USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ògbóni :From Myth to Physics : Yorùbá Esotericism at the Matrix of Disciplines :A Response to Olayinka Agbetuyi 2 Part 9

                   

                                                                                             

                                                                 

                                                                                    Ògbóni

 

                                                                         From Myth to Physics

 

                                                   Yorùbá Esotericism at the Matrix of Disciplines

 

                                                             A Response to Olayinka Agbetuyi

                                                                                         2

                                                                                     Part 9

                                                                                           

                                      

Collage by myself evoking matter and energy transformations in the earth, in nature in general, in the human being and in machines, mediated through images of  CERN ( the European Organization for Particle and Nuclear Research)  research and Ògbóni, Yoruba esoteric order,  iledi,Ògbóni sacred space ritual structure, all centered in the figure of Onile, Owner of earth and of Human habitation on earth, centre of  Ògbóni veneration.

                                                                       Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

                                                                                         Compcros

                                                          Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems

                                        "Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"

                                                                               Abstract

This essay is a  development of the philosophical and mystical potential of the Yorùbá origin Ògbóni esoteric order. This effort is carried out by demonstrating intersections between Ògbóni cosmology, in its ritual activity, and scientific cosmology within the framework of its technological expression, particularly in particle physics, the study of the smallest constituents of matter.

 

These conjunctions are demonstrated in the context of relationships between an account of the ritual construction of the Ògbóni iledi, the order's sacred meeting house, and the activity of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organization for Particle and Nuclear Research, both creativities described as contrastive ways of engaging with varied conceptions of energy.

 

This essay is a response to queries raised by Olayinka Agbetuyi, in the USAAfrica Dialogues Series Google group, as a rejoinder to my article,  "Ògbóni: From Myth to Physics : Yorùbá Esotericism at the Matrix of Disciplines: A Response to Olayinka Agbetuyi", which reacted to his engagement with my earlier essay published in the same group, "From a Horned, Naked Woman to Cosmological Physics and Explorations of Consciousness: Developing the Wisdom of the Yorùbá Origin Ògbóni Esoteric Order  through its Multi-Cultural and Trans-Disciplinary Associations : A Voice from the Universal Ògbóni Fraternity".

                                      

                                                                                   Contents

 

Abstract                       

 

Relationships Between Matter and Consciousness in CERN  Research and Ògbóni Ritual 

CERN's Particle Physics Research and Consciousness 

Àse and its Relationship with Consciousness

Relationships  Between Matter and Consciousness in CERN Research and Ògbóni Ritual

          CERN's Particle Physics Research and Consciousness

The CERN understanding of energy and matter is indirectly related  to the non-material because the particles studied by CERN constitute  the brain and body that enable human consciousness even as the full scope of the relationship between consciousness and the matter constituting the human body is not yet known.

 

CERN, as a particle research institute, is certainly not exploring consciousness, which is not ordinarily the field of physics, although some physicists, such as Roger Penrose in Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness, explore consciousness in their philosophical writings as part of their effort to investigate a broad spectrum of reality from their primary scientific base in physics.

Matter is related to consciousness because it enables consciousness as it known on earth, the only kind of consciousness generally known to humanity. 

CERN's work deals with the smallest particles of matter, suggesting an indirect relationship between CERN's research and the nature of consciousness.

How do the particles studied by CERN conjoin to generate the complex organism that is able to study itself and the universe?

That question is outside the remit of CERN's mission but it is implied by their work, as it is of quantum mechanics-the study of subatomic particles- as eloquently expressed by such scientist philosophers  as David Darling in Equations of Eternity: Speculations on Consciousness, Meaning and the Mathematical Rules that Orchestrate the Cosmos:

Out of a hot, dense melee of subatomic particles-which is all that once existed...your thoughts at this moment derive from energy transactions between particles born at the dawn of time...the anarchy of genesis has given way to intricate, exquisite order [demonstrated by ] portions of the universe that can reflect upon themselves and ask: Why am I here? What is the purpose of life, consciousness, and reality?...the universe questioning itself ( 1993, xiii-xiv).

              Àse and its Relationship with Consciousness

The Yorùbá àse conception, on the other hand, is directly related to consciousness since it is understood as enabling the individuality of human creativity.

 

Is it true that àse is believed to "exist outside consciousness till it is created and embodied by that power?" as stated by Agbetuyi in the piece to which this essay responds?

Is he stating that àse creates consciousness and is thereafter embodied by consciousness or that consciousness creates àse?

Àse is believed to be inherent in all forms of being, and not a creation of any of these forms, human or non-human.

It is understood as a creative force enabling all activity; hence it is prior to the activities of consciousness and enables those activities, as demonstrated by the following description from Babatunde Lawal: 

Like many other African peoples, the Yorùbá trace the origin of the world to a Supreme Divinity called OLODUMARE—the Eternal One, ELEDA—the Creator of All that Exists and ALÀSE—the source of àse, the enabling power that  sustains and transforms the universe, abiding in all things—animate or inanimate, visible or invisible, creating something out of nothing, changing materials from one state to another,  giving form to the formless, motion to the motionless, and life to all, the vital force that enables the sun to shine, the fire to burn, the wind to blow, the rain to fall, the river to flow, unifying the visible and the invisible, the material and the immaterial universes ("Divinity, Creativity and Humanity in Yorùbá Aesthetics" and Yoruba, the latter quoted in Renee Waite's African Concepts of Energy and their Manifestation through Art, M.A. Kent State University, 2016. 14;170).

 

Àse is perceived as pervading the cosmos, enabling existence and the capacity of change within states of being, yet, within this uniformity of being and its general characteristics, it is described as  facilitating creative individuality, enabling, for each person, "a unique blend of performative power and knowledge-the potential for certain achievements", as described by Henry John Drewal  et al's Yorùbá: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought ( 16).

 

Chinua Achebe's presentation of the concept of ike from the culturally cognate and relatively geographically contiguous Igbo vividly projects this combination of the general and the particular:

 

The Igbo world is an arena for the interplay of forces. It is a dynamic world of movement and of flux. ... Ike, energy, is the essence of all things, human, spiritual, animate and inanimate.

 

Everything has its own unique energy which must be acknowledged and given its due. "Ike di na awaja na awaja" is a common formulation of this idea: "Power runs in many channels".

 

[ The complement of that saying] "Onye na nkie, onye na nkie"-literally, "Everyone and his own"- is a social expression of the same notion often employed as a convenient formula for saluting en masse an assembly too large for individual greetings ("The Igbo World and Its Art", African Philosophy: An Anthology, ed. Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze, 1997. 435-437. 435).

 

Àse is therefore understood as both cosmic and psychological, individual and social, correlating all zones of existence and all forms of being, the human and  the non-human, animate and inanimate, the material and the spiritual.

 

Awo Falokun Fatunmbi's description of consciousness as understood in Ifá, a picture that sums up the animistic universe of Yorùbá cosmology, does not reference the àse idea, but paints a picture that is correlative with it, an idea that demonstrates the same level of cosmological generality, of metaphysical fundamentality, as the àse concept:

 

According to Ifá, everything in nature has some form of consciousness called "Ori" [a] fabric which binds the universe together [as] the multi-levelled layers of consciousness which ... exist in all things on all levels of being.

Ifá teaches that it is the ability of forces of nature to communicate with each other, and the ability of humans to communicate with forces in nature that gives the world a sense of spiritual unity ( "Obàtala - Ifá and the Chief of the Spirit of the White Cloth", Scribd)

 

May the àse idea not be therefore seen as foundational to the understanding of consciousness in Yorùbá cosmology? A generative force, enabling recreative, transformative capacity, change from one state to another?

 

Such changes are demonstrated particularly by the capacity for reflection and action enabled by awareness of one's existence, awareness of one's environment and of the relationships between self and environment.

 

 These are the coordinates of consciousness as experienced by human beings, all or part of which are also depicted of inanimate forms as understood in the animistic universe of Yorùbá cosmology.

 

Thus, one may modify Agbetuyi's summation along these lines:

Àse is believed to be antecedent to consciousness.  After consciousness is created by àse, consciousness embodies that cosmic power.

 

These issues resonate with the Obàtala /Olodumare ese Ifá, Ifá literature text, which Agbetuyi referenced and which I linked earlier.  I used the story in demonstrating how myth is able to address questions at the intersection of science and metaphysics- in this case- how life and consciousness animate the body in the womb, a retelling and expansion inspired by attending lectures on biology of the embryo, as I explain in the notes to the story. 

Its largely composed by myself, based on a narrative nucleus from Bolaji Idowu's Olodumare: God in Yorùbá Belief, which supplies the story of Obàtala 's adventure in a few lines, a story I build on in terms of the characterization, narrative sequence, dialogue, and imagery of the story Agbetuyi read, including the correlation of Obàtala 's sleep-actually one night- with the rotation of the earth on its axis in one day, creating the difference between night and day.

It's an example of what I name hybrid ese Ifá, a largely new creation constructed from an existing ese Ifá, a hybrid literary genre I understand myself as pioneering, along with the composition of completely new ese Ifá, in which  ese Ifá structure is used in creating new narratives or poetry, another initiative I am pioneering. 

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