ABSTRACT
Terrapsychological inquiry (TI) studies presence found at sacred sites. Through deep research, TI investigates and analyzes the soul of a place and connects it to the inner process. This chapter explores the process of deep research happening for Òrìṣà practitioners and people with ancestor shrines, where the shrine is the sacred site connecting them with the presence of their lineages and nature elements. Approaching the topic from the lens of research serving as ritual and also ritual serving as research, this chapter studies a variety of shrines from the perspective of an Òrìṣà practitioner. The research paradigm of the exploration of the shrines is rooted in an Ifá worldview and supported by Chilisa’s (2020) work on decolonizing methodologies. The research is not about establishing facts studied via tangible materials, but rather is about exploring the shrine as the contact site and gathering data through multiple modes of perception grounded in an Indigenous research paradigm.
