Aṣẹ
Aṣẹ is the spiritual power in Yoruba belief through which people, deities, and words can bring things into being or make events happen.
Yoruba religion: The religious traditions of the Yoruba people, centered on a supreme creator, divinities, ancestors, and ritual practice. Aṣẹ is a foundational idea within Yoruba religious understandings of how power and creation operate.
Olódùmarè: The supreme creator in Yoruba religion, source of the universe and its sustaining power. Aṣẹ ultimately derives from the divine source of creation.
Orí: The personal spiritual head in Yoruba thought, associated with destiny, character, and individual life direction. A person's orí shapes how their capacities and aṣẹ can unfold.
Yoruba people: An ethnic group indigenous chiefly to southwestern Nigeria, with communities across West Africa and the diaspora. Aṣẹ belongs to the religious and intellectual traditions of Yoruba communities.
Oríkì: A Yoruba poetic form of praise that evokes a person, deity, lineage, or place through names and attributes. Oríkì can invoke and activate the qualities and power associated with its subject.
Orisha: Divine beings in Yoruba religion who embody powers of nature and aspects of human life. Orisha possess and exercise aṣẹ within their domains and relationships with humans.
Ìwà: Character or moral disposition in Yoruba thought, especially as a condition of living well. Good character is associated with the responsible use and expression of spiritual power.
Yoruba mythology: The body of Yoruba narratives about creation, divine beings, ancestors, and the ordering of the world. Creation narratives describe the divine powers and acts through which aṣẹ operates.
Yoruba language: A tonal language of the Niger-Congo family spoken chiefly in southwestern Nigeria and neighboring regions. Aṣẹ is also an ordinary Yoruba word whose religious force is shaped by its linguistic use.
Ifá: A Yoruba divination system and corpus of verses associated with the deity Orunmila. Ifá divination interprets how spiritual forces and aṣẹ bear on a situation.