Recreating a Scriptural tradition : Constructing New Ese Ifa: Questions And Vision

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

                                                                  Recreating a Scriptural Tradition 

                                                             Creating New Ese Ifa: Questions and Vision

                                                                                                

                                                                                 

                                                                                           

                    Collage of me in my study with correlative Ifa, Voodoo and Benin Olokun igha-ede symbols

                                                                       Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

                                                                                         Abstract

An exploration of the issues involved in creating new forms of the literature of the Yoruba origin Ifa oracle.

 

Ese ifa are the sacred texts of the Yoruba origin of the Ifa oracle. These poems and stories of unknown number,] are used as part of the divinatry process, as Ifa's central information system and as sources for  the Orisa cosmology to which Ifa belongs. Ifa, as part of the Orisa spirituality, is one of the world's rapidly globalising  spiritual systems.

The composition of ese ifa has been done anonymously, dating from a period before the advent of writing in Yorubaland, an anonymity enhancing its air of timelessness, of divine inspiration at times attributed to it.

I, as an Ifa enthusiast operating outside the conventional training system of Ifa diviners and initiates, create new ese ifa, leading to debates at the intersection of the secular and the sacred, imagination and the spiritual, to which I respond in the passages below.

Ese Ifa is literature, as Wande Abimbola has very well demonstrated through his books An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus, Ifa Divination Poetry and Sixteen Great Poems of Ifa.

Being literary, it is verbalization projected imaginatively through techniques demonstrated by Abimbola.

 

Anyone can learn these techniques and emulate the significatory universe of ese ifa or even adapt these zones of reference to other subjects.

 

Ese ifa, as Karen Barber has observed, is what may be described as an assimilative genre in Yoruba literature, integrating other genres into its varied expressions.

 

The issue here is not whether or not ese ifa can be emulated. It can and I have done it, posting the examples online.

 

In fact, the theoretical and practical study of ese ifa, how to understand and construct it, enriches the cosmos of global literary study.

 

The question then becomes- does my emulating ese ifa expressive techniques make the outcome an example of ese ifa?

Are there other disciplinary criteria that must be satisfied to fulfill this goal?

That is the stance of Awo Fategbe in the debate we had on the thread of one of my Facebook postings of a traditional ese ifa which I had expanded using my own words.

Fategbe admired my effort but saw it as a contribution to secular literature that does not belong within the ese ifa corpus.

 

He argued for ese ifa as an oracular epistemology- a means of gaining knowedge-  emerging from and activating spiritual realities. 

 

Questions of the relationship between sacred and secular literature are fundamental at the intersection of religion and literature, the context where the ontology of ese ifa belongs, the frame in which it should be studied in comparison with other religious  texts.

 

If ese ifa is understood as emerging from oracular inspiration, as Awo Fategbe argues, how may such inspiration be cultivated?

 

The construction of technically competent, artistically impressive ese ifa makes it clear that constructing ese ifa is not necessarily an esoteric process.

 

If it's argued that ese ifa is fundamentally a performative expression, actualized through relationships between diviner and client, as Noel Armherd argues in Reciting Ifa and as Olayinka Agbetuyi argues in a debate at the USAAfrica Dialogues Series Google group, how may one develop such relationships between actors and ese ifa, so as to facilitate  using such verbal art as a problem solving, solution finding mechanism?

 

Are such questions answerable only from within the esoteric hermeneutics disclosed only in traditional Ifa training?

 

What of such innovators as those who describe themselves as doing Ifa divination without such training, represented by Jaap Verdjuin and his Independent Ifa school, a divinatory process on which he has published a book and the couple who have developed a system of digital Ifa divination?

 

Is it possible to cultivate relationships with spiritual powers described as anchoring Ifa, using ese ifa, Ifa literature, as a means of cultivating such relationships, akin to the use of literature as an aspirational and invocational vehicle in spiritualities across the world? 

 

Would such strategies be unique to Ifa, particularly since it belongs amongst a complex of structurally and philosophically similar divination systems from Africa to Asia, from the Igbo Afa and Benin City Oguega to the Dahomean Fa and the Chinese I Ching, differing from them largely in terms of Ifa’s greater verbal and visual artistic scope?

 

Like many humanistic spiritualities, the Ifa and the Orisa tradition within which it belongs privilege the individual self as the embodiment of the self's ultimate potential, the nexus of it's interaction with cosmos.

 

One view holds that the core of Ifa divination is in developing a relationship with the immortal core of the self, the ultimate unifier and enabler of the self's journey through physical and spiritual space and time.

 

Must relationship with oneself, even at such depth, necessarily be an activity someone else, such as the Ifa diviner, must do for one?

 

I am developing a do-it-yourself Ifa, one that actualizes Ifa's potential as a method of self exploration, navigating the unfolding links between self and society, self and cosmos, applicable to the daily challenges of living and their integration within the larger universe of life as a mission.

 

Nothing grows by remaining the same.

 

Ifa is on the move.

Also published in

Ese Ifa blog

LinkedIn

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Twitter

 

 

 

[Michael Afolayan]

"Anyone can learn these techniques and emulate the significatory universe of ese ifa or even adapt these zones of reference to other subjects. # Ese ifa, ̀as Karen Barber has observed, is what may be described as an assimilative genre in Yoruba literature, integrating other genres into its varied expressions. # The issue here is not whether or not ese ifa can be emulated. It can and I have done it, posting the examples online..." (Oluwatoyin Adepoju)

===

Oluwatoyin Adepoju:

You err in these assessments. I may not understand your concept of what you've christened "significatory Itime.fa universe", but this much I know: not just anyone can learn and "emulate" Ifa, as you suggested. It is a lengthy educational and spiritual process that could actually last a lifetime. Ifa, as a body of knowledge, is not just the literary aspect of it alone (that is, the part that is committed to writing by academics), it is heavily spiritual, a cultural and comprehensive way of life. I (or you) can memorize and regurgitate ese Ifa, but that doesn't mean anything more than spewing out what the Yoruba call "Òkú Òrò" (dead, inefficacious words), mere gibberishes spewed out with no consequences. If you have the time and the will, you may follow the 7-8 outlined formula suggested by Wande Abimbola in his 1976 IFA: An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus. But remember that this was just a PhD dissertation in which the author was doing a text analysis of his observations. It does not suggest anyone could follow the formula and create an authentic ifa verse.  

Yes, Barber was right (by the way, she is Karin, not Karen*) by assessing Ifa as an all-encompassing body of knowledge, where you can find any theme or subject and almost anything in its universe. Barber is not suggestive of a porous traction that where anyone anywhere could improvise. In fact, if you ever listened to one of the late Professor Sophie Oluwole's conversations, you would hear the same notion. Indeed, if you send me your WhatAppable number, I would forward to you one of her conversations relevant to this matter not already heard it.

My point? Ese Ifa in its full authenticity cannot be emulated.

MOA

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Thanks MOA.

The challenge we face in discussing the ontology of ese ifa is that we are often faced with declarations of opinion without analysis.

Please forgive my asking you to share why you hold the views you do.

It's when we start examining the logic of our views we begin to get at the heart of this matter.

Your presentation contains various layers of assertions we need to distinguish and correlate-

Q-  ''[ Ifa]  is a lengthy educational and spiritual process that could actually last a lifetime.''

What is the content and goal of this process as it relates to ese ifa that inspires this discussion?

2. ''Ifa, as a body of knowledge, is not just the literary aspect of it alone (that is, the part that is committed to writing by academics), it is heavily spiritual, a cultural and comprehensive way of life.''

Q- Since the discussion is about ese ifa, not Ifa as a whole,  ese ifa can be discussed as a vehicle for the spiritual, cultural and comprehensive way of life you reference.

That being so, is ese ifa not open to investigation and mastery along such lines outside the traditional learning system, and if not, why?

3.  ''I (or you) can memorize and regurgitate ese Ifa, but that doesn't mean anything more than spewing out what the Yoruba call "Òkú Òrò" (dead, inefficacious words), mere gibberishes spewed out with no consequences.''

Q- Why should that be so?  

What quality about ese ifa as traditionally understood gives it vitality and efficacy and  are these values not accessible outside the traditional context, if not why?

4. ''If you have the time and the will, you may follow the 7-8 outlined formula suggested by Wande Abimbola in his 1976 IFA: An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus. But remember that this was just a PhD dissertation in which the author was doing a text analysis of his observations. It does not suggest anyone could follow the formula and create an authentic ifa verse.'

Q- What qualities of ese ifa demonstrate or generate its authenticity beyond its literary structure and readily accessible content and why are these qualities not accessible outside the traditional system?

5. '' Yes, Barber was right (by the way, she is Karin, not Karen*) by assessing Ifa as an all-encompassing body of knowledge, where you can find any theme or subject and almost anything in its universe. Barber is not suggestive of a porous traction that where anyone anywhere could improvise.''

Q- Why are Ifa literature, epistemology,  metaphysics and divination,  its core disciplines,  not open to improvisation by anyone?  

What are the criteria that define valid activity in these fields of knowledge in Ifa?

Ese ifa scholarship and Ifa scholarship generally will benefit greatly from the examination of the questions rather than the current unexamined approach centered in leaving the traditional views unquestioned.

Verbal language, being a fundamental feature of humanity, is perhaps the central human information system and is thus  fundamental to spirituality, becoming strategic to cosmologies, prayers and rituals, with some cosmologies understanding language as primal, Hinduism, for example, describing the sound OM as the primal sound at the source of existence.

These issues are not unique to Ifa and are being vigorously addressed in studies of various spiritualities. 

Analysis of those points you raised will help bring studies of the ontology-the mode of being- of ese ifa and Ifa generally, further from unquestioned religious veneration into critically examined religious theology and philosophy of language.

great thanks

toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/1590960591.1979624.1606824262973%40mail.yahoo.com.

[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

Alagba MOA:

You have spoken!

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: 'Michael Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Date: 01/12/2020 14:50 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>, Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>, WoleSoyinkaSociety <wolesoyin...@yahoogroups.com>, Bring Your Baseball Bat <naijao...@yahoogroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Recreating a Scriptural tradition :Constructing  New Ese Ifa: Questions And Vision

"Anyone can learn these techniques and emulate the significatory universe of ese ifa or even adapt these zones of reference to other subjects. # Ese ifa, ̀as Karen Barber has observed, is what may be described as an assimilative genre in Yoruba literature, integrating other genres into its varied expressions. # The issue here is not whether or not ese ifa can be emulated. It can and I have done it, posting the examples online..." (Oluwatoyin Adepoju)

===

Oluwatoyin Adepoju:

You err in these assessments. I may not understand your concept of what you've christened "significatory Itime.fa universe", but this much I know: not just anyone can learn and "emulate" Ifa, as you suggested. It is a lengthy educational and spiritual process that could actually last a lifetime. Ifa, as a body of knowledge, is not just the literary aspect of it alone (that is, the part that is committed to writing by academics), it is heavily spiritual, a cultural and comprehensive way of life. I (or you) can memorize and regurgitate ese Ifa, but that doesn't mean anything more than spewing out what the Yoruba call "Òkú Òrò" (dead, inefficacious words), mere gibberishes spewed out with no consequences. If you have the time and the will, you may follow the 7-8 outlined formula suggested by Wande Abimbola in his 1976 IFA: An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus. But remember that this was just a PhD dissertation in which the author was doing a text analysis of his observations. It does not suggest anyone could follow the formula and create an authentic ifa verse.  

Yes, Barber was right (by the way, she is Karin, not Karen*) by assessing Ifa as an all-encompassing body of knowledge, where you can find any theme or subject and almost anything in its universe. Barber is not suggestive of a porous traction that where anyone anywhere could improvise. In fact, if you ever listened to one of the late Professor Sophie Oluwole's conversations, you would hear the same notion. Indeed, if you send me your WhatAppable number, I would forward to you one of her conversations relevant to this matter not already heard it.

My point? Ese Ifa in its full authenticity cannot be emulated.

MOA

On Tuesday, December 1, 2020, 12:52:49 AM GMT+1, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Edited

Thanks MOA.

The challenge we face in discussing the ontology of ese ifa is that we are often faced with declarations of opinion without analysis.

Please forgive my asking you to share why you hold the views you do.

It's when we start examining the logic of our views we begin to get at the heart of this matter.

Your presentation contains various layers of assertions we need to distinguish and correlate-

Q-  ''[ Ifa]  is a lengthy educational and spiritual process that could actually last a lifetime.''

What is the content and goal of this process?

How does this process relates to ese ifa that inspires this discussion?

Is this process not open to development outside the traditional training system,  and if not, why?

2. ''Ifa, as a body of knowledge, is not just the literary aspect of it alone (that is, the part that is committed to writing by academics), it is heavily spiritual, a cultural and comprehensive way of life.''

Q- What, in essence, is the character of this spiritual, cultural and comprehensive way of life, to the degree that it can be briefly summed up, as most spiritualities sum up their core distinguishing orientations?

Since  ese ifa is a vehicle for the spiritual, cultural and comprehensive way of life you reference, is ese ifa not open to investigation and mastery along such lines outside the traditional learning system, and if not, why?

3.  ''I (or you) can memorize and regurgitate ese Ifa, but that doesn't mean anything more than spewing out what the Yoruba call "Òkú Òrò" (dead, inefficacious words), mere gibberishes spewed out with no consequences.''

Q- Why should that be so?  

What quality about ese ifa as traditionally understood gives it vitality and efficacy and  are these values not accessible outside the traditional context, if not why?

4. ''If you have the time and the will, you may follow the 7-8 outlined formula suggested by Wande Abimbola in his 1976 IFA: An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus. But remember that this was just a PhD dissertation in which the author was doing a text analysis of his observations. It does not suggest anyone could follow the formula and create an authentic ifa verse.'

Q- What qualities of ese ifa demonstrate or generate its authenticity beyond its literary structure and readily accessible content and why are these qualities not accessible outside the traditional system?

5. '' Yes, Barber was right (by the way, she is Karin, not Karen*) by assessing Ifa as an all-encompassing body of knowledge, where you can find any theme or subject and almost anything in its universe. Barber is not suggestive of a porous traction that where anyone anywhere could improvise.''

Q- Why are Ifa literature, epistemology,  metaphysics and divination,  its core disciplines,  not open to improvisation by anyone?  

What are the criteria that define valid activity in these fields of knowledge in Ifa?

Ese ifa scholarship and Ifa scholarship generally will benefit greatly from the examination of the questions rather than the current unexamined approach centered in leaving the traditional views unquestioned.

Verbal language, being a fundamental feature of humanity, is perhaps the central human information system and is thus  fundamental to spirituality, becoming strategic to cosmologies, prayers and rituals, with some cosmologies understanding language as primal, Hinduism, for example, describing the sound OM as the primal sound at the source of existence.

These issues are not unique to Ifa and are being vigorously addressed in studies of various spiritualities. 

Analysis of those points you raised will help bring studies of the ontology-the mode of being- of ese ifa and Ifa generally, further from unquestioned religious veneration into critically examined religious theology and philosophy of language.

great thanks

toyin

[Michael Afolayan]

Oluwatoyin Adepoju: 

I promise to respond to all your inquiries IFF you promise to bring them up in a refereed journal. I can't sacrifice my retirement time on things that I cannot justify. Sorry o!

MOA   

On Tuesday, December 1, 2020, 7:51:21 PM GMT+1, 'Bayo Omolola' via Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

"O pe'fa lekee!

O p'Esu lole!

O wa ko'ti ogboin sebo!"

Any academic exercise without a deep knowledge of the cultural, religious, philosophical, linguistic, moral, spiritual and other aspects of Ifa will generate debates for centuries, especially when we take foreign approaches or lenses to determine what we think Ifa is or should be. 

For years, I have internally questioned some aspects of the Bible and the Q'uran and histories relating to the religions that use the books, but the more I keep that thinking in my brain, the more it is glaring to me that nothing changes the vital beliefs they promote -for the scriptures remain the same though there are different translations in circulation. 

The word "belief" is too powerful. It controls the believers, and as such it becomes difficulty for those who do not believe to believe what they do not believe. Persuasion, an approach to gaining support, plays its role when an unbeliever changes and believes what he or she did not accept or believe in the past. 

Is Ifa adaptable to creative hands? Can a new Ifa verse or corpus be generated? Technically, the answer is "yes", a creative artiste can borrow from Ifa to poetically create new information, use the verbal tone or voice for chanting Ifa to communicate his or her message(s). Imagine how comedians twist Biblical and Quranic quotations or pattern their messages like religious texts these days -perhaps for satire or for any message they intend. But can imitating the Ifa pattern to create a new version generate the original Ifa texts. Any artiste that borrows from Ifa to create new thing is like an actors or actress blending religious concepts or doctrines to design what is different from but at the same similar to the tool used.  

Like I have mentioned somewhere above, the debate will continue for life. Spirituality will continue to be that. Religions will continue to be that. Deep inner conviction that makes one to believe one thing but rejects the others is part of life. Changes will continue in how people believe things though crucial elements may never change. Ifa will remain as it is, no matter how long people twist it to fit their academic needs. While I believe that, I also think that in the future, manipulators may pose a challenge -a trend that is not unknown globally.

BRO

On Tuesday, December 1, 2020, 12:34:51 PM EST, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks MOA.

The challenge we face in discussing the ontology of ese ifa is that we are often faced with declarations of opinion without analysis.

Please forgive my asking you to share why you hold the views you do.

It's when we start examining the logic of our views we begin to get at the heart of this matter.

Your presentation contains various layers of assertions we need to distinguish and correlate-

Q-  ''[ Ifa]  is a lengthy educational and spiritual process that could actually last a lifetime.''

What is the content and goal of this process?

How does this process relate to ese ifa that inspires this discussion?

Is this process not open to development outside the traditional training system,  and if not, why?

2. ''

Ifa, as a body of knowledge, is not just the literary aspect of it alone (that is, the part that is committed to writing by academics), it is heavily spiritual, a cultural and comprehensive way of life.''

Q- What, in essence, is the character of this spiritual, cultural and comprehensive way of life, to the degree that it can be briefly summed up, as most spiritualities sum up their core distinguishing orientations?

Since  ese ifa is a vehicle for the spiritual, cultural and comprehensive way of life you reference, is ese ifa not open to investigation and mastery along such lines outside the traditional learning system, and if not, why?

3.  ''I (or you) can memorize and regurgitate ese Ifa, but that doesn't mean anything more than spewing out what the Yoruba call "Òkú Òrò" (dead, inefficacious words), mere gibberishes spewed out with no consequences.''

Q- Why should that be so?  

What quality about ese ifa as traditionally understood gives it vitality and efficacy and  are these values not accessible outside the traditional context, if not why?

4. ''If you have the time and the will, you may follow the 7-8 outlined formula suggested by Wande Abimbola in his 1976 IFA: An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus. But remember that this was just a PhD dissertation in which the author was doing a text analysis of his observations. It does not suggest anyone could follow the formula and create an authentic ifa verse.'

Q- What qualities of ese ifa demonstrate or generate its authenticity beyond its literary structure and readily accessible content and why are these qualities not accessible outside the traditional system?

5. '' Yes, Barber was right (by the way, she is Karin, not Karen*) by assessing Ifa as an all-encompassing body of knowledge, where you can find any theme or subject and almost anything in its universe. Barber is not suggestive of a porous traction that where anyone anywhere could improvise.''

Q- Why are Ifa literature, epistemology,  metaphysics and divination,  its core disciplines,  not open to improvisation by anyone?  

What are the criteria that define valid activity in these fields of knowledge in Ifa?

Ese ifa scholarship and Ifa scholarship generally will benefit greatly from the examination of the questions rather than the current unexamined approach centered in leaving the traditional views unquestioned.

Verbal language, being a fundamental feature of humanity, is perhaps the central human information system and is thus  fundamental to spirituality, becoming strategic to cosmologies, prayers and rituals, with some cosmologies understanding language as primal, Hinduism, for example, describing the sound OM as the primal sound at the source of existence.

These issues are not unique to Ifa and are being vigorously addressed in studies of various spiritualities. 

Analysis of those points you raised will help bring studies of the ontology-the mode of being- of ese ifa and Ifa generally, further from unquestioned religious veneration into critically examined religious theology and philosophy of language.

great thanks

toyin

On Tue, 1 Dec 2020 at 15:49, 'Michael Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/1590960591.1979624.1606824262973%40mail.yahoo.com.

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[Michael Afolayan]

Your wise counsel are well taken, Alagba OAA!

MOA

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB2982C36D19A74C1FD83C4C51A6F40%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Edited

Thanks MOA.

You brought up these issues on  a social media site and I have responded accordingly in recognition of their gravity.

The other day, you requested guidance on understanding Adepoju's project.

Is this not how to go about it?

I'm puzzled about your insistence on limiting a critical analysis of these issues to a refereed journal.

It's possible for you to respond, and, at the conclusion of our exchange, organise your responses, edit them and send them  to such a journal.

As it is, if you don't respond, you deprive yourself of the opportunity of generating such a body of discourse and of the opportunity of representation in the debate on the modernisation of Ifa, as it may be described, or in the tension between traditionalism and recreation in Ifa, a development ongoing on various fronts.

All my academic publications, except one, arose from my social media activity, a demonstration  of the expanded landscape of scholarly discourse beyond the academic journal, seminar, classroom and conference, some of these publications  being edited transfers from my social media postings to the academic contexts.

I thank those academic scholars who enable or encouraged such transfers.

In deciding whether or not to engage in such detailed analysis on social media, one approach that could come up is the thought that the person making such enquiries is fishing for information which they don't have or want to use the person they are questioning in order to draw from them from what the questioner does not  know.

On the contrary, I was enabled to identify the implications of your summations on account of my own engagement with such questions in the study of Ifa in the context of study of other spiritual systems, from Western esotericism to Christianity to Hinduism and Buddhism where these issues are thoroughly trashed across the centuries while they still await adequate examination in Ifa Studies.

Part of the challenge in Ifa Studies is the equation of scholarship and critical examination of issues with divorce from spirituality, as if spirituality and intellect, spiritual encounter and critical analysis,  are not better understood as symbiotic forms within the performative capacity that defines human totality within the context of the cosmic enablement empowering all agents with unique expressive potential known as àse in Orisa cosmology, as beautifully described in chapter 1 of Drewal at al's Yoruba :  Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, building on such foundational works as Rowland Abiodun's ''Understanding Yoruba Art and Aesthetics: The Concept Ase'' and ''Ase: Visualizing and Verbalizing Creative Power through Art'' later integrated into his Yoruba Art and Language : Seeking the African in African Art.

How may the constellation of creative powers that constitute the human being be correlated in a synergistic unity, of mutual balance, of mutual critique and enrichment, of intellect and imagination, sensory and extra-sensory perception, witchcraft to cosmological  synthesis in mystical vision, adapting Babatunde Lawal's majestic summation of classical Yoruba epistemology in ''Aworan: Representing the Self and its Metaphysical Other in Yoruba Art'' in correlation with John Umeh's discussion of similar ideas of relationships between forms of perception in Igbo Afa epistemology in his two volume After God is Dibia:Igbo Cosmology, Divination and Sacred Science in Nigeria?

The relationship between intellect and spirit, between tradition, in its native form and its recreation under the impulse of expanded options was decisive in the development of Western Christian theology from such Church fathers as Augustine and Origen, with the struggle across the centuries of authenticity as opposed to heresy being centred in this tension, even as Thomas Aquinas, like Augustine did in a different manner,  argued for the unity of all human powers in terms of human reflection of the unity of God, the template of human and cosmic being, the image in terms of which the human being is made as understood in Biblical terms.

Similar issues are evident in Islamic and Jewish thought and are addressed with particular force in Hindu and Buddhist philosophies where change and recreation in the context of relationships between various cognitive powers, from inspiration to imagination to intellect,  have been accepted as central to the unfolding manifestations of an originating spiritual impulse, undergoing metamorphosis in different contexts even as its inspirational core remains the same.

I began my studies of the Orisa tradition and Ifa as a magician in the Western esoteric tradition, adapting Western techniques of invocation of spirits to the Orisa tradition, under the inspiration of Soyinka's Myth, Literature and the African World, which initiated me into Orisa spirituality, inspiring my moving my focus from Western esotericism to Orisa, techniques that remain central to my practice in the Western esoteric culture of the unity of scholarship and spirituality, of intellect, imagination and spirit in engaging with a mysterious universe in which humanity is spectator and participant, interpreter and co-constructor, a culture in which the informing epistemic principles, the logic of the development of knowledge at the nexus of humanity and cosmos, is carefully examined in order to establish, as far as possible, the relative validity of the various kinds of knowledge at play.

My work on various spiritualities operates in terms of a relationship between spiritual practice and intellectual engagement, even when this is not disclosed because its not considered relevant to all contexts.

My scholarship on Orisa and Ifa has been  empowered by the sense of invisible presences as I engaged in these activities, even in my studies in England where these scholarly explorations flowered in earnest under the encouragement of teachers and inspiration of breadth of interdisciplinary exposure at the University of Kent, from Lyn Innes in literature to Leon Schlamm and Angela Voss in religion to Anna Medeiros and Roger and Cardinal as more general enablers in European and comparative literature to Tania Tribe in art   at SOAS and Theo Hermans in comparative literature at UCL who were keen on my presentation of ''divinatory epistemology,'' a term I gained from Kent through people like Angela Voss and Geoffrey Cornelius who are both practising diviners in the Western tradition, as well as explorers of Chinese I Ching and academic scholars eager to ground divination studies within a broad epistemic  frame as part of graduate programs, a vision they eventually took to Canterbury Christ Church University  on leaving Kent, actualised in the MA in Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred, these encounters across diverse institutions actualizing the possibilities earlier indicated for me by my first interaction with a scholar who identified with the possibility of doing graduate work on Ifa,   Ademola Dasylva at the University of Ibadan.

I thank my family who made those transformative educational experiences possible, building on the foundational University of Benin BA  in English and literature which they also enabled, within which context I was inspired by Virginia Ola, mentor, unofficial guidance counselor, inspiring teacher and epitome of ethics,  Richard Masagbor, subtly powerful creative influence,  Ogo Ofuani, mentor and embodiment of academic vision and bold unionist, Opene, superb and compassionate teacher, Steve Ogude, elegant reflector of intellectual culture, Romanus Egudu, striking scholar and memorable teacher, Okpure Obuke, fatherly and broadly informed, agent of disciplinary decolonisation,  Chinyere Okafor, diligent, intellectually and artistically adventurous,  Michael Onwuemene, gentle and diligent, Victor Longe, consistently committed teacher, Odun Balogun, urbane and committed scholar of broad intellectual orientations, Abdul Rasheed Yesufu, humanism embodied, cognitive acumen luminous, Felix Okeke-Ezigbo, sparkling intellect, Titilayo Ufomata, impressive teacher and big sister, elevated above pettiness, may you and yours  all prosper, brethren.

My work on Ogboni is vitalized by meditations, invocations and prayers in relation to Ogboni powers as I understand them.

Even then, I am to deliver scholarship inspired by these contexts without having to disclose the full range of my methods.

I have discussed the spiritual dimension of Ifa in various essays, and described my engagement with this spirituality as a method of developing scholarly knowledge.

My methods are inspired by but are not identical with traditional approaches but represent an adaptation of the multi-cognitive  unity of Ifa, in which spiritual aspiration and imaginative range, mental synthesis and artistic evocation are subsumed within a mathematical dynamism represented by Odu Ifa, the central organisational and information system of Ifa, understood as sentient agents identifying all possibilities of existence, as described by babalawo Joseph Ohomina, as ''spirits  whose origin we do not know, whose language is not human and of whom we understand only a small fraction of their significance,'' as Ohomina puts it, as well, as identities expressed in terms of human cultural forms represented by graphic and numerical patterns and literary forms.

Allow me to encourage you to share your understanding, coming,  most likely from a more direct encounter with traditional Ifa than myself, gained at a time when Ifa in Nigeria was even more pristine than it is now in the era of globalisation, allied with your extensive  training and scholarly practice in the Western academy in its Nigerian and Western expressions at their best, scholarship within and beyond Yoruba culture.

It will contribute to understanding in the subject and may be published by you in any platform beyond this one but if you don't discuss with an interlocutor who stimulates your views, how will that exposition of yours emerge in its fullness?

On Wed, 2 Dec 2020 at 10:25, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks MOA.

You brought up these issues on  a social media site and I have responded accordingly in recognition of their gravity.

The other day, you requested guidance on understanding Adepoju's project.

Is this not how to go about it?

I'm puzzled about your insistence on limiting a critical analysis of these issues to a refereed journal.

It's possible for you to respond, and, at the conclusion of our exchange, organise your responses, edit them and send them  to such a journal.

As it is, if you don't respond, you deprive yourself of the opportunity of generating such a body of discourse and of the opportunity of representation in the debate on the modernisation of Ifa, as it may be described, or in the tension between traditionalism and recreation in Ifa, a development ongoing on various fronts.

All my academic publications, except one, arose from my social media activity, a demonstration  of the expanded landscape of scholarly discourse beyond the academic journal, seminar, classroom and conference, some of these publications  being edited transfers from my social media postings to the academic contexts.

I thank those academic scholars who enable or encouraged such transfers.

In deciding whether or not to engage in such detailed analysis on social media, one approach that could come up is the thought that the person making such enquiries is fishing for information which they don't have or want to use the person they are questioning in order to draw from them from what the questioner does not  know.

On the contrary, I was enabled to identify the implications of your summations on account of my own engagement with such questions in the study of Ifa in the context of study of other spiritual systems, from Western esotericism to Christianity to Hinduism and Buddhism where these issues are thoroughly trashed across the centuries while they still await adequate examination in Ifa Studies.

Part of the challenge in Ifa Studies is the equation of scholarship and critical examination of issues with divorce from spirituality, as if spirituality and intellect, spiritual encounter and critical analysis,  are not better understood as symbiotic forms within the performative capacity that defines human totality within the context of the cosmic enablement empowering all agents with unique expressive potential known as àse in Orisa cosmology, as beautifully described in chapter 1 of Drewal at al's Yoruba :  Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, building on such foundational works as Rowland Abiodun's ''Understanding Yoruba Art and Aesthetics: The Concept Ase'' and ''Ase: Visualizing and Verbalizing Creative Power through Art'' later integrated into his Yoruba Art and Language : Seeking the African in African Art.

How may the constellation of creative powers that constitute the human being be correlated in a synergistic unity, of mutual balance, of mutual critique and enrichment, of intellect and imagination, sensory and extra-sensory perception, witchcraft to cosmological  synthesis in mystical vision, adapting Babatunde Lawal's majestic summation of classical Yoruba epistemology in ''Aworan: Representing the Self and its Metaphysical Other in Yoruba Art'' in correlation with John Umeh's discussion of similar ideas of relationships between forms of perception in Igbo Afa epistemology in his two volume After God is Dibia:Igbo Cosmology, Divination and Sacred Science in Nigeria?

The relationship between intellect and spirit, between tradition, in its native form and its recreation under the impulse of expanded options was decisive in the development of Western Christian theology from such Church fathers as Augustine and Origen, with the struggle across the centuries of authenticity as opposed to heresy being centred in this tension, even as Thomas Aquinas, like Augustine did in a different manner,  argued for the unity of all human powers in terms of human reflection of the unity of God, the template of human and cosmic being, the image in terms of which the human being is made as understood in Biblical terms.

Similar issues are evident in Islamic and Jewish thought and are addressed with particular force in Hindu and Buddhist philosophies where change and recreation in the context of relationships between various cognitive powers, from inspiration to imagination to intellect,  have been accepted as central to the unfolding manifestations of an originating spiritual impulse, undergoing metamorphosis in different contexts even as its inspirational core remains the same.

I began my studies of the Orisa tradition and Ifa as a magician in the Western esoteric tradition, adapting Western techniques of invocation of spirits to the Orisa tradition, under the inspiration of Soyinka's Myth, Literature and the African World, which initiated me into Orisa spirituality, inspiring my moving my focus from Western esotericism to Orisa, techniques that remain central to my practice in the Western esoteric culture of the unity of scholarship and spirituality, of intellect, imagination and spirit in engaging with a mysterious universe in which humanity is spectator and participant, interpreter and co-constructor, a culture in which the informing epistemic principles, the logic of the development of knowledge at the nexus of humanity and cosmos, is carefully examined in order to establish, as far as possible, the relative validity of the various kinds of knowledge at play.

My work on various spiritualities operates in terms of a relationship between spiritual practice and intellectual engagement, even when this is not disclosed because its not considered relevant to all contexts.

My scholarship on Orisa and Ifa has been  empowered by the sense of invisible presences as I engaged in these activities, even in my studies in England where these scholarly explorations flowered in earnest under the encouragement of teachers and inspiration of breadth of interdisciplinary exposure at the University of Kent, from Lyn Innes in literature to Leon Schlamm and Angela Voss in religion to Anna Medeiros and Roger and Cardinal as more general enablers in European and comparative literature to Tania Tribe in art   at SOAS and Theo Hermans in comparative literature at UCL who were keen on my presentation of ''divinatory epistemology,'' a term I gained from Kent through people like Angela Voss and Geoffrey Cornelius who are both practising diviners in the Western tradition, as well as explorers of Chinese I Ching and academic scholars eager to ground divination studies within a broad epistemic  frame as part of graduate programs, a vision they eventually took to Canterbury Christ Church University  on leaving Kent, actualised in the MA in Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred. 

I thank my family who made those transformative educational experiences possible, building on the foundational University of Benin BA  in English and literature which they also enabled, within which context I was inspired by Virginia Ola, mentor, unofficial guidance counselor, inspiring teacher and epitome of ethics,  Richard Masagbor, subtly powerful creative influence,  Ogo Ofuani, mentor and embodiment of academic vision and bold unionist, Opene, superb and compassionate teacher, Steve Ogude, elegant reflector of intellectual culture, Romanus Egudu, striking scholar and memorable teacher, Okpure Obuke, fatherly and broadly informed, agent of disciplinary decolonisation,  Chinyere Okafor, diligent, intellectually and artistically adventurous,  Michael Onwuemene, gentle and diligent, Victor Longe, consistently committed teacher, Odun Balogun, urbane and committed scholar of broad intellectual orientations, Abdul Rasheed Yesufu, humanism embodied, cognitive acumen luminous, Felix Okeke-Ezigbo, sparkling intellect, Titilayo Ufomata, impressive teacher and big sister, elevated above pettiness, may you and yours  all prosper, brethren.

My work on Ogboni is vitalized by meditations, invocations and prayers in relation to Ogboni powers as I understand them.

Even then, I am to deliver scholarship inspired by these contexts without having to disclose the full range of my methods.

I have discussed the spiritual dimension of Ifa in various essays, and described my engagement with this spirituality as a method of developing scholarly knowledge.

My methods are inspired by but are not identical with traditional approaches but represent an adaptation of the multi-cognitive  unity of Ifa, in which spiritual aspiration and imaginative range, mental synthesis and artistic evocation are subsumed within a mathematical dynamism represented by Odu Ifa, the central organisational and information system of Ifa, understood as sentient agents identifying all possibilities of existence, as described by babalawo Joseph Ohomina, as ''spirits  whose origin we do not know, whose language is not human and of whom we understand only a small fraction of their significance,'' as Ohomina puts it, as well, as identities expressed in terms of human cultural forms represented by graphic and numerical patterns and literary forms.

Allow me to encourage you to share your understanding, coming,  most likely from a more direct encounter with traditional Ifa than myself, gained at a time when Ifa in Nigeria was even more pristine than it is now in the era of globalisation, allied with your extensive  training and scholarly practice in the Western academy in its Nigerian and Western expressions at their best, scholarship within and beyond Yoruba culture.

It will contribute to understanding in the subject and may be published by you in any platform beyond this one but if you don't discuss with an interlocutor who stimulates your views, how will that exposition of yours emerge in its fullness?

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yorubaaffairs/1392541155.2104674.1606853496773%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yorubaaffairs/1392541155.2104674.1606853496773%40mail.yahoo.com.

[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

Ifa is not open to development outside the traditional training system.  It is the only religion that I know that is structured to grow internally like the profession of case law with each succeeding Awo's decided cases added to the Ese Ifa to aid upcoming Awo.  That is why I thought perhaps the European legal system borrowed this structure from Ifa which is far older than the European case law.  The Awo system is a well- knit system.

How does Toyin Adepiju's formulation fit into this seeing that it is not based on any decided case and it is fictional?  How can it then be regarded as Ese Ifa?

What does it cost Toyin Adepoju to drop this persistence of delusion of grandeur?

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>

Date: 01/12/2020 16:22 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Recreating a Scriptural tradition :Constructing  New Ese Ifa: Questions And Vision

Edited

Thanks MOA.

The challenge we face in discussing the ontology of ese ifa is that we are often faced with declarations of opinion without analysis.

Please forgive my asking you to share why you hold the views you do.

It's when we start examining the logic of our views we begin to get at the heart of this matter.

Your presentation contains various layers of assertions we need to distinguish and correlate-

Q-  ''[ Ifa]  is a lengthy educational and spiritual process that could actually last a lifetime.''

What is the content and goal of this process?

How does this process relates to ese ifa that inspires this discussion?

Is this process not open to development outside the traditional training system,  and if not, why?

2. ''Ifa, as a body of knowledge, is not just the literary aspect of it alone (that is, the part that is committed to writing by academics), it is heavily spiritual, a cultural and comprehensive way of life.''

Q- What, in essence, is the character of this spiritual, cultural and comprehensive way of life, to the degree that it can be briefly summed up, as most spiritualities sum up their core distinguishing orientations?

Since  ese ifa is a vehicle for the spiritual, cultural and comprehensive way of life you reference, is ese ifa not open to investigation and mastery along such lines outside the traditional learning system, and if not, why?

3.  ''I (or you) can memorize and regurgitate ese Ifa, but that doesn't mean anything more than spewing out what the Yoruba call "Òkú Òrò" (dead, inefficacious words), mere gibberishes spewed out with no consequences.''

Q- Why should that be so?  

What quality about ese ifa as traditionally understood gives it vitality and efficacy and  are these values not accessible outside the traditional context, if not why?

4. ''If you have the time and the will, you may follow the 7-8 outlined formula suggested by Wande Abimbola in his 1976 IFA: An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus. But remember that this was just a PhD dissertation in which the author was doing a text analysis of his observations. It does not suggest anyone could follow the formula and create an authentic ifa verse.'

Q- What qualities of ese ifa demonstrate or generate its authenticity beyond its literary structure and readily accessible content and why are these qualities not accessible outside the traditional system?

5. '' Yes, Barber was right (by the way, she is Karin, not Karen*) by assessing Ifa as an all-encompassing body of knowledge, where you can find any theme or subject and almost anything in its universe. Barber is not suggestive of a porous traction that where anyone anywhere could improvise.''

Q- Why are Ifa literature, epistemology,  metaphysics and divination,  its core disciplines,  not open to improvisation by anyone?  

What are the criteria that define valid activity in these fields of knowledge in Ifa?

Ese ifa scholarship and Ifa scholarship generally will benefit greatly from the examination of the questions rather than the current unexamined approach centered in leaving the traditional views unquestioned.

Verbal language, being a fundamental feature of humanity, is perhaps the central human information system and is thus  fundamental to spirituality, becoming strategic to cosmologies, prayers and rituals, with some cosmologies understanding language as primal, Hinduism, for example, describing the sound OM as the primal sound at the source of existence.

These issues are not unique to Ifa and are being vigorously addressed in studies of various spiritualities. 

Analysis of those points you raised will help bring studies of the ontology-the mode of being- of ese ifa and Ifa generally, further from unquestioned religious veneration into critically examined religious theology and philosophy of language.

great thanks

toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTTQvR2H-p%3DSLOLjY3gsDCcZTM8hBiJH7m1JNoXMMeSJyA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

OAA,

But ese ifa is fiction.

How do you explain the various stories of animals consulting Ifa?

thanks

toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB2982B1CF7304471521285BB1A6F30%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.

[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

My dear brother.

If you study Ruth Finnegan's Oral Literature in Africa, you will find that many oral tales have what is called ' the formula' ( conventions if you like)

You are looking at the external formula of Ifá.  But the external structure of Ifa as oral tale is irrevocably fused with the internal content which is the live ( and not fictional) problem  brought by a supplicant ( the way you cannot separate with a Solomonic sword the two halves of a child parented by two ethnicities.)  In the tripartite model this is also fused with the divinational throw of the Opele after the sixteen Opele bits have 'kissed' Èlá the symbolic representative of Èşù who energises the shape which the throw will take., which in turn activates the Odù which the Awo reads.  It is that third part alone which is called Ese Ifa that you are simplifying to mean the whole process. That Ese Ifa alone cannot stand independent from its generative process.  Can a person exist as legs alone without a body?

If you digest even this third part carefully you will find that it consists more than the ( supposedly fictional) animal part only.  You will aways find the part that begins ' O día fun...'  ( meaning a live divination was cast for such and such who came with a problem- I have been a subject of such divination myself as I once revealed here.)  Here the anymistic world is invoked before the Awo reads the part that showed someone in the past who brought similar problems in the past. 

All of these inspire the Awo to read which of the efficacies in the past applies to the particular case under examination ( as product of rigorous training of the Awo in the past.)  The Awo is only saying the human race is part of a broader anymistic world, some of which your own work has covered.  He is invoking the life force that energises all creation for healing through the intermediary of Èşù.  It is not about fiction at all. 

 Also some of the animal and plants cited are parts of the ingredients of the medicinal potencies to be used in the cure ( a move similar to codification of alchemistry found by Issac Newton to be encoded in the Bible by surrogate names )

The Awo has therefore by his remedy premised on previous cases read in the Esè Ifá,  generated an addition to that Esè Ifá because his case of effective remedy will now be cited by future Awo and this is why the Awo Guild holds regular meetings like the Falola Conference, from time immemorial to pass on new knowledge of remedies.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>

Date: 02/12/2020 16:54 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Recreating a Scriptural tradition:Constructing  New Ese Ifa: Questions And Vision

OAA,

But ese ifa is fiction.

How do you explain the various stories of animals consulting Ifa?

thanks

toyin

On Wed, 2 Dec 2020 at 12:18, OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB2982B1CF7304471521285BB1A6F30%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Thanks OAA, for this memorable effort at interpreting the relationship between ese ifa as an imaginative construct and ese ifa as applied in consultative contexts.

Superb description of a spiritual process in which invisibly present deities shape a seemingly random occurrence, a description inspiring, for me  a careful study of what Esu and Ela represent, through such canonical texts as Gates Signifying Monkey and Falola's Esu and the Imaginative Frontiers for Esu and Rowland Abiodun's Yoruba Art and Language chap 1 for Ela-

...the divinational throw of the Opele after the sixteen Opele bits have 'kissed' Èlá the symbolic representative of Èşù who energises the shape which the throw will take., which in turn activates the Odù which the Awo reads. ''

I identify fully with this description of the significance of imagery drawn from nature in ese ifa-

''The Awo is only saying the human race is part of a broader anymistic world, some of which your own work has covered.  He is invoking the life force that energises all creation for healing through the intermediary of Èşù.  It is not about fiction at all.''

It is this section of your analysis I find problematic-

If you digest even this third part carefully you will find that it consists more than the ( supposedly fictional) animal part only.  You will always find the part that begins ' O día fun...'  ( meaning a live divination was cast for such and such who came with a problem- I have been a subject of such divination myself as I once revealed here.)  Here the anymistic world is invoked before the Awo reads the part that showed someone in the past who brought similar problems in the past. ''

The fact of the matter is that a good number of ese ifa do not reference any human agent.

A lot of the time, the person being divined for is not human and could be an animal or even an abstract concept or a spirit.

How can an animal or an abstract concept represent an entity divined for at a particular point in time,  ''a live divination...cast for such and such who came with a problem''? 

Your presentation aligns with what I seem to recall of Wande Abimbola in  his books but Abimbola's analysis at times needs to be examined very carefully for its validity. 

An example of another analysis he makes that is problematic is his description of the humorous or aphoristic  opening depicting the diviner in the ese ifa he collected as being a nickname of the diviner involved in the divination in question.

Among my favourite examples ''Walking stick that crosses the road in a crooked manner.''

The variety of these characterizations suggests they are purely imaginative creations, not names of actual diviners. 

At issue here is the mode of composition of ese ifa.

On account of the imaginative world constructed by ese ifa, a world often involving non-humans as central characters,  I cant see how the argument that ese ifa are composed out of actual divinatory situations can be sustained through the evidence of the ese ifa themselves. 

Your argument could gain in terms of the relationship between fiction and lived experience if the argument was that the imaginative world of the ese ifa is used as an analogue for occurrences involving human beings, thus when its stated, for example, that ''walking stick that crosses the road in a crooked manner'' or that '' no man man, no matter how wise, can knot water in his pocket'' divined for squirrel when squirrel  was about to have children, that the squirrel stands for an actual human being who came for divination at a point in time.

Within that framework, therefore, one may argue that the ese ifa in question addresses issues relating to those in that story and which are applicable at the level of moral guidance and/or sacrificial remedies to similar issues that may come before the diviner.

I suspect that the manner in which ese ifa were constructed is lost in time and the descriptions we have now are imaginative reconstructions.

The subject matter of ese ifa is so broad, the narrative strategies so diverse, the range of reference so rich, from cosmogenesis to animal fables, to  encounters with various kinds of spiritual powers, to situations in which deities acts out behavior reminiscent of human foibles and adventures, I doubt if that level of imaginative creativity emerged purely or largely from lived experience, even if the imaginative drama is used as metaphoric for human experience.

I see the more realistic understanding of ese ifa as the creations of free wheeling imaginative verbal artists, who indulged their imaginations  in constructing a broad range of scenarios within a context in which their constructs integrated elements of ritual prescription.

How did they arrive at these ritual prescriptions in relation to purely fictional stories as I see them?

I dont have an answer to that.

 i suspect, though, that those ritual prescriptions may also reflect more of their own creativity than any specific relationship between the subject of the ese ifa and the spiritual universe.

How did they decide how to assign each ese ifa to a place in the Ifa organizational scheme, the odu ifa?

I dont have an answer to that but I am not aware of any effort to describe the logic of categorization for most ese ifa, if such a logic can be found.

I see ese ifa as best understood in relation to such examples of sacred literature as Zen, in Buddhism Sufi, Islamic mysticism-and Hassidic-school of Judaism-  stories, works of imagination that demonstrate relationship of various degrees of metaphorical relationship with human experience and which relate imaginatively to a spiritual world.

How do these views relate to my project of creating new ese ifa?

Can these views facilitate use of these new ese ifa in addressing genuine human challenges or in encoding cosmological information?

The process looks quite straight forward to me.

Construct ese ifa from both pure imagination and as metaphoric of human experience.

Integrate ritual elements.

Mine will not include any animal sacrifice since i dont believe its fair to kill other animals.

Create a new system of relations between deities and ritual systems, such as replacing animal sacrifice with sacrifice of time or with meditation or both.

Assign ese ifa to odu ifa according to whatever principles i find most logical.

im not motivated by the idea of using the randomity of opele and ikin even though i know they can be insightful from experience, so ill work out a different method possibly.

the core issue is cultivating the ability to know what cant be known by conventional understanding and working with spirits to guide human life.

the divination process is centred on this goal.

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB2982B24EBC5FEEFC0693C8DCA6F30%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.

[Harrow, Kenneth]

i prefer robert pelton to ruth finnegan, who is miles out of date

also, use bob cancel as a model, with the understanding that we are studying performance art, performance, not written texts.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 2, 2020 1:11 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Recreating a Scriptural tradition:Constructing New Ese Ifa: Questions And Vision

 

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Thanks Ken

Although the performance/written may be more of an interface than a dichotomy after ese ifa began to be recorded in writing.

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[Harrow, Kenneth]

true, and the difference dissolves using derrida's notion of ecriture

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 3, 2020 2:22 PM
To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>

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