Wakanda is Real
Paleo -Science, The Mysteries of Creation, revealed by our African Ancestors as preserved in the oral scripture of traditional Yoruba culture called Odu Ifà
By Awo Falokun Fatunmbi
Chapter 5
The Yoruba Creation Myth
If communication with the Spirit of Èlà represents an ongoing revelation of the nature of reality, the Ifà Creation myth becomes the baseline overview of understanding the physical world.
In 1921, John Wyndham, a British bureaucrat living in Nigeria, authored a book titled Myths of Ifé. The book includes a transcription of the Yoruba Creation Story. The author makes no effort to interpret the meaning of the liturgical words used in this account of the beginning of the World.
Before this World was made
There reigned Arámfé [Olórun] in the realm of Heaven
Amidst his sons. Old were the hills around him;
The Sun had shone upon his vines and cornfields
Since time past reckoning. Old was Arámfé [Olórun],
The father of the Gods: his youth had been
The youth of Orun.
Commentary: The phrase “before the world was made,” implies the current manifestation of Creation is not the first manifestation of Creation. Ifà cosmology speaks of three different cycles of cosmic Creation and Destruction. These cycles were led in succession by Spirits named Ògún, Obàtálá and Òrúnmìlà. Ògún taught the lesson of co-creation, transforming our reality in a livable place. Obàtálá taught the lesson of bringing balance and inner peace to the world created by Ògún. Òrúnmìlà gave humanity a vision of the basic building blocks of reality as the foundation for the expansion of consciousness and the ability to explore imagination.
Arámfé is a name for Olórun. The word Olórun is from the elision Olo órun meaning the owner of the invisible realm. At the core of the Yoruba Creation Story is the idea the architect of Creation is an unknowable Spiritual dimension known as órun. The ability to use this dimension as the foundation of Creation is a reference to the idea Creation is an infinite reality that can never be fully understood by fine consciousness.
In this verse Olórun is given a praise name Arámfé. The word Arámfé is from the elision Ará mi Ifé meaning body my love or by inference the source of unconditional love. The idea of unconditional love in liturgical Yoruba is Ile Ifé meaning the House of Love.
In Ifà, the purpose of spiritual discipline is to bring the House of Love from the Invisible Realm called Olórun to the Visible Real called Aye. In the Yoruba language this process is spoken of as; Ile Ifé Orun wa Ile Ifé Aye. This simple phrase is a reference to the idea the sacred city of traditional Yoruba called Ile Ifé is founded on the principle of unconditional love. The idea of love is based on the ability to empathize with others. The idea of unconditional love is based on the ability to empathize with others without judgment.
The verse of Ifà scripture that describes the ability to empathize with others without judgment is called Iwori ogbe. The words Iwori Ogbe from the elision I awo ori o egbe meaning the mystery of consciousness of all things in Creation.
The deeper inference coded into the name Arámfé is the idea that unconditional love is developed through the spiritual discipline of Ifà. This discipline is called Iwa pele commonly translated to mean good character. A literal translation of Iwa pele from the elision iwa ope ile would be I come to greet the earth. This is a reference to the idea that we greet our elders, or those who teach us about life and how to live. Ultimately this training is rooted in the idea of living in harmony with the earth and those living beings who share the earth with us.
The foundation for the spiritual discipline of developing good character is found in this verse of Iwori Ogbe.
Before this World was made
There reigned Arámfé [Olórun] in the realm of Orun
Amidst his sons. Old were the hills around him.
The Sun had shone upon his vines and cornfields
Since time past reckoning. Old was Arámfé [Olórun],
The father of the Gods: his youth had been
The youth of Orun . . . Once when the King reclined
Upon the dais, and his sons lay prostrate
In veneration at his feet, he spoke
Of the great things he purposed:
“My sons, you know
But fair things which I made for you, before
I called your spirits from the Dusk: for always
Your eyes have watched the shadows and the wind
On waving corn, and I have given you
The dances and the chorus of the night —
An age of mirth and sunrise (the wine of Orun)
Is your existence. You have not even heard
Of the grey hour when my young eyes first opened
To gaze upon a herbless Mass, unshaped
And unadorned.
Commentary: This is describing a time before the manifestation of the physical world when Forces of Nature were being formulated in the mind of the Creator. These Forces existed in a state of perfect harmony and balance. It is said before the World was made there was a period of time when the sun illuminated everything, meaning light was developing the blueprint of Creation in the mind of the Creator.
As the ability to manifest this blueprint becomes imminent Olórun is described to the children of Orun as the nature of existence prior to the manifestation of the physical world. The symbolic meaning of the children of Orun is a reference to those primal Forces of Nature that transformed the idea of Creation into the existence of the World.
But I knew well the heart
Of Him-Who-Speaks-Not, the far-felt Purpose that gave
Me birth; I laboured and the grim years passed :
Streams flowed along their sunny beds; I set
The stars above me, and the hills about;
I fostered budding trees, and taught the birds
Their song — the unshapely I had formed to beauty,
And as the ages came, I loved to make
The beautiful more fair. . .
Commentary: Olórun is describing the initiation manifestation of the physical world as the emergence of a physical reality existing in a state of perfect balance.
All went not well:
A noble animal my mind conceived
Emerged in loathsome form to prey upon
My gentle creatures; a river, born to bask.
In sunlit channels and mirror the steep hills,
Tore down its banks and ravaged field and plain.
While cataract and jagged precipice.
Now grand with years, remind me of dread days
When Heaven tottered, and wide rifts sundered my young
Fair hills, and all seemed lost. Yet — I prevailed.
Commentary: Olórun is saying as Creation evolved it lost the state of perfect balance. Disruption started to emerge at a level that threatened all of Existence. In spite of this disruption Olórun continued to manifest a vision of the World based on Universal Principles.
Think, now, if the accomplished whole be Heaven,
How wonderful the anxious years of slow
And hazardous achievement — a destiny
For Gods. But yours it has not been to lead
Creation by the cliff’s-edge way from Mass
To Paradise.’’ He paused on the remembrance.
And Great Orisha [Obàtálá] cried: Can we do naught?
What use in godhead without deeds to do?
Where yearns a helpless region for a hand
To guide it?”
Commentary: Obàtálá from the elision Oba ita ala meaning light at the crossroads. It is the light at the intersection between the idea of Creation and the Manifestation of Creation. In Ifà cosmology Obàtálá is the Primal Source of Ori meaning consciousness. In Ifà paleo-science all things in the Physical World come into Being with its own unique form of Ori. Here Obàtálá is asking Olórun what is the point of Creation if Ori has no purpose?
And Old Arámfé [Olórun] answered him:
“My son, your day approaches. Far-off, the haze
Rests always on the outer waste which skirts
Our realm; beyond, a nerveless Mass lies cold
‘Neath floods which some malign unreason heaves.
Commentary: Olórun is telling Obàtálá the purpose of life remains dormant waiting to be revealed in the process of evolution. Ifà cosmology refers to the initial manifestation of physical reality as Ìmólè from the elision Ìmó ilè meaning the House of Light. This represents the original moments of Creation when all that exists is huge gas clouds called Omi Olokun meaning the water of the Spirit of the Ocean. Recent discoveries in astrophysics suggest the entire universe is filled with water in a gaseous state. The reference to Omi Olokun in Ifà cosmology is a reference to the prevalence of water in Space.
Odiiwa, first-born of my sons, to you I give
The five-clawed Bird, the sand of power. Go now.
Call a despairing land to smiling lIfé
Above the jealous sea, and found sure homesteads
For a new race whose destiny is not
The eternal lIfé of Gods. You are their judge.
Yours is the kingship, and to you all Gods
And men are subject.
Commentary: Odiiwa from the elision O idi iwa means the spirit of reproduction comes to the World. This is the point in the Creation story where the fundamental patterns of Creation start to replicate with greater and greater levels of complexity. Ifà teaches the idea the first moment of Creation transformed No Thing or nothing into a massive Merkabah. The Merkabah is a torsion sphere supported by two three sided pyramids. A torsion sphere has an opening on what can be described at the north and south pole. Inside this sphere there are two counter-rotating and overlapping three sided pyramids. According to the paleo-science of ancient African culture the first manifestation of form in Creation replicated itself by constantly dividing in half. One became two, two became four until the material World came into Being. This replication is symbolized in Egypt as the Flower of Life.
Traditionally the Merkabah was symbolized in two ways. The first symbolic representation is known as the Seal of Solomon or the Star of David. It is a six-sided start representing the two overlapping three sided pyramids. The other form of symbolic representation of the Merkabah is two sets of quadrigrams made up of single and double lines. For example:
I I
II II
I I
II I
A three-sided pyramid inside a torsion sphere has four points of contact with the sphere, three at the base and one at the apex. This creates eight points of contact between the two pyramids and the torsion sphere. The points of contact can either be opened or closed based on the gravitational effect of other Merkabah in close proximity. These points of contact are called Odu meaning womb in the Yoruba language. Based on Ifà cosmology and metaphysics Odu are interdimensional portals creating a influx of inter-dimensional frequencies called ase in Liturgical Yoruba.
Based on the structure of the Merkabah there are 256 different energy patterns within the torsion sphere that process the inter-dimensional flow of ase. These patterns have geometric shape, frequencies that produce both sound and color. Each of the patterns represents a transcendent energy stream of information that can be accessed by human consciousness and used in the process of what Ifà calls co-creation of the physical world.
The process of divination identifies these information streams and uses altered states of consciousness to form a link between human consciousness and the consciousness of the world around us. In the Yoruba language this link is called ro meaning descend. It is the Yoruba word for altered states of consciousness commonly called possession. The connection with transcendent forms of consciousness is used in Ifà divination to engage in rituals that transform physical reality. In the West the ability to use rituals to transform physical reality is called alchemy. In Liturgical Yoruba this process is called ebo.
Wisest of my sons,
Òrìsà [Obàtálá], yours is the grateful task to awaken
Vague spirits waiting for the Dawn — to make
The race that shall be; and to you I give
This bag of Wisdom’s guarded lore and arts
For Man’s well-being and advancement. And you,
My younger sons, the chorus, and the dance,
The voice of worship and the crafts are yours
To teach — that the new thankful race may know
The mirth of Heaven and the joys of labor.”
Commentary: The word Obàtálá from the elision Oba ita ala meaning the Spirit of Expansive Energy at the crossroads between the Visible and the invisible Realm. Obàtálá is the Force of Nature that infuses all things with the spark of consciousness. In Ifà cosmology and metaphysics, the dawn is the place where new life forms emerge in the process of evolution. The verse is referring to the moment in time when consciousness presents itself in human form. The Creator is saying the gift of consciousness includes the wisdom needed to engage in the Alchemical process of co-Creation. As these gifts of consciousness emerge into the world it will be the task of human consciousness to preserve the content of these gifts through the use of ritual.
Then Oduwa said: “Happy our lIfé has been,
And I would gladly roam these hills forever.
Your son and servant. But to your command
I yield; and in my kingship pride oversteps
Sorrow and heaviness. Yet, Lord Arámfé [Olórun ],
I am your first-born: wherefore do you give
The arts and wisdom to Orisha [Obàtálá]? I,
The King, will be obeyed, the hearts of men
Will turn in wonder to the God who spells
Strange benefits.”
Commentary: From a cosmological and metaphysical perspective this is saying consciousness precedes manifestation. This suggests consciousness has the ability to initiate the process of Creation. In simple terms we become who we think we are.
But Arámfé [Olórun] said enough.
To each is fitting task is given. Farewell.”
Here the Beginning was: from Arámfé [Olórun]’s vales
Through the desert regions the exiled Gods approached
The edge of Heaven, and into blackness plunged —
A sunless void o’er godless water Olokun?
To seize an empire from the Dark, and win
Amidst ungoverned waves a sovereignty.
Commentary: This is a reference to the recycling aspect of Nature. At the center of every galaxy there appears to be a black hole. A black hole is a high concentration of gravity in the shape of a torsion sphere. This sphere pulls everything around it past its surface and into its core. The Physicist, Stephen Hawkins postulated that when light enters a black hole it loses its structure, frequency, and inner essence. This theory was a challenge to Einstein’s theory of the conservation of matter. That theory states that nothing in the universe is created or destroyed. Everything in the universe is engaged in a constant process of transformation. Hawkins’s theory about black holes suggested matter could in fact be destroyed.
Hawkins eventually changed his original theory and created what he called the information paradox. He suggested structure and form could be destroyed while still laying the foundation for evolved elements of structure and form. Those who study his work have suggested the consequence of Hawkins theory is the creation of alternative dimensions of reality.
But by the roadside while Orisha [Obàtálá] slept
Oduwa came by stealth and bore away
The bag Arámfé [Olórun] gave. Thus was the will
Of God undone: for thus with the charmed sand
Cast wide on the unmastered sea, his sons
Called forth a World of envy and of war.
Comments: Ifà cosmology is based on the idea that Creation is Co-Creation. Ifà describes a perfect world existing in the Invisible Realm in the Ori of Olórun. This invisible Realm is based on the idea of Ile Ifé meaning the House of Unconditional Love. Ifà spiritual discipline is based on what is described as Ile Ifà Orun wa Ile Ifé Aye meaning bring the House of Love from the Invisible Realm to Earth. Ifà says this is done every time some embraces unconditional love in an act of kindness. The choice in favor of unconditional love is called Ori’re meaning consciousness brings good fortune. The choice to oppose unconditional love is called Ori buruku from the elision Ori buru iku meaning consciousness brings self-destruction.
The polarity between Ori’re and Ori buruku in Ifà is the foundation of free will.
Of Man’s Creation, and of the restraint
Olokun placed upon the chafing sea.
Of the unconscious years which passed in darkness
Till dazzling sunshine touched the unused eyes
Of men, of War and magic-~my priest shall tell you,
And all the Great Ones did before the day
They vanished to return to the calm hills
Of Old Arámfé [Olórun ]’s realm . . . They went away.
But still with us their altars and their priests
Remain, and from their shrines the hidden Gods
Peer forth with joy to watch the dance they taught,
And hear each night their chorus with the drum.
Commentary: Western Science has discovered the element of water emerges from stars. Solar heat generates oxygen and hydrogen, the fundamental components of water and the building blocks of physical manifestation in evolution. The Primal Spirit of Water in Ifà cosmology and metaphysics is called Olokun from the elision olo okun meaning Owner of the Ocean. According to the Nigeria physicist Gabriel Oyibo, water is the fundament element of all of physical creation. In his version of Unified Field Theory, creation emerges from a hydrogen atom. According to his theory the table of elements that creates the material world is the result of the transformation of the hydrogen atom.
The transformation of the hydrogen atom could be described as an alchemical process. The science of alchemy has its origins in ancient African paleo-science. The word for alchemy in Yoruba is ebo commonly translated to mean offering. It does refer to making an offering, but it is an offering designed for the purpose of altering physical reality. It is the fundamental ritual process in the act of co-creation the World.
The reference to dance is a reference to the ritual process of entering altered states of consciousness. It is through the use of altered states of consciousness that humans are able to interact with the various frequencies of information carried by Forces in Nature called Spirit of in Yoruba Òrìsà.
For changeless here the early World endures
In this first stronghold of humanity,
And, constant as the bullets of the waves
Of Queen Olokun on the shore, the song.
The dance of those old Gods abides the mirth.
The lIfé … I, too, am born of the Beginning:
For, when from the sight of men, the Great Gods passed,
They left on Earth Oni Orun mila charged
To be a father to a mourning people.
To tend the shrines and utter solemn words
Inspired by Those invisibles. And when
Orun mila’s time had come to yield the crown.
Commentary: Ifà cosmology and metaphysics speaks of a time when Immortal Beings walked the Earth. These Beings are called Òrìsà Ikole Orun from the elision Ori sa iko ile Orun meaning specific forms of consciousness from the Invisible Realm. When the Earth was first created these Beings became manIfést. They became known as Òrìsà ikole Aye from the elision Ori sa iko ile Orun meaning specific forms of consciousness from the Earth. These Beings are the animating principles of consciousness directing Earth, Air, Fire and Water to generate the terra forming structure of the planet.
When the work of these Immortals was finished human consciousness started to emerge. In its initial stages human consciousness did not understand self and world. As humans started to develop wisdom this wisdom was codified in the spiritual discipline of the Prophet Òrúnmìlà. The word Òrúnmìlà from the elision Orun mi ala meaning the Invisible Realm is my Light or Source of inspiration.
The process of coming out of confusion is guided by ritual methods of entering into dialogue with the Immortal Beings who shaped the world. These rituals included knowledge of the frequency of words that allowed humans to communicate with the Immortals. These rituals also included understanding of an initiatory process that enhanced the ability of humans to enter altered states of consciousness to facilitate this communication.
The use of frequency to elevate consciousness in liturgical Yoruba is called oriki. The word oriki from the elision ori kiki meaning to praise a particular manifestation of consciousness. The effectiveness of oriki to create altered states of consciousness is dependent on the use of ofo ase. In liturgical Yoruba the words ofo ase means words of power. These are often words with no literal meaning used to carry the frequency needed to elevate consciousness.
In liturgical Yoruba the word for initiation is Igbodu from the elision igbo odu meaning womb of the forest. This is a word used to describe sacred space that functions as an inter-dimensional portal for the transference of spiritual power called ase. This transference occurs at specific times of the year at specific places related to the frequency of specific Immortal Beings called Òrìsà.
To wait upon the River’s brink, and cross
To Old Arámfé [Olórun ] — Ifà in his wisdom,
Proclaimed that son with whom Òrúnmìlà’s soul
Abode. Thus has it ever been; and now
With me that Being is — about, within —
And on our sacred days these lips pronounce
The words of Odudúwa and Orisha [Obàtálá].
Commentary: Ifà teaches the idea that the ori or consciousness of a single person is linked to the frequencies of all forms of consciousness throughout Creation. This means there are 256 portals of communication between the human ori and the frequencies of Forces in Nature that Create the World. These are believed to lay dormant until they are activated in the process of Ifà initiation or Tefa. When a person emerges from Tefa they are described as Òrúnmìlà Elerin Ipin meaning Witness to Creation. In traditional Yoruba culture wisdom is not considered to be the result of study, it is considered to be the result of remembering.
Èsú Odara speaks:
I am the voice of Ifà, messenger
Of all the Gods: to me the histories
Are known, and I will tell you of the days
Of the Descent. How Old Arámfé [Olórun] sent
The Gods from Heaven, and Odudúwa stole
The bag — my king has told you. . . For many a day
Across dry plains the Great Ones journeyed.
And sandy deserts — for such is the stern bar
Set by Arámfé [Olórun] ‘twixt his smiling vales
And the stark cliff’s edge which his sons approached
Tremblingly, till from the sandy brink they peered
Down the sheer precipice. Behind them lay
The parched, forbidding leagues; but yet the Sun
Was there, and breezes soft, and yet the mountains —
A faded line beyond the shimmering waste —
Called back to mind their ancient home. Beneath
Hung chaos — dank blackness and the threatening roar
Of untamed waters.
Commentary: Èsú Odara is described in Ifà oral scripture as the Divine Messenger. This Spirit has the ability to translate the language of humans into the language of Nature and the Language of Nature into the language of humans. The Western discipline of neuroscience has discovered that humans have collective access to universal ideas. Carl Jung called these ideas Archetypes. Jung believed Archetypes were the prototype of all language. This idea has been confirmed by the mapping of the human brain through the discipline of neuroscience. This mapping shows that universal ideas light up the same portions of the human brain and generate the same frequencies. Language is merely the cultural notation made in response to this internal stimulation. This means Nature is constantly stimulating a response in the human brain. Our ability to understand the meaning of this stimulation is deeply rooted in our ability to understand self and world. This is why liturgical language based on a world view that reflects reality is essential to the process of understanding who we are, where we come from and what we are destined to do. The understanding of the integration of the answers to these questions is the function of the Divine Messenger.
Then Odudúwa spoke:
”Orisha [Obàtálá], what did we do? And what fault was ours?
Outcasts to-day; to-morrow we must seek
Our destiny in dungeons, and beneath
That yawning blackness we must found a city
For unborn men Better a homeless life
In desert places: dare we turn and flee
To some lost valley of the hills? Orisha [Obàtálá],
What think you? Then spoke Orisha [Obàtálá] whom men call
The Great: Is this Oduwa that I hear —
My mother’s son who stole Arámfé [Olórun]’s gift,
And thought to filch away the hearts of men
With blessings which were mine to give? For me.
The arts I know I long to use, and yearn
To see the first of toiling, living men
That I shall make.
Commentary: The suggestion here is that as consciousness moves from Nature into human form, living in the newly created environment has numerous challenges. Based on Ifà metaphysical principle there is a clear belief in the idea Olórun made the earth in a way that supports the evolution of human life. Part of the evolutionary process is the idea that humans have the ability to make choices. Ire is the Yoruba word for choices that support life and the expansion of consciousness. The word ire means good fortune. Ibi is the Yoruba word for choices that sabotage the support of life by restricting consciousness. The word ibi means placenta. When a child is in the womb the placenta is the source of nutrition and sustains life. When a child comes into the world the placenta is discarded as unnecessary and potentially toxin. As a metaphor the word ibi means holding on to ideas that result in self-sabotage.
Forbidding is our task.
You say — but think, ere we return to peace
And Heaven’s calm, how boundless is fate?
You flinch from! Besides, is Godhead blind? You think
Arámfé [Olórun] would not know? Has the All Mighty no body
With eyes and ears? Dumb spirits hungering
For lIfé await us: let us go.” So spoke
Orisha [Obàtálá].
Commentary: Olórun has given human consciousness the tools it needs to survive. Olórun is sending Messengers to assist with the process of understanding how to live in the world.
Odúwa hung a chain
Over the cliff to the dark water’s face,
And sent Ojumu, the wise priest, to pour
The magic sand upon the sea and let loose
The five-clawed Bird to scatter far and wide
Triumphant land. But, as Earth’s ramparts grew,
Ever in the darkness came the waves and sucked
Away the crumbling shore, while foot by foot
Lagoons crept up, and turned to reedy swamps
The soil of hope. So Odudúwa called
Olokun and Oldssa to the cliff
And thus he spoke: “Beneath, the waters wrestle
With the new-rising World, and would destroy
Our kingdom and undo Arámfé [Olórun ]’s will.
Go to the fields of men to be, the homes
That they shall make. Olokun! to the sea!
For there your rule and your dominion shall be:
To curb the hungry waves upon the coastlands
For ever. And thus, in our first queen of cities
And secret sanctuaries on lonely shores
Through every eon as the season comes,
Shall men bring gifts in homage to Olokun.
And you, Olóssa, where your ripple laps
The fruitful bank, shall see continually
The offerings of thankful men.”
Commentary: Hanging a chair over the earth is a reference to the idea that the patterns of DNA are coded into the invisible structure of gravity and guide the process of unfolding.
The Spirit of Ojumu guides the magical process of terraforming making the Earth a habitable place. The word Ojumu from the elision oju imu meaning the face is longing for something. The inference here is that individual human consciousness is search for the wisdom that supports the process of co-Creation. The Western science of quantum physics says the world is literally created when human vision transforms a light wave into a light particle given shape to the world. This fundamental process is at the foundation of Ifà paleo-science.
The months
Of Heaven passed by, while in the moonless night
Beneath the Bird toiled on until the bounds,
The corners of the World were steadfast. And then
Odúwa called Orisha [Obàtálá] and the Gods
To the cliff’s edge, and spoke these words of sorrow:
“We go to our sad kingdom. Such is the will
Of Old Arámfé [Olórun]: so let it be. But ere
The hour the wilderness which gapes for us
Engulf us utterly, ere the lingering sight
Of those loved hills can gladden us no more —
May we not dream awhile of smiling days
Gone by?
Commentary: The idea of dreaming about a better time in the past is a reference to the idea that understanding how to engage in the process of co-Creation and terra forming is not a process of learning, it is a process of remembering.
Fair was drenched morning in the Sun
When dark the hill-tops rose o’er misty hollows;
Fair were the leafy trees of night beneath
The silvering Moon, and beautiful the wind
Upon the grasslands. Good-bye, ye plains we roamed.
Good-bye to sunlight and the shifting shadows
Cast on the crags of Heaven’s blue hills. Ah! wine
Of Heaven, farewell” So came the Gods to Ifé.
Then of an age of passing months untold
By cycles of the Moon our lore repeats
The dirge of wasting hopes and the lament
Of a people in a strange World shuddering
Beneath the thunder of the unseen waves
On crumbling shores around. Always the marsh
Pressed eagerly on Ifé;
Commentary: Despite the constant threat to survival, human life is persevered by its effort to remember the wisdom that sustains co-Creation.
But ever the Bird
Returned with the unconquerable sand
Ojumu poured from his enchanted shell,
And the marsh yielded. Then young Ógun bade
The Forest grow her whispering trees — but she
Budded the pallid shoots of hopeless night,
And all was sorrow round the sodden town
Where Odudúwa reigned. Yet for live men
Orisha [Obàtálá], the Creator, yearned, and called
To him the longing shades from other glooms;
He threw their images into the wombs
Of Night, Olokun and Olossa, and all
The wives of the great Gods bore babes with eyes
Of those born blind — unknowing of their want —
And limbs to feel the heartless wind which blew
From outer nowhere to the murk beyond. . .
But as the unconscious years wore by, Orisha [Obàtálá],
The Creator, watched the unlit Dawn of Man
Wistfully — as one who follows the set flight
Of a lone sea-bird when the sunset fades
Beyond a marshy wilderness — and spoke
To Odudúwa: Our day is endless night,
And deep, wan woods enclose our weeping children.
The Ocean menaces, chill winds moan through
Our mouldering homes. Our guardian Night, who spoke
To us with her strange sounds in the still hours
Of Heaven is here; yet she can but bewail
Her restless task. And where is Evening? Oh! where
Is Dawn?”
Commentary: Birds have the ability to live in and respond to different dimensions of reality. They use this ability to navigate around the planet while following migration patterns. In Ifà birds are used as a symbol of the movement of consciousness between dimensions. Here the birds are described as bringing the sand that transforms planet earth from an ocean to a planet with both water and earth. Ifà is saying this evolution of earth’s structure and form is the result of a change in frequency coming from the fourth dimension into the third dimension.
The process of shifting the earths’ structure is described as Ojumu pouring sand from his enchanted seashell. In Ifà the seashell is the symbol of the Golden Mean that generates a Fibonacci curve. This curve is the fundamental pattern of evolution within a specific environment as that environment generates higher and higher frequencies. The generation of higher frequencies is a natural result of the interaction between the fundamental frequencies of Creation.
The shift in frequencies led from a water-based planet to the creation of land mass, to the creation of marshes to the creation of forests. Within this emerged the Spiritual Forces known as Oduduwa from the elision O dudu iwa meaning the Spirit of darkness comes. This Spirit represents the electric impulse that emerges from the moment of Creation symbolized as the seed of Creation. In Ifà mythology Oduduwa is considered the Father of humanity. The emergence of Oduduwa is described as coming with a sense of gloom, suggesting a lack of hope or inspiration.
The condition of gloom is transformed by Obàtálá meaning the spirit of consciousness. This transformation is described as occurring in the womb of Olokun and Olossa meaning the ocean and the lagoon. This is a reference to the relationship between the electrical spark of Oduduwa with the forces of gravity. Western science calls this relationship electro-magnetism.
In the initial stages of Creation, consciousness is described as waiting for dawn. This is a reference to the idea of consciousness evolving to a point of self-awareness. Ifà cosmology describes consciousness of self as emerging from the east. The bird flying towards dawn is a reference to the idea that inter-dimensional forces are shaping human consciousness.
He ceased, and Odudúwa sent
Ifà, the Messenger, to his old sire
To crave the Sun and the warm flame that lit
The torch of Heaven’s Evening and the dance. . .
A deep compassion moved thunderous Arámfé [Olórun],
The Father of the Gods, and he sent down
The vulture with red fire upon his head
For men; and, by the Gods’ command, the bird
Still wears no plumage where those embers burned him —
A mark of honor for remembrance. Again
The Father spoke the word, and the pale Moon
Sought out the precincts of cairn Night’s retreat
To share her watch on Darkness; and Day took wings,
And flew to the broad spaces of the sky —
Commentary: The image of the vulture with red fire on his head is a reference to the effect of being initiated. This is a process of opening two hundred and fifty-six portals of consciousness that allow a person to communicate directly with Forces in Nature. Ifà is a spiritual discipline rooted in the concept of awo. The word awo is a reference to the concept of understanding the mystery of Creation. In simple terms this means every Spiritual entity identified in Ifà oral scripture is a symbolic reference to an identifiable Force in Nature.
When the Yoruba language was first codified through the use of the Roman alphabet, the purpose of this transformation was to translate the Christian Bible into the Yoruba language. The Catholic priests who initiated this project also created the first Yoruba/English dictionary.
The Christian Bible Yoruba dictionary became the source material for subsequent Yoruba/English dictionaries. This material has value for understanding conversational Yoruba while being useless as a key to understanding liturgical Yoruba. An obvious example is the Yoruba word Ifàyabale from the elision ifà iya baba ile clearly meaning the wisdom of the mothers and fathers of earth. The word is used in Ifà Spiritual discipline to describe a ritual used in the elders council of Ogboni to resolve a conflict between a man and a woman. The Dictionary defines Ifàyabale as “the ascension of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ to sit in Heave at the right hand of God our Father.” This translation is propaganda and has nothing at all to do with the metaphysical, ontological, philosophical, and theological ideas expressed in Ifà oral tradition.
The process of unlocking the wisdom of Ifà paleo-science involves examining, defining, translating, and interpreting liturgical Ifà language without the filter of Christian proselytization.
Chapter 6
The Hermeneutics of Liturgical Yoruba and the keys to understanding Ifà paleo-science - Available to read on April 1st, 2024
