SOURCE : Afro-Caribbean Spirituality Lecture Notes
For the Yoruba people, the cosmos was conceived as having two realms – the first, called aye, is the material world, or the visible world of the living, and the second, called orun, is the spiritual world, where spirits, ancestors, and gods dwell. These two worlds are thought to exist simultaneously, and they are interdependent – they cannot be separated. Anything that happens here, effects there. Things that happen there, effect here. For example, if a person falls ill, it is likely because the Orisha are displeased with them. If food is scarce, or poverty strikes, it is probably because of an unsatisfied ancestor. Every event, and every day, is seen in light of this two-tiered structure of the cosmos.
