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I see where the confusion comes in. As mentioned before, in certain places, Ifa was combined with Christianity to create the faiths that some people practice, which leads to the mixture of the Christianity and the Ifa faith.

Here's an excert from a book that Empress gave me to read which gave some insight on this topic:

"There is no real attempt at the centralization of ritual and activity. Although younger memebers are calling for some sort of standard, ritual, beliefs and behaviour may vary from srhine to shrine. This is especially apparent with some innovators trying to eliminate Christian elements. Similarly some leaders incorporate a few elements of Hinduism, while others maintain Christianity. Some leaders practice both Orisha (aka Ifa, Yoruba, etc) and Spiritual Baptisim and sometimes elements of both religions are found in the same ceremonial"

Here's another one:

"Today Spiritual Baptism and Orisha are vibrant manifestations of the deeply religious nature of Trinidad and Tobagonian society. They are especially attractive to younger memebers who are interested in relating to their African heritage. even Shouter Baptism, although largly Christian in its main focus on Jesus Christ as the Saviour and its deep belief in living reality of the Holy Trinity, nevertheless contians elements of the African Yoruba Religion, but Orisha has maintained more of these than has Shouter Baptism.....Despite some similarities in ritual and observance, the relationship between the two religions Shouter Baptists and Orisha is ambiguous."

Hope this carifies things on some level.

People believe in different things. Yoruba/Orisha have nothing to do with christianity....only the fact that is was masked with christian saints which is more ancesteral dan anything else. Do you think that if one acknowledge Oya for example then they should not believe in Jesus?

[SIZE=4]I May be hated by saying this....BUT the true fact is Christianity and the Orisha/Yoruba faith has nothing to do with the other....In IFE/Yorubaland/Nigeria..where Yoruba which is a WAY OF LIFE not a religion is lived....Christianity does not exist....it is only believe in an OMO ORISHAS(Child of the Orishas)life that Olodumare and the Orishas exist as form of life and sustinance.....Olodumare being SUPREME/OMNIPETENT/and OMNIPRESENT...which all mean he Can be here there and every where,He can't be any lesser than Himself...and He is Emperor over all...which leaves the Orisha forces....every force is Governed by or governs an Element/or force of nature....like EARTH,WIND, FIRE and Water..others govern....Prosperity,Health,Love,Destiny and much more....and this is the same belief with many other people that dont follow Chritianity but live life by Governing bodies,like Hindus Brahama is God Supreme....the Egyptians..etc...
But the Orisha people are the only group that came to the West Indies/Caribbean and used Chritianity/Saints to cover up there (let me not use the word worship,for I worship only the Almighty) ceromonies of Homage to the Ancesteral Forces.and therefore the practice of comparing Saints and Angels to these forces continues throughout generations,in The Spitual Baptist Faith(T'dad & T'bgo)...For it is only now that people are actually realising this and in Trinidad...there are Shines and homes now that are Stricty back to Orisha rites...and speak and pray only in Yoruba..and Bapists who do not practise Orisha(they now saying they are saved and realise it was wrong)many are beginning to seperate the two.... WOW the gift of Knowledge/Understanding..and gaining Wisdom....
So as you see Jesus and Olofi as some say are not the same..
But recently some BabalOrishas(HighPreist) came from Ife(Orisha Mother land)....and oberserved our cultures of combining the two: Chrisianity and Orisha...and realised that for years it has worked for many....either because in our soceity...the forces of Orisha and Christianity have both understood that one needs the other to survive,or because of constant believe in oneself that.....the Saints/Deities/Angels and Orisha Forces are all Governed by one Supreme force of Nature ....God Almithy...so as long as our pray or supplication or Sacrifice is pure it is acceptable in His sight![/SIZE]

Trinidredz you can give her the yoruba only being a way of life speech that you gave me

me ent say no. Lawd I meant tell her what you told me. daiz it....there was nothing more to it.

Wow Kev....thanks for the link. This is very serious....I find myself looking at "self" quite often wondering what I am doing and why....why am I not doing more.....

I beleive that we are all searching for the same thing. However society leads us to believe that what it is we are searching for is nonsense. hopefully, we can share in this though and grow from it.

That's very true. How many great people in history do you think had someone around them that told them their dream-chasing was folly? I'm sure someone told Bob Marley to "put down that silly guitar and do some real work", etc.

This thread got me thinking about this as it pertains to our generation gap. How many of us are told by our parents to keep to that 9-5 job, regardless of what great talents and gifts we have and want to nurture? Our parents' generation mainly has that mindset of "go school, get job"...but for us, it seems it's not enough. I've watched and noticed that most everyone in our generation has some side talent outside of their "regular" job, be it singing, DJing/producing, writing, poetry, dancing, art, etc. We are becoming more complex people (and that's a good thing), but manytimes we have to fight/ignore ppl who are of the mindset that you are supposed to do what is safe...instead of what is great.

You're only promised today, and only promised this one life you're living now. What's the sense in playing it safe and wondering "what could have been?", wondering if you could've done great things and left your mark? That's actually the purpose and meaning of the lil quote in my sig.

Finding your niche, your purpose is hard. It is a difficult thing to walk a path and not be sure when you will reach the next milestone or destination, but have faith. If you keep your mind open, the signs will come and things will be revealed. I wish all of you the utmost luck, blessings, what have you, that you will find that passion, that purpose.

Well my questions about the influence of Christianity on Orisha is where does it fit if there's Ifa/Yoruba which is where most of these religions derived from. I guess in my exploration I've seen the influence of Christianity on Santeria, Spiritual Baptists and even some other Caribbean spirituality. But then I was introduced to Ifa/Yoruba and saw what I call a pure aspect of African Spirituality and realized there's no influence of Christianity. Now there's other politics I touch base on, are the saints still used when it was done for the purpose of masking the orishas from the slave masters? Even the prayers? Do you think that traditions of these cultures are going to change with time or they're going to stay the same?

I totally understand that because of the mass move of slaves from their mother country,Africa, to the Americas, their religion and spirituality was broken down to aspects of still practicing what they remembered with aspects of what they see in the NEW WORLD. But what about the fact that we can learn what Ifa/Yoruba really is? Do you think people of spiritual African backgrounds should seek even more information from the African traditions or keep the information limited at what was taught to them?
here's a list of religions formed from the African traditions:
We have the Afro-Catholic syncretic religions of: Vodou, Candomble, and Santeria, the Spiritual Baptists -, islands with African spiritual backgrounds ie. Garifuna...

I am not confused...I am asking if people are confused. Anyway, so let me get this straight, going by YOUR analogy and translation of what religion is (quote: way of life) you are saying that I can stab up my vodoo dolls that I have of some people, light my lights, pour my chicken blood at all four corners of my house and then later on bawl out jesus christ and attain my deaconess title from my grandmother pentecostal church and it will be okay in jesus/God eyes as well as those spirits eyes because hey I am the bring together woman? if this is what you are saying then bwaaaahhhhhhh....madnesss!!! If serving two sets a god is open mindness then I am tighter than a virgin with close mindedness but i respect your openmindedness. If I was a die-hard christian I would be apauld at your....eh eh catch yourself islandcocoa let me not make another enemy. Bottom line I am not against any one religion, in that aspect to each their own, however I see my original concern as people sitting on the blasted fence, you either are or you are not, you are either being blessed by the orishas/oludamare or jesus/God, in the christian faith you are either going to hell or heaven burn that pergatory talk. Nothing coming off your fingers about christianity and or the yoruba faith is a revelation to me, so your train of thought was what I took into consideration. Anyway redz thanks for your input it was appreciated to say the least. Nothing further, carry on.