Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Abstract
A development of mystical theory and practice from scholarly literature on the Yoruba origin Ogboni esoteric order, in its confluence with other schools of thought and with my personal philosophical and spiritual explorations.
The essay is inspired by a response of humanities scholar Kenneth Harrow to my picture essay, "Mystical Journeys in Lagos: Ogboni Mysticism in Urban Space : A Philosophy of Peregrination", that essay and this one being part of my effort in developing an interpretation of Ogboni philosophy and practice that may be adapted even without access to the conventional learning systems of Ogboni, for those inspired by such conceptions but not motivated by the idea of membership of Ogboni in the traditional sense.
The essay is organized in terms of a central expository text, complemented, in two places, by images of a particular edan ogboni, a central classical Ogboni symbolic and spirit vessel, accompanied by text that builds on these pictures as suggesting central values of the interpretation of Ogboni thought and practice which I am developing.
Cover Image
Detail of an edan ogboni, central symbolic form and spiritual vessel of Ogboni, from The Cobbs Auctioneers site, remarkable for its blend of the naturalistic and the stylized, evoking a sense of otherworldly power in the context of human physicality and the familiar framework of a heterosexual couple, defined by their distinctive physical features.
The aesthetic is human but not completely so, as the streamlined eyes and elegantly expanded eyeballs, in harmony with the pointed thrust of the faces, projects a form both like the human and undefinable in terms of any human type.
Stately and mysterious, their poise crowned by their elegantly detailed headgear, the presence they exude reminds me of visualizations by another master in the evocation of identities connected with the mysterious potencies associated with Earth, as the creator of this edan ogboni has done in developing a version of the primordial couple known in Ogboni thought as "iya", "mother", the binary identity standing for Earth as universal mother.
J.R.R. Tolkien's inimitable reworking, in his novel The Lord of the Rings, of the European folkloristic image of the nature entities known as elves into beings of great preternatural power and eldritch beauty, actualized, for example, in Galadriel and Celeborn, queen and king of Lothlorien, may be readily aligned with this image, anciently existing fellow inhabitants of Earth, glimpsed in terms of their numinous presence by those so attuned, at times perceived in their full form by those empowered to bear the energy of the nakedness of such aesthetic potency, beauty potentially dangerous in its unhuman purity and otherworldly rhythms, but transformative to the experiencer who can assimilate it into their own constitution.
The akedanwaiye, "the life giver who brings the edan to earth", as the designation of the edan ogboni artist may be summed up in the light of his role in achieving fusion of spiritual essence and material form in the process of casting and consecrating the edan, as depicted in Dennis Williams' "The Iconology of the Yoruba Edan Ogboni" and Evelyne Roache Selke's From the Womb of Earth: An Appreciation of Yoruba Bronze Art, a master skilled in what is understood as the delicate art of edan ogboni brass casting, made dangerous by the spiritual potencies invoked as partners in the creative process, working in rhythm with exacting ritual requirements and profound conceptual sensitivities in building a unique expression of what Babatunde Lawal describes in "À Yà Gbó, À Yà Tó: New Perspectives on Edan Ògbóni", as the naturalistically grounded yet ultimately meta-empirical reference of ogboni edan, is here in alignment with Tolkien in the generation of forms of beauty allied to the familiar contours of the human but echoing a sense of power that human beings may more readily imagine and sense rather than grasp.
Dedicated to
The great Dion Fortune, Western magician whose work was central to my introduction to the idea of nature spirituality and to the loftiest visions of magical mysticism, may your labours ever support all beings.
To the creators and sustainers of the network of sacred trees, groves and forests of Benin-City and its outskirts, which initiated me into nature spirituality, transforming my perceptual capacities and range of experience, may your influence be ever radiant, perpetually uplifting.
To Wole Soyinka, whose Myth, Literature and the African World inducted me into classical Yoruba philosophy and spirituality , giving birth in me to a bond with that body of knowledge, may your invigorating presence remain undying.
You brethren whose sparks were critical in my entering the path that has brought me here, may your illumination forever blaze, our nourishing waters combining into a flow sustaining all being.
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Abstract
Text on Cover Image
Dedication
Ogboni Thought as Earth Centred Philosophy
Between Intersubjectivity and Mutual Objectivity in Knowledge
Forms of Mysticism Between the Terrestrial and the Transcendental
Unitive and Perceptual Mysticism
Mystical Discipline in an Attitude to the Everyday
Image and Explanatory Text: The Master of Equanimity
Mysticism and the Elasticity of the Mind
Mysticism and Information Systems, from the Matrix to the Philosophy of Mathematics
Image and Explanatory Text: The Seeker of Balance
Evolutionary Mysticism
Ogboni Philosophy and Ogboni Mysticism
Relationships Between Ogboni Philosophy, Ogboni Mysticism and Magic in the Ogboni Context
The Necessity and Inadequacy of Religion, Philosophy and Science in Exploring Ultimate Questions
The Inspiration of Your Work
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