Teachings on the Philosophical aspects of IFÁ:

Teachings on the Philosophical aspects of IFÁ: This Teaching was given by the Fon Spirit, Tata G, a spiritual emissary of Bàbá Odùdúwà at ẸGBẸ́ ÓDÙN ỌLỌ́FIN - The Spiritual Family of the Secret of ỌLỌ́FIN. IFÁ Festival, February 2019

Teaching on the Philosophical aspects of IFÁ: This Teaching was given by the Fon Spirit, Tata G, a spiritual emissary of Bàbá Odùdúwà IFÁ Festival, February 2019 The first step in achieving precision, efficiency and religious work is going to be indicated by our own behavior. Once that's understood, we can move on to the next step. What is the next frontier after the Orisha? Ifá. The next step is IFÁ. IFÁ is the Irúnmọ̀le Deity that represents Time. It is the view that the Yoruba gave to the Universal phenomenon, now known as Time. How can we deduce that IFÁ is Time? For the following reason, IFÁ is everything that has existed, that exists and will always exist... Until the end of time. What does this mean? If we could define the wisest deity in a word, that would be IFÁ. Why? There is a saying that says: “the older I become, the wiser I become”. This goes back to thinking, to clarify that there is no one older than Time itself. This is IFÁ. IFÁ beyond teaching us about behavior, civics, morality, etc. IFÁ teaches us to live with all the experience that encloses. The highest hierarchies of the religious world, talking about the Yoruba land, are found or deposited in those who have a wide and vast knowledge of what is IFÁ. It must be understood that IFÁ is the way with more responsibility that a person can acquire. IFÁ is not a way for cowards, IFÁ is not a way for liars. IFÁ is not a path for tricksters/scammers. The only thing you'll find there will be death if you decide to take that path. IFÁ has taught us through time, through the centuries, through the ages, that always has prevailed. "Whoever doesn't have a beard will have a jaw," Do you understand? What does this mean? That IFÁ along with Olódùmarè, the Irúnmọ̀le, the Òrìşà will provide all people with everything they need in life. Likewise, it is not about punishing, IFÁ does not punish anyone. It's about responding to the reactions, to the thoughts and decisions we take. Imagine, if the Orisha asks us for good behavior, asks us for a tradition, and I mean tradition as a way of living, acting, thinking, feeling, and being. Now imagine the things that IFÁ will ask us to be able to honour Ifá in this life. Remember something, even in the stone and the most unexpected mountain we can find a diamond mine, we can find a matrix of diamonds. IFÁ is the manifestation of knowledge and wisdom put in practice. That's IFÁ. What does this mean? If we understand this, if we comprehend this, you need No more for the way of personal improvement.. If we understand this we will not only learn to live, we won't need anything else that we need in this life. We still didn't get to fight the Dragons, we still didn't confront them, the others were small lizards”. If we arm ourselves, if we put the IFÁ tools/weapons on, there will be no one who can beat us.

Unity: What makes us equal, make us one. It is worth mentioning and remembering what IFÁ tells us; "A man alone against the whole universe will never be able, but a man with IFÁ will be able against the world and the universe itself. " What does this mean? Definitely, the unit is very important as a family. Do you understand what IFÁ's responsibility requires us as religious? Do you understand the responsibility that is to adopt the customs that IFÁ tells us and marks us? It would be irresponsible to think that anyone is good for IFÁ. IFÁ is not for everyone. Never and never my intention will be to underestimate the orisha, we must remember our roots, IFÁ would not have existed if they had not existed the Orishas, since IFÁ and Orunmila would have had nothing to write if it had not been for them. That's where IFÁ tells us how important the Orishas are to him. What does this mean? There are two types of wood stick that were born to be carved and the one who was born to be coal. It's the same with IFÁ. The way of the Orisha I do not want to demerit, much less, the Orisha is the way to greatness, IFÁ is the way to immortality, to be a legend. What should I teach you, first of all, before you think of grandeur? There can be No Rich King, that his sorcerer, Shaman is poor. You have to understand and understand IFÁ. IFÁ is as wide as the same universe, it is as vast as all the time that humanity has lived. IFÁ is not a verse (Ẹsẹ), is not a story, is not an oracle, is not a prayer, is not a poem. IFÁ is all that has existed.

I can't make war on anyone if I don't know the outcome. Do you understand? Why? Believe, for me, I have learned to lose, but I am also very honest to say that I do not like to lose. If I don't like to lose, I have to find out who can tell me how not to lose. The poor ones are those who lack the most basic thing, which is the intellect, the knowledge. I give you the weapons, but you go to war (to do your duty). We cannot demand from the person, from my own perspective and that of the Great Chief/Odùdúwà, without being first the best of the people. Something I found in these lands his heart and is a complement of IFÁ to be complete and entirely perfect. That's why it implies a great responsibility. I cannot be Babalawo if I do not have the inner spiritual light necessary to be able to understand the person who comes to ask me for help. IFÁ is the way to fight their battles, to overcome their conflicts, but it is also is the way to fight and to overcome the battles of others (your godsons and goddaughters, Ọmọ Ifá). Sister Lupita: You have to know how to serve and not use others. Spirit Tata G: There is something that all of you have in your favor for me, and not just for me, but for all those who see you. They're already big in what they do. I believe that you can be great in all that you propose. Religious work implies an understanding that the problems of others will be mine. Their wars and their enemies are the ones that will come to me, besides the problems and circumstances that I could have in my life. That's IFÁ. As I said: IFÁ is not a verse, is not a prayer, is not able to be able to pronounce the correct magic words, IFÁ is to do the Right Thing... Do what calls us, What you feel in your hearts. It is not worth being honest if there is hypocrisy in sincerity. The hypocrisy of thinking and believing that sincerity will make me bigger, that that sincerity will make me shine more than the others. This for me becomes truth and morality with all the falsehood of the world and the universe. IFÁ don't want that. IFÁ does not need that, in fact, Can I ask you a question; How many people like that are the world and the universe made of? You know something that I have learned here working with you, that this is where people spit in the Heavens waiting for the saliva to fall into their face. Offending something without understanding it is like pretending to offend God without knowing Him. We have two paths; The way of the egocentric and the path of the humble. It is not to become arrogant, but it is something that IFÁ gives to people, and often people misunderstand it, is Greatness through the Ceremony (Awofákán/ ÍŞẸFÁ. ÌTẸFÁ), and the ceremonials that have been done to the person, what do I mean? From the moment you enter the IGBODÙ, which comes from Igbo, Igbá = calabash or gourd or container of ODÚ (also sacred Grove of Odú), which is where people are consecrated in the IFÁ Tradition. From the moment you step on that sacred place, at that moment IFÁ is radiating with all its Blessings, with all that implies, with the responsibilities, everything that implies entering their “lands”. IFÁ exists for the simple fact that all those who deny the greatness of the one who is great, can wipe the tears in his mantle. What does this mean? My people (the Fon) were enslaved, and not only enslaved but sold, the people of the Yoruba went through the same thing happened to them. You (in Mexico) others did the same to you. Where does greatness lie? Greatness is that we were enslaved, that we were tortured. Prejudging is an attitude that does not go with those who practice IFÁ, a person who practices IFÁ the least you must do is prejudge. Why? The great chief Odùdúwà said, IFÁ is not everything, but it can be in everything. How can I call something “satanic” if I don't even know the horn man? This goes back to something that at one time the Great Chief, Odùdúwà told me, that the only promise and the only goal he had with his people before leaving them was to never and ever be forgotten. We have one of the greatest blessings that is IFÁ. A long time ago when I was alive I had a fear, and that fear was to not be able to see my children grow. I refer to those who I procreated and saw birth. Over time, that fear changed, and that's why I was dead. You change everything and understand that you prefer to die before you see your children dead. Imagine that there is a stage in your life that you see yourself with two options; Either you see them grow or you see them die.

In saying that you see them grow is to be in the plane of ARA Ọ̀RUN (Heaven, the afterlife), the place of the spirits. The Ancestors Conceive us to leave our own footprints because they have grown tired of leaving their own mark. IFÁ is not what I say, what I pray, IFÁ is not what I say I have to feel, IFÁ feeds on my experiences. IFÁ feeds on what I am.

I don't expect, the one who expects dies. I am convinced that tomorrow your greatness will make you shine, and beyond making you shine, your greatness shall speak for you. I don't have to speak for any of you. I ask you a question; Who is going to defend this flesh when it gets old, wrinkled, and cannot get up? If I have learned something from IFÁ, I personally, is to learn to enjoy all the virtues and facets of each one of you. This is the work of your Godfather / Baba Ifá, the other time he made an analogy when he was celebrated his birthday, he said that it was curious how to see so many thoughts, so many beliefs, so many actions could be conjugated all at the same time and place. When he takes the ruling baton he will have to understand it, because if he can't understand it, then he'll lose. There is something that goes beyond my understanding and comprehension, and I leave that to IFÁ. There is a reason why all you are united. We can try to interpret IFÁ, We can try to understand IFÁ. The great chief, Odùdúwà says that: IFÁ is only IFÁ. You must understand what the next step is, you must understand that it is not easy. Ask him how much IFÁ has given to my Elègún/medium, and he will tell you that IFÁ has given happiness, has given him love, and all the things he has today. Ask what is the dark part of IFÁ. I assure you he will tell you that there is no obscure part. You yourselves are the largest manifestation of IFÁ, so I would determine in my life At some point, I was told by the great chief Odùdúwà that we should keep the majority happy since so the majority would be on our side. His words have a background; Either you're the same as the others or you're authentic. Do you know what the young people told the elders of my Fon village? Enlighten me, sir. We are not quarreling with anyone, we have no war with anyone, if anyone wants to go to war with us, war will find. But that's different. We can't be visceral in that sense. IFÁ is the understanding of the situations and circumstances that happen in our lives. IFÁ is to elucidate, understand and understand everything that could affect us in our lives, and to always have an answer to solve it. IFÁ is not the verse, IFÁ is not what the Odù sign tells you. IFÁ is what you or any representative of Ifá can tell people. That's IFÁ. The Babalawo that has to leave from here (this Ẹgbẹ́), that they have to carry the insignia of this Spiritual Family / Ẹgbẹ́, they have to be the best. Whoever comes out of the Igbodù of this House is because it is sharper than the razor with which he was shaved. IFÁ is not for mediocre people, the mediocre people can never interpret IFÁ. IFÁ is for the one who is understood and above all immersed in the wisdom of the universe. I don't need to be a physicist, an astronomer, or a mathematician, I don't need any title because I have IFÁ. That's what Bàbá Odùdúwà said. This is your way, knowing and understanding the path that your heart tells you. IFÁ- The Divination that is nothing other than the interpretation of our acts, actions, and thoughts. That's IFÁ. Through IFÁ I can determine the path and the destiny of each one of you. Through IFÁ you will be able to know your path and destination. IFÁ says there are 256 different ways to choose, to follow, and to take. I can tell you that under the teaching of the Great Chief Bábà Odùdúwà there are 512 paths that you can follow and of which you can enjoy. Once you as people are formed are embodied in this small fraction of the universe, I can tell you that through you IFÁ will find a way. And then literally and metaphorically you will become the Diviners of IFÁ. Everything can be foreseen divined, except the direction that the arrow takes. The 512 roads are called decisions; Yes or No. I follow the word of IFÁ or Refuse and deny the word of IFÁ. Beyond, 512 roads will wait for you. It is where the universe is split, decisions, the crossroads of ÈŞÙ. Maybe you don’t understand, but IFÁ would be nothing without you... IFÁ would be nothing without your life.