The Weight of Our Deeds: How Self-Determination Shapes the Soul, the Ka, and the Path of Reincarnation
BY: OMOLAJA MAKINEE
In African metaphysics—whether expressed through Yoruba, Igbo, Kemetian, or broader continental cosmologies—the human being is more than flesh, thought, and temperament. Each person carries Eru Emi, the burden-bags of the soul, containing unresolved karmic obligations, ancestral imprints, and pre-incarnational agreements. These burdens are not punishments; they are assignments. They are the curriculum of our soul’s education, mapped long before birth, embedded deep within the Ka, the spiritual blueprint that defines our reason for entering this lifetime.
But if the Eru Emi sets the curriculum, the deeds we choose are the examination. And unlike many modern interpretations of destiny, African spiritual thought insists that some of our actions are not predetermined—they are self-determined. Whether we act with kindness or cruelty, truth or deception, courage or envy, we choose. Even animals, though governed by instinct, exhibit some forms of moral self-determination—care for their young, loyalty, territorial justice, or aggression born of insecurity.
In human beings, however, this self-determination is sharper, more consequential, and spiritually weighty.
1. Light and Density: How Deeds Affect the Ka
Every choice we make either lightens or densifies the Ka.
- Good deeds—compassion, honesty, fairness, gentleness, courage—lighten the soul, expanding its mobility and vibrational reach. A light soul travels freely across realms and incarnations.
- Bad deeds—malice, envy, jealousy, cruelty, sabotage, deceit—compress the Ka, shrinking its spiritual flexibility.
But here is where African metaphysics introduces a subtle and profound truth:
The deeds that fulfils the requirements of one’s Eru Emi—whether good or bad by human judgment—brighten the soul’s luminous potency.
A soul carrying a karmic burden may be required to engage in difficult tasks—confrontation, exposure of another’s wrongdoing, ending an unhealthy lineage cycle, or enduring a painful sacrifice. Such deeds, although uncomfortable, deepen the soul’s spiritual grounding. The cosmos does not measure morality by human comfort but by cosmic alignment.
This means:
- Some actions are self-determined and spiritually harmless.
- Some confrontations are part of Eru Emi and spiritually potent.
- Some conflicts or difficult decisions are part of Eru Emi and therefore spiritually necessary.
- And some cruelties are purely self-determined and dangerously karmic.
The challenge is that humans rarely know which is which.
2. The Danger of Self-Determination
While destiny sets the broad strokes, self-determination fills in the details. It is precisely this freedom that becomes most dangerous.
Many of our worst karmic stains arise from:
- impulsive emotional decisions;
- jealousy;
- ego;
- hunger for validation;
- desire for revenge;
- competitive insecurity;
- cravings of the biological body;
- bitterness from unhealed wounds.
These self-directed choices bypass the wisdom of the Ka and create new karmic debts that the soul did not arrive with. And when such density accumulates too heavily, the soul becomes spiritually sluggish. A heavy soul cannot move through the vibrational threshold required to re-enter the human womb.
Not by punishment. Not by divine decree. But by physics of soul-weight.
3. When Human Reincarnation Closes
A Ka burdened with too much density will naturally fall to lower vibrational forms. Such souls may reincarnate as:
- animals, where karma is minimal and cycles are short.
- plants, where existence is restful and unentangled.
- elemental presences, where growth is slow, steady, and stripped of complex moral choices.
These forms function as rehabilitation environments, not punishments. The cosmos always moves toward balance, and sometimes balance requires stepping back into simplicity. Some souls spend centuries, even thousands of cycles, quietly restoring their lost lightness through humble existences.
Human incarnation is the most advanced and the most fragile. It requires velocity, luminosity, and a specific spiritual frequency. It is the crown of the reincarnational ladder not because humans are superior, but because human life offers the greatest moral and existential choices.
4. Predetermined Events versus Self-Chosen Actions
African metaphysics distinguishes between:
1. Events determined by Eru Emi
These include:
- marriage;
- family obligations;
- career pathways;
- life partners;
- closed friends;
- major turning points;
- key encounters;
- certain forms of suffering;
- certain forms of elevation.
These events are the canvas of destiny. They are the pre-incarnational agreements the soul must walk through.
2. Actions chosen by self-determination
These include:
- how we treat others;
- how we respond to conflict;
- whether we lie or tell the truth;
- whether we help or harm;
- whether we act with envy or humility;
- whether we betray or uplift.
These choices are the paint on the canvas. They determine whether the soul exits the lifetime lighter or heavier than it entered.
5. Why Random Acts of Kindness Matter
Some acts of kindness come directly from Eru Emi. Others are simply spontaneous goodness. But the rule is universal:
If we do good over bad, we lose nothing. If we do bad over good, we stand to lose something.
This echoes the logic of Pascal’s Wager—not in a religious sense, but in a metaphysical one. Kindness lightens the Ka. Malice densifies it. The spiritual consequences are asymmetrical. Kindness never harms. Cruelty always costs.
And when a person feels guilt after harming someone—when emotions become heavy, restless, or disturbed—that is the Ka itself trembling, signalling: “This is a negative mark on your soul.”
Guilty conscience is not psychology alone; it is spiritual biofeedback.
6. The African Knowledge of Consequence
African spiritual systems have always known that every deed ripples through the universe.
Lying for material gain. Backbiting for promotion. Destroying another’s reputation out of envy. Blocking opportunities out of insecurity. Manipulating a narrative for personal advantage.
These acts carry consequences far beyond the visible realm.
They bend the Ka. They warp the Eru Emi. They deepen karmic debt. They harden the soul’s density. And ultimately, they limit the soul’s future freedom.
African metaphysics teaches that the universe is not governed by arbitrary punishment but by cosmic reciprocity. What you do to others, you do to your own soul. What you steal from others, you subtract from your own luminosity. What you block in another’s path, you block in your own next lifetime.
No deity needs to intervene. The cosmos is self-regulating.
Conclusion: Walk Lightly
Human life is a rare and precious opportunity. We carry burdens we do not fully understand, but we also carry freedom to shape the destiny of the Ka.
Since we cannot always know:
- which actions fulfills Eru Emi,
- which arise from biological impulse,
- which lighten our energy, and
- which densify our soul…
…it becomes wise to walk gently.
To act with generosity. To withhold envy. To avoid cruelty. To tell the truth even when costly. To never sabotage another soul’s path. To be kind even when no one sees.
These are not moral instructions. They are spiritual physics. Lightness opens doors. Density closes them. And every choice, no matter how small, tilts the Ka toward one direction or the other.
In the end, all that remains is the vibration you carry—and the path your soul becomes capable of walking next.
Back to 👇