You know what I'm going to say, right? LIVE THE MEDICINE! It's my mantra and my tag line. But even more importantly, it's my definition of a new standard. When I say Live the medicine, I'm telling you that the highest form of devotion is NOT expressed through initiations, NOT realized through acquiring titles and NOT contained in pots, beads or any other paraphernalia. Live the medicine means YOU are the cure, so act accordingly. It's the definition of a standard.
I do my best to demonstrate the standard by sharing my work as a teacher, a community priest, and author. That is, through my videos, blog posts, books, classes, worship services and personal consultations, I try to show a variety of ways in which you can observe me living the medicine, even if we live far apart from one another. That is, by making myself and my teachings more accessible, I am actually living the medicine that heals my life and the lives of the people I am destined to serve. As my voice begins to carry, and greater numbers of people accept the invitation to live the medicine, it's increasingly necessary for me to make certain demands. What kinds of demands? It's like this, a few years ago, my mentor Baba Imodoye hit me with a simple fact. He said, "It's not enough to know the truth. The truth has to be organized." So, in the exact same way that truth must be organized in order to be shared effectively, the way you live the medicine must also be organized. It starts with ritualizing your day. You must make time for prayer and meditation every single day. This is why Oriki Awon Orisa is an indispensable tool in your practice. Of course, Frederick Douglass taught us that he prayed for twenty years and got nothing until he began praying with his feet, which reminds us how important it is to supplement our prayers with strategic action. So, in addition to prayer, I am also demanding that everybody who is living the medicine will take deliberate steps to help others do the same. In other words, organize your family, organize your friends, organize your coworkers and your fellow priests. Get them involved in this movement by encouraging them to participate in the online conversation, join the member site, buy the Fundamentals of Òrìsà Lifestyle, participate in the OLA16 Retreat and donate to the Agbole. The only strategy is to tell everybody! Ultimately, I am making the demand that you make the medicine go viral because the needs in our community are so great. It is no longer appropriate to treat your success as an individual effort. No! Share your success with others. Invite everybody to see and do the things that inspire you. If they choose to do something else, that is fine. You will not lose the relationship just because you have different approaches to life. So, please do not be afraid or inhibited. Remember what Ifá teaches in the Holy Odu OsaOgunda, "When one ori is successful, it will reach out to two hundred. When my ori is successful, it will reach out to yours. When your ori is successful, it will reach out to mine." Live the medicine | www.ObafemiO.com
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Town shrines as ritual “houses” are internally organized both as palaces (ààfin) and kingdoms (ìlú), mirroring the actual palace of the kingdom with its expansive courtyard, verandah, parlor, and inner chambers, while protecting within its walls the ritual crowns, calabashes, and deities of the orisha’s town of origin. In principle, all kings, crowns, and orisha come from Ile-Ife as the sacred locus of original kingship, and in this sense all shrines manifest Ile-Ife within their cores. Historically, however, they represent the towns and quarters from which they migrated, as strangers.*
*Apter, Andrew. Yoruba Ethnogenesis |
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