#omenala

[themedicineshell]

Reincarnation and The Afterlife in Odinala - Igbo Cosmology

[themedicineshell]

What is an Ikenga? 

In Igbo mythology, the driving force of the body and spirit is know as a person’s Ikenga. Around the idea of Ikenga is a school of thought dedicated to if activating, understanding and and utilizing your internal spark. Ikenga allows a person to tap into the best of themselves at will when facing that challenges that stand between a person and their destiny. 

[heauxnation-blog]

When i’m trying to reflect, get into a balanced mindset for writing or rituals- i usually listen to @ibeyi2. Their last album is fucking superb (as always). It truly elevates my spirits and keeps me feeling grounded.- @blaqueer_king #ibeyi #mevoy #ash #heauxnation #spritiuality #orishas #omenala #alusi #orisha #oshun #yemaya #heauxsoundtrack

[ukpuru]

A factor that demystifies Igbo folk religions (and in extension other west African ones), is understanding the differences between the categories of ritual practice a. veneration / divination – omenala b. sorcery – juju in Pidgin English, from French joujou, ‘toy’ or ‘plaything’, c. healing. These categories overlap, but are different. In Igbo, juju is nshi, ‘sorcery’, which is also ‘poison’; healing (including lucky charms, etc) is ogwu ‘medicine’, ogwu can overlap with sorcery because it refers to material objects from plants to charms. Those who have volunteered for the battle of good over evil (missionaries) did not understand or care about these differences, and for the most part they’ve successfully distorted these differences to the point where some people who practice folk religions have to be apologetic about it at best because it’s all seen as ‘juju’. You don’t use omenala maliciously (relative to what is moral at the time), omenala translates loosely as ‘what’s done in the country/community, or, what is done in the domain of the Earth Mother, Ala’ (the keeper of morality), these are practices that sustain the community, like ancestral veneration and divination, fertility to interpreting a deity’s temperament. Confusing omenala, nshi, and ogwu led to the vilification of the whole belief system by suggesting that practices like ogwu ego (money rituals by human / major sacrifices) represent the core and necessary practices of the religions.

An analogy for these practices would be the use of drugs in modern medicine either appropriately or abusively without making medicinal practices necessarily unethical, more crudely the utility of a knife as a crucial item of early technology and agriculture, or warfare. Duality and the spaces between it is not only acknowledged, but is also sacred; an authoritarian view doesn’t allow space for diversity in the path and utility of spirituality, practices are either ‘evil’ in whole or ‘good’ inherently. In folk beliefs there is no final Judgment Day when God will descend from heaven and smite the devil [and evil] for good, good and evil are permanent and always relative. Folk belief is neutral in that it doesn’t have a doctrine hammering in one perspective, just as natural forces inhabit the universe, the person makes a choice of what to do with the forces, but whatever energy is focused on is what will be attracted.

Onye omenala [Folk religion practitioner]: somebody who venerates their ancestors / deities and worships the higher power. ‘Juju’ practitioner: somebody who seeks to manipulate the world for a goal. Dibia / diviner / healer: a (chosen) mediator between worlds.

[kemetic-dreams]

General Questions about Igbo Culture:

What is the difference between Odinani and Omenala?

Omenala are customs and traditions, and Odinani is the study of the sacred sciences of nature; both  inner (human nature) and outer (the world as we know it). In essence, Omenala is what is done, and Odinani is part of the reason why its done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu0z6zyc2J8

[ukpuru]

By C. N. Ubah

Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 52, No. 2 (1982), pp. 90- 105

[ukpuru]

By Emmanuel Kaanaenechukwu Anizoba

Introduction to the religion/cosmology of the Igbo people.

[adadioramma]

Don’t need to say much here.