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:
I
or
.
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:
I
or
.
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
or
. .
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
I I
I I
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.
Further reading
Duality in Classical Yoruba Thought
The representative published work on duality in classical Yoruba thought in English known to me is Babatunde Lawal, "Ejiwapo:The Dialectics of Twoness in Yoruba Art and Culture",African Arts,Spring 2008.It is freely available at this link:
This version of the article does not have images. The version with images may be accused through the archives of the journal African Arts at the journal archive JSTOR or the archives of the publishers MIT Press,but these are are only accessible by password which is got from either individual or institutional subscription.Anyone who wants the full article with its rich images images can email me at toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com.
Its from this article I got the idea of using dots as well as the use of lines which occurs in other literature,in representing the concept of duality as it emerges in Ifa. The use of the dots is particularly significant because of the use of dots in representing numbers by ancient Greek mathematicians.It will prove helpful in my planned exploration of relationships between ancient and contemporary mathematical symbolism in relation to Ifa.
African Philosophy
I have also been inspired by philosophers wirting on the intellectual possblities of classical African thought,such as Abiola Irele,Paulin Hountondji,Mazisi Kunene in the introduction to his poem Anthem of the Decades and Ayi Kwei Armah as in Armah's novel The Healers,in the conversation between Damfo and Densu.
Western and Asian Philosophy and the History and Philosophy of Science
Reading in the development of Western philosophy and to some degree in Asian philosophy have also influenced me. Another central influence is scholarship in the history and philosophy of science. These fields facilitate an appreciation of how ideas are conceived and manipulated,and used for a variety of purposes.
Relationships between Scientific Cosmology,Spirituality and the Occult:The Example of Isaac Newton
Particularly striking for me have been those works that show historical and philosopghical relationships between science,spirituality and the occult.Of the number I have encountered Rob Iliffe, Newton: A Very Short Introduction,Oxford University Press,2007 sums up the relationship of all three elements in the work of Isaac Newton very well. The essay on Newton by Rchard Westfall in the Enyclopedia Britannica 1992 summarizes beautifully the development of the intertwining of these strands in Newton's work.Westfall's research is displayed more fully in his acclaimed Newton biography,Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton,Cambridge University Press,1093 later summarised in The Life of Isaac Newton,Cambridge University Press,1994.
Science and Philosophy
On relationships between science and philosophy in the context of cognitive systems and processes in general I find particularly exciting Tian Yu Cao, “Ontology and Scientific Explanation” in Explanations: Styles of Explanation in Science.ed.John Cornwell.Oxford:Oxford UP,2004.173-195.175-176 and Conceptual Developments of Twentieth Century Field Theories.Cambridge University Press, February 1997.
Mathematical Symbolism
Works on mathematical symbolism have also sensitized me to an appreciation of the evocative range of symbols and their value in facilitating both precision and the development of ideational range.In this field I have found particularly stimulating Timothy Gowers, Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction,Oxford: Oxford UP,2002 and Keith Devlin, Mathematics: The Science of Patterns ,New York: Scientific American Library,1994 along with Alfred North Whitehead on mathematical and philosophical symbolism in Science and the Modern World,Cambridge: Cambridge UP,1927 and Alfred North Whitehead: An Anthology. Selected by F.S.C Northrop and Mason Gross.Cambridge: Cambridge UP,1953.
Bertrand Russell's illustrated Wisdom of the West is beautiful in demonstrating through its illustrations the role of visualisation in conceiving ideas,in mathematics,philosophy and spirituality.The role of visualization in science has become a quite visible field in studies of science.
Another valuable inspiration in relation to the role of visualisation in science are the articles of the phycist Sylvester James Gates Jr,a good number of which are at the free access science journal archive http://arxiv.org.I/ dont understand more than 1 percent of most of Gates' work since it is not meant for the layperson,and is at the cutting edge in physics but his reflections and demonstrations on the role of visualization in mathematical physics is very revealing.
Particularly striking is the use Michael Faux and himself made of a mathematical technology they developed which they name Adinkra in recognition of its relationship to the Akan/Gyaman Adinkra as another symbol system,a system that I have observed shares similarities of exact identity and more general relationships with their own system. Gates and Faux first presented their symbol system in in "Adinkras: A Graphical Technology for Supersymmetric Representation Theory",published in Phys. Rev. D71:065002, 200 and archived at http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0408004. This essay can be followed to a significant degree by the layperson particularly if they read up basic material on the informing concepts.
The relationships of identical similarity between one of the mathematically conceived symbols they develop in this paper and the Akan/Gyaman Adinkra symbol of Eban,and the almost exact identity between their symbols and the older Adinkra symbol of Epa and of more general similarity between their symbols and the Akan/Gyaman Adinkra symbol of Nyansapon, are very revealing of the possiblities of visual symbols in various contexts and of possibilities of interpreting and adapting Akan/Gyaman Adinkra. These similarities also raises questions regarding the influence from the older system, although in my correspondence with them both scientists deny such influence.
Background
The understanding of Ifa presented here represents my own approach to the system,even as it draws from the traditional understandings of Ifa.It is based on what I have been able to learn about Ifa largely from reading,reflection,some practice and through interaction with Joseph Ohomina,the Bini babalawo who has been my Ifa teacher.I am not formally initiated into Ifa or any Africana religion or knowledge system because I prefer a do-it-yourself approach.I prefer to go as far as such an approach can take me in relation with dialogue with the custodians and scholars of the tradition.
Any suggestions,corrections and questions are welcome.
TO BE CONTINUED
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