Candomblé: A smart way to overcome tough periods.

The title of this article comes with a subtitle: how to access inner energy, find the true self and gain a powerful mean of survival during this period of struggle.

We are not out of the pandemic yet.

These months have been tough. The pandemic forced us to a drastic slowdown of our rhythms of life, but also exposed us to a turmoil of soul that we possibly have never experimented before, at least not as a simultaneous global feeling.

Each of us has somehow been affected by the emergency in the daily life.

In this time of crisis the need for spiritual orientation becomes acute because when the certainties that come from outside crumble, we must look for the strength that comes from inside.

Not surprisingly voices from different fields such those of science, holistic care, religions among others, call for meditation.

Meditation is indeed a powerful mean to look inside oneself without being conditioned by the mind.

While meditating, one denies access to the external inputs to let the inner energy expand, making of the entire body a safe place for the mind: this produces many good effects that affect positively the life. The feeling that one has while pushing the mind away is that of being present to oneself, in harmony and authenticity.

One can say that this very same mechanism of access to the inner energy as a source of rebirth is found in the candomblé, but here it presents a significative difference that marks the distance of the candomblé from the other proposals of spiritual paths.

The hallmark that I am talking about is the fact that in the candomblé one gets to know their inner energy by its name and its unique characteristics.

As a matter of fact, the inner energy of which we are talking about is the orixá.

We must think of the orixá as the most powerful tool that we have.

It is at the same time universal and singular energy.

As universal energy, one’s orixá is the archetype to which one belongs.

The simple fact of knowing who is our orixá, gives us some important keys of knowledge of ourself.

Each orixá has specific characteristics that are somehow repeated in the people that belong to them.

But the individual orixá, each person's inner energy, is unique.

Many of us do not have the faintest idea of who they really are.

To meet one's real nature might be surprising: education, moral, fears, society, needs can lead us more frequently and easily that one might suspect to the adaptation to a path of life which, although apparently convenient as for the contingent circumstances, is not coherent with our inner and true energy.

A frustrated inner energy is not a safe place.

In such a circumstance a good practice as that of meditation can for sure help to calm the thinking mind down and give peace and relief, but is not sufficient to get to a radical change that leads to happiness.

Real happiness comes with the fulfillment of one's destiny, which can happen only when one knows themselves.

But no misunderstanding: the knowledge of oneself that I am talking about is not the rational knowledge of what you think.

What I am talking about is the meeting with your deepest and most hidden part, with your orixá and destiny; with your inner energy and path through this life.

This energy is your safe place: it is where you can be authentic, where you find the answers to your questions and the skills to go on.

By trusting your orixá, you trust yourself.

You are a cowrie shell divination away from your safe place: don't miss your opportunity to meet yourself.

This period of struggle and concern can be the unexpected push toward a spiritual rebirth and a global upgrade of your life.

The Candomblé offers you a different key to yourself. It is up to you to choose whether to try it.

Axé

Amaranth represents immortality: our inexhaustible source of inner energy.