Cosmological Permutations : Joseph Ohomina’s Ifa Philosophy and the Quest for the Unity of Being
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Cosmological Permutations
Joseph Ohomina’s Ifa Philosophy and the Quest for the Unity of Being
Joseph Ohomina, standing, and his wife
Abstract
A discussion of the views of babalawo, adept in the esoteric knowledge of the Yoruba origin Ifa system of knowledge, Joseph Ohomina, on Odu Ifa, the organisational structures of Ifa, in relation to ideas of relationships between cultural forms and cosmic structure.
Salutation to the Great One, Joseph Ohomina
Master on whose foundations I stand in my studies of Ifa
initiator into the ideal of personality represented by a seeker of that which empowers and yet humbles the self
navigator of cosmic wonder amidst human dilemmas
Odu Ifa as Cosmological Categories
I remain forever fascinated by the following oral summation by the babalawo-adept in the esoteric knowledge of the Yoruba origin discipline Ifa, Joseph Ohomina, on the Odu, the organizational categories of Ifa:
“The Odu are the names of spirits whose origin we do not know. We understand only a small fraction of their significance.They are the power behind the efficacy of whatever we prepare. They are the names of all possibilities of existence. Abstract and concrete, actual and potential. Concrete forms such as rain, water, land, air and the stars, abstractions such as love and hate, situations such as celebrations and conflict, all have their spiritual names in the various Odu” [1].
This is one of the most remarkable statements I have come across.
Why?
It evokes superbly the age long human quest, across cultures, for absolute knowledge.
The Cosmos Unfolded and the Cosmos Infolded
Imagine being able to identify all possibilities of existence and represent those possibilities in terms of a finite sequence of representations which can be unfolded infinitely to embrace all particularities of existence as they emerge with time, no matter how distant the temporal progression.
Imagine these possibilities as constituting entities of such scope of being that even those who devote a lifetime to their study, a study building on the accumulated knowledge of centuries of exploration by members of the school, understand only a fraction of the significance of these entities.
Imagine these entities as living, sentient beings, each with their own sense of ultimate direction deriving from the ultimate source of existence.
Imagine this grand totality represented in terms of a sequence that unfolds in a pair of lines, extended to another pair, this sequence of four lines duplicated by another opposite it, the first sequence replicated with a change in another set of two lines on one side and two on the other side, making a set of four lines on one side and four on the other side. Replicate this sequence with changes in the number of lines on each side till you get a total of sixteen permutations.
Then generate two hundred and forty permutations in sets of similarity to each of the primary sixteen, but with each permutation unique.
In this way develop two hundred and fifty six unique permutations, each with its own name.
To each of the permutations develop an ever increasing number of lyric poems, poetic stories and prose narratives.
The entire structure of 256 permutations can be compressed to its stating point in the primary sequence of four vertical lines and expanded into the succeeding eight vertical lines, and expanded beyond that into 256 pairs of vertical lines.
When you have done this, you will have the primary conception and elaboration of the Odu Ifa, one of the world’s great wonders in the development and organization of knowledge, originating in Yorubaland but spreading to other parts of Nigeria and beyond Africa.
Ifa belongs to a cluster of cognitive systems that share the same structure and some similarities of names, but Ifa might be alone in the scope of its associated literature.
A cosmos of significatory possibilities held in one’s hand as it were, a seed growing into a forest and back again into a seed in an infinite cycle.
The cosmos unfolding from a seed and infolding into a seed and back again in an eternal rhythm.
Examining the Multi-Ontologicality of Odu Ifa
How may we assess the validity of the claims about the multi-ontologicality of the Odu, their description as forms of human culture in their character as numerical permutations, as well as forms independent of human creation, spirits, as Ohomina describes them?
How may we evaluate the claims that they identify all possibilities of existence?
To assess the description of the Odu as sentient entities one needs access to the cognitive procedures of the babalawo, as well as the cognitive development that training implies.
To evaluate the claim that the Odu encapsulate all possibilities of being, one also needs to study presentations of what the Odu and ideas associated with them represent.
Ori and Odu Ifa
May Ohomina’s conception of Odu as essences of phenomena not be understood in terms of the classical Yoruba concept of ori?
Olabiyi Babalola Yai describes ori this way:
“Ori is essence, attribute and quintessence; it is the uniqueness of persons, animals, and things, their inner eye and ear, their sharpest point and their most alert guide as they navigate through this world and the one beyond”. [2].
Ori, as presented by Bolaji Idowu, is also described as bequeathed by Olodumare, the creator of the universe. [3].
It may be understood as embodying the ultimate potential of an entity, a potential that is seen by one perspective among thinkers in this tradition as worked out through dialogue between this inner self or ori and the conscious mind, as described in Adegboyega Orangun’s Destiny : The Unmanifested Being. [4].
Iwa and Odu Ifa
May Ohomina’s depiction of Odu as identities of forms of being not also be correlated with the classical Yoruba concept of iwa, understood as being, existence, and the specific manner in which the act or state of being and existence is expressed?
Rowland Abiodun presents a Yoruba expression that may be seen as summing up the significance of iwa, “Mo iwa fun oniwa”, which may be interpreted as “I grant to the existent its distinctive mode of being”.[5].
A correlative concept in Yoruba thought is that of Igba Iwa, the Calabash of Existence. This calabash symbolizes the totality of being.[ 6]. It may be seen as evoking the unity of all manifestations of iwa, of being, and perhaps, the unity of these manifestations in relation to their source in Olodumare.
Odu Ifa and the ‘Odu’ in Olodumare
The calabash metaphor is also correlative with the efforts of Bolaji Idowu and Shloma Rosenberg in interpreting the meaning of the syllable “odu” in “Olodumare” [7]. Idowu describes two meanings of “odu” as a large pot or calabash and a full cell in the game of ayo, in which seeds are placed in concave pods or cells on a board and the game played by moving seeds across the pods. [ 8].
May these seeds not be adapted to represent forms of iwa, potentialities of being, subsumed within the womb that is Olodumare, a womb of continuous birthing evoked by the pods within which the seeds are nestled, the moving of the seeds across the pods suggesting the permutations of existence, permutations depicted by the numerical permutations in terms of which the odu ifa are organized, permutations that emerge in the course of Ifa divination, the relationship between randomness and structure in that divinatory process akin to a similar conjunction in the dynamics that define the dialectic of change and stability in the shaping of existence?
This correlation is reinforced by Rosenberg’s interpretation of “Olodumare” in Lukumi, a variant of classical Yoruba spirituality in the Americas. He describes the name as constituted by a syllabic sequence of distinctive but correlative meanings:
“Olodumare (One who owns the realm of never-ending possibilities; olo--owner, odu--repository of possibility, mare--from Oshumare, the serpent of infinity).”
He elaborates:
“Olodumare refers to God in His/Her aspect as architect of continuous creation. The name describes the repository of possibility and circumstance from which each moment is born. Olodumare is the receptacle for Odu, which are the constellations of possibilities that contain all events past, present and future”. [9].
Is it possible to explore these subjects in a way that will lead to conclusive answers outside the specialized training of initiates?
Odu Ifa in Relation to Plato, Pythagoras and Okigbo on Primal Mathematical Forms
Whatever may be the answers to these questions, Ohomina sums up superbly the quest for knowledge of all possibilities of existence, knowledge Ohomina seems to present as an aspiration rather than an actualized achievement, since he says the entities, the Odu, who embody this knowledge, are understood only in terms of a fraction of their significance.
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato is summed by his student Aristotle as describing the “ [Ideas or ] Forms as the essence of every other thing , and the One as the essence of the Forms”. [ 10].
Plato describes these mathematical objects, Aristotle continues, as eternal and unchangeable while material things are constantly changing, Plato concluding, therefore, that no knowledge of permanent reality may be had from material things.
Aristotle further presents Plato, adapting an idea from fellow Greek thinker Pythagoras, as describing mathematical objects as existing between the Ideas or Forms and the material universe.
The effort to arrive at principles that ground the multiplicity of existence runs through the Platonic account of Ideas or Forms and Ohomina’s explanation of Odu Ifa. Plato’s conception of the Forms and Ifa as presented by Ohomina rely on mathematics as primary for depicting the unfolding of potentialities that emerge as the manifest universe.
Christopher Okigbo’s words in his poetic cycle Labyrinths sums up most evocatively this line of thought, depicting an encounter at a point in his journey, of the traveller to the sources of existence:
“AND AT THE archway
a triangular lintel
of solid alabaster
enclosed in a square
inscribed in a circle
with a hollow centre,
above the archway
yawning shutterless
like celestial pincers like a vast countenance:
…..
after we had formed
then only the forms were formed
and all the forms were formed after our forming… ” [11].
Okigbo’s geometric evocation of the primal forms that predate all forms of being evokes vividly the family of ideas represented by Ohomina’s description of Odu Ifa and Plato’s theory of Forms. Okigbo suggests the understanding Ohomina on Ifa and Plato share of the primary forms of being as expressed both in terms of mathematical structures and the multifarious details of existence.
Odu Ifa and Yantra Theory
Madhu Khanna, in Yantra: The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity, presents compellingly a related visualization from Hinduism and Indian philosophy:
“ …a yantra is an abstract geometric design intended as a ‘tool’ for meditation and increased awareness [and] believed to reveal the inner basis of the forms and shapes abounding in the universe.
[ Yantras identify] the innermost structure of the universe by concentrating the variegated pictures of world-appearances …into simple form equations.
A yantra, then, can be considered an ultimate form-equation of a specific energy manifesting in the world.
These simple form-equations are held to epitomize the real nature of the cosmos as abstracted from the concrete.
[They refer to] the inner or hidden form of [all] structures from an atom to a star.
…each aspect of the world can be seen in its structural form as a yantra”. [12].
Ajit Mookerjee, in the same book, describes the generic forms combined in various ways to demonstrate the variety of yantras , as “the bindu, or point; the triangle; the square; and the circle”. The bindu suggests the emergence of the cosmos from a point beyond space and time. The triangle evokes its manifestation in terms of ordered structure. The circle suggests the integration of this structure. The circle is encapsulated by a square, the four sides of which symbolize the material universe in terms of humanity’s method of marking space in quaternary form.
David Zindell’s Mathematical Mysticism and Odu ifa
Let us conclude with lines from an imaginative voyage to the centre of a galaxy, in David Zindell’s novel Neverness, a voyage conducted by navigating with the aid of mathematical permutations.
The space pilot approaches the galactic centre understood as a sentient being, through deft manipulation of numerical patterns and unanticipated suspension of his navigational skills, a suspension suggesting the notion that beyond all human directional capacity there exists a creative zone in which understanding is gained through passivity, a zone of ultimate being where, having reached so far, in the words of Christian mystic St. John of the Cross, “I transcend all knowledge with my thought”:
“…I made a point to point mapping into the centre… Immediately I knew I had made a simple mistake. My ship did not fall out into the centre of the moons [at the galactic core]. Instead, I segued into a junglelike decision tree.
A hundred different pathways opened before me, dividing and branching into ten thousand others. I was sick with fear beceause I had only instants to decide upon the correct branching or I would be lost.
I reached out with my mind to my ship, and slowtime overcame me [ the spaceship is navigated through mental dialogue between ship and the pilot in a contemplative state called slowtime].
My brain rushed with thoughts, as snowflakes in a cold wind. As my mentations accelerated, time seemed to slow down. I had a long stretched out instant in which to prove a particularly difficult mapping theorem. I had to prove it quickly, as quickly as I could think.
The computer modeled my thoughts and began infusing my visual cortex with ideoplasts that I summoned up from memory. These crystal-like symbols glittered before my inner eye; they formed and joined and assembled into the proof array of my theorem.
Each individual ideoplast was lovely and unique. The representation of the fixed-point theorem, for instance, was like a coiled ruby necklace. As I built my proof, the coil joined with feathery, diamond fibres of the first Lavi mapping lemma. I was thinking furiously, and the ideoplasts froze into place. The intricate emerald glyphs of the statement of invariance, the wedge like runes of the sentential connectives, and all the other characters-they formed a three dimensional array ordered by logic and inspiration. The quicker I thought, the quicker the ideoplasts appeared as if from nothingness and found their place in the proof array.
This mental manipulation of symbol into proof has a special name: We call it the number storm beceause the rush of pure mathematical thinking is overwhelming, like a blizzard in midwinter spring.
With the number storm carrying me along towards the moment of proof, I passed into dreamtime. There was an indescribable perception of orderedness; there was beauty and terror as the manifold opened before me. The number storm intensified,nearly blinding me with the white light of dreamtime. I wondered, as I had always wondered, at the nature of dreamtime and that wonderful mental space we call the manifold. Was the manifold true deep reality,the reality ordering the shape and texture of the outer universe? Some cantors believe this...and it is their faith that when mathematics is perfectly realized, the universe will be perfectly understood.
I was deep in dreamtime when I realized I did not understand the type of the decision tree branching all about me. I was close to my proof-I needed only to show that the Lavi set was embedded in an invariant space. But I could not show this, and I did not know why. It should have been a simple thing to do. When the tree divided and split into a million and then a billion different branches, I began to sweat. Dreamtime intensified into that terrifying,nameless state I thought of as 'nightmare time'.
Suddenly I proved that the Lavi set could not be embedded in an invariant space. My heart was beating like a panicked child’s.With my panic came despair,and my proof array began to crash, to shatter like ice crystals ground beneath a leather boot. There would be no proof,I knew. There would be no mapping to a point-exit in real space. I would not fall out around any star, near or distant. I was not merely lost in a hideous decision tree. I had stumbled-or been propelled-into an infinite tree. Even in the worst of decision trees, there is a probability that a pilot will find the correct branch among the billion billion branchings. But in an infinite tree, there is no correct branch, no branch leading to an exit into the warm sunlight of real space. The tree spreads outward, one branch growing into another, and into ten centillion others, on and on, dividing and redividing into infinity. From an infinite tree there is no escape”. [13].
It is at the point when his intellectual tools fail unexpectedly, having been pushed to the limit of their capacity, leaving him faced with an abyss represented by being lost in space, that the voice of the entity he seeks reaches him. The writer may thus be seen as depicting a combination of mathematical and apophatic mysticism, in which mathematics leads to a transcendence of the intellectual world it represents, opening the self to an encounter with possibilities beyond the intellect, possibilities dramatizing the unmanifest ground of existence.
The writer could also have depicted a related development in terms of a convergence of mathematical and integrative mysticism, in which mathematics enables the construction of a conceptual unification of existence through which ultimate reality is cognized.
These contrastive approaches may be visualized in terms of a myth from the Orisa cosmology to which Ifa belongs, as recounted and interpreted in Ulli Beier’s The Return of the Gods : The Sacred Art of Susanne Wenger, in terms of the shattering of the form of the Orisa or deity, Orisanla, the Great Orisa, leading to the proliferation of the various Orisa whose being and functions constitute the universe, the destructive experience recalling the shattering of the structure of mathematical formations leading to entry into the primal point from which existence emerges, or the reconstitution of the pieces of the shattered Orisa, a process that may be suggested by mathematical operations culminating in an ordered understanding of existence that acts as a matrix for for an encounter with the intelligence underlying that ordered structure. [14].
Walking this path of speculation and experiment as one follows the lure of the Odu Ifa, who knows what we might find?
Footnotes
1. Joseph Ohomina. Personal communication. Benin-City.
2. Olabiyi Babalola Yai, Review of Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought by Henry John Drewal; John Pemberton; Rowland Abiodun; Allen Wardwell. African Arts, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan., 1992), 20+22+24+26+29. 22.
3. Bolaji Idowu, Olodumare : God in Yoruba Belief.
4. Adegboyega Orangun, Destiny : The Unmanifested Being. Ibadan: African Odyssey Publisher,1998.
5. Rowland Abiodun,“The Future of African Art Studies : An African Perspective”, African Art Studies: The State of the Discipline. Washington: The Smithsonian, 1987.63-89. Abiodun’s translation of this expression, if I remember well, is “I grant existence in respect of the existent”. My own translation, however, builds on his interpretation of the expression.
6. Henry John Drewal; John Pemberton; Rowland Abiodun; Allen Wardwell, Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. New York: The Centre for African Art.1989.
7. Shloma Rosenberg. “”. Mystic Curio : Accessed 20th May 2016.
8. Bolaji Idowu, Olodumare : God in Yoruba Belief.
9. Shloma Rosenberg. “Olorun: God in the Lukumi Faith”.
10. Aristotle. Metaphysics. Book 1. Chapter 7.
11. Christopher Okigbo. Labyrinths.
12. Madhu Khanna. Yantra: The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity.
13. David Zindell. Neverness.
14. Ulli Beier. The Return of the Gods : The Sacred Art of Susanne Wenger.
First published on Facebook May 20, 2016.
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