
presented by
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"

Orunmila, the male anchor of the wisdom of Ifa,one of the illustrations in the book
Contents
Part I · A Philosophy of Character
The Timeless Wisdom of Ifá
Òrúnmìlà & the Secret Structure of Odù
The Art of Divination
The Cosmology of Ifá
Part II · A Forest of Mystery
Èjì Ogbè · The moist air of consciousness
Òyèkú méjì · The mother of the spirit of death
Ìwòrì méjì · Celestial agriculture in the land of transformation
Òdí méjì · The house of deep comfort
Ìrosùn méjì · The rivers of consciousness
Òwónrín méjì · The sweet and bitter track
Òbárá méjì · The fork in the road
Òkànrán méjì · The crossroad the heart gave
Ògúndá méjì · The relentless pathmaker
Òsá méjì · The mysteries of the birds of night
Ìká méjì · The wicked cobra of fire
Òtúrúpòn méjì · The secret path of truth
Òtúrá méjì · Love’s gentle harmony
Ìretè méjì · The author of fate
Òsé méjì · The sweetness of mystery
Òfún méjì · The calabash of character
Òsétúrá · Èsù & the design of the world
Ifá: A Forest of Mystery by Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold is
a major study on the cosmology, metaphysics, philosophy and divination
system of Ifá, written by a tradition holder and member of the council
of elders, known as the Ogboni society, of Abeokuta, Nigeria.
The work is a presentation of the first sixteen odù
of the Ifá corpus of divination verses explained in stories, allegories
and proverbs. It is both a presentation of Ifá for those with little
knowledge of it, and a dynamic presentation of the wealth of its wisdom
for those already familiar with Ifá.
Ifá – an alternative name for its prophet Òrúnmìlà – is a religion, a
wisdom tradition and a system of divination encoding the rich and
complex oral and material culture of the Yoruba people. The Yoruba
culture is grounded in memory, an ancestral repository of wisdom, that
generates good counsel, advises appropriate ebo (sacrifice) and
opens the way to develop a good character on our journey through life
and in our interactions with the visible and invisible worlds.
The work is a presentation of the first sixteen odù of the Ifá corpus
of divination verses explained in stories, allegories and proverbs
reflecting the practical wisdom of Ifá. The work is both a presentation
of Ifá for those with little knowledge of it, and a dynamic presentation
of the wealth of its wisdom for those already familiar with Ifá. The
deities and key concepts of Ifá metaphysics are discussed,
including: Obàtálá, Ònilé, Sàngó, Ògún, Oya, Òsányìn, Yemoja, Èsù, àse (power), egúngún (ancestry), ìwà (character), and orí (head/consciousness/daimon). Notably, Dr Frisvold
has created a work which celebrates the Yoruba wisdom tradition and
makes a bridge with the Western world. It is of value for the light that
it casts on the origins and mysteries of Èsù and òrìsà, and an
important source for those practicing Quimbanda, Palo, Santeria, Vodou
and the African Diaspora religions. Yet its lessons are universal, for
it is the art of developing character, of attracting good fortune and
accruing wisdom in life. As Nicholaj writes:
‘…Ifá is a philosophy, a theogony, theology and cosmology rooted in a
particular metaphysic that concerns itself with the real and the ideal,
the world and its beginning. It is rooted in the constitution of man
and the purpose of life and the nature of fate. Ifá is a philosophy of
character. The philosophy of Ifá lies at the root of any religious cult
or organization involving the veneration of òrìsà. […] Through stories
and legends, divinatory verses and proverbs, this philosophy will be
revealed piece by piece until the landscape has been laid open before
you… ’





Above
Limitation 736 standard hardback & 64 fine bound exemplars
Dimensions 240 × 170 mm
Extent 400 pp
Illustrations 18 original pen & ink illustrations by Childerico
Bindings Fine edition
bound in rust handgrained morocco blocked in gold, custom Victoria
Hall paste endpapers, all edges gilt, finished with a silk ribbon and
presented in a slipcase:
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AVAILABLE NOW
Standard edition bound in vibrant red cloth, palm leaf stamped in green, embossed bitter chocolate endpapers: £45 plus postage
This title is now in stock and shipping. A Bibliothèque Rouge paperback edition will be available from Friday 21st October.




Another illustration from the book
Publisher's Self Description
Scarlet Imprint Scarlet Imprint was founded by Alkistis Dimech and Peter Grey in 2007 with the talismanic publication of 156 copies of
The Red Goddess; fired
by a vision to create work that would inspire an artistic and
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Instagram Commentary by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
I was stunned into mental silence by the amount of effort suggested by the production of this book, from the impression I got from its list of contents to its series of magnificent bindings and its magical illustrations. This seems to be a true demonstration of the capacity of a book as a numen, which may be described, in this context, as a potent, mysterious spirit, a guiding intelligence and force working with but not constrained by the circumscriptions of human intelligence, as the publisher indicates of the kinds of books they aspire to make. The chapter titles suggest an effort by the writer to characterize the odu ifa, the organizational categories and active agents of Ifa, in terms of themes or ideas he sees them as demonstrating, a vital effort on account of the heterogeneity of the vast scope of literature, an unknown number, attributed to each of the 256 odu ifa. This suggests intimate acquaintance with the subject as well as creative boldness to stake an understanding of the subject that is not conventional and which may not receive unanimous acceptance by others but which can provide a conceptual framework in addressing the multifarious scope of each of these organizational forms.
I am also very pleased to observe that the author seems to be a hard core occultist, a member of the Yoruba Ogboni esoteric order, a writer on witchcraft as practice and not only theory and a writer on Diaspora African spiritualities which seem to be particularly hard core. An understanding of Ifa is significantly enhanced through a grasp of relationships between Ifa, Ogboni and Aje or Iyami, Our (Arcane) Mothers the latter being the closest to witchcraft as described in Western folklore as well as in current Western practice as a definite religion, although different from modern Western witchcraft in the scope of claims of kinds of access to spiritual power made on behalf of both spiritualities, while Ogboni is an earth centred occult path, these two converging in Ifa in terms of relationships between the masculine principle represented by Orunmila and the feminine principle embodied by Odu and her various manifestations, related to Babatunde Lawal's description in The Gelede Spectacle: Art, Gender, and Social Harmony in African Culture of all female orisa as being aspects of Ile, Earth, one of these manifestation of Odu being being Iya Agba, the old woman who retired to live under the earth surrounded by four calabashes provided by her four children, the orisa Oduduwa, Obaluaye, Obatala and Ogun, the calabashes containing materials representing the relationship of each of these orisa to human existence and guaranteeing a link between their followers and the power embodied by Iya Agba, a story I first encountered in Judith Gleason's A Recitation of Ifa : Oracle of the Yoruba, and which shares similarities with Dennis Williams' account in Icon and Image: A Study of Sacred and Secular Forms of African Classical Art of the use of buried magical objects in the Ogboni illedi or meeting house.
The author also seems to have significant exposure to the Western magical tradition, described as demonstrating this through valid correlations with African spiritualities. I was led to the study and practice of classical African spiritualities by the Hermetic strand of the Western magical tradition, particularly exemplified by the magical school the Golden Dawn, which provides a logical and supra-logical approach to magic that can be very helpful in dealing with ideas and practices meant to take the mind beyond linear logic, helping one to understand where various forms of rationality begin and end as well as their complementary roles in relation to each other.