Thursday, 1 May 2014

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SACRIFICES BETWEEN DEITIES AND HUMANS BY OLALEKAN ODUNTAN

OSA MEJI
ln the Yoruba traditional religion, the deities are highly respected by humans and they are offered sacrifices to proffer solutions to their numerous problems at any particular point in time. Before giving sacrifice to any deity, Ifa is consulted to divine and find out the appropriate things to do. The troubled victim is the one to make the move for the divination. Osa meji is the corpus of Ifa that appears during divination. Meaning the witches are aggrieved and needed to be appeased by the victim. It is the belief of the Yoruba people that when anyone is being disturbed by the witches, nothing will work out well for the person. Such person will be troubled with sleeplessness and restlessness of some sort. Such a person could even be getting leaner and leaner every day. The next step is to appease the witches with what they demand through the oracle.
SACRIFICE FOR THE WITCHES
Witches are appeased at night by the Ifa priest on behalf of the victim or sometimes the victim's presence is required during the appeasement. Sacrifices are offered and carried at night. Some people will ask the question, who are the witches? Witches are the emissary of Olodumare (The Almighty God) and they are being used by Olodumare to appreciate and acknowledge His authority and existence over human beings. Witches are the police of the world and whoever they arrest must beg to be released. And the release of such a person is appeasement through Ifa priest. 

Olodumare dominates the heaven while the witches dominate the mother earth. One important thing that must be noted at this juncture is that the witches are very powerful and their network is universal. It is believed that if a person is being dealt by witches in Nigeria and such a person runs to Benin Republic for safety, the punishment of the person continues right there. But as soon as the witches are appeased with the offerings which they must have accepted over the night, their victims are hereby pardoned and set free. 

All will now be well for the victims who will praise the Ifa (the oracle). But Ifa priest in turn will praise the Olodumare (the Almighty God ). In conclusion, there are good and bad witches in the world. And this is the story for another day! 





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