Ògbóni :From Myth to Physics : Yorùbá Esotericism at the Matrix of Disciplines :A Response to Olayinka Agbetuyi 2 Part 12
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Ògbóni
From Myth to Physics
Yorùbá Esotericism at the Matrix of Disciplines
A Response to Olayinka Agbetuyi
2
Part 12
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
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
My Journey in Exploring Àse through Nature Mysticism
On Language
Developing an Economy of Donations Rather than of Purchase in this Project
My Journey in Exploring Àse through Nature Mysticism
Within the context of nature mysticism, inspired by the Western esoteric thought of Dion Fortune but explored within the nature spirituality of Benin-City as represented by the positioning of sacred trees around the city, I employed meditation on trees, admiring their beauty and trying to pierce, through my sight, to their foundations in the source of existence, a foundation held by some schools of thought to hold for all forms of being.
I also tried to communicate telepathically with trees along with performing rituals meant to expand awareness of different forms of consciousness.
This led to an ability to perceive what I describe as an otherwise invisible energy field around some trees, particularly sacred trees, enabling me to identify sacred trees anywhere I went by that energy field, even if I had never before been to the locality in question and was thus unaware of the value attached to particular trees by specific communities, experiences I had in my explorations beyond Benin and in a visit to my village in Benin's Edo state, a village, whose sacred institutions I knew little about since I had not been there for so long.
These experiences eventually led to a visionary encounter, as I visualized and reflected on the Ogba forest, where I had encountered the most potent of these energy fields, at the point where the Ogba river pours out of the forest into a clearing, breaking ground after a long underground journey, as water bubbles upward from the earth, a field so strong that those who came there to fetch water acknowledged its presence when I pointed out the change in atmosphere as one went beyond a particular spot in the river, these people describing that changed atmosphere as indicating the presence of the goddess of the river.
The visionary encounter involved finding myself somewhere else, different from my study where I was thinking of the forest, an unknown place where I was welcomed by a middle aged Black woman who communicated with me through actions, which I intuitively understood, rather than through words.
With the encounter completed, I opened my eyes to find myself back in my study.
I concluded that the energy field I was visualizing and musing on was so strong in that forest it had facilitated what I later learnt is described in the Western esoteric order AMORC as a projection of consciousness, taking my mind into a dimension enabling contact with an intelligence concentrated in that spot in the forest, the presence of that entity generating the energy field and leading people to describe her as a goddess, a presence drawn by my fascination spanning years of visiting the location and reflecting on it.
I have not been able, however, to replicate the visionary experience in the years since then in spite of trying repeatedly.
What fascinated me about the forest was its distinctive and particularly potent expression of a kind of atmospheric formation I had been observing as surrounding sacred trees and sacred groves in Benin. I am tentatively describing these atmospheres as representing energy fields of a different kind from that currently recognized by science. I interpret their capacity to affect the human mind as their own version of the scientific definition of energy as "the capacity to do work".
I think these atmospheres are similar to my observations of an invisible coruscation of something I describe as energy around faces of people, enabling me discern the spiritual discipline they practiced, information later confirmed, in some cases, by asking them.
They are also similar to the atmosphere I have experienced in St. Benet's church in Cambridge, a stronghold of spiritual culture on account of the daily morning mass and daily evening prayer and Bible reading carried out there for many years, building on its foundations as the oldest church in Cambridge, a legacy of centuries.
These experiences lead me to describe these atmospheres as the intensification of a potential of nature through relationship with spirit, which I describe as an aspect of the universe capable of affecting human consciousness when present in non-human nature and intensified through the actions of human consciousness.
I suspect these atmosphere, representing a form of energy, is an aspect of what is described as àse in Yorùbá and in terms of other names in other systems, a particularly subtle band of energy on a spectrum which has as its middle range those forms of energy which are measurable by contemporary scientific instruments and have no known direct relationship with consciousness, while at the upper scale of the spectrum are forms of energy that are too subtle to be measured by current scientific instruments and which are intimately related to the incidence of consciousness in nature.
The Ògbóni ritual specialist may understand themself as calling upon a spirit, an invisible, sentient entity, to concentrate itself at the spot where the ritual elements are buried, as Ògbóni initiate Kolawole Ositola describes his ritual practice as a priest of various deities of Yorùbá spirituality and as incidentally confirmed by Susanne Wenger, another Ògbóni initiate and devotee of various deities deities in Yorùbá spirituality,
What impression is one likely to get on approaching such ritual spaces?
My experience is that they often generate a distinctive atmosphere, an atmosphere that acts on the mind of the person who pays attention to them.
This atmosphere reminds me of those atmospheres I have encountered around sacred trees and groves.
These are represented for me by trees, some of which which I understand as conscious as well as groves and forests which embody a form of consciousness, represented by such entities referred to as the spirits of rivers, suggested by my encounter with the woman in the visionary experience as I visualized and reflected on the location in the Ogba forest.
My experiences with the spirituality of trees has encompassed the sublime and the demonic, the numinous and the repellent. It includes exposure to "an unseen but majestic presence that inspires both dread and fascination and constitutes the non-rational element in vital religion" as Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language describes the "numinous" as developed by Rudolph Otto in The Idea of the Holy.
I have also encountered the demonic, represented by an impression that grew steadily in my mind every time I thought about a particular iroko tree I admired, a tree I had encountered on one of my many journeys into forests and semi-cultivated, environments rich in trees and plants, a tree I had tried to communicate with telepathically.
This impression eventually grew into a definite idea, a suggestion recalling some of the most inhuman notions associated with iroko trees in Southern Nigeria folklore and witchcraft lore, at which point I studiously avoided the tree anytime I was in its vicinity, being convinced the idea came from the tree rather than from my own mind.
I am developing these experiences in terms of philosophy and practices related to Southern Nigerian ideas about witchcraft, centered in the Nigerian context in the belief in the ability of witches to travel without using their bodies, congregating in trees.
I see the experience I had, enabled by the Ogba river energy nexus, as a version of that belief from Nigeria of how witches travel without their bodies and assemble in trees. I think the tree, grove or forest can provide access to another dimension into which the traveller can enter and interact with the enablements of a physical body even though the journey is undertaken mentally rather than physically.
This philosophy would involve a metaphysics, ethics and techniques of witchcraft, drawing from my personal experiences and enriched by a critical interpretation of Yoruba iyami and aje thought, as well as Benin azen lore, these being close correlates to the historical variations and continuities in the Western conception of the term "witch".
On Language
The term “relationship” implies any kind of alignment, the word “parallel” being a kind of relationship.
Stating that CERN and Ògbóni demonstrate relationships does not suggest the practitioners of the diverse institutions had any kind of contact with each other.
“Conjuncting” might be one of my neologisms.
Developing an Economy of Donations Rather than of Purchase in this Project
To sell is to exchange for money.
To sell is also metaphorical for trying to win approval.
My work is offered free without anyone having to pay to access it.
When I write and people respond, I am happy.
When I write and people don't respond, I am happy that I have written.
I write and share because I enjoy it, writing and sharing being fundamental to the value of my life, a value that stands regardless of appreciation or response.
The Hindu Bhagavad Gita depicts that as a discipline of karma-yoga, action with a focus on ultimate value, rooted in a depth that transcends the permutations of any particular moment in time and space.
Readers might also wish to support work that is thorough and rich, demonstrating breadth of research, depth of analysis and beauty and power of expression yet is readily accessible, without being predicated upon the exchange of services or goods for money, the current dominant economic paradigm.
Such support in material terms is what is known as donation.
I admire Wikipedia’s pioneering use of this free information and donation model.
The book I provide as expression of gratitude for the donation is more of an incentive than a sold object because the donation may be any amount chosen by the donor.
The Ògbóni project is an aspect of my work on classical African esoteric systems, that being part of my larger body of work on Yorùbá thought and art, itself a component of my exploration of African systems of knowledge, the African centred initiative itself a section of my explorations of cognitive systems and processes from different parts of the world, at the intersection of the visual and verbal arts, philosophy, spirituality and science.
One way of contributing to this historic initiative is by donating.