Ever wondered…. if we have the internet, and books – why do we need priests?
If you have… don’t worry… you are not alone, nor the first one to think of this question.
Being that there is so much information at our fingertips, I don’t blame you for thinking this. Just think… if I can get a ceremony from a secret online group, or a book that I just spent good money on Amazon… why use a priest? They are taking my money right?
You would think that if there are videos on how to take a car engine apart that it would be okay to just use Youtube, Amazon books and the internet to allow you to work with the Orishas.
The way that the traditions are built – passed down from our Ancestors, and spiritual families, are made more than survival mode… but they have a reason to the crazy rhymes.
- A book cannot give you help if you get stuck in a ceremony. What if something goes wrong? What if in the middle of ‘insert book/internet ceremony instructions’ an Egun shows up, and it’s a bad one. What would you do?
- A book cannot give you help when the oracle refuses to close – I’ve seen competent priests stop readings to make a call to another priest because something weird and funky shows up in an oracle or it refuses to close.
- A book cannot give you the Ase needed to complete and empower ceremonies – There are many ceremonies and spiritual work that require an initiated priest to put their hands on something, speak certain words, or chew and spit something in order for it to have the correct Ase for what it’s being summoned to do. A book or internet printout simply cannot do this for you.
- A book nor internet cannot provide you with the Real Life Experience – I’m always at awe to see priests in action when there is something stalling the reading, and a mini-crisis. This is something that cannot be taught in any book. One situation’s fix may work for that situation, but not for 100 others.
- The internet nor book can provide you support in just the lineage that you serve – A book may be strictly Lukumi and in just one lineage. You may be destined to follow another lineage and things change with that one fact.
- A book or internet may be just the guideline, but not the complete ceremony – There are some folks that take for face value the words and spiritual works, eboess from one particular author. In working to take notes for various events, I’ve seen that — any one source may just be a guideline or starting source which will lead elsewhere – especially if you have a very competent divinator priest who doesn’t do a chippy choppy job of taking things as face value and really asks the oracle questions. (See #4 on this one as well).
We need this ONE thing to be Spiritually Successful in this faith…
A Priest’s Ase!
A book cannot give us the Ase that a priest may have. When a person decides to go through the process of becoming a priest and studying, and paying all of the dues to become a servant to the community — this raises the vibrations and the value of this individual with the world!
The head of our egbe tells the story that he was in a noisy event – very busy – very loud (as Orisha events tend to be), and he met an Omo Obatala of many years. When he tells the story, his eyes tend to drift (as when reminiscing) to state that when he spoke with her, he felt like they were in a bubble. He couldn’t hear anything that was going on and he was very much into their conversation. Years of worship had given this omo Obatala, the ase of calmness and stillness and just ‘zen’… that many work in one whole lifetime to have. No book or internet printout will be able to provide that to anyone.
As we are growing in the traditions and going through our journey – we will need to support and guidance of these competent elders to help us go through! Ifa says… that we stand on the shoulders of our Ancestors — and this is true — it takes an entire community to lift us to where we need to be! This is not a solitary tradition… We may start out that way… but eventually the need overtakes us and our spirits begin to find the spiritual home that we belong to!
What are YOUR thoughts?
Do you feel that you can make it just with books or the internet through the Orisha Traditions?
Have you experienced negative interactions with egotistical, immoral priests or other negative reason and just don’t want to deal with them?
Comment below or come to our Orisha Wisdom Facebook community and let’s continue the conversation!
How to remove negative energies from my body and house ?
The best way is always to get a reading with a reputable priest and go from there. 🙂