Ibeji

The Ibeji are the sacred twins.  Like the Marrassa of the Vodun pantheon and even the Gemini when dealing with astrology, they are both correlated to the Ibeji. The word Ibeji or Erin Ibeji (the actual statues), is composed of two words, “Ibi” and “eji”.  “Ibi” means to be born and “eji” means two.  When dealing with the sacred science of the Ibeji, equate it to the understanding of twins.  Twins represent complementing and opposing polarities.  They also represent gateways.  This is the reason the number 11 is considered to be the tower or the twin tower.  Anytime you hear towers or the number 11, it is speaking of gateways. DNA strands are also forms of the number 11.

In the Yoruba system when twins are born they are given the names Kehinde and Taiwo.  Taiwo is the name of the first born and Kehinde is the second born.  Kehinde means the one that comes afterwards.  Taiwo means the one who was first to touch the earth. Taiwo is actually a shortened version of “to aye wo”. The word “aye” means the world or mores specifically the earth’s surface.  So, “to aye wo” literally means the one having the first taste of the world.  Kehinde sends Taiwo out into the world to make sure everything is okay before Kehinde comes out.  When the first child comes out, it cries.  That cry delivers a spiritual message that comes back to Kehinde to inform of the conditions of the earth and how to acclimate themselves to the earth.  If the report comes back that it’s no good here, then neither one of the twins may decide not to continue forward.  Or Kehinde may not come forth and there will be a still birth.  Kehinde is considered to be the elder of the two even though Taiwo comes first.  Why?  Because Kehinde gives order to Taiwo.  Kehinde gives Taiwo the order to go out.  So, Kehinde is an authority over the first baby.  Kehinde is also know as Kehinde omg gbegbon.  That phrase means that the child who came last becomes the elder.

The Erin Ibeji are the statues that are made for them.  Those statues represent the souls of the Ibeji.  They Ibeji represent the fleshly aspect of a person and the spirit simultaneously.  Each twin holds that aspect of the soul. Because the Ibeji share a soul, one half splits the personality or spirit and the other one takes on the physical mortality of the other.  But you don’t know which one has which.  So, if anything happens to one of the twins, a statue is built and it is maintained and loved just like a physical child that was there previously. Balance has to be maintained for the child that is still present.