The Tale of the Orisha by Frater IAC

This is the Orisha. He came to me via a long road, which began when he was shaped of wood and clay long ago in Africa. It is said that he was created around 1895 and came to my family in a remote area in the Mont Hoyo Reserve near the Ituri rainforest in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo just to the west of its border with Uganda. 

That is likely not where he originated, though. He came from the Gold Coast of Africa, home of the Yoruba people, or perhaps the Igbo people further to the east. There is no real knowing.

Yet, if we travel across the sea of years, we can imagine someone, perhaps a shaman, who wished to create an image that had meaning and spiritual power. 

This artist began with three faces, which perhaps symbolize spirit, mind, and body. They may also be seasons of life – the child, adult and elder. These three faces make up the base of the figure.

Above the three heads, they mounted 131 cowrie shells. These symbolize a woman’s genitalia and thus were associated with fertility, protection from evil spirits, good luck, and abundance. Cowrie shells were also used as currency at one time in Africa, India and China.

Crowning the heads are also 22 tiny snail shells, symbolizing the eternal cycle of birth and death. Atop the shells sits a figure looking up at the sky. A small pipe juts from the top of his head, and between his feet emerges another, larger bone face with a hollow top leading down into the interior of the statue. 

For the next ninety years, this mysterious figure dwelt in equatorial Africa near the Aruwimi River. What, we must wonder, are the stories of its owners? It is a profound mystery how it came one day into the hands of an American woman who was a teacher, amateur archeologist, world traveler, and my second cousin.

If you believe in such things, perhaps the statue wished to move on the strength of divine purpose, to see a new place, grace a new home, travel to a different continent. In 1985, nearly a century after its creation, my cousin Cynthia purchased it from an itinerate traveler for $90 – a dollar for each year of its existence. This person must have had a great need, or perhaps had stolen the artifact. At the time, my cousin was on one of several trips she made to Africa in the course of her lifetime, this one to see the mountain gorillas. 

She was a great traveler, and she had a home in northern California, inland between San Francisco and Sacramento, in a little city called Manteca. There, the statue made its home on her mantle for the next thirty-five years. It was in good company, surrounded by other artifacts from all over the globe. 

Eventually, she grew old, and chose to move into a smaller place. This figure, and many other artifacts, came to me over 2019 and 2020. For quite a few years, I have walked the path of the Mage, practicing the alchemy of personal transformation. When the box arrived, and the figure was unpacked, I felt its spirit power immediately. My wife and daughter did not. They said it was creepy and boxed it up again for storage. Into the crawlspace it went. 

Ah, but it called out to me. I kept thinking about it, dreaming about it, wanting to see it again. So I found the box, took it out and held it once more. Again I felt its power – it seemed as if it was conscious. 

So I gave it pride of place on my altar and consecrated it with blessed oil, incense, and candle scent. It stayed quiet for a time, but then one night after I had finished my nightly orisons and rituals, I looked up and in some mystic way, the figure told me about itself. 

The faces on the bottom are the faces of a shaman during his or her life cycle. The cowrie crown symbolizes the cycle of death and rebirth, and that higher awareness and spiritual power that is the destiny and birthright of the shaman. 

Perched on top of this is the Orisha. He is Obatala, the healer, the Old Master, a being of great power and dignity who symbolizes the light of consciousness. His eyes are lifted to the sky, to that infinite awareness we call God. The small pipe coming from the top of the Orisha’s head is his connection to this Infinite awareness, and this Divine consciousness flows through him into the initiate. 

The hollow bone face emerging between the feet of the Orisha is the shaman’s higher self, his/her connection to the Divine. It is that Self which can travel in the spirit world. The top of the bone face is

hollow so that Divine power can be drawn down for shamanic purpose. 

For a time, this figure dwelt on my altar. For scale, those candles are around 6” tall. The Orisha proved to be very seductive, full of sexual energy. Of course, I noticed this because I am not without my own inner power. I refused to succumb, and the Orisha became cold, somewhat frightening. I never presumed to ‘own’ it, and was grateful for what it taught me, though happy when it left. 

Symbolism

This Orisha figure depicts a secret and sacred rite of the Ile Ifa religion, of which Santeria is a sect. In Santeria, an aspiring priest, or Babalawo, has an Orisha, or God Spirit, placed on his head. The Spirit is said to help him grow, and may be considered a form of Holy Guardian Angel.

So, Divine knowledge comes from on high through the Orisha, and goes into the head of the aspiring priest. As he or she grows in knowledge and stature, the bone face at the top of the shell-covered hollow symbolizes that Divine knowledge being shared by the priest with the congregants. 

As I say, the Orisha was very powerful. I felt that power each time I touched him, and certainly he was never far from my conscious mind. I began to be afraid, feeling more and more strongly that the Orisha wished to leave, to be reunited with his own people and his own faith. 

That made sense to me, because Ile Ifa is not my faith. It is a powerful religion, with mighty angelic beings, and certainly is similar to what I know, but I follow the Western Mysteries – the Hermetic religion which I practice through a Christian lens.

This faith is originally from southwest Nigeria, and is still strong among the Yoruba and Igbo people in Africa. However, it was brought to the New World by slaves, and in the Caribbean region became Santeria. 

Repatriation

As I began feeling more and more uneasy about this figure, I did a Tarot reading that said I should repatriate the Orisha. Then, a few days later, I had a dream, a very powerful one. Most of my dreams are merely dreams, but I know when a dream is spiritually significant, because I remember. Here is the excerpt from my dream journal:

September 16, 2020 – two dreams. One was a few days ago. I dreamed of a structure made of geometric patterns, I was below it, looking on as it was lowered, but I knew in the dream it was a powerful curse that would affect me. This curse originated from the Orisha figure my cousin had given me and it was telling me time was short. It insisted on leaving me and I needed to act at once. 

I promptly did research, found a Babalawo based in Houston, contacted him and told him I wanted to send the figure to him. He offered to pay the shipping but I was having none of that. He said I had the highest form of morality, called Iwa-pele. He blessed me. Still, to be safe, after I had sent the package via UPS, I conducted several powerful protection rituals.

This is a depiction of how the Orisha’s curse looked in the dream. The shape reminded me quite a lot of the Borg Cube from Star Trek Second Generation. But not quite. It was much more organic, huge, slow moving, and ponderous, surrounded by feelings of impending dread.

The Orisha taught me a number of things, the main one being that one must resist attachment to so-called magical objects, unless of course they are of one’s own making. Even then, attachments to earthly things keep us from advancing along the true path of Initiation.