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Abstract
In the Americas, If-Orisha religion is a syncretic practice that survived forced removal from the African continent, the enslavement of
its followers, and subsequent centuries of subjugation and marginalization. Today, social and institutional oppressions continue to limit
the degree to which If-Orisha religious practice holds legitimacy as
an independent and viable epistemology. The healing practices of
this tradition deserve critical scholarly attention alongside other nonWestern healing systems such as Ayurveda, Reiki, and Yoga, which
have over time gained widespread Western and academic acclaim.
As scholar-practitioners, we contend that there remains a significant disconnect between the numbers of If-Orisha practitioners
worldwide and its representation in American academia. The ethnographic interview data presented in the Sacred Healing and Wholeness symposium place If-Orisha within a framework to understand
how this practice helps people in their daily lives. This project is an
exploratory exercise with the aim of guiding future empirical investigation into the healing interventions of If-Orisha divination. Our
reasons for wishing to participate in the symposium were broadly
based in our belief of the Lukumi (the Yoruba people of Cuba) proverb one tree does not a forest make, and we could not pass on the
opportunity to share with like-minded scholars of the same or related
cultures and spiritual paths.
In December 1999 scholars and practitioners of If-Orisha from four different continents came together at Florida International University (FIU) for
a three-day conference dedicated to examining the globalization of Yoruba
religious culture. The historical importance of this conference is summarized
in the declaration of If-Orisha as a legitimate global religion.1 The critical,
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socialization opportunities for people who are suffering from the many
stressors that characterize acculturation, immigration, and de-culturative processes.20 Whereas Sandoval highlights the positive effects of group dynamics
associated with Santeria practice, our study proceeds to address comparable
effects of the one-on-one counseling process central to If-Orisha divination.
In the first chapter of Living Santeria, Ritual and Experiences in Afro-Cuban Religion, Michael Atwood Mason gives an account and analysis of a cowrie-shell
divination session, by means of which he also provides a general introduction
to the mechanics of the divination process itself:21
The divination ritual helps clarify her position in the social and
supernatural worlds. After her situation is clarified, she is able to act,
to make a sacrifice that plants her squarely in the larger cosmological
context. The ritual of dilogun divination touches on a multitude of
experiences within the clients life, evoking various social identities
she maintains. . . . Divination apparently reduces anxiety and provides
a basis for action. . . . The diviner supplies the client with a way to
imagine and understand her situation.22
Still, Atwood Mason recognizes that the method by which divination clarifies
situations and offers solutions remains unclear.23
Our research builds on work from writers such as Menendez, Sandoval,
and Atwood Mason to delve even deeper into understanding the methods of
If consultation in and of itself, providing testimonies from people at different levels of initiation as to their specific experiences of this process. Our goal
was and remains to investigate this method that Atwood Mason identifies as
unclear. In this task, it is necessary to engage critically with Yoruba theological
concepts such as the divine self (Or), reincarnation (Atunwa), the self-chosen
destiny (Ipn), and the concept of sacrifice (Eb). Using the existing literature
and theological texts detailing these concepts, we examine how these and other
concepts interact with each other and how they play out during the course of
a divination session.
The Yoruba and their descendants believe that before birth, every person
chooses a destiny in life for themselves with the guidance of Olodumare.24 The
purpose of ones life then becomes to find and live that chosen destiny, if possible helping others find their destinies along the way. Yoruba theology posits
that suffering endured throughout life can be directly related to whether or not
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a person finds themselves in alignment with their destiny, with the resulting
imbalances producing physiological, cognitive, emotional, and spiritual consequences as a matter of course. As reflected in the therapeutic meditation techniques of Maximilian Sandor and Edward Dawson, this theology contends:
Any course of action that is not aligned with the central goal/anti-goal
of a person will inevitably lead to a decrease of happiness and success.
A person not following its [sic] own basic axioms will become the
worst enemy of itself [sic]. The Individual discovery and recognition
of a persons gunas or prime motivator or goal/anti-goal can lead
to an alignment of the persons current and future goals, dramatically
increasing effectiveness and success rate.25
Those initiated into If-Orisha receive a series of divination sessions
called ita that effectively inform the initiate on these basic axioms that need to
be adhered to if they are to strive to live their destiny. While the advice given
at an ita is applicable for life, divination sessions performed outside the context
of an initiation ceremony have the explicit purpose of providing a short-term
diagnosis gauging where a person finds themselves in relation to the set of
self-chosen goals that constitute their destiny. Drawing from these foundational principles, one major aim of If divination is to identify the root cause
of a persons imbalance or misalignment, prescribing instructions to correct
the imbalance through traditional medicine and ritual, and giving the person
advice about how to avoid the same or similar problems in the future.
The concept of wholeness is crucial in this process given that If posits
that if left unattended, both spiritual and mental imbalances may manifest
as physiological ailments. In Western psychology and psychiatric medicine,
this same model for mind/body amalgamation is pathologized clinically as
psychosomatic or somatoform and factitious disorders.26 This basic holistic
notion will have us understand that suffering unfolds in multiple domains
of human functioningspiritual, emotional, cognitive, and physiological. To
constitute a whole, healthy, and spiritually aligned person, healing practices
within If-Orisha are structured accordingly to address these areas as needed.
Participants in the interviews we collected as part of our research describe
their personal understanding of these concepts, their experiences of divination and healing practices, and their relationship to the babalawo27 as well as the
wider If-Orisha community.
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from others who are doing work complementary to ours even though much of
this research has been produced outside of our academic disciplines, remains
in progress, or is otherwise unpublished. Iya Suzanne Hendersons work on
If-Orisha spirituality and mental health,32 for example, both supports and
expands on our findings. While our work focuses on the specific benefits of
divination as a form of alternative counseling, Hendersons project places divination within a framework for various aspects of practice conducive to mental health. Our work is complementary in that we aim to demonstrate how
people of all initiatory levels can enjoy benefits of Lukumi If divination, while
Henderson concentrates on full initiates and the benefits they enjoy as a result
of undergoing the Lukumi ritual of Kariocha. 33 Finally, we were lucky to benefit from the work of colleagues whose work we did not previously anticipate
would have an influence on ours, like Chelsea Strayers work on the placebo
effect and Onaje Woodbine and Dr. Robert Woodbines work on historical
memory, trauma, and intergenerational susceptibility to disease.
In the end, the dialogue resulting from the symposium represents the unifying potential of scholarship. The Sacred Healing and Wholeness in Africa
and the Americas symposium created opportunities to collaborate across religious traditions and academic disciplines and encouraged us to expand this
line of work. By engaging with the work of our colleagues, we strengthen our
own. We foreground the challenge to critique deeply ingrained perceptions,
which limit the extent to which non-Western healing traditions are accepted,
and we quickly realize that we will all be well served by fostering cooperation
and community.
Notes
1. Jacob K. Olupona and Terry Rey, eds., Orisa Devotion as World Religion: The Globalization of Yoruba Religious Culture (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008).
2. Ibid., 7.
3. Stephen Prothero, God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World
(NewYork: HarperOne, 2010), 220.
4. Tomoko Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions; or, How European Universalism Was
Preserved in the Language of Pluralism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 4.
5. Olupona and Rey, eds., Orisa Devotion as World Religion, 7.
6. Cornerstones in both If-Orisha and Hindu philosophy share many similarities
including a belief in reincarnation, a concept of the true divine inner self, and a
pantheon of deities that collectively serve as a conduit to the divine.
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