ifa student and teacher

On the Path of Initiation : Encounter with Awo

2010-10-13T02:01:00.000-07:00

Awo is the concentration of intelligence and power that becomes a part of you when you and that nucleus,a sentient force beyond space and time, are ready.It is the invisible presence of the tradition,the teacher who is as intimate to you as your own mind but who enables understanding that your mind alone cannot create.The invisble but palpable presence by your side as you dialogue with this ancient field of knowledge.

Awo is the teacher that you sense at your shoulder as you work with the unseen company of those who have come before and those who never came but yet are.

"Seated upon a Cubic stone of measured Space-Time whose Light be fixed be but one of many a stone throne, all as one simultaneous to ride as an Eight-Legged Mare, which be tethered to a Tetrahedron World-Tree at the midst of the Cube enclosed by a Dodecahedron. Many a Dodecahedron Universe to Seer while to ride the Eight-Legged Mare at whose centre be one’s inner Star of a Sun behind the Sun of Singular Eye whose Light travelled faster at the Ending of a Beginning, Beginning of an End leading to yet another Beginning Ouroboros, Travelling without Moving..."

The first three cubes are computer simulations of the development of the universe.The fourth cube is artist James Turrell's cube of light which evokes the physical and cognitive associations of illumination.

The first image is a computer simulation of the evolution of a section of our universe as developed by the Grand Challenge Cosmology Consortium (GC3), a section so huge it would take light,the fastest known phenomenon in the universe,500 million years to cross it. The blue areas depict low density gas and the red areas indicate high density gas formed by gravity following the initial even spread of gas after the creation of the universe.

You called us and we have come.

The second image is a simulation of the evolution of the entire universe in terms of its 1.5 billion light years of existence,from just after the Big Bang,the explosion held by scientists to have brought the universe into being,up till the present day, by Michael Norman of the University of California, San Diego,Robert Harkness of the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC), and Brian O'Shea of the Los Alamos National Laboratory,allowing the cosmologists to travel backwards in time and view the history of the universe through studying the formation, growth, and evolution of clusters of galaxies, the largest gravitationally bound structures in the universe.

Near the center of the image is depicted a "particularly massive galaxy cluster, with a mass of 2x1015 times that of our sun (that's two quadrillion solar masses)...Galaxy clusters have big central galaxies that tend to have super massive black holes[ an imploded star generating a massive gravitational field from which light cannot escape]. These black holes weigh millions to billions of times the mass of our sun, and produce incredibly energetic jets of gas which stir up the gas in the galaxy cluster."

When you are planted in awo you know that you are swimming in a mighty,invisible but potent current that is available to you as power.

The third cube is a "computerized guess of how gas in the universe was distributed billions of years ago, at redshift 3, when the universe was only a quarter of its present age" by the GC3 team, using supercomputers at the National Center for Supercomputing Application and assumptions about the composition and beginning of the universe, in which each side of this cubic representation of the universe is about 8 million light years across, with color representing temperature of the hot gas,with helium abundance superposed with a wire mesh,the entire structure giving insight into the ""past and present structure of the intergalactic medium, the matter inhabiting the regions between galaxies and clusters of galaxies."

How will you develop and access this power?

The old woman's wizened face with outer space and the sphere of the earth as a background evokes the celestial aspect of Odu/Ifa as a primordial wisdom,existing before the beginning of time, the foundation in terms of which the universe was created and in terms of which it develops.

Through the cultivation of your self into a shrine,through the creation and seeking out of words and mental images that vibrate with living force with an efficacy unique to you,so that you become an igba iwa,the container of existence,the beginning and the end of all things,the rhythm of all dualities,father-mother

The fourth cube is James Turrel's installation "Afrum-Proto" evoking solid light, "echoing principles in theoretical physics and creation myths alike, [thereby making ]connections between energy, matter, and a human perception of these cosmological elements".

the field of force constituted by the flame at the centre of the black light within which humanity shapes its universe:Ogun;equidistant from the fiery luminescence of the primal radiation that brings cosmos and child into being:Orisanla;itself oscillating in relation to the red intensity of blood that is humanity's life and struggle:Babaluaye;all four anchored by the rich darkness that is womb of earth and cosmos:Oduduwa.

The second image of an old woman is used here to depict Iya Agba,her contemplative serenity radiating meaning projected through the Congo cosmogram on the back wall.The circular path around the four quadrants encapsulates the quatenary division and unification of time,space,cosmic order and hermeneutic progression evoked by the quatenary and circular structure of Igba Iwa and its two dimensional affiliates.These affiliates are the intersecting vertical and horizontal axes and their quatenary realization in Opon Ifa, Benin Olokun Igha Ede and Vodun veves. Beyond Africana cultures, these affiliates are seen in all quatenary cosmological and hermeneutic forms where the circle and the square are conjoined as the seeker makes their way round the circle,immersing themselves in the units that make up thequatenary constitiution and its multiples.

At the mid point of the axes of being and becoming,you are centred in Iya Agba,ancient and alluring with the seductive force of wisdom and power,given birth to in your soul which is both a transcendental point of light beyond space and time and the dark earth where the ancient one is positioned in the universe that is the forest.

Three dimensional map of the distribution of dark matter in our cosmic neighborhood in a cube the size of 1.5 million light years. The map was computed using the ARGO-Algorithm to Reconstruct Galaxy-Traced Overdensities, a novel computer program for cosmic cartography developed at the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA)which permitted an international cosmography team to calculate a three-dimensional high-resolution map of our cosmic neighborhood that shows the distribution of the invisible dark matter in great detail.

The map is based on a few hundred thousand individual galaxies.

The cartography of the Universe, the cosmography, is plagued by large white spots in contrast to the terrestrial cartography. Stars and dust clouds of our own Galaxy obscure many views, and the dim glow of the most distant galaxies only weakly defines the boarder areas of the observable Universe. As the geographers of medieval times one can try to fill in these white spots with assumptions. However, modern cosmography does not rely on fantasies and legends with dragons and other mythical creatures. It uses statistical methods of signal processing and well developed mathematical theories of the emergence and distribution of galaxies. Missing information cannot be drawn out of a hat with these methods, however at locations with too large gaps, stochastic methods can fill in possible cosmic landscapes, which at least have correct statistical properties.

Maps of the universe constructed in this way are of great scientific value, less for the purpose of cosmic navigation, since intergalactic journeys even with the speed of light would require millions to billions of years, but more to study the structure and evolution of the Universe.

The distribution of cosmic matter is only partially known since it mostly consists of mysterious dark matter, which we neither see nor know. The visible galaxies trace solely the rough outline of the highly complex network of matter concentrations and filaments, very like the lights of cities on a dark coast line permit us to imagine the countries beyond.

The high speed with which ARGO generates maps will in future permit us to combine the steadily growing number of measured galaxies into a common, high-resolution chart of the visible Universe.

Simultaneously, any existing uncertainties due to measurement inaccuracies will be characterized precisely. Thereby, the maps become applicable for solid scientific purposes.

The construction of such maps was so far a huge computational problem, since in principle each galaxy brings a bit of information for each of the millions of positions of the reconstructed Universe. Earlier attempts to construct such maps required enormous computations on supercomputers, but delivered only maps with moderate resolution.

The seeds of the visible structures today were sown in a fraction of the very first second of the Universe. In the following fourteen billion years these structures grew constantly. They are therefore a window into the early epochs of the universe, shortly after the big bang, when space was filled with radiation and hot plasma and there were neither stars nor galaxies. An analysis of these structures reveals properties of cosmic matter, gravitation, which is responsible for the structure growths and the geometrical properties of space-time of the Universe. Good cosmic maps permit further detailed predictions of a number of observable effects. Comparing them to real observations may verify our understanding of space, time and matter.

Ike di na awaja na awaja-power flows in many channels

The spirit bloweth where it listeth and none knows whence it cometh and whither it goeth

When the student is ready,the Master will appear

The third image of an old woman suggests here the character of Odu,the centre of the wisdom and power of Ifa,as an ancient personality identified with the earth,one of the planets in the cosmic scope actualized by Odu.The labyrinth in front of the fire indicates the path of knowledge and transformation through the study of Odu,one of whose manifestations is the fractal permutations of the Odu patterns of Ifa as they are developed in terms of combinations that combine the first two basic forms,Eji Ogbe and Oyeku Meji,representing the primary polarities of existence:negative-positive,,masculine -feminine,celestial-terrestrial,in terms of a total of 256 forms which constitute the finite characterization by the human mind in Ifa of the infinite number of initiatory and cognitive possibilties represented by existence.

The journey of the seeker of awo is through the spiral constituted by the golden calabash formed by the dome of the sky as it touches the earth at the horizon.

Through the paths formed by your movement in body and mind within and across this space you move through the circumference and the four main directions of this spatio-temporal axis.

This is a journey that never ends.

The omo awo-child of awo-will circle the circumference and penetrate through the four foci to reach the centre of igba iwa,the calabash of being,the beginning and the end of all that is and will ever be;

only to start again the spiral progression in which new growth takes place in every round of progression and consummation.

The centre is the circumference and the circumference is the centre.

The centre is limitless and can never be exhausted.

At each of the four quadrants that define your location at that centre is a sphere.

Each sphere a mode of being that shapes the cosmos : Orisa : matter and consciousness.

Each mode of being is represented by a natural form:white chalk,for white light that embodies all other colours,the esence of being from which all else emerges;red dust,for the palpitating blood that ensures the bodily life of the human being;charcoal powder,for the human effort at using nature in shaping the universe and in self sustenance as represented by making fire with charcoal;mud, earth as the primal mother and the darkness of the space beyond life on the planetary sphere.

Each of these contellations of being is a creative principle,the transformative esence of existence,Odu.

Poised at the centre of this constellation you look in all directions at once:

cosmic and terrestrial,celestial and chtonic.

all evoking

the cosmic scope of Odu, the embodiment of creative possibility in the cosmos and the hermeneutic forms through which this creativity is understood.

"... the constellations of possibilities of all events, past, present and future"

a manifestation of Olodumare, "architect of continuous creation",Olodu-the owner of Odu, "the repository of possibility and circumstance from which each moment is born"

a matrix in terms of which all possibilities of the cosmos are actualized and which yet transcends these possibilities,a summation and transcendence dramatized in Aina Olomo,Divine Fire's description of awo as "the dimension of consciousness where the sum total of humanity's inspirations and experiences are alive, existing forever in the minutes of today, of yesterday and tomorrow...a realm of phenomena unavailable for total absorption by the human mind."

As human beings study the transformations made possible by this cosmic framework and motive force,they study aspects of Odu.

"The Odu are the names of spirits whose origin we do not know. We understand only a small fraction of their significance. They are the brains behind the efficacy of whatever we prepare[alluding to all activity of Ifa understood as technologies for activating and directing ase, the power that enables being and becoming,and which, sustaining the calabash of existence, enables all natural processes].

They are the spiritual names of all phenomena, whether abstract or concrete: plants, animals, human beings, the elements, and all kinds of situations. Abstractions such as love, hate, truth and falsehood; concrete forms such as rain, water, land, air and the stars; and situations such as celebrations, conflict and ceremonies, are represented in spiritual terms by the various Odu".

"Hitherto we have explained the phenomena of the heavens and our sea by the power of gravity, but have not yet assigned the cause of this power.This is certain,that it must proceed from a cause that penetrates to the very centres of the sun and planets,without suffering the least diminution of its force;that operates not according to the quantity of the surfaces of the particles upon which it acts(as mechanical causes do),but according to the quantity of the solid matter which they contain,and propagates its virtue on all sides to immense distances,decreasing always in the duplicate proportion of the distances.

Gravitation towards the sun is made up out of the gravitations towards the several particles of which the body of the sun is composed;and in receding from the sun decreases accurately in the duplicate proportion of the distances as far as the orb of Saturn,as evidently appears from the quiescence of the aphelions of the planets;nay,and even to the remotest aphelions of the comets,if those aphelions are also quiescent.

But hitherto I have not been able to discover the cause of those properties of gravitation from phaenomena,and I frame no hypotheses;for whatever is not deduced from phaenomena,is to be called an hypothesis;and hypotheses,whether metaphysical or physical,whether of occult qualities or mechanical,have no place in experimental philosophy.In this philosophy particular propositions are inferred from the phaenomena, and afterwards rendered general by induction.

Thus it was that the impenetrablity,the mobility,and the impulsive force of bodies,and the laws of motion and of gravitation,were discovered.And to us it is enouigh that gravity does really exist,and act according to the laws which we have explained,and abundantly serves to account for all the motions of the celestial bodies,and of our sun.

And now we might add something concerning a certain most subtle Spirit which pervades and lies hid in all gross bodies;by the force and action of which Spirit the particles of bodies mutually attract one another at near distances,and cohere,if contingous;and electric bodies operate to a greater distance,as well repelling as attracting the neighbouring corpuscles;and light is emitted,reflected,refracted,inflected,and heats bodies;and all sensation is excited,and the members of animal bodies move at the command of the will,namely,by the vibrations of this Spirit,mutually propagated along the solid filaments of the nerves from the outward organ of sense to the brain,and from the brain to the muscles.

But these are things that cannot be explained in few words,nor are we furnished with that sufficiency of experiments which is required to an accurate determination and demonstration of the laws by which this electric and elastic Spirit operates".

Image and verbal text credits

First image:

"Cosmic marbles" from http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-wallpapers/475.html

Second image:

"Watch on the Himalayas" by Nicholas Roerich from the Estonian Roerich Society at http://www.roerich.ee/index.php

Third image:

From "Simulating the Universe" at http://www.astronet.ru/db/xware/msg/1161926/cosmic_gc3_big.gif.html and Astrnomy Piocture of the Day (APOD) at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

Fourth image:

From "Time Travel" at at http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/News/Stories/Timetravel/ from The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign site

Fifth image:

From Astronomy Picture of the Day at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

Sixth image:

From Binah & the Crown Chakra at http://tr-tr.facebook.com/notes/chakra-chakra-chakra/binah-the-crown-chakra/278658867762

Seventh image:

"Afrum-Proto," 1966 (corner projection) Quartz halogen projection; installed at Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan. Collection Jeanne and Michael Klein. Text and image from PBS series Art in the Twenty-First Century at http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/turrell/card2.html

Eighth image:

Fom the Facebook page of Ayaba OshaBi Awodele Ifaseye-Olomo

Crone from Ye Olde Witches Brew magazine at http://yeoldewitchesbrewmagazine.presspublisher.us/issue-printer/samhain-2009

Ninth image:

From Botánica 7 Angeles at http://www.7-angeles.com/index.html

10th image:

Olodumare from egbeherdeirosdeifa.blogspot.com

From : "Hitherto" to "operates"

From Isaac Newton,The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,first published n 1687.Trans.by Andrew Motte.On the Shoulders of Giants:The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy.ed Stephen Hawking. Philadelphia:Running Press,2002.733-1160.1159-1160.

From "Seated" to "Moving" by Mark Dunn,Letters, at

[1] I thank Akinbiyi Akinlabi,Professor of Linguistics at Rutgers University, for the tone markings and precision of spelling in the Yoruba version of this expression.

[2] Wande Abimbola, An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus.

[3]The conception of forest as cosmos in classical Yoruba thought is expounded in Abiola Irele,The African Experience in Literature and Ideology. 179-181

[4] Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and their Work and The Training and Work of an Initiate.London:Thorsons,1995

[5] Awo Fa’lokun Fatumnbi, “Obatala:Ifa and the Chief of the Spirit of the White Cloth”.Scribd. http://www.scribd.com/doc/34173767/Obatala-Ifa-and-the-Chief-of-the-Spirit-of-the-White-Cloth. Accessed 05/10/2010.

[6] A particularly rich exploration of the concept of ori as it applies to human beings is Adegboyega Orangun, Destiny:The Unmanifested Being.Ibadan:African Odyssey Publisher,1998.

[7] Babatunde Lawal Ejiwapo: the dialectics of twoness in Yoruba art and cultureAfrican Arts, Spring, 2008 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0438/is_1_41/ai_n24327210/

[8] The understading of the concept of “oju inu” is beautifully explained by Babatunde Lawal in “Aworan: Representing the Self and its Metaphysical other in Yoruba Art”.The Art Bulletin September 01, 2001 http://www.jstor.org/stable/ Accessed: 05/10/2010.

[9] As described in Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and their Work and The Training and Work of an Initiate.London:Thorsons,1995.99.

[10] Carolyn Watson, Citizenship, Religion and Revolution in Cuba. PhD dissertation in History at The University of New Mexico.2009.229

[11] This powerfully evocative image is described in Judith Gleason,A Recitation of Ifa,Oracle of the Yoruba. New York: Grosman Publishers,1973.188-191 and Dennis Wiliams. Icon and Image A Study of Sacred and Secular Forms of African Classical Art. London: Allen Lane,1974.24.

A QUEST FOR THE ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES OF THE COSMOS: AN EXPLORATION USING IFA , AN AFRICANA KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM

2010-08-20T23:19:00.000-07:00

A fundamental need in human life is that of understanding the order of the cosmos.

The cosmos can be understood as orderly on account of the obvious systematic working of the terrestrial and celestial worlds. Human individual and social life also demonstrate a degree of order,as represented, among other phenomena, in the relationship between cause and effect. Effects can often be traced to causes that precede them.

An effort to understand the order of the cosmos will assist in providing psychological security that comes from grasping an aspect of the significance of one's existence.It could lead to the further development of knowledge that could make life more meaningful. This could emerge through the creation of methods to pursue goals relevant to improving the quality of existence. The better one understands nature the better one can live within it and take advantage of its resources.

The cosmos is vast and most of it is not within reach of human observation,even with the most powerful scientific instruments.In trying to understand what order it demonstrates,therefore,it is useful to begin with the study of basic phenomena which can be easily observed by anyone. One can then move from there to more sophisticated and complex observations,while continually re-examining the value of one's analyses and syntheses in the light of new knowledge.

One approach to understanding the cosmos is to see it as organized in terms of duality. Such dualities could be concrete or abstract or a combination of both.In fact,most phenomena can best be understood as a harmony of both the concrete and the abstract.As a starting point,however,one could begin with these basic dualities and examine the degree to which they diverge or converge-to what degree are they different,to what degree are they related?

Examples of dualities that are concrete in an immediate sense include relationships between day and night,male and female,alive and dead. Others include concepts demonstrating various levels of abstraction,such as good and evil,beauty and ugliness,peace and conflict,life and death.

How best may this understanding of the cosmos as organized in terms of duality be represented? A method that is both concise and evocative would be useful. Concise because it is brief,easily remembered and takes up little space in the medium in which it is represented.

Evocative because it should facilitate recollection of the vast range of possibilities summed up in the concept of duality.It should assist anyone,through a few visual cues, to recollect as much as possible of what they know of this idea.It could also serve as a guide to further exploration that could validate this idea or challenge it,particularly in terms of its validity in relation to the cosmos as a whole.

Ideally,it should be an abstract symbol in that it should not represent conventionally visible physical forms.This will assist in making it easier to manipulate as one tries to suggest increasing levels of meaning using the same symbol. Representational forms,such as those drawn from figures that form part of the conventionally visible physical world, are less readily manipulated in such a manner. Abstract forms are also easier to visualize.

Is it possible to discover a universe where duality does not exist? Is triplicity rather than duality not a more effective principle for organizing an understanding of the fundamental structure of the cosmos?

A central value of a philosophical postulate such as the conception of duality is that of providing a framework for explorations that reinforce,expand or disprove the validity of the concept.

It is possible to present this concept in terms of visual and verbal symbols.A graphic method of doing this is to represent one aspect or pole of the concept of duality by a short line or dot,thus:

This could stand for one pole of duality,suggesting various levels of concreteness and abstraction,such as night, female,peace,evil, life. One could then represent the opposite aspect of this duality in terms of another line or dot,thus:

This could stand for the opposite concept such as day,male, goodness,conflict, death.

Thus when we place both marks side by side we suggest the relationship between whatever aspect of the duality of existence we wish to represent in a particular context,thus:

I I

. .

Thus,this pair could suggest day and night,male and female,good and evil,peace and conflict, life and death This basic representation of the concept of duality is the first part of what is known in Ifa as the symbol Eji Ogbe.

I will expound later on the rest of the representation of Eji Ogbe. This is done through a further sequence of three paired lines or dots,making a total of four paired lines.I will also explore the significance of the entire sequence of four sets of paired lines or dots.The full sequence of paired lines or dots that make up Eji Ogbe is inscribed thus:The second set of lines is out of sequence because of difficulties with the Facebook software.

I I

or . .

. .

First image above

An opon Ifa,an Ifa divination tray and a central cosmological symbol of Ifa, and therefore of Yoruba thought and its associated Orisa spiritual system and its derivatives,with Eji Ogbe inscribed on it. Source yet to be identified.

IFA HERMENEUTICS AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

2009-10-14T01:45:00.000-07:00

C. Points of Convergence between the Hermeneutic Processes Involved in Ifa Divination and the Interpretation of Self and Individual History Constituted by Autobiography and the Self Portrait

a. Consciousness, Temporality and Textual Formations

The hermeneutic process constituted by Ifa divination demonstrates significant correlations with the interpretation of meaning manifest in the creation of autobiographies and self-portraits.

These points of convergence consist in the interpretation, in terms of textual forms, of the flow of experience in relation to the past and the future from a vantage point in the present. These textual forms constitute interpretive centres in relation to either specific situations, or in relation to the development of a broader span in the development of the subject’s life.

The deployment of textual forms as interpretive centres emerges from the fact that the process of Ifa divination consists in a procedure, in which, in response to the client’s query, the diviner casts his divinatory instruments and interprets for the client the significance of the configuration realised by the instruments. This significance is depicted in terms of poetic or prose narratives, and, at times, through lyric poetry, from one or more of the Odu, the organisational categories of the Ifa corpus, which are represented by the patterns formed by the configuration the divinatory instruments assume as they are cast. The literary expressions that emerge in response to the casting of the divinatory instruments are supposed to embody a response, in symbolic terms, to the client’s query. The symbolic character of this relationship has to be interpreted by both the diviner and the client. This interpretation of the significance of situations in terms of symbolic narratives and imagistic patterns demonstrates a similarity to Nabokov’s conception of autobiography as best understood as created and read as an effort to crystallize, in the form of images, convergences of meaning, in which the thematic significance that emerges from the contemplation of the flow of experience is crystallized in terms of points of illumination.

The narratives that emerge in response to the query of the client of Ifa as well as the narratives constructed by the autobiographer can both be understood as narratological devices, stories with a pattern, that are being interpreted by those to whom those patterns have an intimate value. In the case of the divinatory process the interpreting agents are the client and the diviner, in the creation of autobiography, the writer.

The divinatory process as well as the process of autobiographical creation consist in a process in which the significance of the aspects of the subject’s life which are being explored are examined in terms of their relationship to their roots in the subject’s past and the development of these into the future, as understood from the vantage point of the present. Wordsworth’s evocative image representing the perception of self through the refractive mirror of memory emblematizes this convergence between past, present and future in relation to the shifting perspectives of the self that experiences them. Wordsworth depicts the self that interprets its own history at a point in the present as a person who perceives their reflection in a river as they sit in a boat. The image perceived in the river is both like and unlike the exact features of the physical form from within which it is perceived on account of the refractive properties of the water within which this image is reflected. As the boat moves on, the challenge of discerning the specificity of resemblance between images, the reflection and the reflected, is problematised by the challenge of perceiving the specificities of the reflection while the individual is in motion. We may liken the water in which the reflection appears to the flow of memory, in which experience is necessarily refracted through the dynamic matrix of individual consciousness, and the reflection in the river to the self’s memory of itself and its history. The movement of the boat and the challenge of identifying specificities of resemblance between the reflection and the reflected relates to the consistently shifting points of vantage assumed by the mind at each point as it tries to interpret its experience as it moves forward in the flow of time16.

Gusdorf again sums up the implications of this tension between memory, time and the self:

Recapitulation of a life reveals only a ghostly image of that life, already far distant and doubtless incomplete, distorted furthermore by the fact that the [person]who remembers [their] past has not been for a long time the same being…who lived that past….narrative[therefore]confers a meaning on the event which, when it actually occurred, had several meanings, or perhaps none. This postulating of meaning dictates the choice of the facts to be retained and the details to bring out or dismiss….An autobiography cannot be a pure and simple record of existence, an account in a logbook…Every [person] is the first witness of [themselves ]yet the testimony that [they] thus produce constitutes no ultimate, conclusive authority…17

The relationship between the self and the creation of textual forms in exploring the significance of the flow of experience in relation to the past and the future from a vantage point in the present, emerges in Ifa from the role, in the divinatory process, of the ontological category of the human self, represented by the cardinal term of traditional Yoruba thought known as Ori18. The oracle’s response to the client’s query is understood to emerge through a dialogue between the geomantic patterns that are configured by the divinatory instruments when they are cast by the diviner and the client’s Ori. The Ori is understood as the subconscious identity of the individual, which predates their birth, will outlive their physical incarnation at death and embodies the totality of a person’s possibilities. It can therefore be described as the existential drive that animates each individual’s existence. The term Ori literally means the “head”, but, through what could be understood as a metonymic process, it symbolises, through the cognitive nucleus of the human form in the head, the supra-physical cognitive centre that guides the individual’s existence.

This recognition of the range of the client’s possibilities is what makes the dialogue with the Ori fundamental since only through the Ori can a understanding be gained into the significance of the client’s query as one expression of the structure of possibilities represented by the client’s life. Ifa, therefore, could be understood as a means through which the client becomes aware of the response of their own deeper self, the Ori, to the issues that emerge in their life..

The client’s Ori is described as determining the Odu patterns assumed by the divinatory instruments when they are cast during a divinatory session, and therefore, as influencing which texts emerge in relation to the issue in question in the client’s life,since the Odu act as symbols for texts that constitute the oracle’s response to the client’s query.

The significance of these patterns is interpreted in relation to the texts the patterns symbolize. The patterns operate, therefore, as mnemonic devices for the recollection of a vast corpus of texts associated with each of them. The distinctive construction of this hermeneutic process emerges in the interpretation within the system of this process not simply as a hermeneutic activity performed by the priest upon the geomantic patterns and their associated texts, but as a dialogue between conscious entities in which the priest’s interpretation of the significance of the geomantic patterns represents the last stage in a process of communication which operates at several levels, and of which the interpretation of the geomantic patterns is the last and visible level of interaction between forms, the other levels being invisible. The divinatory process is interpreted in terms of consciousness at all levels, of dialogue between the various forms at play. It is a process in which the instruments of knowledge, the Odu, are also understand as cognitive agents, capable of cognition. In Ifa divination, therefore, the cognitive subject, the human being, is described as engaged in a literal dialogue with the Odu, forms which constitute both instruments of knowledge as well as cognitive agents. The concept of dialogue with texts, in terms of the various levels of possibility of the text,a process described metaphorically in the cognitive traditions in which cognitive instruments are not understood as agentive, unlike the Odu, here changes into a more complex interrelationship between conception of the sentient, agentive character of the Odu and the necessary effort of interpreting their symbolic expressed as in textual terms.

Within the relationship thereby constituted in Ifa between the ontological characterisation of the human being and the geomantic patterns, the patterns are understood to exist at various, interrelated levels of being. At one level they represent patterns assumed by the divinatory instruments when they are cast by the diviner. At that level, they are random responses to physical action. At another level, they represent a means of organising the texts through which the system is expressed since each of these patterns,256 in all, represents a vast series of texts, one or a sequence of which will have relevance to the query posed by the client on whose behalf the divinatory instruments have been cast to form that pattern. At that level, they could be understood to function like book chapters in a text.

At another level, they act as a nexus through which the various Orisa or deities are integrated within the textual universe represented by the corpus, thereby enabling the Orisa to communicate with the believer through the Odu.

At another level they are also understood to be conscious entities in their own right, each of whom embodies its own Ori or centre of ultimate direction and potentiality as the human being does. As conscious entities, the descriptions of their mode of operation suggests that the emergence of particular patterns in response to the client’s query emerges not at random as might seem to the observer of the visible and last level of communication represented by the divinatory process, but through a dialogue between these geomantic forms and the Ori of the client. The pattern that emerges as the instruments are thrown is therefore an expression of the outcome of this dialogue.

The understanding of the Odu,as these patterns are called, as conscious forms becomes even more significant in the understanding of the Odu not simply, at one level, as geomantic patterns,or at another level, as organising categories of the textual corpus of the system, or even as sentient forms, at yet another level, but as a means of developing and organising a systemic construction of the scope of existence, in terms of its extant forms and its possibilities of realisation, as these are realized at various levels, from the most abstract to the most concrete. As the Bini Ifa priest, Joseph Ohomina describes the Odu:

The Odu are the names of spirits whose origin we do not know. We understand only a small fraction of their significance. They are the brains behind the efficacy of whatever we prepare. They are the spiritual names of all phenomena, whether abstract or concrete: plants, animals, human beings, the element, and all kinds of situations. Abstractions such as love, hate, truth and falsehood; concrete forms such as rain, water, land, air and the stars; and situations such as celebrations, conflict and ceremonies, are represented in spiritual terms by the various Odu

This conception implies that the Odu represent a means of mapping the cosmos in terms of semiotic categories. The notion of the Odu as spiritual names could relate to the idea of names not as arbitrary verbal symbols as conventionally understood in Western linguistics but within a continuum that stretches from the endogenous Nigerian approach to naming human beings in ways that reflect values, ideas and events associated with the person, to the idea of names as evocative of the ontological identity of the phenomenon so named[1].

The concept of the Odu, in embodying geomantic and textual characteristics, could be seen as cognizable within the province of the symbolic signs represented by language, as conventionally understood. The complete range of its characterisation, however, goes beyond the ontological categories normally assigned to linguistic entities in the Western tradition but bears greater affinity with conceptions of sacred language in Indian philosophy, in which the sacred syllable om is understood both as a graphic symbol, representing a referent, as in Western linguistics, but also as the creative word through which the universe has been created and is sustained. The syllable thereby embodies both linguistic and metaphysical categories of being19.

The Odu, then are centres of meaning, through which the ontological identity of the phenomena that constitute the physical universe and the activities of the human universe are realized. The divinatory process, therefore, could be understood as a process through which this base of ontological values is galvanised in relation to particular situations which would necessarily be interpreted in relation to their corresponding ontological identification in the various Odu.

This integration between a cosmological framework and the concrete particulars of human experince emerges in the the conjunction between the Opon Ifa,the divination tray,and the ikin,the sacred plam nuts used in divining.This conjunction facilitates an appreciation of Ifa hermeneutics as a framework for exploring the univrse constituted by the individual life,in relation tpo its spatio-temporal coordinates as these develop across time.

The Opon Ifa is one of the central iconographic forms of Ifa beceause its use and design constitute both a practical and symbolic template or the divinatory process.The central purpose of the tray is that of a consecrated space at the center of which the diviner casts the divinatory instruments.The images carved on the tray could also suggest aspects of the world view that underlies the divinatory system.

The Opon Ifa symbolises the cosmos,and in terms of its potentail division in terms of two lines,one horizontal,one vertical,that intersect at the centre,it sugests the complementarity of distinctive but interrelated aspects of being as defined by the mneaphysical subtrates/foundations of being and their dramatisation in terms of the specifities of existence.The divinatory process consists in the inisight into the relationships between these metaphysical foundations and their dramatisation in terms of the speficities of human experience.

Along similar lines,the autobiographer might not explore the progression of their lives,or its radiation bawards and forwards from the present in terms of a metaphysical frame or configurations/s as Augustine famously does in his Confessions,but the metaphysical nucleaus of being remains prominent,even in the background of a work,particularly an autobiographical work, in which it is not axplicty acknowledged.These metaphysical foundations are framed by the primary experinces of birth and death and the mysteries they resent of questions of the existence of the self before birth and after death.Framed ny thses primal contexts,other metaphysical questions/contexts shape the structure of human existence,syuch as questions about the nature of the self,its levels or aspects and their interrrelationship and the relationship between persisrtence/continuity and
trascience in the development of that self.

The autobiographer might not draw upon insight into the enabled by privileged access to relationships between materil and spiritual universes as the Ifa priest is ubnderstood as doing but they necessarily engage with particular semantic matrices which faclitate the interpretation of the course of their lives in terms of patterns of meaning,of ideational,moral or other forms of continuity within the flux of time,as Ifa divination relies on the semiotic marrices ereseted by the Odu to generate insight into the conmplexities of human experience.

One of these semantic values is the relationsahip between free will and chance,between order and predictablity and disorder,unpredictablity and paradox,tensions that are not only central to Ifa and reseted by one invaribale feature of the Opon Ifa,the location of the face of Esu at the top of the tray,breaking the smooth

Each Opon Ifa demonstrates both the invariable or constant as well as the variable features in the composition and carving of the Ifa tray. One unvarying feature is the face at the top of the tray facing outwards from the surface. Another is the empty space at the centre of the tray. The last is the border that encloses the empty centre. The variable aspect of the form is the circular shape of the entire structure. The Opon Ifa could be either circular or square or both,as in a square circumference enclosing circular centre.

Each of the invariable elements in the composition of the Ifa tray represents an aspect of the metaphysical structure that underlies the divinatory process. Taken together, they encapsulate the interrelationship of these metaphysical conceptions in constituting the hermeneutic process through which Ifa divination is actualised. Even when the Ifa priest does not use the tray in divining, these metaphysical elements are understood to remain constitutive of the divinatory process.

In a similar sense,the autobiographer's conception of the the charcter of their self,as it exists in the present,having emerged through a development from the past,and as it could devlop in future,is the locus around which the textual formation rpresented by an autoobiography is constructed.In relation to this centring of autobiographical writing, and, necessarily, of its interpretation, in a conception of the development of the self which is the subject of the work, emerges the artist’s efforts to mediate between an exploration of the character of the self as a composition that emerges from the factors that have influenced it and as causative of those factors that constitute the character of the individual’s life. This tension between the self as caused and as causative represents a dialectical tension between independence of the self and its grounding within a complex of influencing factors that is central to the Ifa conception of the self in relation to the cosmos.

This correlation of a theory of the self with the act of interpretation makes it particularly apt in the development of the hermeneutic task that is the purpose of this essay. Furthermore, the theory’s correlation of the conception of the self, not simply with the interpretation of texts, but with the interpretation of texts relating to the symbolic significance of the subject’s life, constitutes this theory as a particularly valid framework for the interpretation of autobiographical discourses on which this essay is centred.

16 Wordsdworth develops this image in Prelude: 1799, 1805, 1850 (New York: W. W. Norton 1978)but I am indebted to M.H Abrams, Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature (New York:Norton,1973)for its analysis in relation to autobiography.

17 Georges, Gusdorf, Lignes de vie (Paris:Editions O.Jacob,1991).

18 Bolaji Idowu, Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief (London : Longman, 1962) and Wande Abimbola, An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus (Ibadan:OxfordUP,1976) represent very lucid expositions of this concept but Adegboyega Orangun, Destiny:The Unmanifested Being (Ibadan: African Odyssey Publishers,1988) explores its complexities in detail.

[1] Achebe on names in chi in igbo cosmology (see hampate ba on “The Living Tradition”).

19 George,Feuerstein, The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice (New York: Hohm Press, 2001).

IFA HERMENEUTICS

2009-10-14T01:37:00.001-07:00

C. Points of Convergence between the Hermeneutic Processes Involved in Ifa Divination and the Interpretation of Self and Individual History Constituted by Autobiography and the Self Portrait

a. Consciousness, Temporality and Textual Formations

The hermeneutic process constituted by Ifa divination demonstrates significant correlations with the interpretation of meaning manifest in the creation of autobiographies and self-portraits.

Gusdorf again sums up the implications of this tension between memory, time and the self:

In a similar sense, the autobiographer’s conception of the character of their self, as it exists in the present, having emerged through a development from the past, and as it could develop in future, is the locus around which the textual formulation represented by an autobiography is constructed. In relation to this centring of autobiographical writing, and, necessarily, of its interpretation, in a conception of the development of the self which is the subject of the work, emerges the artist’s efforts to mediate between an exploration of the character of the self as a composition that emerges from the factors that have influenced it and as causative of those factors that constitute the character of the individual’s life. This tension between the self as caused and as causative represents a dialectical tension between independence of the self and its grounding within a complex of influencing factors that is central to the Ifa conception of the self in relation to the cosmos.

http://www.nct.anth.org.uk/images/Pascal.gif

17 Georges, Gusdorf, Lignes de vie (Paris:Editions O.Jacob,1991).

[1] Achebe on names in chi in igbo cosmology (see hampate ba on “The Living Tradition”).

19 George,Feuerstein, The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice (New York: Hohm Press, 2001).

2007-07-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

2007-06-14T02:59:00.000-07:00

I am beginning to think of my life as demonstrating the structure of a matrix.

What aspect of your life?Biological,mental,social,life force

the possible links between the mental and the social.And, of course,both are not possible without the biological supports that make embodied life and thought possible.In fact,i am finding both human and animal biological metaphors useful in describing this developing idea of mine.

Explain.

My experiences consistently indicate a strange coincidences in which my thoughts coincide with unanticipated experiences and opportunities that reinforce those thoughts and ideas.It begins to seem as if my mind is working in synchrony with pother peoples minds and actions that

AN APPROACH TO THE GROUND OF BEING

2007-04-27T23:40:00.000-07:00

I am adapting in my research a Rosicrucian (AMORC)conception of a possible cognitive encounter with the Absolute or the ground of being,where

The Absolute is understood as both an end in itself and as a point of reference for a constellation of ideas/
and as a point of reference for the correlation of a contellation of ideas.

I see this conception of an ultimate cognitive goal as exemplified by

1.Harvey Spencer Lewis,a modern Rosicrucian philosopher, on the cosmic: "The cosmic mind does not contain the particulars of human knowledge and experience but is an exalted level of evaluation"
from a 1980s edition of The Rosicrucian Manual.

2. The summatuion of Dante's Paradiso-see in particular the comentary on the concluding canto by Singer.

3. Kunene's description of the climatic congnitive realisation in classical Zulu thought:

2007-04-27T22:54:00.000-07:00

Ori,and its relationship with Orisanla evoked through an Ife head.

2007-04-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

2007-04-03T02:01:00.000-07:00

Joseph Beuys creation of a biographical identity through his interpretation of his history is here suggested through the seemingly randomly but deliberately scattered logs that form/constitute his installation. This artistic evocation oif the imaginative creation of a pattern of meaning out of the disparate. apparently undirectly connected forms of experience is juxtaposed with the random arrangement of the divinatory instruments of ifa-the ikin or divining nits-to evoke the character of Ifa divination as a similar means of interpreting the larger significance of biographical incidents and the patterns of biographical progression with the aid of imagistic forms evoked primarily through language and secondarily through sculpture, as Beuys has done through his installation.

The paradoxes of experience when viewed in the light of memory, where unanticipated convergences emerge, and apparently trivial facts are understood to suggest a pivotal significance, is evoked by he image of the eyes and face of Eshu presiding over the divination process. This transformative understanding of experience if reinforced by the images of the spirals which border the tray, described by Lawal in relation to the associated iconography of ogboni art,as evocative of transformation. the spirals could be understood to suggest not only the transformations that emerge in human experience through/in the passage of time but the transformations that emerge in/through the contemplation of this experience, a contemplative process that abstracts the experience from the realm of the purely concrete and removes them to the level of abstraction where they can be examined in suspension from the temporal and spatial matrix in which/through which they emerged.

This Opon Ifa, therefore, could be understood to embody/realise an understanding of the hermeneutic process that emerges in ifa divination as well as its relationship to the human activity of reflection upon experience.

Odu Meditation

2006-11-23T15:21:00.000-08:00

This powerful image from the work of the great undersea photographer David Doubilet shows a diver sorrounded by a swirling school of fish.

The composition of the shot,placing the human being at the centre of the circle formed by the nonhuman creatures suggests a number of ideas,all of them relevant to questions foregrounded by Ifa in relation to the quest to undertand the place of the human in the universe.

One perspective that emerges is the notion of the human as the centre of all things as the human figure in the image is at the centre of the circle formed by the fish.

But how do the fish perceive the human creature?What would it be like to see the world, in general, and humans, in particular, from the perspecvtive of a fish?

Possibly an impossible question to anwer but one that has been suggested by Doubilet's efforts to immerse himself in the marine world,making himself unubstrusive so that the beauty and power of that world can radiate through his art.

A similar effort is realised by the great widlife photographer Frans Lanting,as in his book Eye to Eye ,where he does soulful potraits of animals where the viewer looks deep into their eyes.

But then,these men are artists,and art implies craft,deliberate effort,a form of artifice.So that no matter how reverential they are towards the creatures they photogragh,we don't see the creatures through any eyes other than those of the photographers.Those photograhs where nature seems to reveal itself in unselfconscious splendour represent the results of hours of effort and the culmination of a lifetime of expertise developed by the self chosen human ambassadors of the animal world.

It is this paradox of the relationship betwteen the human and the nonhuman,in thise case, the animal world,that is foregrounded by Ifa.

What can a perspective developed through Ifa relate to Heidegger's effort to arrive at the meaning of being in general through the vantage point of human being?

It would seem to be a reworking of the same notion that once emerged in Western thought and which perhaps dominaates it even now.The notion of the human as the point of evaluation of everything else.

In what way do you think you have arrived at a different perspective with the aid of Ifa?

While I reflect on that,we could look at this perspective from Foucault that seems to attack the notion of the human self as the necessary centre,whether directly or directly,of discourse:

One thing is in any case is certain:man is neither the oldest nor the most constant problem that has been posed for human knowledge.Taking a relatoively short chronological sample within a restricted geographical area-European culture since the sixteenth century-one can be certain that man is a recent invention within it.In fact,among all the mutations that have affected the knowledge of things and their order...only one,that which began a century and a half ago and is now perhaps drawing to a close,has made it possible for the figure of man to appear.

...it was the effect of a change in the fundamental arrangements of knowledge.As the archeology of our thought easily shows,man is an invention of recent date.And one perhaps nearing its end.

If those arrangements were to dissapear as they appeared,if some event which we can at the moment sense no ore than its possibilty-without knowing either what its form will be or what it promises-were to cause them to crumble,as the ground of Classical thought did,at the end of the eighteenth century,then one can certainly wager that man would be erased,like a face drawn in sand at the edge of the sea.

Interesting.It would be interesting to examine his grounds for these claims.But would you not think that the following reflections from Heidegger's Being and Time are more representative of actual human experience,particularly in the construction of knowledge and of the discursive forms in relation to which this construction takes place :

Click on title above or on Doubilet image for video meditation relating to this subject using the words of Nigerian Bini Ifa teacher Joseph Ohomina.

2006-08-31T16:10:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to know the future?
Does knowledge of the future imply the ability to affect it?
Can knowledge of the future be understood as memory rather than precognition? But memory of what, we may ask?
If an occurrence has not taken place, how can it be the object of memory?
This paper explores questions about relationships between the present, the past and the future through the stimulus of three sites of precognition in relation to trauma. These are two examples of prophetic dreams reported by a couple of Eastern European Jews before they were caught up in the events the dreams foreshadowed-the deportation to Nazi labour camps and the eventual efforts at the extermination of their race, as depicted in Yaffa Eliach's collection of Holocaust short stories, Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust. The second comes from an account by the Nigerian human rights campaigner Ken Saro Wiwa in which he prophesies his own death at the hands of the oppressive forces he was in conflict with.

These accounts are explored through the matrix of what the Austrian-Nigerian philosopher and artist Susanne Wenger describes as the act of remembering forward,which we interpret as a form of anticipatory memory in which the future is anticipated through matrices of possibility that underlie the stream of time and so represent possibilities that may manifest at different points in the time steam and can therefore be perceived as future possibilities. This perspective is related to Elisabeths Haisch's conception in her autobiographical novel Initiation in which the events represented by these matrices of possibility represent possibilities of consciousness. These possibilities are actualized through the focus of the individual on a particular locus of reality to the exclusion of others. This focus makes possible the actualisation of a sequence of possibilities.

We also examine the development and implications of of a similar conception in Depark Chopra's transformation of Arthurian legend by projecting Arthur's final battle with Mordred as a conflict that permeates the stream of time ranging across and collapsing the present, the future and the past in a matrix that can only be unravelled through a focus of consciousness within and above the permutations of time.

Finally, we integrate these points of enquiry in terms of what we describe as the cosmoprobabilistic mapping of the Ifa divinatory system that originates among the Yoruba of Southern Nigeria. Possibilities of experience, as understood in terms of probable situations and possible responses to them, are delineated in relation to a correlation between cosmographic forms and the total range of terrestrial and celestial phenomena, whether concrete, abstract or situational. Again, a conception is developed here of the interpretive potential realised through a privileged focus of consciousness. Only through the discipline by which this is achieved can a path be found through this matrix.

We conclude by summarizing our exploration and restating the questions we hope to throw light on. We do this in the context of the _expression from the Ifa corpus about Eshu,the embodiment of paradox, whom, it is said, throws a stone today, and hits bird yesterday. Is this merely meaningless on account of a contradiction of known laws of temporality and causality, or does it suggest a possibility of being in which time is not linear but manifold, capable of realisation at various levels, so that what may be memory can become precognition and what may be precognition may be grasped as memory?

the eternal now
PRESENT
FUTURE
PAST

The spiral or concentric circles motif appears prominently on many edan. Informants offered two different but related interpretations for it. According to some, it represents the spin (ranyinranyin) of the cone-shaped bottom of the small snail shell (okoto), a children's toy associated with increase, dynamic motion ,and, by extension, with the transformatory power of Esu, the divine messenger who mediates between the orisa[the divinities] and Ile[the Earth understood as a
divinity][1]

“Formation, transformation,Eternal Mind's eternal re-creation.1

The spiral or concentric circles motif appears prominently on many edan. Informants offered two different but related interpretations for it. According to some, it represents the spin (ranyinranyin) of the cone-shaped bottom of the small snail shell (okoto), a children's toy associated with increase, dynamic motion ,and, by extension, with the transformatory power of Esu, the divine messenger who mediates between the orisa[the divinities] and Ile[the Earth understood as a
divinity][2]

the eternal now

ori
odu
One of the most powerful creatures in the universe……

Embodies/embodying multidimensional doorways….

The bipedal creature who populates the earth/planet/planet earth

Consciousness and Time

What relationships exist or may be inferred between time and consciousness? This question is provoked by my reading of Eilsabeth Haisch’s Initiation where she dramatizes a notion of consciousness as the central source of human experience, presenting it as embodying possibilities which are actualized in the individuals interaction with the possibilities afforded by the spatiotemporal matrix of their lives.
Haisch’s autobiographical work is fantastic in its depiction of reality, even though it develops very effectively the humanity and the verisimilitude of its characters and narrative and setting..
Despite the divergence between the reality of the narrative and reality as conventionally understood have chosen to explore the ideas this work express in relation to the relationships between consciousness and time not because I think the ideas reflect human reality, or do not reflect this reality, since they deal with metaphysical issues which there is no consensus and on which there will never be consensus as long as human consciousness is as limited as it is, not because I found the work inspiring even though with time I have been able to retain the inspiration it has given me while acknowledging that i do not have to accept the reality of an ideas for it to inspire me, but because i an convinced that ideas which are far from our understanding of reality could motivate us in our quest for meaning, for understanding of the mysteries that constitute the metaphysical structure of the universe, in as much a such a structure exists./

[1] Babatunde Lawal, “Ayagbo Aya To:New Perspectives on Edan Ogboni”, African Arts, Jan1995, Vol. 28, No.1.p.

[2] Babatunde Lawal, “Ayagbo Aya To:New Perspectives on Edan Ogboni”, African Arts, Jan1995, Vol. 28, No.1.p.

2006-08-30T23:15:00.000-07:00

2006-08-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

2006-08-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

2006-08-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

2006-08-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

2006-08-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

I am particularly interested in the last one you mentioned. The technique of cognitive mysticism you are developing

I am thinking of adapting ideas fro St. Thomas Aquinas,Maurice Bucke AND my Ifa teacher Joseph Ohomina.

That would seem to be quite diverse crew.

Yes. Bit I am convinced that their ideas would enrich each other in the way I want to use them.

Have you worked out any central themes to your use of these three?

"I am working towards the possibility of correlating the notion of relationships between abstract and concewrtete forms that emerges in all three of them. Aquinas speaks categorically of abstractions as developed from a consideration of concdetetev forms as movement that leads at its summit to transcendent grasp of the underlying metaphysical structure of the cosmos. Maurice Bucke writes about the mind’s development of concepts reaching up to climax when this development eventuates into a grasp of the unity of the cosmos.
Ohomina speaks about the description of all forms in existence in terms of names, names being a form of abstract description. He goes further to speak of these names as spiritual names, linking his conception with ideas of images as representative of the ontological identity or essence of phenomenon/phenomena. Even if one can not arrive at that ontological essence think the range of gods ideas on Ifa in relation to the dynamic structure of the system facilitate the adaptation of the system to the ideas of the other thinkers, an adaptation that facilitates use as mystical framework".

Top:Image of Esu juxtaposed with a calabash representing a traditional Yoruba conception of the cosmos, where the two halves of the calabash evokes the complementary aspects of existence. The top half stands for the world of spirit while the bottom half symbolises the material world. It would seem, however, that this image is a rather simplistic expression of the complexity that emerges from traditional Yoruba accounts of the cosmos. It does not represent accurately the conception of the co-extensiveness of both realms, a concept which is more in harmony with the understanding that emerges from most Yoruba conceptions of relationships between both realms than the notion of relatedness within distinctiveness suggested by the image of two halves of the calabash clearly separated but touching at the centre. This latter image suggests the coexistence of both realms but not their co-extensiveness. Traditional Yoruba thought, on the contrary, could be understood as not representing both realms as distinct, even though related, as this image suggests.

Soyinka’s Morbius Strip image, a mathematical form he deployed in his Idanre, might be more appropriate. It is an image in which all parts of the form are coextensive, one leading to the other in a seamless flow but with two parts but distinctive and capable of being interchanged. When interpreted in terms of the material and spiritual realms in traditional Yoruba thought, it could suggests instead that both realms they are coextensive and that there are no defined borders between them.

"Yoruba sculptures of Esu almost always include a calabash that he holds in his hands. In this calabash he keeps ase,the very ase,with which Olodumare,the supreme deity of the Yoruba,created the universe. I translate as logos, as the word as understanding, the word as the audible,and later the visible, sign of reason.Ase is more weighty, forceful and action-packed than the ordinary word. It is the word with irrevocability, reinforced with double assuredness and undaunted authenticity" "Esu’s mastery of ase gives him an immense amount of power; ase makes Esu "who says so and does so" as inscribed in acnonical Orki Esu.
Ase is an elusive concept, and thus its translations vary. part one of the canonical Odu, "The Story of Osetua", informs us that ase is power:
Ase spared and expanded on earth:
Semen became child,
Men on sick bed got up,
All the world became pleasant,
It became powerful.
But power somehow lacks the force to convey the multiple significations of Ase. The calabash that Esu carries (Ado-iran),presented to him by Olorun, contains the power which propagates itself. In this calabash Esu carries ase. It is this ase, controlled and resented by Esu, which mobilizes each and every element in the system, as Juana and Deoscoredes dos Santos conclude. Ase,in other words, is the force of coherence of process itself, that which makes a system a system. My translation of ase as logos is, I think, the closet analogue through which ase can be rendered in English, and in English we have merely borrowed the word from the Greek. As one babalwo put it,ase is "the light that crosses through the tray of the earth, the firmament from one side to the other, forward and backward.” It was this ase that Olodumare used to create the universe. When the babalwao say that Orunmila acts with the ase of Esu,it is the logos that is implied." Henry Louis Gates Jr.The Signifying Monkey (Oxford:Oxford UP,1988).7-8

"Existence, according to Yoruba thought, is depedent upon [ase];it is the power to make things happen and change".
"Ase is given by Olodumare to everything-gods,ancestors,spirits,humans,animals,plants,rocks,rivers,and voiced words such as songs,prayers,praises,curses or even everyday conversation".
Drewal,Pemberton,Abiodun,ed.Wardwell,Yoruba:Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought(New York:Centre for African Art,1989)16.

2006-08-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

I find this sense of immense possibilities of being and of understating most inspiring. I wonder how best I could pursue such knowledge myself That would depend one ones personal disposition. It would seem that for you, the ideal would be to adapt the ideas and practises you like to the achievement of the goal.

How?

I for one, have found the combination of particular forms of yoga and mysticism quite inspiring, But I use them in my own way, developing my own unique combinations of ideas and technique. Could you describe them? I am working on using a strategy that adapts a number of techniques of contemplation and of thought.

Which?

Contemplation without seed, without any premeditated ideas. I simply go silent, maintaining outer and inner silence as much as possible and look within me. I also practice submission of self to the Ultimate. I practice contemplation of beautiful forms in nature, particularly tees. That last method combines nature mysticism with animism. I am also working on a form of cognitive mysticism where I integrate my grasp of various aspects of existence into a unit that tries to approximate and perhaps eventually enters into an unmediated grasp of the unity of being, as it is in itself as different from a mental structure of mind, or even as intertwining with that cognitive structure.

Top: "The fact that Esu is represented with a prominent phallus happens not so much because of his physical procreative prowess as that his phallus provides the metaphysical and-with Ifa meta-intellectual -thrust into trans-nuclear dimensions. This thrust is the first and actual breakthrough that precedes all physical-and with orisa metaphysical-procreation".

From Susanne Wenger and Gert Chesis's A Life with the Gods.p.80 Gates in Signifying Monkey develops the same idea in terms of hermeneutics- philosophical interpretation of cultural forms, particularly texts- "Esu is the guardian of the crossroads, master of style and of stylus, the phallic god of generation and fecundity, master of that elusive, mystical barrier that separates the divine world from the profane. Frequently characterised as an inveterate copulator possessed by his enormous penis, linguistically Esu is the ultimate copula, connecting truth with understanding, the sacred with the profane, text with interpretation [as the opener of the road to Ifa, as guide to the interpretation of Ifa] the word(as a form of the verb to be) that links a subject with its predicate. He connects the grammar of divination with its rhetorical structures.

In Yoruba mythology, Esu is said to limp as he walks precisely because of his mediating function; his legs are of different lengths because he keeps one anchored in the world of the gods while the other rests in this, our human world”.p.6. “As Pelton concludes, he is the copula of every sentence and the thus the embodiment of every limen”.p.26. “Legba’s[Esus incarnation among the Fon of Dahomey as described by Herskovits ]sexuality is a sign of liminality, but also of the penetration of thresholds, the exchange between discursive universes As Pelton summarises: He is a living copula, and his phallus symbolises his being the limen marking the real distinction between outside and inside, and the wild and ordered even as it ensures safe passage between them”.p.27.

This depiction of phallic activity in terms of linking different metaphysical realms also emerges in depictions of the Hindu god Siva,who as Soyinka describes him "drove his passionate course through earth, uniting all the elements with his powerful erection".p3 of Myth, Literature and the African World(Cambridge,1990).A description of Siva developed in O’Flaherty’s Study of Siva mythology in Siva: The Erotic Ascetic in which the god is characterised by both his erect phallus and his character as a yogi, a practitioner of disciplines of transcendental insight that involve asceticism. Ironically, Gates describes Esu as also depicted as both male and female,(p.29-31)thereby embodying in himself/herself, both the point of entry, the place of penetration, and the means or instrument of penetration.

Esu, therefore, is interpreted as embodying the cognitive zone to be grasped and the means to grasp it. Perhaps this depiction could be described as suggesting he embodies the realms he mediates between and the means to mediate between them. His bisexuality provides parallels with the paired male and female figures of the Yoruba Edan Ogboni, which demonstrate a social and metaphysical significance emerging from the balance of genders as described by Babatunde Lawal in “Aya Gbo Aya To:New Perspectives in Edan Ogboni."

2006-08-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

He argued, then, that such transcendental understating must be filtered through the limitations of the individual mind?Yes. In that he was operating along the spirit of St. Augustine and Isaac Newton after him. St. Augustine described the effort to grasp the being of God with the human mind as similar to trying to empty the ocean into a child’s hole on the beach while Newton described himself as like child playing on the sea shore, amusing himself with a beautiful pebble or two which he found while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before him.

Einstein also made similar comments, describing a state of being that the most exalted human understanding as grasping the the ultimate mind only in its most most crude forms.It would seem that Kant, in his own way as well as the others we mentioned have sensed the existence of possibilities of being and understanding that they were not able to reach, in spite of the fact that they are among the most pre-eminent of thinkers in human in history. Inspiring.To contemplate such immensities.

2006-08-29T06:57:00.000-07:00

"That’s true. Even though the task is multifaceted, it has to proceed from a multifaceted perspective or else significant gaps could remain that could make all the difference in the kinds of conclusions or even postulates one is able to make.""Very right. Various thinkers rightly argue that an understanding of the character of the human mind is vital to the kinds of questions one is able to ask as well as to the methods through which one seeks answers and the answers one arrives at. Kant argued that to make enquiries about fundamental questions of value, we need to understand how the mind arrives at knowledge as well as the limitations to its range of knowledge. If one does not grasp the possibilities inherent in ones instrument for enquiry, how can one use that instrument adequately?

Aleister Crowley emphasised the need to develop clear conception of the structure of the cosmos before understanding the contemplative practices that are supposed to lead to transcendental grasp of the structure of the universe. He emphasised the rigorous development of the mental faculties in metaphysical terms before embarking on practices that would lead to the transcendence of the intellectual. He argues that failure to do that would lead to distorted grasp of whatever transcendental understanding arrives at the mind.

Top:Fathi Hassan's foot images and the female figure from Unablogger of Jan.10 2006.

The juxtaposition of these images evokes ideas about the body as a site of interpretation.The first image is the picture of a foot alongside its counterpart which is depicted in terms of Arabic calligraphy. Writing, as represented here by calligraphy, is evocative of act of expression and the interpretive possibilities it evokes. In depicting the left foot in terms of a calligraphic composition, a hermeneutic relationship is created between the pictorial image of the right foot and the calligraphic composition of the left foot which suggests relationships between body and thought, the body and its interpretation as well as between the act of locomotion represented by the foot and its absent partner and the symbolic possibilities of motion, whether physical,mechanical or even electronic.

The second image is of a woman,lying on a bed in a furnished room, dressed only in high heeled shoes.Her provocative pose, her skin highlighted by the sheets and the bed on which she lies, while emphasising the erotic, contains the erotic suggestiveness of the scene through the character of the pose, the angle of the shot and the use of subdued colour as well as the foregrounding of her shoes, lifting the image from the level of pornography to that of art.

The juxtaposition of this image with that of the calligraphic form of the left foot in tandem with a pictorial image of the right foot, suggests ideas of how the body is perceived through its modes of interpretation, whether this interpretation is linguistic, as in the use of calligraphy and its suggestion of other forms of writing, or in the composition, posing and framing of a photograph such as this one of the naked woman,which on account of its total aesthetic organisation of subject, setting and photographic finish, succeeds in being erotic without being pornographic.

2006-08-29T06:54:00.000-07:00

May we not argue that the style of presenting the question you are presenting implies distinction between our conscious selves and the structure of our existence? May we not argue that such distinctions are artificial? Are values identical with material forms, as you suggest when comparing the sun to the notion of ultimate value? Or may we speak of values as participating in material forms in the sense that one could develop a conception of the ultimate value of human life in terms of a study of the significance or forms/kinds or range of significance that emerge from human interaction with other forms of life on earth? Rather than focusing on human consciousness as operating in terms of autonomous activity where it can cognise its own significance within a frame of existence that includes other beings and yet not need to include a consideration of them in its examination of the ultimate significance of its own being?

How one pursues such questions would depend on one’s conception of the character of the answer. Those who hold that the answer is independent of human consciousness would use methods of transcending consciousness in order to arrive at an answer. Those who argue that the question is inherent in the structure of existence would need to both employ methods of examining that structure. Those methods could involve trying to penetrate to the underlying meanings inherent in the structure through disciplines that transcend the conventional forms of understanding so as to reach to deeper levels or try to develop the conventional forms of understanding so as to go beyond them. While those who hold that the question is self generated could also employ similar strategies of understanding but for different reasons. Techniques of transcending conventional understanding could be developed in the understanding that the answers being arrived at are creations of the mind’s ability to manage information and create new possibilities of perception while others could claim that such techniques represent a reaching out to levels of being that transcend the mind.

Your correlation of the methods of approach to the questions with conceptions of the nature of the relationships of the human mind to the physical and metaphysical structure of the universe indicate that central to these questions are questions about the nature of the mind. One needs to investigate such questions in relation to these enquiries.

2006-08-29T05:45:00.000-07:00

We need to come back to the rationale for these enquiries of ours if we are to maximise their value. Why are we involved in these issues in the first place? Because we simply enjoy such issues? Is that all? What about the hunger for ultimate knowledge? For a means of gaining a comprehensive grasp of the cosmos? A means of integrating and transcending the limitations of our lives as humans.

I remember. The need to gain a grasp of the structure and progression of the cosmos. An understanding that would integrate questions like "How best may we live?" "What is the ultimate purpose of our lives?" "Should this purpose be understood in terms of a value inherent to our lives or a value created by us?" "Is there a difference between these?" "If we speak of value inherent to our lives, are we referring to something that is independent of our perceptions and would exist regardless of them, like the sun would exist if no one could see it?" "Or is it a view that is generated by ourselves through our understanding of our lives?"

2006-08-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

Ideas about consciousness in relation to instruments of knowledge, whether mathematical forms or the Odu of Ifa, also resonate with questions that emerge in research into the relationships of technological forms to human consciousness. These correlations emerge at the level of questions about relationships between human and nonhuman intelligence. To what degree can we speak of consciousness in relation to objects, specifically machines or software, for example?

We can, in an analogical sense. Consciousness truly exists when a range of volitional possibilities is demonstrated by an organism or entity. I wonder if even the British Airways electronic voice that is cable of responding with seeming cognitive choice to your statements can that be called conscious? It will respond as with what looks like sentient awareness to your statements. It responds to voice prompts rather than through prompts using the numbers or letters on the phone as with other less sophisticated automated phone enquiry systems.

0870 55 111 55 (from the UK)

I found Grootzien's description of a plan for a futuristic architectural plan for a building most intriguing in relation to the notion of the Odu as representing individual but coordinated centres of consciousness. This description can be amplified with reference to statement about complexity theory as relating to the study of autonomous centres of consciousness that operate in a coordinated manner in the achievement of common goals. Complexity theory and related ideas in the sciences and the social science derivates derive from observation of nature. The Ifa conception of Odu also seems to develop conceptions of the Odu as similar in some ways to biological forms.

How?

In terms of the notion of the Odu as conscious beings. The only conscious forms known at present are biological forms. Secondly the mode of representation of the combinatory probabilities of the Odu resembles a tree diagram demonstrating derivation of secondary branches from primary branches. This correlation is reinforced by the fact that the Odu are organised in terms of such a derivation in the configuration of the probabilities that constitute the two hundred and fifty-six Odu. This correlation is reinforced by the reference to the tree with sixteen hut like branches at the foot of which Orunmila’s disciples found him when they sought him out in heaven after he had disappeared in displeasure from the earth. His discovery at that location and its relationship to the number of the Odu suggests it is symbolic for the Odu which number exactly the same number and which also embody the degree of scope suggested by the description of the tree's as having branches which "branched this way and that until it had being sixteen hut like branches".

Massiveness of form, similar to the lush plenitude of the Odu themselves in their breadth of transmutation and reformation, could be seen as suggested by this description of the tree which certainly is no literal tree, on account of the size and number of its branches. These qualities make it representative of an abstraction that is being suggested by the metaphorical, hyperbolic or symbolic expression embodied in/suggested by the tree. The form that corresponds most closely to the characteristics ascribed to the tree are the Odu of Ifa which, like the tree, replicate their branches or subsets in a manner similar to that those of trees. This replication eventually arrives at a total number of two hundred and fifty six, identical with that of the tree. Like a tree, the configurations of the Ifa Odu also demonstrates primary and secondary structures in their formation. The structures that constitute a tree could be understood to demonstrate primary and secondary structures at various levels depending upon the perspective from which it is perceived.

The basic primary structure of the tree could be understood to be its seed, from which the entire structure eventually develops. Having developed into a tree, its primary structure could be understood to be its roots, which provides nourishment and physical support for the entire structure. The trunk and branches could then be understood to be its secondary structures. The secondary structures could then be understood to operate in terms of primary and secondary characteristics in which the trunk could be seen as primary and the branches secondary. Since branches grow from the trunk, the trunk could be understood as primary in relation to/relative to the branches. Branches from which other branches grow could also be understood to be primary in relation to the branches that derive from them and the derivative branches understood as secondary structures.

This biological structure could be understood to demonstrate some correlation with the configuration of the Odu. The Odu are organised in term of patterns that derive from other patterns in a hierarchical sequence. We could understand the organisation of these patterns in terms of configuration in terms of primary and secondary structures. These primary and secondary structures could also be understood to operate in relative terms to each other, because secondary structures at one level of description could be understood as primary structures relative to other structures at another level of description.

The ultimate primary structures of the Odu configuration, which could be correlated with the seeds of the tree, could be understood as either the primary sixteen Odu. This a description that is reinforced by their description in Ifa as Oju Odu or face of Odu, suggesting their character as an antechamber or pint of entry, as it were, into the system represented by the Odu. The description of the Odu that derive from the primary Odu or Odu Ifa are known as the Omo Odu or child or children of Odu suggesting their character as derived from the Oju Odu. The Oju Odu are there understood, using the biological analogy of parents and offspring, as operating in terms of relationships between/of primary and secondary or derivative forms.

I see there is a strong relationship between your discussion of the dymanic structure realised by the permutations of the Odu with Bartel Dinur's correlation of architecture and ecology.

Yes. I have learnt a lot from Dinur.His work represents my first encounter with complexity theory.

But, it would seem that you have focused on what could be described as a rather neat and predictable structure. Is there not more than that in Ifa? Any element of randomness, of the unpredictable?

There certainly is.

Describe it. Would that not affect the metaphorical description you made of the tree structure of the Odu configuration?

To a degree. Ifa, being a system that explores the possibilities that emerge in the development of human life/life/recognises the central role of the unexplainable, of the unanticipated, of randomness in human life.

Is that so?

That recognition emerges in various images, the crossroads, evocative of decisions in relation to the outcomes that emerge from decisions, both anticipated and unanticipated. Amplifying this image of decision making and its possibilities as these emerge in an expression of human free will, is the figure of Esu, who is associated with crossroads. He is understood as embodying paradox, unpredictability, caprice, the coexistence of the possibilities of both success and failure.

Doers that demonstrate any relationship to complexity theory?

At least one interpretation of complexity theory I have come across does not speak of it in terms of predictable order but in terms of the coexistence of order and randomness.

Which? Mittleton-Kelly’s description of complexity theory in relation to the social sciences. She recognises that the social sciences, since they deal with humans, need to take account of the fact that human behaviour is not always predictable. So, she descries complexity theory in terms of autonmous agents working together towards the achievement a common goal but also indicates that this model includes elements of the unpredictable. She describes the unpredictable in term of unpredictable consequences that may emerge from interventions within social networks where individual units are understood as demonstrating "intricate inter-relationships" arising from "the interaction of agents, which are able to adapt in and evolve with a changing environment".

2006-08-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

"

Thanks. We’ll come to that later. Another claim, by Ohomina,is that even though they are non-biological in origin that are understood in terms of the characteristics of particular cultures. So,in that context they would be understood as non-biological in origin but biologically grounded in terms of the forms in which they are developed in particular cultures".

"Another perspective, as suggested by ideas of Dion Fortune and an acquaintance of mine, that whther or not we see them as extra-biological or biological in their origins, they operate with the minds of the individuals and communities that relate with them in a mutually constitutive manner, in which they shape the structure of the mind while they too are shaped by the mental structures through which they are developed or conceptions about them are developed".

"Intriguing. This bears some relationship to Plato's Theory of Forms and its legacy in Western thought, particularly its development in the philosophy of mathematics, as in the question about the ontological status of mathematical forms and the development of that question by Roger Penrose in The Road to Reality. Another aspect of that legacy would be the development of the Platonic conception by Paul Hirst in Knowledge and the Curriculum in terms of the disciplinary patterns through which Western thinking has been structured. The problem with this last seems to be that he generalizes the idea of disciplinary development in relation to the formation of mind to include human mind as a whole and he does not seem to account for the historical development of disciplines and of modes of perception, in relation to the host of social, and even environmental conditions that have shaped these developments. A balance to his work could be a careful use of Michel Foucault's and Pierre Bourdieu's studies on the conditions that contribute to the development of forms of knowledge"

2006-08-29T04:55:00.000-07:00

"Another perception, such as that by Atiboroko Oyobukhere and reinforced by Dion Fortune's ideas on forms of mind holds that the Odu and similar cognitive forms, the Biblical psalms are one example given by Oyobukhere,could be understood as both biological and extra-biological. That is,they have a biological origin but they have achieved a degree of independence from the particular circumstances, the specific biological frameworks that inspired their origins.

"Intriguing."

"They are human creations but on account of the degree of mental and emotional attention they have been invested with across the centuries they have taken on a lire of their own that enables them to be activated once anyone can attune themselves to that life, perhaps through imaginative identification.

"Is that so? Would that be applicable then to other religious texts that attract a lot of emotional and metal focus, but can that be true for physical forms, such as religious structures? Could it also be true for scientific ideas and formulations, since its clear that without intense emotional commitment and mental focus, scientific creativity would not exist. What human can be committed to a pursuit for many years if they are not emotionally involved with the enterprise"?

2006-08-29T04:47:00.000-07:00

"How do you transform this notion of volitional of non biological forms or extra biological forms in your adaptation of Ifa?"

"Could you explain what you mean by non-biological and extra-biological forms"?

"By non-biological, I refer to forms that are supposed to have origins outside biological reality, even though they may have relationships with biological realities. The Odu, for exanple,are supposed to be "spirits whose origin we do not know”, according to Ohomina,the Bini Ifa priest.That implies that their origin is outside biological reality.But even in Ohomina's characterization of the Odu,they are understood to signify, among other realities, realties that are either biological, such as humans and plants and contexts that have a biological origin, such as human situations".

"That's clearer now".

"But questions necessarily emerge about the relationships between these conceptions of the ontology of various forms in Ifa.How do we ascertain the ontology of the Odu? They certainly look very much like humanly constructed forms. Does that mean we dismiss the notion of autonomous life and agency ascribed to them? How does one assess the validity of such claims? Its true that similar claims have been made for other divinatory systems, as in an introduction by Jung to a translation of the Chinese I Ching and in an introduction by Blofeld to another translation of the I Ching by himself, but how do we examine the validity of these claims?"

"Ummm...."

2006-08-29T04:20:00.000-07:00

"You are interpreting the communicative process that constitutes Ifa divination in terms that suggest a form of literary correlation between human experience and fictionalsymbolism".

"Yes. But I am sensitive to the fact that the Ifa system argues that the divinatory process involves much more than that".

"How?"

"It is indicated that the communicative process involves a dialogue between conscious,volitionalagents".

"Sure. The client is in dialogue with the Ifa priest and perhaps we could say he is in dialogue with Ifa through the priest".

Yes. The specifics of this dialogical process indicate that the agents in dialogue are specifically the Odu, the client's Ori and the clients conscious mind as well as the diviner who interprets the results that emerge from this dialogue in the form of the patterns formed by the divinatory instruments when they are cast."

Top:Collage:ENCOUNTER IN THE FOREST

The pictures in the center of the composition are of the exterior and interior of a shrine house constructed by the Austrian artist Susanne Wenger and her Nigerian collaborators, at the Oshun Forest in Oshogbo,Nigeria. The shrine constitutes a symbolic form that direct the visitor's visual and ideational engagement with the shrine as they navigate the structure. The sequence in which the shapes that constitute the shrine are encountered suggests a contemplative progression in which spatial navigation evokes and inspires a cognitive elevation. This cognitive elevation is suggested by the head from Ife,Nigeria and the African figure of a sage,as well as by the glowing room by the American artist James Turrell.

The contemplative serenity of the figures and the radiance of the room are here conjoined to articulate a metaphoric relationship between cognitive and physical illumination and the serenity it engenders.

The interior and exterior constitute a symbolic structure that direct the visitor's visual and ideational engagement with the shrine as they navigate the structure. The sequence in which the shapes that constitute the shrine are encountered suggests a contemplative progression from the inspirational ambiance of the forest,to the creative tension depicted by its convoluted exterior, proceeding to the contemplative calm of the room in which the ground floor terminates and climaxing in the upper room(not shown here)in which the elevated view onto the road below,its emptiness except for a single metal bench,and the light streaming in through its single window evoke and inspires a cognitive elevation paralleling and inspired by and the physical progression that has brought the visitor to this point in the shrine.

The visitor proceeds from the convoluted but majestic form of the exterior to the calm light and spaciousness of the interior. The convoluted shape of the shrine exterior is evocative of the juxtaposition of opposites dramatized in the story of the meeting of the Yoruba Orisha(deities),Orisanla,who embodies calm and forbearance and Sango,who is fiery, as narrated in the emblematic story of Orisanla's journey to his friend Sango,in the course of which Orisanla was unjustly abused,imprisoned and later vindicated when nature itself protested the injustice.

The interior depicts the culminating room in the progression constituted by the first floor of the house.

The room is dominated by an image suggestive of an unfolding flower. This image could be seen as suggesting the emergence of the hitherto concealed qualities of the inner space constituted by the individual's self,as evoked,for example,by the metaphoric visualization in the Upanishads,Zen Buddhism, and in the Tao te Ching,which depict the convergence between the ground of being and the human self in terms of spatial form. If visualized as empty the room could be seen as evoking latent but potent possibilities of the self. If occupied,it could be understood as as embodying the realized possibilities of the self.

The impression of contemplative progression actualized through the relative positioning of the symbolic forms that constitute this structure is consolidated through the use of subdued lighting which enters through small spaces in the passage,thereby generating a subdued intensity. The entire passageway,in its sinuous narrowness and crepuscular illumination,suggests a deepening withdrawal from the conventional space constituted by social reality,as the visitor penetrates further into the transformative possibilities represented by the interior space of the shrine.

The contemplative face at the top right hand is my favorite Ife head. It recalls the sense of serenity,supramudane-above the mudanities of human life-like that of Buddha images-but more humanised,while the glowing room is from the artist James Turrell,whose work often explores the manner in which light shapes space.

1.The black and white figurine which is first on the left is from African Sculpture : An Anthology by William Fagg and Margaret Plass. London : Studio Vista, 1964. 2.The two central images in colour are from A Life with the Gods in their Yoruba Homeland by Susanne Wenger and Gert Chesi,(6300 Worgl,Perliger Veralg,1983). 3.The black and white image of the face in the top right,next to the glowing room is from Africa : History of a Continent by Basil Davidson with photographs by Werner Forman ( Feltham : Spring Books, 1972). The last image,of a glowing room,on the extreme right,is from James Turrell, byAnna Maria Torres,Curator of the Exhibition and Catalogue(Institut Valencia d'Art Modern,Valencia,2004).

2006-08-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

"The transformation of ideas from the immediate concerns of the diviner's client in terms of the symbolic system through which the diviner interprets the response of the oracle to the client's query represents a form of transformation. The client's immediate concerns are interpreted in terms of the symbol system of Ifa. The symbol system is understood as indicating responses to the client's query in terms of the distinctive narrative and poetic language of the system. Even though these literary forms deal with characters who are often not human, the situations they are involved in can be understood to relate to a wide range of possibilities observable in human life. The characters in the literary forms might not be human but the situations in which they are involved clearly are. Its at this level of situational correlation that hermeneutic transformation takes place in the dialogue between the client's query and Ifa's response".

2006-08-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

"To answer that question,we need to ask,"Eshu,what are you doing at the crossroads?"

"Why?"

"In relation to this question,it is helpful to imagine oneself in dialogue with Eshu, a central figure in Ifa who is often portrayed as associated with crossroads."

"How does that apply to the notion of Ifa divination as involving a transformative process?"

"Within the tradition,those crossroads where Eshu is found are understood as the literal and metaphorical points of intersection between the human and the spirit realms,between which Eshu mediates.He is depicted as carrying sacrifices from human beings to the spirit world and messages from the spirit world to human beings."

"Are you suggesting that the role of messenger between various realms of being inplies a transformation of some sort?"

"Yes.Just as messages are transformed from one medium to another as they are transmitted through electronic media,the concerns of the client are restated through the symbolic system of of Ifa.The concrete issues that challenge the client are interpreted in terms of Ifa symbolism and its associated cosmologcal values.This restating represents a form of transformation since the concrete situation of the client is now presented in terms of ideas that are not concrete,expressed in terms of symbols that commumnicate thees ideas."

"Continue."

"So a concrete situation is transformed in terms of a symbolic system which acts as a means of expressing cosmological values whioch help to interpret the concrete sitaution in terms of a metaphysical narrative which,in its indirection, is not directly related to the concrete details of the situation it is supposed to address,but which as a meta-narrative,it is understood as helping to explain".

This reminds me very much of Onwuejeogwu's thesis in Afa Symbolism and Phenomenology.

Exactly.His work and that of Henry Luis Gates Jr's Signifying Monkey are central to my interpretation of the hermeneutic process in Ifa divination.

Continue.

2006-08-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

What is the point you are making in this essay?

I am adapting Ifa and the Jewish cosmography of the Kabbalah to the study of an aspect of human geography. I am using this adaptation in creating a model that will explain interactions between people within the framework of space and time.

Is that not what you are looking at in your PhD too?

Yes. But this opportunity enables me to develop and clarify ideas that are still not clearly spelt out in the PhD. Perhaps we can frame the central idea in the form of a question- “Is it possible to develop a theory to account for the total range of possibilities of transformation by the various elements in existence, transformation within themselves or in relation to each other?"

A subset of this question would be "Is it possible to develop a theory to account for the total range of possibilities of transformation interaction between various elements in human interaction with other humans within the framework space and time?"

To respond to this question, we would take note of all elements in existence and work out how to address the question in terms of their individual transformative processes and in relation to each other, for those that demonstrate relationships of any sort, relationships that imply that they affect the transformative processes they undergo.

How did you come to this from Ifa? Are you interpreting Ifa then, as a study of principles of transformation?

Yes.

Top:Opon Ifa-Ifa divination tray and installation art by German artist Joseph Beuys

The scattered logs are evocative of the sense of the random and the fortuitous embodied in Beuys' disputed but deeply symbolic account of his rescue and nursing by Tartars when he was shot down in the Second World War.

This image is correlated with the divination tray,where meaning and order is sought in the seeming randomness of human experience as Beuys could be said to try to seek meaning and create value out of his experience in the war through his art and larger social activity.He sought a meaning that transcends the barbarism of violence in all its forms,whether martial or environmental.

The face of the Orisha or deity Eshu at the top of the tray suggests the relationship between the unanticipated,the paradoxical and the serendipitous and the development of meaning as reflected here in the fact that participation in conflict has at times later led its participants to commit themselves to peace.On that see Beuys above as well as Milt Bearden.

Eshu's face also evokes the hair's breath between contrastive outcomes and the critical points that leads to the realisation of one as different from the other,between life and death,war and peace.The relationship between contrastive possibilities is represented by Eshu's symbol of the crossroads.

Eshu's visage always adorns the top of the divination tray on account of his central role in Ifa as connector between forms and states of being manifest through his embodiment of Ashe, the dynamic power of the universe.This power is expressed in the transformation of situations into one or the other of probable outcomes.The understading of and intervention in these transformations could be said to be the central practical activity of the Ifa system.

2006-08-18T06:47:00.000-07:00

Watch on the Himlayas by Nicholas Roerich

It would seem that the claim by Ohomina about the Ifa system as adapting itself to different cultural contexts is being proved accurate.

Why do you say so?

Since I began to explore in earnest the possibility of adapting Ifa to a range of contexts I have been receiving positive responses. Te negative responses helped me refine my thinking to the point where it seems I am succeeding in deploying the ideas I am gaining from Ifa in a number of contexts. The latest development is that I am
correlating it with ideas in the philosophy of science.

Is that so? Can a system from such very different origins as modern science be related to science?

Yes. I have the good fortune of having my paper accepted for the European Modelling Symposium where, as the organiser described it, “The majority of the papers are to be given on topics such as medicine, pharmacology, human relations, city environment, industry, artificial intelligence and computer technology".

Wow. Are you not at least a little scared? Your formal training us in literature and this Ifa thing, you are still experimenting really?

Yes. I am experimenting but I think that if I don’t begin with experiment I will not get far. I can’t wait till I have the ideal framework of knowledge in order to explore the possibilities I sense in relation to this ancient but perennially significant system.

The priests who are the best informed might nit have the intellectual training and exposure that I have. Scholars who are well informed and who have written foundational works on it are pursuing directions different from mine. The very fact that the organiser of the conference who is an Englishman from engineering, who is not likely to have any prior knowledge of Ifa, has taken a keen interest in it is most inspiring. Brother, we are moving forward!

My supervisor, God bless him, who is key figure in my experimentation with novel ideas has given his keen recommendation and suggestions. We thank God. As someone put it, its almost as if all my Christmases are coming at once!

We must admit the dreams of decades are achieving fulfilment.

We are getting there.

Odu Meditation

2006-08-18T05:22:00.000-07:00

The grove shifts to a room in London. Centuries have passed. But the system of knowledge created by the man of Ife lives on. In this room in London is a person within whom the past, the present and the future of what was created in Ife centuries ago engages itself in dialogue. But then, is this merely a person talking with himself and our descriptions of dialogue between him and another character simply a metaphorical expression? Perhaps. But the direct descendants of the man of Ife,the priests of Ifa, claim that the system they represent is animated by conscious beings who do not originate in the framework of nature as humans ordinarily know it but with whom humans can communicate. Could it be that the dialogue within the man in London is expressive of a communication between the man and that which is not human but can communicate with the human? And again, what really is the human? How much of us originates from realms that we understand, however imperfectly? Might there be aspects of the human that are rooted in realms which we would perceive as nonhuman? Some people claim that we are actually forms of energy that blend at various points and frequencies with other energy forms, and through this contact, we gain knowledge. Can ideas demonstrate volition? What is the source of ideas that emerge by themselves? Are they purely the creation of our subconscious minds, refining ideas from the conscious? May ideas be themselves personalities that communicate with us, at times initiating that communication themselves? Imagine it, an idea as an entity that can engage in interaction, perhaps initiate it. Perhaps ideas and ourselves inhabit a similar continuum where we constitute them and they constitute us. Whatever the answers may be, these questions are provoked by correspondences between accounts of creativity and the claim by Ifa priests that the Odu, the most fundamental symbols of the Ifa system, are spirits whose origin we do not know. It is claimed that they embody their own volition through which they actualize the meanings the system embodies. I don’t know yet how to even investigate this notion. But what relationship could it have to the sense of disembodied presence that has at strategic times accompanied my studies of this system? Could the Odu be making their presence felt?

2006-08-18T04:43:00.000-07:00

The answers Setilu developed to those questions are integrated in the system that came to be known as Ifa.

He began from the conviction that one of the most important needs in human life is that of making effective decisions. He understood decision making as a central framework for human existence because decisions made by individuals and groups are fundamental in shaping the structure and progression of human life.

He developed his system from an empirical perspective which is centered on observable aspects of human decision making and moved from his conclusions about what is observable about decision making to efforts to ground or relate decision making to metaphysical and spiritual conceptions.

He began by relating decision making to the development and revelation of personality.Decisions and their consequences shape character and are also an expression of character.Personality and decision making,in turn, are shaped by and shape the environment within which the human being operates.

Questions about decision making enable a vantage point for the exploration of questions about human identity, since decisions are demonstrations of those values and motivations that reflect the identity of the individual or group.

What do our decisions reveal about our character, about their composition and about the interplay between aspects of character? Why do our motivations seem at times to be in conflict? Why do the eventual results of our actions emerge in ways that are different from our anticipation and demonstrate possibilities not envisaged when those decisions were made and the consequent actions effected?

These considerations about conflict between aspects of the self influenced his thinking and led him to describe the human self in terms of a dialogue between two different but interrelated aspects of the self. He came to describe one aspect of the self as embodying the totality of the individual’s possibilities. The individual is not always conscious of this totality of possibilities. The other aspect of the self embodies the individual’s understanding of themselves,of their motivations and possibilities.

In order to develop a dialogue between these aspects of the self, to enable the individual to be aware of the relationship between their everyday understanding of themselves and the aspect of the self which embodies the full range of their possibilities, it was necessary to develop a means of creating a communicative bridge between both aspects of the self. Setilu developed this bridge in terms of a system of communication that would allow the deeper self which embodies the totality of the individual’s potential to communicate with the individual in their everyday understanding of themselves. This method of communication worked through a pattern of symbols which were randomly activated in such a manner that that randomness would enable messages from the deeper self to come through. This system of symbols is what came to be known as the Ifa system.

The Ifa system embodies the answers its founder made to the questions that influenced his development of the system. The philosophical and religious character of these questions, the answers he provided to them and his methods of presenting them, enable the system to be adapted to a broad range of purposes that go significantly beyond the framework of its primary characterisation as a decision making system. Since these questions and answers and the form of the system that embodies them are both religious and philosophical, the system can be understood as both a religious and a philosophical system.

The system came to be understood,from one perspective,as responding to the challenge of carrying out decision making within a framework of ideas that removes it from the level of trial and error. Another perspective,however,argues that that interpretation would represent asking too much of the system.Could one arrive at a level of infallible wisdom that would empower decision making?

A difficult question. Is infallibility possible? The vision of an ultimate source of knowledge,the possibility of an ultimate ground or synthesis of knowledge,of a vantage point from which to arrive at comprehensive knowledge has fascinated human beings for centuries.

Both perspectives draw for support of their views on the Ifa system's efforts at comprehensiveness in classifying various possibilities of existence.The system is based on a classification of possible situations in human life into a total of 256 possibilities which represent efforts to categorize all possibilities of experience in terms of sixteen basic units which are then subdivided into constituent categories.

One school of thought holds that such a categorization can reflect,at best,the scope of understanding of one man, Setilu, and of others who contributed to the system in later centuries.From that standpoint,no group of people,let alone one person,can anticipate all possibilities of human experience.They argue that the Ifa system is best understood as a guide to understanding,classifying and responding to human experience rather than as a comprehensive source of understanding of such possibilities.The system is,at best,a template,which one can adapt and modify according to ones own perspectives. It is not normative but heuristic,a means for experimenting with understanding and action.

We can describe this group as the fallibilists because they hold that the system is necessarily limited,being a product of necessarily limited but ambitious human minds.

The other perspective argues from the standpoint of what it understands as both the terrestrial and cosmic scope of the system.It argues that the system not only categorizes all possibilities of human experience but identifies every possibility of existence,of all phenomena,whether extant and actual, or even potential and not yet in existence.It identifies every phenomenon in existence, whether abstract or concrete, from material forms to situations and emotions,from what exists to what does not exist but which could exist.

They hold that the symbols of the system enable not only a ratiocinative understanding of possibilities of existence, as indicated by the fallibilist position,but facilitate a sensitivity to the creative matrix that enables an understanding of the transformative process through which forms of being pass from one state to another. This matrix is mediated through the sequence of forms, that, at one level, are the symbols of the Ifa system, and, at another level are expressions of the creative life of the matrixial centre.

This group argues that one reason for the extensive and lengthy training of the Ifa priest,at its formal stage,lasting more than sixteen years,and continuing informally for the rest of his life,is not simply to enable him to memorize the Ese Ifa,the literary forms that contain the descriptions of particular situations and Ifa's prescriptions about them.This group argues that the trainee priest's memorizing of the Ese Ifa also constitutes a process of embodiment of symbols in the self of the priest that enable him to enter into dialogue with the matrixial center since these symbols are not simply a means of encoding knowledge,as in conventional communicative forms,but embody the will and sense of direction of the matrixial center which,along with human culture,constitutes one aspect of their identity.Access to this knowledge requires an integration of these symbolic forms in the person of the adept, enabling the development of a symbiotic relationship between the Odu Ifa and the Ifa priest so that the adept can dialogue with them almost instinctively.

We can describe this perspective as that of the infallibilists because they argue that the Ifa system enables both a ratiocinative and a supra-rational knowledge that goes beyond conventional cognitive capacities.It enables insight into possibilities of being at a more comprehensive level than is available to conventional human understanding.The knowledge being drawn upon is not purely human,but represents the expression, in terms of symbols drawn from human culture, of a wisdom that is at the very center of the transformative possibilities of existence.It is, in fact,a primordial wisdom that is actualised in the very constitution of the cosmos ,in its modes of being and of becoming,of coming into existence and of transformation .

There is a third perspective that mediates between the fallibilists and the infallibilists.This perspecctive holds that the knowledge that could be arrived at through the Odu of Ifa,as the symbols of the system are called,may actually enable an understanding of possibilities of existence that goes beyond conventional cognitive capacities.They argue,however, that the actualization of the cognitive possibilities of the system can only be developed in relation to the cultural knowledge of the person who uses it.This point of view argues that knowledge of any sort,whether rational or supra-rational, is mediated through the constitution of the cognitive capacities of the knower by their encounters with the familiar,with the accustomed,with what they know through regular acquaintance.To expand those cognitive capacities beyond the conventional,therefore,

This perspective argues that the Odu may well be sentient entities but that cannot be ascertained or disproved a matter of public knowledge at this point in the development of human cognitive capacities. But even if that is the case, and they make available to the Ifa priest expanded cognitive capacities, one point we can be certain of in the entire cognitive relationship between the Ifa priest and the Odu is that they facilitate or even enable the priest make the correlations between the contents of the situations and remedies described in the Odu and the questions brought before Ifa by the client. The Odu function as springboards for cognition, enabling the correlation of ideas from the universe of discourse embodied by Ifa and the real world issues which have brought the client to Ifa.

The Odu might be sentient entities, of whose significance we know only a small fraction, as the Bini Ifa priest Ohomina describes them, but they are embodied in relation to human perception in terms of forms created by the human mind. They are understood to exist simultaneously in terms of different aspects of existence but all these aspects represent forms of correlation between aspects of signification by the human mind. The Odu are represented as vertical signs which signify texts and the entire ensemble is understood to be an entity which embodies its own Ori or centre of ultimate direction. This structure of relationships has to be actualised, however, through the interpretive activity of the priest.

The Odu are also understood assume particular configurations in divination through a dialogue with the Ori of the client, which, even though not generally accessible to the clients conscious mind, influence the patterns assumed by the Odu since the clients Ori is the ultimate source of insight into the details of those issues that constitute the clients working out of the structure of possibilities that their lives embody and which has been outlined before their birth by the understanding between the Odu and Olodumare, the architect of existence, before the client was born.

Image above: An Opon Ifa, one example of the divining tray used by the Ifa priest in divination. This example demonstrates both the invariable or constant as well as the variable features in the composition and carving of the Ifa tray. One unvarying feature is the face at the top of the tray facing outwards from the surface. Another is the empty space at the centre of the tray. The last is the border that encloses the empty centre. The variable aspect of the form is the circular shape of the entire structure. The Opon Ifa could be either circular or square or both,as in a square circumference enclosing circular centre.

Each of the invariable elements in the composition of the Ifa tray represents an aspect of the metaphysical structure that underlies the divinatory process. Taken together, they encapsulate the interrelationship of these metaphysical conceptions in constituting the hermeneutic process through which Ifa divination is actualised. Even when the Ifa priest does not use the tray in divining, these metaphysical elements are understood to remain constitutive of the divinatory process.

The face at the top could be drawn in various ways but always with the eyes wide open as if looking at the priest as he divines.They seem to oversee the divinatory process. It is the face of the orisha Eshu. What is he and why is his representation so prominent here?

His role and its significance can be described in terms of a scale of concreteness and abstraction, from the most basic to the most abstract and comprehensive metaphysical significations. He is the messenger of Ifa, an executive agent who carries out wishes empowered by Ifa. He carries sacrifices from Ifa to the other Orisa. He is a guide to unravelling the complexities of Ifa’s messages in response to divinatory queries. He is the trickster, the unanticipated possibility that must be sacrificed to, that must be accounted for, if divinatory enquiries and actions taken in response to them are to succeed. His work in all these capacities is facilitated by his possession of the ashe, the creative force with which Olodumare, the Supreme Being, created the universe and through which change, development and transformation take place.

He embodies creative chaos existing in a dialectical relationship with the order represented by Ifa. He is the catastrophe which upsets order but which could open the way to newer, more dynamic configurations. He reflects the perception of the coexistence of contraries that enables the understanding of the complexity of the universe in its multidimensionality of possibilities. Action in time that is unbound by the conventional understanding of the limitations of time is his forte: "He throws a stone today/ And kills a bird yesterday!".

The insight into the space of possibilities that contradicts the wisdom of the obvious is his field:
The veranda was too small for him, the interior of the house was too small for him, but in a groundnut shell...at last he could stretch himself.The laws of nature are refracted in the transfigurative space he delineates: "He hits a stone until it bleeds/ He sits on the skin of an ant".

The relative significance of one’s actions emerge with greater clarity in the light of new perspectives afforded by the unfolding landscape of one’s life. The kaleidoscope of intentions, both covert and overt, of actions and of consequences that shape human life emerge into greater clarity in the landscape of memory, enabling, among other insights, the realisation in T.S. Eliot's Little Gidding of “things ill done and done to other’s harm which one once took for exercise of virtue”, in the spirit expressed by Eshu [turning] "right into wrong and wrong into right”.

Eshu realizes the transformative understanding in the light of which the underlying patterns of meaning that animate the individual’s life are perceptible through fractures, distortions and temporal linearity ,the confluence of accident and design that generates the surface of individual biography, a hermeneutic role that makes him the “unraveller of the knots” of Ifa’s primordial wisdom in its application to the concrete particulars of human life represented by the activation of the Odu in divination.

The empty space at the centre of the tray is the space where the divinatory instruments are thrown to enable their configuration spell out Ifa's response to the querent's questions.The empty space becomes a womb of becoming,where the divinatory patterns,the Odu, emerge and re-emerge into the multiplicity of identities they are capable of realizing.The field of combinatory possibilities of the Odu is realized through its interaction with the deepest self of the querent whose sense of direction shapes the opportunities available to the individual.The ori or sense of self,ultimate possibility and direction of the Odu, and that of the querent interact in a dialogue that generates the Odu patterns that emerge in the divinatory session.

TEMI ESAN
ON SRI YANTRA AS DESCRIBED AT http://www.cosmiclight.com/sriyantra.htm 20/10/07

the unending creativity. The never ending creative process. The existence of endless possibilities, permutations and combination, infinite renewal and convergence, no beginning, no end and all this from Infinite Love. the whole concept of Infinity. Unity of purpose to achieve infinite ends. one creative process supporting the other. No one stands alone.

2006-08-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

Within the coolness of a grove that relaxes the body and inspires reflection,a man in the Nigerian city of Ife contemplates questions that are likely to have intrigued people since human beings began to wonder about existence.

Where do people come from at birth and where do they go after
their bodies have become stiff in death?

Does our origin before our brief spell on earth,wherever that origin might be, affect our journey to the unknown at death?

What is the human self ?

Is there any aspect of us that exists before we are born and that lives after our bodies have been lowered into the grave?

What factors influence the course of a person's life?

Can these factors,what ever they are, be modified so as to create favourable rather than unfavourable outcomes?

Of the factors that could be said to influence the progression of human life,individual choice and action, or destiny,which is the more relevant?

The questions Setilu at Ife reflects upon are not new.The answers he eventually arrives at have also been given by similarly curious people in other parts of the world.What is distinctive about his own achievement is the manner in which he presents his ideas.While other thinkers present their conceptions in terms of philosophy,literature,mathematics or the visual arts,he organises and depicts his ideas in all these forms.His work represents one of the outstanding examples of the idea that human knowledge represents a unity that is best appreciated when all its aspects fit together to form an interconnected whole.

Setilu's questions did not emerge purely in terms of his reflections on the challenges faced by human beings.He was also motivated by his experiences with the multifarious worship of divinities in Ife.Every day of the year in Ife was devoted to the worship of a particular divinity.Why not bring all these divinities together under one roof?Not a physical roof but a roof of knowledge,of ideas,of methods of gaining access to them,so that one could approach
Soponna,Obaluaye,Esu,Orunmila,Osanyin,Olokun,Oya,Sango,Ogun,through the same medium.

Even better for simplicity of access to the vast range of ideas that would need to be developed in such a system,why not represent all the ideas it would embody in terms of a few numbers,which could then be developed into higher combinations of numbers?The numbers would stand for ideas.So that,the use of two basic numbers would suggest the entire system.Those numbers could then be developed to represent a further sixteen numbers,which would be a development from the first two,then on to further combinations until we have a combination of two hundred and fifty-six numbers.

As with numbers,so with ideas.As the organisational structure of the system rests on a foundation of two numbers,so the structure of ideas the system embodies should rest on a structure of two ideas:good and evil.The possibility of plenty of good and the possibility of plenty of evil.

Human beings are largely concerned with the good or evil effects of their experiences on their lives.What they see as beneficial to themselves is to a large extent considered good.What they understand as harmful to themselves is largely considered bad.Whether or not these things are seen in the same way by others,and what kinds of effects they have on other people,are more subtle distinctions than the fundamental human interest in good and evil in relation to one's own well being.This well being could include the well being of those one considers part of themself,whether those others are family,other loved ones or the larger groups beyond family and friends to which one belongs.

Each group of numbers and its corresponding poems and stories and the ideas they express are correlated with particular divinities.The personalities of the divinities and the poetry and stories associated with them express the ideas symbolised by the numbers.

The sheer simplicity of his organisational scheme and the manner in which it blossomed into a hierarchy of complexity both gladdened Setilu and awed him at the same time,as when one marvels at one's own ideas.

But,one thing remained.The system represented by the relationships between numbers,ideas,literature and depictions of divinities could not be merely a means of organising information.It had to be something more.

Setilu was interested in various ways of arriving at knowledge.He had concluded that some of the deepest knowledge was arrived at through sources that could not be reduced to the conscious or even subconscious faculties of the human mind.His experience with the deepest knowledge cvonvinced him that it included and went beyond purely human capability.

How could he develop his ideas in relation to this understanding?What kind of entities were the divinities he was relating his system to?Were they independent of or dependent on the human mind?Were they real in any manner?

Or could it be possible to use the combination of numbers,ideas,poetry and stories he was developing to elevate the mind to the kind of knowledge that integrated and superseded human knowledge?

Or could it be developed as a means of correlating human intelligence with intelligences that came from the Great Outside,beyond the scope of identifiable sources of being?

Or something of both?

Top: Batabwa figure from African Sculpure by William Fagg and Margaret Plass who describe it in terms of the sense of both familiarity and gravitas that is represented in some African ancestor figures. It could also be related to the sense of what James Joyce, in another context, called the "jocoserious", which is central to the communicative ethos of Ifa, where, as Susanne Wenger observes, and is evident in Idowu's work on the subject, Olodumare, the author of existence, is depicted as a kindly grandfather figure and yet is also understood as the ground of being, so distant from human perception that he can not be directly approached .

Along similar lines, Orunmila, understood as the divine source of the Ifa system, who gave counsel to Olodumare at the creation of the universe, is described in the same spirit of geniality as the "old man with a head full of wisdom".
The fixed gaze, resonating in the stance, firm yet not rigid or stiff, as suggested by the flexed slightly bent knees, communicates a resoluteness of bearing

The leonine head standing on a militarily erect neck that is large for the scale of the rest of the limbs, suggesting muscularity and strength, complemented by the resolute squaring of the shoulders, physical characteristics that evoke firmness of character and purpose.

Lines in the face converge inwards to centre on the outward projecting grooves of the eyes, suggestive of the rugged power of stones, yet a refined smoothness, framed by the flow of a mane of hair, the entire face a microcosm of concentrated force that is yet suggestive of an evenness of temper, suggesting the Hermetic ideal indicated in the Golden Dawn’s injunction that “unbalanced severity is cruelty and the barrenness of mind” .

The naked breast, the elongated, tobular form of the midsection, the stylization of the arms, which are long for the proportions of the figure, the dwarf legs, short and stout, elements that combine the almost comic with the powerful, the establishing of the figure on a platform that evokes stability of positioning both physical and psychological, complete the image of relaxed power communicated by the figural proportions and facial expression..

The sense of underlying majesty makes the delineation of clothing superfluous. One of the functions of clothing being to preserve dignity, the figure demonstrates a palpable aura of gravitas that makes its depiction in relation to that convention unnecessary.

The entire figure suggests a representative of an uncommon knowledge who is yet a participant in the world embodied by the familiar and gentler concerns of human society. Like the contemplative who, to adapt words of Thomas Merton, is yet active in the world of action .

What kind of knowledge is he privy to, what kind of character does he embody?

Is it that represented by Damfo in Armah’s The Healers who demonstrates the integration of self embodied by the perception of one’s multiple selves, leading to the understanding of “which self [is] deep, and which selves would merely float on the surface for a passing season and then disappear”? Does he embody Abimbola’s characterisation of the Ifa priest as a “well informed, well travelled and highly disciplined individual” , possibly one whose understanding of the possibilities of human existence represented by the encyclopaedic scope of Ifa have made him both perceptive of human possibility and accommodating of human character? Does he exemplify the Hermetic injunction in the Golden Dawn to the would be adept to “establish yourself firmly in the Equilibrium of Forces, in the centre of the cross of the elements, from whose centre issued the creative word at the birth of the dawning universe”? The elements being understood to correspond to qualities of character, the latter expression is evocative of relationships between cosmic and human creativity. The power of speech becomes synecdochal for the ability to shape reality. One aspect of this power is understood as the capacity of speech to shape perceptions of the self by oneself and others .

He may be ourselves as we could aspire to be, strong without being brutal, active while anchored in a centre of strength, self respecting yet capable of laughing at ourselves and so escaping fanaticism and self centeredness, the strength and wisdom for combat and the love of life of Gandalf in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Part of the greatness of Tolkien’s work derives from its being a definitive dramatization of nature spirituality and esoteric traditions, which, even though they are rooted in European culture, have a universal, and certainly an African resonance .

Certain resonances remain of those that cluster round this figure:

Wole Soyinka in jail, evoking the contemplative traditions of Christian and Asian monasticism to empower himself-

They cast their ring of spells around
The ruined hermitage of the Visitation
…………………………………………
A nestling glow, the slumbering centre
Of the universe
They asked this hermit but he would not know
His outer blindness eyes looked within their guise
His foot was gentle on the flow of wings
Waiting, peaceful in passage of the looms.

from A Shuttle in the Crypt(London;Methuen,1972)52-53.

While his mind ranges beyond the confines of the prison, he contrasts his fortitude with the responses of his fellow inmates:

His spirit moved along the laden clouds, restless, lonely.
………………………………………………………….
[They] were anachrones, and their eyes were on his restless spirit among the clouds
……………………………………………………………………………………….
Their apprehensive utterances spoke, true, in undercurrents of hope and bridged a gulf, an undercurrent of humanity pushing upwards from their barren soil. But anachrones he called them yet, saying, they were formed before their minds.
The mind is time-and on that flash he rested now the problem of infinity at last. The mind is sole coefficient of time and space.

From The Man Died (London Rex Collings,1973 )257-258.

The Christian Trappist monk Thomas Merton on his aspirations as a monk.Italicized to represent a voice speaking from a numinous depth:

…And in that day you will begin to possess the solitude you have so long desired. And your solitude will bear immense fruit in the souls of men you will never see on earth.

Do not ask when it will be or where it will be or how it will be: on a mountain or in a prison, in a desert or in a concentration camp or in a hospital or at [the abbey of] Gethsemani. It does not matter. So do not ask Me because I am not going to tell you. You will not know until you are in it.

From Thomas Merton, Elected Orders also known as The Seven Storey Mountain.

The Merton quote is an invocation of what Soyinka calls the community of voyagers in terms of the locations and situations in which they were led to demonstrate the qualities of contemplative resonance, of achieving action in a manner that is in contrast to the equation of effect on the world with conventional forms of striving:

These locations and situations may be correlated with historical personalities and the contexts central to the discovery or actualisation of their vocations. I interpret the conception of vocation I terms of the definition by R.F West as the total orientation of a [person’s] life and work in terms of [ their] ultimate sense of mission” :

Extreme natural environments:

Moses who was discovered on a mountain by his vocation which spoke to him out of a burning bush; Milarepa who sought Buddhahood in caves; St. Anthony of Egypt initiating Christian monasticism through his life as a hermit in the desert; the Buddha seeking enlightenment through years in the forest, developing a tradition represented by the early Indian sages whose discourses in the forest are recorded in the Upanishads, the example of which influenced the non-violent politics of Gandhi, who in turn influenced the anarchism of Thoreau and the civil right movement of Martin Luther King Jr in the US.

Prison:
Solzhenitsyn and other Russian dissidents who underwent mystical experiences in Soviet labour camps, Soyinka surviving in prison during the Nigerian Civil War through contemplative disciplines;Dietrich Bonhoeffer and St. Maximilian Kolbe, imprisoned for resisting the Nazis and dying heroically in prison, Bonhoeffer writing on his experience in prison; Eliach’s Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust which portrayed the isolation of the human spirit and its quest for strength as it was stripped of the social frameworks through which its identity had been defined up till that point.

Illness as a liminal state through which people have discovered their vocations:

Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Jesuits who was converted while recuperating after being wounded in battle; Goethe, the greatest of German men of letters who began to purse his vocation in earnest during an illness; the Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges who changed his writing style and subject matter to what became his characteristic minimalist and phantasmagoric style after a serious illness; shamanic illness through which the shaman enters into his office as described in Joan Halifax’s Shamanic Voices .

Monastic life:

Merton himself at the Abbey of Gethsemane who discovered himself and his contemplative vocation and its literary expression through monastic community and seclusion.

All these examples could be said to exemplify in various situational and physical contexts, Merton’s conception of contemplative life:

"When I speak of the contemplative life I do not mean the institutional, cloistered life . . . I am talking about a special dimension of inner discipline and experience, a certain integrity and fullness of personal development. . . . Discovering the contemplative life is a new self-discovery. One might say it is the flowering of a deeper identity on an entirely different plane. . . ."
The spiritual and psychological insights of these essays were nurtured in a monastic milieu, but their issues are universally human. Merton lays a foundation for personal growth and transformation through fidelity to "our own truth and inner being." His main focus is our desire and need to attain "a fully human and personal identity."
Elected Orders