DragonsFaeriesElves&theUnseen : Obatala African God of the White Cloth

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Obatala African God of the white cloth

OBATALA

Today I am going to take to another grand African God Obatala of the white cloth. Obatala is the only Orisha that has both male and female aspects within. He is the orisha that is the owner of all heads whether crowned or not crowned gods. Obatala is the orisha that Olofi entrusted to judge justice on the earth. Obatala is the purest of all the orishas & one of the wisest orishas. He is said to vary from an old man that is always trembling to a young person that is always trembling to a young person that is riding a horse. It depends on the path, his main color which is white touches others and other colors. Everything around Obatala is always white. He lives in a white tureen that contains his secrets and mysteries. He is a compassionate father & good listener. He is the father God that all the orishas look for when trouble comes.

OBATALA AFRICAN GOD OF THE WHITE CLOTH

Obatala God created mankind & it's said that Olofi came & breathed life into his creations. Obatala as much as he is the owner of peace & tranquility. He is also a great fierce warrior when he wants to be. He uses his sword when he is in battled against evil & triumphs over all. However, when he is summoned it is to bring order & peace. He is the white pigeon that is seen flying over to announce peace is here. Obatala is associated with the mountains & high elevated place.

Obatala God of Creation

Pataki of Obatala~ History of Obatala African God of the white cloth-Olofi was thinking one day in the heavens about the creations of life down on the planet earth that Obatala and Olodumare created. The planet earth was just water where Olokun ruled. Olofi called his wisest court to sit and discuss the creation. Orula who was present told Olofi that life can be created on Olokun's kingdom, but an ebbo will be needed to perform this enormous act. Orula looked into the divination oracle that he had some knowledge of & told Olofi that someone very wise had to perform this ebbo so that life can be created on earth. Olofi told

Obatala African God
of the white Cloth

Obatala that he would be entrusted to perform this enormous task. So Orula looked deeper into the oracles & told the God Obatala that he had to descend with some items to create the lands, mountains, forests, oceans deserts where civilization and life will exist as we know today. Orula told Obatala that he had to descend on a long chain from the heavens with a hen and sand. God Obatala asked Orula if that was all in which Orula replied Yes! The day Obatala did come down to earth, descending into the watery domain of Olokun and performed the ebbo that Orula spoke to him about. Right before his eyes the land started to appear to right beneath his hanging feet. Obatala jumped down and was the first orisha to hit land. When Obatala looked up Elegua, he was descending from the chain of the heavens. Obatala asked Elegua what he doing & Elegua responded to him if he needed any type of help. Obatala started to walk the lands that were created from the heavens.

Obatala God of the white Cloth

Obatala & Elegua noticed how trees started to grow, grass, flowers were springing out & mountains were growing high into the skies. Obatala was happy & told Elegua to back and tell Olofi that the work on earth is being done. Elegua climbed up the rope to tell Olofi what was going on. Olofi pleased sent a white pigeon down to earth to Obatala which this became his symbol. Olofi came to earth & told Obatala that it was needed for some type of life form to be on earth. Olofi said that he wanted mankind to walk the earth but, didn't want them to have the long walk as he had & the orishas had. Obatala agreed and told Olofi that he would help him create mankind. Olofi told Obatala that he would give him the task of other things to create within the heavens & space. After that,

Obatala bowed his head and agreed to create the earth & mankind. So then Obatala asked how he should create mankind & Olofi told him to make the human forms just as the orishas are.

Obatala African God in
his female form

So Olofi told Obatala to form the human when he was ready to call on him and he world come down and breathe life into them. So Obatala agreed & with the sands of the earth he started to form and mold what we are today. After a few hundred years of molds, Obatala colled Olofi to come breath air & life into the molds. Olofi came & saw miles upon miles of human mold lying on the sands of the earth and proceeded to blow life into them. Once life was blown into these human molds, they turned into humans and stood up and were told to make prosperous and humble lives. To praise Olodumare as their creator. Then all the humans went in many different directions to start their new lives on the earth that was made for them. This went on for many many days & the God Obatala continued to work very hard making more human forms out of clay to populate the earth. The sun was very hot & was supplying light and energy to the land. However, it was making the jobs on the earth for the new humans hard to do & for the God Obatala make more clay humans. So one day Obatala grew very tired and decided to take a break of his task that Olofi asked of him.

Obatala making clay molds
of the humans of the world

He walked over to a shady tree that was giving him some much need shade & sat underneath it. He took a long need break while reaching for his white pouch where he had his oti. So he started to drink his oti to quench his thirst. Without realizing it, he had drank all of his oti from his white pouch & had none left. Of course, his oti wasn't a non-alcoholic drink so when Obatala stood up he kinda staggered about to where his clay molds were. So when he started making human forms again without noticing, his molds of the human form were looking a bit weird and odd. What had happened was, he had forgotten to put limbs, feet or he made the bodies a bit deformed. Obatala had also made his clay molds with no type of pigmentations and so forth and on!

Obatala clay molds that were a
bit different which Olofi didn't notice

When he finished he did what he usually does - summoned Olofi to breathe life into the clay humans that he made. However, Obatala still didn't notice his mistake he had made before Olofi had come to the earth. So Olofi saw hundreds to thousands of molds lying lifeless on the sands waiting for the life to be breath into them. Olofi had always trusted & reviewed Obatala' work in the past he didn't notice that these new clay molds were different. So Olodumare proceeded to breathe life into these clay molds to make them humans. However, when life was given to them, they stood up & at that moment Olofi did notice that they were different. These humans had deformed bodies. You see in those days of the ancient it was a big deal, as even in the 21th century we are still having problems with this issue. Well, it seems that this was an issue then too Olofi got very upset and questioned Obatala on what happen with the human creations. Obatala seeing what he had done & realized something had gone terribly wrong. He knew he lost

Creation of Man

Olofi disrespect and all his dreams. So Obatala told Olofi the truth that he was drinking and it made his mind blurry. Obatala said he did not mean to do this. But it was so hot that day and he needed a rest. So Obatala begged Olofi forgiveness & told Olofi that from this day forward he would take all those creations as his children. He would take care of them & look after them & keep them from any harm. Olofi just shook his head, but he accepted Obatala's apology and request. Obatala also told Olofi that he would never drink again due to what he did with the creation of man.

In Modern times, Obatala's feast day is on September 24th which is the same day as the Catholic day of the Virgin Mary. Obatala is a loving & caring father not only to his children but, to the other orishas. The orishas seek his advice and give him high respect to the great orisha. Obatala which means father of the cloth is said to cover all men on the earth from harm. Obatala loves that all is white & all of his offerings are made of white, whether it's food or animal sacrifice. Obatala loves white yams, snails, fruits and white cloths of all kinds materials.