BENIN OLOKUN SYMBOLISM AND COSMOLOGICAL INFINITY

[toyin adepoju]

               BENIN OLOKUN SYMBOLISM AND COSMOLOGICAL INFINITY

                                                                     Toyin Adepoju

Igiohen[Olokun priestess] Madame Aigbovia, Chief Priestess of multiple deities, draws daily with white chalk for her shrines. In the Igha-ede (the cross-design), she is finishing a symbol of the sun which is opposite from the moon and series of stars which she later completed.

Benin,Oredo Local Government Area, Nigeria.






...it follows in the first place that the radiation emitted by the heavenly bodies will,in part,leave the Newtonian system of the universe,passing radially outwards,to become ineffective and lost in the infinite.May not entire heavenly bodies fare likewise?It is hardly possible to give a negative answer to this question.For it follows from the assumption of a finite limit for Φ at spatial infinity that a heavenly body with finite kinetic energy is able to reach spatial infinity by overcoming the Newtonian forces of attraction.By statistical mechanics this case must occur from time to time,as long as the total energy of the stellar system-transferred to one single star-is great enough to send the star on its journey to infinity, whence it can never return.

Albert Einsten,"Cosmological Considerations on the General Theory of Relativity" in On the Shoulders of Giants: The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy. ed Stephen Hawking.Philadelphia:Running Press,2002.1248-1264.1249



Image and explanatory text:

Norma Rosen, 1986

From

"Impermanent by Design: The Ephemeral in Africa’s Tradition-based Arts"  by Christine Mullen Kreamer

African Arts,Spring 2010, Vol. 43, No. 1, Pages 14-27 .

Also blogged at Olokun Waters , hosted under Research Programs at Olokun Centre for Research in the Humanities and Sciences and under Notes at Facebook:Toyin Adepoju

[Obododimma Oha]

Brilliant. Could you further develop this insight to cover the
geometric parameters in indigenous mapping of routes to spiritual
forces?
Thanks.
Obododimma

On Thursday, August 26, 2010, toyin adepoju

<toyin....@googlemail.com> wrote:
>                BENIN OLOKUN SYMBOLISM AND COSMOLOGICAL INFINITY                                                                     Toyin Adepoju
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> Igiohen[Olokun priestess] Madame Aigbovia, Chief Priestess of multiple deities, draws
> daily with white chalk for her shrines. In the Igha-ede (the
> cross-design), she is finishing a symbol of the sun which is opposite
> from the moon and series of stars which she later completed.
>
> Benin,Oredo Local Government Area, Nigeria.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ...it follows in the first place that the radiation emitted by the
> heavenly bodies will,in part,leave the Newtonian system of the
> universe,passing radially outwards,to become ineffective and lost in the
> infinite.May not entire heavenly bodies fare likewise?It is hardly
> possible to give a negative answer to this question.For it follows from
> the assumption of a finite limit for Φ at spatial infinity that a
> heavenly body with finite kinetic energy is able to reach spatial
> infinity by overcoming the Newtonian forces of attraction.By
> statistical mechanics this case must occur from time to time,as long as
> the total energy of the stellar system-transferred to one single
> star-is great enough to send the star on its journey to infinity,
> whence it can never return.
>

> Albert Einsten,"Cosmological Considerations on the General Theory of Relativity <http://library.du.ac.in/dspace/bitstream/1/1581/3/Ch08-Cosmological%20considerations%20on%20the%20general%20theory%20of%20relativity.pdf>" in On the Shoulders of Giants: The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy <http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pb6HR4DAEeMC&dq=On+the+Shoulders+of+Giants:+The+Great+Works+of+Physics+and+Astronomy&hl=en&ei=Vet1TPCYO9uJOOqEocYG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA>. ed Stephen Hawking.Philadelphia:Running Press,2002.1248-1264.1249

>
>
>
> Image and explanatory text:
>
> Norma Rosen, 1986
>
> From
>

> "Impermanent by Design: The Ephemeral in Africa’s Tradition-based Arts <http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/afar.2010.43.1.14>"  by Christine Mullen Kreamer

>
> African Arts,Spring 2010, Vol. 43, No. 1, Pages 14-27 .
>
>

> Also blogged at Olokun Waters  <http://olokunwaters.blogspot.com/2010/08/benin-olokun-symbolism-and-cosmological.html>, hosted under Research Programs at Olokun Centre for Research in the Humanities and Sciences <http://www.wix.com/danteadinkra/OLOKUN-CENTRE-FOR-RESEARCH-IN-THE-HUMANITIES-AND-SCIENCES?orgDocID=cjSvtz%3Bhh0Q-a&gu_id=4564a20e-7425-4eca-90e6-ce5312bd748d&wixComputerID=1qG%2FVM5Be%2FlcF3zb3rdPccrjYQfjXOUzlK5WD9JfQ338ENJzqR8yIqj2DCcBuojKlQkIgeczv97LOtrdo7BXvA%3D%3D&partner_id=WMGs4POB1ko-a&experiment_id=empty> and under Notes at Facebook:Toyin Adepoju
>
>
> --
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--
Obododimma Oha
http://udude.wordpress.com/

Dept. of English
University of Ibadan
Nigeria

&

Fellow, Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies
University of Ibadan

Phone: +234 803 333 1330;
+234 805 350 6604;
+234 808 264 8060.

[toyin adepoju]

Brilliant. Could you further develop this insight to cover the geometric parameters in indigenous mapping of routes to spiritual
forces?
Thanks.
Obododimma

Thanks Obododimma.I recently stumbled on  your essay on Esu in relation to contemporary social contexts .I have not finished reading it but its lucidity and the intriguing  nature of its ideas is clear.

On the point you made  about the texts I juxtaposed. Your comments are most intriguing.Could you please expand on them  so I can chew on what you have in mind?

A lot of the material that one finds in science,particularly scientific cosmology,like the Einstein quote I used, reads like the poetic and ideationally dazzling  chanting of wizards.To me,they are in a world of their own.

Even though I did not think it through so carefully,I think I wanted to suggest  the fundamental relationship between the sensitivity to the celestial bodies,in relation to a cosmology that integrates the material and the spiritual, finite space and time and the infinite represented by Olokun graphic art and the Einstein quote,in spite of the significant but,in my view, ultimately reconcilable differences between the different cognitive cultures represented by Igiohen Madame Aigbovia and Einstein,the iconic figure of scientific genius of the last 100 years.

Is it possible to develop a system that unifies the cognitive and communicative worlds represented by these two figures, appreciating  their differences and yet  perhaps facilitating the development of new knowledge in both cognitive zones?   

thanks

toyin

[Obododimma Oha]

Thanks for your response, Toyin. Your post stimulated my thinking concerning the patterns in spiritual art in many indigenous traditions and the laws that might be operating within or generating those patterns. I asked the question because I needed to know whether one could also think about the geometry of shapes created by these priest- or priestess-artists as occasioning a semiosis of engagement with given spiritual forces.  I am also inclined to view the designs by spiritual artists like the Igiohen of as implicit visual theories on the production and application of spiritual energies.  

I find your attempt to reconcile the principles underlying the designs of Igiohen Madame Aigbovia and Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity quite exciting. I am not quite sure now how to develop a system linking the cognitive and communicative worlds of both figures, though. I have to got back and read Einstein properly and explore some relevant zones of the Tao of Physics. One should not be in a hurry to say things about their relationship at this stage. But I think you are on a path that great minds have trod. Keep walking!

Regards.

Obododimma.

[toyin adepoju]

Thank you very much Obododimma.I have only just seen this beceause I was offline for about a week.

The way you have put the correspondences that stimulate you in this subject is very exciting.

A number of ideas occur to me in relation to your probing puzzlement on relationships between geometry and spirituality.

I will respond fully soon.

toyin

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