Themes

in Ese Ifa, Ifa Literature

Biological Genesis

Obatala and the Dark Room

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"







Cover image and frontispiece


Wood sculpture, attributed by its former owner Jackie McKay, to Bamgboye of
Odo-Owa (1893-1978) , of a woman backing a baby and kneeling as she holds
aloft what looks like an opon ifa, thereby creating a potent conjunction of
associations between the primordial wisdom associated with Ifa and the
feminine in her maternal expression, the kneeling position in Yoruba culture
being deeply symbolic, as the posture in which women give birth.
Odu, the feminine wisdom of Ifa, in a pose of both supplication and childbirth in
classical Yoruba culture, holding aloft the zone of birth of the odu ifa, her
children, who achieve manifestation in the configurations assumed by Ifa
instruments when cast to open doors to supra-rational knowledge?


What person is wise enough to tie water into a knot in their pocket?
What sage knows the number of grains of sand on the earth?
Archimedes ( 287 BC c. 212 BC) Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist,
engineer, inventor, and astronomer...generally considered the greatest
mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time :
I will try to show you by means of geometrical proofs, which you will be able to
follow, that, of the numbers named by me and given in The Sand Reckoner
(Greek: , Psammites), some exceed not only the number of the mass of
sand equal in magnitude to the earth, but also that of a mass equal in magnitude
to the universe.
The Sand-Reckoner of Archimedes. Translated by Thomas L. Heath. Cambridge
University Press, 1897.
Archimedes...concluded that the diameter of the Universe was no more than
1014 stadia (in modern units, about 2 light years [9 trillion kilometres or about 6
trillion miles, the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year,
365.25 days of 86400 SI seconds each, according to special relativity, the
maximum speed at which all matter and information in the universe can travel],
and that it would require no more than 10 to the power 63 grains of sand to fill
it.
The total number of nucleons [one of the particles that makes up the atomic
nucleus, the centre of the smallest constituent unit of ordinary matter that has
the properties of a chemical element] in the observable universe of roughly the
Hubble radius is the Eddington number, currently estimated at 10 to the power
80. Archimedes' 10 to the power 63 grains of sand contain roughly 10 to the
power 80 nucleons, making the two numbers equal.
Wikipedia on The Sand Reckoner by Archimedes and on Speed of Light.
The Babalawo, Adept in the Esoteric Core of Ifa, the Luminous Darkness Issuing
from the Heart of the Forest of Being, Sojourner to the Fathomless Depth of
Mystery, was the one who cast Ifa for Obatala when he wanted desperately to
understand the nature of life.
At the meeting of egg and sperm, at the dividing of the zygote into the trillions of
cells that form the stupendous complexity that is the human being, there I am.
As the power, the motive force that drives the moulding of the child in the womb,
unseen to all but experienced in the completion.
Yet I am shut out of the final mystery, the emergence of what differentiates living
and non-living being, Obatala lamented.
He of many names, Aiku Pari Iwa, Deathlessness Consummating Existence,
messenger of Ifa, responded :

To be dissatisfied with even the most wondrous accomplishments is the force

that drives consciousness onward.
But is this quest not too much for you?
Obatala had long prepared for this day.
I am less myself if I don't pierce this problem. It consumes me, he replied.
The messenger of Ifa countered:
But the generative processes of the human being begin at the very moment of
conception. So, should you not be aware of whatever it is that enables that
process?
You have a point Obatala responded.
The dynamism that is myself even empowers the convergence of the
predispositions coming from before birth-whether understood as genetic
inheritance or as something even more primordial, a constellation of potential
embodied in the self from its source in the World of Origins-and the nexus of
possibilities represented by action and reaction within the shaping factors on the
terrestrial plane, Obatala said, seemingly reinforcing the view of the messenger
of the Many Eyed One.
What is the spark, the flame that makes what becomes the self possible, is the
ultimate question, the query that tortures me, a darkness I feel acutely, he
concluded.
You tread on profound ground, was the response.
Do you not quiver as you ponder these questions?
I am too far gone.
It has tortured me for too long.
I am ready to do anything to arrive at the root of this.
The point of conjunction between the transformative possibility that animates
the human being and the human form operates outside space and time.
Biological genesis, which is the insight I am limited to, is a space-time
development, hence my problem he concluded.
The ultimate door can be opened if you can summon the will, stated the
messenger of Ifa.
When you shape the human body, you place it in a dark room and depart, do
you not? he asked.

Exactly, Obatala responded, realizing that the messenger had shifted into the
language of the ancients, who encapsulated depths of possibility in terms of
images.
After the next such shaping, conceal yourself in a place in that room, the
adviser suggested.
When the One Without a Second, Oyiyigigi, the Immovable Rock that Never Dies,
the Fecundator, the Embodiment of Past, Present, Future and Infinity, achieves
the process of transmutation, you will be there to witness it, he concluded.
Obatala thanked the messenger of Ifa.
After the next crafting of the human form, Obatala hid himself in a corner of the
dark room and waited.
Even if he was going to be degenerated into a pile of ashes like the woman who,
consumed by curiosity, opened the window to catch sight of her divine lover who
had always insisted on meeting her in the dark, he would die knowing he had
been finished following a noble vision.
One can take only so much for so long.
He was tired of being an ignorant servant, even one with such awesome
responsibilities as he had.
What happened?
The wait lasted a whole twenty-four hours.
Towards the point of the turning of the day, the day reaching its consummation
as the earth completed its revolution on its axis, continuing its 365 day day orbit
around the centre of the solar system, the solar system itself revolving around
the galactic core at 500 thousand miles an hour, completing one revolution in a
in a cosmic year of 225-250 million years , he slept off.
A child may have more clothes than his father, but not as many rags.
It is not for nothing that the beard of the Unknown One is covered in white chalk.
The ragged old man one meets at random might be the answer one has sought
for so long.
When a fragment of the Unknown becomes known, it is no more an aspect of the
Unknown, yet the Unknown never diminishes.
Obatala rose from sleep to find the transformation already completed.
But the quest continues, through various forms of exploration.

While thinkers probe the nature of life through reflection and meditation,
scientists investigate it through hypothesis and experiment, even reaching into
efforts to create life or enable the creation of life.
In enabling fertilization, a conducive environment is created to facilitate the
process.
A magnificent achievement that has taken centuries to reach.
In cloning a creature from living cells, the generative process is facilitated using
parent cells.
An awesome accomplishment it has taken the entire time since humanity
emerged on the earth to arrive at.

Iba oko t'o d'ori kodo ti o ro!
Iba obo t'o dori kodo ti o s'eje!
I pay homage to the penis that is hung without bringing sperm.
I pay homage to the vagina that has stopped menstruating.
I pay homage to our elders who have used these organs to bring life and are now
old or gone but whose contributions can never be forgotten- Asiwaju Adeyinka
Olarinmoye.
Biophysicist Professor Cees Dekker:
What is life and how do you piece it together from components?
Half a century of molecular biology has left us highly impressed by the huge
complexity of cells.
Biology is all about the interaction of molecules that together form life. A single
molecule is not alive, it is the interaction with the proteins surrounding it that
make that it a living system.
A cell is a collection of huge numbers of molecules that together make up a
functional, living system.The DNA serves as a library in which all the information
is stored. It encodes information for protein-making factories. The proteins are
like robots that combine to enable the whole thing to function.The next challenge
will be to explore how the components work together to achieve the cells major
functions, such as division and metabolism: absorbing nutrients, gaining energy
and excreting waste.
If you look at the minimum characteristics [of life], they are
compartmentalisation, a sealed entity, metabolism, cell division and information
used by the cell to define itself. That information needs to be sufficiently stable
but also be able to adapt to enable evolution. If you take that as your working

Central Ifa Functional and Symbolic Forms


Opon ifa, iroke ifa and opele




If l Functional and Symbolic Forms of Ifa

Opon ifa, iroke ifa and opele

page
preceding





Iroke ifa, vertical sculpture, and opon ifa, horizontal, circular carving.
Central functional
forms and cosmological symbols of Ifa, the Yoruba origin system of knowledge.

The structure of both forms suggests relationships between the possibility of phallic symbolism
attributable t o the iroke ifa and of vagina and womb symbolism ascribable to the opon ifa.
The iroke is used in tapping the opon before consultation of the divine wisdom attributed to Ifa, a
consultation carried out by casting the opele, on the left, organised in binary units of four sets, and
reading the patterns it assumes when cast.
The odu ifa symbols that emerge from this consulation may be interpreted as the "children" emerging
from the conjunction of iroke and opon, Orunmila and Odu, the masculine and feminine enablers,
respectively, of Ifa's wisdom.
These biological
associations are reinforced by the binary structure of central Ifa symbols and

functional forms and their evocation by the recurrence of a balance between feminine and masculine
imagery, as in
woman with prominently pointing breasts on whose head rests a form
t he
k neeling

the tip of which may be seen in terms of phallic connotations in the iroke ifa in this image.
Adebayo Kayode:
" Every tap of the Iroke is a knock on the door to Infinity, hence the mantra,
la!" [uttered before consulting Ifa]
Oye
meaning
"Spiritual intuition, break forth...like the dawn of a new day!
Image from @yeyesbotanicaatl at Online Instagram.
Accessed 11th Feb.2016.

definition, I estimate that it will take around ten years to build a minimal living
system. On the horizon shimmers the idea of using a soap bubble to create a
living cell filled with the components it needs for minimal functionality, as a way
of gaining a better understanding of what life actually is. [I] believe that a
consortium of scientists can produce a living synthetic cell within a decade.
Culled from Life is Something You Create Together By Jos Wassink. October
2015.Delft Outlook.
Perspectives emerging from Prof. Cees Dekkers talk My Meandering Path
Within the Lands of Science and Faith, The Faraday Institute for Science and
Religion lecture, Tuesday 9th February 2016.

In possibilities already available for accomplishment, such as extracting the core
of the embryo to harvest completely pluripotent cells that can grow into the full
range of human organs and biological forms, possibly in order to regenerate
dying or diseased cells in adults, scientists work with the living matter already
given by nature, a wonder of vast knowledge consummated in a march that
began at the dawn of humanity.
When does the growing life in the womb become a human being?
Is it a crime to extract the core of the embryo to harvest pluripotent cells but
destroying the embryo in the process, though these embryos left over from in
vitro fertilization treatments would be destroyed after five years as demanded
by UK law if not taken advantage of through insemination to enable them grow
into a human being?
When do we move from trying to assist with regeneration in the case of failing
health to trying to design human beings in the limitations of our wisdom?
Questions presented at Prof. Paul Fairchilds talk on Ethical Challenges of Stem
Cell Research: A Christian Perspective at Wesley Methodist Church, Cambridge
on Monday 8 February 2016.
Will our descendants billions of years from now be asking similar questions, our
descendants who might be as different from us as we are from a cockroach,
having moved so far ahead in our reshaping of ourselves that we have changed
beyond recognition of all who are reading this?
The cyborg, the fusion of human and artificial intelligence, the development of
distributed cognition, in which we can do different things at the same time
through extension of our consciousness using what are now the crude forms
represented by automated technologies and sophisticated software, will that be
our future?
Questions provoked by the inaugural meeting of the AI, Robotics and Religion
Reading Group led by Beth Singler ,AI & Robots Research Associate at the
Faraday Institute for Science and Religion as well as from talks by Martin Rees
on the future of humanity.

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The core of the self is forever drawn towards the womb that is the Ultimate, the
Zone Beyond All, the scope of Its possibilities unknown even to Itself.
Inspirational Context
Retelling and reflecting on an ese ifa, an example of Ifa literature, from Bolaji
Idowus Olodumare : God in Yoruba Belief as well as from the description of the
orisa, a Yoruba deity, Obatala, in the same book.
The first two lines are from Wande Abimbolas Ifa Divination Poetry.

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