j - The Birds of the Souls Darker Nights

The Yoruba term j, carry associations to movement and trade we might understand it as a marketplace of night unfolding in silver rays. This nocturnal marketplace is conceived of as a gathering of long beaked and predatory birds. The concept of j has in the New World and the Modern West been equaled with witch and this is true, in so far as we understand what a witch is on African premises. j is considered a power some people have by inheritance, initiation or by birth. It is considered to be an excess of se (natural power) and therefore it must be kept under control and in balance to avoid damage to the wielder of j and the community itself. j is the primordial emotional depths of womanhood. It is not a generative force on the contrary. Honeysweet sn is the generative powers and fertility. j and their mother ym srng is the barrenness and otherness, the femaleness prior to the first blood and the lament upon the last blood. This means that the powers of j play themselves out upon the field of possibility. j is like the rhizomes of a fungi or a lotus crawling miles under ground, manifesting in peaks of power here and there but its true essence is a phosphorous networks of subterranean possibilities that may or may not come into manifestation. If tells us that it was in the divine vibration known as Od s Mj the power known as jcame to earth. This od also speaks about how two male rs, Obtl and gn and one female, d came to earth to sculpt and mold it. Olodumare gave to Obtl the power of sculpting and artistry and to gn the power of metallurgy. To d he gave the power of giving life he gave motherhood and told her she was the sustainer of the world. She would sustain the world with a particular calabash. Inside this calabash was a bird. She declared that she would use this magnificent se to fight those who disrespected her and to defend those who adored her. This bird was j and d taking hold of this bird becomes ym srng, which we can understand to mean My Mysterious Mother; Owner of the Birds of Night.

And this is why Obtl declares the following in this d that announces the birds of the otherworlds to descend upon the earth: Obarisa said that people should always respect Women greatly For if they always respect women greatly, the world Will be in right order Pay homage; give respect to women Indeed, it is woman who brought us into being Before we became recognized as human beings The wisdom of the world belongs to women Give respect to women then Indeed, it was woman who brought Us into being Before we became recognized as human beings Naturally, the gift of motherhood comes with the intense field of ensouled emotional variables that takes place during the menstruation, gestation and menopause. These are peak tides for the secrets of motherhood to rage and rave in its raw state. Hence, j are birds that dwells, infest and feeds on our emotions and taint or heal our soul. In this lies the admonition in numerous Ifverses and proverbs advising us and especially males to prostrate upon Od or womb and woman and pay her respect, to make ipese; the sacrifice that calms the womb. ym is said to be seated upon d, that she is crowning the feminine powers or that d is an ym. She is also referred to as ym eleye The Owner of the birds and y gb The elderly woman is respectable and ym srng which means My mother the Powerful Sorceress or Witch. This raises some controversial issues, since witchcraft is both associated with anti-social acts as well as a natural power accessible for women and members of societies like egb eleye and egb ml where the secrets of manipulating supernatural powers are preserved. Anti social witchcraft is sad to stem from j burk, but there is also another type of witch referred to as j rere. The difference is one of character. The word burk refers to everything that is bad, broken and corrupted. For instance the term Or burk signifies a person incapable to make choices that are good for him or she and that are considered bothersome and destructive for themselves and society. Rere on the other hand also used interchangeably with w pl refers to a state of contentment and happiness, where ones character is good and one is a good and benevolent addition to society and one self. The Nigerian historian Lawal comments in this regard that women being less strong physically were blessed with a special form of cunning, ogbn ay, which also carry the connotation of deceit or slyness. Still, the importance of character and maintaining a calm and good consciousness is at all times stressed. Even today we have proverbs amongst the Yoruba referring to the influence of j being like birds nesting in a persons hair. This is most telling because hair carries the symbolic meaning of being something untamed and wild, what entangles and must be directed if a positive growth is desired. Because of this the Ori (consciousness/the physical head) is often adorned by beautifying the hair itself and fashion it with care to decorate the Ori/head as a way of appeasing and make ones head calm.

There is another element that needs to be commented upon. That is the ancestral element.ym is considered to be the ancestral progenitor of the female sex as Os is the progenitor of the male sex. This would perhaps mean that while ym represent supreme and transcendent womanhood, Os represent the supreme and transcendent maleness. Os is said to take his sefrom the realm of s placing this deity in the realm of transformation and change. Maybe one can understand that j and Os is the same essential power but taken into two different direction by the natural rhythm of creation and there becomes something different altogether as crude and original maleness and crude and original femaleness. One also see this in the reflection this have in cults, Os is deeply related to the cult of Ors Oko , the ors of the Farm and is said to serve as a judge and middleman in cases of accusations of witchcraft. He is considered to be a calm and tranquil force, just and wise with a deep knowledge about witchcraft and sorcery. Maybe in Os is found the idealized male mirrored in the ways of Ors Oko? One might see this by the birds sacred to ymi and Os as well. The birds of ym are predators, while in the case of Os the vulture is sacred, a bird that do not pray on anything than meat that is already dead. It is not a predator but a purifier. This can be one explanation for the respective ancestral relationship related to these two spiritual potencies and their similarities and differences. It also harmonize with the Yoruba view of cosmos in the words of Lawal: as a dynamic interplay of such opposites as heaven and earth, day and night, male and female, physical and metaphysical, body and soul, inner and outer, hot and cold, hard and soft, left and right, life and death, success and failure and so on. There is a belief in the New World that there is some form of enmity between the j and If but rnml in his capacity as the great peace maker understood the necessity of these powers and how this abundance of ase can benefit mankind. This mystery is guarded in the society ofOgboni where the traditional dynamic of power between the left hand and right hand is understood and used. Not only this, but the weight and quality of colours is also preserved here, because all manifestation and its potential comes in the colours of red, black and white which are degrees of mercy, coldness and fire. Ultimately we are speaking of the mystery of emotional and cosmic tension and how to appease it. On can ask however why it is important to understand these powers, why they are so integral to the work of If, why these disruptive forces are present in the world. The explanation to this mystery is marvelous and wonderful and one ray of its magnificence is found in the d s Mj where we can read: Ogbon kan nbe n kn omo s mrn kan nbe kkn omo wd kan nn re Okan nin mi Okkn nkn ara wa Sef fn rnmil If nlo b j mul Mrr Wn ni ntori knni n ntor k nkan un lgn ggg ni Translation: The hawk has one wisdom The falcon possesses one knowledge One in my mind One in your mind One each in our minds These were the declarations of If to rnml when going to enter in to a covenant with the witches at Mrr They asked him why he was doing this

He said that it was for his life to be perfectly organized