Self Initiation into the Universal Ògbóni Philosophy and Spirituality 4:Concluding Invocations

 

                                                                          

Abstract

This is the fourth part of a ritual for relating oneself to the foundational spiritual powers and ethical vision of the Earth and humanity centred Yorùbá origin Ògbóni esoteric order.

Here are part 1, part 2 and part 3 of the ritual.

The ritual is based on an understanding of Ògbóni developed from scholarly research on the esoteric school.

This foundation is developed in terms of the grounding of Ògbóni within classical Yorùbá philosophy and spirituality. These conjunctions are further correlated with philosophical, religious and artistic expressions from Africa, Asia and the West.

This is the first initiatory text of a new school of Ògbóni I am developing, the Universal Ògbóni Philosophy and Spirituality.

The goal of this new school of thought and action is that of publicly demonstrating how to take advantage of the contemporary and timeless significance of Ògbóni thought and culture.

These values are evident to me even as a non-member of conventional Ògbóni who prefers to work out an individualistic approach to Ògbóni thought and culture rather than join an Ògbóni group.

The logic of the ritual, the sources and reasons for the choices of elements included and why they are used the way they are, is presented in the footnotes.

The images come from various sources online. I will provide the credits later. Great thanks to the creators of the images and those who uploaded them.

Female half of a male and female edan ogboni pair

Visualize

the sequence of images of the Ògbóni cosmogram, without the accompanying invocations :

front:

white light : grains of white powdered chalk :

Olorun

back:

points of deep black light for mud :

Oduduwa

right:

black points within which a red flame glows

evoking charcoal from cooking fires :

human being

left:

red points of light for camwood dust :

blood

to consolidate them in your memory, facilitating your calling them up anytime, recalling their symbolic values.

Maintain silence

Sculpture of Ogboni horseman which could be taken as evoking journeying between dimensions

Visualize

a beam of white light

descending from orun

from where existence emanates

visualized as the farthest point in space above your head

passing through your head, your body and exiting below

penetrating to the core of the Earth and exiting into outer space.[1]

Male half of an edan ogboni male and female pair

Imagine

That light in your chest

reach out from your chest to your sides

left and right.

On the right, reaching out to touch the cluster of black points

within which a red flame glows

evoking charcoal from cooking fires

representing Ogun the fashioner

Ìwòrì Méjì, the leaves as the cosmos

the cosmos as the leaves

human creativity

Earth as the all performing wisdom

which gives perseverance and unerring action in all things.

Onile

From your right

the light moves to your front

to touch the points of white light

representing grains of white powdered chalk

symbolizing Olorun, ultimate creator

Obatala, the igniter, from whom existence explodes

Èji Ogbè, opener to all possibilities of existence

Onile, embodiment of the all-pervading wisdom

structuring the physical cosmos.

Male onile

From your front

the light proceeds to your left to touch the cluster of red points

evoking blood, standing for the life force of humans and animals

identified with Obaluaye, purifying fire

Òdí Méjì integrator and distributor

Onile, bringing strength to the spirit

turning sorrow to wisdom

pervasive yet discriminating.

Onile

The light continues

to your back

touching the constellation of deep black

representing mud

signifying Oduduwa, mountain unifying mind, world and cosmos

Òyèkú Méjì, consolidator of the doors to all possibilities

Onile as Earth, mother of mothers on whose body all life feeds.

Place your palms together and state:

Àse.

Maintain silence

Onile

Concluding Invocation of Onile

Evoking the Ògbóni Cosmogram

Mother of we, charcoal burners feeding flames for food

creators of ever more powerful forms of fire

blood palpitating, bonding us in life and judgment.

In the name of the ultimately immense one

luminous as the sky yet beyond that great immensity.

May your presence be known.

In mystery and power,

in darkness and light,

in awe and illumination, majestic yet comforting.

Ilè! Alagbara! Powerful! Immovable!

Yet dynamic as the flowing stream and the crashing waves

rhythms of ocean bottom, life teeming in silent depths.

Accept these humble gifts as we seek your presence.

Maintain silence.

Female half of a male and female edan ogboni pair

Having unified all four points of the Ilédi ògbóni you have become and consolidated this embodiment of sacred space by a summative invocation of Onile in relation to the Ògbóni cosmogram, seal the consecration of yourself.

Touch your finger to your forehead.

Declare

“May I realise my unity with

“Olodumare”

To your chest

“Ilè”

To your right shoulder

“My fellow humans”

To your left shoulder

“ All that exists”

conclude

bring your two palms together and declare

“To the greatest blessing of all beings

As long as being exists.”

Àse.”

Maintain silence

The initiation is completed.

It is complemented by the philosophical summations of Ògbóni that follow in part 5.

[1]This section is an adaptation of the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram from Western esotericism adapted and discussed in the earlier parts of this ritual.

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