The other day, as I was performing my morning Ifá consultation for myself, the oddun where the tempest was born appeared. The oddun predicts a major storm will occur soon and to take precautions to avoid getting rain on one’s head. When I asked my wife and Apetebà Lisa Changó about it, she said the forecast was for sun and clear skies for the next month.
I looked at a few forecasts and they all agreed with the one Lisa had seen. Knowing Oricha Standard Time can be very different from our own, I decided to file that information so I could see how long it took for the predicted storm to appear. For a long time I had joked that I was often so busy that I was having to get my weather reports from Ifá rather than by the usual means. But this was the first time Ifá was directly contradicting the weather reports by such a large measure. So this one should be interesting…
Early that afternoon, when we went out for the day, sure enough the sky was clear and sunny just as the weather reports had predicted. We brought along our umbrellas and hats just in case even though it looked like they would not be needed.
We were enjoying the sun and the perfect weather when suddenly we heard distant thunder. Before long dark clouds had come rushing in, dumping tons of rain on us. Fortunately, we were prepared and the sudden downpour had little effect on us.
When we got home, the news was all about the freak storm that had hit the area so suddenly…
So… Ifá 1, Meteorologists 0…
As they say, “Ifá’s word never falls to the floor…”
In Itás*, sometimes we are told to change our rooms, to change our furniture, to change our lives. Why are we told this? I’m not so sure. Some say to thwart Egguns and spirits that want to do harm. Other times perhaps it is because we need to breathe new life, new air. We all can get complacent in our lives. It is comforting to know where your next meal will come from and where you will lay your head at night. Or perhaps the Orichas are saying you have not reached your destiny you need to keep going.
I had just received Itá and my padrino Ogbeate asked “you have any questionsâ€. As I sat dumbfounded all I could ask “What do you mean I have to change my entire lifeâ€. “Asi es, poco a poco pero todo tiene que cambiar†(As it is so, little by little but everything must change).
Growing up brown and poor in the ghettos of Los Angeles, I thought I had cracked the ‘glass ceiling’ (concrete more like) by being the only one in my extended family to go to college, get a master’s and work in my profession. And here the Itá was saying something was amiss in my life, that I needed an entire transformation.
Okay, I gulped… much to think about…
As our twins were very young, they needed lots of attention, care and nurture. During this trip to Cuba I received Odudua, Olokun and my yeye Obba. This trip was to fortify me with the strength I needed and continued to need with what lay ahead. What lay ahead was a series of challenges related to the life or death threat to my husband Frank’s health. Changing one’s life is not at the forefront of your existence when you’re just trying to survive an onslaught of hardships and just trying to breathe, hoping that our family will somehow come out together at the end of the tunnel. It is interesting that life has a way of testing you through adversity, just to see what you are made of. Will you blow away at the first strong wind or will you grow your roots a little deeper?
Years later, with our family intact we headed to Huautla de Jimenez, Oaxaca. We decided to go to Huautla after a series of disappointments of not selling our house, though we knew that we needed to leave our old life and start anew. I had suspected that something was amiss, that we were missing a piece of the puzzle but what could it be?
What transpired in Huautla, forever changed our perspective. We both now looked at the world from a very different perspective. We could no longer keep doing what we were doing in the same trajectory. A shift- change had occurred unsuspectingly to us. Going to the city was our first realization that something profound had occurred. No longer were we looking at the world through a capitalist imposed lens of the rat race. But from the perspective of the Earth itself, from the earthen floor, from the greenery of living plants, from the dew of the morning, from the rising of the Sun. Our whole perspective changed and life was no longer taken for granted.
I didn’t realize how much my life had changed until my Horizons changed. As our family traveled through the U.S. The horizons of the sun rising on the East and setting on the West is a constant. I have seared images of the sun setting on the Pacific Ocean where you can see the settling sun inch by inch in the vast sea. But arriving at the Atlantic Ocean I could barely make out the sun setting on the west.
And it wasn’t until arriving on the East coast that I realized a total transformation had taken root. Down to the core where I struggle to find which horizon to look for that I realize my life has changed completely…
…poco a poco.
*The Itá is the deep divination performed as part of major initiations. During this divination, the Oricha received gives predictions and advice which apply to your whole life.
Waking up at dawn, I hear a lively smattering of bird calls as they make a harmonious cacophony. I leave my slumbering family in the motorhome to take a solo walk towards the forested river of the Ochlockonee River in Florida. I quietly slipped out to trek off to salute the rising sun in the East and experience the river at dawn. I was treated to an incredibly immense beauty: a visual dance of light, colors and shadows interwoven onto the stream as I walked along the path of Ochún’s majesty.
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One of my greatest reasons for this journey was to discover and learn from the Orichas in their natural element. As you may imagine, the city of Los Angeles, with its concrete river as the only significant watershed in the urban metropolis, was a poor study area in this regard. As I approached the River, I thanked Ochún for allowing me to be in her presence. The river was calm and serene. And as I continued along the path I saw the crack of the Sun’s ray coming over the horizon. Ache Olorun! I prayed to the four corners, Oldumare, Olorun, Olofi, Eggun and all the Orichas for this day and for giving me this opportunity to witness the rising of the sun.
A Calm and Serene Ochún
What I witnessed unfold in front of my eyes was breathtaking, and the ensuing kernels of knowledge received filled me with gratitude which in itself helped further deepen my spiritual understanding.
Gazing at the awe inspiring scene in front of me, I was treated to a jaw dropping display of the immense, tightly woven tapestry Olofin and the Orichas weave, where it becomes difficult to truly know where the work of one Oricha ends, and the work of another begins. I was being allowed to witness the magnificent interplay between these forces of nature as they interweave and illuminate one another as they constantly create the world in front of me. And I saw how each of the Orichas are multi-faceted, none more so than Ochún herself.
The Sacred Efe or Manatee… Maferefún Ochún, Maferefún Olokun, Maferefún Obatalá¡. Manatee Springs, FL.
And all of this wondrous interplay was being revealed through the magic lens of Ochún’s mirror… the river.
Here is a series of photos (with editorial input) I took in order to try to share some of the beauty that was witnessed. Of course, pictures never do justice to the immense beauty that surrounds us as they are only two dimensional. When we wander in the forest, in nature we are in the presence of abounding life that uses all our senses to experience it fully. All pics are of the Ochlockonee River near the Apalachicola National Forest in Florida, a remote part of Florida unless mentioned otherwise….
What I learned about Ochún from this morning’s walk…
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The River is Ochún’s mirror…
Ochún is often pictured holding a mirror as she gazes at her beauty. The river is a mirror to the sky and the heavens up above. She reflects back exactly what is in front of her, but one of Ochún’s mysteries is that somehow more is revealed through the reflection she presents than without it.
Her mirror reflects not only our physical appearance but also creates a window to our soul. In order to speak to Ochún you need to be pure of heart and speak with clarity as her reflection reveals everything, good and bad and there is no crevice to hide our soul. To be able to see yourself in the mirror everyday, our actions and our hearts must be pure.
How Ochún got her colors:
Ochún’s colors are gold and yellow. When Olorun shines on Ochún she is golden. She glistens like gold.
Ochún, messenger of Heaven:
All Yawos are taken to the river before making Ocha, We are taken to the River to give account of the rites we are undertaking to Ochún who then passes the message on to Olofi. I guess Ochún’s mirror does reflect directly upon the heavens. Interestingly enough we do not just throw coco to Ochún’s otanes but we need to visit with her directly at the river.
Ochún the Orisha of Love…
Ochún has so much beauty in her we are left mesmerized and enchanted by her that it is easy to fall in love with such beauty. Nuff’ said…
Fertile grounds…
Ochún is the Oricha of fertility. The river supports and creates so much life around her from the fish, the trees and forest, to the birds that eat the fish and animals and even humans who all need her in order to eat as we sustain ourselves from her sweet waters.
When I first read and learned about Ochún’s attributes, I too saw them through the lens of the modern world where Ochún is described as coquettish and vain who constantly looks at herself in the mirror, who also loves material things such as gold and jewels. Ugghhhh! I hate to say it but in those terms Ochún sounds downright shallow and somehow profane. Yet, I realize that in this modern world we tend to reduce knowledge into easily consumed bite-sized morsels for our modern convenience. In the process we are losing the depth of knowledge to learn about the Orichas and the significance of their attributes. And even an apparent shallowness merely hides an unsuspected, incredible depth. The Orichas’ Aché comes from the depths of their nature. In order to harness that Aché it is important to understand it. Walking in Ochún’s beauty has helped me gain such insight that I can now call upon when needing her aid. Maferefun Ochún! May we all be blessed by your beauty.
Nindo Tocoxo, Spiritual Center of the Mazatec world
“The more you go inside the world of the Ndi Xti Santo (Little Saint Children), the more things are seen. And you also see our past and our future, which are there together as a single thing already achieved, already happened… I saw stolen horses and buried cities, the existence of which was unknown, and they are going to be brought to light. Millions of things I saw and knew. I knew and saw God: an immense clock that ticks, the spheres that go slowly around and inside the stars, the earth, the entire universe, the day and the night, the cry and the smile, the happiness and the pain. He who knows to the end the secret of the Ndi Xi Santo can even see that infinite clockwork.â€
– Maria Sabina, Mazatec Chota Chjine (Woman of Knowledge)
Shortly before making our trip to Huautla, consulting Ifá about the trip had yielded the oddun Ojuani Boka. In this path of Ifá, Orunmila had divined for humanity using grains of corn. What I found particularly amazing was that shamans among the Mazatec Indians often divine with corn kernels. In fact, I was first drawn to La SanterÃa because while planning a trip to Huautla years before I went to be seen in hopes of gaining insight into the Mazatec corn kernel divination through experiencing what I hoped to be a similar form of divination in SanterÃa! The Mazatec Indians had led me to Ifá and now Ifá was pointing me back to the Mazatecs.
How the events unfolded was equally amazing. As I mentioned in the last blog entry, soon after we arrived we had made contact with a woman who had agreed to perform a velada ceremony with the Little Saint Children with us… Until she learned we had come from Los Angeles. She had been told by the Little Saint Children during a prior ceremony that people would be arriving from Los Angeles and that she could not do the ceremony for us, but instead must take us to an elder Woman or Man of Knowledge.
The Chota Chjine carefully made three piles of the Ndi Xti Santo (Little Saint Children). When I first saw the huge mound of the Saint Children she intended for me, I was taken aback for an instant. I had read from a number of sources that the Mazatecs never gave outsiders more than a one or two pairs and here there were probably a good twenty pairs – a massive amount even for a Mazateco. But it quickly occurred to me that she too had obviously had been told of our coming by the Saints and had been told what to do, so without question I ate the entire amount given to me in exactly the manner she described.
She began her prayers and songs and in less than an hour I felt I was sinking into the depths and knew I was to have little control over what would follow.
When the Ndi Xti Santo first took me to “the place where everything is known,†they explained that they were offering me a rare gift: but I couldn’t withstand the journey as I was: if I wanted to go I must allow them to kill me and have every particle of my being torn apart, but promised me they would ‘rebuild me’ into something greater than I was before. I agreed and after my constituent elements were torn apart, they led me to “the place where everything is known†where I saw the entirety of the past, the future and the present, from the birth to the end of the universe itself, happening all at once. The immenseness of time and space could be found in a single conscious moment. The universe itself was not only alive but conscious, from the littlest particle to the universe as a whole. And all the wisdom and knowledge of the whole universe was laid bare in front of me. This was the place where the odduns of Ifá lived! I was experiencing the immensity that is Ifá!
Everything occurring in front of me was also being explained by the Little Saint Children. I knew at that moment why it had been necessary for me to have become initiated as a babalawo and to have received Olofin and Orà before going to this place.
The Chota Chjine knew what had occurred of course and the Little Saint Children began teaching me some of the Mazatec healing practices what I needed to do to help the Chota Chjine as even the healer needs to be healed.
She began to cry as we saw how the traditions taught to the Mazatecos by the Ndi Xti Santo – that had been kept alive for hundreds if not thousands of years – were being lost due to the lack of people willing to devote their lives to learning them. I assured her, and the Little Saint Children, that the traditions are not dead if there is even one person on earth who keeps them.
At this point the Chota Chjine told Lisa Chango and myself that we had a lot of work in front of us and that since we had been given a priceless gift: knowledge, we must follow the prohibitions including refraining from sexual activity, not for the usual four or five days, but for fifty two days, the same number as the number of years in a century according to the sacred mesoamerican calendar.
I found SanterÃa and Ifá while searching for insight into the Mazatecs, and in turn the Mazatecs gave me a much deeper understanding and appreciation of the knowledge and wisdom that is Ifá. And I am just beginning to fathom just how much the two ways of knowledge complement each other to make a complete whole.
In Huautla’s Central Plaza a corpse is wearing the special type of hat used by the Huehuenton when they represent the Dead during the Day(s) of the Dead
Looking out the window of our bus as it crawled along the narrow winding roads towards the small city of Huautla de Jimenez, I pondered on my own long, winding road that was finally taking me to this remote town after more than thirty years. Needless to say, I had big hopes, but what would occur there would sail beyond my wildest dreams.
Nestled in the Sierra Mazateca mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, Huautla is the spiritual capital of the Mazatec Indians or, as they call themselves, the Ha Xuta Enima (Humble People Who Speak The Language).
When an attempt to sell our home had fallen through we had decided to go to Mexico for the Day of the Dead, a lifelong dream for my wife and ApetebÃ, Lisa Changó. She then suggested we might go to Huautla and fulfill both our dreams at the same time. And during my daily consultations, Ifá had told us repeatedly that a trip was going to bring us a great good fortune and that there was still something we needed to accomplish in order to move forward and to achieve our destiny. We naturally thought it likely that Ifá was telling us we needed a little time away in order to give us a fresh outlook and provide us with the answer.
We got in to Huautla on Oct. 30th and the Days of the Dead, which last ten days there, were already in full swing. Josefina, the owner of the hotel we stayed at, was extremely generous and not only said she would help us find an able Chota Chjine (Woman or Man of Knowledge) but introduced us to one of the local Huehuenton groups who represent the dead, going from house to house, singing, dancing, playing music (and exquisite pranks). With Josefina’s gracious help we were get glimpses outsiders rarely get to encounter. It was an incredible experience and I found found myself very glad that I had taken the trouble to learn a little of the Mazatec language as even that small gesture of respect made them more open to us.
Huehuenton (Chota Xo’o in Mazatec) going from house to house in Huautla
After the ceremonies for the dead were complete, Josefina put us into contact with a woman who said could act as our ‘guide’ in a shamanic ceremony. But when we told her we had come from Los Angeles, she informed us she could not help us. It turned out the Ndi Xti Santo (Little Saint Children) had told her that some people were going to come from Los Angeles. She was not to perform the ceremony herself, but was to turn us over to her elders. The Little Saint Children had known we were coming and had plans for us…
Our Guide offered to refer us to the person she learned from, but that too fell through. But again Josefina came to our rescue and generously offered to seek out a true Chota Chjine or Woman of Knowledge, an old Mazatec woman who lived outside of town in a tiny village in the the woods.
Nindo Tocoxo, Spiritual Center of the Mazatec world
