancient Path available on Amazon.com

Lay your burdens before your Ancestors and watch them melt away

Ancestral worship, while intense, is not scary or dangerous...your grandmother, grandfather et cetera have a vested interest in your having the best life possible because they are reborn through you and because they STILL love you deeply

If you already have an Ancestral altar, you may need to receive consecrated Ancestral vessels from an Egungun initiate, one who has been trained in interaction with the forces of the dead...please leave a comment here if you feel drawn to this option and I will contact you with info on how to move forward with that process

I also visit the slave cemetary here in Nashville on Oct 31st and leave a white candle and some oti (strong drink) for the Ancestors their and thank them for their struggles on our behalf

For your children, use this day to regale them with tales of righteous Ancestors both those in your family lineage and the protectors and defenders of our culture worldwide

you may begin with Oba Oseijiman Adefunmi I

Medahochi Kofi Omowale Zannu

Marcus Garvey

Shaka Zulu

Nannie of the Maroons

Nzingah

YaaAsantewaa

to name a few...do not allow their names to be forgotten in your lifetime

and ask their mighty spirits to continue to guide and protect us

We ARE our Ancestors, they walk within our bodies daily, we cannot as Afrikans maintain complete spiritual and mental health without acknowledging this fact thru ritual

Please join Afrikans worldwide in celebrating the lives of those who have gone before on Oct 31st

Blessings of Oshun upon you

Yeye

The Spiritual Significance of the Fall Season

10/2/2011 1:05:00 AM

Click on the link below to ck out my first ever audio blog. A short course on the spiritual significance of Fall.

http://akalatunde.com/2011/09/29/audio-post-2/

Entering the Fall Season

9/30/2011 11:33:00 AM

We have passed through the metaphysical gateway of the Autumnal Equinox, which took place on September 23...the Equinox is the time when the night & day are equal. Both the Autumn and Spring Equinox are representative of BALANCE in our Wombniverse. . They are very good times to fast, to detox your body to maintain a healthy balance in your temple. Remember that your physical self is a product of your spiritual self. Your spiritual self is like the seed from which your physical self forms and grows. Fasting and detoxing your physical body assists you in seeing and feeling this connection more intensely and therefore,strengthens your incantations, lends more power to your prayers and increases the power of your spoken word...all of which intensifies your ability to manifest what you need and want on the physical plane...

During Autumn three important ritual dates fall...

The Equinox which on this year fell on Sept 23

The Day of the Dead, also known as Samhain/Halloween on October 31

And a date made infamous by treachery and deceit, Thanksgiving...which is a date I use as ritual time to honor the spirits of my Native American Ancestors with my Mitakuye Oyasin Celebration which falls on November 24,2011

Mitakuye Oyasin is a Lakota term meaning "all of my relations"

I also use The Day of the Dead to direct our unschooling activites for October and Mitakuya Oyasin to direct our activities for November explanations of our activities will be provided for those who purchase the curriculum guides for those months

For more info on these dates and how to perform rituals for them please subscribe to our video or written Orisha classes.

What is Civilization?

2/14/2011 12:03:00 AM

I am fascinated by the ancient empires of the Olmecs, the Mayans, the Incas and the Aztecs & have begun again to study them in earnest for the last month or so...while reading, researching, gazing at pictures of ruins, artwork & religious artifacts of these ancient peoples a question arises within me...these people built brick cities, giant effigies as well as sophisitcated systems for sanitation and irrigation...they maintained trade routes with their neighbors, adorned themselves meticulously...they had paper , a writing system and extensive libraries...they had an intense intimate connection with their world and everything in it...

Through whose eyes were they UNCIVILIZED?

My answer...NO ONE

I have concluded that there is NO WAY that anyone fleeing from the Dark Ages and plague infested nightmare of Europe came into contact with

beautiful

peaceful

powerful

wealthy

thoroughly spiritual people

and thought

Look At These Savages...

the ancient Meso Americans were a largely metropolitan people living in large booming well built and well maintained cities

are we to believe that adventurous sailors, themselves of several different ethnicities and backgrounds were put off by the body paint or piercings or different ways of dress that they discovered after having travelled thousands of miles from their home?

I mean who sets out to discover "new " lands and expects to find folks there just like the ones they left back home...NO ONE

I do not think any adventurer, mercenary, professional sailor or pirate looked upon the ancient MesoAmericans as Savages....

more to come...

Getting True Love

2/9/2011 2:21:00 AM

While meditating during a consultation this morning Oshun blessed me with this revelation. True Love...the very reason for existence is a deep, passionate, intense and long term Love Of Self...True Love~Love of Self is the only emotion that can flow outward allowing you to Truly Love others

If you are not experiencing and participating in a Deep, Passionate, Intense love affair with yourself then what you feel for others is not love

it is Entitlement

Ownership

Dependency

Usually we are seeking acceptance from others so that we can feel worthy and this need for acceptance has been defined as love or being In Love

But the need to prove your worth through the actions or emotions of another is not love

When you are Truly In Love you know your worth and you are secure in the knowledge that your worth is not based on the actions, the thoughts or the emotions of anyone other than yourself...as our Ancestors said so many thousands of years ago..."your destiny is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to you"...and True Love is directly related to fulfillment of your destiny

Our Ancestors taught "Peace comes from knowing you are doing the right thing"...when you are doing what you incarnated to do you experience True Love and everything else falls into place...you have a peace that no incident, no obstacle, no outside force can disturb...you are protected by your LOVE~Self Love

From this vantage point you can truly love your children as opposed to trying to control them

You can truly love your mate as opposed to trying to find worth in his or her reactions to your presence

You can truly love your friends as opposed to competing with them or imitating them

You can truly love life, the world , EarthMotherOnile and the Wombniverse

Until you fall deeply, hopelessly and passionately in love with yourself...everything else is void

without love of self you have missed the very essence of the journey

the first steps on the path to REAL LOVE are what I use to

advise women healing from abusive relationships

... take all of the love you are used to giving to others and give it to Your Sweet, beautiful and oh so deserving Self

All the sweet talk, all the good meals, all the nurturing, the forgiveness, the acceptance of flaws and shortcomings...GIVE ALL OF THAT TO YOU

and watch what results it yields

watch what fruit it bears

Love is not a matter of attracting and capturing the right person no more than life is a matter of consuming as much as possible

Love is an intimately personal matter over which you have total control

It does not require you to wait for the right person to come along

only that you acknowledge your own right to exist in this space in time

only that you accept that you belong here right now

The power to love and be loved is within you and therefore within your reach

...you have only to be courageous enough to reach out and grab it

Love is the essence of life

Get you some

The Blood That Gives Me Strength From Day to Day It Will Never Lose Its Power

1/27/2011 1:11:00 AM

The Blood is The Life

The monthly issue of my mother, which is the substance that makes up my bones, my brain, and my own blood...is much more meaningful to me than that of a fictious Jewish carpenter

I do not feel that we are conscious enough of what the how insane the patriarchy has rendered us

The ways in which we deny the power of womanhood are so manifold and have become so commonplace to us that we usually are not fully aware of them

Most of us believe that the most spiritually cleansing substance, flowed from wounds inflicted on a young rabbi who was hanged for teaching foreign doctrines in Palestine some 2000 years ago

A courageous revolutionary young Afrikan its true.

But we've never seen him, never touched him, we do not even have concrete proof of his existence...but most of us believe that his blood can remove our "sins" can return us to some euphoric state of innocence...can heal and cleanse us

YET

the blood that flows from the holy of holies, the sacred wombs of our grandmothers, our mothers, our sisters, our wives is denounced as UNCLEAN

This very blood that issues from the birth canal, the path that we all take to begin this journey of life...that flows regularly from the women we love....from those who nurture us, dry our tears, feed, shelter and clothe us

The very elixir that is the foundation for each cell, each nerve, every little bit of bone and sinew that we use to live life every day

somehow that blood is BAD

is LOW

is DISGUSTING

is UNCLEAN

The patriarchy is nothing if not illogical

What types of tortures had to be rendered on the Ancestral Mothers to cause us to overlook this very obvious truth?

How many "witches" were burned?

How many "root workers" hanged?

What happened that caused us to stop believing our eyes to this extent?

Yes there is power in the blood

there is healing in the blood

Yes

the blood IS the life

and the blood of life does not require a champion

books do not need to be written about it or scriptures chanted over it

it simply

IS POWER

there is no power greater than the mysterious power of life itself

and this power IS in the blood

ACCEPTANCE

1/26/2011 12:19:00 PM

ACCEPTANCE....

I was musing this mornig upon waking about the essential nature of acceptance

Most modern humans are seeking acceptance from at least one person in this lifetime

Acceptance makes us feel wanted, it makes us feel loved, its makes us feel as if we belong

As with most other emotional elements in life acceptance is introduced to us by Mother/Yeye/Iya

Those of us who felt accepted by our mothers just as we are, know where to look for unconditional love, we know where to find it because we are familiar with what it feels like

Those of us whose mothers did not make us feel accepted, do not feel loved or wanted are familiar with feelings of rejection, of hurt, of non love and non acceptance and ususally spend a great deal of our lives unlearning how to find and participate in situations that perpetuate those feelings

Mothers....love and accept your babies

Let them know that their birth , whatever its circumstances is NO ACCIDENT

that they are here one EarthMotherOnile ON PURPOSE and therefore WITH PURPOSE

stretch our your hands to them as often as possible

embrace them whenever you are granted the opportunity

smile at them

make them feel welcomed in the world

ESSENTIAL

Further....a child who feels accepted at home, by Mother also knows how to accept others

This is a child who knows how to love, knows tolerance, can accept others different from himself and therefore is well suited to live life properly

While reading about the raping of the rainforests in South America I read of an elder Amazonian woman who spoke at a huge meeting the indigenous people had called with one of the logging corporations...as the native Amazonians tried to get the logging company to see how barbaric the practice of cutting down thousands of trees was and the loggers were trying to explain how in Western society money was reason enough to committ all manner of heinous acts...the elder Mother stepped forward and said to the loggers simply

"Your mothers did not hug you enough..."

The elder Mother was able to see that these loggers and the leaders of their corporation did not feel a deep abiding acceptance that comes from being loved properly by your Mother

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