Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts
    The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts
    The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts
    Ebook197 pages1 hour

    The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts

    By Baba Ifa Karade

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    An introduction to the spiritual source of the beliefs and practices that have so profoundly shaped African American religious traditions.

    Most of the Africans who were enslaved and brought to the Americas were from the Yoruba nation of West Africa, an ancient and vast civilization. In the diaspora caused by the slave trade, the guiding concepts of the Yoruba spiritual tradition took root in Haiti, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Brazil, and the United States.

    In this accessible introduction, Baba Ifa Karade provides an overview of the Yoruba tradition and its influence in the West. He describes the sixteen Orisha, or spirit gods, and shows us how to work with divination, use the energy centers of the body to internalize the teachings of Yoruba, and create a sacred place of worship. The book also includes prayers, dances, songs, offerings, and sacrifices to honor the Orisha.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRed Wheel Weiser
    Release dateApr 1, 2020
    ISBN9781633411340
    The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts
    Author

    Baba Ifa Karade

    Baba Ifa Karade holds a degree in Africana studies from Rutgers University and has written a number of books about the Yoruba/Ifa culture. He has traveled to Kenya, Nigeria, the Caribbean, Brazil, Netherlands, and throughout the United States. He’s been a keynote lecturer at colleges across the United States and at Orisha conferences throughout the world.

    Related to The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts

    Related ebooks

    Body, Mind, & Spirit For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Cleansing Ceremony

      Jan 30, 2019

      A Cleansing Ceremony
      5 min read

    • Article

      Eshu: The Yoruba Trickster God

      Nov 1, 2019

      Eshu: The Yoruba Trickster God
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Obeah Man’s Son

      May 4, 2021

      The Obeah Man’s Son
      6 min read

    • Article

      Daughters Of The Moon

      Jun 1, 2017

      Daughters Of The Moon
      5 min read

    • Article

      No 7 Surf's Up In Africa

      Sep 25, 2017

      No 7 Surf's Up In Africa
      1 min read

    • Article

      Inspired by a Pioneering Nigerian Author, Yorùbá Language Advocate Takes to the Internet

      Mar 27, 2017

      "...I knew I had to propagate the Yorùbá heritage to the world and the cheapest and easiest way to do that is via the international network of computers."

      2 min read

    • Article

      To Understand Religion, Think Football: Sacred beliefs likely arose out of prehistoric bonding and rituals.

      Sep 4, 2014

      The invention of religion is a big bang in human history. Gods and spirits helped explain the unexplainable, and religious belief gave meaning and purpose to people struggling to survive. But what if everything we thought we knew about religion was w

      13 min read

    • Article

      To Understand Religion, Think Football: Sacred beliefs likely arose out of prehistoric bonding and rituals.

      Aug 11, 2016

      The invention of religion is a big bang in human history. Gods and spirits helped explain the unexplainable, and religious belief gave meaning and purpose to people struggling to survive. But what if everything we thought we knew about religion was w

      13 min read

    • Article

      Prophetic Wisdom

      Nov 23, 2021

      REV. ANGEL KYODO WILLIAMS on the unconventional prophets called for in these times. With the exception of Malcolm X, the Black prophetic voice has been erringly associated with Christianity. The prophets called for in these times necessarily arise fr

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Ancient Rites That Gave Birth to Religion

      May 30, 2019

      The invention of religion is a big bang in human history. Gods and spirits helped explain the unexplainable, and religious belief gave meaning and purpose to people struggling to survive. But what if everything we thought we knew about religion was w

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Weave of Rituals

      Feb 27, 2024

      IN MODERN secular societies, religion is often considered antiquated and its traditions a fossil of benighted people dwelling in a medieval worldview, lost in reveries of salvation. Some look down on piety as primitive, and ritual practices as childl

      2 min read

    • Article

      UBUNTU I Am Because We Are

      Jan 18, 2022

      UBUNTU I Am Because We Are
      10 min read

    • Article

      Michael Wood On…

      Sep 1, 2022

      In my job, travelling the world making films on history and culture, I’ve spent a lot of time exploring religion in its many manifestations. Religion, after all, is a gift for the camera: full of colour, action and often moving rituals. It’s also a c

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Power Of AWE

      Feb 14, 2023

      The Power Of AWE
      6 min read

    • Article

      Acorns and Octavia

      Nov 25, 2022

      Acorns and Octavia
      10 min read

    • Article

      Black Buddhists, Black Buddhisms

      Jun 28, 2022

      Black Buddhists, Black Buddhisms
      3 min read

    • Article

      Building Blocks of Belonging

      Sep 14, 2021

      Building Blocks of Belonging
      11 min read

    • Article

      Javanese Spiritual Life

      Aug 9, 2021

      Javanese Spiritual Life
      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts

    4.5/5

    16 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Right after John Mason comes Baba Ifa Karade. This book takes the inclusive energy of Ifa to a new level by offering simple, comparative excerpts from religious texts from differing religions, even a list of chakras and their Yoruba counterparts. Interesting and mind/heart opening.

      2 people found this helpful

    Book preview

    The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts - Baba Ifa Karade

    THE WEISER CLASSICS SERIES represents the full

    range of subjects and genres that have been part of Weiser's

    publishing program for over sixty years, from tarot,

    divination, and magick to alchemy and esoteric philosophy.

    Drawing on Weiser's extensive backlist, the series offers works

    by renowned authors and spiritual teachers, foundational

    texts, as well as introductory guides on an array of topics.

    THE HANDBOOK OF

    YORUBA

    RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS

    THE HANDBOOK OF

    YORUBA

    RELIGIOUS

    CONCEPTS

    REVISED EDITION

    BABA IFA KARADE

    This edition first published in 2020 by Weiser Books an imprint of

    Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

    With offices at:

    65 Parker Street, Suite 7

    Newburyport, MA 01950

    www.redwheelweiser.com

    Copyright © 1994, 2020 by Baba Ifa Karade

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted

    in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

    recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in

    writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

    Previously published in 1994 by Red Wheel/Weiser, ISBN: 0-87728-789-9.

    This book describes certain practices that are traditional to Yoruba, including animal

    sacrifice. The publisher does not advocate such practices, but as they are a part of

    Yoruba belief and ritual, they are represented here.

    ISBN: 978-1-57863-667-9

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

    Cover photograph Full Moon, © Nedelcheva-Williams, Zanara/Sabina / Bridgeman Images

    Frontispiece: Adura, by Oswald Simmonds

    Typeset in Palatino

    Printed in Canada

    MAR

    10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

    Series Editors

    Mike Conlon, Production Director, Red Wheel/Weiser

    Judika Illes, Editor at Large, Weiser Books

    Peter Turner, Associate Publisher, Weiser Books

    Kathryn Sky-Peck, Creative Director, Red Wheel/Weiser

    www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter

    CONTENTS

    Acknowledgments

    A Note to the Reader

    Introduction

    1. The Yoruba History

    2. Orunmila and the Ifa Corpus

    3. The Ori a

    4. Divination, Sacrifice, Initiations

    Conclusion

    Apppendix: Religious Phrases of the Yoruba

    Glossary

    Notes

    Bibliography

    Index

    Acknowledgments

    To Olodumare, Orunmila, Ori a, and Egun.

    To the elders of Ile Iya Olori a in Ejigbo, Nigeria, Africa. Special appreciation to Chief Araba Malomo and Iyanla Keye for initiating me into the Yoruba sacerdotal orders of Obatala and Ifa.

    To Apetebi okoya Onayemi Aya Karade for her editing, insight, word processing, illustration, and loving support.

    To all my teachers and mentors, including Afolabi Epega of Nigeria, Chique Valdez of Puerto Rico, and Oba Oseijeman Adefunmi I of Oyotunji, South Carolina.

    I would also like to personally thank all members/initiates of Ile Tawo Lona (Temple of the Mystic Path) and all who've embraced the Yoruba spiritual/religious tradition.

    A Note to the Reader

    WHENEVER CULTURES INTERFACE, either through conquest or through peaceful assimilation, the dominant cultural religious structure will extract the more positive aspects of the subjugated culture. What's left in its wake are the negative aspects. People generally accept this negativity because it's the part of the origin or tradition that is presented by the dominant culture. For example, in respect to the Yoruba religious practice, what's left is the negative voodoo–roots–hoodoo mentality. This view is devoid of sacred realities born of African thought in respect to religion, philosophy, culture, and dignity. It's becoming quite apparent that the negativity we're subjected to is but a mere shadow of the greatness of a vast and empowering African tradition.

    Those seeking their traditional heritage will eventually face the spirituality of their ancestors. When this facing occurs, a deep psychological rift is formed. On one side is the societal dominant religious structure; on the other is the infinite ancestral structure. Adherents to the ancestral Yoruba must be aware of the dangers when crossing the abyss. Spiritual enlightenment, deep study, and gradual acceptance will provide the strength, courage, knowledge, and wisdom necessary to grow, mature, and ultimately transcend.

    INTRODUCTION

    TO REINVESTIGATE THE AFRICAN cultural structure is to reawaken and strengthen the African conceptual consciousness. In respect to religion, concepts are philosophical and transcendental aspects of developmental sciences. They're the fundamental ethos and worldview of a people—of a culture. To be able to conceptualize is one of the higher orders of thinking which inevitably leads a person or people to a greater logic. What's conceived or born from this logic is that oneness with the potential of the Creative Essence brings about oneness in the potential of the human essence. The tenets of Yoruba revolve around this basic concept.

    Understandings leading to the acceptance and the actualization of logic in spiritual development are often defined as mystical. The major error of many seekers and adherents of the Yoruba faith is that they confuse mysticism with occultism. Mystical searching has no relation whatsoever in aim or means to phenomena or powers known as occult. . . . The aim of man's mystical search is to acquire an imperishable consciousness through a progressive communion of his physical body (his temporal reality), with his spiritual being (his immortal reality), and his ‘kinship’ with his divine cause.¹ It's of the utmost importance that we in this faith strive to understand the way of mystics who set out to harness the energies of existence for the greater good as opposed to those who strive to manipulate those energies to bring about harm, suffering, and discontentment.

    Relatedly, basic fundamental concepts of the Yoruba faith have been misinterpreted in the New World. The mysticism of its core has been overshadowed by the occultism of those who extracted and portrayed only the shadow—one present in all religions—that exist.

    The aim of the mystic or Yoruba sacerdotal orders isn't to dwell upon occult powers but to seek divine essence and balanced character via the Ori as, the Odu-Ifa, egun, and one's ori. From a conceptual standpoint, this is all-pervasive and all-important. Seekers or aspirants of the Yoruba religion must be constantly reminded, as reiterated throughout this book, that Yoruba isn't a cult nor is it occult. Yoruba is a divine journey to the inner self and to God-Consciousness. Yoruba is our religion. Yoruba is our existence.

    The indigenous Yoruba has a belief in the existence of a self-existent being who is believed to be responsible for the creation and maintenance of heaven and earth, of men and women, and who also brought into being divinities and spirits who are believed to be functionaries in the theocratic world as well as intermediaries between mankind and the self-existent Being.² The Yoruba word for God is both Olodumare and Olorun. There's no doubt that the Yoruba civilization conceived a One God theosophy eons before external influences brought about by Western invasion, enslavement, and colonialism. The proof is in the sacred Odu-Ifa scriptures once passed down orally and now in written form (much like the Khemetians, Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, Hindus, Native Americans, and other ancient civilizations).

    Traditional systems such as Yoruba are seen as being pagan and heathenistic by those of today's proclaimed major world religions and faiths. Clearly, the absurdity of such views is relative to the lack of spiritual and religious substance of those who hold them. To say that one religion is pagan is to say that they're all pagan. Inscribed within the very scriptures of religious cultures throughout the world and throughout time there exist concrete, substantial, and tangible recognition of abstract, insubstantial, intangible manifestations of emotions, mental elucidations and modifications, supernatural beings, transcendental worlds and forces that direct the creation, evolution, and destruction of all things. Rituals, symbolic artistic creations, and sacred physical positions and utterances all demonstrate the human need and ability to make sense of the multiplicity of realities that exist within the universe and, as sentient beings, transcend as a result.

    Aspirants are directed to see the Ori as as divinities of the Yoruba cosmology and as emanations of the Olodumare. The Ori as aren't simply mythological constructs designed to satisfy the lower mind and intent of humans. As divinities and angels in religious context they, the Ori as, were created and sent by Olodumare to assist in the spiritual and physical evolution and upliftment of humankind. It's our recognition and our reliance on these elemental beings that have brought about the necessity to make ebo and adimu: sacrifices and offerings; to have dafa: divination; and, most importantly, alaa e: to live in accordance with ancestral guidance.

    "In the Judeo-Christian culture, the word for angels signifies

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1