The Joy of the Ancestors is Our Strength

Ponpola aboso jingbini jingbini
Casts divination for Fakolade
The chief Elemoso of the priesthood caucus 
They asked him to offer sacrifice 
Fakolade is a chief in the priesthood fold 
He belonged to a long line of priests 
After some time 
He refused to offer sacrifices to Ifá 
He pushed Ifá to one side 
Whereas Ifá is his chosen parcel from heaven
Because whatever we do here on earth 
Had been packed into our parcel from heaven 
If one deviates from that 
which had been parceled for him 
It cannot be easy 
Fakolade did everything humanly possible 
He could not make progress 
He could not sleep 
Nor rest 
They exclaimed ‘Ha’ seeing him suffering 
You would have to retrace your steps back to where you deserted 
You have to go back to your ancestor’s line 
The one you abandoned 
Which you discontinued 
Fakolade retraced his steps when he could not find peace 
Life then pleased him 
He then started to dance and rejoice 
He was praising his Babaláwo 
His Babaláwo was praising Ifá...
- Holy Odu IrosunOtura

The elders say that when a child stumbles, he will look around to see if anyone else noticed. But when an elder stumbles, he looks back to see what tripped him up. In your youth, you will tend to be obsessed with what other people will think and say about you. Image is everything! As you mature, however, your priorities shift and you care less about public opinion and more about spiritual development. Maturity drives you to think more deeply about who you really are, where you're actually from and what you're truly about. Spiritual development is never based upon falsehood and pretense. As Carl Jung once said, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” 

In the darkness of the African collective unconscious, there is a pantheon of ancestors, deities and spirits. Jung's thesis suggests that, in addition to your immediate consciousness, which is personal in nature, there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is does not develop individually but is inherited. It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents. Jung linked the collective unconscious to what Freud called "archaic remnants" - mental forms whose presence cannot be explained by anything in the individual's own life and which seem to be aboriginal, innate, and inherited shapes of the human mind'.


What Jung and Freud call archetypes and archaic remnants respectively, are what we call ancestors. They express themselves through dreams and divination. Through dreams and divination, your ancestors will make use of a variety of powerful images and symbols to communicate important messages intended to guide you in ways that reinforce your true identity as an ambassador of your family lineage. By adhering to the wisdom of your ancestors, you learn how to optimize your natural gifts and talents, so that you can make a more meaningful contribution to your own life and the lives of the people you are destined to serve. Live the medicine! 

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