Inside the Sacred Orisha Gardens...a place to change your life

My wife, Vassa is an artist. She was born that way. In the late 80's, she began a lifelong journey of tapping into her creativity through the spiritual path of Ifa. Shortly thereafter she became a Priest of Ogun.

This is where she really found herself...her Ori! Once a torch was placed in her right hand...she bent a steel rod that was in her left hand...and her inner core was ignited!

During this powerful time for Vassa...she became a Priest of Ifa, known as Iya Vassa. With the creation of a special female figure she then aligned with the energy of Nana Buuken and began developing the Society known as Nana Buuken for those female Ifa Priests that were to be honored there.

There are several people who stirred Vassa's imagination. The first was Susanne Wenger. Susanne was a very spiritual and religious person as well as an incredible artist. Her acceptance of a different, mystical dimension that is inherent in all that exists. In her own words: "creative thinking and art are not measurable since they are testimony of the truth, and this truth, the only truth, has many faces. Who can count the faces of truth? All religions are ultimately the religion of mankind. Art is a ritual."

Her friendship, which continue until she passed, allowed for important collaborations in thinking, and diverse expressions of creativity. You are urged, should you have the opportunity, to visit the Shrines of Osogbo. To her final days, a then frail 93-year-old artist with one seeing eye, was a driving force in Osogbo, where she was in charge of the Sacred Grove, a place where spirits of the river and trees are said to live.

It was in the early 1990’s that Iya Vassa and Susanne Wenger began an ongoing relationship that continued until Susanne’s death in January 2009. While Vassa was aware of, and in awe of the power, of Wenger’s work, she had embarked upon her own

sculpture work for the Sacred Gardens of the Ifa Foundation of North America, Inc. In a world where there truly are no accidents, a mutual friend of both had recently visited Wenger in her home in Osogbo and shown Susanne photographs of Vassa’s Orisa creations. What had been a one sided admiration assumed mutual duality as Susanne was enamored with the creativity and expression of Vassa’s work. In addition to asking her friend to express this to Vassa on his return, she designed, and made, a unique opele (divining chain) for him to take back as both an expression of her appreciation for Vassa’s work, as well as to acknowledge Vassa’s own status as a female Ifa Priest.

As Susanne aged, and Vassa matured, the relationship continued, and increasingly made itself clear in her later works. Today, in a very real way, she feels the responsibility of carrying on the living art as ritual to the Orisa that guide us. The result is the Sacred Orisa Gardens at Olu Olu in Central Florida. A Sacred space for those of any spiritual path to connect with the vibrational reality of the Yoruba Archetypal eternal energies they embody.

Being an Iyanifa, Iya Vassa was able to be a full partner in the Ifa Foundation and the work we do. I bring this up, because without the decades of exposure, working intimately with the Orisa, joining me in every ceremony what it was appropriate, she finally, turned her artistic creativity towards creating what over the years has become the Sacred Orisa Gardens.

Three Gardens, created by Vassa, are critically important. First was Nana Buuken. This sculpture began Vassa’s mystical process. You see, Nana, who Vassa was not familiar with, “spoke to her” throughout the process!

This began a process that proceeded to the creation of Ela, an entity that had no name for many months of her initial work, but HAD to be created. It was not until her friend Susanne, recognized what Vassa was embarking upon, and supplied the name and the intent of this critically important Orisha, that she had her name.

Third was Vassa’s creation of the Sacred Labyrinth. This crowning achievement represents each of the 256 Odu and allows for every individual to follow the instructions, pause, take notes, and derive an incredible amount from the synchronicity of man and Orisha.

These gardens are include Ogun, Oshun, Orunmila, Nana Buuken, Oya, Ancestors, Phoenix, Wealth, Esu (Ellegua) among others. Each awaits the arrival of those truly wishing to learn.

In my four decades, where I have restored so much that had been lost, the truth is my work does not compare with Vassa’s. My work flows from my head. Vassa’s connection with the Orisha is much more visceral. Her heart, her soul, her internal beauty, all unite to meld with the incredible Orisha Energy she harnesses into the sculptures on our land.

Both Vassa & I invite you to explore the energy and the knowledge that exist throughout the gardens.Energy specific to your needs. For further information contact Vassa at 1 800 906 4322