Azacotogan

It's actually not self explanatory because as I said there are many branches of astrology. But I definitely found it lacking since the word itself is non African and so are all the manifestations of it. That was enough for me as a maroon. I was simply curious about which aspect you were dealing with but since you don't seem to want to go into that no problem.

I used to study many of the systems that people commonly referred to as astrology, but since that is a rather vague term, when you say astrology what in particular are you referring to?

@Pioneer1Not accusatory nor paranoid. You can't cause paranoia within me. What you don't seem to see is that if I have to "provide evidence" of African concepts to an "African" then it is already a lost proposition. Period. Like I said, if this info doesn't make sense to you so be it. Someone who is looking to learn can't make the person they are asking questions of paranoid in a situation like this. I calmly explained why I won't engage you on that level. That's all. And it's in part, for the above reason. I am an African, not black, as you called yourself. There's HUGE difference from a psychological perspective. For those who are not actively living African culture, to think that those of use that are must meet the criteria of proving themselves to those who don't is totally backwards. Because for those of us who still have yet to find true African culture, and live it on a day to day basis, they often times have yet to innerstand that difference. The proof you are talking about comes from actually LIVING the culture and no other way. It's as simple as that. So now, again I don't answer questions like that from those who claim to be trying to learn. It doesn't work that way. But it's clear now you're not going to get it. So I'll move on. ^^^^^^^^ Your last question was already answered in my first answer to you. You just asked it a different way. The above is my answer to that. There is a difference between karma and salawa. First and most obvious is that salawa is west African and existed long before the concept of karma even came into existence. Karma could be looked at as a weak shell that attempts to replicate an ancient African concept. I used karma as a reference because most have a general idea of it but not because the two are parallel. That's why I say salawa throughout my post and not karma. Your characterization of what we call Mawu Lisa in Vodun is far different from how that cosmology actually works. Putting it on and taking it off, nah, in Vodun it doesn't work like that. Where are you getting information from? There is no African culture that I know of that has this stance on these things. It certainly isn't like that in Vodun. You are just speculating. There is so much more to these things in Vodun but you write as though you have it all figured out. Smh. But you are focusing on karma. The article is about salawa. What are you talking about? I'm not shutting you up. Go back and read why I said I wouldn't answer that one question. I answered several of your others. You think that I have to share certain experiences I've had with you as strong evidence that what I'm saying is correct? Are you serious? That's your criteria? That could easily be made up. I could tell you anything and you would have no way of truly knowing if what I'm telling you is the truth. So for someone who is secure in their being, as an AFRICAN and NOT a black man, the information given would be enough to make sense of it or not. Maybe that is indeed how karma works, but it's not how salawa works.

@Pioneer1 Oh, I did forget to add that, regarding the fairness of it all, the way it is looked at is that we must take care to not negatively disturb our lineage salawa. So the focus is on CHARACTER as the CAUSE and not lack of character as the effect. We focus on living in order so that we don't harm our descendants with our selfish ways. Once again you've seen examples of how things that happen to or are caused by ancestors affect the descendants. We, as I'm sure you know, still carry the effects of the captivity (slave) trade with us and it reflected in our behavior today, even though none of us experienced that directly. Is that fair? See what I'm saying? You're not asking the right question. Whether or not it's fair is irrelevant because this is SIMPLY A COSMIC LAW. You can choose to concern yourself with its "fairness" or you can control what you can control and add goodness to your lineage both on ayi (earth) and in Yetome (one aspect of the spirit realm).

To keep it short and to the point, and to make it clear, I posted what I did not for the purpose of legitimizing African spirituality for those who may be skeptical of it for whatever reason. It is for those who are actually interested in learning about Vodun. Not sure where you are in your journey but your first question is, interesting. Maybe you don't even see why it's odd, I'm not sure. Your first question can't be answered according to the nature of the realms you're asking about, aside from it being an obvious attempt to undermine the information related, but I will say this: any experience I have had with those realms, why would I relay that to someone who off the bat is skeptical of the concepts and thinks I owe them an explanation on whether or not I've "been to those realms." That would be an attempt to validate Vodun and African reality to someone who clearly questions it. I'm sorry but I don't do that. I don't have to prove anything to you. Either the information makes sense to you or it doesn't. But I'll say this in short, in Vodun and all other African spiritual traditions that I'm familiar with, interacting with the different realms spirit on a personal level is essential, necessary and a given when living the lifestyle. Another thing that is odd is that you use the caucasian court system as a premise for trying to challenge the legitimacy of the concept of salawa. There's like a hundred things wrong with that logic. On a philosophical level though, a couple of your questions are legit. With regard to your example about the grandfather, if he was disrespectful of his family, body and soul, when he reincarnates later down the road he will face tougher circumstances from birth because of his poor choices in his previous life. So there is always accountability. No one gets a free pass. That is one of the reasons I said in my initial post that in Vodun our CHARACTER is of utmost importance because we cannot go around leaving a wake of destruction and not have to atone for this next time around or avoid bringing shame and ruin to our families. So this is one of the ways that murderers, rapists, pedophiles, people who do negative spiritual work for the highest bidder, are all held accountable and face justice. They may appear in some cases to get away with it by committing suicide, never being caught kwk, but in reality they don't. I'm sure you've heard of families being ruined because of the actions of one member of the family; it happens right here on the physical plane so is it so hard to see that these things happen within the span of generations? That's salawa in one manifestation. But as far as his descendants "paying" for his misdeeds, based on the examples you gave those actions would do little to negatively affect lineage salawa. They would affect his soul and personal salawa more than anything. Things that would contribute more toward lineage salawa would be things like, murder, rape, doing wicked spiritual acts against others, selling out the culture, trying to sell Africans as property to other people (a major taboo), things like that. @Delano Thanks for replying brother. Not sure what to make of what your astrology teacher told you. I do know that most of those astrology systems are based in caucasian ideology and when used they can be wildly dangerous and inaccurate with relation to African people using them.

The concept of Salawa and its ramifications for Maroons/ how it creates Maroons Part 1 will focus on defining salawa and its function This Aja word has no direct translation to english but it references, among a number of things, the ramifications of living or not living in accord with Divine Law, what we call in Vodun, Gbesu. Many people are familiar with this concept, often times through the hindu terminology of "karma." Salawa isn't good or bad in itself per se, it simply is. It is more or less the effect of human activity. So there is individual, family, clan and finally national salawa that must be accounted for in all aspects of life and planning. But first you must assess your individual, family, clan and national salawa. How does one do that? At Ganlodo, being a Xotome rooted in Vodun and Isese, we utilize the spiritual building blocks of Aja of and Yoruba culture respectively. The most powerful building blocks used to assess salawa is divination through Fa/Ifa. In particular, the Axosu is trained in the Ipile Fa (roots reading) system, and this system has been proven to be an integral part of developing a clear understanding of all degrees of salawa that an individual possesses. I will post the link to a video done by Ayinon explaining what roots readings can do for New Afrikans and why they are so powerful. Another important building block is one's Zoto reading. This divination provides one with the identity of the ancestor who has worked the hardest in the ancestral realm for that individual and watches closest over that individual. They are assigned by Mawu Lisa (the creator) and in some cases, the current individual getting their Zoto Fa, is a reincarnation of their Zoto. One may ask how that works but that is a little outside of the scope of what we are discussing here. Zoto Fa readings will provide the individual with this ancestor's life story, possible unfulfilled destiny info, and ways to get this ancestor back on track in the ancestral realm. But in regards to salawa, the individual becomes aware through this reading and their roots reading of certain actions that this or/and other ancestors may have taken to "setback" the family, clan and nation through their behavior from a salawa perspective. It will also highlight ways said ancestor contributed positively to lineage salawa. To put this in perspective, let's say 200 years ago, I have an ancestor who engaged in certain negative behavior, not only socially but spiritually. Their actions set in motion a chain of events in the physical world but also the spiritual realms as well. So because of the reading I am equipped with information that will allow me to not only be knowledgeable of what happened, but also identify some of the root causes of relationship problems, for example. I inherited a certain salawa that made successful relationships almost an impossibility, but I had no idea! Now I know what the situation is and I also know what to do about it. Ideally this newfound information would facilitate a change in my overall thinking but I'll also receive spiritual steps to address it as well. Often elevation and appeasement must be done for certain ancestors, among other things. So this is an example of how we inherit family, clan and national salawa. This is on top of our own behavior and how it will impact our selves, family, clan and nation. Given the overall significance of that this places on our actions, this one may be far more thoughtful about what they do and say so as not to create unnecessary complications in our lives. Part two will focus on the connection to maroonage. Azacotogan Fajise Syenxwe of Ganlodo Kilombonu Xotome https://youtu.be/q_uLx3FOrLk Here is the link to Axosu Agelogbagan Agbovi I explaining Ipile Fa (roots readings)