Tikkun Magazine, July/August 2010, Online Exclusives
No Boxes for Love:
Embracing Indigenous Models of Love, Family & Spirituality
by Ifalade Ta'Shia Asanti
I am a two-spirited woman -- a woman who has experienced love, family and spirituality in its indigenous form -- without walls or boxes. I am also an initiated priestess of an indigenous faith called Ifa.
I travel the world speaking and teaching on transformative spirituality. I use my faith to support the sustaining of a spiritual movement that will not be confined by gender, race or identity.
While my journey in the Ifa tradition has transformed the lens through which I see the world, I have simplified my religious identity to that of a spiritual evolutionist, a term that identifies the core purpose of my movement. Being a spiritual evolutionist means that I exist to assist people, organizations and communities in spiritually evolving.
A decade ago I envisioned a spiritual community founded upon the energy of indigenous principles. I wanted to create an inclusive community -- one that would support and affirm a myriad of cultures, identities and spiritual belief systems. I thought there would be little resistance to this idea. I learned quickly that there was a movement of individuals and institutions who equate love and spirituality with social conformity. Some of these organizations represent a violent opposition to work that promotes an inclusive point of view.
Through my work I discovered there was a wealth of people interested in supporting the concept of religious freedom as it is laid out in the United States constitution. And together we built two organizations that would serve as a springboard for radical inclusivity and spiritual development. The National Institute for Indigenous Cultural Studies was founded in 2000 and in 2001, we gave birth to Ile Ori Ogbe Egun.
Ile Ori Ogbe Egun is a spiritual organization grounded in the ancient religious teachings of the Yoruba, a tribe from West Africa, who embraced a spiritual practice called Ifa. Ifa's primary purpose is to align people with their divine life purpose i.e. the work that Spirit has called their souls to do.
The National Institute for Indigenous Cultural Studies works to eradicate negative stereotypes of indigenous spirituality by uniting leaders of indigenous faith communities with everyday people for the purpose of education and cultural understanding.
In 2009, the visions for these organizations merged to create the I-TEACH Love Institute. The institute's gatherings offer safe spaces for dialogue on the diverse ways in which love, culture and community manifests. They explore indigenous concepts of family and how these concepts can change shape and form on a daily basis, as needed or appropriate, based on the individual or family unit's unique needs and familial environment.
Leaders from indigenous faith communities across America and as far as Brazil share with our program participants, their vision of a spirituality that transforms, uplifts, renews and heals its practitioners. Our sessions explore social justice and ending oppression as the bedrocks of a radically inclusive spiritual society.
Participants at our sessions come from every socio-economic background. Some are formally educated, others are not. The massive response to our vision moved us to create a membership network. Our commitment to maintaining a diverse collective among our members ultimately caused us to face organizational challenges.
Members of our organization consistently push our leadership to confront their own underlying prejudices in areas of gender, sexuality, race and culture. Though our founding body remained unmoved in its commitment to be inclusive, our stance caused the departure of a few members who supported inclusivity on superficial levels but were not interested in dismantling the systems that sustain cultural division.
At this juncture our membership represents a vast ethnic pool. We have members of every age, ability and gender identity. We have heterosexual, same gender loving, transsexual and bisexual supporters. Some of our members live well below poverty standards. Others come from the highest levels of corporate and political structures.
We bring these groups together under a banner of healing, love and cultivating cultural understanding. We use indigenous principles of love, family and community combined with transformative spirituality as the basis for our work, which touches on a vast array of topics from domestic violence to social justice, eco-education to indigenous medicine. This structure has proved to be an effective tool for building cultural bridges in communities plagued by social divisions. Participants in our programs explore concepts of God that don't rely on conditions of acceptance and aren't driven by political and social agendas.
Our work ultimately revealed a gaping hole in America's religious structure. We filled this gap by introducing indigenous principles to diverse audiences at community events, arts and cultural gatherings, social, local and national media outlets and internet-based forums. We created an organization that supports diverse concepts of God and brought this particular God consciousness into spaces that are driven by hate, cultural misunderstanding and social intolerance.
We embrace a spirituality that is grounded in ecological soundness, cultural tolerance and respect for individuality. We show the power of this concept through our member's lives and through our ability to co-exist despite our differences. And we seek to model indigenous life by affirming love, diverse expressions of family and spirituality however it shows up. The result is a sustainable community made up of culturally diverse individuals who share common goals. We continue to learn from one another and to grow in our understanding of the similarities we share in our quest for family, love and spiritual camaraderie.
Ifalade Ta'Shia Asanti is the author of The Sacred Door: A Spiritual Guide to Power living and The Seer: A Legacy of Stone & Spirit. For more about the National Institute for Indigenous Cultural Studies and Ile Ori Ogbe Egun see www.ileoriteacheslove.com. Information about Ifalade Ta'Shia Asant'si work can be found at her web site, www.tashiaasanti.com.
