The devotee of Ifá-Orisa must be courageous. It is a great mistake and very foolish to attempt to injure, malign, sabotage and/or take advantage of a kind, sincere, honest and true follower of Ifá-Orisa. A realistic and sobering lesson from Odu-Ifá Irete-Ose:

Aboru Aboye. Ogbo ato asure iworiwofun. Àse.

“He is no coward who does not run away at the noise of civil strife [challenge, opposition and adversity].  Just as bees fly out of the hive but leave the hive protected, just as ants guard their hill before, during and after their activities, in like manner should wise men [genuine initiates] lay stratagems and plans in advanced preparation for the attack of the antagonist, long before the hidden attack of the enemy.”

Today we live in a world of conflict, strife, challenges and difficulties. We all strive to do our best to live meaningful, honest, peaceful, law-abiding, caring and harmless lives. Even though we attempt, as far as it is within our power, to live peaceable, useful and quiet lives, there are human beings, as well as unwholesome spiritual forces, that foolishly confuse and mistake our kindness, humility, goodwill, friendliness and patience for weakness, powerlessness and lack of efficient ability to resist, combat and overcome them.

The fact of the matter is that there are human beings and unwholesome spiritual forces that do not care about how good, well-meaning, honest, law-abiding and diligent you are. They will attempt to obstruct you, frustrate you, resist you, harm you, manipulate you, cheat you, take advantage of you, undermine you and agitate you if you let them.

These malicious, uncaring and indifferent people and unwholesome spiritual energies will plant seeds of disorder, chaos, drama, sorrow and confusion in your life if you through lack of clear-sighted awareness, lack of courage and forethought allow them to. Everyone is not kind, decent and good! Everyone is not whom they seem or appear to be. Everyone is not who you think them to be! Some can be mean, uncaring, conniving, deceptive, callous, manipulative, injurious and indifferent! Some could care less about your wellbeing, the wellbeing of your family and the success of your noble plans!

What to do with such mean, recalcitrant, indifferent, manipulative, stubborn and belligerent kind of people and unwholesome energies that cannot be reasoned with and that cannot be appeased with anything because they do not want appeasement. They don’t want peace and reconciliation, they want war! They want to underline, malign and defame you at every chance they get due to their ignorance, jealousy and selfish pride! They simply want to take delight in your downfall, affliction and suffering, because of the malice, envy, emptiness and conceit which is consuming them.

Because they are failures they want you to fail. Because they are unhappy with themselves they want you to be unhappy! Because they have achieved nothing productive with their lives they dedicate themselves to fault-finding, malicious gossip and spreading seeds of discontent. Because they are ignorant and have no true spirituality and they have no true knowledge, they want to malign, defame, slander and undermine you! What to do with these people that you cannot reason with or be reconciled with? What to do with these people who are determined to ruin you, undermine you and tarnish your good reputation?

In this verse of Odu Ifá, Ifá wisely instructs us that these antagonists have to be confronted with strength, power, courage and iron-will, but not always directly…we confront them and defeat them by confronting them indirectly by always having a prepared defensive and offensive plan.

My dear friends and family we must know that attempting to talk and reason with these people will not work. Sometimes, sincere and well-meaning diplomacy will fall woefully short of the intended goal.

If one side wants peace and reconciliation, but the other side insists on fighting, should the peaceful side for the sake ‘peace’ lie down on the ground and allow the antagonist to step, walk and jump on his chest?! No! Not ever!

Sometimes the fight cannot be avoided and we have to be willing to arm ourselves with spiritual wisdom, sagacity, divine power, patience, careful planning and the combined counsel and activity of other select courageous, upright and determined people [fellow spiritual initiates] whose hearts are the hearts of wise and valiant warriors.

Just like the bee protects it queen and hive by stinging and resisting its opponent by unrelenting attacks until the antagonist withdrawals and gives up his foul plan, just like ants which seem to be small and powerless until you see them come together as one organized, powerful and efficient unit [army] to defend their home, children and leader, in like manner we have to actively and decisively, individually and collectively take action against the enemies of peace, order, truth and wellbeing for the sake of our own lives, our family and our society. There are times that we will have to apply controlled, measured and well-directed [spiritual] aggression, strength and force! This too is a form of love…tough love…hard love…justified corrective love.

We cannot be cowardly when all means have been exhausted to make peace and reconcile and the antagonist does not want reconciliation and peace…the antagonist only seeks your harm, your sorrow and your destruction! When things get to this level we have to fight! The time for talk is over.

Ifá tells us that we should not be afraid to enter a just conflict or fight when there is no other option. Our fighting against the activity of unwholesome spiritual forces and mean-spirited, malicious, envious and corrupt people is authorized. The only thing that good people have to do, for evil, malice and disorder to prevail is nothing! We have to take action through spiritual and temporal means to mitigate and dissolve the activities of malicious, stubborn and recalcitrant ones.

Through our wise activity and resistance the divine Olódùmarè [Ifá and irunmole-orisa] will administer to such ones the right measure of discipline, punishment and correction that they are direly in need of. We cannot be complacent, passive and accepting of the harmful, malicious and callous doings of uncaring, immoral and recalcitrant [social and spiritual] criminals. We have to fight when fighting is called for without fear and with the confidence that truth and Olódùmarè [Ifá and irunmole-orisa] are on our side!

When we survey the life and activities of Òrúnmìlà we discern that Orunmila was not only a wise, kind and humble teacher and priest.

Òrúnmìlà was a also a courageous spiritual warrior of Olódùmarè. When all talks and efforts at peace making and the establishment of uprightness failed, Òrúnmìlà had to wage spiritual war on certain people and communities that were ruining and destroying the stability, peace, health, order, progress and wellbeing of the community!

Olódùmarè did not give the lion claws, strength and sharp powerful teeth to tickle those who would foolishly attempt to harm it! Olódùmarè did not give the rattle snake fangs, intelligence, agility, a rattle and venom so that it can allow others to step all over it, to kick it, jump on it and injure it! The rattle snake does not intend to hurt, harm or injure. This is why it sounds the warning alarm and it shakes its rattle so that the intelligent listener can withdraw immediately and avert an avoidable serious injury and/or fatality.

But let there be no doubt that if a person oversteps the kindness and patience of the rattlesnake in giving its rattled warning, the rattle snake will strike with deadly efficiency. Is the snake to be blamed? Just like the rattle snake, we should patiently, clearly and determinedly shake our rattle so that our antagonist can discern what will follow if he persists in overstepping the boundaries of patience, propriety and reasonableness but once the boundary has been deliberately overstepped it is time for single minded action! Sometimes the best defense is a good offensive-defensive action, when divine wisdom [Ifá] determines and approves this course.