How you start is not always How you finish
My first intro to Orisa was a way of Self Discovery, i was already working on my spirituality, training with Mentors in the Psychic community and reading clients when my regular reader Kept telling me that there was an african woman behind me saying the word “O-ri-sha”. Neither of us knew What that word meant but he insisted that I Found out. This Psychic was an old white man. A Message is a message despite the appearance of the Messenger
I eventually Traveled to New Orleans many times, had various experiences, even moved and became a reader there without ever knowing that New Orleans was where my paternal great grandparents immigrated to the USA from Jamaica through New Orleans, which I discovered many years later.
After getting into contact with a well nown Santero in Miami, I flew over to get Divination done, receive my elekes, guerreros, olokun, palo muerto etc. even got scratched in Preparation for doing ocha.
I eventually left the ile and my ocha basket, my elekes and orisas there After many things occurring, things spoken during misas that made me go hmmm and just general blockages. Several times my GPS would stop working and I would find myself lost for hours trying to find my padrino’s home. With him being a santero of elegua, I thought that was significant.
Eventually I took a break, went to a Babalawo and received my hand of ifa, new warriors etc. Discovered that the previous house was planning to initiate me to the wrong orisa, it was supposed to be his orisa and felt a type of ways. The babalawo that cast my odu isefa had the same ifa odu as me and also was a little shocked and my oluwo tried to illuminate my naive mind.
I took a long break from the religion, I had noticed that I garnered way more success without it, I had made the most money in my career, when I just left santeria alone. I tried one last time to give cuban ifa a try with another babalawo who remade all my shrines, taught me, mentored me, gave me me osain and allowed me to help him with clients and basic rituals and sacrifices. Learned a lot but same as before, nothing miraculous really changed. I switched to an Isese babalawo (popoola lineage) for ebbos just for change of perspective. I effectively left santeria, ifa and orisa for good, I would just get an ifa divination once in a while.
I went back to vodou because that was my first ATR experience and the ancestral pull as well as it actually worked for me. But during kanzo in Haiti, I started to dream a lot about Africa, somewhere I had never been or wanted to go, and I blew it off.
Months later, I had this strange dream involving sango, talking about ifa, I thought it was ludicrous so I contacted my babalawo for divination, and the odu cast spoke about both sango and going into ifa. Weeks later, I got another divination from someone from an afa lineage without telling him anything and he had a similar divination result. So I took it seriously after talking to 3 different babalawos from three different lineages and countries.
I found myself in africa for the first time, I was afraid, I did afa initiation as well as other ceremonies, I was still apprehensive though. After coming back to usa, I got an outside divination and it came out in ibi, someone was trying to take me out.
I got very ill, doctors ran tests for 5 weeks even wearing a heart monitor and they could not figure out why my heart was failing. Yup, I was dying at 33 years old, 5 years later my brother died at 33. You probably guessed it, it was an inside the family thing. Anyways, I was terminated from my employer and I threatened to sue them very publicly because I had nothing to lose. They settled, I had a large sum of money but I was still dying so I had two choices have fun or do orisa initiation and hope for a miracle.
I was invited to the ebohon center in Benin city, got my nigerian visa but I was too sick to travel back to africa, didn’t have medical authorization, so I went to Brazil instead, to initiate under one of Araba agboola’s godchildren there, I stayed for 5 weeks. I did a lot of ceremonies. I went into trance with orisa for the first time, then again and again. It was around the third time that I felt a significant change in my heart beat and the palpitations had stopped. Within 3 months, I never had another problem again.
I went back to Brazil and found out I was touched by the candomble bug via my previous godfather, meaning he mixed some things Brazilian and Isese. one tradition does not wipe out the other, no baptism can undo a previous ceremony also finding out that sango never left me alone despite him not being the orisha of my ori. I went to a festa of xango at the famous terreiro do cobre, one girl was mounted with xango, hugged me and wouldn’t let go until I slipped into trance. I woke up in the back room and the iyalorisa of the lineage said I had to do some ceremonies in candomble. I went to various terreiros to get differing opinions and they all said similar things. So that’s how I ended up in candomble when I didn’t want to be.
Before the pandemic, I went back to nigeria and Benin to learn, study, do more ceremonies over a planned trip of 6 weeks which turned into 6 months. Surprisingly enough I ended up in the ile of another popoola lineage babalawo and iyanifa without realizing it.
just clarify my relationship with the popoola family is purely transactional, I bought their entire library of books, lectures, songs, etc, did divination with them for many years and used their olorisas they usually employ but they don’t consider me to be affiliated and so neither do I. I have never met chief popoola in person
Ejiogbe is the odu of many ebbos, sacrifices, orikis, loss, abundance, gossip, jealousy, betrayal, triumph over adversity, healing, longevity, being well known but alone, many taboos, honesty but many lie on you, charity without gratitude or acknowledgment.
