Ile Ori Ogbe Egun is and has been from its inception a groundbreaking, a unique community.  Born from the cultural vision and spiritual model birthed by Oloye Ifa Karade (Ile Tawo Lona) and his wife, Iya Sokoya Karade, Ile Ori and the I-Teach Love Institute were created to facilitate healing, wellness and the celebration of family, community and diverse expressions of spirituality and human existence.  The people who find a home in the Ile Ori/I-TEACH Love community are almost always leaders in their own right who would neither survive nor thrive in a fear-based, control and dependency-oriented society. 
 
Ile Ori’s mission speaks to the healing that some come to this spirituality in search of.  Some of this healing is related to experiences that have taken place in other Orisha communities including abuse of power, gender oppression, homophobia and rejection based on sexual or gender expression, racial or ethnic background.   
 
Our role as a temple has been to counter the effects of these types of experiences and to create Orisa communities free of patriarchal, ecologically destructive, gender oppressive and anti-LGBTQ practices.    
 
Our society is grounded in indigenous teachings and ways of life implemented through a focus on personal, internal and spiritual development.  The purpose of this focus is Iponri i.e. helping each person to connect with their individual purpose and healing the negative effects of the racial intolerance and inequality.   
 
We also believe that many people use spirituality as a way to escape and avoid doing the hard work on their internal selves and the gut-wrenching work to heal our families and communities.  It takes an incredible amount of focus, fearlessness and dedication to cut away the wounded, damaged parts of ourselves and to address the issues in our communities that prevent our real progress and evolution.   
 
Our ancestors tapped into the healing powers of Orisha when they were in the belly of the slave ship and the cotton fields of slave plantations.  They had nothing but their prayers, their breath and their hope for survival.  In some cases, they didn't even speak the same language.  The ase of their love for each other was powerful enough to help them survive and overcome one of the greatest holocausts in world history.  Ile Ori believe this same ase not only exists today, it is stronger and more resilient.
 
We are very fortunate to have access to some of the objects and materials once used by our ancestors in ritual ceremonies.  However, we will never be able to completely duplicate what was done 6000 years ago.  We are blessed that Ifa has given us many tools and materials to compensate for the loss of thousands of scriptures, the full knowledge of our medicines and the freedom to spend the 10-40 years at the compound studying and mastering Ifa. 
 
Like every other Orisha community in the world, our community has specific cultural nuances and practices passed down from our forefather.  These include:

1. Making healing, health and wellness a key component of our rites.  This manifests as educating the communities we serve on wellness practices.  We also promote serving organic, raw, vegan and meat free food as well as raw, living juice, as well as the practice of exercise and meditation as a way to decrease the risk of preventative illnesses. 

2. No ingestion of alcohol or tobacco during ritual functions (we do use medicinal tobacco and alcoholic Spirits as offerings during ancestral and Orisha ceremonies).

3. We avoid using excessive amounts of alcohol to feed to our Orisha.

4. To counter the effects of domestic and community violence, we do not allow cussing, yelling or arguing in sacred space.  We also have a structured conflict resolution process to address our differences.

5. To help facilitate healing from the effects of traumas such as rape, incest and sexual abuse, we may modify certain Iyawo practices related to spiritual baths & purification.  We also provide mental health counseling from an indigenous perspective by honoring the principle of inclusivity.

6. We do not practice extremes with our Iyawos.  An example of this is not forcing women (including masculine-identified women) or trans men to wear skirts or dresses. 

7. We honor the gender expression and self-identity of each member. 

8. We engage in scholarly study during and throughout the initiation journey.

9. We adjust the time frame of rituals when necessary to accommodate work, parenting and other life demands of our leaders and members.

10. We go to great lengths to honor and sustain the energy and life force of all living beings and entities no matter how big or small.  In Ile Ori, ritual sacrifice is not mandated but embraced as a result of divination and/or spiritual protocols. 

11. Every single ritual activity we perform, from readings to initiatory ceremonies, are checked and validated for completion and thoroughness via divination.          

 
In addition to the incredible accomplishment of assisting over 141 souls through the Sankofa process, we have established temples in 5 cities and have members in three countries.  We not only produced the first International Ifa conference with 150 participants from across the world, we also organized the first International Gatekeeper Healing Ceremony to heal and empower LGBT brothers and sisters.  Our priests have appeared on TV, in films, on the radio and in documentaries as part of our mission to educate the world on the beauty and power of Orisha spirituality.  
 
Ile Ori has been the fertile ground for dozens of couples meeting and marrying.  28 babies have been born to our members and the children of our members.  Our members have earned advanced degrees, bought their first homes, launched national organizations, made award-winning films, organized historic events, written and published numerous books, won political campaigns, worked with Presidents of the United States and leaders of African nations.  We’ve witnessed countless illnesses healed, addictions overcome and lives transformed.  We view this as supreme evidence of our powerful ase and blessings of the Orisha over our work, initiations and vision.    
 
Ile Ori’s cultural model is about healing, love and learning to trust each other again.  Its about honoring women and men no matter who or how they love.  Its about ending discrimination against anyone who the Orisha live inside of regardless of race, ethnic, sexual or gender identity or expression.  Ile Ori is about tapping into the magnitude of the medicine that our ancestors died to preserve.  It’s about giving honor to our Ancestors, the Orisha, Orunmila and Ifa.  This is who we are and this is what we've done for almost 20 years. 
 
Ile Ori has ZERO TOLERANCE for any behavior that promotes discrimination and oppression based on racial, ethnic, sexual or gender identity or expression.   If this model, vision and cultural legacy is not in alignment with anyone’s vision for their walk with the Orisha, we deeply and enthusiastically encourage them to continue their search for a community that is.