--It would be helpful if minimal orthographical diacritics ( accents) are put on "Ilę and 'Onílę' to indicate appreciation of Yorùbá as tonal language since these are key operational words whose correct interpretation is central to meaning in the essay (even if the whole essay is not written with correct Yorùbá intonational markers.) Or is the essayist planning a 'universal' Yorùbá without accents?
As it were the reader is confused whether each appearance of the words means house or earth.
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com>Date: 06/02/2020 09:12 (GMT+00:00)To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>, nigerianworldforum <NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com>, Politics Naija <naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com>, Talkhard <talkhard@yahoogroups.com>Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - From a Horned, Naked Woman toCosmological Physics and Explorations of Consciousness: Developing theWisdom of the Yoruba Ogboni Esoteric Order through its Multi-Cultural andTrans-Disciplinary Associations Part 3
--Resending in parts in case my first post was too big to go
From a Horned, Naked Woman to Cosmological Physics
and Explorations of Consciousness
Developing the Wisdom of the Yoruba Origin Ogboni Esoteric Order
through its Multi-Cultural and Trans-Disciplinary Associations
A Voice from the Universal Ogboni Fraternity
Part 3
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Quietly majestic Ogboni sculpture, evoking Ile, Earth, the centre of Ogboni veneration
Contents
Becoming Onile
From the Intrinsic to the Universal
The Self as Ogboni Ritual Space
Onile and the Ultimate Secret
The Self as Onile
Creating Deity
Becoming Deity
Learning More About the Universal Ogboni Fraternity
You Can Support this Project
Becoming Onile
From the Intrinsic to the Universal
"Intriguing. Such a vast scope of ideas, from the kneeling figure of Onile in her glorious nakedness to wandering around the cosmos, seeking its secrets."
"Of course. Onile embraces all. Is she not the globe enabling our material existence, the central existence we know, enabling our journeys seeking understanding?"
"So, for you, Ogboni imagery integrates all these associations you have worked out?"
"Of course."
The Self as Iledi, Ogboni Ritual Space
"Beyond Ogboni ritual, do you see any practical application of these ideas?"
"Certainly."
"How?"
"The human being may assume the quietly contemplative, inward looking stance of Onile we have been looking at here."
"Truly?'
"Yes. A contemplative stance evocative of the silence of earth, luminous within an inward darkness, alive with fires of material transformations, of life giving nourishings, yet quiet and still in her form as Earth on which we walk, the humble but potent soil constituting the immense majesty that is the solidity of the terrestrial globe."
"Intriguing."
Onile and the Ultimate Secret
"You assume that stance in silence. The silence at the centre of which throbs the ultimate secret, the secret at the centre of all secrets, the secret that can be told, can be described, but can only be understood by each in their own way. The secret that may be evoked by the thumb hidden within the fist of Onile, the open secret that unveils itself only with daily, reverential attention to its glowing core."
"Wow. What could that secret be?"
" Look outside yourself. Look inside yourself. Who is the person looking? The answer to that question is the secret."
" But who I am, who anyone is, is no secret."
"Really?"
"Sure. I am a person born at such and such a time, bearing such a such a name, having particular parents, journeying a particular path through life which can be traced by others with enough information, a person composed of a particular collection of qualities, attitudes, styles of seeing things and of behaviour."
"Underneath that person you know yourself to be, there is someone else."
"Really? Who could that be?"
"Someone who enables the existence of the person who bears your name, your history and your personality."
"Hmmm"
"That foundational identity is your awareness of yourself. That core through which you know yourself as different from other things and other people, from the objects around you, from the trees in the street and from your friends."
"Self consciousness?"
"Yes"
"But self consciousness is a fundamental quality in the more highly developed animate creatures. Is there anything secret about it?"
"How well do we understand it? A rock, a luminous rock upon which the world of the individual is built, but what are the foundations of this rock?"
"Can there be anything beyond that foundation?"
" Various schools of thought claim there is."
"How may one investigate that claim?"
"Through the potent silence of Onile. Looking within in silence. Listening. Distinguishing between the various voices clamouring for attention in the mind, the streams of ideas, images and emotions intersecting within it."
"Hmmm"
"Within that silence may be found great peace and inspiration and better understanding of the various layers that make up oneself, various strata akin to the various layers of soil of earth."
"Interesting metaphor. You think, then, that beneath all the other layers of the self, its influence perhaps suffusing those layers like the earth's gravity emanates from its core, pulling everything on its surface inward and thereby keeping those forms on its surface from flying off into space, that there is an unperceived core to the self, like the earth's molten core?"
"I identify with the idea. Why is the wall constituted by awareness of oneself opaque? Why can we not go beyond that rock of awareness on which all our awareness rests?"
"Why go to all that trouble? Why not simply accept the fact of self awareness and proceed from there?"
"We are homo sapiens sapiens. The one who knows. Who knows that he knows. Who is capable of examining his own knowing. Cogito ergo sum, 'I think, therefore I am' French philosopher Rene Descartes insightfully put it on resolving to uncover the foundations of knowledge. Underlying thought is something more primal than thought. We should investigate that. The Cartesian cogito our starting point".
"So, perhaps you would want to rephrase Descartes words as, 'I reflect, I ponder, I engage my awareness, therefore I am aware that I am'? "
"Exactly. I want to mediate between Hindu philosopher Ramana Maharshi as described in Paul Brunton's A Search in Secret India, Descartes in his Meditations and Armah in The Healers."
"How do these influences on your thinking relate to Ogboni?"
"I am operating between thought as affirmation of existence, as asserted by Descartes."
"Okay..."
"Between that affirmation and the various constituents of the mind that thought enables, as depicted by Armah."
"Okay..."
"Between all these and the foundation of thought, self awareness"
"Okay..."
" Searching beyond this foundation, probing beyond the luminous rock, beyond the radiant wall enclosing the fire of self awareness...seeking for the source of that which enables us, as urged by Maharshi".
"Interesting".
"Probing beyond the fire of consciousness akin to the transformative flames from which emerge the charcoal dust of the Ogboni ritual structure, the radiance of white light evoked by the powdered chalk in the Ogboni configuration, animating the union of water and solids that is my body, akin to the mixture of water and earth of the mud of the Ogboni constellation, empowered by the nourishing fluid of blood, symbolized in the Ogboni system by red camwood dust."
"Beautiful."
"I am thus an iledi ogboni, an Ogboni ritual space, the human expression of the Ogboni consecrations of space in terms of the union of humanity and earth, of human cultural forms and the great mother who predates and possibly outlives humanity."
"Really?"
" Truly. Replacing the blood and flesh of the animals sacrificed and buried in the iledi and around which are placed the chalk, charcoal, camwood and mud are my own body and blood.
The life force released by those sacrifices, enhancing and diffusing the presence of the cosmic force of ase, in the Ogboni ritual, becomes my own life force, even more potent in being embodied in my living form, activated and directed by my thought."
"Striking. I see though, that, your adaptation of Ogboni ideas in the meditation you have just described interprets a contemplative practice that is not originally Ogboni in Ogboni terms."
"True"
The Self as Onile
"That meditation may be described as particularly close to Hindu and Buddhist strategies in relation to Yoga as it suffuses both religions. That inward gaze on the self is employed without identification with any religious figure or further symbolism and at times it is. Are you able to take this adaptation further, bringing it closer to a version of the actual practice of embedding objects in the soil to represent Ile, Earth, in Ogboni ritual?"
"Certainly"
"How?"
"A further development of the idea of the human being as an iledi. Identification of self, not only with symbolic transpositions of iledi ritual space, but in terms of Ile, as she is visualised in Ogboni art."
"Interesting. How would you do that?"
"I am adapting to my Ogboni practice a meditation technique known in Western magic as the 'Assumption of God Form' and in in Hinduism and Buddhism as 'Deity Yoga' "
"Okay. Is it related to the understanding of Yoga as meaning 'union'?
"Yes. Union with a deity, in this sense. One imagines oneself as united to the deity so as to facilitate the deeper integration of self with what the deity represents and perhaps one day experience the deity."
Creating Deity
"Interesting. A version of the Yoruba expression, 'Eniyan o si, imale [or orisa] o si', translated by Adeleke Adeeko in a discussion on his Facebook wall as 'No humanity, no orisa [ deities]'"
"Excatly. Soyinka represents the same idea in his poem the Seven Signposts of Existence in A Credo of Being and Nothingness as 'Without the knowing of divinity by man, can deity survive?'."
"Hmm... Karen Barber describes an aspect of the practical demonstration of this philosophy in terms of the use of language in 'How Man Makes God in West Africa: Yoruba Attitudes Towards the Orisa' ".
"Precisely. Barber's observations are reinforced by Rowland Abiodun Yoruba Art and Language, on language and being in Yoruba visual and verbal art".
"Beautiful. I expect these are the same orientations explored by Susanne Wenger explores through ritual in A Life with the Gods"
"Of course. They also resonate with Nimi Wariboko on the making and unmaking of deity in the related Kalabari spirituality in his The Split God: Pentecostalism and Critical Theory."
"Interesting. Are these not similar to practices of making and umaking of deity Chinua Achebe imaginatively explores in the Igbo context in his novel Arrow of God? "
"They are. Whatever the mode of existence of deity might be, it has to be recognised and integrated within human interpretation to make meaning for people."
"What of the idea of creating deity?"
"Of course. Some spiritualities, African and Western esoteric systems, for example, understand that the human being can create deities."
"Why create deities instead of relying on yourself?"
"In such contexts, the deity may be seen as an amplification of human potential, like computers and forms of artificial intelligence. They could also be understood as integrations of human and extra-human possibility shaped into particular forms by human creativity."
Becoming Deity
"How do you adapt these ideas in the Ogboni meditation you are describing?"
"Does Ile, Earth, exist? Yes. Can the Earth be personified? Yes. Is the Earth conscious and open to communication with humans? I dont know but I find the idea inspiring and thus am inspired to adapt it within a meditation based on Igboni symbolism"
"How do you do that?"
" I imagine may favourite image of Ile, the one shown earlier in our discussion, elegant, quietly explicit in erotic terms, evoking wild but controlled power through the horns rising from her head."
"Okay"
"I imagine her in front of me in the crouching pose of the sculpture. I take in her contemplative gaze, her alert calm."
"Hmmmm"
"After some time in that fellowship, I imagine her within me, pulsating within my body, her head within my head, her chest within my chest, her legs within mine."
" Hmmmm"
" I maintain that visualisation in a relaxed manner, without struggling to recall all the details of her figure."
"Intriguing."
"I then relax even more and stop trying to recall the figure, satisfied that the image of unity with the figure of Ile is established in my mind"
" Interesting."
"I remain in silence in that relaxed state."
"What has been your experience with this meditation?"
" A sense of calm. Of inward concentration. Possibly contributing to expansion of ideas in my work on Ogboni."
"Do you expect more?
" Not sure. The meditation can be elaborated upon in various ways that could contribute to more vivid outcomes but taking it slowly might help with better understanding of its effect on one's mind."
"Thanks for the discussion"
"You are welcome"
Learning More About the Universal Ogboni Fraternity
To know more about the vision of the Universal Ogboni Fraternity, you may see
the Universal Ogboni Fraternity Facebook page
the Universal Ogboni Fraternity Facebook group
and the Ogboni Explorations blog
You Can Support this Project
You can support this project materially by making a donation.
Your money will be used to buy time for research, writing and publication, providing free access to knowledge.
Donors may also request a copy of the current stage of a work in progress that demonstrates relationships between vision and methods, theory and practice, of the Universal Ogboni Fraternity, the book Invocations from the Universal Ogboni Fraternity.
Donations should be paid to the following account:
Account Name : Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Bank: Access Bank
Account No: 0734810142
SWIFT code for international bank transfers: ABNGNGLA
Donor's requests for the book in progress can reach me at Facebook Messenger, by email at toyin.adepoju@gmail.com or by text and on whatsapp at +234 805 143 9554.
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