IFA AND THE LANGAUGE OF EXISTENCE




The Odu of Ifa encapsulates a conception of a relationship between Wisdom understood as both timeless and time bound. The Wisdom that exists in relation to the earth and the cosmos as developments within time, works in relation with the Wisdom of timelessness that precedes the creation of the cosmos when all secrets of existence were yet to be. The presence of this primordial Wisdom at the origin of being, of time and matter, enables a universal knowledge that is synchronised with the time based, materially focused knowledge of the Odu, which is cosmic but concrete, to create system that surveys and categorises all existence, from concrete forms to abstractions, from terrestrial forms to the stars. The primordial, timeless Wisdom is Ifa, Father, the primordial progenitor and anchor in the Before-Time, and the cosmic, time related wisdom, which enables the wisdom of timelessness to be correlated with the time structured framework of human existence is Odu, the Wife of Ifa, Mother, the Wisdom that lights people’s paths in this world of love and pain, joy and fear. The Wisdom that shows the way to the rectification of the insoluble. The Wisdom that speaks in a language that recognises all elements that populate the universe, from the squirrel to the spider, from the chicken to the Cotton Plant, from the Iroko tree to the hill, from Death to the divinities, from the moon and stars to human beings.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

THE ADINKRA COMMUNITY

SPECULATIVE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ADINKRA SYMBOLISM AND FULANI COSMOGONY

THE MATHEMATICAL SYMMETRIES OF ADINKRA AS MENTAL VEHICLES FOR THE EXPLORATION OF THE UNKNOWN