The dawn of this Ancestral African Image came about to express creative ideas relevant to the life and style of people involved in values that express the thought and actions of spiritual commitment to Ifa, Orisha, and Vodoun.
Ninety percent of the items listed here are "one of a kind" original ideas based on the creative concepts that follow the texture, color and number structures of the spiritual constructs in use by the priesthood and adherents of these three interrelated spiritual phenomenon and its interpretation by the hand, heart and experiences of Mami Olufunke Morrishow, Orisha priestess, artist, entrepreneur.
Not all of the items presented are made for ritual occasion. Many merely reflect ones appreciation of Black cultural identity expressed artistically according to the spiritual model of Africa and the African Diaspora as is understood from Khemet to the West African coast to North and South America and the Caribbean Islands.
The Cowrie Shell, as a symbol of prosperity, fertility and spiritual connectedness is used to fashion elegant regalia used on ritual and ordinary occasions. The cowrie shell appears prominently in these designs to promote the energy of prosperity, fertility and spiritual connectedness and bring that energy to the people that shop AncestralAfricanImage.
ARTISTS STATEMENT
Visual ideas that express the divine are my passion. Rendering symbols that express three interrelated concepts of African spiritual genius is where my impetus to create is called to action. Ifa Orisha Vodoun.
Ifa Orisha is a set of spiritual operations that compliment one another. Ifa, according to Wande Abimbola, is at once, the name of the Yoruba God of divination and the title given to the divination system itself. Ifa, by means of oracular manipulation, gives direction and recommendations about the situations one encounters in life.
Orisha are, in the words of Baba John Mason, "Spiritual heads of first rank and age selected by God to be repositories of Ase. concealed divine power and transformation".
Ifa Orisha is understood and maintained by many in many communities on the African continent and in the African diaspora. Referred to by many names, Voodoo, Hoodoo, Candomble, Lucumi, Roots, Mami Wata, Obeah, etc., the basic operating system remains the same.
The Vodoun I refer to here speaks of bothe the Benin and Haitian systems of interacting with the spiritual forces of this world. Benin, West African Vodoun forms a system known as the Mami Wata pantheon of spirits. The basic group of these deities can be directly correlated to those functioning in Ifa Orisha. Examples, Papa Legba is similar to Esu, the divine messenger; Gu is Ogun, the divine blacksmith; Heviesso hold many similarities with Shango, Lord of the magic of lightmimg; Afa, holds the same functionans Ifa, oracular directive.
The Vodoun of the Haitian view again has correlations that serve and function in the same manner as Ifa Orisha and the Mami Wata, but the Haitian pantheon of spirits is broad and has taken into itself spirit forces from all over the African continent, Catholicism, and the Caribe Natives. The geometric icon symbols of Haiti known as Veve are ritual designs used to excite the lwa and encourage favor toward the community. Originally drawn with cornmeal, powdered clay or ash upon the ground the Veve are now used to transform items such as bottles, bowls, plates and fabric into ritual emblems with the same status as any statue upon the shrines to the Yoruba or altar of the Catholic church.
Ifa Orisha Vodoun is a set of complex operating systems that are vital to the proper functioning of interactions between the spirits of Heaven and the spirits of Earth. The language and symbols, represented in line and form, color and texture, smell, taste, sound, time and place, order and demonstration are the formal means of communication, determined by thousands of years experience in human communication between heaven and earth.
I herald the compilation of this data and call to reiterate the precepts here in from my own perspective. As a formally initiated, crowned priestess of the Ifa Orisha community, I create and recreate with reckoned initiative these painted, beaded, sculpted representations of Black African Caribbean divinities. It is my understanding that the works presented here are to be used as tools in our human quest toward peace. Peace being a reconciliation between what is and what should be on our paths to interaction with the divine.
I create and recreate these symbols of divinity to stand as focal points intended to be recognized as the footprints of the deities and therefore the place where they stand to be praised with song, dance, prayers, food, water, alcohol, etc.
Love and more love,
Mami Olufunke Morrishow
10th of December, 2015
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