In the Ifá religion of the Yoruba people, one of the world’s reincarnation traditions, reincarnation is called atunwa. The soul does not come to Earth for the first time: before every birth it chooses its Ori — its personal consciousness — and its destiny in the Realm of Spirit, and Yoruba children are still named “the father has returned” and “the mother has returned”. For the Yoruba, death is a transition: “death here is birth there, and the other way round.” This article follows the verses of the Odu Ifá as presented by Oluwo Vincent White (Fáfémi Fátálábí), a practising babalawo and Egungun priest who studied the tradition in Ode Remo, Ilobu, Oyo and Benin, and compares them with what Michael Newton independently recorded in thousands of life-between-lives regression sessions.
Do the Yoruba believe in reincarnation? What Ifá teaches about atunwa
Yes. In Ifá, reincarnation is not a side idea but the base of the teaching about destiny. A person lives on Earth, walks their path and “returns home, perhaps to begin the cycle again.” Before birth the soul chooses its Ori and its destiny, and, as White writes, “previous lives on earth, good or bad deeds, will be included in the destiny.” So for the Yoruba the past does not vanish at death; it carries over into the next choice. The teaching is preserved in the 256 Odu Ifá — sacred chapters, each holding hundreds of verses.
Which other religions believe in reincarnation? →
Who is Olodumare, the Creator?
Olodumare is the Creator in Yoruba religion: “eternal, infinite and formless, self-created, without beginning or end.” He created the first people and the first deities, the Orisha, and named his creative Word Ifá. A praise verse quoted by White calls him “the King who does not die, does not fall ill, does not doze and does not sleep.” After creation, according to the oral tradition, Olodumare “withdrew to rest”, and the world is run by the Orisha he empowered. The soul returns to Olodumare, as to its source, after its life on Earth.
What is Ori in Yoruba religion? Ori, ori inu and iponri
Ori literally means “head” — physical and spiritual. In Ifá, Ori is a person’s personal shrine and “the most important spiritual component”, through which they connect with the Orisha. Inside Ori is ori inu, the “inner spirit”, which holds a person’s character and individual destiny. Practising priests — White and the American babalawo Fa’lokun Fatunmbi — also speak of iponri, “the higher spirit that lives in the Invisible Realm”: it does not come down to Earth in full, stays in the spirit world and reminds the person of their chosen destiny through dreams and the inner voice. In academic descriptions iponri is above all Ori as a deity and its shrine; the reading of iponri as a “double in Orun” comes from the priests’ language.
How the soul chooses its destiny before birth: Ori and Ajala
According to the teaching described in academic work (E. Bọ́lájí Ìdòwú, Olódùmarè: God in Yoruba Belief, 1962), Obatala shapes the human body, Olodumare himself breathes in the breath of life, and the soul chooses its head — its Ori — in the house of Ajala, the heavenly potter. In the Ifá verses Ajala is a careless potter: some of his heads come out badly, which is why it matters so much which Ori the soul takes with it. The verses tell of the young man Afuwape, who chose a good head on a priest’s advice — a story teaching that destiny is chosen before birth. Michael Newton’s clients describe a similar moment of choosing a life and a body — see the Ring of Destiny.
In White’s account the path is more detailed — seven steps according to the Odu Ogbe Ogunda:
- a divination performed by a heavenly babalawo;
- the offering of the prescribed sacrifices;
- receiving one’s purpose — and, with it, one’s taboos;
- arriving at the Gate of Heaven;
- “digging the pit of losses”;
- filling that pit with gains;
- choosing one’s destiny.
We have not found this sequence in independent sources, so we give it as White’s account. Its overall meaning matches every source: the soul enters life not by chance but by a plan made in advance.
How do souls prepare for birth, according to regression research? →
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Who is Orunmila, the Witness of Destiny?
Orunmila is the Orisha of wisdom. His praise name Eleri Ipin means “Witness of Destiny”: in Yoruba cosmology he was present at creation and knows the destiny of every person. This is why the choice of Ori is made with him as witness. White calls the place of this choice Aludundun-Orun, where “each person writes their destiny in the presence of Orunmila” (for other priests Aludundun is a guardian spirit of destiny rather than a place). A spirit named Ajala-Mopin gives the child its chosen Ori, and Obatala shapes the body from divine clay. Orunmila’s priests on Earth, the babalawo — “fathers of secrets” — read this destiny through the Ifá oracle and help a person live in harmony with it. In regression accounts, a comparable role belongs to the Council of Elders.
Can destiny be changed? Akunleyan, akunlegba and ayanmo
Destiny in Ifá has three parts. Akunleyan is the chosen share of fortune and misfortune and the number of years on Earth. Akunlegba is the strength given to a person to reach what they wish. Both can change for better or worse — through spiritual practice, initiation, sacrifice and, above all, character. Ayanmo is the part of destiny that does not change. The Yoruba say “good character determines destiny”, and an Ifá verse puts it in an image: “good legs do not always walk in the right direction — good legs need a head.”
Why don’t we remember past lives? The water of forgetting
In Yoruba teaching the gatekeeper Onibode stands at the gate between the worlds, and before birth the soul drinks the water of forgetting — omi ìgbàgbé (as described by the scholar Olatunji Balogun, citing Idowu). So a person comes to Earth remembering neither past lives nor the destiny they chose. Some priests speak of a “tree of forgetting”, and White of two rivers, Blue and Red, that the soul crosses before birth. The images differ; the meaning is one: forgetting is the condition of a new birth. This is how Ifá answers the question almost everyone asks on first hearing about reincarnation: if we lived before, why don’t we remember?
What happens to the soul at the moment it enters a new body? →
Babatunde and Yetunde: Yoruba names that mean “the ancestor has returned”
The most living evidence of the Yoruba belief in reincarnation is in names. A boy born soon after his grandfather’s death is named Babatunde — “father has returned”; a girl born after her grandmother’s death, Yetunde — “mother has returned.” These names are still given in Nigeria today, and they echo modern research on children who remember past lives. There is also the opposite idea — abiku, “born to die”: a child believed to depart in infancy again and again and return to the same mother. The word for reincarnation itself is atunwa, “returning”, and atunwaye, “returning to the world.”
Yoruba beliefs about death: “the Earth is a market, Heaven is our home”
Death — iku — in the Yoruba tradition helps consciousness pass from Ikole Aye, the physical world, to Ikole Orun, the world of spirit. The verse of the Odu Otura Owonrin, as priests pass it on in the oral tradition (in White’s rendering), says:
“Travellers on earth and travellers in heaven, we shall meet again… The people of the earth return to where they came from. Why the tears? Why the sorrow? The one who sends us here calls us back home.”
Hence the central formula: “Aye l’oja, Orun n’ile” — “the Earth is a market, Heaven is our home.” On Earth the soul learns and tempers its spirit, then returns to where it lives for good.
How do departed souls comfort those left behind? →
What is Egungun? The ancestors in Yoruba religion
Egungun is the cult of the ancestors and the masquerade held in their honour; White himself is an initiated Egungun priest. The Yoruba believe the spirit of the ancestors is always near: it guards the living members of the family, gives protection, prosperity and health and, most of all, passes on wisdom. The dead are usually buried near the family home. Twice a year long Egungun ceremonies take place, called “Ara-run-kinkin” — “the dwellers of Heaven.”
Ifá and Michael Newton’s life-between-lives research
The American hypnotherapist Michael Newton knew nothing of the Odu verses when he recorded what thousands of clients described about life between lives under deep regression. That makes it all the more striking how closely his map matches the Yoruba one. Below are the points where they meet, with chapters from his book Destiny of Souls (2000):
| Ifá (after Vincent White) | Michael Newton, Destiny of Souls |
|---|---|
| The water of forgetting at Onibode’s gate: before birth a person forgets past lives and the chosen destiny | “Amnesia forces us to go into the testing area of the laboratory of Earth without the answers for the tasks we were sent here to accomplish” and frees us from the baggage of past failures |
| Iponri — the higher spirit that stays in the Invisible Realm (as practising priests describe it) | “Part of your energy was left behind in the spirit world at the time of incarnation” — soul duality (chapter 2 and the section on soul division) |
| Choosing Ori at Ajala’s with Orunmila as witness; in White’s account, past lives are included in destiny | The Ring of Destiny: screens of future lives, timelines and body choices, free will (chapter 9) |
| Orunmila, the Witness of Destiny; a heavenly priest divines before birth | The Council of Elders and the felt Presence during evaluation and planning (chapter 6) |
| Akunleyan can change, ayanmo cannot; character determines destiny | Free will within the chosen life (chapter 9) |
| Egungun: the spirit of the ancestors stays near and protects the family | Departed souls comfort those left behind, especially soon after death (chapter 2) |
| “The Earth is a market, Heaven is our home” | Earth as a testing laboratory; the spirit world as the soul’s home |
Two traditions reached one picture by different roads: the Yoruba through verses passed down the generations, Newton through regression sessions with people who knew nothing of the Yoruba.
You do not have to take either map on faith. In a between-lives regression session, many people describe this space themselves — the choice before birth, the forgetting, the sense of coming home. Read how to choose a regression therapist, or go straight to the directory of practitioners.
📚 Recommended Reading
by Michael Newton
The book whose chapters on amnesia, soul duality, the Council of Elders and the Ring of Destiny echo the Yoruba teaching on Ori and destiny.
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Frequently asked questions
What does atunwa mean?
Atunwa is the incarnation of the soul — its coming into a new body on Earth. Before atunwa the soul chooses its Ori and its destiny in the Realm of Spirit.
What is a babalawo?
A babalawo, “father of secrets”, is a priest of Ifá. Only babalawo may use the main oracle — the ikin palm nuts — to read a person’s destiny through the 256 Odu Ifá.
Can you change your destiny in Ifá?
In part. Fortune, misfortune and lifespan (akunleyan) change through spiritual practice and character; only ayanmo, the core of destiny, stays fixed.
Why do the Yoruba call the Earth a market?
Because we come here for a time — to learn, to exchange and to temper the spirit — while the soul’s permanent home is Heaven, Orun.
Sources
- Vincent White (Oluwo Fáfémi Fátálábí). Put’ Ifa [The Way of Ifá]. Book 1. Moscow: Veligor, 2013. ISBN 978-5-88875-134-3. Author’s site: yorubaorganization.com.
- Vincent White. Tainy afrikanskogo orakula traditsiy Ifa i Vodun [Secrets of the African Oracle of Ifá and Vodun]. The Way of Ifá, Book 2. Moscow: Veligor, 2015. ISBN 978-5-88875-347-7.
- Olatunji A. Balogun. The Concepts of Ori and Human Destiny in Traditional Yoruba Thought. Nordic Journal of African Studies 16(1), 2007 (citing E. Bọ́lájí Ìdòwú, Olódùmarè: God in Yoruba Belief, 1962).
- Michael Newton. Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives. Llewellyn, 2000.