My Eternal Garden.........Oshun

Hey BFF, today was another emotionally confusing day for me........nothing happened..........it is just that force I was telling you about fucking with me again.......I was told that this will happen because I am very close to my blessings.........I must always be close to my blessing.........cause I ALWAYS have this.........this depressed feeling, lol.......anyway....let me turn my attention to something more positive.....something that brings me joy.......Oshun......

BFF, for some time I have been telling you that I am going to give you information about her, well what better time than now to share the good news.................

Remember I told you that I had 2 readings...........well, they were spiritual readings.........readings based on Yoruba divination............I will break it down for  you BFF because I think this is very important for you to understand.............

According to Wikipedia: - The Yorùbá religion comprises the original religious beliefs and practices of the Yoruba people.  Its homeland is in Southwestern Nigeria and the adjoining parts of Benin and Togo, a region that has come to be known as Yorubaland.  During the Atlantic slave trade, it was carried by a number of enslaved practitioners to the Americas and the West Indies, where it has influenced or given birth to a slew of religious systems such as Lucumí, Umbanda and Candomblé.  Yoruba religious beliefs are part of itan, the total collection of songs, histories, stories and other cultural concepts which make up the Yorùbá mode of existence.

Beliefs

According to Kola Abimbola, the Yorùbá have evolved a robust philosophy, in brief, it holds that all human beings possess what is known as "Àyànmô" (destiny, fate) and are expected to eventually become one in spirit with Olódùmarè (Olòrún, the divine creator and source of all energy). Furthermore, the thoughts and actions of each person in Ayé (the physical realm) interact with all other living things, including the Earth itself.  Each person attempts to achieve transcendence and find their destiny in Òrún-Réré (the spiritual realm of those who do good and beneficial things, a place somewhat similar to the Abrahamic kingdom of Heaven). One's Orí-Inu (spiritual consciousness in the physical realm) must grow in order to consummate union with one's "Ipônri" (Orí Òrún, spiritual self). Those who stop growing spiritually, in any of their given lives, are destined for "Òrún-Apadi" (Lit. the invisible realm of potsherds (potsherds are oieces or fragments of a broken pot; fragments, shards, sherds)).

 Life and death are said to be cycles of existence in a series of physical bodies while one's spirit evolves toward transcendence. This evolution is said to be most evident amongst the Orishas (An Orisha (also spelled Orisa or Orixa) is a spirit or deity that reflects one of the manifestations of Olodumare (God) in the Yoruba spiritual or religious system.), the divine viziers of the Almighty God.

Iwapẹlẹ (or well-balanced) meditation and sincere veneration is sufficient to strengthen the Orí-Inu of most people.  Well-balanced people, it is believed, are able to make positive use of the simplest form of connection between their Oris (Ori, literally meaning "head," refers to one's spiritual intuition and destiny. It is the reflective spark of human consciousness embedded into the human essence, and therefore is often personified as an Orisha in its own right . In Yoruba tradition, it is believed that human beings are able to heal themselves both spiritually and physically by working with the Orishas to achieve a balanced character, or iwa-pele. When one has a balanced character, one obtains an alignment with one's Ori or divine self.

Alignment with one's Ori brings, to the person who obtains it, inner peace and satisfaction with life. To come to know the Ori is, essentially, to come to know oneself (Gnothi Seaton, haha), a concept extremely foreign to Western philosophy. The primacy of individual identity is best captured in a Yoruba proverb: "Ori la ba bo, a ba f'orisa sile". When translated, this becomes It is the inner self we ought to venerate, and let divinity be.) and the omnipotent Olu-Òrún: an adúra (petition or prayer) for divine support.

Prayer to one's Orí Òrún has been known to produce an immediate sensation of joy. Ẹlégbara (Eṣu, the divine messenger) initiates contact with Òrún on behalf of the petitioner, and transmits the prayer to Ayé; the deliverer of àṣẹ or the spark of life. He transmits this prayer without distorting it in any way. Thereafter, the petitioner may be satisfied with a personal answer. In the event that he or she is not, the Ifa oracle of the Orisha Orunmila may also be consulted. All communication with Òrún, whether simplistic in the form of a personal prayer or complicated in the form of that done by an initiated priest of divination, however, is energized by invoking àṣẹ.

In the Yorùbá belief system, Olódùmarè has àṣẹ over all that is. It is for this reason that He is considered supreme.

According to a Yorùbá account of creation, during a certain stage in this process, the "truth" was sent to confirm the habitability of the newly formed planets. The earth being one of these was visited but deemed too wet for conventional life.

After a successful period of time, a number of divinities were commanded to accomplish the task of helping earth develop its crust. On one of their visits to the realm, the arch-divinity Obatala took to the stage equipped with a mollusk that held in its shell some form of soil; two winged beasts and some cloth like material. He emptied the soil onto what soon became a large mound on the surface of the water and soon after, the winged-beasts began to scatter this around until the point where it gradually made into a large patch of dry land; the various indentations they created eventually becoming hills and valleys.

Obatala leaped on to a high-ground and named the place Ife. The land became fertile and plant life began to flourish. From handfuls of earth he began to mould figurines. Meanwhile, as this was happening on earth, Olódùmarè gathered the gasses from the far reaches of space and sparked an explosion that shaped into a fireball. He subsequently sent it to Ife, where it dried much of the land and simultaneously began to bake the motionless figurines. It was at this point that Olódùmarè released the "breath of life" to blow across the land, and the figurines slowly came into "being" as the first people of Ife.  For this reason, Ile-Ife is locally referred to as the "cradle of existence".

The Yoruba claim that they have 401 deities; in truth, there are more than these. The complexity of their cosmology has led Western scholars to compare them to the Ancient Greeks and their impressive pantheon. Yoruba deities are known as orisha, and the high god is Olorun. No organized priesthoods or shrines exist in honor of Olorun, but his spirit is invoked to ask for blessings and to confer thanks. The Yoruba believe that when they die they enter the realm of the ancestors where they still have influence on earth. Annual homage is paid to the grave sites of ones' forbears, and lineage heads are responsible for honoring all deceased members of the lineage through a yearly sacrifice. Maskers (egungun) appear at funerals and are believed to embody the spirit of the deceased person. Other important orishas include Eshu, the trickster; Shango, the god of thunder; and Ogun, the god of iron and modern technology.

Ok BFF, I know that is allot of information but it was necessary for me to include it so that you can have a basic understand of the culture and religion......now we can go on to Oshun............

Oshun is one of the youngest Orishas..........she reigns who love, intimacy, beauty, wealth, diplomacy, love, maternity, marriage,

Oshun is beneficent, generous and very kind. She does, however, have a horrific temper, one which she seldom ever loses but which causes untold destruction whenever she does. Oshun is said to have gone to a drum festival one day and to have fallen in love with the king-dancer Shango, Undergod of lightning & thunder. Since that day, Shango has been married to Oba, Oya, and Oshun, though Oshun is said to be considered his principal wife.

According to the Yoruba elders, Oshun is the "unseen mother present at every gathering", because Oshun is the Yoruba understanding of the cosmological forces of water, moisture, and attraction. Therefore, she is believed to be omnipresent and omnipotent. Her power is represented in another Yoruba proverb which reminds us that "no one is an enemy to water" and therefore everyone has need of and should respect and revere Oshun, as well as her followers.

Oshun is the force of harmony. Harmony which we see as beauty, feel as love, and experience as ecstasy. She, according to the ancients, was the only female Irunmole amongst the original 16 sent from the spirit realm to create the world. As such, she is revered as "Yeye" - the great mother of us all. When the male Irunmole (Irúnmôlè are entities sent by the Supreme (Olódùmarè) to complete given tasks, often acting as liaisons between Orun (the invisible realm) and Aiye (the physical realm).  Irúnmôlè(s) can best be described as ranking divinities; whereby such divinities are regarded as the principal Orishas.) attempted to subjegate Oshun due to her femaleness, she removed her divine energy or spark of life (called ase by the Yoruba) from the project of creating the world and all subsequent efforts at creation were in vain. It was not until visiting with the Supreme Being, Olodumare, and begging for Oshun's pardon (as advised by Olodumare) that the world could continue to be created. But not before Oshun had given birth to a son. This son became Elegba, the great conduit of ase in the Universe, the eternal and infernal trickster.

Oshun is known as Iyalode, the "(explicitly female) chief of the market."  She is also known as Laketi, she who has ears, because of how quickly and effectively she answers prayers. When she possesses her followers, she dances, flirts and then weeps- because no one can love her enough and the world is not as beautiful as she knows it could be.

Ok BFF, wow, that was a lot.........but that is not all of it.....there are many stories about all of the different Orishas and the history of the Yoruba people, culture and religion....just like with any and everything, lolol.

When I feel in love with Oshun, I feel in love with love and life itself...........BFF I was overcome with such bliss and joy at times I my jaw hurt from smiling so much.....

I knew nothing about the religion......knew nothing about Oshun.......but something compelled me to do some research, get some facts, learn about her so that my love for her would grow and last.......let me tell you BFF it did.........

The more research I did on Oshun, the more I realized that I am similar to her...............the more I read and talked about Oshun..........the more I felt her presence in my life.............the more I thought about Oshun....the more I lived ever second in blissful ecstasy...............before I knew it, I built an alter out of my obsession for Oshun..........the more I noticed things were becoming more alive around me.......the more I noticed.......everything because of Oshun........

I started dancing differently, thinking differently, feeling differently, I was oozing Oshun and I was not even trying........I was triangulating with Oshun............and BFF, it is true, we are connected.........life is a circle..........we are all one................it is so true BFF.................

As with all things, I feel off........becoming consumed with the world, lolol...............being tricked into believing and feeling like this illusion we call life is more important that the spirit, lolol..........wow habit is a very powerful thing..........

Anywho, BFF, now that I have written all of this for you........my love for Oshun has blossomed again...but this time around, the garden is eternal................

(Do a little research on Oshun, you will see why I am in love with her so much!, Muah)