Omi-O!
Omi-O! This simple Yoruba salutation to water (which is also used to praise the orisha Yemonja and/or Oshun in different branches of the Yoruba spiritual tradition) is my mantra these days. I’ve also been testing out using it as a greeting more and more—a way of saying, “the water in me honors the water in you.” While some of the songs emerging through this co-creative process are very personal expressions addressing my specific healing needs/journey, most of them are intended as offerings to be sung collectively to water. Their power is magnified when that singing happens in group settings around natural bodies of water, though because we are all connected through water, individuals singing the same song separately qualifies as collective singing. This is the first song from the project that I’m sharing publicly; it’s really just a chant—easy to pick up and pass on. All Whale Whispering compositions will eventually be recorded with whale singing included on the tracks, but as a way of sharing the work-in-progress I’m releasing some of the songs in their early phases in video form.
This chant has become a staple of my daily practice, and it was created for that purpose. I felt the need for a song to help me remember to be fully present with water each time I interact with it, to honor it for the gift that it is, actively conserve it and support its healing from the pollution and abuse to which it is continually subjected. I’ve also, through this work, been exploring ways to activate the water in my body for self-healing by infusing that intention into the water I cook with and drink. This chant serves that purpose, too—I sing it over the first glass of water I drink every day, and then various times throughout the day when I make contact with water. It’s basically grace, for water instead of food. Singing grace instead of saying grace. Because, why bless food but not water before taking it in? Water is alive; that’s one of the whales’ key messages (reminders). In blessing it, we are blessing ourselves and each other, since all living beings are vessels for water.
None of what I’m saying is new; indigenous people have been doing this type of conscious work with water since forever, and the Black Baptist tradition in which I was raised is rooted in an inherent reverence for and honoring of our relationship to water, though urbanization, pollution and other factors have pulled the practice of baptism farther and farther away from natural, fully immersive settings in all but the most traditional (usually rural) congregations. Whale Whispering has been bolstered, and I have been so uplifted, by the sharing of this water healing journey with the radiant community of black and indigenous women and two-spirit folks who are participating in the Sacred Waters Pilgrimage along the Mississippi river. For more information about that beautiful work, visit www.windandwarrior.com and www.gcclp.org, the Gulf South Center for Law and Policy’s site, or either group’s Facebook/IG pages. Whether or not you resonate with the notion of water as a living force, it’s undeniable that water is a conductor, that singing generates vibration, and that vibration affects what it impacts. Let us sing to the water with healing intentions, so the impact will be one of healing. “Omi-O” is the first in the Whale Whispering canon intended to be used in that way. Feel free to sing it and share it, and be sure to take some time to listen to the water as well; it has infinite stories to tell…