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.
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.
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