Our world is a strange place. Ifá calls our world, Aye Akamara, the world of mystery, hinting towards the enigmatic rays of wisdom that veils our world and create confusion. These veils are layers born from the opposing poles on the axis mundi that sustains creation. It is the blending of night and day, the darkness and the light. It is why daybreak and twilight hypnotize us, because at these hypnotic moments we see unity. Since unity is so alien from the perspective of fragmented man we see these points of union as something outside ordinary perception – and alas, these unusual moments speak of the original state, about perfection.
Modern man experience and exercise the illusion of duality daily. It is our way of making sense of things, if what we experience is not in a category of sameness it belong sot the other – and modern man do not like the other, because we have been condition to see in the other an enemy. The other threatens our ideas of belongingness, and it is here we go wrong – everything belongs; our task is to realize where it belongs. And instead of making life rich, we limit life, experience and horizon.
Ifá says in Ìwòrì Òsè the following:
Ìsé kìí dé kí ó má mú ire rè bò ni
T’ibi t’ire èjì wápò
Meaning:
Adversity does not come without bringing
Its good aspects to us
That which is bad and that which is good
Come together
What the Ifá oracle tells is that night walks hand in hand with day. The bad is simply just a consequence of being, just as much as the good. It all comes down to perspective. I mean, personal perspectives and personal opinions about you, as long as you are working on you own betterment, does it matter? Is it your business? Likewise, when undesired incidents happen are they necessarily bad – or are they just consequences that goes counter to you expectation?
We expect respect, but we dot get it, we do good but are not repaid with good, the material and invisible world appears to be a bit out of sync – or it is we who don’t understand what is going on. Orisa Èsú challenges you by trials that make you appreciate life, Orisa Obaluwaye challenges you by give illness that leads to potential strength, Sango challenge by inducing arrogance than can lead to the lesson of humbleness. Often we get judgmental because we understood certain waymarks and we see how other people are lost on their way towards the same insight. Let’s not do that, lets try to understand each others journey. After all, we are all in the same boat on the same chaotic ocean. One hand washes the other and sometimes we wash with perfumes and someone else washes with dirt. Does it matter? Perhaps this act serve some purpose if we are willing to understand what is going on from a lets say, ‘cosmic perspective’, where you are not the bellybutton of creation. Sometimes bad things happen; sometimes people do bad things, say bad things, and even hold opinions that revolt you. By buying into these peoples drama by passion, interest, anger and what not you do not help. You simply make another person’s journey your own… Is this really what you want?
If we approach life on earth as divine beings going through a journey of blessings, wisdom and experience we should approach this journey with interest. Whenever we get disappointed, angry, melancholic, or whatever it is sign posts for the path not being understood or embraced. By understanding the bad we will release the good – and, believe me: this is a truth a million times true.
And I say as Ifá in the Odú Ìrosù wòrì:
If we continually tasted sweetness without
Tasting a little bitterness also,
Life would be dull.
Ase!